A loud bang of smoke erupted, and chunks of black smoke began to shoot at the ice.
Pabak, Pababak!
Pointed icicles started embedding themselves into the garden floor. Chunks of ice, which looked serious enough to cause injury if they hit incorrectly, began flying frantically near Dominic and toward me.
"Avoid it, Mel!"
Dominic raised a hand and, with a crackle, shattered the ice cubes passing through the smoke.
'How can I avoid this ice?'
I hid behind Dominic, covering my face. In an emergency, it's best to just hide and not question what's happening! But that eerie black smoke seemed to be agitated by Dominic's actions. The sharp-edged ice began to pour down faster than Dominic could break it.
[That's all you've got?!]
A loud, disgusting voice echoed throughout the garden, like fingernails scratching a blackboard. Soon, my vision as a contractor went black, and my breath began to tighten.
"Huh, huh…"
The moment my airway was blocked and breathing became difficult, I gasped, feeling air barely coming through my nose. However, even that was completely blocked after a few seconds. In front of me, the black smoke moved softly and shrieked, [I'm going to kill this human!] A screaming voice rang out. It was a creepy demon's voice.
'What the hell is this madman?'
As goosebumps rose all over my body, I heard the voice of a savior in my ears.
"Who's free?"
Dominic strode near me and tried to roughly remove the black smoke from my neck.
[I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you and take revenge!]
But the harder Dominic struggled, the more the demon, which had manifested into a circle, grappled with me.
"Ugh, whoops!"
My vision quickly blurred. The smoke that was choking me penetrated my chest and compressed my heart. I was really dying.
Thump!
Just then, Dominic removed the smoke.
"...Hah, heh."
I gasped for breath and rubbed my neck. I felt like the sting would leave a scar. Dominic, who had helped me up, gritted his teeth.
"Come out."
Pow!
The large smoke transformed into the form of a child who looked about seven years old. His hair was blacker than ebony, his skin was pitch black, and fangs protruded from his teeth, along with sharp horns on his head. Dominic grabbed the strangely shaped child by the throat and asked him viciously, "Do you really want to be annihilated?"
Dominic's slender gaze stared at the small child.
"Absolutely not extinct!" The child, who was once black smoke, fiddled with his cheeks and pouted, as if curious about his embodied form.
'What the hell is this?'
I looked around. It was still an abandoned house, but the garden floor was now overflowing with frozen ice and icicles; it was five minutes until the building's official opening. I rubbed my aching neck and looked around.
'Let's sort out the situation first.'
After a while, Dominic, the child who was acting like a demon, and I entered the first floor of the stationery store and started a three-way meeting. The child was bound by restraint magic, but in reality, a demon that had been around for more than a thousand years furrowed his eyebrows.
"This is the demon I sealed long ago, Mel, who was imprisoned with me in the sword..."
"I, the 'Winter Moon Devil,' have finally arrived in the world!"
The devil looked at my childlike body curiously and smiled brightly. I looked at the excited demon with a dry expression, then whispered to Dominic, "You sealed the demon? Then there must have been a sealing spell. How did he get out?"
"I don't know."
"Even I do not know clearly how I came to be unsealed. But I really like the human world. Hello!"
...It was a little difficult to understand the old demon's words because of his archaic language.
Dominic sighed as he saw the Winter Moon Devil roaring. "I tried my best for almost hundreds of years, but I don't know why... It seems he was released naturally. But I'm going to seal him back. Sealing magic is hard." Dominic shook his head and firmly rebuked the Winter Moon Devil. "You should apologize to Mel."
"...Foolish human, accept my apology."
Isn't this too humble of an apology for me to receive? But I had something to say to the Winter Moon Devil.
"The ice out there, did you make it?"
"Yes."
I gazed curiously at each piece of unmelted ice that the demon had spewed out from outside. "Is it ice that will never melt? It's amazing." I didn't know what the Winter Moon Devil was, but I could clearly see the ice it spewed out. Even though my hand touched it, it didn't melt.
"And ice..." Ice is common in my original world, Korea. However, in this world without refrigerators, ice was generally precious. "I thought there were very few people in this world who could make ice that wouldn't melt..."
"Yes, a devil like me, who was born under the winter moon, can create ice that will never melt indefinitely."
"Can't you make it, Dominic?"
Dominic, a hero who specializes in force, strangely averted my gaze. Speaking of which, he was right. Even the great Duke of Babelloa and the Hesman family didn't find ice easily. In particular, ice that would never melt, like the demon had created, was even rarer.
'Is this devil useful?'
I thought of a way to get revenge on this demon who had just strangled me. I smiled sinisterly and gently touched the devil's horns.
"Yes, Devil. You have something to do."
"What to do?"
"Yes, I want you to make some slushies."
The devil's eyes widened. Of course, the restraint and restriction spell was applied, so he could only open his eyes. However, he was so surprised that his eyes were bulging and his veins were about to burst.
"What? Do you mean that you will tear your arch-enemy to shreds with slushy magic? You archangelic human!"
What's arch-enemy, what's slushy magic, and what's with "archangelic"?
"Are you complimenting me now?"
"No, it is a very terrible curse," Dominic laughed and said. "Yes, Winter Moon Devil. Now you're about to be torn to shreds by slush magic."
"…?" I looked at Dominic with a puzzled expression.
"Mel is a very scary human being. Even I was scammed by Mel."
I was stunned to see Dominic puff out his chest. 'Why are you bragging about that?' But the devil went one step further.
"Oh no, he was such a great person."
Why did the horns, which were as hard as ivory, droop like marshmallows? Why did his tone suddenly change?
"Yes. So, of course, an insignificant demon like you will be extinguished right away. Goodbye, Winter Moon Devil."
"No..." Dominic's cold words made the Winter Moon Devil flinch in frustration.
'...I haven't said a word yet.'
Things were getting worse.