Eyna was beautiful, smart, and sweet, and given how much her existence annoyed Gabby, Lily liked her a lot. But for the love of anything damned or holy—she couldn't drive in the slightest.
She thought Welf was rough, but he was a magnificent coachman in comparison.
Under the purple-eyed girl's ministrations, the duke's carriage swerved from side to side.
Somehow, they've managed to hit every rut on the highway.
If not for the angel's intervention, they might not have survived the trip.
And it took a lot to kill a greater demon and an archangel.
Gabrielle ended up using more mana than it would have taken Lily to teleport. Or run.
But without violating the agreement, she couldn't run faster than the horses.
"So what'll happen?" the angel in blue asked, the question, well, also coming out of the blue.
Even if she were also anxious to find out, Lily wouldn't let it show.
They weren't friends, fragile pacts or not, and she scoffed.
"What'cha mean, what? How would I k-meow?"
"You've future sight," Gabrielle stated the obvious. "You knew about that winter castle thing, too."
"Frozen Palace," she corrected, rolling her eyes. Then, she had to hold on for dear life as they hit another bump. "I saw it on a different time-ow-line—and it didn't end well."
"Specifics?" The angel was getting annoying.
"Hard to say. Everything was different at the time," Lily mumbled, not faking being unsure.
"Then take another look," Gabrielle demanded with a frown. "Check the future now."
As if it were that easy.
"It's already happening—and my sight's not something I can control like that."
"Useless," came the mutter, and Lily was about to blow.
But she wasn't the first. Eyna snapped at them as she was fighting the reins.
"Shut up, both of you," she was louder than Lily had ever heard before. "This doesn't help."
The audacity of that girl. She was always so quiet and respectful—but she wasn't wrong.
"You focus on the road," they yelled back in unison, but the mood changed in the silence that followed. They laughed—still anxious, annoyed, and angry, but it was a laugh.
"All I care about is that we get to Konrad. The one future I saw was ugly," Lily spoke first.
"Is it the crazy one?" Gabby asked, raising her eyebrow. "I saw the mess in Stella's head."
The demoness nodded.
"When you kidnapped me, I saw her," she said. "Konny escaped the catacombs and captured her all the same. But Stella lost control and awakened in that timeline—destroying Halaima."
"That ice arena thing? Wasn't Nimrod there, too?"
"Frozen Palace," Lily repeated with a sigh. "He was. In fact, Stella was a catalyst bringing the twins together sooner. But—they both died, and I couldn't feel his presence back then, either."
A chill ran down her spine, and she had to rub her sides to fight the goosebumps.
The weather was still that of a mid-summer afternoon, and Gabrielle was sweating, so why?
"Well, I don't know what that's about—Lucifer has a clear connection to him."
She didn't have to rub that in her face. But the angel's expression was somber, lost in thought.
And the important bit was that Konny was still alive—for now.
"So what's this cold chamber—"
"Frozen Palace, for fuck's sake," Lily snapped, then let out a shaky breath. "Stella's domain."
"Is she a water magician or something?" Gabrielle furrowed her brows.
"I wish, but it's much worse. You could say, she's—"
***
"She's insane," Welf yelled, hugging his greatsword. "I don't care what you do, but don't make this worse. No fireballs, or whatever you planned. Stella would squash us with her icicles."
"Cool, so what should I do?" Konrad snapped back. "We needed warmth—and you're welcome."
They found a reinforced room that had an intact ceiling and retreated there.
The cold still followed them, but his Isekai Microwave proved its worth. It didn't eat up that much mana, but he had to keep increasing the heat, adding new sources every few minutes.
The world was freezing over.
"How the hell can she even do this?" Vargas asked, trying to tie up the Inquisitor.
He failed, over and over, his fingers blue from the cold, and the rope kept snapping.
"The spirits," Otto muttered, his face still that of fear and astonishment. "It's been a decade since this happened the last time, but I knew she still had the potential, like Brigida."
Konrad couldn't tell if he sounded like a proud dad or a terrified slaver.
If it were possible, he must have been the worst of both worlds.
"What do you know of her power? How can we defeat her?" Welf demanded, grabbing the Inquisitor's roughspun cloak. He gathered all the clothes he could find, but was still shaking.
"Nothing," Otto scoffed, his defiance returning for a moment before despair took over.
Konrad almost jumped as Brigida curled against his side for the warmth. The girl seemed tired, but for some reason much less frightened now. She still hadn't said a single word, though.
"My mana sight won't reveal the nature of one's magic," the Inquisitor explained.
Something he already suspected—but at least the ability wasn't overpowered after all.
"What about her strength then?" Konrad asked. "You said this wasn't the first time."
"Yes," the man admitted, appearing smaller than ever. "When her mansion burned. She doesn't even remember, but nobody could stop her back then—and it's impossible to do it now, too."
The ground shook below them, as if to reinforce the Inquisitor's words.
Gigantic icicles rained down, destroying Halaima's deserted houses.
Those red-armored soldiers must have all frozen to death by now. Not a fate Konrad wished for them, but he was more concerned about his men and the town itself.
"So how are you alive?" Welf asked a very valid question. "If she's unstoppable?"
"S-she calmed down over time," Otto claimed. "Once the fires were out—"
"You mean when she ran out of mana?" Konrad tried, formulating a plan.
The Inquisitor shook his head.
"She has almost none," he said. It made no sense. "She seldom uses it—all the mana flows into her instead. She's becoming stronger with every second she spends raging. And then it's over."
"That's impossible," Vargas scoffed, giving up on the ropes. "That's not how magic works."
It was tempting to agree, but Konrad knew of a very similar spell.
His mana syphon—and the version the Green Mage noted down in his codex.
"Are you sure she's draining the mana from her surroundings?" he asked the Inquisitor.
Even if he didn't understand the why, he must have seen the how.
The rectangular face gave him a slow nod, reinforcing his theory.
"She's not casting the cold or the ice," Konrad claimed. "She uses telekinesis, and that's it."
"Then why is our ass freezing off?" Vargas demanded, uncharacteristic of his usual style.
"The warmth you feel—I created it with mana," he explained, adding another heat source into the mix. "She syphons it all away, not only from the air but from the other elements, too."
She was causing the heat death of the universe on a miniature scale. Entropy.
Like a parasite, drinking blood, without a care if she killed her host in the process.
She wasn't a sorcerer using the elements, or a shaman controlling nature.
She drained everything dry, like a vampire—or as if she were a necromancer.