Lily, Fisha and Mr Garry' family left right after that. They also convinced many more villagers to go with them.

 

Now, it had been five days since the Winter Princess, Lily Birken, revealed her identity and led the evacuation. But, it all happened too suddenly. Many people were either too skeptical or not ready to leave yet. Therefore, only half the village followed her, around fifty cat people. The other half of the village, they chose to stay behind and wait until morning, and since then no one knew what happened to them.

 

At the moment, Lily’s group were resting the night inside a cave located at the foot of a mountain. It was called Mount Garreth, named after a deceased Hero. Garreth too was one of the five Royal Ones chosen by the Winter Spirit, but he died in battle many years ago. This mountain named after him was one of a few stops on the way to Solsera, and Mr Garry discovered his cave many years ago when he was running his spice business.

 

Outside, it was snowing slightly. But at least there was no more black ash as they had already moved further away from Mount Pyria. At this rate, they were expecting to reach Solsera in around twenty more days.

 

“My Princess, please don’t think too much. You’ve done the best you can.”

 

Mr Garry said, handed Lily a cup of warm milk and a small grilled fish on a stick. It was grilled over a campfire they made. The fish was cooked from frozen, so the taste might not be as good as fresh ones.

 

The old cat man saw that Lily couldn’t sleep, so he decided to stay up too. Fisha was sleeping right next to them. Sharing the blanket with her was Mr Garry’s grandson, Cherry, a very cute cat boy of the same age as Fisha. Cherry was Fisha's bestest friend.

 

His father, John, was now keeping watch outside of the cave. 

 

“I know, but I can’t stop thinking about the other villagers, Mr Garry,” said Lily “if I knew about everything sooner, I could have convinced more people to go with us.”

 

Hearing that, Mr Garry sighed. He too felt the same about what happened. They had too little time to do things. The elderly people, the small children who were too weak to go… thinking about them made both Lily and Mr Garry restless. They knew that there was nothing they could do now, and it was also pointless thinking about that too much. But, those thoughts just kept haunting their minds.

 

So, with every second went by, they prayed for the best, that the rest of the village could make it in time and they would see them again once they reached Solsera.

 

“But who could have thought…,” Mr Garry then tried to change the subject, “Mount Pyria was actually the work of the Dragon King huh?”

 

“Yeah…” Lily replied. “Jeffrey didn’t want anyone else to know about this, fearing that people might have misunderstood him. After all, it was his most powerful weapon there.”

 

In the past five days, Lily had explained to Mr Garry about the real history of Mount Pyria. It was such a secret that only a few people knew about. Unlike the common folks’ misconception, Mount Pyria was not created by the Winter Spirit, the supreme being that ruled over the Northern Lands. That volcano was actually a manifestation of the Dragon King’s power. After witnessing how harsh life was in Wosmeowcia, he secretly left his forever burning war axes behind, functioning as the volcano’s core. 

 

And that was also the reason why Lily was so concerned about Mount Pyria acting strange and decided to evacuate early. That pair of burning war axes, named the Dragonixes, were Mythical Grade, soul-bound weapons. Similar to Valine’s Refrigerator, they resonated with their true owner and could only become active when the owner was around, or at least, if they gave them a direct order like in this case as a volcanic core: “Burn forever and protect people.”  

 

But now, since the Dragon King had died many years ago, there was no more reason for the Dragonixes to become active again, besides acting as a heat source for Wosmeowcia. However, this time, not only was it erupting black ash in the middle of winter, but as Lily described through the vibrations she felt, it also growled and screamed and screeched in anger and pain. She knew, because she had felt this kind of vibration from Jeffrey many times before, when they used to fight together against the Demon Army. 

 

And with the fact that Lunaria had been destroyed just earlier that day, it was like Mount Pyria was trying to warn them about something very serious. Something related to the Dragon King, or perhaps… the King himself...

 

“But... I’m still confused. Why? Does it mean that King Zudras is still alive? Only he can use the Dragonixes, right?” Mr Garry raised a question.

 

Zudras was the name that other people called the Dragon King. Only Lily called him Jeffrey.

