Chapter 18: Ice Spirit / Jack Frost

「Hoo, hoo, hoo.」

It crawled out of the icehouse in slow, probing motions, as if sizing us up.
With each step, needle ice stood up at its feet, and wherever its hand touched the icehouse wall, it froze over.
It wasn’t very tall—about the same height as Ai, perhaps.

A round body with a round head. A cloak hung with icicles. And black, round eyes like bottomless holes that betrayed no emotion, staring straight at us.

「That’s… impossible…」

The words slipped out of me.

There are no creatures in this world that I truly recognize. I only slap names like bear, deer, or rabbit onto things that resemble them. Many here are absurdly large compared to Earth’s, have extra legs, or sport horns; evolution’s variations seem far broader than on Earth.

It makes sense to find similar creatures. Evolution converges around function. Even in a world where magic exists, birds still need wings to fly—magic arises by developing such innate capabilities.

But this thing—

Jack Frost is imaginary even on Earth. That form wasn’t whittled by the blade of necessity; it’s like a lump of clay kneaded by pure fancy.

So why is it here, now, in front of me in reality?

「Sensei.」

Without taking her eyes off Jack Frost, Ai whispered in a hard voice,

「Please run.」

Jack Frost gaped its mouth wide, and from it blasted an astounding wave of cold.

Reflexively, I opened wide and spewed flame.
Fire and blizzard collided and canceled each other out.
In other words, it was as strong as my fire.

「…You’ve got to be kidding me!?」

But while the blizzard’s force didn’t flag at all, I can’t keep breathing fire indefinitely—it’s literally the same as breathing. Snatching Ai up, I flared my wings and took to the air.

「What on earth is that thing?」
「Sensei, no! Get down!」

At the very instant she shouted, a hammering sheet of snow hit, and a gale hurled my body away. I tried to force my wings to steady myself, but the savage cold froze them stiff, and I went spinning down. This is bad. At this rate we’ll smash into the ground!

At the very least I could protect Ai—I hugged her tight and wrapped her in my tail and wings.

But a few seconds later, what caught us wasn’t the shock of hard ground but the soft give of branches and leaves breaking our fall.

「What are you doing, honestly?」
「Nina!」

Perched like a little bird atop a high branch, Nina looked down at me.

「Oooooooh! Hrah!」

I glanced toward the bellow beneath the tree to see Dalga hewing Jack Frost in two with his stone blade.

Snow whooshed outward and Jack Frost shattered into pieces.
But in an instant the lumps of snow gathered again and reformed the snowman as good as new.

「What the hell is this thing!?」

Even Dalga, for once, goggled and sprang back.

「Aniki, what on earth is this thing!?」
「I… don’t know either.」

That it was Jack Frost was certain.
Certain—but what was it, exactly?

A demon, a monster, a fairy?
Even in this world where dragons exist, I’ve never seen a being that doesn’t die when torn apart.

「Can’t you do something with your fire, Aniki?」
「Its blizzard was stronger.」
「Wha—stronger than that!?」

He must have remembered five years ago; he cut a glance at the mountain that still had a hole blown through it.

「That was with a full incantation. This was just unincanted breath.」
「If you chant, can you beat it?」
「Probably—I think so, but…」

I shook my head at Nina’s question.

「Even a single word of chant would probably blow the icehouse apart.」
「Then we need another way.」

Nina rejected the idea on the spot.
Fire just meshes too well with me.
If I add a spell on top of that, I can’t hold back at all.

「I’ll do it!」

Cutting in from the side was Ken.

「Ken. You came too.」

Certainly, with his fire magic, they might be able to take down Jack Frost.
In terms of fine control, he’s arguably better than me.

「You got a plan yet!?」

Blasting Jack Frost to bits, Dalga shouted.
Though it reformed quickly, the attacks weren’t entirely pointless.
At the very least, while it was destroyed, it couldn’t attack.
But Jack Frost’s body froze anything it touched. Even though Dalga’s stone blade should conduct heat very poorly, it had turned pure white, and the frost had crept up to his upper arms.

