Under a sky filled with dark clouds. The Geomeun Gashinamu writhes like a snake, and in the middle, a Heukbal-ui Sonyeo with the arm of a gigantic dragon that defies the laws of physics glares at me.
“Did you come to stop me?”
She asks me that while looking at me.
“I’m cold.”
When I responded like that, Maleficent flinched in surprise. She must have indirectly experienced the pain I suffered in this world, which I still can’t tell if it’s a fantasy or a dream.
The moment it touches you, it’s not an unbearably terrible cold. It’s horrific because it gets stronger forever.
There’s no limit. Or perhaps adaptation is impossible.
When you’re submerged in such cold and realize that even suicide is a luxury, that’s when you can truly go mad.
Even after that, the cold still torments you.
“My warmth just melts away into thin air.”
It’s fine that the Harvesting Period is dead. After all, when you die, the warmth goes with you. But the people who are supposed to die in the future, or those who could become Harvesters, have perished.
“I don’t want that.”
I swing the white branches around to clear the thorns nearby.
The writhing Gashinamoo slowly diminishes.
Seeing that, Maleficent opened her mouth with a displeased expression.
“You’re moving freely in a place where your magic doesn’t work again. What kind of power are you using?”
Swish.
Maleficent transformed her dragon-like hand back into a human hand. Below her, Victoria, who was crouching, cautiously walks towards me.
“Belle. That woman. She’s strong.”
“I know.”
I was hit by a mental attack. My mind was laid bare.
She’s not an ordinary person. Someone strong enough to call herself the Evil Queen. Claiming to be evil is a statement of having absolute power.
“Aren’t you two on bad terms?”
Maleficent asks Victoria.
Is this really the time for backstabbing? I’d love to see some phenomenal magic if possible.
“I was pretending to be bad. Both I and Belle knew you were up to something strange, Mal.”
Moreover, since we pretended to be on bad terms, the backstabbing won’t work.
Victoria glares at Maleficent. At the same time, she slowly gathers water around her. However, there’s already very little water left.
The air around is completely dry, and I can feel that Victoria is putting in effort. It’s a unique sensation, but I know roughly what it feels like.
It’s the movement of squeezing out something that doesn’t exist.
Wobble.
Suddenly, Victoria stumbles and collapses to the ground. Though she doesn’t use magic or psychic abilities, her concentration and stamina are being drained. After that heavy blood loss, it’s no surprise she would collapse.
“You’ve lost so much blood; standing must be hard, right? Shall I make it comfortable for you?”
Maleficent said with a sneer. But unlike before, there’s no sense of superiority in her expression.
When Maleficent attacked the Harvesters, she was immersed in the superiority of thinking she could not be defeated no matter what we did.
But now, she’s watching me closely.
It’s as if she can’t help but want to know how I will react to what she says, her emotions scrambling not to hide as her gaze is fixed on me.
I approach Victoria, who is panting on the ground, and sit on her.
Yelp!
Victoria screams. But if I don’t do this, I feel like she might genuinely pass out from anemia. Her gaze lacks focus right now.
It’s tough being pinned down, yet she can’t even say anything to me because she’s holding it in.
“Isn’t this a bit much for an anemic child?”
“It’s a suitable pressure for a child filled with murderous intent.”
If Victoria was facing someone other than Maleficent, her head would have rolled by now.
No matter how much safety net was in place, Victoria, who destroyed the fishman tribe’s advance base by herself, is anything but ordinary.
I swung the white branches once more, glancing at the black Gashinamoo creeping in from the ground.
The Geomeun Gashinamu regresses. This witch, she moves ominously.
“I can’t seem to grasp the principle behind this. It was like that last time too. Even though I had nightmares, I immediately shattered them. I never expected you to try to go inside instead of going out like a fool.”
Nightmare.
She’s referring to the hallucination I saw yesterday.
“Did you find out something about me there?”
I ask her.
Then Maleficent shuts her mouth. It means she didn’t figure it out properly. She probably saw the same things I did while following me.
Since no one said anything, she wouldn’t have been able to find out even if she tried.
I learned a lot as well. If it was just the Harvesters, then it’s possible everyone I robbed warmth from entered inside.
However, memories are memories.
Because that’s when Hyungkesuni was there. Until she fell to the bottom of the surface and disappeared, I didn’t touch her light or warmth.
So that possibility doesn’t exist.
Simply a hallucination created by memories.
Though Hyungkesuni stood out alone among those, Daegon and Wonsi Cheonjon also stood out quite a bit, so they must have been formidable in their own right.
Or perhaps they left that deep an impression on me.
She antagonized me until the very end.
