“Ice Crystal.”

As he confirmed the massive ice wall forming in front of him, Alon let out a deep sigh behind his expressionless face.

‘What on earth is going on here?’

He was extremely confused by the situation. From Alon’s perspective, it was understandable: while he was listening to a conversation at the tower in the center of the city, the whole area suddenly shook as if it were about to collapse, forcing him to rush out. And when he did, this scene unfolded before him.

What’s more, the situation went far beyond Alon’s understanding.

‘Those two… It looks like they used Abyssal Entities.’

Alon recalled the thick, dark energy flowing from the bodies of Malian and Kalman, who had just tried to kill Seolrang.

‘How?’

To his knowledge, Abyssal Entities weren’t supposed to appear at this point. In the original storyline, these items only started to spread across the world after two of the Five Great Sins showed up.

The effect of these items was simple: even if the one who absorbed the Abyssal Entity was weak, they would still gain divine power. Although its mechanism wasn’t explained even in ‘Psychedelia’, there were many speculations that Abyssal Entities were introduced in the game purely to balance the difficulty level.

The enemies who used Abyssal Entities always became overwhelmingly stronger than before.

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So, while Alon was curious why Malian and Kalman had Abyssal Entities, he soon dismissed the thought. What mattered most now was not that, but how to overcome the current situation.

Alon assessed the situation with cold precision.

‘Remaining magic uses: zero.’

He had already used three spells to create the frigid wasteland, one to shoot and kill Malian when he tried to harm Seolrang earlier, and one to shield himself from a possible attack. He could no longer use magic.

That is, ordinarily.

Gulp—

Without hesitation, Alon uncorked a bottle hanging from his waist and drank it. It was a top-grade mana potion given to him by Penia, the vice-tower master of the Blue Tower.

‘With this, I can stall for time with two more spells, but the barrier will disappear in 20 seconds.’

After finishing the potion, Alon quickly turned his gaze toward the fallen Seolrang. Having secretly prepared magic for a considerable amount of time to avoid detection, he had already grasped the rough sequence of events.

Seolrang’s eyes, when he glanced down at her, were filled with emptiness, despair, and intense rage. Dark energy poured out from her entire body.

Seeing her like that, Alon immediately took out another potion from his waist. It was the highest-grade potion he had received half a year ago when many gifts had come pouring in for him.

“Drink this.”

Alon crouched down, pushed the potion into Seolrang’s mouth, and whispered to her.

“The only ones who betrayed you are those guys, so don’t worry.”

“Is that… really true?”

“Yes.”

He answered clearly, though in truth, Alon also didn’t know how many of the Golden Mane Tribe had sided with Ralga.

Even if Seolrang wasn’t one to think deeply about such matters, it wouldn’t take much reflection to realize that there wasn’t much credibility in what Alon was saying.

Still, the reason he lied was because, at this moment, he desperately needed her help.

‘There’s only one chance, and Seolrang has to block their attacks until I can prepare my spell.’

Alon’s magic took a long time to cast. He knew all too well how foolish it would be to expect the enemies to wait during that time. That’s why Alon had lied—to get Seolrang, who was drowning in despair, to act immediately.

“Can you hold them off until I finish my spell?” 

Alon had fed Seolrang the entire high-grade potion. Despite staggering slightly, she firmly stood up and nodded.

“Yes.”

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Even though the poison wasn’t fully diluted yet, there was no other choice. Alon decided to trust Seolrang and began preparing his spell. Once the spell was ready, dealing with Kalman wouldn’t be a difficult task. 

Even though Kalman had absorbed the Abyssal Entity and become stronger, ironically, Alon would become even stronger because Kalman had done so. He had placed a restriction—a power that could twist the world when facing gods.

“Hoo—”

With a light sigh, Alon formed a seal with his hands. In an instant, the cold ice wall that had been scattering frost disappeared as if it had never been there.

“Ice Snow.”

