At the rear of the mountain army's formation, submerged in a bluish gloom—far from the roar of the Solar Forges and the scent of hot iron clinging to the slope—the silence was almost offensive.
It was not peace.It was separation.
A surgical, imposed silence that mocked the distant cries of battle.
There, seated atop a block of polished stone etched with ancient mana seals, Adela puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms so tightly her knuckles had turned white. Her feet, barely brushing the ground, kicked the air in a steady rhythm—childish, and yet furious.
Beside her, immense even while reclining, the Level 99 Ice Tiger exhaled slowly.
Its frigid breath crystallized the dust suspended in the air, leaving tiny motes of frost drifting before they fell. Its eyes—two diamonds of such deep blue they seemed to swallow the light—rested on Adela with a mix of ancient patience and resigned irritation.
"Don't sigh!" she snapped, turning to swat weakly at its frost-covered flank. "This is your fault."
The tiger didn't so much as flinch.
"If you weren't so big and so 'essential as a strategic reserve,'" she mimicked in a shrill voice, "like Lady Elizabeth said, I'd be out there. With Lusian-sama!"
The tiger answered with a low, rumbling purr that made the stone beneath its paws tremble. To it, the rear line was a blessing: guard duty, silence, restrained energy. To Adela, it was a cage.
"Can you imagine it?" she went on, not waiting for an answer, her expression shifting from anger to a glassy, dangerous gleam. "The shadows closing in on him. One of those Chosen raising that hand of his, full of false light…"
She raised her fist into the air.
"And then—BAM!"
She leapt off the stone in a single bound.
"We appear. I jump from your back, cut through the air, and Lusian-sama is stunned."
She stopped, hugging herself, swaying with a smile far too wide.
"He'd look at me with those yellow eyes of his… and say, 'Adela, I always knew you'd come save me. You're the only one I truly trust.'"
She sighed, melting into her own fantasy.
"And then he'd thank me. A long embrace…" She tilted her head. "Maybe he'd pat my head like a loyal servant. Or maybe more."
She clicked her tongue, satisfied.
"And the others would just stand there, watching with envy. All of them."
The tiger opened one eye.
The chamber's temperature dropped several degrees, an unconscious reflection of its growing discomfort. Adela blinked, snapping back to reality with an exaggerated huff.
"But no," she grumbled. "'Adela, stay behind.' 'Adela, protect those who retreat wounded.' 'Adela, you're our ace in the hole.'"
She spat the words.
"Ridiculous. I'm an ace who's bored to death."
She shot to her feet and grabbed her weapon, tightening the straps with unnecessary force. The metal rang out, sharp and eager.
"If even one of those 'Queens' comes back with a scratch," she muttered, a crooked smile curling her lips, "I'll heal them so fast they won't even have time to complain. Just so they can go right back out… and clear the path for me."
She lifted her gaze toward the tunnel leading outside.
To the war.
The childish obsession was still there, yes—but beneath it, deeper, something colder. Sharper. A contained ferocity that had nothing to envy in Kara.
Adela was no sidelined maiden.
She was a predator on a leash.
And the leash was pulled tight.
"Get ready," she said, her voice hardening into ice. "The moment I feel Lusian-sama's mana falter even a millimeter… I don't care what Elizabeth says, or that vampire, or any god with a judge complex."
The tiger rose, vast and silent. Its icy claws scraped the stone, leaving grooves of living frost.
At last.
Something like a promise.
"We're going in," Adela continued. "And we're going to tear the front line apart."
The tiger bared its fangs, exhaling white vapor.
"And woe to the god who stands between my thank-you embrace… and me," she declared, puffing her chest with a determination as pure as it was terrifying.
In the distance, the mountain trembled again.
And this time, Adela smiled.
She knew it wouldn't be much longer.