43. Everything Froze (8)
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Energy that gives off light and heat.
It was one of the most important elements in the world—so important that it was effectively one of the origins of all things—and yet it was something that even magic could not properly control.
At best, all anyone had ever done with it was produce flames and explosions, use that energy to attack enemies, illuminate their surroundings, or force some other effect out of it by sheer power.
But not anymore.
‘So this is true flame……’
Hong Biyeon felt as though she was about to grasp the true definition of fire—something no one else in history had ever managed to realize.
Flames danced along the path traced by her palm, and when she quietly held out her index finger, a butterfly made of fire came flying down and perched upon it.
Something no one had ever done before.
Which was precisely why it was all the more extraordinary.
‘I can do this.’
I am the flame, and the flame is me.
To throw herself straight into the very source of the world, become one with fire, and move it as though it were her own hands and feet—
none of it felt awkward in the slightest.
If anything, it felt joyful.
Fantastic.
Who else could ever have experienced something so mystical?
Only I can.
Just a little more……
If she accepted this mysterious sensation just a little more, then surely she would be able to completely understand the true ‘definition’ of flame.
……That was what should have happened.
—No! Stop!
“Ugh!”
At the sharp, stinging voice that rang inside her head, Hong Biyeon abruptly snapped out of her reverie and opened her eyes.
The sensation of flame that had clung so tightly to her whole body vanished into the air all at once.
‘……What are you doing?’
—Any further, and you’ll be in danger.
For the first time, the voice—the Incarnation of Fire itself—spoke in a calm tone.
—You’re still too young and too weak to bear that kind of enlightenment. If someone at your current level were to awaken to that ‘truth’…… you’d simply turn into fire and be extinguished.
‘What are you talking about right now? Before, you were telling me to lose control.’
—That was because I wanted you to vanish. I hate Adolevit down to the bone. Hah—well, I don’t actually have bones, but still!
Hong Biyeon squeezed her eyes shut.
She wanted to grasp once more at that truth she had just touched, but it had already fled far away, and showed no sign of returning.
That alone was so agonizing and so painful that she could hardly bear it, but there was no helping it now.
—Just be patient a little longer. It won’t be that far off. If it’s you, then you’ll be able to grasp it again. I guarantee it. Even ‘Adolevit,’ the Founder Mage’s disciple, couldn’t do it…… but you can.
‘……Why?’
—I am a fragment of Red Summer June, and the Incarnation of Fire. That is why I can guarantee it. You…… will come to seek me one day.
At those words, Hong Biyeon fell silent for a moment, looking completely stunned.
—You’d be far too precious to disappear here. Ha…… damn it. To think the day would come when I’d save a human.
The voice grumbled to itself a few times, then spoke to Hong Biyeon in a steady, serious tone.
—Listen carefully, little Adolevit brat. The flame of mine sleeping within your body will soon burn you alive with pain. The you of now cannot endure that. So right now, you have to vent all of it outside at once. Can you do it?
‘That……’
—Perfect timing, then. There’s a huge pile of kindling right in front of you, isn’t there? Let’s burn that thing.
Hong Biyeon slowly turned her eyes toward Pirate King Black Belize.
Behind his mountain-like body, enormous spikes of ice were steadily growing.
She had no real knowledge of them, but even so, instinctively, she understood.
The moment those spikes touched the sky……
this entire region would be swallowed in ice.
It had to be stopped before that.
‘……Can I do it?’
Hong Biyeon slowly called forth flame.
The sensation of becoming one with fire, as she had been moments before, had mostly faded—but perhaps thanks to the aid of the Incarnation of Fire, a violently explosive energy she had never once felt in her life was flowing through the pathways of her body.
—The best thing to do would be to blast that bastard’s eyeballs apart with flame and then run. With the power you have now, you can’t beat him.
—Damn it, what a waste. If only you were a little stronger, I could share far more of my flames with you……
‘It doesn’t matter.’
Fwoosh!
Igniting flames in both her hands, Hong Biyeon shot high into the air.
She had never formally learned flight magic, but she understood the principle behind it.
