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Chapter 190: Hail Before Storm (6)

Stomping through the snowy fields of the Bareth's Tundra Plains, the man by the name of Vincent angrily frowned as he retreated away from the chapel.

"Ugh... You've got to be kidding me," he clicked his tongue. "What was up with that battle? One against ten... I never signed up for that!"

Slightly grumbling as he pushed through the immense amount of snow on the ground, he gripped his blade tightly as he soon cursed. "I can't finish this quest because of their interference! That guy said I was supposed to finish this up smoothly, but this ain't smoothly!"

As if to further continue on with his wrath, the snowstorm began to be much heavier than before.

"Tch... Way to go. The beast is released and..." Somewhat calming down under the storm, Vincent soon was alerted by a raging amount of notifications before him. "...and if I can't do shit against the beast, then whatever... Plan B it is."

[ You have awakened the beast of eternal winter, Bareth! ]

[ For you who have sinned by reawakening The Air of Eternal Winter, Baretha hidden piece has been unlocked. ]

[ The title 'Hail of Winter' has been unlocked. ]

[ Effects has been taken into effect immediately. ]

[ 'Ice Queen's Blade' has been upgraded into a (Unique) rarity sword! ]

"Hah... At least I got something worth it out of this," shaking his head the man tucked away his sword into the inventory whilst soon steadily moving along the paths. "Let the Fal Kingdom people deal with this. I'll just report back to him I guess..."

...

Successfully escaping from the Chapel and moving through the pinewood forest, the group let out tired breaths as they were now safely far away from the abandoned village.

"...phew, that's done," Frey muttered out. "So now that we're far away..."

"Stop," Blake stated as he stopped at his footsteps. In the next moment, he quickly urged the group to stay within the bushes. "Hide over there."

"Ahh...! The beast is here! The beast is here!" With voices echoing through the fields, the group all cautiously turned towards the direction of it, quickly noting that a few figures that appeared to be mages were hurrying through the fields. "We must hurry! Otherwise, we're doomed! Doomed!"

"Huh. So Blake was right!" Frey stated in an amazed tone. "People from Fal is coming here!"

"Shh. Do you want to alert them that we're here?!" Ethaniel hushed Frey. "I don't want to get caught up in a mess such as some stupid misunderstanding!"

"Ahaha... My bad!" Frey muttered out.

"Hmm..." Shinto raised his brow at the sight whilst counting the headcount of the mages. "There's so few of them? With a beast that caused eternal winter such as this, I expected they'd be more people to handle the case..."

"True... Just a few mages like them to try to seal against Bareth?" Crowelin raised her brow in turn. "Even if they were elites... I doubt that they'd pull off handling Bareth with ease, so what gives?"

"Perhaps they're short on manpower..." Hikari gave her verdict. "With the Ice Queen's Blade taken, I'm pretty sure Fal would be in an uproar and well... With news of the awakening of Bareth, Fal won't have it easy to maintain public order."

"Even so... if this was an actual huge crisis, Fal would have no choice but to deploy all their people who can combat against Bareth to keep it at bay, right?" Raina thought to herself. "So... To go and only send a handful of mages to rush towards Bareth, isn't that just practically suicide?"

It was the most reasonable thing to do by the thought of sending every man possible to Bareth. Keeping a kingdom in order was one thing, however, when one disaster becomes an extreme threat, the priority shifts.

"It is not as simple as that," Blake calmly closed his eyes. "The last I remembered of Fal, it was a pretty enclosed country with only its arts of magic that they take pride in. For them to handle Bareth, the mages have to be those much higher than elites."

"So... These are those sages I've heard so much about?" Shinto raised his brow. "Well... I guess it's understandable why they're so fewbut, would it even be possible to handle Bareth with such numbers?"

"If you mean to defeat him, no, it is not possible," Blake helplessly shook his head. "But, to keep him at bay is what they'll try to do. Without the Ice Queen's Blade, they can't seal him. Likewise... The vessel used to awaken him is with us."

"Eh?!" Frey cried out. "You're saying Fal is in extreme danger?!"

