After those words, pronounced by a deep male voice, were said, the haze caused from the snowfall immediately disappeared in the surroundings. Zelta saw the change with his own eyes, now being able to properly see both the Ice Mage and C, but that only made him stay still in respect and terror even more: he knew he had no chance to help and interfere. While Zelta was wondering why this form of C could easily talk and move, he realized it probably was because the creature knew from the start how to do those things, but hadn't given that information to the clone he had created. "This horror story has started to make sense." That was the only constant thought in the stream of questions that overtook his mind.

"I'm just a mage who lives on this mountain." That was the simple answer that Sae gave to the creature, who didn't look satisfied at all and briefly laughed. While C was watching her figure, she gave a look at him. He looked similar to the clone itself with the same white hair and blood red eyes but was not as pale as it, looking muscular and strong on the physical side. Still, she knew that the huge ace this creature had was actually magic -- an overwhelming power, unlike anything Sae had ever seen, emitted out of him -- but not enough to scare her.

"Do you think I wouldn't have realized such a powerful creature exists near me?" He talked to her with a harsh voice, as if he felt like she was trying to deceive him. "Maybe I didn't want to be seen?" Sae suggested, to which the creature shrugged that question off, just as if he had never been interested in such a trivial matter, and instead started talking about something completely different. This was mainly because of Sae's composed reaction.

"You're not scared, are you?" He asked with curiosity in his voice. "I can bet he has never seen someone who wasn't." Sae thought to herself, knowing that in case they'd have to fight she'd have the mental edge. Still, she wanted to avoid such a clash if possible, not because she was scared to lose but more because she was scared of the consequences. She knew such a fight would've been a huge coin toss -- they'd fight for days until one loses from exhaustion because both won't be able to push through the defenses of the opposition. That was the sad truth for when experienced mages of the same power level fought each other, but she hadn't suffered such a fate in many, many years. Nobody could say or show that they were on her level, after all; a battle between the demon and the Ice Mage would've been in favour of who had more resources.

"Nope, I'm not terrified at all." She said. "You may not believe me, but I know how demons work. The fear your clone brought you is unsufficient. You won't be able to win." She said because she knew but both Zelta and C were surprised at that information; the former had no clue the creature was even a demon, the latter didn't know there were humans who still knew that much about demons. What Sae really knew which, thanks to the research of the upper mages, now was considered common knowledge about the lost species of demons, was that they didn't have mana like she and all sorcerers had as a source to draw from to use their power. Rather, they used emotions they took from victims. Now, emotions were very easy to gain and demons themselves never reached a limit to how many they could stack, but while mana would regenerate itself until its maximum capience in every mage with time, demons had to get the emotions on their own. This was probably why Zelta was chosen as a prey in Sae's opinion. After all, his fear would've given the demon something to feed on and get back his fuel.

"You're not a little girl, are you?" Said the demon, calming himself and smiling. "Nope. I do believe I am quite old. One thousand years, to be exact. My name is Sae Icefall and I'm the Ice Mage. Nice to meet you, hot demon guy." She said, fearlessly handing out her hand to greet the creature that had almost threatened her some time prior. "You're interesting, but still quite young." He said, greeting her by shaking her hand. "Still, that makes you even more talented." He finished, without showing a hint of emotion in his voice or face.

"You know a lot about humans, don't you? You even know how to greet them, you've been here for quite a while, haven't you?" She said, showing how her effort to make friends prior had also been a move to see if the demon would get nervous, not knowing what to do in front of a hand to shake. "Anyway, you still haven't told me your name. Isn't that a sign of bad manners?" Sae eerily asked the creature that was looking at her for a name as that person could only look at her charming and gracious smile with a careful attitude. 

"That's right. My name is Leran Sasagorior and I am the king of demons." It was now his turn to attack the mental defense of his opponent as he followed that with a charming smile of his own and an expression of superiority on his face. He didn't know what about this girl had made him desire to have a competition with her but he couldn't understand her arrogance, something he had never been on the receiving end of. After all, every demon in the spirit realm feared him terribly, yet this impudent mage could talk to him as if they were long-time friends.

