Seveleen and Seria were almost going in blind towards this doctor Hemsnel. If he rejects helping for some reason that would be the end, after all the rumours were not always the truth.
But they still decided to go towards him, showing their desperation.
Seveleen moved forward trying to get near the Lectic mountain region as much as possible with the caravan. Two snow wolves walked behind the caravan with collars on their neck.
She had already found out about her current location after talking with Seria.
She was extremely worried about her small sister and others. And with the talking of the ghost people going around, she was immediately able to tell that the people of the academic city were also teleported along with her.
With all that in mind, she was under immense pressure.
Within the caravan, Seria slowly got up recovering from the stroke she had an hour ago. This stroke had already become a lot more severe in just a week, with Paralysis or numbness of the face, arm, or leg on one side of the body. She also had problems seeing in one or both eyes, trouble walking, and a loss of balance.
These were the only other symptoms that appeared, excluding the blemishes on her body.
Sighing to herself, Seria looked at Seveleen with an imploring look. She was the one who has been scared of dying more than anyone, though it made her heart warm up looking at Seveleen's worried face. She didn't want her to do something dangerous that could be threatening to her life.
She was aware of Seveleen's strength from the fight against bandits. But not her exact strength as she didn't know much about the mage profession.
The fact that Seveleen was still so young also made her want to protect this girl. Even after talking with her for a long time, she was not able to know her identity. It didn't even matter as she stopped caring about it too.
Seria had decided to part ways with Seveleen when her condition worsened, but Seveleen was persistent in trying to help her.
In the end, both of them started looking for a way to deal with the disease.
This pandemic was caused by a disease called the Revelner, this disease was of unknown origin to everyone in the world leaving Zick who knew about it through the novel.
This disease almost appeared out of nowhere and started spreading at a rapid rate. The kingdom and empire were freaked out getting to know about such a dangerous disease. They started preparing to fend against this pandemic extensively.
Currently, this disease has already spread to almost all the cities including The capital of the Hevertec kingdom. It was spreading to the bordering villages and cities of the other kingdoms and empires right now.
They had to resort to burning people alive to make sure no more people got infected.
Killing these infected people with the sword and other instruments was prohibited. Dirtying the ground with infected people's blood could lead to further casualties.
The caravan passed the frozen ground and reached the foot of a huge snow mountain.
Seeing the wheels of the caravan not moving anymore even as the horse pulled with all its might, Seveleen sighed.
'The caravan can only get us till here... From now on, everything will depend on me.' Her eyes shone in resolution.
There were black clouds above the mountain but it didn't start to snow yet.
Slowly, Seria walked out of the caravan with staggering steps. Right now, she looked perfectly the same as a mommy with the bandages and the way she walked.
Bearing the pain she felt all over her body, Seria walked in front of the caravan.
"...I think we should turn around...Cough! I think it's going to snow soon..." Supporting her body with the caravan, Seria spoke.
"It's not going to snow anytime soon by the way it looks. We can cross the mountain range before that." Seveleenxs retort was almost instantaneous.
"No...you don't know...but the climate of this place is very abnormal..." catching her breath, Seria continued. "It is not possible to predict the weather of this place by common sense."
Seria talked very seriously, making Seveleen reconsider. She still had many things she needed to do, like finding out about her sister. In this foreign land, she was all alone with no backing or support. Seria, the one she could trust, was also going to die soon.
To Seveleen her well-being is more important than Seria's. After all, she had her priority straight. She knew that saving Seria was almost impossible, the only reason she did all this was that she wanted to repay the debt to her.
She had principles that she followed.
Seveleen wasn't shameless and unfeeling enough to ignore Seria who helped her. If it was a stranger she would have ignored them without any hesitation.
'Since I have traveled till here, it would be a letdown if I stopped and returned. I might as well travel till the end, I will start looking for others from the city on the other side of this mountain region.'
Thinking this, Seveleen's eyes were filled with determination. Retreating without even trying would make her regret her decision without a doubt. She would rather live a life with no regret, she underestimated the danger posed by the mountain just like Zick.
They started climbing the mountain on the back of the snow wolves.
Seria had a helpless look as she sat almost hugging the snow wolf. Mysteriously the cold wind didn't affect them like an invisible barrier was protecting them.
Seventeen had cast multiple magic on both Seria and herself along with the barrier protecting them.
With the snow wolves, they were able to cross two mountains without any problem at all. It was peaceful making Seveleen a little relaxed. Only some snow wolf packs came to attack them, but they were slain easily by her.
They ate jerky as their food while traveling after making a tent, taking breaks only a few times. They were both cautious people, they decided to cut time and travel more extensively to cross this mountain region fast.
It was then that the situation drastically started changing. Snow fell from the sky and the harsh wind blew by them.
