Episode 23 : Noel Absolute (2)

After that moment, Noel and I both agreed that we needed time to think things through which was why we both went the opposite way, sitting down and considering everything.

At that moment, I was thinking of random ideas to bring a stop to my cheeks turning red from embarrassment.

"Lucifer.. Could you stab my heart?" Asking Lucifer, I facepalmed myself to cover my face.

The words that I had spoken to Noel earlier, were extremely embarrassing and humiliating to me because I would never say such a thing about pointless second chances.

Because of this, I was too embarrassed that my mouth said those words to Noel that easily.

"Really.. Having different personalities is a pain in the ass." I spoke, assuming it was my multiple lives that made me change.

Eventually, Lucifer responded to the question I asked him before. 'Must I stab you, Master?'

"It's fine. No need."

Thrust!

..Without a single warning, something sharp and cold punctured into the chest of where my heart was, stabbing it deeply to my heart.

[Hidden Skill, 'Simulation' Lv. 2 has offset the pain.]

Guessing it was Lucifer's miscalculation, I said to him. "Lucifer, didn't I say not to do it?"

'Master! It's not me! It's—!'

[Hidden Skill, 'Simulation' Lv. 2 has offset the pain.]

[Hidden Skill, 'Simulation' Lv. 2 has offset the pain.]

Lucifer's sentences were overruled by the sound of icicles bursting out of my chest, giving me a numbing sensation from my inside while a glacial feel to my outside.

Because of how much the icicles were spreading out of my chest, I was a bit stunned at first but now, it would turn into a grave situation if I don't handle this somehow.

[Hidden Skill, 'Simulation' Lv. 2 has offset the pain.]

Clasping onto the aggregate of icicles, I was proceeding to melt these away as quickly as possible. However, I could not do so when I heard a voice behind me, not realizing that the person who stabbed me, was at my back.

"I can't risk losing you again, father." Noel mumbled behind me as I could feel his hands touching my back.

I thought while millions of icicles remained within me. 'No way. How was I unable to notice him walking behind my back? Including his intent to kill?'

'Is it because of Lucas's guilt that I didn't suspect Noel would hurt me? Damn it..!'

I gritted my teeth at the thought of Noel betraying me, I then asked him. "What are you doing?"

As I was questioning him, I was secretly using 'Divine Flame' to liquefy the icicles. Thus when Noel was about to answer me, I was close to removing the icicles from my heart.

"If doing this will keep you by our side, then I'll gladly do it." Noel spoke in an eerie tone of voice.

[Hidden Skill, 'Simulation' Lv. 2 has offset the pain.]

..And what accompanied his words, was him making me feel rigid when he started to cover me in ice. Frozen me in the spot while I sensed my brain getting iced by the frozen ice around me.

'Crap. I won't be able to think or do anything if my brain stops working. '

'Lucifer!'

Requesting Lucifer's help, I still needed to do my part of self-defense which was why I unleashed 'Earth Crumble' underneath me and Noel.

Not only that, I added the combined skills, 'Flare of Fulmination' into the mix. Because right now, I needed not to care about my MP anymore since my life will cease to exist sooner or later if I don't do anything about Noel trying to kill me!

As soon as those two skills began crashing together to create a massive pit below us, the ground beneath us was collapsing destructively at a chaotic rate.

By then, Lucifer released his black lightning within my grasp, unleashing all his powers to destroy the ice as well as Noel while we were falling into the deep pit underneath us.

However, no matter what Lucifer and I tried to do to put a stop to Noel, he may seem injured but he was fine enough to be able to freeze me.

'..It must be the ice dragon's power residing in him that he's able to withstand my attacks.' I thought as my mind was slowly but surely fading away.

..And it was only a matter of seconds when the freezing got to my brain.

'Damn it. My consciousness..'

..During the process of me thinking, my consciousness was faintly disappearing while I was dropping alongside the crumbling ground in frozen solid.

