Gardenia’s Heart

Inside the cave consumed by a putrid stench, a powerful emerald glow collided head-on with an azure one.

The already thin air seemed to tremble under the intensity of two opposing forces clashing against each other, a low hum spreading alongside the categorically unnatural chaos rising around them.

And there, amidst an infernal sea of green flames, a woman with white hair and grayish eyes showed a faint trace of surprise.

“Ice, huh?”

Cicuta’s reaction could not have been more justified. Around the human, a glacial domain seemed to form at her command.

“I was also surprised someone as discreet as you would use something as flashy as fire, you know?” With an ironic smile, Lily flicked her right hand, a dozen prism-shaped blue crystals slicing through the cave toward Cicuta. “Though, seeing your true self, it makes sense.”

A human and a dragon.

If any bard were to compose a song about this epic tale, it would obviously become a heroic story of a champion setting out against a dragon while wielding a legendary sword.

Blades and claws. Fists and fangs.

There were countless ways such a battle could unfold, countless images anyone would imagine upon hearing who the combatants were.

And yet, contrary to what anyone in the world would expect, neither fighter had taken a single step since the battle began.

This was something beyond a clash between races.

It was a battle between mages.

And so, both would settle it with magic.

“[Crystal Apocalypse]”

The motion was minimal, accompanied only by a whisper.

Firmly rooted around Cicuta, dozens of ice crystals shone with an intense azure light.

Then came the thunderous sound of cracking ice.

It was not a chaotic shattering. Like thousands of geometric blossoms made from pure ice, a sudden expansion surged forward, ignoring limits and logic alike as it advanced to engulf the dragon woman.

Within that winter, however, the true spectacle was not the light.

It was the cold.

Not like a mere breeze or icy wind, but as though the seasons themselves had suddenly changed. Crystal after crystal fractured apart, and the air that had once been humid and tainted by a rotten stench became dry and utterly still. Suspended droplets froze in place.

Snow began to fall throughout the cavern, while the colossal bones adorned with glowing flowers slowly became buried beneath a thick white layer.

Absolute zero had arrived.

And yet, even after all of that, the green flames continued to dance.

“You’re tougher than you look, you know that?”

Letting out a soft whistle, Lily gazed toward the center of the cavern where the corpse of Tiamat’s elder brother lay.

Surrounded by a field of snow and frozen ice spikes, a blazing sphere radiated imposingly.

“If you’d gone down from a single spell, my job would’ve been much easier.” Lily sighed.

Burning a perfect circle into the cold stone floor until it had turned to charcoal, the emerald flames slowly receded, revealing a beautiful woman dressed in white ceremonial robes.

“An impressive advanced spell, but... nothing more than that.” Brushing nonexistent dust from her shoulders, the white-haired woman gave a faint smile, making the silver-haired girl click her tongue. “If I cast a spell of equal power with the opposing element, I can nullify it by preventing thermal energy exchange.”

She was not pretending Lily’s attack had failed to threaten her, nor exaggerating her feat with complicated explanations. Lily was certain she was genuinely calm.

Unlike dragons such as Fafnir or Bahamut, who abused their mana for regeneration and raw endurance, Lily deduced that Cicuta devoted all of her mana entirely to spellcasting.

Dragons were not supposed to be capable of using magic.

If she fought like a dragon, Cicuta possessed so little mana that she could barely regenerate a fatal wound even once. However, even that small amount for her species was still equal to — if not greater than — that of an elite human mage.

“Do you know how many centuries I devoted to studying human magic, you fool?” Cicuta said, emerald flames pouring from her raised palms. “You may call yourself a genius for mastering such a spell at your age, but nothing you attempt here will be beyond my ability to counter.”

The beautiful dragon woman dressed in white extended both hands forward, and the inferno obeyed her command. Like ten colossal flaming claws, the emerald flames tore through the air toward Lily.

There was no longer any way to remain standing still.

Running along the edge of the cavern, her black cloak and silver hair swaying behind her, Lily watched the sea of fire pursuing her.

“You know, I never considered myself a genius. Honestly, I think I’ve known a few girls who deserved that title far more than I ever did.”

As an area-control mage, Cicuta specialized in destruction through overwhelming flames. By preventing her opponents from drawing near, she could attack them with fire hot enough to vaporize flesh. At the same time, she could use those flames defensively, shielding herself from incoming spells. As long as she maintained her distance, Cicuta held the advantage.

“She fights like Nia… this is going to be troublesome,” Lily muttered with a sigh.

Touching the sheathes of the black blades at her waist, Lily considered her next move while leaping across the uneven cracks in the ground, keeping as much distance from the flames as possible.

To have endured a direct hit from [Crystal Apocalypse], the heat produced by Cicuta’s magic had to be overwhelming. Not even her stardust-forged swords would remain unharmed if she used them carelessly. Even the cave floor itself seemed to soften wherever the fire passed, black scorch marks resembling charcoal spreading behind it.

“Rose, hold tight to mommy, okay?”