With the wings of fire unfolded by the Fire Spirit Flower itself, flying freely through the sky was child’s play.
The Pirate King slowly moved his gaze to follow her, then spoke in a deep, measured voice.
—Do not resist.
“…My whole life has been resistance.”
She had lived her entire life by resisting.
There was no way she was about to stop just because someone told her to.
Hong Biyeon narrowed her eyes and hurled out her flames with all her strength.
……And then—
Kwakwakwakwaang!!!
An explosion so violent it was hard to believe she herself had launched it shook the Pirate King’s skull from side to side.
“Th-This is……!”
—Hahaha! What do you think? Impressive, right? And that’s only the tiniest fraction of my power!
Hong Biyeon swallowed hard.
An attack of this level could easily be considered above 8-Class.
And yet this was only a fraction?
It was almost impossible to believe.
—But handle it carefully. The amount of flame I can lend you is limited. The moment it seems your body can’t hold out anymore, I’ll extinguish it at once. I…… do not want you to die.
Without answering, Hong Biyeon flew still higher.
Then she brought both her hands together, gathered the flames into one, and compressed them.
At first, it was the size of a small cottage.
Then it shrank to the size of a carriage.
Then, finally, down to the size of a full-length mirror—
all while giving off an intense radiance like a tiny sun.
‘Using a lot of small spells won’t do anything.’
Inside the Pirate King’s body, just like inside her own, slept an Incarnation—an Incarnation of Ice.
The difference was that he could wield its power perfectly.
She could not.
Which meant her only option was to land one truly effective hit, incapacitate him even if only for a moment, and then destroy the great spike behind him.
All the while Hong Biyeon prepared her magic, the Pirate King simply stood there, watching her in silence.
—You…… resemble that woman.
Then, after muttering that incomprehensible remark, he raised one hand and formed a wall of ice.
“Too late!”
With all her might, Hong Biyeon hurled that tiny sun at the ice wall, and in the next instant, the vaporized water exploded outward with a violent shockwave.
Paaang—!!
—Hmph……!
For the very first time, Pirate King Black Belize—who had not flinched at any attack until now—took a step back.
Watching that scene, the people below……
for the first time, found hope.
“The Princess is fighting the Pirate King……!”
“This can’t be……”
Within the royal family, Hong Biyeon had never held much importance.
People knew she was talented, yes.
But compared to Hong Si-hwa, who had already built up countless achievements, that talent had never seemed to carry much weight.
And her personality was cold and aloof, making her difficult to approach in the first place.
Besides, because she had grown up under the queen’s open hatred, even if someone happened to like her, it was not something they could easily show.
Everyone in the palace knew it.
The Third Princess was deeply hated by the queen.
So, in accordance with the queen’s commands.
And in accordance with the atmosphere of the palace itself.
They hated Hong Biyeon too.
They despised her.
It had become so natural that no one even questioned it anymore.
And yet, when they thought about it again—
even so, Hong Biyeon had gone on living.
Without ever giving up, she had fully displayed and unleashed all the talent she possessed, until at last she had reached this place……
and was now fighting the vengeful spirit of the Pirate King—a foe even the queen herself had failed to overcome.
Kuuung—!!
Both Hong Biyeon’s magic and the Pirate King’s magic were, at minimum, on the level of 8-Class.
Each collision between them created shockwaves far beyond what any ordinary mage could endure.
At a glance, they might even have seemed evenly matched.
But unfortunately, Hong Biyeon’s limit arrived quickly.
—Hey. Be more careful. You don’t have that much flame left to work with.
‘……I know.’
There was no helping it.
This flame was not her own.
It was borrowed from the Fire Spirit Flower, which meant she should have conserved it with the utmost care.
But against a being whose power far surpassed her own, she had no choice.
‘There’s no time……’
Even if she managed to bring the Pirate King down here, the moment that spike touched the sky, everything would become irreversible.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Thought.
And thought again.
But no matter how many times she turned it over in her mind—
‘……This is the only way.’
