Chapter 513 – Hellish frost [19]

I couldn't exactly say I expected the situation to escalate in such a... majestic way. To be fair, technically, I had been expecting these giant statues to move and try to kill me. But that had been little more than a mostly subconscious thought, something I probably couldn't have shut off after all the shit I'd already been through.

When you spend enough time dealing with things that shouldn't be possible, you start developing certain habits. Like automatically distrusting anything large, ancient, and suspiciously terrifying. That said, even if some small part of me had, technically, been expecting these deadly statues to come after me, I wasn't genuinely expecting them to do it.

Shit! The worst part was that I couldn't even be truly surprised. After all, I hadn't expected the statues to actually move... but at the same time, some extremely inconvenient part of my brain had been expecting exactly that. It was almost as if my instincts were saying, They're going to move, while the rational part of my brain was responding, Of course they aren't.

And then they moved. Perfect. I couldn't even say I'd been completely caught off guard. All I could do was complain that, this time, my subconscious had actually gotten it right. Anyway, putting aside my thoughts about what could or couldn't happen, since clearly speculating wasn't getting me anywhere, I tried to figure out what could have triggered such an extreme reaction.

I didn't think these giant statues would have simply tried to kill me if I hadn't been doing something wrong... Or, in this case, something right. After all, the sculpture had been completely destroyed. There was nothing left that could be done with it, so it could hardly have been the sculpture itself responsible for the entire snowstorm and the cataclysm happening outside.

If that had been the case, the giant statues should have simply stopped once I destroyed it. But they hadn't stopped. Quite the opposite. That meant the sculpture probably hadn't been the direct cause of everything. Something about the act itself, perhaps the destruction of the sculpture, had probably come close enough to affecting whatever was actually causing all that chaos outside.

I wasn't some genius who could immediately pinpoint the exact cause, but that didn't mean I was incapable of paying attention. Maybe I couldn't understand how everything around me worked, but I knew how to recognize patterns when they were practically being shoved in my face.

And thinking about it more carefully, there were only two things I could imagine that might have triggered this reaction from the statues. The first was the throne. Considering everything that had happened up to this point, it seemed like a pretty plausible answer.

There had been something strange about that throne from the very beginning, and I'd already seen how it seemed to be connected to the storm and the statues themselves. But aside from the throne, there was something else. Something I'd only noticed at the very last moment, right before the sword-wielding statue had tried to crush me.

The thought made my eyes immediately drop toward the ground. There it was. The crown made of ice. It was still lying exactly where it had been left. Despite all the chaos and the sheer violence of my attacks, the crown hadn't broken. There wasn't even a crack on its frozen surface. I frowned slightly.

If I was right, then the possibilities came down to those two objects. Aside from the crown, the throne was the only other thing that made sense as a possible catalyst, some kind of core keeping both the storm and the statues moving. With all that said, I still had one last problem to solve.

How exactly was I supposed to get close to the throne and the crown without getting trapped in the middle of all these giant statues? Because, honestly, there were way too many of them. They occupied practically all the space around me, leaving only a few narrow passages between them. And there was only one of me.

My Golden Dimension would probably be my main trump card, but I could already see a few problems with that plan. I'd have to keep repositioning the field every time I stepped outside of it. And the moment I did, any statues behind me would probably start moving again and try to chase me all over again.

Worse, if they managed to join up with the statues coming from the front, I could easily imagine a scenario where I'd end up completely surrounded, squeezed between tons of ice with barely enough room to move forward or retreat. In that case, my Golden Dimension wouldn't exactly give me an escape route.

Well... There was another option. I could just jump over them. I stared at the enormous statues for a few seconds... No. Honestly, I thought that would be pretty damn difficult. I couldn't jump that high. And even if I could, I seriously doubted these things would just stand there and let me pass over them.

It was while I was getting distracted by all these thoughts that I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye. Farther ahead, slipping between all those giant statues that had been trying to kill me only moments ago, there was a small movement that definitely shouldn't have been happening.

The crown was moving. It wasn't exactly running, nor was it moving quickly enough to draw attention. In fact, if I hadn't happened to be looking in its direction, I probably wouldn't have noticed at all. Still, I was certain I'd seen it drag itself a few inches forward. I stopped for a moment. I kept watching.

The crown remained perfectly still for several seconds, as though nothing had happened. Then, slowly, it moved another few inches. My eyes narrowed. I kept staring at it for a while longer, and for some reason, I got the strange feeling that it was... acting suspicious.