"No way...." Seveleen looked at the sky which started turning darker for no apparent reason.
But she snapped out of her daze soon. With no hesitation, she and Seria speeded up their traveling speed.
They were still climbing their third mountain and according to the information known by Seria, they had to climb another four mountains after this. There was also a gorge in between the Lectic region that could be crossed easily.
The snow started falling faster and faster before long it turned into a huge snowstorm.
Seveleen's magic was barely holding on facing the snowstorm.
They still didn't stop traveling and kept going. Soon they crossed the third mountain somehow.
Seventeen felt her head become dizzy for a second. She was reaching her limit. She and Seria had not eaten anything in between too. But creating a tent in this situation would be the height of stupidity. It would just fly away in no time.
Seveleen brought a stamina potion out of her space ring and started chugging it down. She had come prepared for any kind of situation this time.
But before they could start traveling again...
WHOOSH!
A huge ice spear the size of five meters flew towards them rapidly.
Bang! Both the snow wolf and Seria were turned into meat paste before Seveleen noticed anything.
A blood trail was left from the place where the ice spear passed by.
Drops of blood fell on Seveleen's face that she didn't even notice from how surprised she was.
Feeling goosebumps rising from all over her body, Seveleen looked at the direction the ice spear flew from with an expressionless look. Her heartbeat was so loud that she was scared of it blowing up.
"haaa....haaa....haaa...." White mist left her mouth as her breathing quickened. She felt angry and indignant but it all blew away when she saw the thing which caused Seria's death.
Instead, a frightened look occupied her face, and her body started shaking.
Guhhh!!!
A huge monster rose from the snow-covered ground.
It was a snow cyclops, a mutated monster known to be unbeatable to anyone below master rank. It would have been easy to defeat it if a young snow cyclops appeared, but the one in front of her was without a doubt a matured one.
It was larger than normal cyclops, its palm was larger than Seveleen's whole body. There were spikes made of ice in its shoulder and a white long beard was below its face. And it had blue skin which was strong enough to endure even an attack done by a peak-rank mage for a while.
"Run!"
Feeling a sense of danger rising from within her heart again, Seveleen ordered the snow wolf to run at full speed. It wasn't the time to be feeling sad about Seria's death.
The snow wolf had monster-taming collars on it so it could not go against her order. It moved its body even while feeling overwhelming fright.
The snow cyclops turned its head feeling one of its prey moving. One of its spikes on the shoulder and shot out at an unbelievable speed.
Seventeen had kept an eye on the cyclops after enhancing her eyes with magic. So this did not escape her eyes. Without any hesitation, she abandoned the snow wolf and used magic to fly.
BANG!
The ice spear landed behind Seveleen, making her expression turn solemn. If she was a second later, she would have died.
Seventeen didn't waste a second and started flying away. For some reason, the snow cyclops didn't follow and headed off somewhere urgently.
Seventeen didn't let her guard down and continued traveling. A wave of emotions hit her making her bite the corner of her lips lightly. In the end, Her persistence caused seria to die.
This was the first time she faced such a setback in her life. Things always went the way she wanted with no challenge at all. She was very inexperienced in the working of the world.
"Sorry..." A saddened voice left her mouth as she climbed the fourth mountain.
She had to drink stamina potion multiple times now that she had to use magic to fly as well as to fend off the snow.
"Cough..." Seventeen coughed lightly.
'Did I Catch a cold?' Seventeen thought seeing the snow falling from the sky.
But it was soon proven wrong, she slowly started feeling sluggish. This made her expression take a huge turn for the first, it was filled with chilling solemness.
Checking her body through the 'will' filled mana, Seveleen felt the world stop around her. Despair was apparent on her face.
There were strands of black blood in veins, showing the sign of being infected by the Revelner disease.
A knight would have been able to easily fight off this disease, but it was different for mages. Their bodies were no different than normal human beings.
Calming herself she first cleaned off the frozen blood on her face. A moment of carelessness had led her to be infected too.
Seveleen moved forward breathing out loud, calming herself. She didn't give up, no she didn't want to give up.
Her dream, aspiration, and the will to look for her sister kept her going.
This was not enough to make her give up!
Seveleen crossed another three mountains in an unknown amount of time before running out of stamina potion. Her body also exhausted fast which was the first symptom of being affected by the Revelner.
In the middle of nowhere, she stood in one place not having the strength to move forward.
Her body was weak so she could not forcefully walk in this snowstorm like Zick.
'Is this the end...?' Her life flashed in front of her eyes. She felt very unwilling to die like this, she had not fulfilled her wish which was something that kept her going from a young age.
There was nothing else that she could do in this situation. Slowly, snow covered her body as her consciousness wafted away.
GROWL!
It was then, she heard a ferocious growl from some distance.