I discharged lightning throughout the ice, and it immediately shattered.
Isabelle's body was also thawed out of the ice, so she began to fall.
But right before hitting the ground, I caught her and put several wolf fur coats over her body.
She was freezing up.
Though I knew it was only a matter of time until she got better, since her immunity to the cold was extremely high.
And I was right.
It only took five minutes for her body temperature to return to normal.
When it did, soft snores resounded as she lay in my arms.
Letting out a sigh, I couldn't help but feel like this was a little anti-climactic.
When she got her power-up in the game, she destroyed a legion of demons.
Now... she fell asleep again.
Well...
At least everything went well.
I pulled out a few sheets and cushions out of my dimensional ring and made a makeshift bed for her.
After setting her down and tucking her in, I sat down against one of the red trees.
I hadn't slept in a while.
Though it wasn't like I could sleep.
I didn't have my music player.
Without music or someone bickering in my ear, I just couldn't sleep.
So instead, I focused my Telekinesis on the Mudflats' city.
Reinhardt was walking around and talking with everyone he saw.
He passed by the locations where I killed the demons too.
It seemed like he wanted to meet up with them.
But he quickly realized that they were all gone.
I needed to keep a tighter watch on him.
He was a coward, and in the game, if I found all the demons and he was the only one left alive, it took him anywhere from a day to a week to react.
But I wasn't playing this game on my phone anymore.
I was right here.
So just in case, I fiddled around with Melina's wine glass and knocked Kevin's sword right out of his arms.
That was enough for them to get the clue.
Melina set aside her glass and stepped outside, approaching the sea.
As for Kevin, he slowly made his way into the forest.
They were both ready.
I noticed that Melina had searched the sea earlier, so she must've found the ritual's core.
It should just be a tiny pearl hidden somewhere.
Destroy that when it's time, and we'd have the advantage.
Anyhow, I only needed Isabelle to wake up now.
So I waited for a few more hours, and eventually, she woke up.
"Ugh..."
"My head hurts..."
No shit.
"You were frozen in ice for a while. You probably got a brain freeze or something."
"Brain freeze? Pfft... Maybe." Isabelle laid back down.
"If anything, my entire body hurts."
She extended her arm and summoned a frost javelin.
It was much sharper than before, and it even froze the air around it.
After inspecting it thoroughly, Isabelle tossed it at a nearby tree, and yet it didn't stop.
It cut through the trees like tofu and continued after piercing nearly 50 trees.
The only reason it stopped was because it hit a giant boulder.
And even then, that javelin managed to crack the boulder slightly.
"Is this what you meant?" Isabelle mumbled. "If I knew just how cold my frost could get, I could do something like this?"
"That's right. It really is that simple," I responded. "What you did right now was like the first stage. It's a really big jump in power, so I'm sure you won't struggle even a little bit to freeze that tsunami now."
"..."
She just stared at me for a few moments.
It seemed like she wanted to tell me something, but after a few attempts, she gave up and lowered her head.
Instead, two soft words escaped her lips.
"Thank you."
Hah.
The imperial princess actually said thank you.
I didn't even know how to feel.
I was even more satisfied that she wasn't asking questions.
After all, explaining how I knew all of this would've been a pain in the ass.
However, just as it seemed like we had a nice atmosphere going on here, my body stiffened.
I stood up immediately.
"Get up. Reinhardt just entered the sea."
Her eyes widened.
"So suddenly?"
I didn't have to answer her as she stood up as well and nodded at me.
I didn't waste even a single second as I grabbed her and then blasted through the sky, arriving at the city in just a few seconds.
Landing on the beach and setting Isabelle down, I flew toward Melina.
She wore a bikini, and damn.
Since she grew up in the slums, I thought she'd have a few scars or something.
Instead, her whole body was flawless.
I put those thoughts behind me since now wasn't the time.
With her arms crossed, Melina stared at the sea.
But when I approached, she glanced at me instead.
"A bit late, aren't you?"
"I got here as fast as I could."
"Mm... At least you got here at all."
Brushing it off, she glanced past me.
"Did you two sleep together?"
I raised a brow.
"What are you on about?"
"She's glowing."
This perverted...
"No. And be quiet. Don't fill her head with these lewd thoughts of yours," I said sternly.
She just shrugged at me with a smirk.
Finally, Isabelle approached us.
Doesn't look like she heard us either.
Thankfully.
"All ready, then?" Melina dropped the earlier topic.
"I'm ready. You won't have to help me either. I'm confident I can stop the tsunami now," Isabelle replied.
Melina only whistled at her response, and just like that, the three of us waited patiently.
Even though Melina looked relaxed, I could see her hands trembling slightly.
She was overusing her Gift.
I just couldn't see it.
"Hmm..."
"Reinhardt reached the core. How did you say the ritual was supposed to be activated...?"
I hadn't mentioned it.
"It should be some kind of a paper slip. When he places it on the core and it starts to glow, that means the ritual started."
"Aha. I see..." Melina scratched her cheek awkwardly and avoided my gaze.
Her reaction was a little off.
"What's wrong?"
"So... Hypothetically. Let's say Reinhardt just swallowed the ritual's core. In that case... What should we do next?"
"...?"
What did she just say?
He did fucking what?