The vast, white snow stretched into infinity.
The gale was a whetted blade, slicing through the air and severing the very breath from one's lungs. Seven silhouettes stood atop the mountain ridge like mortals who had strayed into a forbidden realm. Before them loomed two monoliths forged from ice-blue crystals; behind and around them, the snow-white wolf pack silently closed the net.
Between heaven and earth, only the intertwining threads of killing intent and primordial cold remained.
Gareth let out a violent sneeze, followed by two more in quick succession. He rubbed his nose irritably. "These two things... the magic radiating off them is thick enough to choke on."
Gerald's gaze was heavy and focused. His voice was low but decisive. "Those two—they are magical constructs." He took a slow step forward, his aura beginning to bleed into the air. "And they are not of any ordinary grade."
A brief pause followed as he swiftly issued his commands.
"I will pin down one."
"Gareth—guard Thea and keep those wolves in your sights."
"The rest of you—" He turned his head, his gaze revealing a razor-sharp edge. "Combine your strength and suppress the other one!"
Rhine narrowed his eyes, locking his vision onto the towering figures. "Don't be careless," he muttered. "This pressure... it's heavier than any magical beast we've ever encountered."
Gerald let out a faint snort, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold, defiant smirk. "Rest assured. If even I cannot hold them..." His eyes darkened suddenly. "Then don't try to be heroes. Retreat immediately."
Owen had already hoisted his massive warhammer onto his shoulder, letting out a boisterous laugh. "They're just crystal! We smash 'em, and we're done!"
Gareth, however, furrowed his brow, his knuckles whitening as he drew his bowstring taut. "That's the trouble... things like this? They don't 'eat' arrows."
Lunethia spoke softly, her voice gentle yet crystalline. "The 'terrifying presences' Mr. Rabbit spoke of... it's them." She looked across the group. "Everyone, please be careful."
Lena raised her spear, a smile on her lips but a piercing sharpness in her eyes. "Don't panic. They're just golems. As long as the wolves don't break our formation, we can take them apart."
Milia clutched her daggers, her voice trembling slightly. "But I feel like... I won't even be able to leave a scratch..."
Before her words could even land—the two monoliths moved.
There was no warning. No shifting of weight or buildup of momentum. One of them simply stepped out across the snow.
BOOM—!
As its foot fell, the snow crust buckled and collapsed. Its massive silhouette bore down upon them like a moving mountain.
"Come then!"
Gerald let out a sharp cry, his figure erupting forward to meet the challenge head-on. His fist shot out—fast and heavy as a thunderclap.
BOOM!!!
Yet, in that exact microsecond, the monolith mirrored the movement. Its counter-strike didn't feel like a "reaction"; it felt like a pre-calculated response, an answer settled long before the question was asked.
The collision of fists was absolute.
CRACK—!!!
A shockwave detonated between them. The accumulated snow was blasted upward, forming a circular white tidal wave that surged outward in every direction. It was as if an avalanche had been triggered on the spot.
To the group's horror, Gerald's silhouette was forcibly hurled backward. Suspended in mid-air, his voice rang out, gravelly and strained.
"Disaster—! Its raw strength... it surpasses my own!"
The pupils of those watching contracted in shock. Before they could even process the words, Owen was already charging forward with a guttural roar. His massive warhammer was hoisted high, carrying the momentum of a falling meteor as it tore through the air.
"SHATTER FOR ME—!!!"
But the second monolith didn't flinch. It shifted laterally with haunting efficiency—no wasted motion, no hesitation. It simply reached out.
Clang.
An oversized crystalline palm snapped shut around the head of the hammer. It caught the killing blow as easily as one might catch a falling leaf.
Owen froze for a heartbeat, his confusion rapidly turning into a surge of white-hot fury. His muscles bulged, veins snaking across his arms as he threw his entire weight into the strike.
"You want to match strength with me!?" he bellowed. "THEN BRING IT—!!!"
He roared, putting every ounce of his explosive power into a downward press. The snow beneath his boots cracked. Yet, the hammer did not budge. Instead, it began to rise—inch by agonizing inch—lifted by that silent, crystalline hand.
It was as if his entire existence was being systematically suppressed. For the first time, Owen's bravado fractured. "...What kind of monstrous strength is this!?"
Rhine didn't wait. He struck his flint—Shink!
Flames erupted, instantly coiling around his blade like a living serpent. He lunged across the snow, his step shattering the frozen ground as he cleaved through the air like a streak of wildfire.
