The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 81

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 81
“Ma’am.”
That’s when Frank, who’d just ushered out the last survivor, called to me.
“Good luck.”
“See you in a moment.”
I waited until Frank had completely exited before turning my attention back to what lay ahead. The ice wall had fractured completely. Any moment now, it would shatter.
“You know, Rutland?”
I called out to Marcus while watching the ice wall crumble.
“What happens when a shrimp formally joins the fight between whales?”
“You’re quoting an Eastern Continent saying? Its back doesn’t just crack—it gets crushed.”
Crack-crack-crack!
The ice wall exploded into fragments, thousands of shards scattering through the air.
“Suppress them!”
The Hailwood Faction and Orange Market Faction surged forward in unison, weapons raised. Among them, the Tony Group—realizing only we remained—panicked and held their fire.
But before they could open fire on us, they all lost their footing and fell.
Boom.
The ground beneath our feet had given way.
I immediately called Logan and the others together.
“A different Sealed Creature must have awakened.”
“A different one? You don’t mean…”
“That’s right. The reason we came here in the first place—Frank asked us, and Lowell—”
Frank had asked us to relocate that Sealed Creature elsewhere, the way we’d moved Hailwood, since he didn’t know what else to do with it.
And it seemed that creature had awakened.
Thinking back to what the Snowlight Great Ape had uttered, its seal might have come undone as well.
It was certainly plausible. The sealed ice had definitely been melting.
Thoom-!
A tremor that seemed to flip the entire earth swallowed the Parade Waiting Room whole.
The lights hanging from the ceiling swayed wildly, and snow poured down like a waterfall between the support beams.
“I—I have to go.”
“Let’s move!”
The survivors scrambled toward the exit, their bodies barely able to maintain balance as they hurried outside.
Moments before, they’d had their guns trained on each other. Now there was no time for that.
Crash-crash-crash!
A deafening explosion rocked the entire building, tilting it sharply. A massive crevasse split across the floor like lightning.
Crack-crack-crack!
The thick floorboards tore apart, and people stumbled, losing their balance.
“Aaah!”
“Watch out!”
Some fell; others dropped their weapons. I caught an Orange Market survivor who was sliding through the fractured floorboards.
A hand reached out from behind. Logan helped me hoist the survivor easily back onto solid ground.
“Th—thank you.”
We didn’t distinguish between enemy and ally, supporting and grasping hands, until finally we all made it outside.
I instinctively looked toward the Carousel.
There, ice fragments exploded upward into the sky.
“…It’s broken free.”
Logan said it. The seal had come undone.
The massive ice pillar that had sealed off the area behind the Carousel—it was finally shattering from within.
Crack—crack—
A massive hand tore through the ice, revealing itself.
An arm thicker than a human body by several times, its dark blue skin visible between patches of brilliant white fur.
Crash!
The ice pillar exploded completely.
A Sealed Creature—easily thirty feet tall—gripped the Carousel and pulled itself upright.
The creature’s mere act of rising twisted and snapped the Carousel’s pillars.
“Good God.”
Someone let out a gasp of horror.
Click—click.
As the sun began to rise, the sound of weapons being chambered echoed from everywhere.
In this predawn cold, with hands already trembling from the brutal chill, the thought of facing that Sealed Creature made no sense at all.
Everyone’s eyelashes were crusted with snow; their eyes barely open. How could anyone fight like this?
Except for me, whose body temperature was controllable, nearly everyone’s eyelashes showed the same telltale sign of freezing.
Logan was exempt too. He transcended the bounds of humanity, so let’s set him aside.
In any case, the Hailwood Faction, the Orange Market Faction, the Tony Group, and even Dotori Village—not a single one of them had eyes for their rivals anymore.
They all aimed at one target alone.
The Sealed Creature’s gaze swept slowly toward the Parade Waiting Room.
Those two eyes, burning a furious red, looked upon every human standing before the building as nothing but prey.
Fear seized me so completely I couldn’t move from where I stood. Yet somehow, I had to formulate a strategy.
