Alice’s aura tail stiffened as mana surged out of the gem on Tafel’s staff, radiating outwards like an explosion. The ice-cold mana washed over the room, coating everything it touched with a layer of frost. Alice shivered and shook herself off, shattering the crystals forming on her skin. “You said it’d be only a little chilly!”

“You shook it off, didn’t you?” Tafel asked in reply. “And it’s not done yet.”

Icicles blossomed like flowers from every surface with frost on it. They grew in size until they were as large as an infant before exploding into clouds of snow and hail. Wind picked up from underneath, whirling around and around, turning the room into a snow-filled landscape. The bloody people’s movements were stiff as they struggled to wipe off the snow accumulating on their partially frozen bodies. Alice had retreated towards Vur, taking shelter underneath Sheryl, who was canceling out some of the effects of Tafel’s spell.

A moment later, another wave of ice-cold mana radiated out of Chi’Rururp, slowing the bloody people’s movements even further. The snow and hail in the room became thicker and thicker until it was impossible to see anything other than white. Tafel picked up Chi’Rururp and stuffed it inside of a portal along with her staff. The two blizzard spells ended and the snow and hail died down, revealing four frozen red statues sticking out amongst a snowy field.

“I hope you didn’t damage any of the books,” Mr. Skelly mumbled as he dug himself out of a pile of snow. He shook himself off and took off his helmet, leaning forward and patting the back of his skull with his hand to knock snow out of his eye sockets. Once his vision cleared up, he tapped the frozen buckler-wielding man. “It seems like he couldn’t null this spell, eh?”

“I figured if Vur could freeze those children, then I could freeze these adults,” Tafel said with a nod. “I think I’m starting to understand how null-magic works and how to counter it. The icicle I shot at it before was created through mana, so all he had to do was disrupt the flow of mana within to destroy it. But blizzard creates lots of ice and snow to drop the temperature. The only way to cancel out blizzard would be to destroy each individual snowflake to prevent the temperature drop. At least, that’s my theory.”

“Speaking of temperature drops,” Alice said and clutched her shoulders while shivering. “Am I the only one who’s cold!?”

Vur shrugged. “I feel fine.” Despite standing in the middle of the blizzard without moving, there wasn’t a single speck of snow on his skin, in his hair, or covering his pants. “The snow melted before it could touch me thanks to Sheryl.”

“You’re welcome, Vur,” Sheryl said, the red orb of light hovering around him flashing twice.

“I’m undead,” Mr. Skelly said. “Cold and heat are foreign concepts to me. After being dead for so long, I forgot what they felt like.”

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Alice turned towards Tafel. The demon shrugged. “Phoenixes don’t get cold, sorry.”

“Well, Ms. Phoenix,” Alice said, narrowing her eyes at her companion, “you can be the one to dig out all those books with your non-cold hands.”

Tafel snorted. “Excuse me, I’m married. It’s Mrs. Phoenix.” She walked over to the bookshelf and gestured towards Vur. “Hey, can you move these bodies into the other room with the children?”

Vur scratched his nose. “So now I’m needed, huh?”

Mr. Skelly whispered to Vur, “She phrased it like a question, but it’s actually an order.”

Tafel glared at Mr. Skelly. Then she smiled at Vur. “Please?”

Vur sighed and tapped his chest. “Mervin, can I wish for you to move these statues to the other room?”

“No!” Tafel and Mervin said at the same time. The genie that popped its head out of Vur’s chest made eye contact with Tafel. “Eh?”

“The statues are too heavy,” Mervin said and shrugged. “Look at how tiny I am. How am I supposed to move those things?”

“For a genie king, there sure are a lot of wishes you can’t grant, huh?” Stella asked as she pushed Mervin out of Vur’s chest from behind, causing him to fall into a pile of snow face first. The fairy queen poked her head out and shook her fist at the legs that were sticking out of the snow. She whirled around to face Vur. “He can totally move those statues, but he’s delaying because he wants to keep pestering me. You have to be more firm, Vur. Hurry up and turn him back into a beansprout.”

Tafel sighed as she opened a portal beside the two nearby statues and tilted them over so that they fell through. Then she pushed their frozen feet inside before closing the portal. Alice tilted her head, still cowering underneath Sheryl’s warmth. “If you could do that, why’d you have to ask Vur?”

“I thought he’d be happier if he was given something to do,” Tafel said and shook her head. She brushed a fire-filled hand over the frozen books, melting the frost around them and evaporating the water before it could soak into the bindings. “Huh. I can read these.”

“You’re literate, congratulations,” Alice said through chattering teeth.

“That’s not what I meant,” Tafel said, her expression darkening. She turned around and stared at Alice, who was glaring at her. “Are you seriously upset about the spell I used to disable that group of people? If I didn’t freeze them, how else were we supposed to win?”

“If you gave me a little more time, I’m sure I could’ve bludgeoned them to death with my shield,” Alice said, pursing her lips.

“We’re supposed to be rushing this dungeon, remember?” Tafel asked, placing her hands on her hips. “Mary’s birthday party is less than two weeks away and we don’t know how deep this dungeon goes. Look, there’s already two doors that we can go through now which clearly shows this dungeon isn’t a linear one.” She opened a portal by the end of the bookshelf. Then she swept the books off their shelves, dumping them inside the portal. “Alright, loot acquired. Which way are we going next?”

“Let’s split up,” Vur said, his eyes lighting up. “If we want to clear it faster, then—”

“No,” Tafel said, her voice as hard as steel. “That’s how horror stories start. Dungeon parties never split up.”

“She has a point,” Mr. Skelly said, patting Vur’s back. “It’s a white-ranked dungeon after all. There could be terrifying things waiting for us.”

“I’m pretty sure Vur’s the most terrifying thing inside this dungeon,” Alice said.

“We’re going this way,” Tafel said, gesturing towards the door closest to herself. Vur sighed as he followed after the party, his eyes drifting towards the unexplored door on the other side of the room.