Extreme Ice Cold

This was a desolate snowfield.

Endless glaciers and year-round wind and snow had built this white world.

At the end of Leiya's line of sight stood an ice-crystal peak shrouded in storms.

The hideous wound at her neck was still bleeding, hot and fierce. Even temperatures dozens of degrees below zero could not cool the gushing blood.

Nor could they cool Leiya's body.

She was still wearing the light armor she had worn in battle, leaving many parts of her body exposed to the air.

Yet neither the wound on her neck nor the biting cold wind had any effect on Leiya.

She merely stared at the ice-crystal mountain range surrounded by storms, only a corner of its summit visible, and walked toward it with unwavering determination.

In the world where the Kate Warrior Camp had once existed, this icefield had been a terrifying forbidden land.

Apart from a few icefield creatures, no one could live on it.

The temperature here had never risen above minus twenty degrees. The violent cold wind blew from the beginning of the year to its end, rarely ever stopping.

Even some Kate Warriors who had awakened ice-element bloodline abilities found it difficult to remain active on this icefield for long.

Thus, even after Queen Christina led the Orenza Empire in unifying the entire continent, she had been unable to bring this icefield into the empire's territory before her death.

If the icefield had been ownerless, no one would have cared whether it was unified. After all, its environment was harsh, its resources limited, and its value insignificant.

But the special thing about this icefield was that it had an owner.

Or rather, it was because of that being's existence that this icefield had come into being.

Unlike the Northern Plains, this icefield covered nearly