Chapter 24: Frozen Hell [1]
"...."
Ilya’s eyes widened.
A long breath escaped his lips, dissolving into white mist the moment it met the frigid mountain air. For several seconds, he could do nothing but stare at the bloodstained snow.
As far as he could remember, nothing even remotely resembling this had ever happened in the original story.
There had never been any Distortions during the examination, the professors had never been massacred, and above all else, Siegfried Tobias Bismarck was never supposed to die here.
"A plot without its protagonist..."
Ilya clenched his fists.
"...That’s ridiculous."
Without another moment of hesitation, he burst forward.
———!
To Ilya, the world had long since been swallowed by an endless winter, a frozen landscape visible to no one but himself.
Every step carried the constant risk of slipping, and yet after living within that invisible frost for so long, he alone had learned how to move through it as naturally as breathing.
Rather than resisting the ice under his boot, Ilya embraced it.
His boots skimmed across the frozen ground as though he were skating, using the unnatural slickness created by his own Domain to propel himself forward with explosive speed.
Snow scattered behind him in long white trails as he closed the distance toward Elise and the others, while the Black-Labeled Distortion was already descending upon them.
"Elise!"
The Distortion’s grotesquely elongated limb swept toward the fleeing group with enough force to split the air itself.
Clang——!
But Jerome and Gilbert moved to intercept.
As knights, protecting the supporting line came before everything else, and neither of them considered retreating even for a moment. Their swords crossed in front of them, attempting to block the incoming strike before it could reach the mages behind them.
"Ugh...!"
"Gilbert!"
But they never stood a chance.
Their blades shattered near instantly.
The impact tore straight through their guard, hurling both knights across the clearing as though they weighed nothing at all. Fragments of broken steel spun through the air before disappearing into the snow.
"S-Siegfried, he’s..."
She remained frozen where she had fallen, staring blankly toward the bloodstained snow as though her mind refused to accept what her eyes had just witnessed.
Every attempt to speak ended with another shaky breath, her body refusing to respond, no matter how desperately she tried to force herself to move.
"Elise!"
Lucie immediately grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to pull her back onto her feet.
"We have to go! Elise, get up!"
"S-Siegfried...!"
The overwhelming stench of blood in the air twisted knots in her stomach, while the horrifying image of Siegfried’s body remained burned into her vision no matter how tightly she squeezed her eyes shut.
Every time she tried to stand, her knees fell again, leaving her trembling helplessly in the snow.
"Elise, look at me!" Lucie shouted, gripping her shoulders even tighter. "Breathe! Don’t think about it! Just stand!"
"I-I..."
Before Elise could answer, the ground shook.
———!
The Black-Labeled Distortion had already turned its attention toward them.
"...Fuck..." Lucie muttered. "There’s no way in hell I’m dying here..."
No amount of academy training could prepare someone to face a Black-Labeled Distortion. Survival overwhelmed everything else, and before she even realized it herself, her body had already chosen.
Lucie turned and ran, abandoning Elise where she lay.
...Unfortunately, she had barely taken a dozen steps before the Distortion moved.
"Kyaaa!"
Its grotesquely elongated arm swept toward Lucie, quickly closing the distance between them as though space itself meant nothing to it.
———!
At that moment, snow fell.
Ilya’s Domain, the invisible winter surrounding him, converged upon a single point, every trace of heat along the Distortion’s advancing limb being forcefully frozen.
Unlike the broad, indiscriminate cold that blanketed everything around him, this was a single moment in which winter abandoned the world and existed only where he willed it to.
Crackle——!
Frost erupted across the Distortion’s arm.
Layer after layer of ice rapidly spread over its pale flesh, freezing the grotesque limb in midair only a few meters from Lucie. It wasn’t enough to stop the creature completely, nor was it meant to.
Ilya needed only a single moment.
"Haa...!"
Of course, pain immediately flared across his body. His breathing turned ragged as frost crept across his fingertips, yet he refused to release the attack, tightening his outstretched hand, forcing winter itself to remain for one second longer.
Lucie didn’t even thank him.
The instant she realized the Distortion had stopped moving, she seized the opportunity and sprinted away with everything she had, desperately trying to widen the distance between herself and the monster.
Crackle——!
But the ice gave way.
Ilya had never been taught how to wield his Domain in battle. Everything Vera had taught him had been devoted to surviving it, enduring its burden, and delaying the day it would ultimately consume him.
Against an existence like a Black-Labeled Distortion, a hastily forced application of his power was never enough.
The frozen limb shattered free.
In the blink of an eye, it slashed a straight path toward the fleeing Lucie before piercing clean through her chest.
"...!"
Time seemed to stop.
"M-Mom...!"
The grotesque limb continued carrying her several more meters before slowly lifting her into the air, crimson blood falling in droplets that stained the snow.
Even then, as her consciousness rapidly faded, the only name she managed to call was not for her teammates, nor for help, but for the mother waiting somewhere she would never return to.
"...."
Ilya swallowed hard.
His mind desperately searched for an answer, any answer at all, yet every possibility ended in the same conclusion.
It was strange.
All this time, he had simply drifted through life like a lone piece of ice upon an endless sea, allowing the current to decide where he would go, convincing himself that eventually death would arrive and that he would accept it when it did.
Yet now, standing face to face with death itself, something deep within his chest finally ignited, as though the dying embers of his heart had found the strength to burn once more, melting away the frost that had smothered it for so long.
"...."
Ilya forced himself to think.
Why had the Distortion targeted Lucie first instead of Elise?
Elise had been far closer to it, yet the creature had ignored her completely, choosing to pursue the one who fled instead.
"...."
His gaze remained fixed on the creature.
Its unnaturally long black hair completely concealed where its face should have been, and despite its actions, there wasn’t the slightest indication that it had eyes.
"I see..."
It couldn’t see.
It was highly possible that it perceived movement itself.
"Don’t move!" Ilya shouted at the top of his lungs. "That bastard tracks movement—"
But unfortunately, his warning came a second too late as the Distortion lunged.
Jerome and Gilbert had only just managed to push themselves back onto their feet before the grotesque limbs swept through them in a single motion, leaving neither of them the opportunity to react.
"Goddamn it...!"
The instant the Distortion shifted its attention, Ilya seized the opening and sprinted toward Elise. Right now, she was completely useless, completely incapable of moving on her own, and every second spent trying to reason with her was another second closer to death.
Even so... for reasons even he couldn’t explain, he couldn’t bring himself to abandon her.
"I-Ilya..." Elise’s voice trembled. "They’re all—"
Smack——!
Rather than waste another second trying to reason with her, Ilya drove his fist into Elise’s jaw. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed limply into the snow before she could even let out a cry.
Behind him, desperate voices echoed through the clearing.
"G-Get away...!"
"Someone... help—"
———!
"...."
The Empire’s Crown Prince. The daughter of a merchant. And the heirs of two noble houses.
One after another, they were gone.
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