"Bztt—what the—"
The hell is with this place?
With open mouth and a too-stunned expression, Lux opened his mouth, staring across the expanse of silvery white.
Thanks to his new skill [Ice Resistance], given to him by Laurel, he was able to cope, and even then, he could still feel the chills.
'Did Laurel actually survive here alone for that long? That's crazy…'
His thought trailed off as he looked over at the male with a different expression.
Everywhere he looked was covered in silvery white or transparent crystals.
Furthermore, there were architectures he'd never seen before, although dilapidated; however, that didn't stop him from marveling at Laurel's world.
"How is it? For a destroyed world, it's beautiful, right?"
"Yeah, I see now… Frostveil Bay was just the tip of what you could potentially do. Not to mention, witnessing a hell such as this…"
Lux walked with a downcast expression, trailing behind Laurel, who was guiding their path.
They really had no business here. It all came out of the blue when Lux had said he wanted to witness the world Laurel sees.
Well, here it was.
Laurel humored him so.
Cocytus.
Frozen hell. That was what it was. How would anyone have survived for that long? But again, Lux decided not to think about it.
"Well, I have always blamed myself for being deceived by a god."
Laurel suddenly stopped, looking up at the sky and raising his right arm toward the sky as though he wanted to grab it.
"I was naive back then. But now that I think of it… it was because of this suffering that eventually became a blessing in disguise; I was able to meet you all."
His arms dropped to his sides, then he turned to Lux, letting out a slow exhale before continuing.
They strolled along a once paved road slick with ice, looking as if it could shatter beneath their feet at any moment.
Their current area looked more like an economically depressed economical district, with many destroyed or frozen posters and banners.
"By the way, where's Hades?"
"Ahh… that one…"
Lux asked a question that Laurel dodged by averting his gaze from the drag knight. Seeing that, Lux couldn't help but twitch.
"Wait, don't tell me…"
"She's in the process of correction; don't worry about her~"
Laurel said, his tone clearly insincere.
Even though Lux had only known him for about three days, he felt he had a decent grasp of his character.
And that correction. It couldn't be what he was imagining, could it?
No doubt about it, that was exactly what he was thinking. Laurel truly has a sadistic streak.
At this point, Hades had already died and come back to life twenty times.
With Laurel having essentially claimed this world as his own, he had the power to manipulate the very laws of life and death here.
As if that wasn't enough, he could even wield this frozen star as a weapon.
What does that mean?
If he finds himself facing a planetary threat he can't handle solo, it's straightforward: just summon a massive frozen star and smash it into the enemy.
Of course, it would result in the loss of his home planet, but that was the key part.
He could summon Cocytus wherever he wanted. And naturally, thanks to [EX: Fourth Calamity].
[Translation: Fourth Calamity EX has claimed this place as its territory, similar to a domain expansion or reality marble, hence the overpowered perks.]
"Honestly, we could have just stayed in your world, but you were so eager to come here. Sigh… since we're here, why not give Cocuytus's first guest in ages a proper welcome?"
Sure, Hayes was the first, but she was just here as a punishment, so that makes Lux the first genuine visitor.
"Now that I have [Glacier], I can do this."
Tapping his feet lightly on the ground, it began to terraform. The original economic district slowly began to crumble.
They were already fragile, their molecular bonds frozen, which made them easier to shatter.
Applying [Glacier] Ice Manipulation allowed him to break the ice down and reconstruct it. And that is what he did.
'I can't forever live in a decaying world. I now own this world. And to prepare against other calamities that could usurp me, I have to be prepared.'
What began to happen in front of Lux was nothing short of godly.
『● Live Recording: 00:30』
As the world around him began terraforming, he pressed the record. Rather, he had received a notification along the lines of:
[You are witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime event. Do you want to store memory?]
But now, words cannot even begin to describe what he saw.
An entire city sprawling of crystal that looked like it would shatter at any given moment.
