In the northern region of the Akasha Continent, it was a world of ice and snow.
Even though Jinas was also currently experiencing snowfall due to the winter season, the snow in the continent's central region seemed as gentle as a lamb compared to this place.
Because the north remained at freezing temperatures year-round, snow fell in nearly every season, and the land was perpetually blanketed in ice and snow, leaving everything in sight covered in endless white.
Blizzards were also a common occurrence here. During winter, temperatures regularly dropped to around minus fifty degrees Celsius. Anyone who became lost in a blizzard had an almost one hundred percent chance of freezing to death.
Right in the middle of this frozen wilderness, a semicircular black portal suddenly appeared. Several figures stepped out of it one by one, crossing the entire central region of the continent in an instant before arriving in its northern reaches.
"So cold!"
As soon as they arrived, a scream immediately rang out from the group, coming from Ivy, the only true magician among them.
Of the six people present, everyone except Ivy could be considered a Sword Saint-level close-combat fighter with exceptional physical strength, so although some of them did feel the cold, it wasn't enough to make them cry out.
Ivy, however, was different.
As the only pure magician in the group, her physique was no better than that of an ordinary person. Furthermore, the clothes she wore were nowhere near thick enough to withstand temperatures of at least minus fifty degrees Celsius.
Because of that, having suddenly arrived in such a brutally cold environment, she was instantly chilled to the bone and nearly turned around to dive back through the portal.
"Freeze Resistance."
Seeing Ivy's condition, Riezel immediately cast a magic spell that protected against freezing damage, applying it to everyone present.
He naturally did not cast it on himself because one of the effects of Pioneer of the Sun granted resistance against light, heat, frost, and darkness.
As a result, Riezel feared neither extreme heat nor extreme cold. He was the only person present who felt absolutely no chill, even though he was still wearing the casual clothes he had created with Create Greater Item.
On the other hand, everyone else, except for Lilith and Euryale—who could hardly be considered human—was dressed more heavily than usual.
"I-Is this Theresis?"
Lizbeth tightened her coat around herself as she looked across the endless snowy landscape and spoke uncertainly.
"We're here already? We didn't end up at the wrong place, right?"
Leo didn't bother wrapping himself up, simply curling his lips as he spoke sarcastically.
Even now, he still found it difficult to believe that Riezel could use a single magic spell to transport everyone all the way to the distant queendom of Theresis.
Even if it was the incredibly rare space magic found only in the Hidden Land, he had never heard of a teleportation spell capable of covering such an enormous distance. Rather, he simply refused to believe that a single person could accomplish such a feat.
At the very least, it should have required several great magicians working together while using numerous magic crystals to supply magical energy, forming a massive teleportation array before a long-distance spatial transfer of this scale could even be attempted.
Naturally, that had been the doubt raised by Ivy, a powerful magician herself, when she learned that Riezel intended to use teleportation magic to travel directly to Theresis.
However, regardless of their doubts, Riezel calmly assured them.
"If the coordinates were right, then this should be the edge of Theresis."
As he spoke, Riezel raised a hand.
*Whoosh!*
A black shadow immediately swooped down from the sky before landing on his outstretched arm. It was a bird-like creature resembling an eagle, except it possessed two pairs of wings, for a total of four.
Its name was Four-Winged Beast.
In YGGDRASIL, it was a Level 22 monster that could be summoned with Summon Monster 4th. It was capable of flying at speeds comparable to a wyvern for two or even three months without needing food or rest.
When preparing to send a summoned creature to Theresis, Riezel had ultimately decided on this monster.
While there were monsters capable of flying even faster than the Four-Winged Beast, they either had much stricter requirements for permanent summoning or required food and rest during the journey. In terms of actual travel time, they were not necessarily faster than the Four-Winged Beast.
For that reason, Riezel had chosen it for this task.
First, its long-endurance flight capability was exceptional.
Second, the requirements for permanently summoning it were incredibly simple, requiring only a small amount of gold.
"Good work."
Under Lilith's envious gaze, Riezel gently tapped the beast on the head, fed it several chunks of meat, then sent it soaring back into the sky.
