Extra's Path: The Eternal Frost Monarch

The tentacle tightened. Then another wrapped around her wing. And another caught her leg.

BOOOOOOM!!!

Akari was violently dragged downward. Her enormous body slammed into the earth with enough force to create a massive crater.

The impact shattered trees and sent mud, rocks, and debris flying in every direction.

"AAAAAAARGH!!!"

A scream tore from her throat. This wasn’t ordinary pain. The moment the corrupted flesh touched her scales, it began to erode them.

HISSSSSSS!

Her sapphire scales darkened. Then they began to crumble.

The corrupted energy seeped through the gaps between them, eating away at everything it touched in faster speed.

Akari writhed desperately. Lightning exploded from her body.

KRAK! KRAK!

The surrounding tentacles burned, but several remained attached. Pain spread through her entire body. She had never felt this much pain before. It was too much.

Every point of contact felt as though her flesh were being dissolved from the inside.

"AAARGH!"

Her eyes filled with agony. She had endured countless injuries throughout her life.

She had broken bones, burns, deep wounds. But this was different. The corruption wasn’t simply damaging her.

It was destroying her existence layer by layer.

Akari gritted her teeth.

’I can’t stay here.’

She released her dragon form. Blue light enveloped her enormous body.

FLASH!

Her gigantic dragon form collapsed into a human figure. The tentacles briefly lost their grip.

Akari immediately took advantage of it. Lightning erupted from her back.

BOOM!

She shot into the sky. She didn’t look back. She couldn’t afford to. Her body was screaming in pain with every movement.

’Noah...’

She forced herself forward. More than thirty kilometers separated them. Normally, that distance would have taken time.

For Akari, however, it took less than a minute. She crossed the distance as a blue streak through the storm.

BOOM!

She descended near Noah. He was running and immediately turned. His eyes widened.

"Akari?!"

She staggered in midair before landing unsteadily. Her condition was horrifying.

Her violet-blue kimono was torn and partially melted away.

Dark patches covered parts of her arms, shoulders, waist, and legs.

Where the corrupted tentacles had touched her, her skin had become blackened and sticky, as though it had partially decomposed.

Small pieces of damaged skin continued to crumble away.

Akari’s breathing was ragged.

"Haa... haa..."

Noah rushed toward her.

"Akari!"

"I’m... fine."

Her voice trembled despite her attempt to sound composed.

Noah froze. His eyes widened as he looked at the injuries covering her body.

He got closer and held her by shoulder.

"You... you’re not fine."

Akari clenched her teeth. She glanced back toward the distant storm. The horizon was still glowing crimson.

"Listen to me."

Her breathing remained heavy.

"I need to get you farther away."

"Is there no other way." He asked while looking at her condition. He was looking at the battle from time to time.

They were huge so even from this long distance it was visible. She had been trapped by monster’s tentacles. Only for few seconds. And her body was already in such condition.

"Noah—"

"I’m not leaving you." He shook his head.

Akari stared at him. His expression was serious. He was not ready to get away.

Fear appeared clearly in her eyes.

Not fear for herself. Fear for him.

"I’ll protect you. I have to."

She forced herself upright despite the pain.

Lightning slowly gathered around her trembling body.

She lifted Noah and flew into the sky, looking down at the destruction below.

She held him in a princess carry. Under normal circumstances, he would have been embarrassed. But not right now.

He looked down at the destruction in terror.

The same went for Akari.

"He wants to destroy this entire dimension," Noah said.

He watched as the monster spread its tentacles throughout the land, emerging from the surface and even from beneath the ground. Like enormous roots, they spread in every direction, destroying everything in their path.

In a few minutes, they would cover the entire dimension.

And with every passing second, their speed seemed to increase.

Both Noah and Akari stared at the destruction with fear and helplessness.

’This is... What can we even do? Nothing?’ Noah thought.

All he had done was watch the battle.

But even Akari’s powers seemed useless against this monster.

Was there anything they could do? Anything at all to survive?

"It appears we don’t have a chance, Noah."

For the first time, Noah heard a tremble in Akari’s voice.

She stared at everything before them.

The hope and confidence she had once possessed,the certainty that they would escape this dimension, this realm, now seemed impossible.

She swallowed hard. The pain she had been feeling was no longer noticeable.

Everything had been swallowed by her helplessness.

Noah could see it in her eyes.

He looked back at the monster.

The abomination wasn’t even looking at them.

It already knew that, eventually, it would swallow them along with everything else.

’Noah! Think! Think! There has to be something that can help us get out of here! How did Damien handle it?’

Noah couldn’t bear seeing Akari like this.

He desperately went over everything he knew about the situation.

’What did Damien have that night that repelled this creature...? Light Mana? His Solar Core contained pure Light Mana, which was similar to the divine energy of the Sun God.’

He finally realized it.

’No wonder. Damien was destined to come here and escape this place. Maybe he was even destined to defeat it.’

His heart sank.

’So... there’s really no chance for us to get out?’

Even Noah began to feel helpless.

As he watched the endless destruction spreading across the dimension, he felt as though there was nothing he could do. Nothing at all.

The sky slowly turned more red an darker shade. Everything was crumbling.

Then his eyes went to the portal from which the creatures and monsters had emerged.

’What if...?’

A possibility suddenly occurred to him.

’No... If the other side is the monsters’ world... that would be suicide.’

Noah thought more deeply about it.

Then his gaze shifted toward Akari.

"Akari!"

His voice pulled her out of her own fear and helplessness.

"What?"

He looked into her blue eyes, which were still filled with fear.

"What do you think is on the other side of that portal?"

Akari frowned and turned her gaze toward the portal in the distance.

The enormous horizontal, circular portal hovered above the gray floor, surrounded by the ruins and destruction left in its wake.

"I... don’t know," she admitted. "It could be the realm that unknown creature came from... or..."

"Or?"

Akari’s expression became more serious.

"While fighting the monster, two red crystals were destroyed by my attack and that creature’s corruption, and that portal has been open for this long, so there’s another possibility."

Noah’s eyes narrowed.

"What possibility?"

"The portal may no longer be simply connecting two fixed points."

She pointed toward the enormous gateway.

"Think about what happens when a portal remains open. It continuously forces two separate locations to overlap. The longer it remains active, the greater the spatial distortion around it becomes unless you are providing continuous energy to it."

Noah’s expression hardened.

Akari continued.

"If the other side really is another realm, then the portal isn’t merely connecting two places. It’s connecting two different spaces entirely. And if that connection has been left open for long enough... and few crystals which were keeping it open and stable has been destroyed."

She paused.

"...the boundary between our dimension and theirs could have become dangerously thin."

Noah’s eyes widened slightly.

"You mean..."

"Yes."

Akari stared at the portal.

"The two realms could have been pulled closer together through space itself. The portal might have started as nothing more than a doorway between two points, but after what happened, the distortion could have expanded beyond the original gateway."

She swallowed.

"And if that’s true..."

Noah finished her thought. "Then the portal might not be the only place where the two realms are connected anymore. We could see the space between it... or say dimensional tunnel."

Akari nodded grimly.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!