Frey's grey hair had become white and cold air seemed to be billowing from his body.
Torkunta felt his heart sink as he saw this scene.
'He's dangerous.'
It was the first time in hundreds of years that he'd felt scared when looking at a figure that was so small it seemed like he could crush it with just a fingernail.
He attempted to fly straight up into the sky.
Frey quickly closed the distance between them before Torkunta could truly getaway.
Clang.
Behind him, numerous ice arrows began to form.
Torkunta couldn't help but steal a nervous glance at them.
'Those arrows of ice are strong enough to pierce my skin.'
He knew he had to stop them somehow. However, he had just used his breath so he wouldn't be able to use it for a short while.
As Torkunta hurriedly tried to think of a way to escape this predicament, an ice arrow shot into his body with unstoppable momentum.
[Kuh…!]
The shard of ice seemed to dig into his bones and it was at that moment that Torkunta, who had never been dissatisfied with his large body, couldn't help but feel that he was unnecessarily large.
'Where did he go?'
Frey had moved behind Torkunta, taking advantage of his left eye that had been blinded.
Crack.
In his left hand was a spear that was made of ice which he then stabbed into the Drake King's back.
Kishik.
[Kuk!…you little rat!]
As soon as he felt the pain in his back, Torkunta spun and swung his tail to smash Frey aside.
Frey's body flew at an enormous speed and smashed into the rocky mountain behind him.
Boom!
The impact was so powerful that the mountain collapsed, but Torkunta's expression was not better.
He kept his eyes on the pile of rocks.
Patter.
As expected, Frey walked out looking like nothing happened.
When he had seen Torkunta move, Frey had put ice spikes in front of him like a shield.
Instead, Torkunta felt his tail throbbing.
Torkunta felt shocked when he looked Frey in the eyes.
'Human? This is human?'
Torkunta had reigned over the mountain range for quite a long time and he had seen numerous humans.
He also knew that the humans who could reach this location were all very strong individuals, but even they were just bugs.
No matter how excellent a human was, to him it was only an ant who could carry a larger amount of bread than the other ants.
But this man was different.
[Human…! What the hell are you!?]
Frey didn't respond.
Instead, a white breath came from his mouth.
Torkunta hadn't seemed to notice, but Frey's body was currently in a state that was infinitely close to collapsing.
'The longer I drag this on, the worse it will get.'
Crack crack.
In Frey's hands, a piece of ice slowly began taking the shape of a spear. The gathering mana which was visible to the naked eye was shaking.
Torkunta realized that the man in front of him was preparing to unleash a strong attack.
'This is exactly what I wanted…!'
He could not use his breath and in a head to head confrontation, he refused to believe that his breath would lose.
After all, not even a Phoenix had been able to withstand his breath.
No matter what power this human awakened or what spell he used, Torkunta was confident that he would win.
Krrrr.
Torkunta began gathering his breath to the maximum.
He planned to bet his life and death on the one attack.
Then.
Kwang!
Frey's spear and Torkunta's breath soon met, causing an explosion of fire and ice that spread in the surroundings.
Beyond that, a mighty gust of wind and an indescribably loud sound shook the entire Drake Mountain.
At first, they were even.
However as more time passed, it was Torkunta's breath that gradually began to overpower the ice magic.
Torkunta realized that he was winning.
'This is my breath…'
Tuk.
At that moment, Torkunta's head fell from his body, his eyes still showing his conviction in his victory.
It was an unexpected and empty end to the King who had ruled over the mountain range for over a thousand years.
Was he lucky to have died while thinking that he'd won?
"Huk…!"
Frey sank to the ground.
Panting from exertion, he fixed his eyes on Torkunta's decapitated body.
This was the Drake King that had lived for 1000 years.
A mutant who was several times more superior to others.
It was unknown just how many elixirs he had consumed to reach his current level. Such miracles, which had overlapped continuously, had strangled him now.
'He didn't have much fighting experience.'
He may have had a lot of experience from the fights that he had had over the years, but he was a guy who had never fought someone on a similar level as him.
He was used to and good at trampling his enemies with his overwhelming power, but he didn't know that winning and losing in a fight among those of similar power levels could be decided in an instant.
Torkunta had failed to put away the confidence in his power that he had gained over a thousand years at the end.
During that last moment, Frey had created a spear of ice using only 80% of his power. However, he had deliberately caused a mana reaction to make it seem like he was giving his all in that attack.
Right after he had thrown the spear forward, he immediately moved over to Torkunta.
At that time, the Drake King was completely defenseless because he had put all his focus on resisting the flying spear.
