Chapter 56

Chapter 56 : Even Artisans Are Selective About Their Tools (7)

Humans were creatures of adaptation, and I was a human of shortcuts.

I realized there was another path besides the one Murel had told me about only when I had almost reached the destination.

It was because the red energy gathered in one place, created a new path, and pointed to the optimal route toward the destination.

That path did not require me to climb the Ice Cliff, nor did it require me to leap across a huge crevasse.

In truth, the original mountain trail was so absurd in places that I wondered whether Murel had been taking his anger out on me for leaving him abandoned for two hundred years.

After belatedly climbing the mountain in comfort, I took a deep breath before a cave formed by frozen Perpetual Snow.

Cold air filled my lungs all the way down and cleared my head.

As I watched a Red Wave surge through the pure white snow and took a step forward, I felt an intangible energy brush the nape of my neck.

Instinctively covering the back of my neck, I followed the red skeins of thread, which had grown even fiercer, and was swept inside.

When almost no light from outside reached me anymore, I found the statue I had been searching for, along with clear sunlight pouring in from beyond.

A blue dragon that looked as though it might freeze everything held a blue rose in its mouth and looked down at the visitor who had come loftily before it.

“The flame…….”

Was it really a flower?

After confirming that it was too high for my hand to reach, I frowned around the eyes.

Judging by the blue fire flickering around the flower, it would be more accurate to say it was a fire in the shape of a rose.

However, it was too far away for me to properly examine the inside of that cold flame.

The dragon-shaped statue was a typical size one might see in a museum as a dinosaur model. At least two or three times my size.

Consoling myself with the fact that it was not a statue made at a 1:1 scale with a real dragon, I set down the bag I had slung over my shoulder.

I had thought that since it was simply fire, I could transfer it onto something suitable, hand part of it over to Hwipone, and end up with a situation that satisfied both Etel and me.

“Does this…… work?”

I took out a stick used to make a torch from the bag, stared at it, then stretched out my arm.

After several attempts, the end of the stick wrapped in oil-soaked cloth barely hovered near the mouth before it managed to touch the blue rose.

“Mm. So it does not work.”

It was impossible to transfer the fire onto the torch. To begin with, there was no way a flame explicitly described as a production method could simply spread everywhere. Understanding the situation, I threw the stick roughly into a corner and took out the rope I had used to climb the Ice Cliff.

I was someone who had climbed cliffs dozens of meters high. A few meters or so was laughable.

I roughly threw the rope around the dragon’s neck.

After catching and tying the rope that fell to the other side, I tugged on it several times to check it, then tapped the statue a few times.

At first, I thought it was a statue made of ice, but when I looked closely, it seemed to be made of blue metal.

I took a short breath, pulled on the rope, and climbed up.

The pressure and vividness I had felt when I first saw it made me worry that it might truly come alive and move, but the statue stayed docile.

I sat astride the nape of its neck and checked the coldly burning blue flame.

The reason I first felt as though it might freeze me was because of the cold image given by that blue color.

Even though I knew blue flames were actually hotter…….

I stared as though bewitched at the form of the thing in my sight, then rubbed my eyes.

Seen up close, the blue flower was not only surrounded by flame; its entire form was flame. Every single layer of petals was made of blazing fire.

Since it was a form of fire, I could not bring myself to touch it with my hand, so I took out the bottle I had prepared at my waist and gently nudged a petal.

If the fire would not transfer, I intended to take even part of a petal with me.

But when it did not fall away and merely fluttered while scattering blue sparks, I frowned.

I looked down once at my delicate hand, covered only by a thin leather glove, then looked again at the damned blue flower, then raised my head and took in the sunlight soaked into the pure white Perpetual Snow.

“Ah, how sparkly.”

The hesitation did not last long.

I reached out and gripped the branch protruding between the fangs.

I watched with both eyes as the blue inferno spread with a FWOOOSH, swallowed my hand, and then climbed up my forearm.

“……!”

If I were to make a plan, it had gone like this.

