Whoosh—
A massive wave of blue mist crashed against the Styx Water Sphere created by Castorice, but the sphere repelled it completely, not allowing a single wisp to penetrate.
Having temporarily secured the wounded hero's life, Castorice called out to Aria and the others, "Does anyone know healing magic?"
Hearing this, Aria immediately rushed forward. "I do!"
Though Aria had been primarily using Divine Smite, she hadn't forgotten that Cure Wounds was one of her fundamental skills.
Douglas hesitated slightly, mainly because reaching Castorice required passing by Pollux. Who wouldn't feel intimidated by a dragon?
However, seeing Aria's decisive sprint, Douglas braced himself and followed suit. He occasionally glanced up at Pollux, only to be noticed. The dragon tilted her head slightly, curiously observing the human scurrying beneath her.
Douglas ran even faster.
When the battle ended, Castorice had canceled her Underworld Projection. The Underworld terrain and flowers around her vanished, reverting to icy ground. By the time Aria and Douglas reached her, the blue mist had completely enveloped the Styx Water Sphere, though it couldn't penetrate it.
Even by a conservative estimate, this mist was at least a dozen meters thick. Even before getting close, Castorice felt a slight chill, and Douglas was already shivering uncontrollably.
This was mainly due to his full suit of metal armor, which now acted like a giant refrigerator. It would be strange if he wasn't freezing. In contrast, Aria seemed barely affected by the cold. She even said eagerly, "Sister Castorice, I don't know why, but whenever I get close, the mist just parts on its own. You guys stick close to me, and we can just walk right through!"
Castorice suddenly remembered that during Douglas and Cipher's earlier argument about the cold, Aria had remained silent. She couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you cold?"
Aria tilted her head, a puzzled expression on her face. "It's probably around minus ten-odd degrees here? I think it's fine, not too cold."
Douglas stared in disbelief. "What the hell!?"
The temperature here was definitely far below minus ten degrees! Or rather, the frigid chill radiating from the Blue Mist couldn't be measured by ordinary "temperature." This bone-piercing cold felt like "true damage," striking directly at one's soul.
Castorice quickly realized that Aria was likely referring to the temperature of this underground ice cavern. She seemed completely unaffected by the bone-chilling cold radiating from the Blue Mist!
Though the reason remained a mystery, it was undeniable that the Blue Mist and Aria shared some kind of connection.
But there was no time for speculation now. Castorice nodded to Aria. "Then, I'll leave it to you!"
"Mm-hmm!" Aria eagerly took the lead, striding forward. As she approached, the Blue Mist swirling around the Styx Sphere parted like curtains, creating a clear path large enough for several people to pass.
In no time, the trio had traversed the dozen meters to the Styx Sphere Castorice had created. With a flick of her wrist, another opening appeared in the sphere, and they entered one by one.
The half-elf young girl lay supine on the ground, her eyes blankly fixed on the ceiling, her ragged, wheezing breaths sounding like a broken bellows: "Huff... huff..."
"Cure Wounds!"
"Cure Wounds!"
Aria and Douglas swiftly moved forward, simultaneously casting Cure Wounds spells on the half-elf young girl's neck. As for the severed lower half of her body? It was clear that no amount of healing magic could mend such grievous injuries.
To be honest, even with their healing efforts, they could only slightly delay the half-elf young girl's death. Saving her? That was impossible.
For the young girl, it felt as though she were trapped in a cage made of ice, endlessly enduring the agony of ice cones piercing her spine. But then, the cage and ice cones vanished, and a ray of sunlight fell upon her neck, bringing a warm, comforting sensation.
In a hoarse voice, she instinctively murmured, "So warm..."
Meanwhile, the perspective shifted to Cipher and Feidric. The extreme cold and Feidric's lack of healing skills kept them from approaching the wounded girl. Cipher, realizing she couldn't offer any assistance, remained where she was as well.
Feidric remarked, "In the Legend of the Demon King and the Hero story, among the Seven Heroes, only the half-elf Druid, the Catfolk Ranger, and the Bard are female. The Bard is a mature and reliable 'Big Sister' type. But the half-elf Druid and the Catfolk Ranger? They act like a pair of children."
"These two both had beautiful long green hair and were very close. The half-elf Druid was introverted, speaking softly even to those she knew well. When encountering a stranger, she would immediately transform into a small squirrel and curl up in the Catfolk Ranger's arms."
"In contrast, the Catfolk Ranger was extremely extroverted, seemingly having endless things to say to anyone. Her cheerful personality and infectious smile lifted the spirits of everyone in the party."
"In the story, the Catfolk Ranger even joked that every Ranger secretly wanted a Druid pet, because such pets would be smarter and more powerful (being transformed humans, after all). But she added that no one would want this half-elf Druid's squirrel form, given her timidity and lack of strength."
Feidric spoke with a wistful tone, "In Legend of the Demon King and the Hero, the interactions between the Catfolk Ranger and the half-elf Druid were frequent, entertaining, and deeply memorable. Who could have imagined that this druid, who was as timid as a squirrel in the story, would appear here in the form of a dragon?"
It was clear that this timid half-elf Druid, during the final battle, had chosen to transform into a dragon and confront the Demon Lord head-on. She was ultimately cleaved in half, and the Blue Mist had tormented her ever since, until this very day.
How utterly tragic.
Cipher spoke up, "I'm not entirely sure what the half-elf Druid's abilities were, but if the enemy was a Demon Lord who wielded ice magic, shouldn't she have transformed into a fire-breathing dragon to attack? Yet she specifically chose a dragon skilled in ice. This transformation suggests she wasn't trying to attack, but rather to protect something."