In this story, its formal designation is Snowbeast Yuan—a creature of colossal, ape-like form.
Its defining traits, as I’ve mentioned before, are its mastery of its limbs and the terrifying destructive force it wields.
“Logan, the last time you encountered that thing, how did you deal with it?”
“……?”
Logan tilted his head as if to say I was asking the strangest questions.
“I just killed it.”
What? The answer was so simple it knocked the wind out of me.
“Hmm… Even for me, that would be difficult alone. It’s not impossible, but it would require tremendous time. And if it came to that, the casualties would mount.”
“Looks like we’ll need to cooperate.”
But I wasn’t sure we had that kind of time.
Everyone was panicking at the approaching Snowbeast Yuan, firing off rounds wildly, chaos erupting all around us.
‘I need to think. I need to use my head.’
What if I absorbed all the Winterstones myself?
I didn’t mention it to Logan. He’d only worry.
But if I’m going to push Logan to this extent, if I’m going to trigger his trauma just for this—then someone might ask whether it’s really necessary to go so far.
I would answer with absolute conviction: Yes, I must.
“In the end, isn’t it only the Hymn of Humanity that can save this ruined world?”
Hadn’t someone once said that if you want to change your life, you must walk a path you’ve never walked before?
I reached my hand toward the pouch Logan was holding.
And I suppressed my power as much as possible. It seemed I could control the light well enough that no one else would notice.
Blue light and silver, crimson and gold crystals—one after another, the Winterstones gathered into my palm.
Focusing every nerve into my hand and dimming the light, the Winterstones quietly flowed into my body, unseen by the others.
I felt a wave of cold energy sweep across my entire frame.
I stole a glance at Logan.
Logan was
staring down at the empty pouch in his hand.
A trickle—
Blood ran from my nose. My stomach lurched, and something began to rise back up—
A cough—
And I coughed up blood.
I’d never tasted blood before, not like this.
Marcus and Julian, both drained of all color, rushed toward me.
Through it all, Logan seemed unmoved. There was no sign of disturbance in him. His face was cold and composed.
No. I had wanted it to be that way, but now that it was, there was a strange sting to it. Not that I had any right to feel that way—I’d brought this on myself.
Focus, Eve. Assess the situation first.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying. All I could hear clearly was the heavy pounding of my own heart.
Thump—thump—
My heart beat powerfully, rhythmically.
Why does this heart, which I only feel as a pulse, feel like it’s trying to speak?
I pressed my palm to the ground, and snow flowers bloomed beneath it, spreading across dozens of meters in every direction.
The snow flowers, spreading rapidly, soon reached the foot of the Snowbeast Yuan as it pressed its attack on the survivors.
The creature’s movement halted.
The snow flowers blooming beneath its sole twisted together like chains of ice in an instant. They wound around its ankle, coiled around its calf, and began to pin that massive body to the earth.
Crack—crack—crack!
The creature’s enormous fist came crashing down, grinding the space beneath it. But the more it moved, the faster the ice flowers spread, like living vines.
Exhale.
Only then did I wipe away the blood smeared around my mouth with a satisfied look, and straighten my bent spine.
I pulled out my pocket watch and checked the time.
Approximately thirty minutes. I should be able to hold that thing for about thirty minutes.
‘I can’t kill a Sealed Creature with this power alone.’
Before I even had a chance to speak, Logan had gathered all the survivors and brought them back. Of course, he hadn’t brought them gently—they were all drenched in blood.
According to Marcus, the Hailwood Faction was skilled in sniper work, and the Orange Market Faction likely had plenty of explosives. The Tony Group was optimized for field engineering.
Though I called it cooperation, I had no intention of persuading them. There simply wasn’t enough time.
Like Logan, I need to show them through action, not words.
I flicked my fingers.
Crack. Crack-crack-crack.
Ice surged up from all sides, sweeping across the empty air in a massive arc.
The ice wall that formed this way layered down from above like flower petals folding inward, creating a perfect dome.
“What—what is this!”
All of us were now trapped inside the ice dome I’d created.
Now let’s begin negotiations.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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