I couldn't say at what moment the decision was made.
There was no meeting, no discussion, no vote. Just a silent instant in which everyone understood the same thing at the same time.
We would not win.
The Sixth General didn't need to move to prove it. He stood at the center of the chamber, surrounded by dark blue pillars of ice that pulsed like exposed veins. The air around him didn't just freeze the body—it froze intention. Every step we took felt heavy, wrong, as if we were walking against the world itself.
The SS-class elf was kneeling just a few meters away from him.
Seeing that was what broke something inside me.
I had seen that elf face demonic commanders alone, cross infested corridors without a scratch, destroy creatures that would demand the full effort of our group. And now he was there, with one knee on the ground, breathing with difficulty, the arc of spiritual energy completely dissipated.
The Sixth General watched in silence.
Then he spoke.
"You insist on existing beyond the necessary point."
His voice didn't echo. It simply appeared inside the mind, cold and precise.
My flame reacted violently. Not like before. Not with fury. It was fear. A deep, ancestral fear, as if it recognized a predator that should never be faced head-on.
Vespera stood behind me, her bow lowered. For the first time since I had met her, she didn't even try to aim. Her hands trembled.
Elara could barely remain standing. Her mana had been completely drained minutes ago, and now she breathed while leaning against the frozen wall, eyes half-closed, trying not to faint.
Liriel… Liriel was silent.
And that was the most worrying thing.
When even the useless goddess stops complaining, something has gone very wrong.
"Takumi…" someone's voice called me. I don't know who it was. Maybe Elara. Maybe Vespera.
The elf raised his face with difficulty and spoke to me without looking at the General.
"Retreat. Now."
The word echoed like a hammer.
Retreat.
My body reacted before my mind. I shouted.
"Retreat! Everyone, now!"
The Sixth General tilted his head slightly.
"Interesting."
The ice around the chamber cracked.
The ground began to split.
That was the moment he moved.
Not fast. Not violent. Just one step forward.
The world responded.
A wave of absolute cold swept through the chamber. It wasn't ordinary ice. It was absence. Everything it touched lost color, weight, definition. One of the allied adventurers was grazed by it and simply… fell, motionless, without visible injuries. Alive, but frozen in something between time and matter.
"Run!" someone shouted.
The entire dungeon reacted to his presence. The walls began to close in. The ceiling lowered a few centimeters. The corridors we had used to enter began to deform.
It was a living trap.
I pulled Elara by the arm before she fell. Vespera instinctively tried to fire an arrow—missed, as always—but the shot served to shatter a pillar of ice that collapsed between us and the General, creating a minimal opening.
The SS-class elf forced himself to stand.
He turned to me.
"Take them."
"You—"
"I'll hold the path."
I didn't argue. I didn't thank him. I didn't promise anything.
The flame inside me exploded.
Not in attack. In movement.
We ran.
The corridor closed behind us as we advanced. The cold was so intense that breathing hurt. Lesser demons appeared from the sides, but they were almost irrelevant now. The true enemy was behind us, walking without haste.
I could feel his presence drawing closer.
Not physically.
Existentially.
Liriel stumbled, and for a second I thought we would lose her. Vespera dropped her bow and pulled her without saying a word. Elara was almost unconscious, murmuring broken words, her mana completely drained.
The dungeon began to collapse.
Explosions of ice, collapsing columns, corridors merging. The exit seemed far too distant.
Then I heard his voice again.
"Run."
It wasn't an order.
It was permission.
The Sixth General did not pursue us.
He simply watched.
When we finally emerged from the dungeon, the sky felt too warm. The air felt wrong. We collapsed onto the ground, exhausted, wounded, alive for a reason I didn't fully understand.
Behind us, the dungeon entrance sealed itself with a deep roar.
Silence.
No one celebrated.
No one spoke.
I looked at my trembling hands.
We had failed.
And worst of all…
The Sixth General let us go because he wanted to.
And that was far more terrifying than any defeat.