—–
We moved forward into the ruined city of the Demon Kingdom at long last. The snow below our feet felt rather weird when we stepped forward, and Gofumin had already fallen into a hole when she tried to walk around but was promptly rescued from the snow hole.
After we reached the area near the small forest, the snow receded, and we could see that there was a lot of ground now. The trees seemed to naturally clean the snow in the surroundings.
“L o o k!”
Partner pointed out at something moving in the distance as she took out her spear.
There was a large, white-colored wolf wandering around. It suddenly noticed our large group, slowly moved through the caravan behind us and seemed alarmed.
The creature was a Frost Wolf, a C Rank monster. It is very dangerous, it could easily kill any of the people we are carrying around, so it wouldn’t be good if it could sneak into the caravan and grab a person. It also was around two meters in height, so it was quite the titan.
However, our presence alone intimidated it, as it ran for his life right after that, without even looking back at us… Okay then, bye!
“The wolf just escaped? Okay then, I guess he didn’t want to risk it for the biscuit. It is understandable, to be honest.” Said Emeraldine.
“Yeah, but it was odd. He looked fearful. Do I look scary?” asked Syllis.
“Syllis, I think you’re the cutest in the group. It might have been intimidated by the rest of us….” I said as I looked at our group.
There was a giant dragon, three ghosts, a powerful Vampire… a powerful zombie… yeah, it is obvious.
“Those might hunt in packs, though. If they come back in big groups, we might have to exterminate them. There didn’t seem to be wolves here back then… In fact, it was never this chilly either.” Said Lucifer.
“Hm, I wonder if the chilly part comes from somewhere else?” wondered the Goblin Chief.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, there is the tale of monsters in the shape of women being able to summon storms of wind and make domains of snow… I think they were passed down from Majin culture.” Said the Goblin Chief.
“Wait, you mean Yuki-onna? Those are Majin, and they’re a race of good people… They would never do such a thing as this… this must just be some sort of climate change…” said Lucifer.
“No, there are other monsters… They’re called Frost People…” said the Goblin Chief.
“Frost People? Sounds like a weird name… but sure, I believe you….” I said.
“Well, whatever that “frost people” is, I don’t think they’re here.” Said Lucifer.
We got inside the walls at long last, as the door was wide open, with a massive crack that let everyone pass easily, carriages included.
After that, we reached the interior. There was a massive ghost town everywhere, which decorated the place with beautiful scenery of dreadfulness.
“Ah, this place is really quite desertic, isn’t it?” commented Emeraldine.
“Yes, it is…” said Lucifer.
“Huh? Look, there’s a lot of ice around…” said Partner.
“Right…” said Emeraldine.
I noticed that the floor in this entire area was all paved, so it was going to be easy to settle down. Mostly, all houses were deteriorated and filled with snow… and Partner pointed out something: large ice spikes spread all around the area.
The kids began wandering around us for a bit as Takeshi reached an ice spike of almost 20 meters and looked into its interior.
His face suddenly turned pale at what he saw, and he quickly called us over to go see it.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Th-This is… Look!”
Takeshi pointed out into the ice spike as I looked into its interior and then realized that between all the blurriness, there was… something there.
Actually, there were people in there….
Inside, I found a group of over six people in there, all frozen inside this ice.
They looked pale white, with pointy ears. There was a small blue-skinned girl there as well, and another was green-skinned- wait, that’s a goblin.
“Th-This is awful… they died frozen…” said Takeshi.
“No… this is not a normal freeze….” I said.
“So you think the same? This is indeed not normal…” said Emeraldine.
“Th-This is… the people… Don’t tell me…” muttered Lucifer.
He began flying all around, finding dozens after dozens of people frozen in this perpetual ice.
“Th-This is…! Who did this?! I can’t believe it… Why?! Why would anyone freeze them alive!?” asked Lucifer.
“Lady Maria! Can you feel their souls around? Perhaps with your powers you could find some clues…” asked the Goblin Chief.
“I…”
I looked around and didn’t find any souls.
In fact, calling this place a ghost town was not accurate. This place was far from being a ghost town. It was just completely emptied of anything. Not even ghosts lived here.
There was just nothing in here… What the heck?
“This place is far from being a ghost town. It is just… nothing….” I said.
“What?! You can’t see any souls? So it wasn’t just me…” said Lucifer.
And then, I detected it.
Faint presences everywhere within the ice.
I looked deeper with my phantasmal eyes and found out what was happening.
The souls of the people were here. They were in their bodies.
They were still alive, that’s it.
But… something else was bothering me.
The souls there were sealed into their bodies through the ice.
This ice… was not normal. It was some sort of powerful spell that sealed the people and the souls inside.
“The ice is definitely not normal; it froze the people in place and sealed them in here… This is honestly quite awful.” I said.
“Gods… What happened here?” sighed Lucifer.
It seemed that there was already a mystery here to resolve… and a problem to also tackle.
Fire doesn’t seem to work… How can we unseal these people?
—–