Together we stand, united and strong, 

In the heat of battle, we'll prove them wrong. 

Our melee strikes, a force combined, 

[Physical Resolve], our power defined. 

  

Unleash the force, as one we thrive, 

Our united strength, the enemy won't survive. 

With iron will, we break through strife, 

[Physical Resolve], our source of life. 

  

Side by side, we face the fight, 

With synchronized blows, we shine so bright. 

No challenge too great, no foe too tall, 

[Physical Resolve], our bond stands tall. 

  

Through blood and sweat, we rise above, 

A team of warriors, bound by love. 

With each blow, we claim victory's domain, 

In [Physical Resolve], our might shall reign. 

  

Unleash the force, as one we thrive, 

Our united strength, the enemy won't survive. 

With iron will, we break through strife, 

[Physical Resolve], our source of life.  

A wonderful song sung by a world-class idol echoed throughout the atmosphere, spreading its joyful tone to this rather large, dead tree-filled courtyard with its ice fountain. Elly placed her hands across her heart and swung her hips to the fiery melody she passionately sang as darkness fell upon the land. It was ‘night,’ so to speak, and we were relaxing after a long, tedious day of clearing the frozen castle. Her current attire was a long shot from what an idol would have worn when performing.   

I swear you can almost see ice magic forming behind her while she’s dancing, but it’s an illusion... 

“RRRAAAHHHHHH!!!” Greggie roared and lifted the shield of ice Keeth had crafted using [Material Metamorphosis]. The frigid handle should’ve burned his hands, but his furry gloves protected him from harm.  

This world is just like those fantasy novels I love to read. 

I sat silently and hugged my knees, feeling the pants made of snow leopard fur against my palms. The raging fire nearby provided enough warmth to keep me comfortable without needing my cloak.  

“You’re doing great, Greggs! Keep it up!!!” Ami—a world-class luchadora, jumped around and cheered on our friend. The dark-skinned, tanned girl wore a cut-off shirt under a white-furred jacket we had found, along with pants with furred boots. She said the ice and cold didn’t bother her since she often trained in frigid temperatures with her instructors to strengthen her mental state. “Just ten more minutes!!! Work it! Work it! Work it!” 

I averted my gaze from Greggie’s workout session and looked at a woman with fluffy black hair covered by a beanie we had found. Her attire had a ‘streetwear’ vibe, as Elly had called it. Mary looked at the orb of mana she held with a gloved hand. I knew what went through her mind. How could I not? That orb was her weapon. Without it, she couldn't fight. 

She threw it against a fountain of ice, and an icy canary emerged. Crystalized water droplets dripped from its  wings as it flew around the courtyard we had called our home for the night. She reached for an icy cup of water and popped a pill in her mouth from a bottle she kept on her. Due to the unique circumstances behind her birth, the medicine regulated her accelerated aging. Mary’s status as a Soul Warrior helped her fight against the innate sickness that would surely kill her...but I didn’t want to think about what would happen once she ran out.   

The proof of our conquest was the stack of corpses in the distance. A dozen snowy leopards laid dead—their innards having been butchered for food, their fur for clothing and bedding, and their nails and fangs for weapons. They were living here, but they needed to die.   

They were monsters. From my understanding, they were birthed by the dungeon to prevent us from reaching a goal. The large, imposing door standing a hundred feet away was probably important since it most likely led to the throne room. If it was anything like the books I had read, Melusine, the Fairy Queen and ruler of this dungeon, was waiting for us there. Killing her would grant us a way out of this frozen abyss and return us to the outside.    

Keeth—the one who crafted Greggie’s training shield—was working on a sword molded from a chunk of metal we found in a chest. 

It’s hard to believe it’s already been a week since we were sent here... 

Yes, seven days — 168 hours – 10,080 minutes – 604,800 seconds.  

I closed my eyes and reflected on the past.   