Until then, Hong Biyeon had been flying through the sky, dodging as many of the Pirate King’s attacks as possible while scattering flame in return.
Then suddenly, she changed direction.
And headed straight for him.
—W-What? Hey, you crazy brat! What are you doing right now?! Open up the distance! You can’t beat him in close combat!
The Fire Spirit Flower desperately tried to stop her, but Hong Biyeon did not slow down.
Leaving a blazing trail behind her, she cut through the air until she was right beside the Pirate King.
And at once, an overwhelming cold and storm of ice came crashing down over her.
“Ugh……!”
She endured the terrible cold only by forcing more and more flame outward, but even that could not completely erase the pain.
Still, Hong Biyeon pressed on.
Enduring.
Resisting.
Advancing toward the Pirate King.
—You…… don’t tell me…….
Only then did the Incarnation of Fire seem to realize what she was planning, and its voice turned bewildered.
—Are you going to make all the flames you have left explode at once……?
Hong Biyeon did not answer.
They were not close enough for her to feel obliged to praise it for guessing correctly.
—No…… yes. If you do that, you’ll definitely be able to destroy the ‘Root of Winter’…….
Some forms of magic had to be launched from far away to display their full power.
Others worked better only at close range.
But the flames Hong Biyeon was releasing, strictly speaking, were not magic at all.
They were merely the flames stored within her body taking on form and qualities according to the knowledge and theory she possessed, and then being emitted outward.
And yet……
she knew.
Because she had briefly, however faintly, glimpsed the ‘truth’ of flame.
She knew that forcing flame into a neat form like this was nothing more than a framework invented by mages who could not truly control fire.
If one wished to reveal the true power of flame, then there could be no control at all.
So she decided she would not control it.
If she unleashed every last flame of the Fire Spirit Flower sleeping inside her all at once—
then, even if only for a single instant, she might be able to imitate something on the scale of a great 9-Class mage’s grand spell.
But……
all of that aside—
—……What do you plan to do after that?
The Incarnation of Fire asked.
Hong Biyeon did not answer.
—Surely you aren’t planning to do something stupid like sacrificing yourself for your country? If that’s what you’re thinking, stop right now. You’re worth more than every citizen in this kingdom put together!
‘……Don’t say ridiculous things.’
At last, Hong Biyeon reached the point directly before the Pirate King and met his gaze head-on.
The razor-sharp blizzard and the swirling cold crashing against her were brutal—
but she did not flinch.
Slowly……
but anything but carefully,
she dragged up every last flame inside her body.
Even the tiny amount of fire that had originally belonged to her alone.
Fwoom!
A tiny candle flame bloomed in the middle of the colossal blizzard.
At first glance, it might have looked insignificant.
But the fact that a flame had appeared at all within a storm of that scale already proved this was no ordinary thing.
That candle slowly began to grow.
Like an avalanche.
At first it was no bigger than a pebble.
Then, after a little time, it had become as large as a house.
Then, by the time one blinked—
it had grown into a gigantic sun too vast to take in all at once.
‘Hellfire.’
The ultimate flame spell that burned and burned until the enemy was utterly consumed.
—This is……!
Because it was not truly magic, it erupted without any casting or preparation time at all, and even the Pirate King could not properly respond.
—What reckless madness is this?!
He had never expected a frail human to charge all the way into his reach and unleash flame at point-blank range, so in his panic, the Pirate King tried to bury Hong Biyeon under a mass of ice.
But the ice never touched her.
It ignited first—and melted away.
Kuuung!!
The ribs protecting the Pirate King’s core melted under the flames.
Fire caught beneath his jaw and began to blaze.
His lower body shook, and he lost his balance.
Even so……
the Pirate King did not fall.
An explosion of this level was nowhere near enough.
He had stolen Blue Winter December’s sacred relic, fully accepted the Incarnation of Ice into his body, and after a thousand years had grown into a being capable of wielding power equal to—or even greater than—that of a 9-Class mage.
The Pirate King fixed Hong Biyeon with his burning eye-light and said:
—You do a foolish thing. In that too…… you are exactly like that woman.
