A harsh 'clang, clang, clanging' sound tore the hard-won tranquility of the camp to shreds.
Coppelia, fuming, rushed out of her tent and looked toward the source of the irritating noise.
Faint lights flickered on in many of the surrounding tents as the similarly awakened refugees peeked their heads out, their faces a mixture of confusion and annoyance. They whispered to one another, searching for the source of the racket.
Just as Coppelia was about to head in that direction to see who was causing such a disturbance late at night, the cacophony weakened without warning.
At the same time, a gentle updraft brushed past her from below, stirring the tips of her hair and the hem of her clothes.
The surrounding crowd also felt this current of air and looked up in unison at the dark night sky, but they could see nothing but a few scattered stars and a pale moon.
Wind?
A flicker of light in Coppelia's eyes signaled the activation of her Elemental Sight. Sure enough, in the grayscale world above the camp, she saw a uniform, pale cyan halo, like an inverted bowl, covering the entire area.
Anemo elemental power was flowing in a clever way, forming a barrier that insulated them from the sound.
It must be Venti. He's used a wind wall to block the noise from the outside.
Judging by the barrier's range, the entire camp was enveloped by this invisible dome of wind. The source of the noise must be outside the camp. At this hour... could it be the Lawrence Clan?
Venti should still be with Gunnhildr. I'll go ask her what she plans to do.
Deactivating her Elemental Sight, Coppelia had just turned around when she saw that Columbina had also emerged from the tent, facing the direction the noise had come from.
"It seems someone doesn't want us to get a good night's sleep..." Coppelia said to her. "Let's go find Gunnhildr."
The two found Gunnhildr by the largest bonfire in the center of the camp, with Venti floating near her shoulder.
Gunnhildr's expression was grave; she was clearly aware of the situation outside. Without needing many words, the three conferred in low voices for a moment and quickly decided on a plan.
...
At the edge of the camp, within the pine forest.
"Aren't you... cold?" an ethereal voice, tinged with a hint of concern, rang out. Columbina was suspended in mid-air, the hem of her dress perfectly still in the absolute silence.
As her voice faded, Abel and the twenty knights he had brought with him, who had been frozen in the air, simultaneously felt the terrifying sensation of weightlessness vanish!
"Thud!" "Oof!" "Ah!"
A chaotic medley of thuds and grunts erupted. The men fell from mid-air, landing heavily on the cold snow and pine needles.
Although the height wasn't great, the sudden fall left them in a sorry state, their bodies aching.
Abel clutched his stomach, which still felt like it was churning, and fought back a wave of nausea as he struggled to his feet.
His gaze was locked on Columbina, not far in front of him, filled with terror and vigilance.
The other Lawrence knights also scrambled to their feet. Still shaken, they glanced at each other, skirted around the motionless Columbina, and stumbled to gather around Abel. They instinctively drew their weapons and managed to form a defensive posture, though their hands were still trembling slightly.
In the pitch-black pine forest, all was silent save for their heavy panting.
The pale moonlight filtered through the gaps in the pines, casting a mottled light on Columbina's pure white dress and the 'wings of light' behind her head, throwing distorted, shifting shadows around her.
The scene couldn't help but remind the members of the Lawrence Clan of the ghost stories they had heard as children.
In those stories, there were always female ghosts in white dresses with flowing hair, blurred faces, and no feet, who wandered among desolate graves at night, luring lost travelers to their doom.
That strange greeting just now had only deepened this eerie association.
However, their will to survive and their duty as knights forced them to suppress the urge to flee.
One of them, emboldened by the moonlight, dared to take a closer look at the 'female ghost' before them.
Her facial features were distinct; although her eyes were covered, her face wasn't a blur. She also had a complete pair of legs beneath her dress.
It seems... she's not a ghost?
The sense of the uncanny receded slightly, and their taut nerves relaxed a little, but the experience of floating in the air still made their skin crawl.
Abel swallowed, moistening his dry throat. His voice trembled slightly as he asked:
"Who... Who in the world are you?"
Columbina didn't answer. She just tilted her head slightly, as if puzzled why they hadn't answered her question, and asked again in a soft voice:
"Aren't you cold?"
This baffling question stunned Abel and his men.
However, in the instant they were stunned, every one of them, almost simultaneously, felt an extremely frigid chill.
This chill precisely and silently slipped down the backs of their necks, into the gap between their armor and their clothes!
The sensation was like someone suddenly pulling open the collars of their clothes from behind and shoving two blocks of solid ice inside.
It was bone-chillingly cold, making them shudder uncontrollably!
"Hiss—!"
"What was that?!"
"Who touched me?!"
A series of startled cries and a commotion immediately broke out among the group.
They instinctively thought it was a prank by their comrades, but when they looked at each other, they saw that everyone wore a look of shock, fumbling to reach for their own backs.
But they were wearing beast-hide scarves around their necks and were clad in hard metal armor; it was impossible for anyone to have silently slipped 'ice blocks' into such a place!
This inexplicable, cold sensation that came from nowhere was more terrifying than a direct attack.
The chill clung to their skin like a living thing, as if trying to bore into their very bones.
The group instantly panicked. Forgetting all about formations and confrontations, they tried to unfasten the buckles on their armor to shed the cumbersome metal and figure out what was going on.
On such a cold day, the feeling of having ice shoved down the back of your neck was unbearable enough to drive a man mad!
However, just as they were frantically about to remove their armor en masse, the cold sensation on their backs vanished without warning.
In its place came a perfect warmth.
Immediately after, a gentle breeze materialized in their midst, spiraling upward.
This was not the biting cold wind of a snowy night; it carried a warmth like that of the spring sun, gently enveloping each and every one of them.
Abel and the knights could all clearly feel a comfortable warmth seeping in from the outside, dispelling the earlier chill and easing the cold of the night.
The feeling was far more thorough and pleasant than sitting around a bonfire, as if they had been instantly transported from the dead of winter to a season of warm, humid sea breezes on the eastern coast.
This extreme experience, a trial of ice and fire, left them completely stupefied, frozen in place and at a loss for what to do.
The next moment, a petite figure stepped out from the dark shadows behind Columbina, walking calmly to stand before her, facing Abel.
By the moonlight, Abel could just make out that it was a young girl in a gorgeous golden dress, her features delicate but expressionless.
Coppelia put on a straight face, trying her best to project an air of solemn, profound mystery. She deliberately drew out her words, declaring as if chanting:
"God said... Let there be light!"
___
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