Decision (5)
Many thoughts crowded Vergil’s mind as he took in the situation before him.
‘What the hell is she thinking?!’
Seris's rampage was the worst possible outcome.
Below her colossal figure, knights were already frozen, locked in sheets of ice.
Villagers and soldiers alike fled in blind panic, scrambling over one another as the temperature continued to plummet.
Frost crept across the land in widening waves, and the air itself felt brittle.
With this much commotion and such a blatant release of draconic power, it was only a matter of time before the Dragon Empire’s army arrived.
With several cuts on his body and arrows lodged deep in his flesh, Vergil forced himself forward one step at a time.
Blood soaked through his clothes, staining the snow beneath his boots.
“Seris—”
He paused, then turned.
Behind him, the Prince’s army had already caught up. Rows of soldiers advanced with their blades drawn and bows raised.
Even the sudden appearance of the Ice Dragon had not stopped them.
Vergil rested a hand on his hilt once more, taking a deep breath as blood dripped down his arm.
Truthfully, he had never planned on dying or sacrificing himself. He was never a noble person.
The plan had been simple. Kill the prince, flee the village, then regroup with Seris, Mary, and her family at the vantage point.
But the plan was already ruined.
His body felt heavy and unresponsive. He barely even had the strength left to run, let alone escape properly.
The thought made him scoff.
Still… dying here with a blade in hand didn’t sound terrible.
A warrior’s death, like the stories of old. Perhaps Valhalla would welcome him with open arms.
If nothing else, at least it would be on his own terms.
“Finish him now, before the dragon notices!”
The knights rushed forward in unison.
Pain screamed through Vergil’s muscles as he raised his sword and planted his feet on the frozen ground.
Clang——!
He met the first charge head-on, steel clashing against steel as sparks flashed into the cold air.
The impact sent a jolt up his arms, nearly knocking him off balance, but he held his ground.
Another blade came from the side. He moved just enough to deflect it.
Blood splattered onto the ice.
The world narrowed to sound and motion, shouts, footsteps, and the scrape of metal.
But Vergil moved like a battle-hardened beast, striking and blocking, refusing to fall even as his vision blurred around the edges.
It was then.
Rooooooar——
Seris roared.
Just as a blade was about to pierce Vergil’s chest, it stopped mid-swing.
“Ah?”
The temperature plunged in an instant, dropping with terrifying speed.
The cold was beyond anything he had ever experienced before.
Even his fur coat was nothing against it. No matter how many layers he wore, it would never have been enough.
Everything froze over.
The world turned silent as ice swallowed it whole, a cold so absolute it felt as though time itself had been frozen.
Vergil watched the knights suspended where they stood, blades half-raised and bodies locked in place.
The battlefield had become a frozen tableau, caught in the moment between life and death.
——Go south, Vergil.
Seris’s voice echoed through the frozen air.
Vergil turned toward her.
Her draconic form towered over the battlefield.
He had seen dragons before, but only in their human guises, walking the halls of the Empire as nobles and envoys.
But this was different.
There was a sort of elegance to her true form that made it difficult to look away.
Despite having only a single horn, it made her grandeur even more pronounced.
——There will be a cave. Mary and her family are there.
For reasons he didn’t have the time or clarity to question, the task he had given Seris had come full circle and been returned to him.
“I can’t move!”
——Yes, you can. My knight is not that weak.
Whoosh——
Before him, the ice parted, splitting into a path through the storm in an instant.
The blizzard that raged relentlessly all around weakened along that narrow route.
The winds died down, leaving the way forward clear and untouched by the storm around it.
A single road through the frozen hell.
“What about you?”
——I will return by your side once things have settled.
Vergil’s gaze swept across the battlefield.
Knights who had moments ago been charging or fleeing were now frozen in place.
Even the villagers who had been running for their lives were unmoving.
The entire world felt suspended, as if time itself had been seized by her will.
“Seris…”
There was no visible ice encasing them.
Seris had truly frozen time within this domain of cold.
“......”
From above, Vergil sensed it before he fully saw it.
Shapes moving against the clouds like silhouettes against the sky.
