IRM Chapter 114

Ji Chi and Reize didn’t take long to successfully arrive before the fortress.

Along the way they hadn’t encountered a single berserk beast. The weather was clear, the visibility was wide open, and everything was so peaceful it was like the calm before a storm.

The fortress was an ice wall that stood a hundred meters tall and stretched for thousands of miles. It was like a divine miracle, standing between the snowy mountains and the snow plains.

Ji Chi reached out and touched the ice wall. He didn’t know how it had been formed, but its hardness was hundreds of times greater than ordinary ice blocks—even harder than the hardest iron ore in the desert.

However, the surface of the ice wall wasn’t smooth. Under the day-and-night erosion of wind and snow, the smooth ice surface had also become uneven.

“The wear on the opposite side of the ice wall must be even more severe, which is why the berserk beasts are getting out more and more easily,” Reize also touched the ice wall, but his cold resistance wasn’t as high as Ji Chi’s, and his fingertips quickly turned red upon touching the ice surface.

Reize rapidly drew back his fingers and said to Ji Chi, “I’ll fly you up. The wind on the snowy mountains is strong, so we’d better not get too far apart.”

Ji Chi nodded.

Back then, in order to purify the villagers of Bien Village, Reize had personally severed the wings that belonged to angels. He had thought he would never need to use them again, but ultimately discovered that having an extra pair of wings was still somewhat convenient.

He sighed inwardly, then chanted softly under his breath. Before long, a magnificent light wing suddenly unfurled behind him. The wings formed of light magic power scattered points of rainbow light, reflecting the ice wall before them with flowing, overflowing colors.

Reize stepped forward and grasped Ji Chi’s wrist. Noticing his small gesture of glancing at the wings, he smiled and said, “Don’t worry. Although they’re not real wings, controlling them shouldn’t be a problem.”

Under Reize’s control, the magic wings flexibly flapped, effortlessly carrying the two of them toward the sky.

Ji Chi looked back toward the direction of the snow plains. In the vast, open snowy expanse, a line of expeditionary soldiers silently yet firmly stood guard there, like a second solid fortress.

The closer they got to the top of the ice wall, the lower the temperature became, and the hurricane grew stronger and stronger. Reize frowned. He could feel the enormous resistance coming from the wings, as if the snowy mountains were resisting all outsiders, roaring at them in fury!

Reize gritted his teeth and charged toward the high sky in one burst of effort. Just as they were about to reach the outside of the fortress—

“Crack!” The moment they crossed over the ice wall, the light wings on Reize’s back suddenly disappeared, not leaving even a single particle of light behind, abandoning the two of them in mid-air.

Reize felt his body falling and still had time to feel the position of the light wings on his back to make a judgment. “It’s a problem with magic power. As expected, I can no longer sense the existence of elements.”

Ji Chi relaxed and spread his arms in free fall, also very calm, “Can’t sense the elements? Then this place is quite unfriendly to mages…”

Reize glanced at him. “Why do I detect a hint of happiness in your tone?”

Ji Chi smiled innocently. “Not at all. How could I mock mages?”

They were getting closer and closer to the ground. Just as they were about to crash onto a rock outside the snow layer—

“Ice Demon Dragon.” With a flash of blood light, an Ice Demon Dragon with massive bone wings suddenly appeared beside Ji Chi. It turned its vigorous, slender body sideways and lightly caught Ji Chi, who was falling through the air, onto its spine, smoothly carrying him down to the ground.

Meanwhile, Reize calmly and unhurriedly spread his arms. A white wing membrane connected his wrists to his sides. The wing membrane made of tough material offset the downward momentum, allowing him to glide in the hurricane.

The two landed at the same time. Reize retracted the wing membrane back into his outer coat and looked appreciatively at Ji Chi sitting on the Ice Demon Dragon. “Your summoning technique is really impressive! It looks like we really can come back quickly this time.”

The second after he finished speaking, the massive, beautiful Ice Demon Dragon silently let out a long howl toward the sky, and its crystalline, translucent body instantly shattered, scattering into blocks of blood ice on the snow-white ground.

Ji Chi jumped down into the congealed blood all over the ground, his brow slightly furrowed. “I thought that by summoning creatures from the Northland, they could survive in the ice and snow… It seems that’s not the case. After all, they’re formed from my blood, and my blood cannot withstand the cold outside the fortress.”

He removed his glove, exposing his skin to the even more bitter wind. A patch of white frost immediately condensed on his skin, freezing away two points of his life value.

Ji Chi withdrew his hand and turned his head to say to Reize, “The summoned creatures exist for much shorter than I expected. I don’t know how long we’ll have to stay here, so I can’t rely too heavily on summoning techniques… It looks like we’ll still have to rely on ourselves to walk up.”