---

 

When we were first teleported here by Meruria, we were lost. We were scared, shivering, and afraid of facing this unknown. The first snowy leopard we fought stood on two legs and wielded a club. It was a struggle to even kill it, but we did. The rules of this world stated the strong survived, and the weak died.   

And we didn’t want to die.  

We were going to survive. I was the leader of Team Quella, and I vowed not to let anyone else die.   

I didn’t want…to experience the crushing weight of failure.   

I’m still not over it… But I…need to... I must overcome it... 

Between the leopards, icy bats, water snakes, and frozen plants, everything tried to kill us. We ran from room to room—down corridors and interconnected hallways with enormous, wide-open spaces above and below—with very little time to rest.  

Greggie ran himself ragged and clutched his chest more than once. A body that big wasn’t made for marathon running, so we had to take constant breaks. But that was difficult when it seemed like enemies were around every corner. And they were always following us.    

The incident happened after we managed to escape down a slanted tunnel. We lost our footing and slid down the icy oath. I turned around and launched a barrage of magic, which caused a small avalanche. It pushed us further down the tunnel to the end, which led to an empty room with multiple entrances, but the path we took to get here was blocked.    

“O…oh my god… I…can’t feel my legs…” Elly slumped to the frozen ground and breathed heavily. Her teeth chattered like crazy, and she shivered through a layer of sweat.    

“Elly, your skin. Your fingers!” They were turning blue-gray—the telltale sign of frostbite. And it wasn’t just her. I looked at my hands and saw a startling sight I didn’t like. I told everyone to huddle together and used my flames to make a campfire.   

But it didn't last. It went out almost immediately.   

“Come on! [Fireball]!” I used it again, and the same thing happened. It took another twenty tries before I learned to hold the charge in. The flaming orb remained nestled in my hands. It provided much-needed warmth.   

“Whatever you do, don’t go to sleep,” Mary said. She scooted close to Greggie, who inched forward.   

In the blink of an eye, two hours passed us. There weren’t any signs of enemies, and my flames were still alive. It took a while for the feeling to return to our limbs, but we desperately needed this rest. Ami whimpered a few times but choked her emotions back. Keeth attempted to use [Material Metamorphosis] on his shirt to stretch it into a bandage. Greggie’s hand was still damaged from the first fight. Mary was assisting him.    

“Qutie, how are you feeling?” I looked at Elly and saw a hopeful smile. “You’ve been using that fireball thingie for a while.”  

“I’m fine. My mana’s barely draining.”  

“You’re amazing.”  

“No, it’s not me. It’s my soul. If I hadn’t been a 5-Star…I don’t know what—"  

Out of nowhere, a portion of the ceiling fell onto my fireball. The shock made me lose concentration, and it was extinguished.    

A bipedal leopard covered in snowy fur descended right before me, swirling up a veil of powdery snow. 

Two crimson eyes and a bloodstained mouth snarled inches away from my face. Startled, I blasted the monster with magic and launched a barrage towards the ceiling. Greggie and the others scampered to their feet and ran down one of the corridors. I followed behind. I looked over my shoulder to find a stampede of monsters when I heard a gaggle of roars.  

They had caught up with us.   

“Hey! There’s a bridge ahead of us!”   

“Get across it. I’ll try to melt it!” I ran behind Greggie. He slipped and fell after tripping over his legs, bashing his stomach against a hard rock. Blood and bile vomited from Greggie's mouth.   

He begged us to run. He said his sacrifice would save us.  

“We can’t do that!!” I shouted and rained fireballs across the bridge. The spells slammed into the walls, created a hazy, misty steam, and slowed down the advancing enemies. Keeth ducked under my arm and ran to Greggie. He grabbed his large hand and pulled, but it wasn’t enough.   

Ami sprang into action and helped, but her assistance failed to make any difference.     

"Please, cover me. I need a few seconds," Keeth said as he crouched down, activated his ability, and grabbed a chunk of the icy bridge. Wincing from the frost burn, he molded a long, thin rope. 