I mean—how is he even swinging that sword in that condition?

「Then I’ll make an opening. Ken, you slam a big one in.」
「Got it.」

Nina dropped soundlessly to the ground, and Ken gave a nod.

「Also—」

He flicked a glance my way and said,

「Sensei, put Ai-nee-chan down already.」

Only then did I realize I was still holding Ai in my arms.

「S-sorry!」

Flustered, I clambered down from the tree and let go of Ai.

「I’m fine… We have to stop that child.」

Ai ducked her head, a little embarrassed, then set her face and fixed Jack Frost with a hard stare.

「O trees, O roots, O leaves and branches—grow thick and become a cage!」

At Nina’s spell, trees burst up through the ground and closed in around Jack Frost.
But before they could fully grow, Jack Frost swung its hand with a whump.
That alone froze every tree its palm brushed, one after another.

「Geez! Why is it growing so slow!?」

The trees Nina normally sent snaking out like serpents were awkwardly sluggish.
No doubt the ambient temperature had dropped drastically.

「Fire.」

I leapt up, lifted my head to the sky, and spoke a single word of spell.

A massive fireball shot from my mouth, lighting the night sky as if it were the sun.

「Whoa… that’s insane.」
「Vines, entwine!」

The pouring heat-rays melted the surrounding ice at once, and Nina took the chance to send vines snaking out. They froze in an instant upon touching Jack Frost, but they bound its body fast.

「O you who stretch a red tongue, you who don a raiment of flame, fire‑gnawing Salamander—」

Jack Frost’s face swivelled toward Ken as he chanted.
From its crescent‑moon mouth a blizzard roared straight at him.

「Icicle Cloak, to me!」

At Ai’s sharp cry, a pillar of ice surged up before Ken like a shield.
…I see. For purely blocking, ice works better than fire.

「With your tongue’s tip, pierce—and with your breath, burn it all away!」

Ken’s spell completed, and from his fingertip burst a fireball carrying staggering heat.

It bored through the ice pillar Ai had raised and, without slowing, slammed into Jack Frost.
A sizzle like plunging hot iron into water rang out, and Jack Frost vanished without a trace.

「Hah… did we get it?」
「Looks like it.」

After confirming it didn’t regenerate this time, Dalga exhaled and thrust his blade into the ground.
Seeing Nina ease her guard, I finally let out the breath I’d been holding too.

「Still, Aniki, being too strong has its downsides.」
「Fire really doesn’t lend itself to fine control. Against your average foe I can manage with unchanted breath or my claws, but…」

I might need to come up with some means of attack other than fire.
I’m fairly good at manipulating wind, but air’s too light to make a proper weapon.

「Ai-nee-chan, something wrong?」
「No. It’s nothing…」

Ai shook her head at Ken’s question.
Her words aside, she wore a somewhat haunted look.
Wondering what was wrong, I watched her—and our eyes met as she turned toward me.

「Um… Sensei. Could we talk for a bit?」
「Ah. Of course, I don’t mind.」
「Then… at my place.」

I nodded and followed her back toward the village.

「So… we’re not supposed to hear this?」

Ken stepped in to stop us there.

「It’s not… that you can’t, but—」
「Then—」
「Hey.」

Cutting Ken off, Nina raised her voice as she looked up at the sky.

「This isn’t stopping.」

Snow was still fluttering down into the palm she held up.
By the time we realized it, the falling snow was whirling into a vortex and gathering to one spot.

Starting from the head, Jack Frost’s mouth took shape—a crescent moon.
As Ai turned to follow my gaze, her motion seemed oddly slow.

「Stop!」

She flung both arms wide and cried out.

Gou—white wind roared.


In the next instant, Ai’s body was frozen solid.