Chapter 132: Hostile Environment

"C-Cold..." Nio murmurs, shivering. Both Nios have the same reaction upon reaching the third floor.

The third floor resembles a series of hills with mountains in every direction. The difference is that, compared to the first and second floors, which are flat, this one is one hundred percent full of massive elevation changes—whether pits or mountains. And the second difference is that the entire environment is frozen, covered in snow and ice.

"..." Nio looks at Nioh, noticing how the cold is affecting both of them. It’s an absurd level of cold. Why are they feeling it? Both of them, extremely powerful dragons, feel like they’re going to freeze solid.

"T-This place is hell..." Nio murmurs metaphorically, even though it’s literal too.

"Y-Yeah... it’s terribly cold. Most of the weak ones who enter this floor become ice statues, trapped here forever..." Nioh murmurs, her teeth chattering and clacking against each other from the cold.

"L-Let’s breathe fire?" Nio opens her mouth to try to spit fire, but her saliva starts freezing and her jaw stiffens, forcing her to close her mouth. If she keeps it open, her body will start freezing from the inside.

"...Guess that won’t work," Nioh murmurs as she starts walking in a random direction, her wings going rigid and unable to flap from how cold they’ve become.

"M-Magic!" Nio tries to use fire magic, but the environment won’t even let the spell form. It’s so cold that fire can’t sustain itself, and to Nio’s shock, the magic circle itself begins to freeze.

"W-What the hell!! This place is so cold that even a magic circle—something non-physical—gets affected!!" Nio is somewhat terrified seeing how abnormal the cold in hell is.

’I always imagined hell was a scorching sea of lava or something, not that it was frozen!!’ Nio feels somewhat critical of all the interpretations that hell is hot.

"Urgh..." Nioh puts a hand to her mouth and notices blood dripping from her nose and lips.

"Nioh!?" Nio runs to her, but then she notices she’s bleeding too. Nio places a hand on her chest, feeling pain. Their lungs are literally freezing just from breathing.

The organic moisture generated inside their flesh bodies literally forms ice crystals that tear through their lungs like shards of glass. Every breath the two take lets more cold into their bodies and more ice form inside.

"..." Nioh starts to stop moving because of all the cold entering her body. Her blood is literally beginning to cool and freeze.

"!!!" Although both of them truly have the strength not to turn into ice statues instantly, neither has enough internal resistance to keep from being frozen from the inside out.

"Hey! Get up, dammit! We’ll freeze if you stay still!" Nio tries to pull Nioh up, but Nio herself is just as bad.

"..." Nio thinks about the air—how she can’t breathe—and then she thinks about what people do when someone is "drowning."

"..." Nio kisses Nioh and immediately releases flames inside Nioh’s mouth. Since the mouth isn’t open, the cold can’t stop the nightmare flames, and since both of them are resistant to these flames to a certain degree, Nio manages to warm Nioh’s body.

"..." Nioh, realizing the strategy, does the same, releasing flames inside Nio’s body. Both are hurt by it, but since they become very hot internally, their blood starts circulating normally again and the ice in their lungs begins to melt.

"H-Hmmm..." Nio wants to speak, but she knows that if either of them stops releasing flames into the other, they’ll start freezing again. The two look around, but their eyes hurt because the moisture in them is also starting to freeze.

The two can’t even talk because they have to keep breathing flames into each other’s mouths. They start getting somewhat desperate, trying to think of a strategy.

’What can I do!! Remember!! Remember what I know about cold—what could protect us from the cold?’ Nio asks herself while Nioh also tries to think of something. Nio’s strategy was good—it’s like giving mouth-to-mouth to someone who’s drowning—but it won’t help forever. The outside of their bodies is still exposed to all the cold.

’Still air is a terrible conductor of heat...’ Nio quickly gathers as many flames as she can and lets go of Nioh. She drops to all fours on the ground and fires flames at the floor, creating a round hole. She grabs Nioh’s hand and pulls her inside the hole, then uses water magic to form a lid.

The cold environment freezes the water instantly, forming an improvised "igloo." Nio releases a bit of flame to keep the inside warm.

"W-What did you do?" Nioh asks, feeling slightly less cold. Her voice came out hoarse because of her throat being hurt by the flames.

"I insulated us with heat, but if we stop releasing flames in here, it’ll get cold again—just at a much slower rate than outside... haaa... I’m glad it worked..." Nio’s voice is also hoarse for the same reason as Nioh’s.

’Who would’ve thought I’d ever use this...’ Nio learned about how igloo heat insulation works because, as a child, she was interested in going to a place with snow. But that interest died after watching videos of how the glaciers were doing in her time. The knowledge, however, stayed.

"The rounded shape helps too, though I don’t remember why. But if everything worked out, then we’re good," Nio says with a smile, proud of having saved them both.

"...Great. And how do we get out of here?" Nioh says seriously, because it’s pointless for them to be stuck safely inside this ball.

"Hmmm..." Nio looks at the wall.

"We can keep melting the ice and form a tunnel. Considering that the exits on the first and second floors were fissures in space, the third floor’s exit should also be a fissure. There has to be a way for us to get to the fourth floor on our own," Nio thinks quickly.

"...I understood what you did, but if you dig a tunnel, won’t it reduce the heat insulation and create airflow? Which would cool this place down too."

"...Dammit... you’re right... well, it wouldn’t if we seal the tunnel behind us. Like, we walk three meters, then seal the back with ice. But that would make going back difficult... so we’d have to always keep moving forward..." Nio says, sounding somewhat disappointed.

"...Let’s do that. It’s all we have... but first, let’s rest... I’m... all sore," Nio starts punching the ice while Nioh looks at her, confused.

"What are you doing? I said let’s rest, Nio."

"I’m compacting the snow. It’ll help retain heat better, I think. Sorry, but I really don’t know. I just know that where I’m from, they compacted snow into blocks, so compacting snow and ice must be important, right?" Nio uses more water on the top and starts punching carefully so she doesn’t break a hole in the ice and snow layer.

"Does that actually work?"

"I have no idea!! But if they make blocks of compacted ice and snow to build igloos, then it must be... I think."

"...Hope you’re right... but Nio, we have another problem... I’m getting sleepy."

"Then just sleep... or... no... shit." The two Nios look at each other, realizing the problem. If both of them fall asleep, neither will wake up. So who’s going to use flames to keep the place warm?

"...Damn it! Damn it!! What bad luck!! Why the hell did both of us have to get lethargic and forced into sleep!" Nio kicks the ground in frustration while spitting out a bit of flame to keep the heat up.

"...Let’s think of something later. My head’s already burning up in here. I already had all the good ideas!" Nio says as she goes back to compacting the snow with her fists.

"Okay... I’m going to sleep then," Nioh lies down on the ice, trying to sleep and hoping Nio doesn’t fall asleep too, or they’ll both freeze.