The monster emerged from the ground, its titanic form looming over the Otherworlders. It opened its mouth wide and roared.

Ezra took a step backward. If he needed to, he’d bring out Filamenta. But he’d prefer to avoid using her if possible.

Charles pointed Zenith at the Snow King.

“Mages, fire!” he said.

Shimmering beams and balls of fire crashed into the Snow King and exploded, sending it toppling backward. It roared and regained its balance.

“Spread out!” Charles said.

A moment later, the air shimmered and icicles conjured into existence next to the Snow King. The Otherworlders ran off to the side, Ezra followed and jumped into a roll.

A moment later, the icicles flew out and flew toward the ground. They whistled through the air and landed, exploding into dozens of ice shards. One of the shards flew past Ezra and sliced a cut across his cheek. He winced and looked back at the Snow King.

No major damage. They hadn’t managed to do more than irritate it. Ezra bit the inside of his cheek. Should he pull out Filamenta?

“Now, Pete!” Charles said.

Pete pulled back his bowstring and an ethereal arrow appeared. It glowed so bright that Ezra had to avert his eyes.

Pete took a deep breath. An expression of concentration appeared on his face.

He released the string.

The arrow soared through the air, directly to the center of the Snow King. The Snow King seemed to widen its eyes and move to the left, but it was too late.

The arrow pierced directly into the snow body. There was a crackle, then a loud explosion. The snow evaporated instantly, revealing a crystalline, blue core. Surrounding it was a purple, translucent shield.

Ezra’s jaw dropped. When could Pete do that?

“Now, dispel it!” Charles yelled.

Blasts of magic echoed out. Shimmering rays of orange and yellow smashed against the shield, but nothing happened. Ezra turned and gave a glare to Sen.

Sen growled and held up his hand. A purple bolt of mana conjured in front of his palm, then shot out like a bullet toward the shield.

There was a loud popping noise and the shield shattered into thin dust.

Ezra ran forward, seeing the opportunity. Off to the side, Charles followed after a moment’s hesitation.

Ezra jumped up and slammed the core with his fist. A spider web of cracks appeared across the surface. Charles jumped and slashed, cutting a deep groove across the core.

2450/3000

2013/3000

The shield reappeared with a flash. Snow ripped out of the ground and flew around like a tornado, with the core at its center. In moments, the Snow King had its body back.

It roared and summoned a half-dozen icicles. Unlike before, they were all aimed specifically at a single person.

Pete.

He paled and ran to the side. The icicles shot out.

Charles ran over and slashed through three of them. Most of the others missed. Pete dodged two with a roll.

One did not miss.

It hit Pete directly in the arm. He screamed at the top of his lungs and fell to the ground. Yuki—who’d been buffing various mages with extra power—stopped her casting and ran over to Pete.

Ezra’s fingers twitched. They needed a distraction. He was tempted to turn Filamenta into a javelin again, but considering what happened last time…

Instead, Ezra ran up and punched the bottom of the Snow King’s body, blasting it away and causing the upper part of the body to tilt to the side. Snow came back to fill in the bottom and it stared down at Ezra. A blue glowing spot appeared under Ezra’s feet. He jumped out of the way, and a moment later an icicle erupted from under where he’d been standing.

Ezra glanced back. They’d managed to get Pete out of the way, but now they had a new problem—how were they supposed to blow the body away? Pete was the only one who’d managed to pull off such an impressive trick. It didn’t seem like anyone else could do so.

Maybe Yuki could’ve done it with her bizarre dimensional attacks, but she didn’t have enough control. Maybe Ezra could pull off one of his nuclear attacks? But he might hit the Otherworlders. And besides, once he starts whipping his needle around, that’s a dead giveaway.

Four blue circles swept across the ground before ending up around Ezra. He jumped into the air and the icicles followed after him. He used the sides to jump away and rolled onto the ground.

“Charles, please tell me you’ve got a backup!” Ezra said.

Charles grinned, a droplet of sweat rolling down his cheek.

“Just one. I leave it up to you after this, One-Eye!”

Power burst from his straight razor and it glowed with an unearthly light. The Snow King turned its attention to Charles and ten blue circles converged on Charles’s position.

A long ethereal blade of pure mana extended out from the tip of Charles’s straight razor. Longer than a dagger. Longer than a sword. Almost as tall as the Snow King.

Ezra’s jaw dropped. What was with all these last-minute power reveals?!

Charles gripped the handle of his straight razor and slashed through the Snow King’s body in a single cleave. The snow evaporated, revealing the shielded core.

Charles gave a thumbs up and fell over.

Ezra gave him a look, then turned his attention back to the core. Now, Sen just needed to attack...

The shield was still up.

Sen hadn’t attacked. Ezra looked back and noticed that he was gone.

A tornado of snow ripped up. The body of the Snow King reformed.

----------------------------------------

The Snow King’s roar shook the trees. The temperature plummeted and a snowstorm seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Chills shot down Ezra’s spine and he suppressed the urge to fall over.

Charles lay slumped over in the snow, unable to move. His straight razor seemed unusually dim. The remaining mages shot random attacks at the Snow King, doing no damage.