'..Goddamn it.' I cursed while I was immobilized.

Descending down to the pit, my body was already covered with thick ice, unable to make a move nor talk things through with Noel. In addition, I couldn't hear my heart beating anymore which was why I was having a hard time breathing.

..By then, my brain was the next target to be frozen by Noel.

With my last chance to think, I informed Lucifer as I was struggling to keep my brain working.

'Lucifer.. Go find HwanGi-ssi.'

..For some odd reason, I thought of HwanGi first instead of my most trusted person, which was Frostina. Whatever the reason was, I wouldn't have the chance to think about it either way.

Moreover, it looked like Lucifer was calling out to my name right after my words, yet I was no longer able to keep myself awake to hear his words within my head anymore..

..Once again, I need to restart at the beginning..

…

...

[You have died.]

——

Meanwhile..

Walking amidst the snow, 'The Rebels' Guild's members without its leader were searching around for JoonChul.

Without JoonChul in the guild, everyone did not wish to proceed to the next Stage, knowing that it would feel wrong to abandon JoonChul after what he did to bring them this far.

HwanGi, who was moving onto the snow, suddenly got his leg stuck within the layers of snow. As such, he began to use 'Divine Flame' to melt away the snow to allow his leg to move again.

Be that as it may, HwanGi shouldn't be getting his leg stuck when he already knew he ought to be careful, and yet, he did the opposite. The reason for that was because HwanGi had a question drilled in his head when he witnessed how powerful Frostina was.

'Because she had that much power, she would have been able to subdue all the polar bears easily. But why didn't she?'

That was his question that he wished to know the answer of, which was why he was blankly walking without carefully watching his steps.

'Should I ask her?' He was a bit hesitant on asking Frostina questions because she clearly despised HwanGi.

In spite of this, he was extremely curious and was suspicious of why Frostina didn't wish to use her full power, so he took his time to build up his courage to question Frostina. When doing so, he overheard Alaine's talkative chatter behind him.

"Raiden, can you teach me how to use lightning? If you don't answer yes, I'm going to annoy you." Alaine spoke, staring at him with her daring eyes.

Raiden gazed at Alaine as he mused. 'She asked me to teach her?! Woah!'

Naturally, Raiden felt rather keen on taking Alaine as his pupil since after knowing that JoonChul was his Sensei, Raiden went back to thinking he would never get to have a student.

As a result, Raiden gladly and instantly approved of Alaine's request. "If you want to be my student, then yes."

"Wow, really?!! Thank you, Raiden!"

Meanwhile, Mirai was watching over those two, and couldn't help but wondered. 'Looks at him being happy.. Was he that sad about not having a student?'

'Well, he did have Captain as his student for a bit. And then, not anymore.' Mirai giggled and glanced at Raiden's contented expression.

Afterwards, HwanGi looked behind him, finding Frostina standing beside Mirai who was still giggling to herself.

Clenching his hands, HwanGi took a deep breath before turning around to go toward Frostina, prompting everyone to notice him changing direction and halting upon seeing him.

By the time HwanGi stopped and stood in front of Frostina, he gazed at Frostina's unfazed eyes, asking her the question he'd been wanting to ask.

"Frostina. May I ask why you can't use your full power? If you did, JoonChul-ssi might have been here with us right now."

Sounding as if it was somewhat of an insult to Frostina, she curled her lips, finally showing her true color again.

"Do you think I would put my Liege in danger?" She said.

Her anger and her presence were starting to get chillier than the cold atmosphere around everyone, it was enough to make one have a shiver down their spines.

Notwithstanding the iciness, HwanGi assumed on asking her questions. "Then why?"

Because of this situation, Raiden and Mirai noticed how Frostina was obviously expressing her wrath through her presence, thus they quickly stopped what they were doing to bring a halt to HwanGi's questioning.

"HwanGi.. Why don't you ask me instead?" Raiden interrupted.

