Angor had no idea why Madelyne was so hostile against Brofen, though he wasn’t going to ask. Right now, he had his attention on another figure who was standing around the entrance of the Winter Palace.
It was Vifet.
Is Vifet heading to this Overwatch Base too? Angor thought.
The snow was getting heavier, slowly preventing people from seeing clearly.
A flash of rainbow suddenly lit up in the distance, which appeared rather obvious in the gloomy weather.
Following the strange sight, people heard loud galloping noises coming near.
Angor widened his eyes as he watched yet another phantom beast entering his view. This one appeared to be a moose. A moose that was even bigger than Loccatann the Scorpion. The most strange thing about this creature was its antlers—there seemed to be a colorful mist that covered them. Inside the mist, there was a faint image of a city.
“It’s the biggest phantom beast kept by the Moonfrost Union, Kaxomi,” explained Brofen.
“We-we’re going to ride it?” Angor stared at the huge creature in complete shock.
From the “rainbow mist”, a union guard emerged, who called out to everyone, “People who are bound to Skyward Island, come with me into the Mirage City.”
Groups of people flew toward the moose’s antlers as one. As far as Angor could see, this was the biggest party to be conveyed away today.
Again, Brofen offered to explain. “Skyward Island is currently the safest travel route in level 3. That’s also where Moonfrost put their operation homebase.”
“Which means you should be going with the moose,” Madelyne impertinently commented.
Brofen ignored her. “This leaves Dokibell as the last one. Again. Welp, that guy’s always slow.”
“Is Dokibell the one who’ll take us to the Overwatch Base?” asked Angor.
“Yup. Let’s just say that Dokibell is the strongest one when it comes to pummeling demons. The problem is, it loves to slack off. When other phantom beasts need a day to travel through a distance, Dokibell will take several days. Lucky for us, Miss Sennefer should be able to persuade it into going faster.”
Most apprentices had left with Kaxomi, which was to be expected since Skyward Island was the safest establishment among all.
After the giant moose disappeared behind the curtain of snow, the Winter Palace only had a few people waiting, including about a dozen apprentices and three wizards—Brofen, Madelyne, and Vifet.
Angor saw Vifet coming to them again with the help of a large sand rat.
It was understandable if Vifet would like some company since there were only three wizards left. Though Angor wasn’t very happy about this because Brofen and Vifet both happened to be someone he would like to avoid.
“I didn’t think you’re going to the Overwatch Base too, Vifet,” said Brofen.
“My goal lies within the deeper levels. I can go there from any outpost.”
“Why Overwatch Base then? Any other one is better than that place. You’ll have to get close to the demon castle at this rate. Surely you know that?”
“I have my reasons.” Vifet glanced at Angor.
Angor looked back at Vifet warily.
“... This boy’s teacher, Mister Phantom, is over there. Since Angor refused to tell me what happened to the Evernight Kingdom, I have to pay Mister Phantom a visit. Those dark domes will soon reach Moxa Westland. I can’t stay idle now.”
“The Evernight Kingdom, huh?” Brofen looked between Vifet and Angor suspiciously. He wasn’t convinced by Vifet’s excuse, but he had no reason to expose his concerns now.
As a matter of fact, each one of them, including Sennefer, had private reasons for going to the Overwatch Base. They wouldn’t get into other people’s ways as long as they didn’t bother each other.
They waited for two hours after Kaxomi departed. When the snow died down a little bit, the ground beneath them shook, suggesting another approaching phantom beast.
“That should be Dokibell.” Brofen was quite familiar with the footsteps.
A shadow emerged from the horizon, which was accompanied by the chime sound of bells.
Next, Angor heard a gruff voice reaching his ears.
“I’m going, I’m going. Stop pushing me...”
“Pump some more strength into your legs then!” It was Sennefer’s angered voice this time. “Just listen to your bell, and you’ll see how slow you are!”
The sound of the bell suddenly grew intense as if a hurricane were blowing over.
“I told you to move faster, not puffing into the bell like an idiot!” Sennefer yelled.
“Didn’t you tell me to watch the sound of the bell?!”
The shadow finally showed its true form upon getting close enough. It was a giant white bear, as big as a snow mountain.
On its arched back, there was a chapel-like building with a pointy roof. That bell Angor heard earlier was fixed at the tip of the chapel, which was tinkling as the bear moved.
Sennefer was standing at the entrance of the chapel while mercilessly scolding the bear.
“Here... huff... the Winter Palace of Nilehelm...” The white bear lay sprawled, knocking a flood of snow into the sky. “Finally, let me rest a bit...”
“Not yet!” Sennefer called toward the palace. “Everyone still waiting is going to the Overwatch Base, I take it? Good. Come here and let’s head out!”
“Let’s move.” Brofen beckoned to Angor. “If we allow Dokibell to fall asleep, we’ll have to spend a few days in this damned snow for it to wake up.”
Angor didn’t have time to get a good look at the bear when Madelyne simply dragged him to the chapel and joined everyone.
“Should I see you close your eyes for one second, I’ll stick a flame spear into your an*s!” Sennefer threatened Dokibell by preparing her flames.
The bear struggled to get back up. It then slowly walked away on sluggish steps.
“Get a move on! If I don’t see the Prominent Forest in two days, I’ll make sure you know what it feels like to get burned and frozen at the same time.”
Dokibell whined in sadness. If any other wizard were in charge, it was free to take it as slow as it pleased. But it definitely couldn’t defy Sennefer.
To make it worse, Sennefer was going to the most dangerous destination.
Dokibell felt like crying now.
Meanwhile, Angor applied some of Leona’s perfume onto his body, as Madelyne instructed.
Despite its name, the perfume did not have any smell. Or rather, it could not be detected by human senses. However, this wasn’t a strange thing, because there were many different alchemy productions that displayed their effects through various elements humans couldn’t easily see. For example, some of the commonly-known pheromone perfumes used by witches were meant to attract men’s hearts by bewitching their spirits. Similarly, Leona’s Nether Balm perfume was meant to keep demons away by tempering with some of their senses.
After using the perfume, Angor walked into the chapel.
There weren’t many people with him, so the inside of the building looked rather vacant. Even so, the great tension in the air did not decrease in the least.
Sennefer was standing in the middle of the chapel hall with a group of people standing around her.
“As always, we’ll leave the snowfield and move around the Veiled Coast. According to Dokibell, something might have happened there recently. It told me that there was not a single monster lurking nearby.”
“How? Did someone go there and clean them up?” Brofen asked.
“Dokibell didn’t find traces of a battle, which means the monsters left on their own. If this was not caused by their natural habit or immigration needs, I’d say that a more powerful monster came and scared them away. Anyway, we should assume the worst and be prepared.”
Madelyne spoke up, “Can we use another route?”
“We have three other choices. One, the Geiger Ruins, which will take us two more weeks to travel. We don’t know what can happen if we take that long.
“The second choice is that we do not walk around the coast, but sail across the Veiled Sea, which is... not going to happen, for obvious reasons.
“As for the last choice, we can use another subsidiary Demon Monastery as a shortcut...”