He raised his head to gaze at the highest peak of the cloud-wrapped snowy mountains. Although they hadn’t discussed it beforehand, everyone had a strong premonition in their hearts that they would definitely find what they wanted there.

Reize was somewhat disappointed upon hearing this, but there was nothing to be done about it. He quickly rallied his spirits. “It’s fine. We still need to face the berserk beasts anyway. Your blood can’t be wasted on traveling. We’ll just go up along a sheltered route.”

He wrapped his thick clothes tightly around himself and took the lead in exploring the path ahead, muttering softly under his breath, “Magic can’t be used, summoning techniques can’t be used either… This place is really strange. Is it cursed? No wonder those angels all went and never returned—”

He closed his mouth as he spoke, because his parents were also two mages. When they came here, they must have been desperate and terrified…

Ji Chi followed Reize, who had fallen silent, walking forward. He also heard those mutterings and lowered his head, grinding the hard snowy ground with the tip of his foot.

A curse? To him, this seemed more like a kind of suppression, and the power that could affect him would only come from the Beast God. But he knew that the Beast God was now dead, so were these residual powers emanating from His corpse?

Reize chose a deep valley that extended to the top of the snowy mountain. The path in the valley would be much more rugged than the mountain ridge. Although traveling was somewhat more difficult, being able to avoid the cold wind and snowstorms was enough for them to choose it without hesitation.

The weather outside the fortress was even more extreme than on the snow plains, and snowstorms came without any warning whatsoever.

Fortunately, Ji Chi never forgot to stuff the [Forge House] into his backpack when going on long trips. Although having a building suddenly appear in the wilderness was somewhat strange, there were only him and Reize here, so he wasn’t afraid of attracting trouble and onlookers.

The snowstorm suddenly blew up again. This time Ji Chi reacted very quickly, casually tossing down the small house and pulling Reize inside to hide. Their movements to avoid danger had become much more practiced, and this time they finally weren’t cut with blood all over their faces by the flying snowflakes.

Reize collapsed on the clean floor of the small house, gasping for breath, and complained, “We’re still walking through the valley, yet the snowstorm blowing in is this terrifying. Won’t it be even more deadly when we get close to the mountain peak? Oh, right, we haven’t encountered any berserk beasts yet—”

Just as he finished speaking, the deafening roar of wild beasts came from outside the small house! The roaring grew closer and closer, as if heading straight toward the direction of the small house.

Ji Chi looked at him quietly, his little glance clearly written all over with “you jinx.”

Reize rubbed his head and chuckled. “They’re just coming to avoid the snowstorm. Once the wind and snow stop, they’ll leave… right?”

Listen to how uncertain your own tone is! Ji Chi didn’t even want to criticize him anymore.

This snowstorm didn’t last long, but the two of them still obediently stayed inside the house, staring at each other—

Because Reize’s jinx had come true once again. The berserk beasts outside the house had no intention of leaving at all and were even pouncing around on snow piles and rocks everywhere, as if they had caught the scent of living beings.

Ji Chi listened to the commotion and lowered his head, staring at his right hand thoughtfully.

Reize coughed lightly and asked in a gentle voice, “What are you thinking about?”

Ji Chi didn’t want to look at him. “Do you think I could summon an Evan?”

Reize: “……”

Ji Chi was a bit distressed. “Can two unlucky people like us really smoothly reach the mountain peak? I’m unreliable, that’s one thing, but how can you be even more unreliable?”

Reize: “……”

Having been disdained by his little partner, Reize wiped his face and stood up, declaring with great passion, “Luck doesn’t mean anything. A man relies on his strength!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the commotion of several berserk beasts outside the small house seemed to attract even more berserk beasts. The narrow valley was instantly filled with one roar after another.

Ji Chi clapped expressionlessly. “Yay~ I’m in love with this strength.”

Reize: “… Stop joking around. Let’s hurry up and go out to deal with them, or else it’ll be terrible when more and more gather.”

Ji Chi swung his arms and stood up. Seeing Reize preparing for battle, he was stunned for a moment. “You’re going out too?”

Reize was also stunned for a moment. “Of course. How could I possibly let you go out and fight alone?”

Ji Chi: “But you can’t use magic anymore.”

Reize smiled. “Ah, it’s fine. I made preparations before we set out. I have these!”

He raised his hand. Several glass bottles were clasped between his fingers, each bottle a different color, with different magic elements flowing inside them.

Reize raised his eyebrows with a proud expression. “I thought about it earlier—outside the fortress you can’t use magic, probably because the magic power being released is diluted by something. So I can directly prepare concentrated elements, and I can also cause damage using reactions between elements!”

Ji Chi nodded and didn’t say much, only reminding him, “Bring the sword Silvia gave you.”

Reize: “Don’t worry, I know this sword is very important to her. I won’t lose it.”

