Most people in the Northlands had brown or blond hair, with white hair appearing only rarely. Black hair did exist closer to the center of the continent, but even there it was uncommon and not usually so pure. Against the endless white snow, such deep black stood out strongly.
"Stay by the campfire for now," Feltz said. "I will talk to my companions. If you are hungry, tell someone and they will handle it." She added that she would find a medic for Icelis, though she had already checked and knew the condition was not serious, and that some hot soup would wake her soon.
The two girls sat by the central fire on seats made from split logs. The whole camp was covered by constant-temperature Magic Array, so it was not cold at all, and coats could even be taken off. An old hunter who looked like a guide handed over a blanket and gently covered the still-unconscious Icelis.
He then took off his own fur coat and draped it over Fei'er. In the wilderness of the Northlands, many people had learned to help when they could. He also brought over a bowl of hot soup made from monsters that had attacked them earlier, seasoned with salt, wild vegetables, natural spices, and even half a bottle of strong liquor.
The taste was not bad and it helped warm the body. "Thank you," Fei'er said, blowing on it before taking a sip. Her expression shifted slightly at first, but she quickly drank the whole bowl.
"Um, may I go with you?" she asked softly, tugging at the medic's clothes. "I want to stay by Icelis." The medic nodded and brought Icelis into a small tent with a simple bed and blankets, which felt warm thanks to the constant-temperature Magic Array.
"Do not worry, we will return to the city soon," the medic said before leaving them. Fei'er sat beside the bed, watching Icelis, and curiously lifted a strand of her hair. It felt cold to the touch, almost crystal clear, smooth and pleasant enough that she did not want to let go.
The little girl lying there looked like a delicate doll, with her pale skin and striking features. Fei'er did not notice the slight movement of her eyelids. She leaned closer and muttered softly in a language no one on the continent would recognize.
"So cold… and this looks even better than the illustrations," she whispered. She continued quietly, speaking to herself about how Feltz did not quite match her background description and how she needed to leave soon. She wondered what year it was and whether things in the Northlands lined up with what she expected.
She stopped mid-thought. The girl called Icelis had opened her eyes. Those clear pupils shimmered like glass, reflecting a deep, icy blue.
"Maybe I should restrain myself and stop eating."
Belial swallowed the last bit of meat in his mouth, skin and bones included, leaving nothing behind. He breathed out two puffs of cold air to clean himself and then sighed in reflection. As the seasons moved on, the scale of animal migration seemed to grow larger and larger.
The sight was far more shocking than anything he had seen on nature programs in his previous life. The herds stretched like a tide from right in front of him to the horizon, endless and packed together. When they charged, the ground truly shook, and everything in their path was trampled apart, with dust and snow thrown up to fill the sky.
There were rabbits less than a meter long, herds as large as African elephants, and many magical beasts shaped like lions, tigers, or wolves. There were also even larger ones, gigantic monsters tens of meters tall, vaguely spider-like with far too many limbs. Faced with such a beast tide, even armored tank divisions from his old world would have been crushed into scrap.
It was not just raw physical strength but also all kinds of magic flying everywhere. Even without coordination, that alone was enough to wipe out everything. Worse still, this was not a single isolated event, as similar beast tides were appearing from all directions, each one growing in scale.
It felt as though this was only the beginning. What kind of consequences would such terrifying tides bring?
"And then I ate them all."
The result was simply filling the stomach of a certain dragon. Standing amid piles of corpses that averaged dozens of meters high, with frozen ice statues rising everywhere, the giant dragon, now nearing forty meters long, began to wonder if eating on such a scale might cause ecological collapse.
It sounded frightening, but once the fighting started, it turned out to be little more than him breathing twice. With his breath unleashed and his head turning in a few circles, almost everything froze solid. Under his control, the cold breath spread into a sweeping wave of ice that covered heaven and earth, devouring everything like a natural disaster.
Most of the weaker creatures died instantly on contact, and the rest collapsed shortly after. Those not turned into ice statues by Belial were mainly kept to fill his stomach, killed casually with magic, with the strongest one having its skull smashed by his own hand. Some tried to fight back, but none had ever broken through his barrier defense.
When waves of magic rained down on him, he could at most comment that it looked flashy. Even if Belial turned off the barrier and stood still, it would not even scratch his skin. In return, a few large-scale spells from him were enough to wipe them out, as easily as cutting grass.
"I couldn't help it and ate a little more. It should be fine, right? The ecology of Otherworld is tough enough."
After consuming several more beast tides and finally filling his belly, Belial reflected on whether wiping out migrating herds would have consequences. After a round of idle thoughts brought on by being overly full, he resolved to reform himself. Most likely, he would still keep going once he got hungry again.
After gaining the power of ice and snow, he found it very convenient during meals. He only needed to freeze everything and then inhale. Like drinking a cold beverage, piles of monster corpses were consumed this way, their combined mass hundreds or thousands of times greater than his own, digested at an absurd speed as all their Magic was absorbed.
The Nuclear Reactor inside his body hummed as it sent power throughout him, while his furnace-like stomach broke down flesh, bones, and hide. With such abundant nourishment, Belial's body never stopped growing. Each meal brought a small increase in strength, a pleasant feeling that made him narrow his eyes in comfort.
Before, his hunting had been like opening blind boxes, random and often requiring great effort and constant movement. Now it was like eating at a buffet, with fearless groups charging straight at him without fleeing. It was impossible for a dragon to resist that.
"For the sake of ecology, I should still restrain myself. After all, there might be more later."
Belial rolled over and continued thinking. If these large-scale migrations were a regular occurrence, then holding back a little now would be acceptable. Between eating once until full and being full all the time, he knew the difference.
The habits of magical beasts were not much different from wild animals in his old world. Predators hunted the young, the weak, and the sick first, choosing easy targets. The young were usually protected in the center of the group, leaving the injured and weak as shields, which also served as a form of natural selection.
Belial was different. He slaughtered both predators and prey together and ate everything from start to finish, leaving not even bone fragments behind. His most frightening trait was his digestion, which allowed him to consume mass far beyond his own size without his belly swelling much at all.
His body's demand for energy was like a bottomless pit. If a monster of his size truly went all out without restraint, driving the ecology to collapse would be no joke. Belial shook the scraps from his wings and took to the air.
The giant dragon, wrapped in icy white frost, shed the remains clinging to his wings. In the distance, the sun pierced a corner of the storm clouds. His wings had grown massive, the limbs strong, muscles moving in steady rhythm beneath frost and layered scales, showing a grand and solid beauty.
Each wing bone spread like an open claw, with tough and flexible membranes catching the storm and holding the sky. A light flap released waves of air like the sea, casting a shadow over the land. With the help of wind magic and the ever-present Blizzard environment, Belial could now fly steadily once he reached sufficient height.
Using Gravity Tornado to reduce his weight, every muscle in his body worked together. The ground seemed to breathe like mountains. With a single powerful push, Belial blasted a huge crater into the ground and shot into the sky.
Wind, rain, and snow gathered into clouds that hid his form. The only traces left were rippling cloud tails and the thunder-like sound of a massive body moving through the clouds. He let out a long dragon roar that shook the clouds as his nose twitched slightly.
"I think I smelled something that caught my attention."