Chapter 429
Against the backdrop of the endless snowy plains and the falling snow from the sky,
a chase unfolded between Lete and Karisa.
‘Ugh, damn! She's insanely fast, seriously!’
Lete, riding atop Ran, ground her teeth. She was having a hard time catching up. Karisa's movements were quick as lightning, and the extreme cold hindered her visibility and slowed her movements even more.
To block Karisa’s escape, Lete was now even dropping Meteor of Holiness in her path.
"You were laughing about mortals just a moment ago, and now you’re running with your tail between your legs?!"
She tried provoking her, but Karisa didn’t even flinch.
"Tch."
Lete bit her finger anxiously. The radius of the freezing cold was expanding.
She couldn’t allow that dungeon master to escape into another region.
If this drags on, Ran's stamina will give out first.
Placing a hand on Ran's head, Lete closed her eyes. It was time to make her decisive move.
<Over Haste>
A flash of green light burst forth, and Ran's flying speed soared exponentially. Like a shooting star, Ran surged forward and immediately caught Karisa’s tail.
[......!]
Karisa, her tail grabbed, looked back, and Lete, who had swiftly finished her white magic, opened her palm.
<Lete Original – La Escrime>
A holy spear in the form of a drill shot forth, slamming straight into Karisa’s torso.
It didn’t stop at piercing through her scales. It kept drilling, accelerating as it bored deeper and deeper.
Karisa screamed in agony and opened her mouth.
Shhhhhaaaaaa—!
As a pure white frost clouded the air, Lete's body froze over. Even Ran, who she was riding, was covered in ice.
[Hahaha! Serves you right!]
Karisa sneered coldly.
Crack! Crack!
But the ice that encased Lete quickly cracked.
CRASH!
Breaking free with both arms, Lete emerged. She quickly placed her hand on Ran’s body, melting the ice and freeing him as well.
Meanwhile, Karisa, bleeding profusely from her mouth and torso, was fleeing again.
"Ran! We’ve almost got her! Just a bit more...!"
But Ran’s stamina gave out first.
If it were just wounds, Lete could endlessly heal them, but stamina was the issue.
Up until now, Ran had always defeated his enemies with a single Holy Breath. He had little experience fighting such a formidable foe.
"Ran!!"
[Khahahahaha!]
Karisa continued fleeing, covering her wounds with layers of ice.
The more she roared, the more intense the cold became. The extreme cold was now reaching past the mountains into warmer regions, and the vast ocean was freezing endlessly.
‘There’s no way left!’
Lete brought her index and middle fingers together and pointed them to the sky.
‘Hit or miss...!’
"Lete!!"
Suddenly, a voice called her name, making her whip her head around.
"Simon?!"
But after shouting his name, Lete was struck with doubt. He had no ability to fly, how could he possibly be here?
"!?"
And yet, he was.
FWWWWWOOOOOOOOOSH—!
Two suns rose above the Escaille Mountains.
Suspended beneath those sun-like orbs of holiness, Simon could be seen, riding something that crackled with electricity and sparks.
‘Is that really Simon?’
Even seeing it with her own eyes, it was hard to believe.
Covered in electrical sparks, what Simon was riding was a chariot made of pure light and pulling the chariot was not a horse, but the divine beast bear, Akallion.
Akallion, who hadn’t yet learned to fly, was now hovering with buoyant effect.
Which meant—
‘Objectification of the Divine Beast!’
[You again?!]
Karisa grew wary.
"I'll show you, Lete!"
Simon grinned, pulling hard on the reins forged of holiness.
"The true might of my Divine Beastology!"
At that very moment, Simon’s body shot forward like lightning. A brief look of “whoa there” flashed across his face.
And then—
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!
ZZZZZZZT!
In a streak of light, he began darting through the sky at insane speeds.
"Uwaaah—! UAAAAHHHH—!"
Simon’s screams echoed like a thunderstorm. Lete, flustered, shouted:
"What are you doing, idiot?!"
"It’s— it’s too fast, I can’t control the speed—UAAAAAAH!"
The divine beast chariot zipped to one mountain, then another, then dashed across the ocean, then came back toward where Lete and Karisa were, repeating the chaotic loop.
It was lightning-fast, for sure, but no one would say he had it under control.
[Hahahaha! The Saint can’t control her power, and this one can’t control his speed? Pathetic!]
Karisa laughed loudly as she grasped the situation.
[As expected, such divine tools are wasted on mere mortals like you—!]
But her smug words came to an abrupt halt.
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!
A massive sun descended over Karisa’s head.
"Landing at least one good hit!"
Simon, from the chariot, glared fiercely.
"Is possible!!"
The sun swirling around the chariot condensed into a single beam of light.
KRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAACK!
With the roar of thunder, it struck Karisa’s abdomen like a bolt of lightning.
[Kuhh!]
Dragged at the speed of light, Karisa’s body slammed into the ground. Lete, watching, felt sweat drip from her forehead.
‘A perfect hit!’
With that single explosive blow, the objectification wore off.
The white-and-black chariot split in half, returning to two baby kittens. Akallion also returned to his smaller form.
Simon, hugging all three divine beasts, plummeted, shouting to Lete:
"Now’s your chance, Lete!"
A golden opportunity. As long as the conditions were met, Lete's firepower was top-tier even among Saints.
"Got it.!"
Grinning confidently, she swung both arms down.
The sky split open, and through it, accompanied by a radiant light, descended a meteor larger than anything seen before.
"L-Lete?"
Simon looked up, slightly dazed.
"Feels like I pulled out something way too big...!"