"So, that's why you're so powerful. I see." She nodded, satisfied with the explanations she had received, as she seemed to not have any fear from the title of king of demons. "Is that a compliment?" He joked, getting ready to go back in his cave. That was because, at the end, he had gotten what he needed, the fear, and he didn't want to fight this girl, mostly because he knew she'd outlast him in a long battle and win at the end -- he still lacked resources to take on this fight, but she didn't look eager to initiate it either. "Maybe she's hiding something, or maybe I just overestimated her abilities to realize when she will for sure win." He thought to himself, but then looked around him.

What he saw was that same boy that his clone had involuntarily chased in the mountains, standing behind a rock and trying to hide. "I see, she cares for humans." That was the natural conclusion of the questions he had asked himself. "I can destroy any village from here in this zone, so she won't fight me. That's a good start to a pact of neutrality." He smiled, realizing he could still have the upper hand in this battle of wit.

"It's a fact. Do you know what else is a fact?" She asked him impatiently, as if she had been waiting for that answer, as if she was intentionally calling it.

"No, tell me, what is it?" He answered without putting much emphasis on his words.

"Well, let me give you some information. The spell you use is a clone-creating one. I'd know, since I created it. This implies you were alive and well five hundred years ago, the first and last time I used this spell, which is a good start to what I want to prove as I didn't make it public -- a few people knew, but they didn't have any affairs with demons. That, I know well. Anyway, because it's a spell I created, I know how it works and I know it's not cost efficient for gathering resources. That's because the more orders you give it, the more resources this spell will spend. You want to have the best gain of fear possible for when you scare a village, so you put the least specific order possible: 'attack, then go back.' This makes sense, but only if you logically assume there's a need to use such a spell, because otherwise you'd go on your own. This means that you're actually scared of something, the same reason you chose such an isolated mountain. Because you know humans well, I'm sure what you're scared of is a big group of Delmasian mages, which makes me able to roughly estimate your current resource capacities. A spoiler, they must be low." She finished with a grin on her face, having said everything with a cold expression and having watched the face of Leran slowly become paler and paler, whiter and whiter.

Because everything she had said was completely right, he couldn't ignore her attitude towards him. He knew she could've ended him at any time -- if she was so intelligent at picking up pieces of a conversation to understand how things were, she probably knew a magic-block spell would've been something Leran couldn't escape with the current resources at his disposal. That would also negate any chance of a counter attack towards humans; after all, with his magic sealed the demon king wasn't much better than a knight at physically fighting. "But she's not going for it. Maybe I misread her, maybe it's not the humans she wants to protect, maybe she just doesn't want to shed blood." That was the easiest conclusion he could come to, but it was still not understandable for him. Why was Sae refusing to make the correct decision, the one that would always lead to a checkmate?

"And, let me finish this really quickly. Just a hundred years after creating that spell, I went to isolation in this zone because it was cute, cold and full of mountains. That's when people put together every single contribution I had made to the sorcerer institutions with fake names and created the myth of the Ice Mage living in the mountains. Because you don't know me, that means you weren't there in that period." Sae continued, but then stopped to express her final guess.

"So, have you been locked away for four hundred years?"

The first person to gasp and be completely flabbergasted was Zelta, who was still spectating the verbal clash between the two. But the same reaction also caused Leran himself to understand he had been completely figured out. Still, he tried to keep his emotions locked in place and casually changed his direction, going from directly facing the girl that he was discussing with to getting back towards the cave he was living in.

"You know so much about humans, but you've never played Poker before, have you? It shows." She just said, then laughed to herself. "I suggest you don't try for the time being. Still, you can't get rid of me so easily now." 

Sae said as she walked into the cave following him, who started moving faster towards the inside of it. At that point, Zelta was left alone outside. He wanted to follow them and see what words they'd say to each other, but he realized he had prolonged his stay too much and he had people to reassure at the village, who he had learned, thanks to a close-to-death experience, to treasure more. Neitar was waiting, in first place. He'd not let him get preoccupied.

But a new feeling when the fear went away replaced it in the mage's heart: admiration. For the first time in his life, the blue-haired sorcerer had someone he felt infinitely inferior to that he could look at with awe and only wish he'd reach.

That person was Sae.