Extra's Path: The Eternal Frost Monarch

"AKARI!!"

Noah screamed at the top of his lungs while desperately climbing farther up her enormous neck. His voice was almost completely swallowed by the raging storm.

CRACK!!

Lightning tore across the blackened sky.

ROOOOOAAAARRRRR!!!

Akari answered with a deafening roar. Her massive head suddenly swung to the side, dragging her long neck along with it.

"WHOA!!"

Noah’s entire body was nearly thrown away. His stomach twisted violently as the world spun around him.

"Wait! Listen to me!!"

Of course, she didn’t. Whether she couldn’t hear him or simply couldn’t understand him in her current state, Noah had no idea.

Akari abruptly changed direction again.

FLAP!!

Her enormous wings pushed against the storm. The sudden acceleration nearly ripped Noah from her neck.

"ARGH!"

His fingers screamed in pain. His right hand slipped.

"No!"

Noah immediately slammed it against another scale. Mana rushed toward his palm.

Crack!

Ice formed instantly, spreading around his fingers and locking his hand firmly against the sapphire scale. Only then did he release his left hand.

Reach farther and grab then freeze.

Crack!

Then repeat.

His method was crude, but it was the only reason he hadn’t fallen to his death.

Rainwater constantly streamed over Akari’s scales, making them dangerously slippery. The violent wind battered Noah from every direction, while every movement of the dragon threatened to fling him hundreds of meters toward the forest below.

His fingers had become raw.

Several nails were cracked.

His arms trembled from exhaustion, and his shoulders felt as though someone were slowly tearing the muscles apart.

Still, Noah refused to stop.

"Akari!"

He dragged himself another meter forward.

"You better wake the hell up after I went through all this!"

ROOOAARRR!!

"Yeah, yeah! Keep roaring!"

Noah gritted his teeth.

"I’m still coming!"

---

Meanwhile, far below the raging storm. The mysterious circular platform remained completely deserted.

Rain poured across its ancient gray surface. Yet the water couldn’t settle upon it.

Something had changed.

Hum

A faint vibration passed through the structure. The red crystals resting atop the waist-high pillars had stopped blinking.

Instead they now remained illuminated. A deep crimson glow burned steadily within each crystal. Then the runes began changing.

Starting from the outermost edge of the platform, an unknown red substance or perhaps some unknown energy slowly seeped through the engraved lines.

It moved almost like liquid. One carved symbol after another turned crimson.

The energy traveled through the intricate channels, gradually connecting separate sections of the enormous formation.

Rumble.

The platform trembled. But it was only for a second. Then everything became still again. But the process didn’t stop.

More runes awakened. More lines filled with crimson light.

The strange energy leaking from them gradually became denser, rising a few centimeters above the stone like thin red mist before dissolving into the air.

Whatever the platform was doing. It wasn’t fully activated yet. It was preparing.

As though an ancient mechanism that had remained dormant for decades was finally awakening from its sleep. And with every passing minute, more of the formation turned red.

---

CRACK—!!!

Another bolt of lightning illuminated the heavens.

Noah barely noticed anymore.

"Hah... hah..."

His breaths came in ragged gasps. He had lost track of how long he’d been climbing.

Five minutes? Ten? Twenty?

It felt like hours. His entire body was aching.

His forearms were covered in cuts from Akari’s scales. His wet clothes had torn in several places, and every muscle from his fingers to his back burned from constantly holding himself against the dragon.

But finally Noah looked up. His exhausted eyes widened.

"I made it."

Akari’s enormous head was right there. No longer some distant shape at the end of her neck.

He had reached it.

Her long horns stretched backward above him, and the scales surrounding the back of her skull were larger and thicker than those covering her neck.

Noah could even see the side of her enormous blue eye whenever she turned her head.

He slowly dragged himself farther forward.

"Just... a little more..."

His right hand reached out.

Crack!

Ice secured his grip. Then his left. His body followed. Akari suddenly shook her head again.

"Fuck!"

Noah immediately flattened himself against her scales. His vision spun. For a moment, nausea surged through his stomach.

"Ugh..."

He swallowed it back.

’Not now.’

Once Akari’s movements became slightly steadier, Noah raised his head again. He looked toward the side of her skull. Her ear.

That was his target. Getting there wouldn’t magically solve everything.

Noah knew that.

Akari was in a berserk state caused by the complete awakening of her bloodline. Simply screaming her name might accomplish absolutely nothing.

But he had to try. Because he had seen her fighting against herself earlier. Some part of Akari was still conscious. Somewhere inside that enormous dragon...

His master was still there. Noah clenched his bleeding fingers against her scales.

"Just wait, Akari..."

Despite the pain, he forced himself forward again.

"I’m coming."

---

"Haha!! I finally made it!!"

Noah shouted triumphantly, though his celebration was immediately ruined when Akari violently shook her enormous head from side to side.

"Whoa—! Stop! STOP!"

His frozen grip barely kept him attached to her scales. He had finally reached her ear. Taking a deep breath, Noah screamed with everything he had.

"AKARI!!! IT’S ME! NOAH!! YOUR MAN!!"

For a moment Akari actually stopped. Her enormous wings continued beating, but the violent shaking ceased.

Noah’s eyes widened.

"Akari...?"

ROOOOOAAARRR—!!!

A deafening roar erupted from her throat. But this time, it sounded different. Painful and strained. As though something inside her was desperately fighting for control.

Noah immediately understood. "YOU CAN HEAR ME, CAN’T YOU?!"

Akari growled. "YOU CAN DO IT! CONTROL IT!!"

He tightened his grip. "AFTER THIS, WE CAN FINALLY FIND A WAY OUT OF HERE!"

ROOOAARRR!!

Her roar almost sounded like a response.

"It’s working..."

Noah grinned.

"COME ON, AKARI!"

Suddenly the world flipped.

"What the—?!"

Akari turned completely upside down. Noah’s stomach lurched as his body hung beneath her neck, held only by his frozen grip.

"Fuck!"

Then something in the distance caught his attention. Several kilometers away, visible even through the rain and darkness. A brilliant crimson light illuminated the forest.

Noah’s eyes widened.

"The platform...?"

It was glowing. Not faintly anymore. Bright red energy rose from the clearing like a beacon.

"What the fuck is happening there?"

RUMBLE—!!!

The clouds above Akari suddenly churned. Lightning gathered throughout the storm.

Noah looked upward. His face paled.

"Oh, shit."

Dozens of enormous lightning bolts descended toward Akari simultaneously.

’If those hit her while I’m attached...’

"I’m dead!"

Noah looked toward Akari’s head one last time.

"AKARI!! WAKE UP!!" He called her one last time. Then he shattered the ice around his hands and let go.

WHOOSH!!

His body immediately plummeted. Wind screamed around him as Noah fell toward the distant forest like a cannonball, his white hair whipping violently behind him.

Yet even while falling, his eyes remained fixed on that mysterious crimson light.

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