He had taken serious damage, yes.
But he had not fallen.
And compared to that, the frail human mage before him would simply burn to death in the flames she herself had unleashed.
And even if she somehow did not……
now that she had come this close, there was no chance the Pirate King would let her escape.
But from the very beginning, Hong Biyeon’s real target had not been the Pirate King.
The source of the calamity.
That blue root of winter trying to cast the entire world into eternal cold.
Hong Biyeon closed her eyes.
Then, with the very last sliver of control she had left over the flames, she guided their direction.
And then—
in an instant—
explosion.
Then silence.
So complete that not even the faintest sound could be heard any longer.
—What…… what have you done?!
Pirate King Black Belize’s bewildered voice thundered across heaven and earth.
The spear of Hellfire she had unleashed had pierced clean through his enormous body—
and completely severed the Root of Winter growing from behind his back.
—……But now it is over.
The Fire Spirit Flower’s low voice brushed past Hong Biyeon’s ear.
By severing the Root of Winter, she had prevented the catastrophe.
Eternal winter would no longer descend upon the world.
But……
the Pirate King was still alive.
And now he was truly enraged.
In this despairing situation, the Fire Spirit Flower felt a terrible helplessness at the fact that there was nothing it could do.
For the first time in its existence, it had found a human it wanted to save.
If it were her, then perhaps she could go beyond even Adolevit, and truly understand what fire itself was.
—There is…… nothing I can do for you.
The Pirate King’s roar shook the whole world.
The shockwave warped the clouds into a giant ring, and even the airships hanging in the sky were all shoved backward.
At the center of that catastrophe, Hong Biyeon remained kneeling, looking up at him.
The sky was blue.
And the constellations were strangely beautiful that night.
—You have exhausted all your flame. At this point, you can no longer oppose him. What a pity. If only I had met you when you were just a little stronger……
The Pirate King, consumed by fury, raised both of his arms.
What was he about to do?
She did not know.
But even if she had known, it was not as though she could have done anything about it.
—I will at least commend the spirit with which you sacrificed yourself for your nation. It was brief, but enjoyable, descendant of Adolevit.
The Incarnation of Fire offered what sounded like a bitter farewell.
But perhaps the misunderstanding amused her, because Hong Biyeon let out a hollow laugh and shook her head.
“What are you even talking about? I still don’t want to die.”
—What?
She had a clear goal.
A reason she absolutely had to keep living.
Because from now on……
she had to become happy.
Self-sacrifice?
As if she would do something that stupid.
Hong Biyeon was nothing more than a thoroughly selfish girl who had spent her entire life searching for her own happiness.
—Then why…….
If she did not want to die, then why had she done something so reckless?
The Fire Spirit Flower was just about to ask in shock—
when suddenly……
an aurora spread across the sky.
The clouds directly above Pirate King Black Belize split apart, and a pillar of mysterious light came pouring down.
And from within it—
a boy appeared.
His clothes were torn and ragged, but it was unmistakably Stella’s uniform.
He was so far away that he could easily have been mistaken for nothing more than a dot in the sky.
And yet Hong Biyeon recognized him more quickly than anyone else.
‘……You finally came.’
A long blue spear gripped in one hand, he was plunging desperately toward this place.
That mystical spear left behind a trail of blue lightning as it moved, so that the boy’s descent looked like a lightning bolt falling in slow motion.
Even amid such a desperate moment, it was so beautiful that it stole one’s breath.
‘Yes…… I knew this was how you’d come.’
She had never intended to die.
Because no matter what reckless thing she did—
if only she could see it through—
she knew he would come for her.
Flash!
The blue streak falling from the sky pierced the Pirate King’s heart in an instant, and at once a blinding light burst forth, turning the entire world white.
In that white world, Hong Biyeon was finally able to smile.
‘I…… am still alive.’
There was only one proof by which she could know she was alive.
This very moment was happiness.
So much happiness that it poured through her in waves, enough to tear her chest apart.
She was alive.
And tomorrow, she would go on living.
Because tomorrow would be happier than today.
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