The Villain's Story

Chapter 643: Maxwell's tears. Edward's echoes.

"Do you think he is going to be okay?"

Sabrina asked, huddling over a little fire she made on the ground, using whatever flammable material was in her spatial storage. The others were also doing the same, trying to survive the harsh cold.

They were shaking, the fire wasn't doing much. They were all low on mana, and thus the effects of their artifacts were lessening.

"No... NO!"

The only one away from the feeble warmth of the fire was Maxwell, who bore the cold with his body and the unimaginable weight of his sorrow being greater than whatever Lanekia could throw at him.

He cried, he cried and cried. His tears froze on his face as soon as they left his eyes, but he didn't stop. He smashed his fists on the ground, only injuring himself.

Though, the bastard stopped after it hurt a bit more than expected, and yelled sorrowfully at the sky.

"MY ARCTIC TITAN! MY MONEY!"

"Is he going to be okay? I think we should be asking that..."

Olivia said with gritted teeth, it was taking her all to stop them from clacking against one another, Alexander and Festul weren't doing well.

"Can we go check on my brother? Where is he?"

"MY MONEY!"

As they wept in the cold, Maxwell finally lost it and stood up, heading towards a certain box that released an ominous aura. Huffing and puffing, he kicked it away.

"It's because of you, damn it!"

"Hey! Be careful! What if that thing explodes?!"

Alexander had to leave the barely comfortable zone, away from the fire's reach, and hold onto Maxwell. Stopping the man from doing something everybody would regret.

His actions were not without consequence, however. The group had formed a barrier of sorts around the fire that protected it from the harsh winds...and with Alexander gone, the barrier of bodies was broken, and the fire was extinguished.

Lanekia won.

|| ||

Sabrina, Alice, and Olivia looked at with tears in their eyes, coughing and shaking. Sighing, and cursing in her mind, Sabrina took out a crystal like orb from her spatial storage with teary eyes.

'... It took so long to get this powered up... and it's just going to serve a fuel source for fire...' It truly was a waste to use such a precious artifact, one that could elevate her to the strength of an S-rank mage for a while, as a fuel source for something as insignificant as fire.

She regrettably used the mana stored within the orb to start another fire, she predicted that this one could last them a day at the very least, if used sparingly.

Sparingly on Lanekia was akin to a small forest fire on Earth, that was the sheer difference in the frigidity of the two planets. Sabrina was sure she could raze down an entire city or two with the orb if she used it well...

Well, nothing beats saving their lives, she didn't want to die from the cold too.

"Huddle closer together, don't let the wind eat the fire again!"

Olivia cursed, and followed. Any closer and they would practically be within the fire. Maxwell's screams and the chattering of Alexander's teeth were the only sounds present, excluding the whistle of the winds that threatened to kill them.

"I'm going to destroy that thing!"

"Ca-Calm do-do-down!"

They wouldn't have been suffering like this if the Arctic Titan was still functional... Sadly, the behemoth of steel crumbled as easily as a sandcastle in front of a wave... the wave being the mysterious individual that stopped them.

Suddenly, a portal opened through and Alan walked out of it, surprisingly unharmed. There was not a scratch on his body, he walked out of the portal with a blank look on his face. Everyone turned to look at him, everyone except Maxwell was jealous of the fact that Alan could wear a single vest and trousers in this kind of weather. Extremely so.

Right now, they would trade everything to have his tolerance to the cold. To hell with that! Forget tolerance, the bastard was enjoying the cold that was threatening to kill them!

Still, they were glad he was okay, although they wouldn't express it right now.

Everyone except Maxwell. Alexander could no longer bear with the cold and retreated to the fire, almost diving inside it. Shaking, he mumbled.

"... He is Alan's problem now..."

A blissful expression appeared on his face as he pushed his hands straight into the fire, ignorant to Olivia's shock.

"You bastard! What is this treacherous thing that caused that dude to destroy my entire ride?"

"What?"

Alan was immediately verbally assaulted by a furious Maxwell, the fire inside him burned so bright and hot that the cold of Lanekia was nothing to him. He was truly livid. In a fit of anger, he kicked the box containing Suleras's ichor towards Alan.

Alan's eyes widened as he realized what was being kicked towards him, and he ducked, avoiding the box with a frightful look, and ran away on his knees.

"Don't throw that shit at me!"

Maxwell continued to play football with the box, repeatedly kicking it towards Alan with a fire in his eyes as he cursed at Alan, who was running away from it with a fearful look in his eyes, desperate to avoid it no matter what.

During all that ruckus, the group realized Alan was truly was fine and didn't seem bothered by the appearance of the Draconian, whilst they huddled close to each other for warmth.

"What the hell is happening? Why is it so cold? Why is everyone screaming?"

Kazikato emerged from the ruins of the Arctic Titan, a pillow and bedsheet in his hands, as he stared at them all with a confused look.

"Guys... My brother is still missing."

Emma voiced her worries, but everyone was too busy or too cold to spend an effort.

Meanwhile, Edward was in quite the predicament.

"Hello! Somebody get me out of here! I-its cold!"

Edward was squished between two buildings in the city that surrounded the Jade Palace, curled into a ball. He was barely fighting against the cold, wishing for someone to get him

out.

"Hey! What's poking me?"

A wandering jade soldier curiously poked at him from behind with its spear, while the other inhabitants of the domain danced in the snow.