Since the Demon Lord undoubtedly possessed extreme ice resistance, using an ice dragon would be futile. The half-elf Druid's choice could only mean she was leveraging the Ice Dragon King's inherent ice resistance to shield against the enemy's attacks.
Hearing this, Feidric paused for a moment before nodding slowly. "Yes, that's the only possible explanation."
It's worth noting that the Legend of the Demon King and the Hero made no mention of the Druid Hero possessing the ability to transform into a dragon. In the story, the Druid's Divine Artifact was a green gemstone necklace that granted the power to stimulate and control plant growth, as well as exceptional healing abilities.
Without a second thought, Cipher knew this was almost certainly false.
She was now certain that the Legend of the Demon King and the Hero novel was likely compiled and written by a single author who had gathered folk legends and then summarized them himself. It was just an ordinary novel; so far, none of its descriptions of Divine Artifacts had proven accurate.
Switching focus back to Castorice, the half-elf young girl showed slight improvement under Aria and Douglas's treatment. At least... her breathing no longer rasped like a broken bellows.
Her pupils gradually regained focus, reflecting the figures of Castorice, Aria, and the others. Her lips trembled slightly as she murmured, "Benitez is coming... Run..."
"Who's Benitez?" Aria asked urgently. "Don't talk anymore! We'll save you!"
During the treatment, Douglas had already exhausted his Grace Value and could no longer cast Divine Magic. Aria's Cure Wounds spell, which consumed Strength, had been used so frequently that beads of sweat covered her forehead.
Despite Aria's desperate efforts, they proved futile. After uttering one final, flickering sentence, the half-elf young girl's life force rapidly faded away, leaving her completely lifeless in moments. Castorice could clearly sense a fragmented soul slowly drifting away from the corpse.
Normally, upon death, a soul would naturally journey to the Underworld, returning to the embrace of the Death God. But Castorice discovered she could intercept this soul, seizing it.
Thus, Castorice hesitated. As mentioned earlier, with a soul in hand, she could use Styx Water to reconstruct a body, achieving a kind of unconventional resurrection. The question now was: should she do it?
Another dilemma arose: although Castorice's position in this world was equivalent to a Death Ancient God, granting her dominion over death, she wasn't the "genuine Death." Intercepting this soul and resurrecting it would be akin to someone trying to get a job at a legitimate corporation being kidnapped en route and forced to work at Castorice's roadside stall.
Snatching a soul from the Death God's grasp would surely have dire consequences if discovered.
Yet Castorice reasoned that the true Death God was likely preoccupied with some calamity and wouldn't notice her actions.
As the soul teetered on the brink of dissolution, Castorice finally reached out and seized it. She decided to resurrect the hero! If the hero doesn't wish to live after resurrection, I'll simply return their soul to the Underworld, she thought.
Castorice suddenly recalled a Third-Level Necromancy School spell called Speak with Dead. She realized that what she was doing felt like using a supercharged version of that spell.
After all, her primary motive for resurrecting this hero was to question him about the Demon Lord and the Hero.
"She's already dead. Don't waste your strength, Aria," Douglas said with a sigh as the half-elf young girl perished.
"But... but..." Aria began to protest. At that moment, Castorice gently interjected, "Sir Douglas is right. Stop wasting your strength on Cure Wounds. I'll resurrect her later."
Hearing the first half of her statement, Douglas nodded matter-of-factly. "See? Miss Castorice has said so herself..."
But the second half left him stunned. "Huh? Wait, what the hell?"
Castorice had said it so calmly, as if she were discussing what to have for breakfast.
Moreover, resurrection in this world was only possible through the ninth-level Divine spell Resurrection and the ninth-level Arcane spell Wish. Priests and Wizards capable of casting such high-level spells were exceedingly rare, and even if they could, resurrecting someone came with strict prerequisites.
In short, resurrecting a deceased person was an incredibly difficult undertaking.
Yet Douglas suddenly remembered Castorice had claimed to be a Death Demigod. Since she's already a Demigod, and one associated with death itself, resurrecting someone should be well within her capabilities, right?
Castorice said, "In any case, let's get out of here first..."
After the trio left the Styx Sphere, Castorice noticed that the surrounding Blue Mist had completely vanished, likely due to the half-elf young girl's death. Without an enemy to target, the Blue Mist had naturally dissipated.
Just then, Aria suddenly seemed to notice something and called out, "Wait a moment!"
She darted toward the far end of the underground ice cave, a place initially blocked by the White Dragon formed from the half-elf young girl—the so-called blind spot that everyone had overlooked.
Castorice, preoccupied with resurrecting the half-elf young girl, had completely forgotten about looting the area. It was Aria who first spotted the anomaly. She bent down and picked up an oval-shaped, pale blue egg, about the size of an Owlbear egg—large enough to require both hands to lift.
After securing the egg, Aria scanned the surroundings to ensure nothing else was present before jogging back. Her curiosity piqued, she asked, "What kind of egg is this?"
Castorice naturally shook her head, wearing a bewildered expression. How could she possibly know what this thing was?
Douglas was equally puzzled. He even asked doubtfully, "This... are you sure it's an egg, and not just a smooth, oval-shaped piece of ice?"
Upon closer inspection, the 'egg' was so translucent that you could faintly see through to the other side. As Douglas pointed out, it resembled an oval-shaped block of ice more than an egg—or perhaps an oval-shaped crystal?
However, Castorice insisted, "It's definitely an egg. I can sense a very faint life force within it."
Douglas was astonished. "Ah?!"
As they chatted, the trio quickly rejoined Feidric and Cipher. Seeing their empty-handed return, the outcome was obvious at a glance. Feidric sighed, "There's nothing we can do. Her injuries are too severe; Cure Wounds can't heal injuries of this magnitude."
"And Aria, why are you carrying around a block of ice?"