A wall of ice spikes exploded out of the ground before Ezra could move. One slammed into his chest, his chimera cloak deflecting the worst of the damage. Ezra jumped away and fell into a loose roll.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

He breathed deeply and coughed. Something brushed against the edge of his mind—a familiar presence. Filamenta.

Ezra wasn’t done fighting if she wasn’t done fighting either.

Somewhere to his left, he heard a shattering noise. Someone cried out in pain.

“Keep moving!” Charles pushed himself up. “We can’t give up now—“

An icicle shot toward him. He leaped out of the way and tumbled to the ground.

Ezra’s hands twitched. What was he supposed to do? Sen was supposed to be his ace in the hole, and now he was gone. Damn it—he’d have to cut his losses and retreat again. But what about Filamenta? She was so close to death, could he afford any more time?

Through the whiteout, Ezra caught sight of someone. Yuki. She ran toward one of the injured, her teeth clenched.

An icicle formed overhead.

Ezra moved. Time stretched like cold honey. Every single one of his Stats was pushed to their breaking point in a split second.

He slammed into her, throwing her out of the way of the icicle. They rolled through the ground into a rough heap. A moment later, the icicle landed, exploding the snow and kicking up a cloud of white dust.

Ezra’s eyes scanned across her. Was she injured?

Yuki stared back at him.

“Oh,” she muttered. “Now I remember why.”

“Why what?” He pushed himself to his feet. “Come on, get out of here. You can gather up the wounded. I’ll buy you some time—“

“No.”

She stood up. Ezra looked back at her, his eyes wide.

“What are you talking about!?” he said. “You need to get out of here!“

Energy crackled around her form. She stared up at the Snow King. If Ezra didn’t know better, he’d say that he could sense the fear of it. The Snow King formed a dozen icicles and launched them at her, faster than Ezra had ever seen before.

“I’ve been practicing my magic, you know,” Yuki said. “And what you said helped.

Reality bent.

“Die.”

A blast of power rippled through space and ripped the icicles to shreds. It continued on to the Snow King and pierced straight through the body and toward the core.

Ezra glared at her. “Why didn’t you use that earlier!?”

Yuki’s expression turned sheepish. “I didn’t want to risk it…?”

There was a loud boom and snow fell back to the ground. The core sat, exposed.

434/3000

Ezra sucked in a breath. He rushed forward and jumped into the air. Filamenta appeared in his hand and he stabbed forward.

The core cracked and opened up. A bright blue glow shone from within

And everything went black.

----------------------------------------

When Ezra opened his eyes, he was standing in a black void of nothingness. He blinked and stepped forward, looking from left to right.

For the longest time, he walked and walked till he heard something. A voice.

“Resonant Vessel. I extend greetings.”

A figure materialized in front of him.

It was a man in a white cloak. His skin was pale blue while his figure was straight and regal.

Ezra tilted his head. “Who the heck are you?”

“You don’t recognize me? You’ve attempted to kill me twice, now, yet you don’t have the decency to know who I am?”

Ezra’s eyes widened and his left foot slid backward.

“You’re the Snow King,” Ezra said.

“Indeed, I am,” he said. “And you are the Resonant Vessel.”

“Vessel? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I suppose you wouldn’t know. You will find out in time.”

Ezra reached out his hand to summon Filamenta.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Ezra said. “I don’t particularly care. You’re going to die and then I’m going to get a hold of the Dark Seal.”

“Right, for the Moonlit Queen, yes?”

Ezra recognized the name immediately. Of course, he did. From the very beginning, when he’d arrived here…

“What are you talking about?” Ezra said.

“Ah, she adopted a different name, didn’t she? That makes sense.”

Ezra tugged on his connection to Filamenta. She didn’t appear in his hand.

“I’m afraid that won’t work,” the Snow King said. “Perhaps, if she were in better shape—but she’s not. I can tell.”

Ezra grunted. “What do you even know about her?”

“You’d be surprised.” His voice paused. “Tell me, has she ever explained who she was before she became a needle?”

Ezra was silent. He’d gotten bits and pieces, of course, but nothing truly substantial. He considered attacking the Snow King before he paused. Maybe this would be a chance to get some information?

“No,” Ezra said. “She hasn’t told me anything.”

The Snow King put his hands behind his back.

“Interesting.” He circled Ezra. “She was quite different once. Proud. Powerful. The Queen of one of the greatest empires of its time. She commanded respect from everyone, even her enemies.”

“Explain yourself.”

“I have a question.” The Snow King paused in front of Ezra. “Why do you think that someone so powerful was put into a needle? How does such a thing occur? And why is the System trying so hard to put her back to sleep?”

“That wasn’t a question. That was multiple questions.”

“Still, my point stands.”

Why was she in the needle in the first place?

In retrospect, it seemed like a question he should’ve thought more deeply about. How does a living, breathing person, get turned into a spirit and stuffed into a weapon?

“Alright, you’ve got my curiosity,” Ezra said. “Why? How did she get turned into a weapon?”

“If the branch is rotten, then the tree is sick. If the tree is sick, then it must be purged.”

