For a moment, the mountaintop was enveloped in a strange silence.
Tai and Yuko stared in shock at the scattering of ice dust that hovered where the gorgeous flower had been just a moment ago.
Yuko snapped out of his daze and plucked out another flower from the ground, only to see it shatter as well.
Fear and panic gripped the brothers' hearts as they frantically started plucking one flower after another, each shattering into a glistening cloud of dust and further fueling their desperation.
On the other side, Niko and Hana were struggling to keep up against the ever-growing tide of monsters.
As if things weren't dire enough already, some of the monsters managed to free a few of the Golems from the vines.
The freed Golems rushed over to the others of their kin...and started attacking them.
Hana was in shock as she saw the freed Golems pummel the ones that remained trapped, smashing their bodies to pieces.
Niko, however, gritted his teeth. He knew what they were doing.
One by one, each of the trapped Golems was destroyed by its own comrades.
And for each Golem that fell, two more formed from the freezing winds.
The number of enemies ballooned within minutes, with Niko and Hana helpless to stop it.
They summoned countless vines and walls of bones, trying to hold the enemies back for as long as they could.
They had to buy the brothers enough time to get the flower and escape.
Speaking of which, what were those two even doing?! It shouldn't take that long to pluck one of the flowers.
Something wasn't right.
Hana looked back to make sure that the brothers were alright, only to see them madly plucking flower after flower, each being destroyed as soon as they touched it.
She frowned.
Something was indeed very wrong. Not just because the flowers were shattering, but because it felt like...like they weren't flowers at all.
She couldn't sense a single flower among what was supposed to be dozens of magical blooms.
But that didn't mean she didn't sense any flowers at all nearby. In fact...
Noticing her expressing, Niko understood she had found something, and gestured her to go while he held off the enemies.
This time, she didn't hesitate, nodding firmly before rushing off.
Niko, waited for a moment, making sure she had gone far enough, before turning his attention back to the horde of monsters.
His expression turned grim, and his emerald eye flashed with bright light.
The walls of bones broke, the field of vines was decimated, and a swarm of rabid beasts lunged at his throat with gaping maws.
Niko didn't move.
But something else did. From where he stood, an invisible field spread out in all directions, forming a sphere of mystical energy.
The sphere expanded, enveloping the first few monsters as it spread outwards.
The monsters died. There were no howls of pain, no fountains of blood. The simply withered, turning to dust before being blown away by the frigid wind.
Niko planted his foot firmly into the ground, causing cracks to spread across the jagged ice.
Then, he launched himself high up, landing right in the middle of the horde of monsters, crushing one of them under his foot.
The mystical sphere moved with him. From where his feet touched the ground, the sphere spread out, growing far and wide at a rapid pace.
Wherever it reached became a Land of Death, where all living things withered and died.
In the blink of an eye, the massive horde of rabid beasts disappeared into a cloud of dust, not even a drop of blood left to bear witness to their existence.
Of course, the Golems remained unfazed. After all, the lumbering beasts were never alive to begin with.
Niko grinned, because that was fine.
He hadn't been planning to kill his enemies like that, to begin with.
The army of Golems turned to face the Child of Death, rushing to turn him into a bloody pulp.
But the boy didn't care.
He simply raised his hand towards the sky, the eerie glow never leaving his eye.
[Reaper's Call]
A massive tremor tore through the mountain as countless corpses tore through the ground, pouring out onto the frozen battlefield.
Skeletal lizards, rotting bears, mangled bodies of ancient beasts, corpses of all shapes and sizes rose from deep below to aid their master.
Their eyes burned with bright red flames, while emerald light poured out of their bodies. The snowy winds struggled to freeze them, only to melt against their seething frenzy.
The horde of dead lunged at the massive Golems, pinning them down and tearing their frozen limbs apart.
The Golems fought back with all their might. They shattered bones and tore through flesh, ripped bodies apart and crushed rotting heads.
But the dead didn't care about wounds or pain.
Whether broken or crushed, mangled or torn, their relentless assault never ceased.
As long as they could move, they could fight.
And even if they couldn't move, they could still pile together to bury their foes.
Within moments, the tides of the battle had shifted entirely.
While Niko couldn't completely eliminate the frozen army, he managed to incapacitate them all, buying Hana the time she needed.
As for Hana herself, she was rushing towards the flower field. A massive ice boar charged at her from the side, but she quickly sidestepped to avoid its attack before launching tendrils to pierce through its hide.
Before its body even fell to the ground, she was already back to running at full speed. She couldn't waste a single moment, not when Niko was holding the monsters off all by himself.
She really hoped that she wasn't mistaken.
That was because she had, in fact, sensed a flower.