At that moment, Frey was able to decapitate Torkunta using a scythe of ice.
Somehow, he had managed to defeat his enemy, but his appearance now was so disastrous that he did not look like a winner at all.
He had used his body which was in a bad state, to cast spells that were much too powerful, too many times.
He needed to get his raging mana under control, but instead, Frey began to approach Torkunta's body with a sword made of ice in his hand.
Then he stuck it into his chest.
Crack.
Although there was no power left in his body, Torkunta's flesh was still incredibly hard for Frey to cut in his weakened state.
If he let his guard down for even a moment, he would lose his mind.
Then he'd die.
Frey managed to endure with his superhuman mental strength and he finally saw the thing that he was searching for. The heart…
It was the heart of the Drake King, Torkunta.
A strong heat was being exuded by the heart. In fact, the heat was so high that it would burn anyone who touched it, but Frey was too desperate to care at that moment.
He immediately sat with his legs crossed beside Torkunta's heart, his closed eyes trembling slightly.
"Kuh…"
The ice energy flowing from his mana room seemed to carry enough force to crush his entire body.
It was already to the extent that Frey could no longer control how it spread. This was why he needed Torkunta's heart.
Whoosh.
On its own, Torkunta's heart contained an enormous amount of flame energy, and Frey was drawing this energy into his body to counteract the cold from the Frozen River.
"…"
However, this was a dangerous act that had a high chance of causing death.
This was because neither of these forces actually belonged to Frey.
In addition to the unrefined Frozen River, the flame energy from a Drake King's heart was extremely dangerous.
'Balance…I need to balance them.'
The method he used was similar to the battle training, but the amount of risk he faced was tens of times more than that.
If he made even a single mistake, his body would either burn or freeze.
So Frey couldn't afford to be careless.
"…"
He didn't know how much time passed.
Frey put all his focus on perfectly controlling the forces in his body.
The crisis this time was greater than before. This was because his mental strength had already been greatly depleted by that point.
But Frey, no.
Lucas Traumen had overcome it.
He slowly opened his eyes.
'…the most pressing moment has passed.'
It was safe to say that the mortal crisis had finally passed.
The chill of the Frozen River had finally subsided and there was a slight flush on Frey's face as his blood once again circulated all over his body.
Of course, it was not perfect.
To completely dissolve the ice energy, he would need an elixir with strong flame energy.
"Hoo…"
When he calmed down, he felt that it was very hot, so the first thing that he did was climb out of Torkunta's body.
When he had first entered, it was day time, but now it was a dark night.
'How many days has it been?'
He wondered how long it had been since he left the dungeon.
No.
Before that, there was another priority.
Frey looked around and soon, he found what he was looking for.
It was Phoenix.
"…"
The fiery feathers had long become cold, and there was not even the slightest movement from its body.
It was dead.
Its body had been trampled by Torkunta until it was almost flat.
Frey looked down at its body with a face filled with sorrow.
"…you saved my life. Thank you."
Frey grieved for a while, then he lifted the Phoenix's body and carried it over to Torkunta's body.
When he reached it, he placed the Phoenix's body into the hole that he had made while he whispered.
"…the conditions have been met. There are few places better than this to revive. You should be able to come back to life. You'll have power incomparable to how it was before, so you might look a bit different."
He paused for a moment before adding.
"Of course, that's not necessarily a good thing." He looked around.
This was the Monster Paradise, the Hell Mountains.
Frey didn't know how many beings here were on Torkunta's level
or higher.
"Torkunta was the ruler of this region. His death will cause a drastic shift in the ecosystem. All the monsters will fight for that throne."
Torkunta's heart slowly began to be absorbed by the Phoenix's body and a small light began to shine from within it.
"You will reign. Follow Torkunta's footsteps and become the ruler of these mountains. Protect my friend's dungeon."
Of course, he didn't know how long it would take, and he did not have the time to wait until the Phoenix absorbed all of Torkunta's power.
Frey drew his hand back as he got up.
Slash.
Torkunta's heart split in half.
Frey then took out the bottle that the Frozen River had been stored in and murmured.
"Completion."
Gugugugu…
Half of the heart was sucked into the bottle.
The bottle made by Schweiser was a well crafted magical tool that had been able to hold the Frozen River.
The reason he was taking half of the heart was not hard to understand.
It would be extremely difficult for the Phoenix to accept all of Torkunta's power.
This was why Frey took it.
Additionally, Frey also needed this power to fully absorb the power of the Frozen River.
As he looked at Torkunta's body which was hiding a scene that many would find unbelievable, Frey muttered quietly to himself.
"I look forward to seeing you again someday."