As he uttered the next incantation, frost swirled wildly around him, and assassins and members of the Golden Mane Tribe charged forward as if they had been waiting for this moment. There were dozens of them.

But—

“Shape.”

Despite her staggering, Seolrang began fending off the enemies charging at her, and as Alon watched her, he uttered his next phrase. He then closed his eyes and recalled the words spoken by that formless entity earlier.

‘You may have lost the great legacy of the past, but those who understand magic know that its essence lies in the fact that a ‘Magus’ is someone who implements the laws of this world.’

‘The array of magic, the incantations, and even the names—all of them exist to implement those laws. Only when everything is arranged properly in accordance with those principles can—‘

‘It be called magic.’

“Fame of the Snowy Mountain.”

As Alon spoke, a round sphere formed between his middle and ring fingers and froze. But it didn’t just freeze; each individual point of the magical array he had prepared bloomed like snowflakes, with each hexagonal plate as the starting point for a unique flower.

‘It seems you only know a few phrases, but you also need to use sentences. Phrases can twist the laws, but sentences are the keys to opening certain doors that approach the laws of this world.’

‘Well, it’s not like today’s magicians have completely lost the names. They’ve just been overly simplified and unified, losing the original words in the process.’

‘Nowadays, they probably call it something silly like “Ice Spear.”’

“Blind Man’s Inevitability.”

The blooming flowers fully opened. The sphere at Alon’s fingertips was no longer a simple orb but a massive crystalline snowflake.

Crack—

At the center of that snowflake, a beautifully shaped spear formed in front of him. 

And then—

‘But originally, that magic wasn’t called something as foolish as “Ice Spear.”’

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“Ice Crystal Halberd.”

‘That’s the true name of what those foolish magicians forgot.’

After quietly speaking, Alon opened his eyes. He could see Kalman, with his dark gauntlets, staring at him with a frustrated expression, and Seolrang desperately holding him off.

Seeing them, Alon tightly clenched the seal he had been forming and finished the spell.

In the blazing hot chamber, a snowy field arrived.

***

Liyan watched Alon’s magic unfold. The mind that usually ran countless simulations to analyze whatever magic was used had now come to a halt.

She could only stare blankly.

Everything in the path of the spear Alon had cast had frozen. Whether it was the ground, the air, or—

…Kalman, whose heart was pierced by the spear of ice.

Everything had frozen.

The abnormal, yet breathtakingly beautiful scene left Liyan and the other magicians unable to take their eyes off it.

“This is… unbelievable…”

“Is that… a magician…?”

The mercenaries, who had been filled with despair just moments before, all muttered in awe as they looked at Alon. Their eyes were filled with boundless reverence and awe.

It was only natural.

The desperate situation had changed dramatically because of the being standing right in front of them. 

At that moment, even Seolrang, who had narrowly escaped the range of the spell, was looking at Alon.

Suddenly, ‘it’ moved.

“Ah-!”

The first to notice that the being—more precisely, Ralga, whom they thought had been struck down by Seolrang—was moving again, was ironically a mercenary who had been watching the scene.

“Die!”

Ralga, whose right arm was shattered, raised the poisoned dagger that had previously put Seolrang in danger and charged at her. He was still empowered by the ability Seolrang had granted him, as the authority of the Golden Mane Tribe had not been revoked. Moving at lightning speed, he appeared close to Seolrang just as she let her guard down.

“!”

Seolrang, thinking it was all over, tried to retreat, but it was already too late. Her body was already covered in wounds from fending off Kalman and the attacking rogues. The poison still lingered in her, leaving her no choice but to watch as Ralga’s dagger aimed for her heart.

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Ralga’s face lit up with joy as he thought, ‘If I can just kill her, I can take control of the Essence and escape! I can start over again!’

With that thought, he tightened his grip on the dagger. But—

“!?”

Ralga’s dagger didn’t pierce Seolrang’s heart.

‘What—!?’