However, even when he applied force beneath him, CRICK–!
That was what he heard, and before he knew it, the cracked ground mended back together.
What, rather, the person who was the most surprised was—
[Vampire Ancestor: Wait. What?]
She was seeing something surreal and didn't know how to respond.
Of course, she had a vague understanding that Laurel's world had slipped back into an ice age.
That was all well and good, but he had never mentioned that he could just reshape an entire city like this.
In the first place, wasn't that going to drain his strength?
Yes, it would. His energy source, known as [Negentropy], would be completely depleted.
As previously mentioned, various forms of energy, whether magical, chakra, or honkai energy, can be transformed into a singular energy source.
Negentropy represents the level of order, structure, and adaptability within a system, standing in contrast to entropy.
[I don't remember, but I think I explained it incorrectly in a previous chapter. Here is the correct explanation.]
It's kind of surprising, right?
Even though he's technically considered an otherworlder by her world's standard, you wouldn't expect him to pull off such godly feats just yet, would you?
[Fallen Heiress: But well, it's also Laurel-like.]
Mei.
She, too, was mesmerized by the beauty of the transfiguration he'd done. Then, she couldn't help but comment on this.
He really was different.
«Tch. As much as this queen hates to admit it, he's pretty—»
Naturally, the tsundere Herrscher stopped there; she didn't want to give Mei another reason to tease her.
Speaking of a skill with an ego.
«Ei», the Herrscher of Thunder is really convenient.
Any skill under her arsenal can be used to its latent potential, which, at first, scared her.
But when she thought about others like Luminous, Lux, and him, she quickly realized that her worries were pretty insignificant.
She came to trust them, even if anything went wrong. Seeing this now confirmed it.
'If I want to stay by his side—by the sides of such outstanding people—I'll have to do better than this.'
Mei thought, seated on her school's rooftop after finishing her lunch, placing her box in her bag as she gazed into the distance.
'Dad, just hold on a little longer. It's only a matter of time.'
On the other hand,
In a distant dimension. Cocytus.
"Ahk—Cough, cough—that bastard."
A woman trudged through the ice and snow, practically crawling on all fours.
Like that, she trudged past architectures and landmarks she'd never seen before in her life.
Since then, how many days has it been since she first came here?
'As long as you truly have a change of heart, I can be benevolent and forgive you; that is, even if you have the heart to.'
Remembering the male's voice sent chills down her spine just remembering it.
Plus when that got added to her hypothermia state, which didn't make things easy for her.
Death by hypothermia, death by starvation.
These two cycles had continued over and over again for quite a while now. But in truth, it's only been about three to four days.
After all, the deaths weren't so instant that it allowed her to fastly loop. It was slow.
And even then, the revival time had a cooldown before she revived.
Throughout the revive timer, she would also experience time in an entirely different way that seemed fast yet slow.
Death by hypothermia wasn't a good experience, much like starvation, too.
Just where did everything go wrong?
Ah yes…
"I shouldn't have fought him… That—"
Bastard? Not quite. To a person that could do this to her… not quite.
She who had power, influence, and everything, bringing down an entire republic, though small, but with substantial military might—
She'd brought it down.
Naturally, she also had bigger ambitions by bringing about the fall of the new empire.
Now that she thinks about it, freezing a large portion of the ocean like that was unreal.
Was he the one who did this to this world?
[Yes, I was.]
"...Haha… Now I'm hallucinating too… But it doesn't matter. Whether you're a god or a demon, whatever you are."
Whatever you want from me… I'll give it to you… Please end my suffering.
[Understood.]
Like Hayes. After a few days like that, he'd pleaded to every god he knew of. He'd even cried back to that ROB.
Yet. He received no answer.
That also drove him further down into despair. However, this was not Hayes portion. If anything, Laurel was looking forward to her.
Thus. Hearing her sincere pleas. He'd finally decided to stop afflicting her.