One, singular flower.
She reached the field of frozen flowers...and ran past it, not even glancing at them for a moment.
Because the flower she sensed wasn't among the beautiful fakes that the brothers were searching through.
She slowed down when she reached the pillars of black stone standing at the end of the mountaintop, coming to a stop in front of the smallest of them.
The weathered stone was only half her height, its upper surface covered in a layer of jagged, blue ice. She closed her eyes and traced her hand along that surface.
A faint hum reached her ears, growing louder as she moved her hand. She stopped her hand when it became the loudest, before clutching the ice right below it.
With a gentle tug, she pulled out a small chunk of ice, which glowed faintly in her hand.
An intricate pattern was engraved on its surface, and a chilling cold spread out from within it.
She knew this was it. This was the Winter's Breath.
But something felt off about it. The shard of ice hummed frantically in her hands, releasing a great deal of its magic in violent pulses.
Was it angry?
No, not angry. Rather, it was scared, exhausting its powers in a desperate attempt to protect itself.
But what was it so afraid of?
She didn't know, and right now, she didn't have the time to care about that. She could already feel the mana from the stone getting much more violent, as if it were preparing for a last, suicidal attack.
The Golems Niko was facing became filled with power, their bodies humming loudly as if about to explode from the overflowing energy. Their bodies grew tremendously in size, jagged spikes sprouting from all over them.
The Golems pushed back against his army of corpses, while the energy flowing into their bodies continued to grow more violent.
It wouldn't be long before they exploded, taking Niko and the others down with them.
Hana took a deep breath, pushing away all thoughts of the looming danger. She closed her eyes and wrapped her hands around the Winter's Breath, a soothing, golden light flowing out of them.
The shard started to calm down, feeling safe in Hana's soothing light. Its hums slowed down, while the mana flowing out of it became less violent.
Hana breathed slowly, ignoring the painful cold biting at her hands and keeping all her focus on calming the shard.
The Golems were almost at the brink of exploding, a torrent of energy flowing through cracks on their bodies.
Niko ordered the dead to pile on top of them, hoping to dampen the force of the blast.
One of the Golems managed to get past the corpses, rushing madly towards Hana.
Niko panicked, trying to think of a way to stop it.
All of his dead were already preoccupied, and if he himself got too close to her right now...
Luckily, he didn't have to.
Yuko saw the Golem and ran to help Hana, tossing his hunting knife at the Golem's eye. The Golem staggered back, but remained standing. Leta flew in and started pecking at the monster's eyes, distracting it to buy Hana more time.
Niko summoned dozens of bone spikes to trap the Golem in place. With him using more power, the spikes managed to bite deep into the golems legs.
But the monster kept moving forward, breaking through the spikes and marching back towards the girl.
Hana didn't worry. She stayed in place, pouring all her power into soothing the Winter's Breath.
The Golems started expanding, their bodies on the brink of blowing up.
The one targeting Hana raised its massive leg, looking to crush her under its foot.
Tai picked up a piece of the broken bone spikes, using it to stab the leg supporting the Golem's weight. The increase in Niko's power boosted Tai's own strength, and he managed to drive the spike all the way through the Golem's leg.
Yet it hardly made a difference.
The creature remained standing, pausing for only a moment to swat him away, before turning its attention back to Hana.
But that one moment was all that was needed.
Niko gritted his teeth. He launched himself forward, the glow in his eyes growing dimmer.
The sphere of death surrounding him shrunk, but the army of dead grew far weaker as well. They wouldn't be able to dampen the blast much anymore.
But right now, he didn't care. He rushed forward at full speed, colliding head-first against the Golem near Hana.
They both landed several meters away, crashing violently into the stone floor.
He watched as blinding light erupted from the Golem, bracing himself for the imminent blast.
But that blast never came.
For a moment, it was as if time stood still, perhaps frozen in place by the sheer cold.
But then, something finally moved.
It was the piece of ice in Hana's hands. The shard hummed melodiously, the patterns on its surface glowing with a soft blue light.
And then, it began to change, its surface shifting and unfurling to reveal its true shape.
Before everyone's eyes, the glowing piece of jagged ice turned into a beautiful flower with translucent, blue petals. A pleasantly cool light flowed out from its center.
As soon as that happened, the mountain changed.
The frigid wind died down.
The raging snowstorm disappeared and the massive Golems shattered into sparkling dust.
The thick, black clouds parted, revealing the golden rays of warm sunlight.
Everyone remained still for a moment, struggling to believe what had happened.
But then, they took deep breaths, smiles spreading across their faces.
They had really done it.
Hana jumped with joy, while Leta hugged Niko with teary eyes.
It was finally over.