Once more, Dalton found himself in front of the seven ice pillars. Unlike the last time, only one of them was glowing bright, as if beckoning him closer. His fingers grazed the pillar, before sucking him into another memory.

This time he was not a Demon Lord. He was no one, just an observer. He watched as a boy was playing swords with a strangely familiar blonde-haired girl with a braided hair placed over her shoulder.

The girl always loved to fight. She beat every boy in the village. Though they started with a group of many boys, after a while, it dwindled to just two. The other boys did not want to play with her anymore.

The boy did though. He liked the girl very much. The way she laughed when the two of them were filled with welts. The way her braided hair swayed in the wind. The way she held up her fists up to fight.

Everything about her, he liked. He was sure the feeling would last.

But it didn’t.

Her punches became heavier though. Enough to crack his bones.

Their fights soon became a fight for survival. Not for the girl though, but for the boy. He would hide in the woods as she hunted for him. When she did not like that, she would light the woods on fire to draw him out.

“Why are you doing this?” The tearful boy cried. The wooden sword in his hands shook as the fire encircled the two of them.

The girl gave a devilish smile. A burning tree cracked behind her, crashing down.

“Isn’t this fun?”

She came in close. The force of her punch turned the wooden sword into powder.

“I don’t like this!” The boy yelled, tears streamed down his face. “I don’t like you anymore! I want to go home!”

This made the girl sad. She stepped past the boy, and with the force of another punch, put out part of the fire circle. It was enough to give the boy safe passage to get back to the village.

The boy told everyone what she did, and she was forced out of the village. She didn’t care about leaving, she didn’t like this boring village anyways.

She did care that there was no one powerful enough to fight her.

For the next ten years, she would live on a mountain known for housing dragons and other powerful monsters. The girl would hunt the dragons down and eat them. The dragons did not like what the girl did and teamed up with different factions to bring the girl down.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

That did nothing but bring the girl joy. She killed all ten dragons that single night. After that, the rest of the dragons left the mountain that they lived on for generations, migrating to a new home.

It was a week after the incident when he came.

“What happened here?” He was boy around the same age as her, he had a ridiculous giant sword about the same size as himself slapped on his back. He was looking around and saw the girl. He waved at her. “Hey, do you know where the dragons are? I need to get one of their horns to make medicine for an old lady.”

The girl ripped a chunk of dragon meat, chewing thoughtfully. She ignored the boy. But the boy walked up to her, with a smile.

“I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself. I am Talos.” He held out his hand for her to shake.

“There are no dragons. They are all dead, or ran like cowards,” she said, ignoring his hand. “There are horns over there, go ahead and pick one.” She pointed in her cavern.

Talos gave his thanks and went to the cave. She bit the last chunk of dragon meat and licked her greasy fingers. Talos returned with a dragon horn under his arm.

“Did you do that?” Talos asked. “Did you kill all those dragons?”

“I did.” She tossed the meat bone behind her. “What of it?”

“That’s amazing!” He exclaimed. “Say, do you want to join my party?”

That was something that might be interesting to do. She eyed Talos. Noting his slim physique, a very pretty face with a charming smile, and the giant sword that might as well be a slab of iron. She gave a discouraging sigh.

“I’m not interested in weaklings.” She shooed him. “Go on now, leave.”

Talos shifted his weight, still with the same annoying smile. “Do you think I am weak?”

“You are weak.”

“Want to try me?”

She was getting annoyed by the man. She punched the man, intending to break his jaw. What surprised her was how quick he smacked the blow away.

“That was fast.” He was a bit surprised by it.

She tried again, but the man did it again. She punched a few times, and each time he parried it. Her mood started to lighten up. She was feeling the hum of joy spread within her as her blood boiled for more.

Her strikes became sharper, they became heavy enough to crack the horn of a dragon. Even still, the man parried each blow without blinking an eye. This was getting fun. She put more power in her next blow, and that was the first blow that broke through his defense and crushed his nose. He flew back in an arch, but he righted himself in midair and landed on his feet.

Talos snapped his nose back in place. He used his sleeve to wipe the blood off his face. The girl cackled.

“You’re pretty good.”

“You are too.” He reached behind him, pulling the blade in front of him as if it were made of feathers. “I might have to take this a little seriously.”

Their battle lasted three days and nights. It was so intense, that it reshaped the mountain, becoming shorter than it originally was.

Talos won the fight. The two of them laid on the ground, separated by a small crevice that Talos had sliced open. It was his right as the winner, so he requested the girl to become his companion. She laughed at that though.

“What do you need me for? Whoever you’re going to fight is not going to be able to win.”

“It’s precisely because you’re strong I need you,” Talos said. “I’m going to fight the Demon King.”

Those days with Talos were some of the most fulfilling of her life. She did not know, but a seed of love had been planted in her heart, and soon it took full bloom as she watched the boy become the man that slayed the Demon King.

And on the day when she realized her feelings were love, the Ice Witch had come down to take what was rightfully hers.