Chick 361
by Cristae361
When On Groo raised her teddy-bear paw, the snowflakes rose into the air all at once, as if they were alive.
The snowflakes swirled and rushed towards each other, and soon a white blizzard swept through like a raging wave.
On Joorim narrowed her brow, quietly watching the scene, then raised her arm to shield her face from the howling wind.
At the edge of her vision, beyond her arm, the snow on the field was converging into a single point.
[Skill ‘Pluck Away’ has been activated.]
[Skill ‘Mold and Shape’ has been activated.]
A tremendous force began to move.
For a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath in silence, then the air began to tremble ever so slightly.
Joorim tried to push through the overwhelming sense of oppression and approach Groo, but halted, her steps faltering.
Groo’s teddy suit had finally been blown off by the wind, and in the revealed eye, the emblem of Gnosis was vividly engraved.
The child’s gaze was fixed on Kabarun, who wore On Ijo’s mask.
He struggled desperately, cold sweat beading on his face, trying somehow to break free from his restraints.
‘Are they trying to force Kabarun out?’
No one knew for certain just how much Kabarun’s and On Ijo’s souls had blended.
…But perhaps Groo, as she was now, could achieve it.
The child’s platinum hair fluttered in the sweeping gale.
The blizzard had grown still larger, as if it would consume the entire school.
Joorim looked up at the sky.
Following Groo’s will, the snow on the plain gathered into a point, taking on a certain form.
And for some reason, Joorim was struck by a familiar feeling, as if she had seen this before.
A shape, a force, that she seemed to recall from long ago.
Yet that wasn’t the only strange thing.
It was also odd that someone would try to manifest Kabarun in such a massive form.
Was it that Kabarun’s resistance demanded even greater power? Or was the bond between the souls too strong to separate easily? Or…?
As Joorim wondered, a blinding flash shone amid the raging blizzard, as something enormous opened its eyes.
When those golden eyes filled her view, Joorim instinctively held her breath and opened her eyes wide.
From within the storm, a foot with razor-sharp talons struck the ground.
Boom—!
Frost-like scales on legs as thick as ancient tree trunks gleamed coldly.
Boom—!
At last, as it thrust its face from the blizzard—
—Grrrr…
Breathing out frost-laden white breaths, a gigantic dragon revealed itself.
Awed by the majesty of the pure white dragon, Joorim muttered in disbelief.
“Shea?”
Back when they confronted the tower, on the ninety-ninth floor, they had been forced to seal Shea.
In the end, Shea’s soul had become lodged in Joorim’s left hand, and Shea’s original body, bereft of soul, crumbled away to dust.
That was how they cleared the ninety-ninth floor.
And now, On Groo had perfectly recreated Shea’s body once more—as if to return it.
“Oh…!”
Groo gazed at Shea, born from her own hands, and exclaimed in wonder.
‘Dinosaur!’
The child’s eyes sparkled brightly.
All she had wanted was to return Shea’s body, but the field of snow had birthed something truly magnificent.
To recreate Shea—a being that could well be called the most powerful dragon alive—Groo could not contain her excitement and shouted,
“Go! Save Uncle!”
Groo’s finger pointed at Kabarun.
Kabarun, looking up, trembled, his drained body shuddering.
The vast shadow of the dragon loomed over him, pinning him down.
From the revived Shea came a suffocating pressure.
‘I have to use the Eyes of Gnosis…’
Kabarun hurriedly tried to use the half-complete Eyes of Gnosis. But with only a fragment, he was powerless to cloud Shea’s mind, now that the dragon had regained its true body.
“…Ugh!”
The panic in Kabarun’s eyes was clear as day.
At that moment, Shea opened his mouth.
—Those born from the cradle must return to the cradle.
With those words, Shea brought his face down toward Groo.
“…?”
Shea gave Groo a gentle tap with his snout.
Roll!
Groo tumbled head over heels across the snow.
“Hm?”
Why attack me all of a sudden?