Mirai, going in between Frostina and HwanGi, began to gently nudge Frostina away.

"Is he nuts?" Behemoth resting on Mya's head, yawned at the sight happening before him.

———

After pushing away Frostina and HwanGi apart from each other, Raiden and Mirai watched over them. With Raiden being beside HwanGi while Mirai stood next to Frostina, both of them tried to calm down the others.

"So you asked Frostina a question about her power, didn't you?" Raiden asked HwanGi.

HwanGi shifted his eyes over to Raiden, etching an expression that was doubtful of Raiden. "What about you? You have the power."

Raiden grinned in a carefree manner. "Yes, I do. But imagine us at our full powers in the beginning of the stages, wouldn't that be unfair to the players?"

"That's true. However.."

"That's why the 'Helpers' put a limitation to our powers. Our skills don't have a fixed number in the levels, it always shows three question marks."

"...hm."

"Because of this, our skills can sometimes go big or small. Think of it as a luck base level. If I'm lucky, my skill might go at its highest. But if I'm unlucky.."

"Then your skill will set as the lowest. And that will be easy to deal with." HwanGi's eyes slightly gaping from this information, also pondered about something.

He then asked Raiden. "Is there a way to get rid of the question marks?"

"Hold on." Raiden spoke in Japanese as he tied his hair into a long ponytail.

After Raiden was done tying his ocean blue hair, he exhaled and inhaled before sighing in the process.

"Anyways, the first thing is that when an NPC isn't a player, their powers aren't limited. They may be too overpowered but they won't intervene nor enter into Stages."

"So if those NPCs become players, their skills would be locked with many limitations and some of their skills might be unlocked when they go further into stages." Still explaining, Raiden tossed around a ball of electricity.

"After that, to get rid of the limitations, they must advance through the stages until they arrive in their rightful world and to kill the dragon within their world to unlock their true skills levels."

HwanGi observing Raiden, spoke to him. "Ha..? Isn't that too much? Since there are 10 worlds, what about the person who resides in the 10 or last world? Wouldn't they stay weak until they reach that stage?"

Raiden dispensed the ball of electricity and grinned at HwanGi. "That's a problem one must overcome by themselves. Plus, it's a good exercise for them to learn how to control the luck percentage of their skills."

"..Is that so?"

"Ne ne~! What are you talking about? Also, Raiden! When will you teach me your techniques?" Twinkling sparkles at Raiden with her shining eyes, Alaine dazed as she talked to Raiden.

"Call me Sensei." As Raiden tapped Alaine's forehead, he chuckled vivaciously.

HwanGi staring at them, rubbed his chin for a second before spotting something in the distance. "Huh?"

Opening the 'Map' to identify the area ahead of him, HwanGi tapped the cave icon on the 'Map' as he found out that its title was 'The Winter Bear's Lair'.

Since HwanGi was taught about the 'Map' from Raiden while they were changing into winter attire earlier, HwanGi learned quite a bit about how the 'Map' works.

Eventually, reading the vague description of what the 'Map' could provide, HwanGi closed off the panels after he finished checking.

Slowly but surely, HwanGi turned around to signal everyone. "Everybody. The cave over there may be where JoonChul-ssi is."

He continued. "I'm not certain if the bear will be alive or not, but please prepare yourself just in case."

Everyone in 'The Rebels' Guild nodded toward his words, taking out their individual weapons and getting ready to fight.

As they were closing in on the cave, they had arrived in front of the cave's entrance. Not only was the inside of the cave as dark as the ace of spades, it was leaking a supremely horrifying ambience from within.

Without a doubt, everyone outside could sense how devilishly this atmosphere was. Even HwanGi managed to hold back his fear a bit while he was glancing at the cave.

Despite this, HwanGi gulped down his saliva as if he was swallowing his nervousness, he then took a step forward into the cave before informing everyone behind him. "Let's go."