Chapter 128: Cradle of the Abyss
The eyeball, split in two with a single blow.
The pain must have been immense, for the Soul Eater’s maw gaped wide as it let out a grotesque scream.
[⳥⳦Ⳣ⳩⳨Ⲫ⳦─!]
The noise was ear-splitting, but Walfred didn’t so much as blink. He simply kept driving his axe into the creature’s body.
Whack! Whack whack whack! Crunch!
The axe that had pierced through the eyeball carved away chunk after chunk of its flesh. As he rained down blow after ferocious blow, Walfred’s eyes burned cold.
’How dare you.’
How dare you pry into my precious memories.
Worse, the thing had used the scene Walfred had wished for countless times as bait to lower his guard.
It was absolutely unforgivable.
’I’ll make you pay the price for this.’
And the price is death.
Just as he swung the axe again and again with murder in his eyes, dozens of holes suddenly sprouted across the Soul Eater’s body.
And moments later,
[─────!]
the instant those dozens of holes shrieked out a grotesque noise in unison, a powerful shockwave erupted.
Whoosh! Krakakakoom!
"Kgh!"
A shockwave strong enough to lift his body clean off the ground.
Walfred quickly regained his balance, but in that time, a gap of well over thirty feet had already opened between them.
Of course, it was a pointless struggle.
All he had to do was use [Instant Burst] again.
But just then,
Crash!
Every window shattered at once. Black shadows came pouring in through them in droves.
Men, women, the elderly, children.
The human-shaped things charged at Walfred with blank, expressionless faces. Watching their grotesque movements, Walfred smiled coldly.
"Ha. Not even bothering with the act anymore?"
Unlike the ones outside that had approached him begging for help, these things rushed in radiating bloodlust, their faces as blank as dolls.
The mother body, the Soul Eater, had probably judged itself to be in danger and dropped the pretense.
"So you’re planning to tie me down..."
Not a chance.
Just as the Skinwalkers closed to within arm’s reach of Walfred, a wave of cold burst outward from him.
And in that instant,
Craaack! Krakakakak!
a storm of frost raged.
With [Rapid Freeze], everything around him froze solid in the blink of an eye. Countless shards of ice clung to the Skinwalkers’ bodies.
Starting from their ankles, then their legs, their waists, their torsos, all the way to the tops of their heads. Without any real resistance, every one of the Skinwalkers turned into an ice statue.
Crunch! Crack!
After smashing them all to pieces with his ice axe, Walfred turned back toward the Soul Eater.
Except,
"What?"
The Soul Eater was nowhere to be seen.
What was this? Had it used some kind of invisibility skill?
That was his first thought.
But the moment he saw the crimson vortex swirling just behind where the Soul Eater had been, he understood exactly what had happened.
"...A gate."
A liberated gate, to be precise.
Walfred’s eyes narrowed. At the same time, a question that had just crossed his mind was swiftly answered.
’I’d been wondering why it settled here, of all places...’
If there was a gate, it made sense.
The thing had planned to flee into the gate the moment any threat approached. It knew better than anyone how slow and sluggish it was.
Gazing at the crimson vortex, Walfred recalled the information about gates he’d once read on the Hunter Community.
’The environment inside a gate is optimized for the gate’s boss, wasn’t it?’
In other words, beyond that vortex lay an environment built to favor the Soul Eater. And there was no way to know what kind of environment it was until he stepped inside.
The situation put him at a disadvantage, but,
’I still have to go.’
He couldn’t let the thing slip away.
As long as the Soul Eater lived, Skinwalkers would keep being born. For the sake of the future, the creature had to be destroyed here and now.
Besides,
’It has to pay for prying into my memories.’
Walfred ground his teeth.
After barely managing to quell the anger flaring up inside him again, he looked at the liberated gate. Then he decided to make his preparations before the real battle began.
Crunch! Crack!
-----
[Ice Orb consumed.]
[Physical abilities enhanced.]
[Physical Enhancement]: +500%
[Duration]: 180 seconds
-----
Power surged through every inch of his body.
With that, his preparations were complete. Walfred immediately walked into the vortex.
Vwoom!
[Notice: Entering gate]
[A-rank Gate: Cradle of the Abyss]
Along with the familiar notification, the scenery around him transformed moments later.
A space dyed pitch black, like the dead of night. The first thing Walfred noticed the moment he set foot inside was the humidity.
’It’s hot.’
The air clung unpleasantly to his whole body, as if he’d stepped into water. Damp, hot breaths moved in and out of his lungs.
Having lived in a world where the average temperature easily plunged below -75°F, this kind of heat felt strangely foreign.
And then,
[Warning! Warning!]
[Rising ambient temperature detected]
[Some skills are being deactivated.]
▷Frost Domain
▷Blessing of the Snowfield
An unwelcome notification appeared.
The core skills that enhanced his physical abilities had been deactivated one after another. Then again, in a place this hot and muggy, it was only natural.
Feeling his body grow sluggish, Walfred calmly surveyed his surroundings.
’What is with this fog...’
Black fog filled the inside of the gate.
It was several times thicker than at the industrial complex.
Was that why?
Ever since entering the gate, notifications announcing successful defenses against mental corruption had been chiming nonstop.
Squelch!
The ground was muddy, too.
As if it had frozen over once and then thawed.
In every way, it was the worst possible environment for a fight. Frowning, Walfred peered around.
’Where is it?’
The fog cut his visibility so short that finding the Soul Eater by eye was impossible.
So he drew in a deep breath and honed his senses to a razor’s edge, trying to pinpoint the creature’s location through the sounds beyond the fog.
Just then,
Shwoosh!
Something came flying at him.
Moving on reflex, Walfred swung his ice axe and knocked it aside. The sensation was like striking a slab of dense meat.
He realized what it was.
’The Soul Eater’s tentacle.’
That was only the beginning.
This time, multiple tentacles came whipping in one after another, aiming for his head, his heart, and more.
They burst through the black fog and appeared right in front of his nose, making them brutally hard to defend against.
Thwack! Krakakrack!
So he knocked aside the ones he could, and froze the rest with [Rapid Freeze].
But that wasn’t the only problem.
’My body feels heavy.’
The temperature had climbed high enough to make him sweat.
With [Frost Domain] and [Blessing of the Snowfield] deactivated because of it, his body felt several times heavier than usual.
If he hadn’t eaten the [Ice Orb] before coming in, coping would have been even harder.
’And on top of that...’
Whether it was another environmental factor or not, his mana was draining far faster than usual.
Even [Rapid Freeze] alone was burning through several times more mana than it did outside the gate.
Just then, a grotesque noise sounded from all directions.
[౯ఓ౯౯౯గ─!]
It was the Soul Eater’s laughter.
A voice dripping with open mockery.
Watching Walfred scramble to do nothing but defend, it seemed to think it had backed him into a corner.
Walfred’s face twisted.
"Ha. Pathetic little bastard."
It wasn’t even funny.
To think it believed it had the upper hand over something this trivial. Then he’d just have to shatter that delusion.
After batting away another volley of tentacles, Walfred fell back. Then he drew the card that could flip this entire situation in an instant.
[Necklace of the Frost Spirit King]
The spoils of exterminating the Spirit King.
He ran his fingers over the blue jewel set in the necklace’s center. Then, glaring past the black fog, he intoned in a voice charged with power.
"Freeze over."
In that instant,
Ding!
[Command activated: Confirmed]
[Necklace of the Frost Spirit King activating.]
[Special skill activating.]
▷Permafrost
Along with the brief notification, the domain of the Frost Spirit King was recreated.
Kwoooooosh!
Cold exploded outward with Walfred at its center.