Act III: Meena Meets Pele

  Pele looks at the map… "So! Like, this is the mountain I have to cross to get to the village, but the problem is…" She gives a deep sigh and looks down with a grumpy face; her feet are dipped in snow. Those snows.

  [. Since Pele is cursed, she doesn’t just spread cold; she brings forth the winter itself in her environment. That’s why the Demon Lord was using Pele’s castle and her powers as a shield, since only a fraction of creatures like the Ice Dragon can pass her territory alive.]

  She looked up. "Now!" She tightened her fist. "I have to climb the mountain and then I can take proper rest." (Sigh…) She saw vines of frozen trees… "Hun! Those vines will surely help, but first I have to reach there." Pele looked here and there; this will help. She approached the tree near her. "Now I have to cut it. I—'Ice Lance'!" she shouted. A magic circle appeared in front of her and multiple ice lances came from that circle and cut the tree branches. She took the branch and started moving towards the big tree with vines. With the help of the vines and the long tree branch, she climbed halfway through. She grabbed the tree and took her breath on the slope of the mountain. "I am sure the humans would have noticed the change in weather. Although the mountains are slippery, snowy, and it's hard to climb, only this way the Hero won’t notice my presence. Sigh… time to move."

  She stood up as soon as she stepped up. "Hun!" She slipped. "Waaaaaa!" She grabbed a tree trunk and stopped at the cliff. Her map falls from her bag. She saw the map falling. Teary eyes. Teeth clenching. "If the Hero dies, I will take 100 times the reward the Demon Lord would afford. I will make him in debt to me and make him fulfill all of my demands." She's drooling. "Hehehe…! No!" She tightened her grip. "Focus, Pele, or you will be dead before any reward."

  She climbed up onto the tree branch, breathing heavily… that was horrifying. She climbed down. "But what should I do?" Hands crossed while sitting under the tree near the cliff. "Idea!" She took a branch from the tree and started to draw a map of this location. "Hmm, so according to my location, I have to move from here to here, which has more trees but less snow, so I might slip. But I can also move from here where the snow is thicker but windy, and it would be hard to tell where I am with all this fog." So she decided. It would be better to go that way; at last, I won't die.

  She went to the other side by grabbing one tree after another and climbed the tree. "Now let's go." With the help of branches and vines, she jumped from one tree to another… "Finally, I appeared at the top. Although the fog is thick, according to my calculation, I think I have to start going from there. Okay, let's do the best part of the journey. Okay, now!" She folded her sleeves. "Seven-star magic circle, appear: Ice Golem!" A huge white ice golem appeared. "Okay, now three-star magic circle, ice barrier: cover the golem to make it smooth and flat. Now let's slide! You, turn over!" she ordered the golem. The golem turned; she kicked it and jumped on its back. "Whoo whoo! It’s the best!" They slid down. "Woo!" She shook her head. "That was fun."

  The golem is looking at her, waiting for its next order. "What! Your job is done, you can go." She shook her hand and started walking. The golem sat down sad, face dropped. "Oh, seriously, now I have to babysit you? Sigh." She put her hand to her head. "Fine, how about this: you can take me a distance until I tell you to stop." The golem stood up with smiley eyes, his background sparking golden. "What! What are you grinning about?" Hun! She looked at herself, confused. "Wait!" She remembered.

  In her childhood, she had just started learning and making golems. She made an ice golem for the first time. "Wow! You did excellent, Lady Pele," her teacher complimented. "Now let's stop here; tomorrow we will learn about summoning magic," her teacher said. "But sir, can I play with it a little more, please? It's so big and cute!" "Yes, you can, but it will only drain your mana, so don’t overdo it," the Master said and left.

  While she was playing, suddenly a voice came: "Pele, have you given food to Draco?" (her pet). She became angry. "It’s so annoying, I wish someone could take care of Draco." And then, after some time, she found Draco was injured; the golem had attacked it. She was angry at the golem, but she remembered her mother told her the golem’s actions always reflect the master's emotions. Then she made a rule that the golem won’t start work or follow an order until she says "Start."

  "Ohh! I haven’t given the order to start. Okay then, start!" The golem rushed at her, grabbed her, and started running at full speed. "Aaahhhh! What are you doing? Go slow, go slow! Why isn't it listening to me? Wait, I can see the city. Stop, stop! Ohh!" She realized. "Stop! Start!" The golem stopped. It dropped her from his back. "Augh!" She made an angry face. "Sigh, whatever." She’s looking here and there. "Hmm, looks like I have come to my destination. Let's go to the cave and sleep. You stay there. Start!" She went inside the cave, sat at the end, and leaned against the wall, looking at her legs. "It's hurting. Let's just sleep a little," she said, putting her head against the wall.

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  Meanwhile, in Haruto’s room. "De, search the whole area, find the cause of the cold!" Meena ordered. "It’s rapidly increasing; if things move like this, then even the flame barrier won't work." She crossed her arms. "It's abnormal. If the cold spreads this fast, then even if people move to the far lands, nothing will work; the cold will soon reach them. So search the entire area as fast as possible." "Yes, ma'am! I already started searching."