“Got it!”   

The fireballs I blasted from my hands did little more than slow them down...but something occurred to me.   

I was strong.   

I was powerful.   

I was a 5-Star Soul Warrior. Barring the surprise existence of a 6-Star, which Meruria didn’t think existed until Tokko and Mia opened their Soul Crystals, I held the potential to be a force to be reckoned with.   

In the two hours I sustained [Fireball] to keep us warm, it advanced in level four times, becoming powerful enough to smite a leopard in a single blast. By reshaping my intentions when casting, I transformed a simple fireball into a rectangular cube, then molded it into a plump oval that stretched across the bridge's width. The never-ending onslaught of enemies then took to the walls, using their weapons to create handholds. Even if a bridge was the only safe path across the darkened abyss below us, they were willing to risk it all to end our lives. 

I heard a few cracks when I used both hands to liquefy the walls. My eyes turned to the enemies at the bridge, and they were stomping. A few leopards got to all fours and bit the ice…which had weakened from my fire.   

“JUST LEAVE ME!” Greggie looked back.   

Keeth told him to shut up and tightly wrapped the rope around Greggie’s wrists. He screamed because it was cold enough to burn away the flesh. Keeth picked it up and pulled. Ami joined, and Elly and Mary rushed to help.   

There were five overlapping screams, but Greggie was moving. Together, they hauled him to the other side and fell, flooded with agony, ache, and exhaustion.     

“JUST DIE ALREADY!” I rejoined my team and put my palms together, intending to pack as much mana as possible into [Fireball]. The blazing orb started small, grew as large as a van, and launched like a slow-moving turtle, melting the bridge almost immediately. It grew wider to cover this room from wall to wall. It smashed into the hallway on the other side, and it didn't stop. It just kept going.      

Just like that, the oncoming swarm of enemies just...died. It was hard to hear much over their collective screams of agonizing horror and death. The bodies just...fell. They turned into ash. That sprinkled into the deep abyss below the bridge.    

I didn't see any survivors. The blue bar that indicated my mana dropped by half, but that was steadily regenerating. 

That was when one type of fear left, and another began to flow through my veins.    

What I had done was impossible to achieve where I came from.    

Elly and the others marveled at my power. When they asked why I was crying, I didn’t have a good answer.    

The whole thing just felt sad for me.    

I took Elly’s hand and looked at the wound across her palm…    

That was proof I had failed them...    

Again… More failure…    

And that was another regret to add to my growing list. Just a week ago, it was empty.    

And now... I had failed more than my entire extended family...  

“Qutie… Umm… Don’t…” Elly’s face turned to an expression of pure dread. My other friends were frozen silent.    

Swallowing my fear, I turned and saw a raging blizzard shoot up from the abyssal void below.    

Yet, it remained soundless—a quiet absence of noise. The tornado of ice surged in strength, its furious might almost propelling us off our feet until the ceaseless onslaught ceased. The myriad shards of ice collided, melding into the likeness of a winged fairy. The woman's eyes, hair, and wings shimmered blue, harmonizing with her purple attire. Beneath her fair complexion, inky black veins webbed, oozing like liquid ink and pulsating intermittently. 

She might have been a fairy, but the woman was almost taller than Elly.      

“Phantom…Melusine…” I whispered the name I saw in my vision floating above her head.    

It was another monster.    

And she was Lv. 30. She bared her teeth and began to talk, but we couldn’t understand anything the monster said…until I saw something in my activity log.     

Mary has shared the effects of [Beastial Lexicon] with the party 

[Beastial Lexicon]? That’s a new skill. Did Mary just learn it? Why now? Is it because we encountered a monster that can speak? She is a monster tamer… 

New Skill: [Silvaran Language] 

"Behold, mortals, the wrath of a queen betrayed! In this frozen abyss, I once ruled with grace and majesty. But now, my kingdom crumbles, consumed by the curse that festers beneath our feet. Look upon my subjects, twisted and deformed, transformed into grotesque specters of their former selves."  

