Chapter 100

The ruin site had gone quiet—still as the sky after a storm has passed.

Mikhail crossed through the last settling breeze and crouched before the golem's remains.

Cracked and fractured crimson crystals blinked with a fading light that looked ready to gutter out at any moment, though a handful of intact pieces still held their vivid color, as sharp as before.

Mikhail picked up one of the undamaged crystals.

FLASH!

[Notice: Due to the characteristics of [Region: World of Extremes], rewards that can be obtained and materialized are limited to 1.]

Well, this isn't what I'm taking anyway.

Mikhail rummaged inside his coat and pulled out the assembled pendant.

Tssszzz….

The moment the crimson crystal was brought close, the pendant trembled faintly and began drinking in the color housed within the crystal. A reddish haze bloomed across its cracked surface like heat shimmer.

[Item: Seeker's Guardian Pendant]

[A magic tool used by explorers of an ancient mana-wielding civilization for the conceptualization and fusion of new magic. Amplifies absorbed foreign mana and imbues it into the owner's body without backlash. The effect has a time limit and the item is destroyed after a single use.]

Mikhail felt the warmth flickering at his fingertips as he slipped the pendant into his inner pocket.

He set the drained crystal down and reached toward the golem's core.

Inside the cracked crystal—now turned completely transparent—

A single palm-sized shard of metal still pulsed with a vivid red glow.

[Item: Red Sun Metal]

[A metallic crystal said to form after a mana stone grown in the place of longest sunlight undergoes thousands of cycles of erosion, uplift, and compression. The ages it has endured grant it outstanding elasticity and flexibility, and its fire attribute gives it exceptional mana-amplifying properties.]

[Notice: [Natural Attribute: Fire] settles into possessed mana, activating the attribute.]

[Mana Element: Fire]

[A natural element carrying the fire attribute. The user may expend mana to partially replicate fire's properties and activate the traits of [Heat] and [Expansion].]

"So that's the Red Sun Metal."

"Yeah."

Mikhail had been scanning the system messages when Ethan's voice drew closer from behind.

He gripped the Red Sun Metal, rose to his feet, and tossed it toward the approaching Ethan.

Fwip.

A red arc sailed through the air.

Ethan snatched it out of the air in one clean motion, then raised an eyebrow in a look that asked what he was supposed to do with it.

Mikhail grinned playfully and tapped the back of his own hand.

"Not a fan of hot things."

"…What?"

Ethan glanced between the Red Sun Metal sitting tamely in his palm and Mikhail's face, his expression curdling into disbelief in an instant.

But he didn't seem inclined to argue the point.

He pushed a breath out through his lips and pocketed the Red Sun Metal.

"Then we're done here? How do we get out?"

Ethan folded his arms and swept his gaze across the surrounding landscape, searching for an exit.

But Mikhail was doing the opposite—eyes fixed on the ground, sunk deep in thought.

Then, in a single moment, a thin sigh slipped between his lips and he raised his head toward Ethan.

"We can't leave yet. There's one more thing."

"Ha—can't even say I'm surprised at this point."

Ethan clicked his tongue and dropped a hand to his sword hilt.

Tension and vigilance spread across his face like paint hitting blank paper—instant and total.

Mikhail watched him and smiled faintly. Because what they needed to be wary of wasn't out there.

He curled his dangling fingers inward with quiet resolve and spoke.

"Ethan. Listen carefully. I'm going to tell you how to handle the enemy you're about to face."

Ethan spat out a confused word and turned. His face made it perfectly clear he hadn't understood a thing Mikhail just said.

But that wasn't something to worry about right now.

"First—figure out what the enemy's top priority is. What it goes for before anything else."

Ethan pressed a hand to his forehead and let out a hollow laugh. He fired off pointed questions, each one demanding a proper explanation.

But that wasn't something to worry about right now.

"Second—once you know that, find the opening it creates."

Ethan closed the distance in long strides. His face was twisted tight, and he was shouting something.

But this, too… wasn't something to worry about right now.

"Last—when the perfect opening comes, show no mercy. Put everything you have into the cut."

"—Mikhail! What the hell are you talking about!"

The sharp voice drove into his ear the instant he finished.

Mikhail looked at Ethan, standing right in front of him.

Ethan's face was flushed as he raised his voice, demanding to know what was wrong.

"Snap out of it! Can you hear me? Do you even realize what you're saying? And your hand—!"

The fingers he'd curled inward had dug deep into his palm at some point, carving a throbbing ache into the flesh.

Mikhail released his grip and walked toward the far wall of the ruin site, expression perfectly unbothered.

"Relax your face. This won't be hard for you."

"What?"

Ethan's voice pitched sharply upward.

But Mikhail said nothing more. He stopped before the two formulas inscribed on the wall.