Wings stretching so wide they blotted out the stars.
Each beat carried a pressure that crushed down on the land.
They were dragons, undoubtedly.
The air trembled with their approach.
The Dragon Empire had arrived far faster than he feared.
“Come with me!”
He shouted toward her as he took a step forward along the cleared path.
The blizzard clawed at the edges of the road as if it could swallow it whole the moment she let go.
“Return to your human form and let’s go! I promise, I’ll protect you, so—”
Whoooosh——
The storm raged louder in response.
Above, the silhouettes closed in.
Seris remained where she was, at the center of the frozen world. Her pupils remained fixed on the sky, not on him.
It was obvious now. She had never intended to meet up with him again.
——Go, Vergil. Trust me, as I trusted you.
Trust.
Vergil clenched his jaw.
Trust was not something Seris gave lightly.
Yet she had given it to him, to the village, and to its people.
And this was her repayment to those who had opened her heart.
She exposed herself so the village would not have to.
She drew the attention of the dragons onto her alone, away from those who had already lost too much.
The villagers who still lived, frozen in time by her power, would survive this night.
When the world was safe enough to move again, they would wake as if no time had passed at all.
Of course, the village had been doomed the moment a royal was revealed to be here.
There was never any future where it remained untouched.
But even so, Seris chose to save what she could in the only way she knew how to.
By freezing everything.
He looked at her one last time, at the solitary figure facing the sky and the approaching shadows.
“...We still haven’t gone to the capital.”
——Yes, next week, right? You were always putting it off, Vergil. It’s your fault.
He chuckled at her words, then turned.
Vergil ran south, down the road she had paved for him, carrying her trust with him as the frozen world behind began to brace for the judgment of dragons.
“Mary!”
“V-Vergil!”
“Sir Vergil! Oh, goodness!”
Vergil reached the cave Seris had told him about.
Mary rushed toward him at once and wrapped her arms around him.
Her parents followed more slowly, relief and exhaustion written plainly across their faces.
Mary looked up at him.
“W-Where’s Miss Seris?”
“That…”
He glanced at Mary’s parents.
They were staring into the distance beyond the cave.
There was no shock or disbelief in their eye at what they were witnessing.
“You knew…”
They turned to face him. Mary’s mother spoke first.
“…Sometimes the hat falls off, Sir Vergil. Miss Seris would always rush to put it back on. But it wasn’t hard to notice.”
There were moments when Seris was clumsy enough to forget the chant that bound the witch hat to her head.
“……”
Indeed, they knew.
Perhaps the villagers had known for a while, but had accepted her anyway.
In their eyes, she was a dragon, and most likely the Ice Dragon that the Dragonoids who passed through the village were searching for.
And still, they had chosen to keep her secret.
Rumble——
The earth shook.
Roars thundered through the distance loudly. They seemed to roll through the mountains themselves.
Ice shattered. Flames roared back in defiance. The very ground groaned as if it were being torn apart.
It was a battle of elements. Ice, flame, and earth collided somewhere beyond their sight.
From the pressure alone, it was clear that at least two dragons were sent to bring Seris down.
Crackle——
The sky beyond the cave flashed with a myriad of colors through the clouds.
It looked unreal.
Like a scene torn straight from a fantasy comic book, titans clashing far beyond the scale of mortals.
Mary clutched Vergil’s coat with trembling fingers.
“Miss Seris…”
“......”
Even Mary knew.
Vergil said nothing, clenching his jaw and turning his gaze toward the distant mayhem, listening to the echoes of her roars mingle with those of her enemies.
He knew with certainty that she was fighting alone, so none of this would reach them.
And that made every tremor hurt just a little more.
It was then.
Seris beat her wings and surged upward.
Her massive form cut through the storm as she ascended into the sky.
The other dragons gave chase instantly, closing in as she fled higher and farther, drawing them away from the land below.
Vergil stepped forward and reached out his hand as their silhouettes shrank against the clouds.
“No…!”
They had vanished too quickly, leaving him no time to breathe at all.
Perhaps that was the last time he would ever see Seris again.