Bring back the flower. Pluck the petals. Put them in the bottle. Return.

But the change brought about by that brief absence appeared without even a few seconds of hesitation.

By the time I sensed that something was wrong with the dragon statue I was sitting on, the change had already begun.

In the center of my vision, as I leaned forward to half-embrace the nape of its neck and grab the flower, I saw the statue’s eyes open.

Ah, fuck.

The moment our eyes met, I stabbed the flower branch I was holding into that viciously hardened eye.

CRUNCH—!

It had been what I held in my hand, my response had been reflexive, and my other hand had to cling to its neck, so that had been the option I chose…… and it was effective!

The blue rose’s stem pierced the gleaming red eyeball extremely easily, and the flame it carried surged over the statue too.

In that brief moment, I plucked several petals, clenched them in my fist, and leaped away from the creature.

Then membrane-like wings surged up with a flap, and in the sudden gale, I shielded my eyes with my arm and crouched low against the ground.

The creature truly acted like a miniature dragon bastard.

In terms of sheer pressure, it looked like a winged version of a Tyrannosaurus, but as it was engulfed in blue inferno and opened its mouth wide, it was no different from a dragon bastard about to fire a breath attack.

Even the two horns rising from its head were wrapped in surging flame and blazed fiercely, giving it an even more fitting majesty.

My vision was already completely surrounded by the Red Mist that showed the Power of Phantasm as it was. Even if a new attack path was drawn through that thick, dense red, I would not be able to tell it apart.

That, in turn, meant the entire range was dangerous.

Swallowing hard, I picked up the torch I had thrown aside earlier. Whether it was that or my dagger, neither seemed like it would be much help against its outer shell made of blue metal.

GRRROWL!

Its cry sounded like a cute dinosaur from a children’s animation, but the wings it swung were utterly brutal.

I barely avoided it and nearly teared up.

‘Murel, you bastard. You never mentioned this.’

The creature charged at me physically with its mouth wide open. I had been tense, thinking it might use the flame to fire a real breath attack, so when its face came right up close, I swung the torch stick at it.

CLAAANG—!

With a sound effect no living creature should ever make, the creature snapped its jaw at me again and again, trying to bite me apart.

The flower stuck in its eye must have driven it completely insane.

“Ah, the flower.”

I had been rolling over the rough, cold floor of Perpetual Snow, and I had forgotten to put the petals I had torn off into the bottle.

In the meantime, my right hand was engulfed in fire and burning fiercely.

“……?”

Was it fire only in appearance? Why is it not hot? The question belatedly occurred to me, but I had to dodge the creature charging at me again, so I set the thought aside for the moment.

After rolling sideways to avoid its long fangs, I instinctively thrust out my right hand, which was clutching the petals.

My fist, wreathed in blue flame…… was effective!

The creature, struck on the upper part of its jaw joint, spun once and tumbled far away.

“Huh?”

Even I was bewildered by the result, and while I stopped thinking about running, the creature staggered upright and let out another cute cry.

GRRROWL!

“Pick one. Is this an attack, or is this affection?”

The creature shook its head like it was snorting, but this time, it did not attack and simply stared at me.

The red energy leaping wildly around us gradually began to settle too.

I had thought it was a sculpture, but was this thing some kind of Phantasmal Species as well? Had it come to its senses after being hit? Had it gone berserk and charged because I had rashly stabbed its eye? As I continued that line of thought, I kept a close watch on it.

Grrr.

The creature took one deep breath, then struggled to touch the flower branch stuck in its eye with its small front paw.

Watching it struggle while the blue flame still blazed fiercely, I wondered whether I could simply leave it there and run now.

I had already obtained the ember too, if not all of it…….

You do know this is the thing that was trying to tear me apart with its fangs until just now, right?

“Ah, this is annoying.”

First, I placed the ember in my hand inside the glass bottle and sealed it. Then I tightened the bag strap firmly and approached the creature.

Grrr.

The creature glared at me warily, but when I crooked my hand, it obediently lowered its head.