Ji Chi sighed helplessly and tossed him a defensive necklace from his game backpack. “Be careful. Let’s make this quick.”

After Reize put on the necklace, Ji Chi put away the small house. A conspicuous boulder disappeared from the narrow valley, attracting the attention of many berserk beasts.

Pairs of bloodthirsty, blood-red eyes looked over. Bright red lights immediately floated up in the dark valley.

There had been a berserk beast in front of the small house earlier. When it saw that the two people had finally appeared, it shook its head and roared wildly, and the rotten stench rushed straight into their nostrils!

Ji Chi turned to the side, nimbly dodging the berserk beast’s attack. He saw the berserk beast that brushed past him shatter the hard mountain wall with one claw, and he couldn’t help but furrow his brow. “It’s much stronger than the berserk beasts I encountered outside the fortress.”

Reize also gripped the element bottles in his hand tightly and said gravely, “Yes, I’ve also helped the expeditionary army deal with them. Their speed and strength definitely can’t compare to this one… no, to this whole group.”

The berserk beast’s roar was like a signal being sent out. All the berserk beasts charged wildly toward the corner where they were!

Reize had already engaged with the first berserk beast. As a mage, his speed wasn’t fast, but his skilled use of magic compensated for his short legs’ deficiency.

Before the berserk beast pounced on him, he threw a bottle of concentrated gold element at the rock wall. The rich gold element instantly condensed into a tough metal wall between man and beast, and the berserk beast crashed into it with a bang!

The earth-shaking, heaven-rending force caused its head to crash through the thick metal, but its body got stuck behind the metal wall.

The berserk beast struggled. Just as it was about to break free from the gradually dissipating metal and regain its freedom, Reize didn’t retreat but advanced instead, pressing both hands on the cold metal surface!

“Zzzzt—” Dazzling electric current arcs leaped across the metal surface, instantly electrocuting the flesh at the berserk beast’s neck until it was charred black, emitting a pungent burnt smell!

But the electric current only worked for a moment. Reize wasn’t too panicked. He tossed out the fire element bottle he had already prepared, and his thin lips lightly touched up and down once. “Bang!“

The fire came into contact with the electric current and suddenly exploded into flames. The bright firelight enveloped the entire berserk beast, igniting the fat in its fur. The berserk beast howled and struggled, sparks flying everywhere on the ground. Finally, before the fire died out, it collapsed heavily onto the ground, its lifeless corpse turning into black-red snow dust.

After Reize finished off one, his expression became increasingly solemn. The suppression of magic elements here exceeded his imagination. The electric current he had just released had already consumed half of his internal magic power, and the berserk beast had mostly been killed through elemental reactions.

He suddenly realized how ridiculous his previous confidence had been—if he had come to the snowy mountains alone, he could have died several times over by the time he reached this position!

Reize couldn’t help but zone out—did everyone who came here think they were strong enough, that they had prepared enough? Did they all think they were special, that they couldn’t possibly die stupidly like their predecessors, not knowing that everyone would become that stupid predecessor, and he was the same…

“Watch out!” Ji Chi swung his sword and chopped off the head of a berserk beast. When he looked back, he discovered that Reize was actually standing behind a pile of ashes in a daze. He immediately frowned and shouted a warning!

Reize suddenly snapped back to his senses, just in time to see a berserk black bear charging straight at him. He tried the same trick again, and the gold element bottle left his hand, but it was swatted aside by the black bear’s paw and smashed on the blank snow!

Reize’s eyelid twitched. He was about to change to another bottle to throw when he heard Ji Chi shouting at him from not far away, “Use the sword! Raise your sword!”

Reize was stunned. “But…”

“Hurry up!” Ji Chi took a few steps and leaped onto a huge rock, gripping his sword with both hands and striking straight down from the air. “Here, only strength is allowed!”

Reize froze in place and pressed his lips together, then quickly put away the element bottles. Gripping Silvia’s sword in a not-quite-standard posture, he gritted his teeth and swung forward with force!

The sharp longsword instantly slashed across the black bear’s face, effortlessly hacking off half its face. The black bear with its face covered in blood and gore roared and charged even more madly at Reize!

After all, Reize was a mage. Being able to swing that sword just now was already extremely fortunate. He knew he couldn’t dodge this charge, so he simply leaned against the rock behind him, holding the sword straight in front of his chest, wanting to use the black bear’s charging momentum to pierce its heart.

“Swish—” An arc of light swept down from above the bear’s back, cleanly cutting the berserk black bear in half. Reize thought Ji Chi had rushed over to save him and pulled at the corner of his mouth, just about to show a helpless smile.

“Who are you? Why do you have this sword?” A gentle female voice came from behind him on the rock, carrying shallow doubt.

Reize turned his head and met a pair of mysterious, alluring purple pupils.

It was a female human, wearing a face that was gradually becoming blurred in his memory.