It hadn’t really been an attack, just a nudge, but Groo thought as much as she picked herself up.
Shea waited patiently until Groo stood again, then carefully extended his head as she shuffled closer.
At last, Groo understood the sign Shea was sending and wrapped her arms around his snout.
And then, his memories flowed into her.
The knowledge of how to send snow falling upon the field seeped into her mind.
“Frost Grave?”
As Groo spoke, the color instantly drained from Kabarun’s face.
“N-no! Anything but that…!”
But as Groo willed it, white snow began to fall.
If the cradle was the place that gave birth to life,
Then the grave was where that life met its end.
The Frost Grave was the place where the life born of the cradle would ultimately vanish, soul and all.
Kabarun, a being whose soul was birthed by Shea in the cradle, now found that soul slowly melting away with each flake that settled upon him.
“No…”
Kabarun whispered in a trembling voice.
Snowflakes drifted down to rest upon his body.
The instant they touched, they burrowed into his existence, freezing the cracks in his soul.
Kabarun clutched his face with shaking hands.
“No… No, it can’t be!”
His body was turning to ice.
He couldn’t even draw breath.
Desperate, he tried once more to use the fragment of the Eyes of Gnosis.
But then he saw Groo, already wearing the teddy mask again, approach from out of nowhere.
“…!”
Groo opened her mouth wide.
Chomp!
Like an unfinished teddy chomping down, she bit down on him.
Kabarun tried to shake the child off—
But, ‘I can’t move…’
The control over his own body had long since vanished.
Soon, the Eyes of Gnosis were completely sucked into Groo.
Kabarun shut his eyes in despair.
Everything was gone. Shea’s power, the Eyes of Gnosis, even his soul. Everything.
By this small child.
Perhaps even if the tower were rebuilt, they would conquer it once more.
Because this child existed in the world.
“……”
Some moments later, On Ijo blinked.
The cold that sank to his very bones hit him at once.
He shrank his shoulders, blinking a few more times.
Before him stretched a white expanse of snow, and there stood the pure white dragon and Joorim.
“Hyung?”
“On Joorim—you really do have a sixth sense.”
On Ijo smiled at Joorim, then pulled into a tight embrace the child still biting his arm.
Flop.
The child collapsed limply into his arms.
Calming the child, On Ijo removed Groo’s teddy mask.
The child murmured softly,
“…Daddy?”
“Yes, princess. It’s Daddy.”
Groo’s small, pale cheeks lifted in a bright smile.
“I did it…!”
With those words, the child soon drifted to sleep in his embrace, exhausted from using too much power.
With the master of the field of snow now asleep, the long fall of snow finally ebbed away.
Mephisto sat perched on the edge of the collapsed main school building’s roof, gazing up at the sky.
Though the snow had melted Kabarun’s soul, to him, it only felt warm and gentle.
He watched as the pieces of Kabarun’s soul captured in the snowflakes fluttered away and asked,
“Why were you so obsessed with the tower?”
“I told you—the guy was never in his right mind.”
It was Bailach.
Bailach came over and sat down next to him with a thump.
“He lost sight of the essence and became fixated on means alone. That’s the usual trap for his sort.”
“……”
Mephisto pressed his lips together in silence.
‘Were the means all I was to you, Brother?’
He swallowed back the question he’d wanted so badly to ask.
Even now, he felt small, longing for a confirmation of true affection.
Bailach, somehow sensing Mephisto’s silent question, spoke firmly.
“Don’t think too much. The ones who’ve left are simply gone, that’s all.”
“…Yes.”
The ones who have left are simply gone.
And those who remain…
As Mephisto turned his gaze toward the great dragon’s form,
Suddenly, the sound of hurrying footsteps echoed from below the remains of the main building.
He thought all the Gnosis had been taken care of.
Mephisto and Bailach peered down.
“Yurian?”
“A mount?”
Yurian, running off somewhere, was clearly no longer a dog, but had taken human form.