Pillar of Cold

Nearby, there were icicles everywhere—some only a few centimeters low, others several meters high—standing in this frozen world as chaotically as a stone forest.

"Even if influenced by an ice elemental magic source, it shouldn't produce this many icicles. What exactly is here?"

Aurelian stared at the scene before him, which defied common sense, his mind filled with questions.

"Smash an icicle and see."

Jeanne spoke; she always managed to get straight to the point.

Aurelian frowned and drew the longsword at his side, Innocent Starlight.

The blade was a deep, azure blue, with mysterious, glowing dark blue inscriptions running down its center; the sword shone as brilliantly as starlight itself.

Upon entering this barrier, the stagnant feeling regarding his magic had vanished.

Aurelian could feel the immense power surging from the blade; as long as he channeled his star magic, he could unleash it.

But there was no need; an icicle could never withstand the sharpness of Innocent Starlight!

Aurelian gripped Innocent Starlight with both hands, raised it high above his head, and brought it down in a single slash.

The thick icicle was sliced through like thin paper, shattering into two halves and scattering a large spray of light particles.

"This is!"

His eyes sharpened as he saw clearly what had been sealed inside the ice.

It was a magic beast of the Body Integration rank!

It had been perfectly preserved within the icicle, but now, it and the ice had been cleaved in two by Innocent Starlight.

"This is the corpse of an Icefield Wolf, but why would it be inside an icicle? And what was that white light from before?"

A flood of questions surged into Aurelian's mind, but he found no answers, so he could only look toward Jeanne behind him.

Jeanne merely shook her head, a helpless expression on her face; clearly, she didn't know either.

"We won't find the answer here. Let's head toward the center of the barrier first."

Sheathing Innocent Starlight, Aurelian and Jeanne began to walk forward through the narrow gaps between the icicles.

Along the way, there were icicles of all sizes jutting out of the ground like chaotic swords, their contents obscured from view.

There was no need to guess; they were certainly sealed with magic beasts, but where these beasts came from, Aurelian had no way of knowing.

The Spruce Forest could not produce so many beasts of the Body Integration rank, and the larger icicles surely contained beasts of even higher levels.

"Unless they all came from the dangerous Abif Mountains, but how could they have appeared here?"

As they continued forward, a vague sense of worry surfaced in his heart, and he began to consider whether he should keep going.

"I can sense the life within them fading, being drained," Jeanne suddenly said from behind.

Aurelian immediately turned to look at Jeanne, his face full of confusion.

Sister! You know this too?

"Jeanne, I want to ask you a question."

"My Lord, you ask, I answer."

Aurelian twitched his lips; sometimes Jeanne was incredibly cunning, and other times she was completely dense—it was truly strange.

"How did you know? I didn't feel anything at all."

Aurelian finally voiced the doubt he had been harboring, feeling a sense of relief wash over him.

"Intuition."

Simple and clear—that was Jeanne's style.

"That's it?"

Aurelian tilted his head, unable to believe the answer.

"That is it."

Jeanne nodded, her expression sincere, without a trace of deception.

"Fine, I suppose a woman's intuition is always accurate!"

Regardless of whether what Jeanne said was true, Aurelian gave up on probing further; there was no point.

"Then what you said earlier about the fading of life and the draining—does that mean the icicles are draining the life force of these magic beasts?"

Aurelian suddenly had a bold and terrifying hypothesis.

Jeanne nodded, agreeing with Aurelian's assessment, and said, "Something deep inside here is continuously draining external vitality to sustain itself."

"So it still has to do with the master of the Spruce Forest?"

"I don't know. Magic beasts aren't capable of doing something like this."

Aurelian's expression gradually turned grave. What could they possibly be doing with the life force of so many magic beasts? And since this place wasn't far from his territory, what would happen if the effects spread?

The mere thought of some terrifying entity absorbing such vast amounts of vitality made him hesitate. It wasn't that he was indecisive, but this was truly an extremely risky situation.

His own life would always be the most important thing!

To gamble or not to gamble, that is the question.

If he left now, he might miss out on the Child of Frost, who could be of immense help to him. Without the seeds, he would be unable to grow crops, and his subjects would starve. Forget about further developing his territory or building his own army; he would end up a commander with no troops, potentially losing Winter City itself.

"Let's gamble!"

Aurelian hardened his heart, a resolve as unyielding as steel erupting within him.

"Jeanne, head deeper. Be ready to face danger at any moment."

"Everything is as you command."

They walked for a while without encountering any accidents or dangers, but the icicles on both sides had already reached seven or eight meters in height, each encasing a Source-Gathering level magical beast.

Once a magical beast reaches the Source-Gathering level, it undergoes secondary evolution and growth, typically resulting in a massive physique. This is precisely why humans find it so difficult to deal with magical beasts of the same rank.

Whether in size, strength, or mana capacity, magical beasts are generally several times superior to humans.

Naturally, the higher the level, the greater the gap, leaving humans with no choice but to rely on powerful magitech weapons and sheer numbers to fight back.

This is the primary reason why humanity still exists in this dangerous world.

Because the difficulty of mana cultivation for magical beasts is several times that of humans, the number of high-level humans far outweighs that of the beasts.

Continuing forward, Aurelian noticed the icy path widening on both sides. His field of vision opened up, and the ice layer overhead no longer felt so suffocating.

"Jeanne, it looks like we've reached the end."

"Mm."

Reaching the terminus, Aurelian finally saw everything clearly.

Before the exit lay an open, flat expanse, and in the distance stood a massive tree over twenty meters tall, carved entirely from ice.

Its ice-blue root system was staggeringly vast; so dense and tightly packed that they plunged deep into the ground, with pulses of blue light flowing up through the complex roots to be continuously fed into the main trunk.

Suspended from the highest branch of that ice-sculpted tree was an egg covered in intricate patterns.

That was correct—it was an egg. With his mana-enhanced vision, he could see it quite clearly.

"That is the Ice Elemental Mana Source. Its roots must spread beneath all those icicles, allowing it to constantly absorb the vitality within them, channel it through that massive root system into the trunk, and then feed it to that... egg."

Aurelian paused for a moment.

"But who could have frozen those magical beasts? There are plenty of Source-Gathering level beasts among them."

"My Lord, I suspect those magical beasts must have come from the Abif Mountains. Only there could such a large number of magical beasts exist."

Aurelian and Jeanne stepped closer, wanting to examine the full scope of the ice-sculpted tree.

Suddenly, Jeanne drew the magitech weapon at her side.

The silver-white cross-guard longsword left its sheath, transforming into a flash of light as it flew toward the space above them.

Aurelian lacked such keen combat intuition; before he could even react, he was shoved aside by Jeanne.