Her voice resonated with a chilling fury.  

"I, the Fairy Queen Melusine, who once commanded respect and adoration, am now reduced to a wretched ruler of a doomed realm. My subjects... They suffer, trapped in icy prisons, their souls encased in eternal torment. The cursed crystal, pulsating with malevolence, corrupts their very essence."  

Her azure eyes gleamed with madness, her voice growing more unhinged.  

"I shall unleash the tempest upon you, mortals! Feel the biting cold, the sting of my subjects' pain. You shall know the despair, the hopelessness that consumes me. Embrace the madness, for there is no escape!"  

With maniacal laughter, Melusine unleashed a powerful blizzard from her palm, engulfing me and the others in a frenzy of swirling snow and ice. Her mind was lost to the depths of her own suffering.  

I felt the attack pierce my skin and dig deep into my veins, where the frosty affliction was exacerbated a dozen times. I endured the pain, gritted my teeth, and summoned a response with a battle cry.   

The raging flames of my anger and determination to survive this were born from my palms. “AAAAHHHHHHHH!”   

The sudden heat wasn’t enough to fight back against the blizzard, but it burned hot enough to create a whirlwind of steam. Due to the blizzard’s cylindrical motion, the super-heated mist traveled towards her. 

She recoiled and cursed us to hell, but I unleashed another van-sized ball of fire. Some more tinkering made me realize I could hold it in place even after it left my hands. The drain on my mana increased, but I wasn’t concerned.  

I grabbed Elly’s hand and shouted for us to run. They nodded and forced their tired, injured bodies to push far past their limits. Greggie clutched his bleeding arms and grabbed his stomach. His ragged breathing was loud and painful.   

“You wretched fools! You dare defy me? I curse you with eternal suffering! I shall hunt you down, freeze your souls, and hang you as ornaments within my castle—as decorations in my kingdom! You will writhe in agony, forever trapped in ice!”  

Melusine’s voice, filled with rage and despair, followed us as we continued down the icy corridor, promising a relentless pursuit.    

“Mark my words, you pitiful insects! No matter where you hide, I will find you! You shall pay for defying the Fairy Queen! My wrath shall be your everlasting torment!”  

The end of the corridor came to a cliff…  

“What…is…that…? Is that real? Ami, tell me I’m not dreaming…” Elly gasped and fell to her knees. She couldn’t believe what her eyes saw.   

Elly’s not speaking the language of our world. It’s…Silvaran… No one’s questioning it.   

It was a frozen city… I gazed down from the cliff’s edge. A sense of eerie tranquility washed over me. The once bustling streets now lay silent, buried under a thick layer of ice and frost. The icy grip had stolen the warmth of life, leaving behind a haunting stillness that hung in the air.  

Tall icy pillars rose like ancient sentinels, reaching towards the heavens, their crystalline structures shimmering in the faint sunlight. They seemed to connect with the cavernous expanse above, a gateway between the earthly realm and an icy abyss. The magnitude of their presence was both awe-inspiring and foreboding.   

I didn’t see the sun, but a bright orb shimmered in the sky.    

In the heart of this city stood a majestic castle, standing tall and proud amidst the desolation. Its regal spires pierced the frozen sky, a testament to the former grandeur and power that once resided within its walls. The castle emanated an air of imposing beauty, its icy facade glinting with a captivating allure.  

Yet, beneath the icy exterior, I could sense a profound sadness, as if the essence of life had been drained from this place. The city, which once teemed with vibrant energy, now stood as a solemn testament to the power of the frozen curse that had befallen it.  

I couldn’t help but feel awe and trepidation.    

“We can’t stop here. There’s a path over there we can use to get down. If we want to leave, I think we must kill Melusine.”  

“Go up against that thing?! Can we even do that?”  

“We’re Soul Warriors. You’ve seen my power. And you can do that too. We can fight, okay? We can gain strength, conquer this place, and leave. We won’t die here, okay? I refuse it.”   

