"Old man, what's the deal with this house?" EeDechi brushed the frost and snow off her head, stopping an elderly man in a linen padded jacket to ask.
"It caught fire last night. Good thing it's snowing hard now and the weather's freezing—it only burned two or three rooms before the fire got put out." The old man tugged at EeDechi's black cloak. "Young lady, you're dressed so lightly. Aren't you cold? Bundle up a bit more."
With that, the old man shuffled off on his own, leaving EeDechi still gazing at the squat building in front of her.
This was Rigrit's secluded home. The Last Defender of the Way adventure team was set to leave Re-Estize's capital today, and they wanted to swing by for one last visit to this final survivor of the Thirteen Heroes. But they found her rooms already reduced to a charred ruin. According to the sheriff's report, though, no one had died in the blaze.
The legendary Thirteen Heroes' Rigrit, who'd lived over 200 years, had vanished without a trace once again. Maybe she was scared of something and had to pull a disappearing act like this, or perhaps she just wanted to ditch the Thirteen Heroes' fame and enjoy a quiet retirement.
The squat building was covered in sooty scorch marks. EeDechi glanced back one last time, then could only walk away in frustration. She trudged through the snow-swept residential district, back to the street where the Last Defender of the Way team's hired carriage waited, with her three teammates still inside.
To be precise, only one teammate now.
Sean Tachya and Stella Famillion had already turned in their resignation papers, heading back to Baharuth for a settled life. EeDechi had signed off on them grudgingly.
The weather had plunged into the depths of winter, with heavy snow falling nonstop for three days and three nights, and it still hadn't let up. The world was bitterly cold and frozen, everything wrapped in a blanket of pure white.
According to the weather forecast from Re-Estize's official who possessed the "Weather Prediction" Innate Talent, the fluffy, goose-feather snow would keep coming down for another two days before it might finally clear up.
The coachman, bundled in a thick cotton cloak, cracked his whip, and the studded wheels churned through the deep snow as the carriage lurched forward. Today, they were leaving Re-Estize's capital by carriage, bound for the nearby small town of Lepergan.
In Lepergan city, they would go their separate ways: Sean and Stella heading east to Baharuth, while Barrett and EeDechi would hop through a teleportation circle to Re-Estize's southern border city, then cross the border and make for the Slane Theocracy, pressing on with their unpredictable adventure.
Lepergan city was home to Re-Estize's biggest teleportation hub. Usually, a country's teleportation magic center gets built right in the capital—like in Baharuth—to squeeze out the most economic and travel perks.
But when the fifth king of Re-Estize built the teleportation array, he was wary of scheming nobles stirring up rebellion, with rebels teleporting straight into the capital. So the king "wisely" picked a small town far from the capital to set up the teleportation hub.
Inside the slightly jostling carriage compartment, the four adventurers sat facing each other.
Barrett handed EeDechi an exquisite boxwood gift box and said, "This is a parting gift from Brain Unglaus—he asked me to pass it on to you. He said if he wasn't bogged down by his Warrior Captain duties, he'd join you on your adventures."
"Oh, that wimpy kid still wants to adventure?" EeDechi took the box, snapped the red silk ribbon, and ripped it open in a few quick tugs.
Inside the box were spherical chocolates of all sorts: milky white, green, pitch black, goat's milk flavored, hazelnut flavored, and more besides. EeDechi picked up one and tossed it into her mouth, then passed it to the other three companions in the carriage compartment. "Pretty tasty, you guys try some."
Barrett grabbed a chocolate ball and popped it into his mouth, chewing it slowly. He recalled Brain's sincere expression when handing over the chocolates, and couldn't help but sigh inwardly—Brain must have really gone loopy from all that sword training.
...
The carriage rolled on for a whole morning before the coachman up front spoke up, "This damn weather, snow just won't quit, it's freezing out here. Four guests, we've reached the central crossroads in Lentwei town. I've been driving this route for seven years, and the home-brewed malt ale at the Pine Lake tavern in the town center is famous far and wide. Want to go try a sip?"
The three adventurers in the carriage turned their eyes to EeDechi. She met their gazes for a few seconds, then nodded and said, "Sure, let's grab a few drinks to warm up."
"Right away, guests." Amid the coachman's cheerful calls to the horses, the carriage eased to a stop.
The four hopped out one after another. Fierce winds hurled snowflakes right into their faces, the biting chill sneaking down their necks. Except for EeDechi, the other three pulled their padded jackets tighter.
They stood at a crossroads, the road broad and covered in endless white snow. Thanks to the blizzard, the streets were deserted except for the four of them and the coachman. Only from beneath the 'Pine Lake' tavern sign on the roadside, buried under thick piles of snow, came bursts of laughter and rowdy chatter cutting through the howling wind and snow.
EeDechi drew in a deep breath and suddenly froze. She pulled her giant sword from her spatial ring, swung the blade in a flourish, and the piled-up snow on the ground was all swept aside.
"What's wrong?" Barrett hunched his neck, a bit puzzled, while Sean and Stella stared at her in utter confusion.
EeDechi didn't answer; she whipped her head around, scanning all directions, her black pupils suddenly flaring wide.
"You guys get out of here now!" For the first time, EeDechi's voice carried an emotion called "fear."