"BREAK—!!!"
The flaming blade swept in a horizontal arc, aiming straight for the golem's waist.
CLANG—!!!
The sound was like a great temple bell being struck. The moment the flaming sword landed, it felt as though it had hit enchanted adamantine. Sparks showered the snow, but the crystalline torso bore nothing more than a laughably shallow white scratch.
Rhine's heart skipped a beat. Something is wrong!
Almost simultaneously, the golem's other palm flared open. Within its center, ice crystals began to rotate with violent velocity, spiraling and condensing. In a fraction of a second, a jagged, armor-piercing ice lance materialized.
"RETREAT—!!!" Rhine barked.
His reflexes were peak; his blade snapped back in an instant to form a guard before his chest.
In the next heartbeat—
THOOM—!!!
The ice lance detonated outward. Like a cannonball fired point-blank, it slammed into the flat of his blade.
Flame and frost collided in a violent detonation of splintering shards. The ice lance was scorched and disintegrated—yet the kinetic force behind it remained undiminished.
BOOM!
Rhine was hurled backward by the sheer atmospheric displacement.
"Rhine!" Lena reacted with predatory speed, lunging forward to catch him. She skidded several paces across the frozen crust before finally anchoring them both.
Rhine coughed up a spray of crimson, his breathing erratic, but he forced the words out through gritted teeth. "Watch its hands—! The palms can discharge ice lances... the impact is massive! Do not let it lock onto you!"
Before his warning could even settle, Gerald had already carved his way back into the fray. He flanked the monolith with seamless precision, his movements a blur of disciplined violence.
A kick! A punch! An elbow strike!
A torrential barrage of strikes rained down, every blow precisely calibrated to hit the exact same structural point.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
It wasn't until the fifth consecutive impact that the golem finally gave a slight, shuddering tilt. That was all.
Gerald's pupils contracted, his jaw set in a hard line. "This body... it's as unyielding as a mountain root!" He suppressed his ragged breathing, his voice low and strained. "I've poured so much force into it just to make it yield a single step. There isn't even a crack!"
On the opposite flank, a shadow flickered into existence. Milia.
She appeared almost telepathically within the golem's blind spot. Her daggers spun like silver lightning in her grip, cold light flashing in a staccato rhythm. A dozen silver arcs sliced toward the vulnerable joints.
CLINK-CLINK-CLINK—!
The sound was a high-pitched melody, like hammers tapping on fine jade. She disengaged instantly, her silhouette retreating into the mist.
She looked back. No mark. No fissure. Not even a faint scratch graced the crystalline surface. Milia's face drained of color, cold sweat beading on her brow. "...Impossible."
Elsewhere, Owen let out a guttural roar. He delivered a brutal kick to the golem before him, forcibly wrenching his suppressed warhammer back into his grasp. Borrowing the momentum of the recoil, he spun, channeling every ounce of his biological limit into his arms.
"SHATTER... DAMN YOU!!!"
The hammer swept in a devastating horizontal arc, slamming directly into the golem's lateral chest.
KR-DOOM—!!!
This strike, finally, achieved a tangible result. The monolith was jolted back two full steps, the snow crust beneath its feet splintering into a web of cracks. Owen landed, his chest heaving with exertion.
Yet, for the first time, his gaze grew grim. "...Something's wrong," he muttered. He looked up, staring at the unscathed colossus. "This thing... it's no simple golem. It's a titan."
In the distance, Gareth had already nocked another shaft. This time, the arrowhead was wrapped in volatile alchemy. "Try this on for size—!"
Whiz!
The arrow tore through the wind, embedding itself precisely into the golem's shoulder joint. In the next heartbeat—
KABOOM!!!
An explosion detonated! Fire and acrid smoke instantly swallowed the area.
All eyes were anchored to the same spot as the smoke began to drift away.
The monolith still stood there. Unmoving. Unfazed. There were no fissures, no structural compromises—not even a dulling of its crystalline luster.
Gareth spat on the snow, his teeth gritted tight. "Boss... is that a magical barrier? Maybe you should try scorching it again?"
Gerald slowly shook his head, his gaze heavy and analytical. "It's not a barrier," he murmured, his voice barely audible over the howling gale. "It's the material itself."
He kept his eyes locked on the two colossi. "They are... inherently indestructible. If they weren't—" He glanced toward Rhine. "The heat from your flaming blade earlier would have molten them into a puddle by now."
