"Although I am half southern, I know a little bit about traveling in the north, especially in the cold weather - in the coldest areas, because the weather is too dry, there is actually no snow, and the reason why the cold north of the Broken Mountains is like falling into an ice cave is because it is close to the Misty Sea, plus there are a large number of volcanoes. ”

"Oh, by the way, the highest spiral peak of Broken Mountain is a volcano, but unfortunately it's an extinct volcano, otherwise that hellish hellish place would be heated by lava!"

Isaac Grantham, who was walking behind the three, looked excited, not noticing that the two guys in front of him had completely ignored him.

"By the way, does anyone know how fast the wind is here? Surely you can't guess - eighty kilometers a quarter of an hour, almost as fast as the Empire's best trebuchet, or a room full of ignition into the sky in an instant!"

The gray-eyed boy who walked in the front sighed and turned back expressionlessly:

"Lord Loren, can I ask you a question?"

"I know what you're asking. The dark-haired wizard's eyes shone with a glint called "pity":

"Compared to when he was in the academy, he is much more restrained now...... In a sense. ”

The two stared at each other for a second, and the next moment, a look of sympathy appeared on Lusen's face.

"You were... How did you put up with him?"

“...... I don't really want to talk about that. ”

"Whew~~~, it's really freezing to death!" After taking a deep breath shivering, Isaac, who was looking at the ice cliff in the distance, widened his eyes with excitement, and unconsciously looked at the two people with a curious expression:

"Why did you stop, we still have to hurry—Nidhogg is already in sight, Isaac Squad, move forward——!"

Greeted excitedly, Isaac, with his head held high, had already walked in front alone.

It was the trio's fourth day of northward journey, and they had to avoid crumbling ice cliffs and blizzards that could come at any moment, and if all went well with the route Lusan remembered, he should be able to reach the place where he had seen the Dragon King with his own eyes in the evening.

And, of course, the army of monsters that follow you everywhere.

From day to night, this army was so large that there was no end in sight, and it was always moving towards the same release as Loren and his party.

There is no doubt that their goal is the same as their own, the ancient royal capital that has been lost for nearly a thousand years, Nidhogg.

The black-haired wizard, who was in no mood to "admire" the harsh scenery on both sides of the mountain and river, continued in silence, his eyes narrowed into a slit in the snowstorm and gradually fell into deep thought.

According to Lusen, the entire Dragon King City is a "rising" island, surrounded by bottomless glacial crevasses, and there is no second way to enter it except by leaping.

But... Someone did succeed, and it was hundreds of years ago.

The former missionary of the Holy Cross, the "First Wizard" Logan, once walked through the gates of the Dragon King, and found two "valves", one of which was the Grail of the Nine-Pointed Star, which brought back to Ebolden.

The Nine-Pointed Star Chalice is the key to the Wizarding Age, and that's where everything that happens after that begins.

If Logan, who was just a missionary back then, could have managed to enter Nidhogg, then he who was already a wizard and had opened a "valve" would certainly be able to do the same.

Of course, there is another very likely reason - over the course of hundreds of years, it is likely that even the terrain around Nidhogg has changed, and the road that was passable back then has long been gone.

The "worried" black-haired wizard sighed, and took a step that moved forward harder.

The gray-eyed boy who walked in the front was still in a hurry without saying a word, and the corners of his mouth that had just been hooked by Isaac's "joke" soon gradually lost his smile, and his uncertain face was completely remorseful.

From the very beginning there was no so-called "invasion" ... The knight of the church was right, but it was because of this that he and the robes of the watchtower were killed, hunted down like prey, surrounded and slaughtered, and unknown until his death.

Instead, he survived... But he should have given his life, but he survived because of them.

His Highness Conod is not wrong... I'm a deserter myself......

Pursing her lips, Lusen quickened her pace, trying her best to endure the torment in her heart.

"Damn, I've had enough of you two——!"

Isaac turned abruptly, shouting with a hysterical, almost mad expression, and stared wide-eyed at Loren and Lusen, who had stopped and looked surprised:

"Hey, you two, can you just think about where we are now?!"

"This is the ruins of what was once the Dragon Kingdom, the remnants of the greatest civilization the world can know, and just ahead, not far from where we stand, is the Dragon King City, which has been lost for hundreds of years, and once only existed in a story book!"

"The whole empire... How many people in the world, if not in the world, will be able to see what we are about to see? After the ancient sages, we will be the first to step through that gate and witness it all—do you know how remarkable it is?!"

"So I don't care what one of you is thinking about or what the other is feeling sorry for; Now who can tell me how far it is from here to Niderhogg?!"

The atmosphere was embarrassed for a moment, and Lu Sien, who twitched the corners of his mouth, slowly raised his right hand and carefully stretched out the index finger of his right hand:

"Dragon King City... Right behind you.

This is where we last arrived!"

Isaac frowned for a moment, then turned around abruptly, gasped and widened his eyes:

"Oh~~~~~ Holy Cross's grandmother's!"

When the blizzard stopped, the black-haired wizard's face also showed a look of amazement.

The wind and snow cleared, and a towering tower appeared at the end of the ice wasteland.

No, no, no...... It was not a giant tower, but a city that pale in speech and rhetoric, a huge city that hung alone in the sky!

The city is encompassed by huge walls, and countless minarets are guarded by the top of the mountains.

Nidhogg is the kingdom of dragons, the ancient kings of the world who once tamed dragons...... Brandon's words echoed in the ears of the black-haired wizard.

But at this very moment, no adjective can be used to describe what Loren sees.

Broken Mountain Fortress, Ebotden Nine-Pointed Star Wizard Tower, Ancient Wood Forest Tree Wall...... Everything that was once magnificent and magnificent before his eyes became too small to be worth mentioning in front of Nidhogg!

The towering ancient trees are not yet as tall as the ice-blue walls;

The deep and mysterious wizard's tower is as ridiculous as a child's toy;

This is Nidhogg, the long-lost dragon king!

"No matter how many times you see this scene, it's hard not to be emotional. The gray-eyed boy walked up to Loren and sighed softly:

"This is where we last stopped—there is no way to get to the gates of that royal city unless we can fly over. ”

"We don't need to 'fly' over, little fool of Luceen, we just need to find the path that the first wizard of the year, Logan in a hat, walked. ”

Isaac, with his index finger cocked, walked up to the two of them: "There is no doubt that the First Wizard must have encountered the same problem as us back then, but in the end he still found the accurate way to enter the Dragon King City - and the answer is here!"

"Tombstones?"

"yes, what else could this thing be?" Isaac rolled his eyes at Lusen, and poked a "stone tablet" behind him with his right thumb, "Don't tell me you didn't see this thing last time." ”

"That's right, but we thought it was ......"

"You thought this was just a Ranger's grave, you told me on the way here - but for the same reason last time, it couldn't have belonged to a Ranger!"

Unceremoniously interrupting him, Isaac lightly gestured twice on the stele, pointing to the center;

"Ancient Sakrand Cross, this is what Logan left behind!"