Vane had already cleared out everyone unrelated to the crisis and set up a large-scale magical barrier to keep the intense cold from leaking out of the fortress. Glacien had quietly returned to Elara's side, ready to protect her at a moment's notice.
The ancient fortress, passed down through Vane's family, was now half-encased in ice under the overwhelming presence of the Ice Spirit.
Vane stood silently, watching Bryella as she calmly chewed on a pancake, her face unreadable.
"…" "…" "…" "…"
"Why are you all staring at me like that? I can feel it, you know," she muttered with a scowl, clearly annoyed. Her expression said, What? You think I'm stupid or something?
The silence stretched between them.
To Elara, Bryella felt more like a squishy marshmallow than the noble Ice Spirit queen described in the novel. Sure, she had power, but she was also kind of goofy, soft, sarcastic, and maybe a little petty.
She was still piecing her memories back together, so she wasn't quite the same as the version Elara had read about. Also… she ate. A lot.
If anyone ever bottled her drool, it'd probably be worth a fortune. Feeding her felt like tossing your whole savings account into a bonfire.
Vane couldn't help but compare. From a warrior's standpoint, Bryella just looked like a petite girl, fragile-looking, sharp-tongued, and completely food-obsessed.
As someone who'd already reached Gold rank, Vane had more efficient ways to replenish energy and didn't need to gorge himself. But this girl had downed half the city's food and still had the strength to hunt down a magic beast and roast it on the side of the road.
Honestly, even if a dragon appeared, she might just bite it to death out of habit.
As for Glacien, she didn't know Bryella all that well. After her creation, she was sent to guard a region and didn't spend much time with her creator. But seeing her now, treating her like a pet and vacuuming up half the city's rations, left her feeling… complicated.
"Ahem, back to the topic," Vane finally said, breaking the tension.
"Based on what Glacien told me, and from some old texts, when the Ice Spirit split herself, she divided both her physical form and her core mind And only the core part, the true consciousness, can fully access her real power," he added.
Bryella nodded. "Yeah. Even though I've forgotten a lot, I still remember that. Only I can control all of it.But I didn't split into just one shard," she continued, frowning.
"There were several. And I think those cult freaks found one, then used some nasty magic I hate to activate it…"
'But how did they control the ice element before…?' Her voice grew quiet.
She remembered that cloaked man who chased her, and that moment when her body wouldn't listen.
Could a part of her actually betray her?
As the core consciousness, she should've had complete authority, like an admin locking others out of a system. Anyone trying to hijack her power should've been cut off immediately.
So what went wrong?
She'd once tried to stop the massive snowstorm that was consuming northern cities. As the Ice Spirit, it should've been easy. And it kind of worked, she managed to calm the storm around the capital and nearby towns.
But the moment she let her focus slip, the storm roared back. Her control only extended to a limited radius, even at full focus. Beyond that, she was powerless.
"…So someone really is using your fragment. I've never heard of a spell like that," Vane said grimly.
"Not a pact, but direct control?" Glacien echoed, ears twitching slightly.
Vane's face darkened. "If someone's using Ice Spirit power like that, we're in trouble."
Before Bryella showed up, even Glacien had tried to stop the blizzard, and failed. She'd sensed a heavy pressure pressing down from above.
Something more powerful than her. And a regular mage couldn't produce that kind of force. This wasn't ordinary cold.
People with high-quality gear would still freeze if they stayed outside too long. Only the Wolf Guards empowered by Glacien were unaffected.
Even they couldn't locate the source of the storm. It was like their senses were being jammed from every direction.
The snow erased all signs, footprints, scents, heat trails. And it even strengthened the ice monsters, like someone had custom-designed the battlefield.
Whoever was behind this clearly understood ice energy deeply. And the only being known to have that level of understanding… was the one still munching pancakes with puffed-up cheeks.
"So…," Vane turned to her, "what is this Deep Abyss Cult you've mentioned?"
"…I don't remember much," Bryella replied first. "Just that I really, really hate them."
Elara stayed quiet. She hadn't read the original novel that carefully.
Most of the main plot took place decades later, and the North was barely mentioned. She remembered bits and pieces, stuff about the Hero, the Demon King, some divine races, and the weird stuff from beyond the world. That was it.
Her original plan was to stay out of it, maybe live peacefully as a side character clinging to a powerful guy. But the beast tide and the snowstorm had locked down the region.
The city was swarming with refugees. Now she was stuck in the middle of the main plot. And if things kept going the way they were…
The entire North, not just Wintermaw Domain, could end up as a frozen wasteland crawling with monsters, just like in the novel.
"…Ugh." She groaned. She really just wanted to go back to school.
"Oh, right," Vane suddenly added, "about that black dragon you were curious about, our scouts didn't find it. But we did see a white one."
Bryella froze. She stopped chewing. Her whole body went stiff.
"…So it was the white dragon that broke the seal on your shard? We've seen it a few times now."
"No way!" she snapped. "The one that ate me was black! Its insides… were like the sun!"
Her cheeks puffed out in frustration, eyes twitching. Just remembering it made her shiver.
Waking up just to be eaten alive? Yeah. That left a mark.
"Are you sure it devoured you? Could it have been some kind of magic trick?" Vane asked, glancing at Glacien.
She'd told them about being torn away from her sealed shard, about being digested and broken down.
They now understood that Ice Spirit fragments were more than just energy, they were crystallized cores, extremely durable and protected by sealing chains in a hidden space.
You can't just punch through something like that. And yet, that dragon had done exactly that, bit through space itself, grabbed the shard, and ate her.
Most creatures would've been destroyed by that. But Ice Spirits don't go down easy. She regenerated once the body was lost.
Even so, that was a ridiculous experience. Vane found it hard to believe, but also… kind of believable.