The wind shrieked. At that moment, a chilling realization finally settled over the group. Their attacks weren't just "ineffective." They were, for all intents and purposes, nullified.
Before a word could be exchanged, both crystalline monoliths raised their arms in unison. Their palms swiveled, locking onto the group like twin turrets.
The air around them seemed to seize. Rhine's pupils contracted, and he let out a primal, instinctive roar:
"SCATTER—!!!"
In the next heartbeat, four palms thundered!
Ice crystals condensed within their centers with violent, spiraling velocity, compressing until they reached critical mass.
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH—!!!
A relentless deluge of ice lances erupted, pouring forth like a horizontal blizzard. This wasn't an attack—it was total saturation. The entire mountain ridge was being systematically carpet-bombed.
Rhine didn't hesitate. He threw himself in front of Lena and Lunethia. His flint struck—SHINK!
BOOM!
A wall of inferno surged upward! He swept his blade in a desperate arc, the flames roaring into a blazing rampart. Frost and fire collided head-on.
CRACKLE—!!!
The ice lances shattered and melted within the heat, yet their sheer kinetic force continued to hammer against the fire wall. The flickering barrier shuddered violently, on the verge of total collapse.
On the other flank, Owen bellowed, bracing his massive warhammer across his chest. "COME ON THEN—!!!"
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Ice shards detonated against the hammerhead and his bracers, sending sparks flying and forcing him backward. His boots plowed two deep, jagged furrows into the frozen earth.
Milia, Gareth, and Gerald became a blur of jagged afterimages—dodging, leaping, and twisting through the gaps in the icy rain. Every near-miss was a dance with death.
The storm eventually subsided.
Snow-dust drifted lazily back to the earth. The group regrouped, their breaths visible in the freezing air.
No one spoke.
The air grew colder than before, but the chill was internal.
They finally understood the three absolute truths of this engagement:
They could not break the enemy.They could not block the enemy.The enemy only needed to land a single hit to end them.
Had it not been for the monoliths' measured, deliberate movements, the group would already be entombed beneath the silent snow. Rhine gnashed his teeth, his voice a ragged growl.
"Old man—where is your backup plan!?"
Gerald remained silent for a heartbeat before offering a wry, self-deprecating smirk. "I have one," he murmured, his tone growing heavy as he surveyed the terrain. "But it requires luring them to the cliff's edge. Looking at the situation now... it's not exactly realistic."
He let out a short, weary sigh. "Perhaps we should consider a retreat."
"Retreat!?" Gareth whipped his head around, gesturing frantically at the encroaching wolf pack. His voice was taut with panic. "Look at those things! The moment we move, they swarm! If the golems give chase while we're surrounded, we won't even have a prayer of escaping!"
"Gerald!" Lena barked, cutting him off with sharp irritation. "Stop dancing around it! Your 'backup plan'—what is it, exactly!?"
Gerald scratched his head, his smile turning uncharacteristically awkward. "Well, you see... I buried a massive cache of explosives beneath the shelter."
The air went dead silent.
"...You said what?" Gareth's face froze in a mask of pure disbelief.
Gerald spread his hands innocently. "Once detonated, this entire section of the cliff will collapse. Anything that can't fly... is going down with it."
"Are you insane!?" Gareth's voice cracked. "You mean to tell us we've been sleeping on a mountain of gunpowder all these days!?"
"That's precisely why I didn't mention it," Gerald replied with a straight face.
"..."
The veins in Rhine's forehead throbbed with suppressed fury. "And how do we trigger it!?"
"Underneath that large boulder by the rope ladder... there's a fuse cord. Move the stone, light the cord, and that's it."
Lena looked ready to detonate herself. "So you're saying... if that previous patrol had found that cord, you would have sent all of us to the heavens together!?"
Gerald's expression became even more guileless. "But look—we're still breathing, aren't we?"
"You old bastard—!!!" Rhine cursed under his breath.
But in the next instant, he forced his rage down, his gaze turning icy and tactical. "Now is not the time for this! Find a way to lure them over there! The rest of you—prepare to break through!"
In that desperate moment, a voice cut through the gale.
"I can do it."
The group froze. Lunethia stepped forward, her gaze calm but anchored by an immovable resolve. "Their target... was always me from the start." In her arms, the white rabbit scrambled frantically, its head shaking in a silent, desperate protest.
"No." Gerald rejected the idea instantly, his refusal leaving no room for negotiation. His expression was uncharacteristically grim. "Once those explosives are triggered... no one, except perhaps myself, can guarantee their survival. I am the only one who can go."