 

“No, it’s impossible.” Lily shook her head. “Jeffrey died long ago. But, this power... it felt exactly like him, with such a heavy and sinister aura. I...” she then sighed. “I don’t know, I have no explanation…”

 

“I see,” said Mr Garry. “We don’t know what the threat is yet, but based on your information, it seems like we’ve made the right choice.”

 

“I just hope it wasn’t too late.”

 

“Nah, we will be fine," Mr Garry shrugged. "Even if the Demon King is resurrected and comes after us, we have The Winter Princess here with us after all!” 

 

He was trying to lighten up the mood a bit.

 

Hearing that, Lily chuckled. “I’m not really that strong, but I will try my best to protect our people.”

 

“We know that,” Mr Garry smiled. “Do you remember? If it’s not for you, then us Sillwater could never escape slavery. My grandfather told me many stories about you. He missed you so much.”

 

“Danny did? Yeah… I miss him too, he was such a good man. We travelled together a lot back in the days.”

 

“And he also told us the reason you disappeared.”

 

Mr Garry then turned back, looked at Fisha.

 

“My guess, her father is… ahhh… forgive me, Princess...”

 

“It’s alright,” said Lily. “There’s no point hiding from you. Besides, you already know...”

 

“So… is it true?”

 

“Yes,” Lily nodded and she too, looked at Fisha. It was still very cold even inside the cave, so her and Cherry snuggled close to each other. It was such a lovely sight. 

 

“You know, Fisha has my hair and ears, but she has her father’s eyes. People say that lions have scary eyes when they get angry, but hers are actually so cute that it always makes me want to tease her more. Pretty funny if you think about it.”

 

“Haha, no wonder Cherry was afraid of her sometimes.”

 

“Yeah,” said Lily. She then rested her head on Mr. Garry’s shoulders, and said to him: “Mr Garry, thank you for trusting me.”

 

“No, it’s my honor.”

 

Mr Garry said, and proceeded to grill another fish. He asked more about his grandfather, and Lily told him many more stories. 

 

---

 

Meanwhile,

 

Stefan was inside his dream once again. It was indeed a continuation of the previous one. Everything around him had been burned down. The whole city of Lunaria had been flattened. Snow was, once again, falling heavily and the air was freezing cold. But, under that new layer of snow, lay the bodies of countless people.

 

However, this time, there was also one major difference.

 

Thud.

 

Stefan's body collapsed onto the snowy ground. He just fell, from where he was before, three meters above.

 

“What?”

 

Stefan sat up, looked at his hands. His face couldn’t hide the confusion. How did he fall? Could he now… move?

 

Crack… 

 

Stefan moved his fingers, opened and closed his palm, making some crackling sounds. It was the ice breaking. For some reason, Stefan’s body had been covered in some kind of icy layer all this time.

 

Stefan stood up. His body felt light. Tall, but very light. He then bent his knees, wanting to try a small jump.

 

Woosh! With just such a slight movement, Stefan already reached a height that he could see the entire city of Lunaria clearly. Just as he thought, that dragon… it had destroyed everything. Not a single survivor could be seen.

 

Then, upon landing, the body automatically made a roll to absorb the shock.

 

“This is…”

 

Stefan’s mind was instantly filled with nostalgia. Many years ago, he used to move like this. Running on the roof tops, jumping from tree to tree, quick like an arrow and free like the wind, so fast that nobody else could catch up to him at that time.

 

Or actually, her…

 

Wind blew. Long, white like snow hair blowing in the wind, brushed against the face of a beautiful cat girl wearing light armor. Her eyes were blue, shining the symbol of snowflakes. Inside her body, power of the Winter Spirit was flowing, the power that could freeze anything. 

 

Yes, Stefan was Valaine. Fantasia Rank 2, the White Demon of Wosmeowcia, the Royal One.

 

But... she also had another name. As Valaine turned around, looking at where she used to be before, she noticed the writing on a stone tablet that had been partly melted.

 

It said: Valaine Deathwhizkersz…

 

“The Petrified Queen… huh?”