---

The first night was rough.  

After we descended the downward path, we came across an icy plain. There weren’t any enemies, so we quickly crossed it and reached the city.  

This place is big enough to be a kingdom... 

It was probably once protected by towering walls, but they lay in ruin. The layout was odd. It was a city, but it was a labyrinthian maze of a dozen streets that branched off every corner. Some led to a dead end.   

Others were blocked by monsters. We kept silent and tried to find alternative passageways through the shops and houses, but we weren't lucky. 

This place didn’t have a 'sun,' but there was a day and night cycle. After searching, we found a building that had more wood than ice. It looked like an inn. There was a kitchen with a wood fire stove on the first floor. In the middle of the lobby sat an emblem scrawled with fire.   

The knowledge I gained from reading fantasy novels said it was probably a protective seal or something. Melusine mentioned a cursed crystal. If the ice was born of that, things would make more sense.    

However, we couldn’t find any food. The shroud of night enveloped us, and it was too dangerous to venture into the city. Sleeping with aching bodies and a hungry belly was a torment, but the greater anguish was being alone in a perilous situation.  

We all worked together to turn the lobby into our sleeping quarters for the night and ransacked the rooms above for covers, pillows, and blankets. There was a fireplace nearby. It didn’t have wood, but I broke a few of their chairs in the kitchen, smashed some dressers in the bedrooms, and used paper from the front desk’s ledger to fuel a hungry fire.   

We talked about what we experienced. Mary didn’t know why she suddenly obtained [Beastial Lexicon]. She said it allowed her to understand and gain fluency in any language spoken by a monster. It automatically shared itself with our party, and I saw a little icon of a monster and a book underneath my mana bar. Silvaran… It was a language Melusine used, but I didn’t know if others spoke it.   

Would it be helpful?  

Perhaps, but we needed to focus on surviving.    

Greggie was the first to lose the fight against sleep. Ami was next, and Keeth dozed off after that. Elly wasn’t too far behind, but Mary stayed up with me. She bundled herself with layers of cloth and huddled close.   

Monster taming suggested the snowy bipedal leopards we encountered could be tamed. Since [Beastial Lexicon] activated with that Phantom Melusine, could she be tamed? If so, how? What did Mary need to do to bring them under her command?  

The answer was simple. When Mary removed her black glasses and rubbed her eyes, she mumbled out of frustration.   

Suddenly, a colorless orb appeared in front of her. It hovered, remaining still until she touched it, then flowed into her body.   

“I… What?l” Mary whispered. She said she saw five empty circles on the right side of her vision. Only the first was lit, and focusing on it materialized the mana orb.   

After a few seconds of experimenting, we discovered only Mary could touch it. My fingers passed through it as if it was a mirage. “If you only see five circles, that’s probably the limit. My guess is that it’ll increase in the future.”   

Mary smiled and bounced the orb up and down. I didn’t notice it before, but she was pretty. I knew of her past—her sad, horrible, depressing history. She was born as a test tube baby and designed to teach the future leaders of our world, and here she was…fighting for her life amid a scene that only lived in fantasy.   

“Is it pathetic knowing I’m scared?”  

“No.” I shook my head and used another [Fireball] to keep the fireplace going. “I’m scared too. We all are. But we're trying to be brave. This brave front is all we have. And… This is our life now. My family… You know, I don’t know if I’ll ever see them. And I’m sad. But I don’t want to die. I want to survive and get out of here.”  

Shuuta cursed the meritocracy of our world, but...  I wonder why he called it that? If anything, it was more like a Darwinist society filled with corrupt officials. How odd... I never thought about questioning it. I always went with the flow. If we hadn’t arrived here, I’d still be thinking of it as normal, but it isn’t. It really isn’t... 

Mary reflected on the past. Soon, she fell asleep with her glasses on, and I stayed up another hour to experiment with something.