The red jewel-like eye had cracked and shattered because of the flower branch lodged in it. I stared at it, inhaled, then grabbed the flower branch and pulled it free.

As it had when I drove it in, the branch came out all at once, and fragments of the shattered eye glittered and scattered with it.

The creature, one eye closed like a one-eyed beast, folded its spread wings neatly and sank fully to the ground.

Soon, when the creature shuddered, cracks began forming from its outer shell.

The outer shell crumbled away like dry earth cracking, and in the end, its body began falling apart from the top, completely collapsing piece by piece.

Before me, only a mountain of metal powder and a portion of the wing area remained alone.

“……?”

Was this also one of the problems caused by taking the flame out?

Scratching the nape of my neck, I checked the blue flower in my hand and grew troubled. It had become awkward to figure out how to handle this.

“The hidden beings will awaken. To reclaim the glory of the past.”

Murel’s words echoed like a warning.

I had only needed one for the production method and enough to thaw Hwipone’s body. I had not intended to take all of it.

When I thought of the situation ahead, I felt dizzy.

If the system had been working properly, would it not have made a huge fuss about Branching Points or whatever else?

In the end, the blue flame in my hand became mine.

---

“You brought all of it after all.”

Seeing Murel’s horror, I had no choice but to smile awkwardly. Sek guided me here, so deal with it, Murel.

Murel kept biting his nails and pacing back and forth.

I roughly ignored his muttering about how the world would collapse now, how forgotten beings would emerge and an age of chaos would arrive, and how another war would break out to stop a war. I approached Hwipone, who had been placed alone in front of the fireplace, and crouched beside him.

“How do I use this?”

I called Murel, who was glaring with blazing eyes and muttering, “That lizard bastard, how dare a hunk of metal try to monopolize My Lord all to himself…….”

“Pluck one leaf and feed it to him.”

“Feed it to him? Is that all right? Is it safe? This is…….”

I held back the words, the production method for Phantasmal Species, is it not?

Whatever had happened while I was gone, Hwipone had become excessively docile. He rolled his eyes and stared blankly at the blue flower. His cloudy eyes made him look ill, and I frowned on instinct.

“Murel.”

“Yes, My Lord!”

Murel, who had been fidgeting with his head pressed against the wall, came running at my call with sparkling eyes. He looked just like some dog-cat, so I clenched my jaw and pointed at Hwipone.

“Why is he like this?”

“Ah, I infer that because he has been encroached upon by the curse for a long time, his soul is currently separating. If left alone, he will eventually die due to complete out-of-body separation!”

“You knew that and left him alone?”

“……I judged that My Lord would resolve it in the end, even if I did nothing.”

I calmed Murel when he quickly grew gloomy and lowered his head, then looked down at the blue flower I had brought.

Now even the energy blazing around it had completely settled, and it looked like an ordinary blue rose.

That was fortunate. Rather than feeling awkward about making someone eat fire, it felt more like making him chew up one edible plant.

“Explain.”

Murel understood my abrupt question perfectly and began explaining.

“The curse placed upon this land can be neutralized by the Power of Phantasm, which is a similar kind of force. However, once this vicious curse is engraved into the body, it cannot be washed away, so eating the flame should not cause a problem. Rather, the Power of Phantasm attempting to suppress the curse’s power will strengthen his body, including his Frame, by another level, and there may even be a slight rejuvenating effect…….”

I let the overly long explanation flow past me.

Without hesitation, I plucked one leaf and shoved it into Hwipone’s mouth.

When something foreign entered his mouth, Hwipone moved his jaw and swallowed by instinct.

It was then that the hazy gaze directed at me changed. Life returned to his cloudy eyes, and the frozen eye soon loosened as well.

Hwipone seized me by the collar.

“Hey, you……!”

At the same time, the tip of Murel’s elongated nail gently pressed against Hwipone’s Adam’s apple.

“Remove your filthy hands, bird bastard.”

Mm. Both of them are fine.

Leaving the two of them to start making a racket again, I decided to focus on the blue flower.