Ezra felt a rising sense of nausea.

“You aren’t saying that…”

“The Demon Lord was not always a monster. There was once a time when he ruled alongside his sister.”

Ezra sighed.

“Filamenta is the Demon Lord’s sister, isn’t she?”

“You have a quick mind, Vessel.”

Ezra reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose.

It fit.

She had a personal hatred of the Demon Lord. There was an odd familiarity with Demonic powers in general. The historical evidence supported it as well. The Astralyte Empire used to be allied with the Demon Lord, right? If Filamenta was the ruler of the Astralyte Empire, then of course the Demon Lord would be an “ally.”

Then, of course, there was the whole [Demonic Bind] and [Bind] thing.

“Goddamnit Filamenta, this is exactly why you don’t hide this shit,” he muttered. “Now I don’t know what to think of you.”

The Snow King raised an eyebrow.

“You’re taking this better than I thought,” he said.

“I’m still processing it.” Ezra took his fingers away from his face and stared at the Snow King. “Right, how did she get thrown into a needle, then?”

“On the eve of the war’s end,” the Snow King said. “Filamenta, tired and worn out from infighting, made a choice. She was going to sue for peace with her brother. Unfortunately, her council caught wind of this and hatched a plan. Filamenta’s powers were great, so they wished to avoid simply killing her. But they couldn’t let her make such a decision.”

Ezra crossed his arms. “So they come up with an alternative plan. They turned her into a spirit.”

“Exactly. And that would also turn her into a martyr,” The Snow King said. “They’d tell the people that she died due to an assassin sent by her brother. Her spirit would be used in a Spirit Weapon—it was the perfect plan. However, a third party… intervened. The Astralyte Empire was destroyed and the Demon Lord’s powers were locked, leaving us in a stalemate.”

Ezra could see where this was going.

“You’re about to tell me that my partnership with Filamenta is all part of some elaborate ruse, right?” he said. “She’s been manipulating me to get to this point so that I would use the Dark Seal and restore her to her full power, get her in touch with her brother or something like that? Maybe even the System putting her to sleep—that’s the System detecting the Demon Lord’s essence in her and trying to eliminate a threat to the world.”

“More or less.”

Ezra scoffed.

“And you’re just telling me this out of the goodness of your heart? Bullshit.”

The Snow King chuckled.

“I’d rather not die, for one. Besides that, I tire of being a disposable pawn. You are the Vessel. Perhaps you have a chance to kill the Demon Lord, and that would be my chance to… hmm, swoop in, I believe is the term?”

“Yeah, yeah. You talk a good game, but I don’t buy it.”

The Snow King shrugged.

“Ignore the source of the information and think about it for a moment. Evaluate it in light of everything you know to be true and everything you know to be false. I think that you’ll find my statement of events to be more compelling than you’re admitting.”

Ezra’s limbs tensed.

It did fit, he had to admit. Filamenta would have to be a master manipulator for it to work—but then again, she had a strong connection to his mind and she knew how to use that better than he did. She’d have a manual on how to play his buttons and get him attached to her.

Why was he so attached to her? It’d been an almost unconscious decision for him to go through with this whole thing. As soon as he was backed up into a corner, he chose to throw everything away for her sake.

A sinking feeling entered his gut.

Oh.

She’d probably betrayed him.

He’d been able to push away the possibility before, more just engaging with the Snow King as a hypothetical.

Now he was starting to believe it.

He reached up and scratched the back of his head.

“Ah, damn it.” He muttered. “I have the worst luck, don’t I? Everyone I get close to either leaves or turns out to be a piece of shit.”

A couple of names came to mind. Charles. Prise. His parents.

The worst part was that he’d trusted her. He hadn’t realized it till now, but he did.

The first clue should’ve been that she tried to engage with him at all. No one would do so unless they had something to gain.

“She played you well, did she not?” the Snow King said. “All while hiding the truth—“

“Shut up.” Ezra held up his hand. “I don’t want to talk to anyone right now.”

The Snow King drew backward.

He held his hand up and looked at it.

Was she ever planning on telling him?

She’d played him perfectly. Get close to the unstable loner. The one who would be most vulnerable to mental manipulation, presumably, and the one who wouldn’t tell anyone else about the voices in his head. Build up trust.

Even if she was innocent, her brother was the Demon Lord. He deserved to know. What, did she forget to tell? Ha. As if.

She was such a fake.

Ezra sighed. “Well, looks like we’re done here.”

“Excellent. We will exit the mindscape, and then you will spare me—“

“Absolutely not. You still tried to kill me twice in a row. Besides, I could use the levels.”

The Snow King staggered backward. “Y-you can’t be serious! I revealed the truth to you, do you still intend to obtain the Dark Seal?”

“Yeah.” Ezra’s voice was flat. “And after that, I’ll decide what to do next. Either way, you’re dying.”

The Snow King roared and pointed a finger at Ezra. “How dare you! Do you believe that you will simply be able to defeat me in my soulscape!? How laughable!”

Ezra cracked his neck to the left. “Just another Tuesday. Let’s get this over with.”