Calling out to the small girl clinging firmly to her back beneath her cloak, Lily felt a tiny nod against her skin before she leapt.

In midair, there were few options to evade the ten blazing spears, but escape was not what she was aiming for.

As the infernal sea seemed to melt even the wind itself while surging toward her, Lily simply closed her eyes.

Cold was the absence of heat.

When a human body loses heat to a colder environment, the sensation of cold spreads through every nerve. It brought trembling. It nurtured fear.

Having spent years living in a village under constant threat, the girl who would one day receive the title of Icy Queen from the very men who drove a sword through her heart understood exactly what it meant to lose her warmth—her will to live—to the world around her.

An expressionless face. No sound. No emotion. So glacial that, at the time, her lone eye had become so pale it was impossible to tell what lingered within her mind… within her soul.

Living within a coldness that was not physical, but emotional—far removed from the warmth of her early childhood—she had come to understand the true essence of suffering through the cold.

Perhaps that was why it was ironic.

Yet among all the elements and spells her wife and Selene tried to teach her, she always found herself returning to this one.

Like a crystalline wall, a modest barrier of ice appeared before Lily. Hexagonal and flawlessly sculpted, the frozen construct reflected the intense emerald glow of the first spear that collided against it.

The emerald fire was magic, yes—but before anything else, it still obeyed its fundamental purpose.

Like an invisible scale attempting to restore the balance of the world, the heat of the flaming spear spread across the entire surface of the ice wall.

Thermal exchange forced an inevitable dance. The spear’s temperature poured its heat into the ice, while the ice returned its cold in response.

The green glow began to dim. The blazing flames withered into dying embers. The ice lost its rigidity, its sharp edges slowly rounding away.

And then, it happened.

A sharp impact echoed throughout the cavern, quickly followed by the sound of glass cracking. It was not an explosion—certainly not. It was the dry snap of something breaking apart, a loud yet strangely silent sound spreading through the cave.

In a single miserable second, the ice shattered apart… and the powerful spear of fire vanished alongside it.

Opening her eyes, Lily looked upon the remaining nine spears racing toward her like claws seeking to tear her apart.

And once again, cold descended upon the world.

Landing on the ground, Lily twisted her body, her outstretched hand sending two ice spears flying to collide with the fire spears.

With a sharp crack, the opposing attacks struck each other and vanished a second after impact.

Seven remained.

Without even turning her head, Lily swept her palm vertically through the air. Like an avalanche defying gravity, an enormous layer of crystals erupted from the ground, intercepting a spear of fire aimed at her blind spot.

The next attack came from above.

Stomping heavily against the ground, countless vines of shimmering crystal intertwined through the air. Their radiant glow flashed the instant the icy bindings coiled around the flaming spear.

“You said you could counter any spell I cast by responding with one of equal strength. I may not be a genius, but I learn quickly, don’t I?”

A thin smile appeared upon Lily’s glacial face as she noticed the vein throbbing on Cicuta’s forehead.

“Don’t get carried away!” Cicuta shouted, fury burning within her grayish eyes as she thrust both hands forward, sending the remaining six flaming spears charging toward Lily.

Standing perfectly still, the silver-haired girl silently watched the claws of fire capable of melting her flesh approach.

Her ice crystals were based on the innate abilities of Ice Foxes. A simple technique used by monsters to hunt—something they could never truly improve due to their limited intelligence.

However, although she once could only shape them into simple forms without Nia’s assistance, years of training had given Lily the mastery necessary to control ice however she wished.

The same cold that had once surrounded her life had now become nothing more than an extension of her own body.

With the slightest movements, ice crystals of varying sizes, shapes, and mana density appeared. They circled around Lily, intercepting each incoming attack.

There was beauty in every motion.

From the tips of her feet to the smallest movement of her fingers, the girl danced within the cavern to extinguish the flames.

One by one, each remaining spear of fire met its end.

Without a single drop of sweat upon her forehead, Lily rested one hand on her waist while gazing at Cicuta, who had remained motionless since the beginning of the battle.

Unlike Lily, however, a thick layer of sweat had begun forming across Cicuta’s brow. Even if subtle, it was a clear sign that she was growing tired.

By fighting as a mage rather than as a dragon, Cicuta could answer Lily’s spells with equally powerful magic.

Still, by choosing that path, it also meant one thing.

“I wonder…” Lily spoke through a soft laugh. “If we keep this up, which one of us will run out of options first?”

With calm eyes, she watched every trace of Cicuta’s attempt to hide her panic disappear.

Her expression, which had once radiated perfect confidence, now began to show faint signs of wavering.

And the reason was obvious.

Even if she fought like a mage, a dragon was still a dragon.

Even if both of them reached a stalemate and exhausted their mana reserves at the same time, Lily, as a human, would recover hers far faster.

Every spell she cast consumed a tremendous amount of mana, but Cicuta—despite refusing to show it—also needed to spend an equally enormous amount in order to match her.

And so, they would continue nullifying each other until both of their mana reserves ran dry.

