Dagger

Allen blew a cup of herbal tea that he was holding and kept stirring it with a spoon to decrease its temperature.

He walked out of the store and sat on his rocking chair under the roof-covered porch.

Even though it was still early, there were already a few people on the road playing with snow.

In addition, the temperature of the air was freezing to the point that icicles started to form on the roof of the porch and ice was starting to cover the windows of the store.

Ice was almost starting to form everywhere to the point that the rocking chair couldn"t be moved anymore.

The ice was still thin, but it was spreading at a fast rate.

Actually, this occurrence was normal considering that it was in the middle of winter and they were up the mountain, but it was only for the normal people; as for Allen, he felt that there was something else behind this.

A few hours ago, he sensed there was a sudden plunging of temperature that took place, which was why he woke up rather early today.

He was about to take a sip of his tea when he noticed that the tea was already fully frozen!

"How could this even turn into ice so fast?", Allen put a finger onto the frozen tea. "There is something wrong going on."

He walked back in the shop and said, "Little Salad, check all the plants if there was something wrong with them."

Little Salad who was currently in its sprout form waved its tiny leaves in response, after which roots appeared in the bottom of its pot and it started walking towards the other plants.

Contrary to the situation outside, the interior of the shop was still as warm as ever.

"Good thing those old men taught me how to create an array to control the temperature.", Allen muttered.

Several hurried knocks then came from the door.

"Come in."

Anna walked inside the shop and immediately closed the door at once. She was currently wearing thick clothes, but even so, she was still shivering that it made her feel like that there was an earthquake!

"W-why is it s-so c-cold so s-s-suddenly?! I couldn"t even r-resist it with my own flames!", Anna stuttered out.

"Here, unfreeze this and drink it.", Allen gave her his frozen tea.

Anna followed Allen"s instructions and unfroze the tree with her fire.

When she finally drank it, she slightly stopped shivering, it was obvious that there was some sort of medicine added into it, after which, she asked, "Sir Alchemist Morgan, what"s happening?"

"I"ve read about this, it"s called Magic Frostbite. It"s not a magical spell, but a special condition of the environment which will only affect internal energy users and magicians, but if it is too severe, then it could even affect the magical plants, animals, and the temperature as a whole.", Allen explained.

"So... that means mortals won"t get affected?", Anna asked.

"Mhm, if it is not that severe.", Allen nodded in response. "But the problem is, it"s actually severe."

"Then... how did this happen?", Anna asked again.

"There must be some sort of catalyst for this to happen.", Allen replied.

"Catalyst?"

"It means that something or someone must be the main key for this to happen.", Allen answered.

***

Meanwhile, in the Retollian Church in Eastern Horizon City.

An old man with white hair, wearing robes with symbols was looking outside the window from a spire of the church.

The old man was none other than the holy priest of the Eastern Horizon City.
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The holy priest frowned as he faintly emitted a golden light which couldn"t be seen by normal eyes.

The light was fending off the Magic Frostbite which was approaching the old man.

Though not only the man was protecting himself, but the building, or the church building itself as a whole was fending off the Magic Frostbite.

"I"ve never seen this kind of severe frostbite in my whole life.", the old man looked out towards the window.

"Sir, may I come in?", a voice came from the door.

"Come in."

A younger man who looked like about 30 years old wearing the same robes as the old man, albeit with less symbols, walked in and bowed his head down, "Sir, the Magic Frostbite is worse than we thought it was."

"I can see that... have you found out the cause of this?", the old man asked without looking.

"No sir, we can"t divine it, but we know that this only covers the whole city, but the temperature in the surrounding region is affected.", the younger man replied. "But if given more time, the Magic Frostbite might start to the surrounding places from this location!"

"In all the years of my life, I have never seen such a severe Magic Frostbite like this take place.", the Holy Priest sighed.

After a pause, he added, "Relay my command to all the officers to not exit the building until this issue is solved and message the ones outside the city to not return and go towards the other congregations."

"I will, sir."

"And oh, send a letter to the regional bishop about this problem, you may exit now.", the old man said.

The younger man didn"t say anything else and left the room.

***

It was already morning when Edwin continued his journey.

"Is it just me or did it suddenly get colder?", Edwin asked himself.

But he didn"t pay attention to it after as he used a bit of mana to heat his body up through a minor spell that Anna taught him.

"Huh, what"s that?", the boy noticed something from far away.

He almost jumped in fright for fear that it was that shadow, but when he checked it, it was only a figure of an animal.

"Could it be?", Edwin crouched down and sneaked towards that animal.

He hid himself behind snow covered boulders, thick trees and bushes on the way while keeping a close eye on the animal.

Finally, when he got the appropriate distance, he hid himself inside a large bush and took a peek on the animal.

Edwin saw that the animal, was only a deer eating some leaves sticking out of a tree.

The deer immediately walked away after getting what it wanted, however, due to Edwin"s curiousity, he followed the deer to where it was going.

After a while, when Edwin saw where the deer was heading for, he gaped at the sight of it.

On a basin, he could see from the edge of the said location, the sheer number of deers in a herd.

Not just any kind of deers, but deers with white fur, making them look like as if they"re made from snow.

"Whoa... what kind of deers are these?", Edwin asked himself.

As he kept looking at the animals, he saw one particular deer, whose antlers were as big as a moose"s, yet still has the elegance of a deer"s; it was also much larger than the other animals around it, actually, it was the biggest of them all.

In addition to its unusual antlers and size, it"s eyes were gold in color, as if it"s sight could penetrate any veil.

After checking that deer, he determined that it was the leader or the alpha of the herd of deers.

"I should leave this place, these deers are probably dangerous." Edwin said.

However, before he could even turn around, he saw something at the corner of his eyes.

He looked at the direction where he spotted something, and saw a figure also wearing white robes.

The figure took out a wooden bow with some sort of faint engravings, then it nocked an arrow and pulled the bowstring, aiming the shot towards the deers.

-sou-

As the figure let go of the bowstring, the engravings on the bow faintly lit up, and as the arrow glided through the part of the weapon where the arrow and the bow touches, the same faint engravings appeared on the arrow.

When the arrow was finally separated from the bow, it turned into a beam of energy and struck the basin.

-boom-

Snow and land shot up into the air after the impact of the explosion created by the arrow.

When everything settled down, Edwin saw that the arrow missed and didn"t hit any deer, actually, in fact, it was far away from the nearest animal.

Then he noticed that the figure took out something from it"s robe and suddenly threw it at him.

Edwin caught hold of it, and saw that it was some sort of crystal.

He didn"t get to inspect it for long because the crystal emitted a light almost as the same as the sun, but luckily, Edwin"s reaction was fast and he closed his eyes just at the right time.

The blinding light subsided and Edwin opened up his eyes again, the crystal disintegrated into dust and was carried away by the wind, then a grave thought came into him.

He looked at where the figure was once standing, but it was nowhere to be seen, then he looked at the herd of deers at the basin.

All the deers where looking right at him, even the ones who were sleeping earlier had their eyes glued onto him.

Edwin gulped in dry air and said, "d.a.m.n it."

He immediately started to retreat back, but after his first step, the largest deer, which was the alpha, neighed and smoke came out of its nostrils.

After that, the other deers also neighed and charged forward at Edwin.

"Ohhhhhh... no.", now, Edwin didn"t even hesitate to initiate Burst Steps.