"DIIIEEEEEEEEEE!"
With Lete’s furious roar, the meteor descended.
[Kghhh!]
Karisa, who had been struck by lightning and forced to crash to the ground, lifted her head.
It felt like an entire planet was coming down.
The way the sky was being covered in real time, with her range of escape shrinking, was utterly terrifying.
She tried to run, but not only was she in shock, the sparks from the recent lightning strike still crackled, paralyzing her movements. She couldn’t move a muscle.
[Kuaaaaaaaaah!]
Karisa's final breath attack, squeezed out with the last of her strength, only managed to freeze a tiny fragment of the incoming meteor.
[I... I...!]
As the meteor neared, everything around her turned blinding white.
[Am being... destroyed...!]
Her body turned white, scattered, and vanished.
KUGUGUGUGUGUGUGU—!
Thousands of meters above, Simon’s body was swept away by the backlash. A mushroom cloud-like burst of light bloomed, the aftermath of some holy magic.
Grab!
Just then, someone caught Simon by the scruff of his neck from behind.
"Gotcha!"
"Lete!"
Lete shouted cheerfully. Ran, using the last of his strength, had taken flight and snatched Simon midair after he was blown away by the explosion.
"Up we go!"
With her arm strength alone, Lete pulled Simon up in one swift motion.
Now safely mounted, Simon panted blankly, while Lete chuckled softly and patted his worn-out shoulder.
"Not bad, huh?"
"Basic stuff."
Simon managed a strained smile. In his arms, the two kittens and the small bear were sound asleep, breathing gently.
* * *
—The kittens’ development and health look fine, and their transformation state is ideal. It’s strange they haven’t transformed yet.
Even Lete, a specialist in Divine Beastology, was puzzled by the kittens' objectification.
In truth, the two divine beasts had grown enough to reach objectification already.
The key, however, was Fusion Awakening.
Though their appearances differed—one white, one black—they were twins born at the same time. Their divine beast power had been split between them at birth.
So, the key to their awakening was both kittens consuming the same holiness simultaneously, triggering a dual manifestation of split power.
Until now, Simon and the kittens had only received holiness individually, so none of them could quite grasp it.
But during Escaille’s Divine Beastology class, when the kids started feeding a single clump of divine energy to both kittens, that became the perfect trigger.
To create one objectification object, the power of both was needed.
‘...So that’s what grandma from Coola meant when she said “the chariot”.’
Simon chuckled bitterly. Strictly speaking, a chariot and a cart were different, but he could see how it might’ve been interpreted that way.
Thus, dungeon master Karisa was utterly destroyed by Lete’s merciless assault, and the dungeon atop the mountain range vanished as well.
Just in case, Simon descended to the ground and collected a few of Karisa’s bone fragments.
The extreme cold came to an end, and the long-awaited blue sky opened above.
Coola regained its warm weather, and the sea ice began to thaw.
The monsters who had abandoned their habitats and attacked human villages to escape the cold retreated.
—Then, I’ll report to Efnelle.
—You sure you’re okay?
—Yes.
In principle, the Kinber region was off-limits to interference from central Efnelle, but the Karisa incident had affected neighboring regions too, giving just cause for intervention.
Lete, in her capacity as a Saint, contacted Efnelle and reported the situation. Because it was a Saint’s order, Efnelle immediately dispatched paladins, and with the food they brought through subspace, the villagers were able to temporarily quell their hunger.
The Mizenashi people, who had sheltered Karisa and neglected the dungeon, were all arrested by the holy knights. So were those who had sided with Karisa at the end.
However, things were more complicated for the ordinary residents of Escaille.
They hadn’t known the truth about the dungeon master or the dungeon itself, and had firmly believed the extreme cold was the curse of the Snow Maiden.
Still, a crime was a crime.
In the end, Efnelle and the high lord of the region agreed to exile the people of Mizenashi from the Holy Federation.
—Well, maybe it’s for the best.
Lete said.
Though the atmosphere had calmed down somewhat, there was a chance they’d still face discrimination if they stayed in Coola. She thought it was better for them to begin anew somewhere else.
—I’ll take responsibility as a Saint and help them settle in the Neutral Zone.
—Yeah, please do.
Meanwhile, the lord of Coola, who had worked with Simon and Lete to manage the aftermath, wore a slightly dazed expression.
Simon asked whether the story from the Escaille fairy tale was true.
"Not all of it, but most of it is."
The lord closed his eyes as he spoke.
"My father was one of those adventurers."
"Ah..."
"My father just wanted everyone to live better lives, but too many merchants and capitalists flooded into Coola, and everything fell apart. He would always hang his head in shame, staring at the snowy mountains."
The young lord clenched his fists tightly.
"My father used to say, ‘It was all our fault, and it couldn’t be helped’. I used to get angry seeing how weak he looked when he said that, but even in his final moments, he passed away while apologizing to the people of Escaille."
"......"
"I hated that side of my father. I even rejected Escaille’s priest dispatch requests with a zero-tolerance policy."
He looked up at the ceiling.
"Who can we blame? This was all our original sin."
Time passed.
The ice that had frozen the sea unnaturally melted, ships began to sail again, and Coola gradually regained its former vitality.
Simon also helped with the town’s recovery. In truth, fixing things up was more exhausting than infiltrating Escaille or fighting the Ice Dragon Karisa.
And just as Simon was helping repair the fences of Coola—
"There you are, my dear nephew."
Disguised as a merchant, Israfil arrived in Coola with a radiant smile.
In her hand was something shining brightly.
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