The reason was that, like the mercenary, Alon had instinctively seen Ralga’s charge and pulled Seolrang’s body backward just in time.

However—

Because of this, Alon’s body naturally slid forward and collided with Ralga’s sweeping dagger.

“Guh!”

Blood spewed from his mouth.

It was thick, blackened blood, a clear sign of deadly injury. And just as Ralga, stunned by his failure, stood there, Seolrang, filled with rage, smashed his head with her foot.

“Count!”

Evan’s voice rang out.

***

In conclusion, Alon wasn’t actually hurt at all.

Of course, a sword had pierced his side, but surprisingly, it hadn’t caused any real damage. 

That was because Ralga’s dagger had indeed struck Alon’s body, but just barely—it only tore his clothes.

In other words, Alon wasn’t injured. 

So why had he coughed up blood? That was purely due to mana exhaustion. 

Although he had enough mana to cast one more spell, the spell consumed so much mana that it drained him beyond exhaustion, causing internal damage.

‘…The power exceeded my expectations, but I’ll need something to supplement the missing mana,’ he thought, as he pressed a hand to his uncomfortable stomach, watching the receding ruins. He hadn’t seen the eastern tablet, but since the ambush had occurred, they had decided to leave the ruins for the day.

After watching the ruins fade into the distance for a while, Alon turned his head toward Seolrang, who was staring intently at him. 

If things had gone according to his original plan, he would have been comforting her right now. After all, knowing that she would one day become one of the Five Great Sins, he couldn’t let her harbor any ill will. 

However, to his surprise, Seolrang’s eyes showed no signs of negative emotions like anger or hatred, which left him curious.

“Master.”

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you something?”

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“What is it?”

Seolrang asked her question.

“When Kalman attacked earlier, why didn’t you dodge?”

“…”

‘When Kalman attacked?’ Alon thought for a moment, then recalled Kalman’s gauntlets that had come so close when he used the Ice Crystal Halberd.

‘…It’s not that I didn’t dodge—I couldn’t.’ 

Though that was the truth, Alon didn’t think it was the best answer, so instead, he replied,

“Because I trusted you.”

“…You trusted ‘me’?”

“Yes, you said it was possible, didn’t you?”

‘To be honest, it was more like I was begging you, ‘Please let it work!!’…’

As Alon gave his carefully packaged answer, Seolrang’s eyes sparkled slightly, and she asked again,

“Then, why did you save me when Ralga tried to kill me?”

“…Why?”

Alon couldn’t find a suitable reason.

‘Wouldn’t it have been strange not to save a long-time ally from dying right in front of me? Besides, I didn’t expect the dagger to reach me.’

Just like with the previous question, Alon hesitated, but this time he decided to speak honestly.

“…Do I need a reason?”

“There’s no reason?”

“You don’t need a reason to save family.”

To him, Seolrang had already been like a daughter he had raised for over five years, so his answer came out naturally.

‘Ah.’

But then he quickly realized his mistake.

After spending some time with her, he had noticed that Seolrang seemed to hold a very special meaning for the concept of family. 

And so, as Alon subtly shifted his gaze to her—

“But Master… you’re not family. Family is tied by blood,” Seolrang murmured, and Alon nodded in agreement.

“Still, I want… to be family with you.”

At her next words, Alon felt a deep warmth inside.

It was like the feeling one might get after finally being recognized as a father after many years of trying. Not that he had personally experienced that, but just as Alon was about to nod in satisfaction—

“But—”

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Seolrang suddenly moved and climbed on top of Alon.

With her hands on his shoulders and her waist resting on his thighs, her eyes were shining brightly. 

Alon, bewildered by the sudden turn of events, could only stare as Seolrang, smiling, said,

“In this state, we can’t become family. I’m from the Golden Mane Tribe, and you’re a human. So—”

Her smile widened as she continued,

“Let’s get married!”

“…???”

Alon’s mind froze.

Meanwhile, Seolrang’s tail was wagging more happily than it ever had before.