Rhine narrowed his eyes, his voice cutting like a shard of ice. "Do you think you can fly, old man? If that cliff goes, you're going down with it."
The atmosphere tightened to a snapping point. But before a consensus could be reached, the two monoliths raised their crystalline palms once more. Inside their centers, the frost began to swirl and condense with lethal intent.
The group's faces drained of color. "Here it comes again—!"
"Rhine—!" Gerald roared over the din of the battlefield, his voice piercing through the chaos. "Do you still remember the 'Flying Squirrel'!?"
Rhine hacked away a reaching crystalline limb, his face turning an unhealthy shade of green. "Don't tell me... you're actually thinking of using that now!? You've tried it a dozen times and crashed like a dying dog every single time!"
"Is there any other choice!?" Gerald barked back.
A heartbeat of heavy silence followed.
"I will be the one to trigger the blast," Lunethia spoke again. Standing amidst the swirling snow, her voice wasn't loud, but it possessed a terrifying clarity. "All of this... began because of me. It should end with me as well."
"I REFUSE!"
Rhine practically snarled the words, his tone absolute. "If you die... everything we've done, every mile we've marched, will have been for nothing!"
"But—"
"There is no 'but'!" Rhine cut her off savagely.
BOOM!!
Owen delivered a brutal kick, sending a white wolf tumbling through the drifts. He groaned under the crushing weight of the monolith's pressure, shouting through gritted teeth, "Then stop the damn talking! Charge the wolf pack—! Maybe we can still carve a path out of here!"
Rhine bit his lip, a fierce, desperate light igniting in his eyes. "...So be it!" He spun around, his command echoing across the ridge. "EVERYONE—GROUP UP! WE BREAK OUT DOWNHILL!!!"
"Copy that!" Gareth pivoted mid-motion. His bowstring hummed—THWIP!! The arrow tore through the wind, skewering a white wolf and pinning it to the frozen earth.
In the next heartbeat, the scent of iron and blood saturated the air. The entire wolf pack—
Frenzy.
"AWOOOO—!!!"
The howls rose like a tidal wave. Countless white shadows erupted from the frozen forest, surging toward the group like a lethal flood.
"Dammit—!" Rhine cleaved through a lunging wolf, his flames detonating upon impact. "There are too many of them! We can't break through—!"
The wolves were layered thick as armor, completely sealing every path of escape.
"Behind you—watch your six!"
But the warning came too late. Gerald had just spun around, punching a wolf out of the air—
CRASH!!!
One of the crystalline monoliths slammed into him from his rear flank. The sheer mass of the impact sent him hurtling through the air.
THUD—!!!
He smashed violently into an ancient tree. The massive trunk shuddered, sending a rain of frozen needles and snow cascading down like a funeral shroud.
"GERALD!!!"
Gareth's hand moved with reflexive lethality. Whiz!! The arrow flew true, skewering a wolf mid-leap just as it lunged for the downed veteran. "Are you still with us!?"
Gerald struggled to his feet, a streak of crimson staining the corner of his mouth, yet he managed a defiant grin. "Can't kill me that easily—! It's just these beasts... they're getting on my damn nerves!"
"SON OF A—!!!" Rhine roared, his flames erupting with renewed violence. He swung his blade at the encroaching colossus with everything he had left. "I refuse to believe... that anything in this world is truly invincible!!!"
BOOM—!!!
The flaming arc struck home with devastating force—yet once again, it yielded nothing but sparks and frustration.
Lena swept her spear in a wide circle, knocking back a cluster of white shadows, her voice urgent. "Thea! Can't you make them back off!? Even a little—just give us an opening!"
Lunethia bit her lip hard, fine beads of sweat forming on her brow. "I've tried..." Her voice wavered, sinking low. "They... they refuse. They won't listen to me anymore."
"Then we give them a lesson they won't forget!" Rhine snarled through gritted teeth. "If they won't clear out, I'll roast every last one of them! Milia—WATCH OUT!!!"
Gareth suddenly bellowed. He didn't even have time to draw his bow. He ripped a dagger from his belt and hurled it in a blur of steel.
Swish!
The blade grazed the tips of Milia's hair. Thwack! It buried itself deep into the shoulder of a wolf that had been inches from her back. Milia spun around, her breath hitching in her throat.
"Stay close to me!" Gareth roared. "Your stealth is useless against these things!"