Because the Four-Winged Beast possessed an extremely straightforward special ability known as Clairvoyance, it had an incredibly broad and far-reaching field of vision, making it exceptionally useful as an aerial scout.
"What's the closest city around here?"
Riezel turned to Lizbeth and asked.
"I-I'll check..."
Just as Lizbeth hurriedly reached for the map, Ivy, who no longer felt freezing cold, spoke first.
"If this really is the border of Theresis, then the closest city should be the border city, Mitte."
Mitte.
Riezel seemed to remember seeing that name on the map of Theresis Yuri had gathered for him.
"If I remember right, it's the border city next to the kingdom of Lukais, right?"
Lukais was a kingdom in the northern part of the continent, directly bordering southern Theresis.
Among all the smaller nations on the continent, it was considered one of the strongest. Excluding the four great countries, its national strength could easily rank within the continent's top ten, and possibly even within the top five.
It was most famous for having originated from a bandit group.
According to legend, there had once been a powerful bandit tribe in the north of the continent. Nearly everyone in the tribe had survived by stealing from others, making theft their primary livelihood. Over time, they accepted numerous refugees and drifters into their ranks, growing wealthy by raiding merchant caravans until they eventually established a small nation of their own.
After roughly two hundred years of development, this nation born from bandits had grown increasingly powerful.
However, it was said that they had never abandoned their bandit ways, as they frequently imposed outrageously heavy tolls on passing merchants, nobles, and foreigners under various pretexts.
In fact, they even regularly organized military raids into neighboring countries, plundering border villages and towns. Although it could not be said that they would stop at nothing, their methods were unquestionably disgraceful and despicable, earning them the contempt of nations throughout the continent.
Some called it the Kingdom of Bandits, while others referred to it as the Nation of Barbarians.
Had it not possessed considerable military strength and carefully avoided provoking the great powers while exclusively targeting weaker kingdoms and tribes, Lukais would likely have been destroyed long ago.
As a result, the weaker nations lacked the ability to deal with it, while the stronger ones had no sufficient reason to intervene.
When Riezel decided to come to Theresis, he had specifically investigated the situation there, so he discovered that this northern power had also begun suffering greatly because of it.
"From what I've heard, ever since Theresis got dragged into a civil war, things in the queendom have just kept getting worse. Apparently, the smaller countries surrounding it have started eyeing it too, and it even looks like they're trying to form an alliance to deal with Theresis."
"Lukais is basically the one leading that alliance. People suspect it's receiving financial support from the other countries while constantly stirring up trouble along Theresis's southern border."
"As a border city of Theresis, Mitte had already gone through countless small-scale clashes with Lukais's army."
Ivy rubbed her nose, seemingly worried that she might catch a cold, and casually explained the situation.
"So, are we going there?"
From the way she asked, it was easy to tell that Ivy very much wanted to.
Regardless of what kind of city Mitte was, it was at least a place where people lived. It certainly beat staying out in this endless frozen wasteland, where no one could possibly survive comfortably.
"Going there first isn't a bad idea..." Riezel glanced at Ivy before continuing, "Jinas is way too far from Theresis, so there wasn't much intel we could gather. Since things here are kinda complicated too, it'd be better to find some locals and learn a bit more before deciding what we wanna do next."
He could simply have the Four-Winged Beast continue deeper into Theresis until it reached the capital, Urvashi.
He was rather interested in the queendom's queen.
Every queen of Theresis was a direct descendant of the country's founding queen, and that founding queen was also suspected of being connected to the Theresis Clan, which, in turn, had deep ties to the former royal clan, the Reinnail Clan.
Now that he had finally arrived in Theresis, Riezel naturally wanted to meet the current queen and see whether this possible descendant of the Theresis Clan knew any secrets about the ancient magic civilization.
Besides...
"You two said the teleportation circle that leads to the Hidden Land is somewhere in that mountain range at the very northern edge of the continent, right?"
Riezel looked toward Ivy and Leo to confirm it once more.
"Uh... what was that mountain range called again?"
Leo scratched his head with a confused expression, trying hard to remember.