“Belle. This pig. Heavy…”
Victoria, who is underneath me, groans softly, but I ignore her. I know she’s still gathering moisture from the ground. Because she’s using stamina, she’ll collapse if she doesn’t stop.
“What will Maleficent do from now on?”
I asked Maleficent, who was aiming her staff adorned with a yellow jewel at me.
If she sets her mind to killing me, she could capture me and twist me.
In other words, the technique I possess is close to a counterattack.
To put it in gaming terms, it means I’m not using the opponent’s attack power but rather waiting for them to fall into my gimmick.
So, shall I poke her a little?
I’m curious about her techniques.
“First, the Aurora Princess, who insulted me, must sleep forever, as promised.”
“What’s that? Did you not get invited to the birthday party? Alone?”
Crack.
Oh ho. She’s grinding her teeth.
I was just asking, reminiscent of a fairy tale witch, and it turns out Maleficent is just like that too. She was a powerful witch in that story as well.
At least as strong as the witch in front of me.
“Surprisingly bad-tempered, aren’t you? Belle. Were you just lying in bed like a vegetable to let your guard down?”
I shook my head in denial at that remark.
“I thought Merryweather was a guard. The reason I stayed still is that I didn’t need to move. I really only found out just a moment ago that Merryweather was a witch.”
What she did, I don’t know, but a clear and transparent ice is floating in the air, barely visible to Victoria.
Filled with the intent to kill, even if she collapses, she aims to kill the witch before her.
Feeling fear from Victoria’s murderous intent, I lifted my feet slightly and stepped on her hand. With that, the blade disappeared with a small groan.
Confirming she was flopping down with the loss of strength, I stood up from her back.
Victoria has now stopped and must face the witch.
A prideful witch.
How could I word this to hurt her most?
“Don’t be too disappointed. Even if I realized you were a witch, my actions have not changed.”
Then I swung the white branches again, driving away the black Gashinamoo occupying the background. Right now, I wanted to create the illusion that I alone held sway in this place.
“No need to do anything, right?”
As if to say that the discrepancy in standing is so severe that anything you do is okay.
Even though I knew her to be a witch, when it came down to it, what I could do was wait until she did something, but this remark would prick the witch’s pride.
Look.
Black mist is swirling around Maleficent right now. And that smoke slowly ascends to the sky.
It means she wasn’t just chatting with me mindlessly.
The black smoke that has risen high slowly begins to swirl.
“Trying to sparkle?”
You’re trying to put on a show, huh? Knowing how it sounds, I asked Maleficent.
Boom!
Lightning poured down from the center of the whirlwind.
But unfortunately, the lightning merely destroyed the buildings around.
Oh dear, what a waste.
Someone inside that was asleep has died. I’m not sure exactly how they died since they weren’t Harvesters, but the flickering light seen gradually dims and disappears.
“Missed.”
As I said that with a hint for her to aim better next time, Maleficent aimed her staff at me.
But lightning didn’t pour down again.
“What are you doing?”
“You want me to attack, don’t you?”
Oh dear.
I must have moved too obviously.
“If it’s to erase fleeting warmth, it’s better for me to take it.”
While I tried to subtly turn the conversation, Maleficent glared at me. Oddly, she’s not attacking me. Given her previous personality, she should have crossed the threshold by now.
But seeing her obsessively not attacking me like this…
“You heard something from Hyungkesuni, didn’t you?”
She tried to hide her expression, but it showed clearly.
That’s the answer.
It seems that Hyungkesuni, who mocked her from within, told her about my weakness. Of course, the Hyungkesuni I met in that nightmare isn’t the same as the real one.
If I were to analyze it, it’s likely the arrogant part of my mind that spoke.
Even though I’m desperately playing a passive role, I still think ordinary humans are just simple matches.
Or she thinks I might become material for the Harvesters.
The arrogance of being in a position where I exploit others.
Except for the endless cold, I was once an ordinary human, so it’s not strange to think that way. Still, while I kept up the pretense very well, I guess I couldn’t hide everything inside me.
How can one endure explaining things to a thoroughly defeated opponent while teabagging them?
I can understand. The issue is that it wasn’t said in a completely won situation, but I’ll just take it as something said in a dream.
If she heard that, I might as well let a bit more out.
“Maleficent. Are you scared? The Evil Queen afraid of a creature that doesn’t take a stand?”
Of course, since Victoria is listening, I twist it just a tad to provoke Maleficent.
“It’s a piece of cake to kill someone weaker than you, yet you’re afraid to lay a hand on a creature.”
I purposefully turned my back.
“Disappointing.”
And I approached Victoria, who was still clutching the rocky ground and sweating heavily.
Of course, I kept an eye on Maleficent, who was gritting her teeth at Victoria.