Amidst the spiraling chaos—Lunethia suddenly turned around.
There was no hesitation. No looking back.
Lunethia gritted her teeth and lunged in the opposite direction, sprinting toward the highest point of the ridge—straight toward the summit of Starfall Cliff!
"CRAP—THEA!!!" Lena's frantic scream tore through the swirling blizzard.
"THAT IDIOT—!!!" Rhine roared, his foot slamming into the frozen earth. CRACK! He kicked a lunging wolf aside, his body blurring into a streak of desperate speed as he gave chase.
"She's heading for the peak!" Owen bellowed, using a massive swing of his hammer to repel an encroaching monolith.
Gerald staggered to stabilize himself. His face was ghostly pale, his breathing heavy and jagged. "This is bad..." he rasped, his voice low and gravelly. "I... I can't hold out much longer. We can't drag this out—it has to end. Now!"
As if in response to his words, the two crystalline monoliths froze simultaneously. Then, they pivoted in perfect unison. Their target was singular.
Lunethia.
In the next heartbeat—BOOM! BOOM! Two colossal shadows thundered across the snow, charging toward the summit.
Atop the peak, the wind was a whetted blade.
Lunethia stumbled, crashing against the massive boulder that concealed the fuse. She shoved against the stone with everything she had. "Move...! DAMMIT, MOVE—!!!"
But the monolith of rock remained utterly motionless.
"HELL—!" A silhouette tore through the gale.
Rhine! He lunged forward, seizing her wrist and wrenching her back. "Are you insane!? Did you not hear a word we said!?" he screamed over the wind. "If you trigger the blast—you'll die with it!!!"
"LET ME GO—!!!" Lunethia struggled violently, tears surging in her eyes, yet her resolve didn't flicker for a second. "Just GO! All of this—I brought this upon us! Then it's up to me to end it!!!"
"STOP TALKING NONSENSE!!!" Rhine's roar was nearly shredded by the storm. "If you die, everything we've bled for up to this point—it all becomes meaningless!!!"
He stared into her eyes, his voice dropping an octave, turning deeper and more somber. "And besides... I am never letting you die."
CRASH—!!!
Before the words could even settle, a terrifying force descended. Rhine didn't even have time to turn his head before he was struck by a colossal crystalline fist.
THUD—!!!
His body was catapulted backward, slamming violently into the giant boulder. A spray of crimson splattered against the grey stone.
"RHINE—!!!"
Lunethia's scream was a jagged shard of glass. She lunged toward his fallen form, her fingers outstretched in a desperate reach—but she was a heartbeat too slow.
A colossal, frigid hand swept in from the flank.
SNAP!
The crystalline fingers clamped around her arm like a shackle of permafrost. With mechanical indifference, the monolith hoisted her high into the air. Her body dangled, struggling feebly against the crushing grip.
Those glowing crimson eyes were now inches away. Cold. Remorseless. Like a pair of silent judges delivering a final sentence.
"RHINE! THEA—!!!"
In the distance, Lena let out a feral roar, charging toward the summit. But in the next instant, her path was violently severed.
"AWOOOO—!!!"
The white shadows of the wolf pack surged, layering themselves into a literal wall of fur and fangs. They were a living barricade, cutting the group off from the peak entirely. Tearing, lunging, locking down every possible inch of ground.
"GET BACK—!!!" Lena's spear swept in a desperate arc, but she remained pinned, unable to breach the howling tide.
On the other side of the fray, Gerald staggered forward a single, trembling step. His vision began to blur, the edges of the world fraying into grey.
"It's no use..." he rasped, his voice a ghost of its former self. "Time... there's not enough time left..."
Owen caught him by the shoulder to keep him upright, his teeth bared in a snarl. "What if—what if I just throw you over there!?"
"Are you insane!?" Gareth bellowed over the chaos. "Even if he gets there, how is one man supposed to stop two of those monsters alone!?"
Milia stood frozen, a rare flash of genuine panic flickering in her eyes. "Then... what do we do...? How do we...?"
The mountain winds shrieked. Sharp as daggers. The fires of war surged. Heavy as the tide.
Atop the summit—one lay broken on the earth; the other was held captive in a fist of ice. Below the peak—the group was ensnared, the wolves had sealed the way, and the monoliths held absolute dominion.
Time was hemorrhaging, second by agonizing second. It felt as if an invisible fuse had already been struck—a slow, inexorable burn creeping toward a point of no return.