If Loa had been there, he would have recognized her. She looked exactly like Ivy, the mother who had given him the surname Christopher!
She was as tall as a giant, too!
That was why Caro had spotted her at a glance and hurried over to bow before her.
She turned to look at Caro, who lay face down on the ground. Her face was expressionless, devoid even of feeling. The chill that froze the heart came from no mysterious power, only from her icy gaze.
After a long while, as though she had confirmed something, she parted her lips. Her voice seemed to descend from the highest heavens, vast and thunderous. "Open the gate!"
Drawn in by the mysterious bond of their blood, Caro's eyes glazed over. He rose from the snow and bowed respectfully. "As you command, my king!"
Then the giant Ivy swept out a hand and transformed into an enormous ice-blue dragon, crushing the village beneath one foot. Flying stones struck Caro's face as he walked ahead, but he continued as though he felt nothing.
Before long, Caro and the dragon reached the spot where he had first appeared. The point connecting this world to the outside was always changing, so every visit began in a different place. For half an hour after entering, however, a visitor could use a Rune mark to return the way they had come. It was their only chance to leave.
The mark on Caro's hand glowed red. The space ahead twisted, rippling like water and mist. The faint outline of a gate appeared within it.
At the sight of those long-missed stone slabs and walls, she could almost smell the fragrance of the plants beyond them! Even on a body that acted only on instinct and knew no emotion, an