"Goddamnit Frey! They're still here!" Ethaniel clicked his tongue as he forced Frey to hide within the bushes, which the group soon followed after.

"...hey, I heard something from over here," one of the mages stated. "I think the Twilight Race is emerging now..."

"Ugh... Ignore them! We've got anti-spell protection from Viole, so we no longer need the fighter's help anymore. Thus, instead of worrying about them like you always do, get a move on!" The other mage replied. "Do you want all of us to die!?"

"N-No not at all sir..." The mage coughed. "I'll follow behind right away."

"You better!" he clicked his tongue as he mumbled out. "For someone who recently got into our ranks, you sure can be quite a handful..."

"Sigh..." The mage sighed as he soon continued on through the snow.

Noting that the few mages had gone on ahead, the group uttered out with a sigh of relief. "...phew. That's over with," Ethaniel stated. "Can you control your damn voice next time?"

"S-Sorry..." Frey muttered out. "I didn't think they would've been able to hear me from that distance..."

"Ugh... When I said to quiet down, I mean it!"Ethaniel frowned.

"Well you're not quiet yourself," Reru clicked his tongue.

"Hah?! What was that you fake?! This entire time you were able to speak Arcos and you decided to play the 'You can't understand my language without some stupid item' game?!" he gritted his teeth. "You could have done us a thing or two by speaking Arcos at the very damn start!"

"...shit. I mean, gloop, gloop?" Reru muttered out as he turned to Rustly in anger whilst speaking in Gloop. "Curse you Rustly! Because of you, I ended up exposing myself!"

"Ack... Why am I dragged in this...?" Rustly muttered out. "Besides... You already exposed yourself at the chapel..."

"and you! Freaking small slime! You also can speak Arcos and you decided not to until today!?" he continued to angrily cry out.

"...um, um..." Rustly stated. "Y-You never asked?"

"The hell's that kind of excuse?!"

"...cough, you guys..." Shinto sighed. "What was it about keeping quiet again?"

"Aha... The pressing dangers should be all over," Hikari chuckled. "So now... All we have to do is just to exit out of the plains and then..." moments after, she soon glared at Hikari. "You'll definitely explain everything, yes?"

"You better keep your promise," Crowelin frowned.

"...wait, you're following us to wherever we're going?" Shinto questioned. "I was thinking I'd explain it all on discord and"

"No discord. I can't tell whether you're purposely omitting stuff if you message," she pouted. "Tell us in person. Besides, it's not like we've got better things to do. I mean, the main purpose for us to be here in the first place was to finish up a quest, but with this whole Bareth scenario, it should just be delayed."

"Hah... There's no getting past you, huh?" shaking his head helplessly, he stood up from the ground. "Explanations might take a while since we need to be alone... So, when we get back to the catacombs, we can freely talk there. Now's not the time."

"Catacombs?" Hikari blinked. "There are catacombs here?"

"You'll see," nodding his head as he turned towards the heated discussion between Ethaniel and the slimes, he called out to them. "Aren't you guys cold? why are you even arguing amidst the winter?"

"Hah... These guys aren't even giving me a proper explanation!" Ethaniel clicked his tongue. "What's so hard about saying 'I can speak Arcos'?!"

"There, there..." Shinto awkwardly patted on the cold jacket that Ethaniel was wearing. "You can scream all you want when we get back. For now... Can we continue on going back to the caverns?"

"Ah! The caverns! Warmth!" Frey felt delighted. "How long more?"

"It shouldn't be that long," he stated. "We've already gone past the ruins and..." As he continued on with his sentence, a sudden thought came to him. "Hey, Rustly... You don't need to do anything else to be able to get back to the catacombs, right?

"N-Nope! I got enough from being in that cocoon... So let's be on our merry way!" he laughed awkwardly.

"...something tells me that this guy has also been lying about the fact that he needed to find a crystal in the first place to head back," Ethaniel furrowed his brow. "These goddamn slimes..."

"Just let it go, Ethan... It's already in the past," Raina helplessly shook her head. "All that matters is that..." Upon wanting to wrap up her words, a sudden notification soon popped up in front of the group.

[ Bareth, The Air of Eternal Winter has awakened! ]