Whirrr.

The blue formula on the left was vibrating softly.

Mikhail confirmed it would activate as expected, then turned to face where Ethan stood.

Ethan was a dozen or so paces away. Mikhail deliberately eased his voice into something light and unhurried.

"I told you I'd finish everything in this place."

"……"

"But up to now—I haven't given you a single thing I promised."

Mikhail tilted his head back and gazed up at the sky.

The brilliant white sunlight hanging at the very peak of the heavens traced undulating curves, rippling like a northern aurora.

"This is the World of Extremes. Spring and winter coexist. Past and present interlock. And yet the last thing we face is just one Scarlet Golem…. Doesn't that strike you as strange?"

This place they'd set foot in—the World of Extremes.

The keyword for its final battle was enemy and ally.

One member of the party transforms into a Frost Golem. Only after defeating them does the door to the outside open.

Weighing what needed to be gained from this fight, it had to be him who transformed—not Ethan.

Mikhail placed his hand on the blue formula. He pressed his fingertips down and channeled mana into it.

Just as he'd expected, a bone-deep chill began creeping up from his fingertips.

A blizzard—as though carved straight from the heart of a frozen wasteland—erupted from beneath his feet.

The howling gale etched ice crystals across Mikhail's cheeks one by one, freezing the breath that leaked between his lips into white vapor.

Through the blue-white haze swallowing his vision, Mikhail found Ethan standing motionless in the center of it all and smiled.

"I figured if I told you the truth, you wouldn't have come this far."

Ethan's expression locked up in an instant.

Mikhail kept his eyes fixed on that face—frozen as if Ethan himself had turned to ice—and hardened his tone.

"You've already learned the basic patterns, right? I told you how to counter me, too. So now… don't forget to use your sword."

Because that was the only way. The only way for Ethan's blade to halt the cracks that would otherwise become a fatal liability—and grow into something a tier above what it was now.

Ice sealed Mikhail's mouth shut. The white crystals sprouting along his arms swelled into something resembling massive prosthetic limbs.

A fathomless cold radiated from somewhere near his heart, climbing his spine, numbing every sense the host body possessed.

And then, in a single moment—

Just before the pitch-black freeze buried every last shred of awareness—

FLASH—!

Warmth from the pendant inside his coat bloomed like a lone candle flame and cast a faint, flickering light across Mikhail's consciousness.

---

"Ha."

Ethan felt the muscles in the back of his neck pull taut as a dry laugh escaped him.

The scene unfolding before his eyes had gone past absurd and was now ringing through his skull.

Mikhail Senit.

Selfish didn't even begin to cover it.

He'd rattled off everything he wanted to say, then had the nerve to demand a fight nobody asked for.

"I really can't stand you."

Ethan bit down on his lip and muttered through his teeth—then drew his real sword without a shred of hesitation.

SHRRRING!

The vicious ring of steel spread outward like the edge of a blade given voice. Ethan fixed his gaze on Mikhail's approaching form.

CRACK. Crk.

Ash-gray frost trailed each advancing step like a shadow.

The bloodless skin had gone white as the ice crystals encasing his hands and mouth.

From beneath that tilted head, unfocused eyes stared out at nothing—every trace of the person who'd been there moments ago, completely gone.

"Haah…."

Ethan watched Mikhail exhale plumes of white breath like a beast's snarl, then leveled his blade.

He had no intention of looking pathetic and helpless in front of someone he couldn't stand.

Though the fact that even this felt like it was playing right into Mikhail's palm—that pissed him off a little.

"Wow. Mikhail."

Ethan ground the name out like he was chewing gravel and kicked off the ground.

He launched himself at the blue core set in the chest of Mikhail—no, the golem—and swung.

CLAAANG!

It was over in an instant. Claw-like hands moved in a blur and swatted the incoming blade aside with brutal force.

Ethan used the impact's momentum to leap back, landing in a wide stance as he narrowed his eyes.

His palm was buzzing. That reaction speed, that power—this wasn't something he could crack through with simple brute force.

Trying to muscle his way through a size disadvantage would be reckless.

Then—

Ethan spared a glance at Mikhail standing motionless at the center of the ruins, then swept his gaze across the formulas etched into the floor.

One blue formula glowed on the far diagonal, to his right.

He moved instantly, launching himself into the air. There was no reason not to use every advantage the terrain offered.

WHOOSH!

The moment Ethan left the ground—

A chilling shriek of displaced air tore from where Mikhail stood. Killing intent flooded toward him in a surge, and Ethan twisted mid-flight.

CRACK!

He'd dodged the lethal trajectory. But he hadn't avoided the attack entirely.

Ethan landed a bit further back than planned, a grunt of irritation slipping through his teeth.