Lily knew she could rely on the immense reservoir of dark mana belonging to her wife to overcome this problem, but Nia had battles of her own to fight today. She could not burden her further.

She would resolve this with her own mana. With her own strength.

Planting her foot firmly against the ground and extending a hand forward, Lily commanded a single dense shard of freezing ice to cut through the air at high speed toward the dragon woman.

Even among the Fang Clan, Cicuta’s scales were still a magnificent defense against temperatures like those. Lily’s ice would struggle to pierce through them, but Cicuta was not like Bahamut. Lily knew she could eventually overcome her defenses.

The true problem was the fire.

Yet, if she could simply exhaust Cicuta’s mana until she could no longer stop the ice, everything would come to an end.

“Hahahahahahaha!”

Or at least, that was what Lily had thought.

“Don’t act as though you already understand everything, human!”

The temperature around the sharp ice crystal plummeted as it raced forward, yet not even a single emerald flame appeared to counter it.

It was not a gesture of defiance or madness.

It was natural.

Cicuta opened her mouth with the same casual ease as someone savoring an exquisite meal at a luxurious banquet. Her jaws parted, revealing gleaming fangs, and the ice crystal—moving faster than an arrow through the air—vanished straight down her throat the instant her mouth closed.

The ice did not shatter.

It simply disappeared inside her.

Cicuta rolled her neck a few times before slowly licking her lips from one side to the other.

A disturbing silence settled over the cavern.

Stunned, eyes wide open, Lily did not need Nia’s analysis to understand what had just happened. The chill running down her skin had already given her the answer.

“You… ate my spell?” The question escaped her lips before she could even believe she was asking it.

This had not been a cancellation using opposing elements.

Everything had been absorbed.

Cicuta had devoured her magic.

No… that was wrong. Lily immediately realized it had been something else.

“You ate the mana inside my spell.”

Whispering those words, Lily watched emerald flames once more rise around Cicuta. The frightened expression that had existed on the dragon woman’s face moments earlier had vanished completely.

“Keep clashing our spells until we both collapse from exhaustion? Don’t make me laugh!” Cicuta burst into loud laughter, covering part of her face with one hand as she peered at Lily through the gaps between her fingers. “Don’t use the common sense of your species to measure my strength, human!”

The hatred dripping from Cicuta’s words made Lily’s brow furrow even deeper.

Not knowing until the very last moment who she would face down here, Lily had made sure to study the innate abilities of the three dragon clans during the time she spent preparing her plan.

Dragons of the Wing Clan could use their extra pair of wings to absorb ambient mana. Dragons of the Scale Clan could reflect mana through their scales. And finally, dragons of the Fang Clan could directly devour mana by biting their target.

Since there were no monsters within this cavern for Cicuta to bite and drain mana from, Lily had believed that, so long as she herself avoided being bitten during the battle, the dragon woman would have no way to replenish her mana quickly.

Spells were constructed from mana… but the thought that Cicuta could use her innate ability on magic itself had never once crossed Lily’s mind.

“Tell me, human… have you ever seen a phoenix?”

And then, while lost in thought, that completely out-of-place question made Lily blink several times.

“What?”

Looking at Lily with a disturbing smile, the white-haired woman dressed in ceremonial robes of the same color slowly spread both arms open.

“There is a calamity-class monster that lives somewhere within Finis. Its birth is so rare among monsters that only a few have ever been recorded across millennia. They say even a single one of its kind is powerful enough to destroy entire nests of leviathans.”

Slowly. So slowly it almost seemed as though time itself had stopped.

As Cicuta raised her arms with a serene expression, the emerald flames around them began to flicker, forming glowing cracks across the air itself.

“Why are you telling me this?” Lily asked cautiously.

“I once managed to see one of those monsters. Its presence… its power… the experience was unlike anything else.” A euphoric smile spread across the beautiful woman’s lips. “And it gave me the inspiration I needed to create my own masterpiece!”

Without making a sound, the green flames erupted into a blazing, almost fluorescent light.

The entire cavern was swallowed by green once more. Even the last traces of snow evaporated instantly. The cold gave way to suffocating heat.

Veins of fire crawled along the cavern walls, twisting and condensing as though trying to give birth to something alive.

The shapeless blaze slowly began to take form, the flames attempting to become something beyond mere fire.

“[Wings of Immolation]”

And then, it appeared.

Feathers of burning embers. Wings made from charred light. Flesh forged from living fire.

What escaped from its beak was not truly a sound—it was not alive, after all—yet the echo of fury and bloodlust emanating from it seemed to pierce through space itself and reach the very core of Lily’s being.

Stunned, the girl watched the creature shaped in the image of a phoenix. More than three meters tall, it beat its blazing wings while hovering above Cicuta, as though awaiting her command.

“Even steel melts at barely over two thousand degrees. At five times that temperature, there won’t be anything left of you or your ice!”

Cicuta spoke with euphoric excitement, while Lily merely let out a tired sigh.

“You know… I liked you better when you acted like a responsible and polite librarian.”