"Guest, why'd you draw your sword? Let's head into the tavern." The coachman kept his hands tucked in his sleeves as he shuffled closer, his eyes full of confusion.
"NO! Skip the drinks. It's too late—you all need to leave right now!" EeDechi swung her sword, blasting away a patch of snow. She fixed her glare on Barrett and the other two, bellowing, "FOLLOW MY ORDERS! RUN! SCATTER AND RUN!"
Barrett, Sean, and Stella exchanged baffled looks; this was the first time they'd seen their captain so rattled. The crossroads was just a sea of white snow—clearly nothing there. What was the captain scared of?
A barrage of thunder exploded in Barrett's mind, a premonition called "sixth sense" shrieking in horror! Barrett scanned the surroundings in terror; though the crossroads still looked empty, he knew EeDechi had foreseen some unstoppable nightmare.
Barrett picked a direction and took off running, fast as he could, his figure vanishing quick into the swirling blizzard.
Seeing Barrett already bolting away, Sean and Stella grabbed hands and dove into the dancing snowflakes, sprinting toward another arm of the crossroads.
"You," EeDechi pointed at the coachman, "Get into the tavern and yell for everyone to come out—evacuate them! Run as far as you can!"
"It's over," her face suddenly turned grim with despair, "We're too late. They're here."
"Are you crazy?" The coachman watched Sean and Stella's backs as they bolted like scared rabbits. "I'm washing my hands of you all. I'm off to drink. When you guests come running back later, just find me inside the tavern." With that, he paid no more attention to EeDechi and marched straight into the Pine Lake tavern.
The street was completely deserted, leaving only EeDechi by herself. She hung her head, dragging her giant sword in hand, trudging step by step to the center of the crossroads. Her footsteps were unnaturally heavy, as if her legs were weighed down by hundreds of tons of withered bones, and her back bore the blood guilt of millions.
Snowflakes like pure white goose feathers drifted down from the heavens, fluttering and swirling, burying the ground, blanketing the rooftops. The carriage wheel ruts on the street were quickly swallowed up, and everything in the world was cloaked in a layer of pristine frost and snow.
The world was all white.
Suddenly, the whirling snowflakes froze in mid-air, the wind stopped its roar, and silence fell. It was like a film of falling snow had been paused; flakes resembling white goose feathers hung suspended in the clear air.
Space was locked down, the sky ceased to breathe, time stood still.
EeDechi reached out and plucked a hexagonal snowflake from the air, studying the fine, glistening needle-like crystals on it closely, then crushed it in her palm.
From the roadside Pine Lake tavern, a boozy patron shoved open the oak door and staggered out. Stinking of alcohol, he wobbled along, looked up at the sky full of motionless snowflakes, and grumbled, "I knew I drank too much."
He stumbled forward, his face smacking into a few hovering snowflakes. He snatched one, crammed it into his mouth like a biscuit, chewed a couple times, and yelled in excitement, "I'm not drunk!"
He teetered back into the tavern, hollering, "Everyone, get out here and look! It's a wonder! The snow's stuck in the air and not coming down..."
Hearing his crazy talk, more people came out from the tavern. Even the tavern's barmaids ran outside, leaping into the frozen snowflakes as if standing amid a swarm of white butterflies hovering in mid-air, bouncing and jumping with excitement.
"This must be the work of some great wizard." Someone stroked a snowflake, muttering to themselves.
Soon they noticed a black-haired girl standing in the center of the crossroads, dressed in thin black clothes that clashed with the bitter winter cold, gripping a giant sword tightly, her expression desolate.
They looked at the girl, and the girl looked at them. People couldn't figure out why, facing this rare wonder of the world, the girl wasn't happy or excited, why her eyes held only endless sorrow. She looked at the cheerful crowd as if gazing at a bunch of cold corpses.
People heard the girl softly say, "I'm sorry."
Someone wanted to ask the black-haired girl why her gaze was so pained, like a wounded lion hidden in her pupils.
He had just opened his mouth when his upper body toppled into the snow.
He propped himself up on his arms, twisted his head back, and saw his own abdominal cavity and his legs still standing, along with severed limbs and body parts like his scattered across the snow. That was the crowd that had been cheering moments ago; now they all lay in pools of blood. Blood gushed out, staining the pure white ground a deep crimson.
"The irrelevant bystanders have been cleared out."
An arrogant and cold voice shattered the silent blizzard. Clad in dark azure armor, with black wings on her back and twisted horns on her head, Albedo stepped through the ankle-deep snow toward EeDechi, like a devil crawling out from the nine hells.
It was she who had "cleared" the crowd on the street in an instant.
Behind EeDechi, the tall and burly "Ruler of the Frozen Rivers" Cocytus dropped his invisibility spell. He wore jagged silver-white armor, a ferocious faceplate, with four arms total; two hands each gripping a Naginata and a heavy Halberd "Decapitation Fang," the remaining hands wielding a great Tachi "God Slaying Emperor Blade."
At the top of the corner bell tower, clad in deep red armor, holding the Spuit Lance, the silver-haired vampire Shalltear with blood-red eyes stood up, looking down coldly at EeDechi in the center of the crossroads.
But this was far from the end...