It wasn't exactly fear. It was more like the feeling you got when someone realized they'd been caught doing something they weren't supposed to and was desperately trying to pretend everything was completely normal. The longer I looked, the more suspicious I became.

Until finally, I narrowed my eyes at the crown. That was the exact moment it seemed to panic. The crown suddenly made a tiny hop, spun around, and started running as fast as it could toward the back of the throne. Although, to be fair, its speed wasn't exactly impressive.

She was practically dragging herself desperately across the floor, moving only a few inches at a time as she did everything in her power to disappear from my sight. I watched in silence... She was running away, right? There was no other explanation. That damn crown was definitely trying to escape from me.

I barely had time to think about it any further. The statues, which had remained completely motionless until then, suddenly began moving in unison, lumbering heavily in my direction. The sound of ice scraping against stone echoed throughout the area, each step making the ground tremble beneath my feet.

On the outside, I maintained an almost indifferent expression. On the inside? I was freaking out. I hadn't even come up with a plan yet. Shit. Looks like I really was going to have to improvise.

Still, there was one thing I definitely wasn't going to allow: letting that murderous crown get away. I cast one last glance in its direction, almost as if I could see the desperation in its movements as it desperately searched for an opening to escape.

"Not a chance..." I muttered. I tore my gaze away from the crown and finally focused on the enormous statues coming toward me.

This wasn't what I'd originally planned. In fact, it was pretty much the exact opposite. But apparently, my carefully nonexistent plan was going to have to be replaced with something a little more... spectacular. And so, the next few seconds turned into an almost endless sequence of chaos.

I ran. I simply ran. I let my powers loose without worrying too much about conserving energy or keeping everything under control. Every movement was accompanied by an explosion, the area filling with the thunderous sounds of impacts and blasts as chunks of ice flew in every direction.

If I didn't have a plan... Then I'd improvise one while running. It was a perfectly valid strategy... Probably. My Alter Ego emerged from my shadow almost the instant the first gigantic statues charged forward, immediately throwing itself against them. The shadows around it twisted and warped, taking on all kinds of different shapes.

Some transformed into gigantic serpents, coiling around the icy bodies and squeezing hard enough to make them crack. Others opened into monstrous mouths filled with teeth made of darkness, simply beginning to devour the statues piece by piece. Meanwhile, I was doing my part as well.

Whenever one of the statues appeared in my path, I fired my thermonuclear ability without hesitation. A concentrated beam struck the target directly in the head, chest, or, when there was no other option, the legs. And, to my surprise, it proved absurdly effective.

A statue struck in the legs would lose its balance and come crashing down with a deafening roar. The problem was that, when it fell, it took down any other statue directly in front of it. One after another, enormous ice knights came crashing down, dragging their comrades to the ground like an endless line of dominoes.

I was, effectively, fighting an entire army of gigantic statues all by myself. And they weren't exactly small statues, either. Every single one was shaped like a knight, wielding enormous swords and spears, each movement making the ground tremble beneath my feet.

If I weren't busy running for my life, dodging attacks, and slowing time around me with my golden field just to buy myself a few precious seconds before running again, I probably would have enjoyed the situation a lot more.

After all, it was hard not to feel at least a little proud when I realized I was taking on an entire army by myself. The small detail that I was doing it while desperately running for my life, however, did take away from the grandeur of the scene somewhat.

Anyway, I wasn't all that far from the crown, so reaching it shouldn't have been much of a problem. Even with all those gigantic statues appearing along the way, I was still managing to deal with them without too much trouble. That said, after advancing another few yards, I realized the crown still had a few tricks up its sleeve.

Something descended in front of me, completely blocking my path. More knights. Except this time, there was something different about them. Each one carried a gigantic shield, so large that it looked more like a portable wall than a simple defensive weapon. The enormous slabs of ice locked together, forming an almost continuous barrier between me and the crown.

Strange... I was certain I hadn't seen these statues before. As if that weren't enough, more statues began gathering behind them. Some wielded long spears, while others carried enormous swords, quickly forming a genuine defensive line between me and the crown. Apparently, the crown had decided to stop playing around.

I didn't need to say anything. The shadows behind me began moving on their own, rippling like a living mass before slowly taking on distinct forms. At the same time, thermonuclear energy began gathering around one of my arms, enveloping it in an intense glow that illuminated the path ahead. If they weren't going to let me through willingly... Then I'd simply have to force my way through.