  From Meena’s domain, De is searching through his fast bats, flying here and there. "Hmm!" His eyes grew wide. "Master, found it!" "What!" Meena replied and came inside the domain. "Let me see." "Look, Master, there is the large screen which is showing the bats' vision. Look, Master, there are many snow golems guarding this cave; it looks way too suspicious."

  "Let's check inside," she said, while sitting with legs crossed on the floor, looking at the screen without a word. "Master!" De and Blade were frozen, stunned, mouths open and speechless. They both sat since she was sitting. Blade asked, "Master, are you okay?" "Yes, let's just focus on the task." She is sweating. De is looking at Meena and thinking, It's clear that she is anxious and stressed and worried about Sir Haruto. Well, let's focus on the mission and hope we find the cause inside the cave. His eyes moved to the screen, concentrating on his bats. "Let's see what’s inside." As soon as a bat tried to move inside, a golem attacked. "Hmm! Master, looks like there is something inside after all." He looked at Meena. She is not listening; her gaze is fixed on the screen, eyes clenched. "Don’t worry, those four little golems are no match for my bats." He used a bat to distract those golems. The bat attacked the golem and ran; when the golem tried to attack with a snowball, the bat dodged. "Now!" De shouted.

  He used the other bat to enter into the cave. "What! The cave is freezing from inside." Meena is looking at the screen; suddenly the screen became blank. Meena stood up. "What happened!" "Master, I think the cave is too cold for my bats to sustain." "But that only proves the real problem is from inside of the cave. Master, let me go," Blade asked.

  "No, your powers are sealed and can only work when your Master wields you in sync with you," Meena replied. "So Master, are you perhaps..." Blade looked at Meena. "Yes, this time I have to go. This is an abnormal disaster; it's something only I can control."

  They both knelt in front of her. "Master, we wish you luck." She moved in an instant, teleported to Haruto’s room with Blade and De. "You two, please take care of Master in my absence." With angry eyes and a dense black aura—her face half-covered in dark—she looked at them, blue eyes glowing from the shadow, and left.

  Blade dropped to the floor. "Sigh. What do you think will happen?" Blade asked. "I don’t think anything bad will happen. Notice she rushed angrily? That means she is doing it for Haru, not for the universe," De replied and looked up at the ceiling. "Looks like the universe is really going to change." "Hun! What is that supposed to mean?" De smiled with closed eyes. "You will see soon." Blade awkwardly slid back. "You look creepy like that."

  "Okay, let's do this." De started stretching. "One, two! Can you heat your body?" De asked. "Yes, but why?" Blade replied. "Then I will absorb the cold and you produce heat. Okay! Let's call it a truce for now." And they shook hands. "Okay, let's start…!"

  Meanwhile, as soon as she left the house, she flew at high speed towards the cave. Looking at the ground, everything was frozen. "This is absurd, I have to stop it or else everyone else will die." She increased her speed. She spotted the cave from a distance. "Hmm, there it is." She dropped at the entrance of the cave; golems started attacking. She made a barrier. The golems started punching the barrier. "Hmm, I know how you work." She raised her hand. "Now: Dispel!" With one dispel, all three golems were destroyed. "Hmm, as I thought! Dispel works on every spell."

  While this happened, Malphas was watching the fight with binoculars from a large distance on the cliff of a mountain. "Wait, the little girl from the prophecy can use Dispel? That mythical spell that we heard of in tales and stories? Wait, but how can such an absurd spell that can diminish any magic exist? But I am sure that Pele’s snow golems are not spells; they have a consciousness of their own. Let's see how it goes; I have to inform this to His Majesty as soon as possible." He started adjusting his scope…

  The golems reappeared. "Hun? I thought I dispelled all of them. Okay! Then I will dispel the entire area." She again raised her hand and shouted, "Dispel!" "Now let's enter the cave," she stepped forward. The golems appeared again. "Hun! They came again. Wait!" She stopped time. Everything stopped and the golems froze mid-attack. She put her finger on a golem. "Hmm, looks like you are not spells after all, then." She opened her grip. Suddenly, Haruto’s ill face appeared in front of her eyes. Her eyes turned from blue to red. "You are annoying. Just disappear," she said.

  All the golems disappeared along with the snow of the entire village in an instant with a pulse of energy. Suddenly, everything became green. The grassland near the cave turned green, frozen rivers started flowing again, the fog lifted, and the sun appeared once more. All the ice in the cave melted.

  Even the heavens were shocked and trembled; a jolt and a sensation of shivering went through them. Seven (Senior Angel of Reincarnation) appeared in Ishtar’s room. "Ma'am, what was that?" "See for yourself." He saw in the divine flame that Meena was about to use her true powers. The power of her red form, which had been hidden for years, had been awakened…