"It's the Kazdel Mountains." Ivy looked at Leo speechlessly before letting out a sigh. "Well, the High Priest said it's not just the northernmost mountain range on the continent, but it's also covered in blizzards all year round. Pretty much nobody can make it through the massive snowstorms surrounding it, so even the people in this country probably don't know exactly where it is or how to get there."
In other words, finding that mountain range would likely require gathering intelligence within Theresis for quite some time.
After all, what geographical information would the royal family of that country not possess?
If even Theresis's royal family did not know where the Kazdel Mountains were located, then it was unlikely that anyone else did.
Furthermore, with blizzards raging throughout the country year-round, even the Four-Winged Beast would likely struggle to fly all the way to the capital, Urvashi.
In the end, after considering everything, Riezel concluded that it would be far more practical to first familiarize himself with the country and then find a way to travel to Urvashi personally.
"It's settled! Let's head to that place called Mitte first. I don't wanna stay here any longer."
Seeing the situation becoming increasingly troublesome, Leo immediately shouted.
"M-Mitte is this way! It's only about one kilometer away."
Lizbeth finally found the map and, after confirming the direction, pointed ahead.
"One kilometer? It's not too far..."
Ivy let out a sigh of relief.
On journeys like this, the one who suffered the most was always the magician.
It couldn't be helped.
A place like where they were now wasn't terrain where horse-drawn carriages could travel. Crossing such a frozen wasteland meant either traveling on foot or relying on this country's unique means of transportation.
And to obtain those, they first had to reach a city.
"Let's go. We'll head there now."
Riezel made the decision without hesitation.
To make traveling easier, he cast several spells on everyone, including Haste and Weight Reduction, allowing them to walk effortlessly across the snow instead of struggling through it while leaving deep footprints with every step, which was especially important for Ivy.
If the person casting those spells had been anyone other than Riezel, she might have lowered her head and thanked them on the spot.
Just like that, the group began making their way through the snowstorm toward Mitte.
Even Euryale no longer wished to remain in this weather. Now, she had long since lost her sleepy appearance and walked seriously alongside the others. Had Riezel not stopped her, she probably would have already burst forward at full speed toward the nearest sign of civilization.
As for Lilith, she had actually asked to cast Greater Teleportation, and after Riezel allowed it, she teleported the group to an area near Mitte.
At that moment, it reminded Riezel that even without precise coordinates, as long as they knew the general direction, using Greater Teleportation for travel was actually a fairly practical option.
Nonetheless, a single cast was more than enough.
As a 7th-Tier Magic, Greater Teleportation could easily cover a mere kilometer. If precise coordinates had not been the issue, Riezel's Greater Teleportation could have sent everyone directly into Mitte itself.
Hence, after a single use of Greater Teleportation, the group easily arrived outside Theresis's border city, Mitte.
However, the moment they reached Mitte, an unexpected scene unfolded before their eyes.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
Amid deafening explosions, massive fireballs tore through the blizzard, streaked across the frozen ground, and slammed into the city's walls one after another, blasting them full of holes and leaving them on the verge of collapse.
All of those fireballs came from a group of magicians clad in thick snowfield battle robes.
At this moment, they raised their staffs high, chanted in perfect unison, and continuously unleashed fireballs at the city's walls. Ahead of them, a large force of soldiers wielding various weapons was already assaulting the city.
*Whoosh!* *Whoosh!* *Whoosh!* *Whoosh!*
*Whoosh!* *Whoosh!* *Whoosh!* *Whoosh!*
From atop the walls, countless arrows rained down, blanketing the attacking soldiers in a deadly barrage.
Clearly, the defenders intended to shoot them down, but sadly, most of the arrows were blocked by the defensive magic surrounding the attackers. As a result, the soldiers grew even bolder in their assault. Many had already climbed onto the walls and were locked in fierce combat with the city's guards.
"..."
Riezel and the others exchanged stunned looks.
Good grief.
Had they arrived in the middle of a war?
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[A bonus chapter for reaching 300 Power Stones]
[Support and get early access to upcoming chapters at: patreon.com/VALRRR]