"Brrrrrr~! Oh god, that was freezing!"
Gina cried out from beside Jason while rubbing her arms together, and Jason narrowed his eyes as he came up with a quick plan. Jason knew that he would have to move really fast if he wanted to cross through the territory of that beast without alerting it to his presence, so he didn’t think he could afford to take Gina with him in there. In truth, Jason would have loved to fight against the [Beast of the Apocalypse]! It was the first TITAN Rank being that he was meeting on his journey, and he wanted to test himself against it and see if he could win. But Jason also knew that it would be a waste of time! Jason was in a hurry to reach Riyad and finish his mission, and spending time here was only going to slow him down. Instead, Jason was going to suppress his mana and pass through all the territories of this beast without issues. Jason turned to Gina and spoke calmly.
"I need you to go into the Alternate Dimension."
Gina frowned when Jason said this, and even though Gina was able to immediately understand why Jason wanted her to do such a thing, she couldn’t help but be worried about him.
"Are you sure you’ll be okay? That cold is more intense than anything I’ve ever felt. Even the Protection from Fire that we received wasn’t enough to prevent us from feeling it."
Jason and Gina had both been blessed by the Dragon gods, so they both had an even higher constitution when facing off against anything cold. But for some reason, this particular cold had completely bypassed that protection, and it was almost like Gina had been standing naked in the middle of the Arctic! Jason nodded calmly, and he told Gina that he would be fine. Jason grabbed a large S-Rank coat artefact and a pair of S-Rank glove artefacts, and he put them on before he let out a calm breath of fire that washed over his body and warmed him up. Jason rubbed his palms together and then he put his hand out towards Gina with a small smile! Gina let out a sigh as she decided that she would trust Jason, and she took his hand and allowed him to pull her closer before he placed a kiss on her lips. Gina took Jason by the cheeks, and she pulled him deeper into the kiss so she could feel even more of it, and when they finally separated, she put her chin on his chest and looked up at him with a small scowl.
"You’d better be careful, mister. And if things get too dangerous, then call on the Legion immediately. I don’t mind getting cold if I can look out for you."
Jason grinned at his girlfriend, and he leaned down to give her another peck before promising that he would be fine. Gina smiled before she finally stepped forward and entered Jason’s Alternate Dimension. Once Jason was sure that Gina was gone, he told Ragnar that he had to go into the Alternate Dimension as well. Ragnar growled in annoyance and let out a small huff of fire in response to that! Did the King think that some mere cold would be enough to hurt a dragon!? Ragnar was the strongest dragon in the Legion, and he wasn’t going to be affected by any form of cold! Jason just chuckled at that! Jason knew that Ragnar had a strong resistance to cold, but the reason why he was asking him to return to the Alternate Dimension wasn’t because he was weak against cold, but rather because Jason didn’t want to draw too much attention. Ragnar was just too large, so if Jason rode through the Beast’s territory on its back, then it would be far easier for the Beast to spot him. Jason had to go through this on his own!
Ragnar let out another huff when Jason told him all this, and he came down and put his head right in front of Jason with a pathetic growl. Ragnar really wanted to go with him! Jason just rubbed Ragnar’s nose gently and told him that he would be fine.
"Go help me keep Gina company, alright. And make sure that idiot Esdeath doesn’t bother her too much. I’ll be done before you even know it."
Ragnar let out a small puff of fire that washed over Jason playfully before he finally agreed and fell into the Alternate Dimension. Once Jason was alone, he finally released another surge of mana from his body to reopen the dimensional tear, and Jason felt that intense surge of cold slam into him a second time!
’Fuck, this shit is cold. If it’s like this through the dimensional tear, how cold will it be on the other side?’
Jason let out a chilled breath when he saw the ground freezing over again, and he decided that he was simply going to take the plunge. Jason stepped forward into the Dimensional Tear and allowed it to vanish behind him! Somewhere on the other side of the world of Jaeran, a large dimensional tear opened, and an army of Machina began to march out of it.
——
[The world of Hanir]
[Within the Frozen Circle of the Apocalyptic Beast]
The world of Hanir had once been a thriving world filled with hundreds of thousands of different natural organisms! The world had been the home of a race known as the Jana, and they were a race of centaurs with half-human, half-horse body parts. The Jana were a successful race of warriors and master builders who had taken the world of Hanir and made it into a thriving utopia that would put any other world in their Domain to shame! They had large castles and mighty residential buildings in large cities! There were various lakes and valleys that served as tourist attractions to visitors, and there were even entire forests that had been transformed into hiking regions that allowed the Jana to showcase the diversity and superiority of their world! But all that changed the day the Beast of the Apocalypse appeared.
Jason stepped out of the dimensional tear with a calm defensive air around him. He looked around with narrowed eyes and a guarded stance, and let out a tense, cold breath as he took in his surroundings! Jason had appeared in a large room that looked like a typical ballroom you would find in a castle. There was a large space in the centre of the room that had various silver statues spread around it, strangely. A staircase on the left side of the room led up to a gallery where people could go and stand to look down on the party below, and there was a large set of double doors that probably led outside into the castle proper! But there was no sign of life in this castle at all, and everything in the room, from the statues to the floor to the staircase and even the large doors, was covered in a sheen of pure blue ice! It was almost like someone had flash frozen the entire castle in a split second, and there was such an intense cold seeping through Jason’s body that it made him feel like he was going to freeze to death!
’Babe, are you okay?’
Gina spoke up worriedly from Jason’s Alternate Dimension. Since that Dimension was separate from the real world, the temperature in there was perfectly fine, and Gina couldn’t help but worry for her lover. But Jason just told her that he was fine as he began walking to the side.
’I wonder what sort of ability the Beast has. A regular ice-based gift wouldn’t be enough to make me feel this cold.’