Before the morning light could completely dispel the cold mist above the Mushroom Fortress, Pollock pushed open the door, taking a deep breath of the chill air, then moved his shoulders with slight surprise.
"Weird..." He turned his head to another dwarf washing up by the stone trough outside the house. "Is it my illusion? This morning, it doesn't seem as bone-chilling as the past few days?"
That dwarf splashed a handful of warm water from the heating Puchi onto his face and nodded: "Now that you mention it... the wind indeed doesn't feel as piercing."
Pollock had now completed the symbiosis as well, experiencing the wonder of thought flow in the mycelial network. But like all newcomers just arrived, he hadn't completely abandoned the bad habit of speaking out loud yet.
He simply couldn't be more satisfied with life in the Mushroom Fortress: giant forging furnaces professional enough to make him speechless, mountains of ores for him to take at will, and those Delicious Mushrooms so tasty they could make a dwarf weep!
He could even clearly feel his skills making solid progress. With every hammer strike, the appearance of the finished product was closer to the standard line of qualification in his heart.
Initially, when it was just him and Jadin, facing this massive and strange city of miracles, it was inevitably somewhat lonely.
But as subsequent batches of dwarf apprentices arrived one after another and spontaneously huddled to live near the forging factory, that sense of loneliness had long been washed away completely by heated discussions, the sounds of forging hammers, and the unique rough voices of dwarves.
In his view, the Mushroom Fortress was a veritable blacksmith's paradise!
If one had to pick a flaw in this perfection, it was that this "paradise" was indeed excessively cold. It was fine when working around the furnace in the forging factory, but every time he finished work and returned to his residence, or woke up in the morning like now, despite Puchis coming to heat up the room in advance, the cold wind pouring in the moment the door opened always made him shudder.
The chill this morning was noticeably milder, undoubtedly a pleasant surprise.
Just then, Jadin walked out from the next room wrapped in a thick leather coat, ice shards still sticking to his beard: "Where to eat breakfast?"
Pollock's eyes lit up, grinning: "Let's go, go call the door!"
"You're still not tired of listening to it?" Jadin was helpless.
"That's a Vampire High Noble, the kind that can slap us two dead with one palm!" Pollock breathed out a white puff, rubbing his hands enthusiastically. "Listening to his few shouts every morning, I can swing the hammer fifty more times! Going or not?"
The two smiled at each other, stepping on the snow underfoot which seemed softer than usual, walking toward the cafeteria. Along the way, they noticed some icicles hanging under the eaves were a small section shorter than yesterday, dripping water slowly in the morning light.
The Mushroom Fortress really seemed to be warming up bit by bit.
...
Inside the ruins, the riot of ice and fire continued.
"You guys... stop fighting!"
Amidst the raging fire and frost, Inanna's cry was so helpless.
[Elemental Spirit Favor] could forcibly twist the attitude of elemental spirits toward her, but it wasn't true absolute domination.
Especially for these lords, this "favor" was more like a protective desire originating from instinct rather than unconditional obedience.
Above, ice storms and monstrous flames constantly transformed into various shapes and collided fiercely. Every impact exploded into sky-filling ice crystals and flowing fire.
Cold waves and heat waves sawed back and forth, forming violent turbulence, rolling up the dust and rubble deposited in the ruins into the air.
The water vapor escaping from the confrontation turned into rolling white mist, steaming and permeating, soon shrouding the entire ruins in a chaotic haze.
Pity this ruin with archaeological value; the already ancient buildings were destroyed in large swathes under the confrontation of such scale of power.
Fortunately, Lin Jun had long looted the valuable things in the ruins; otherwise, he would be heartbroken to death.
The two Elemental Lords had been fighting for most of the day, showing no sign of determining a winner temporarily.
No. 4, relying on tenacious vitality, finally broke free from the mid-air cyclone, rolling awkwardly behind a still intact low wall.
It extended one of its tentacles to look. The tip part was first frozen into a hard popsicle, then immediately singed by a passing tongue of fire, presenting a strange state of being scorched black and crispy while covered with white frost.
It carefully coiled that unfortunate tentacle in front of itself, observed for a moment, then with a snap, broke it off cleanly.
No. 4 held up this section of scorched-black, ice-crispy tentacle and coiled it in front of the anxious Inanna: "Pink Puchi, help me taste it, how is the texture? Crispy outside and tender inside? Or is it frozen too hard, affecting the flavor?"
"???"
Inanna felt No. 4 seemed to have embarked on some point of no return...
As time passed, the battle above finally approached its end.
The most powerful aspect of an Elemental Lord lay in changing the environment, then utilizing the changed environment to enhance their own combat power—this kind of lifting oneself up by one's bootstraps improvement method.
And the Northern Territory was clearly the Ice Elemental Lord's home field.
Every wisp of cold wind and every flake of falling snow here was an aid to the Lady of Frost. In contrast, the Fire Elemental Lord, just by existing here, was constantly having its heat consumed.
Gradually, the domain of flames began to be compressed.
The fists of fire roared out by the Fire Elemental Lord took longer and longer to re-condense after dispersing, while the spikes of ice crystals and breath of extreme cold became increasingly dense.
The situation was already clear, and the Fire Elemental Lord had quite high intelligence, naturally not being the kind of fool who fought to the death stubbornly.
The Fire Elemental Lord concentrated its power, unleashing a fierce burst, blasting the Ice Lord away.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it! Ice scum, you win this time! This Lord will melt you into a puddle of waste water sooner or later, just you wait!" The voice was full of shame and indignation.
Thinking about it made sense. Like being beaten up and then having one's beloved object snatched away, as the overlord of the Molten Dungeon, when had the Fire Elemental Lord suffered such humiliation in the past?
Unfortunately, the situation was stronger than the person.
As the voice fell, the much-weakened flame body turned into a stream of fire, retreating back into the Imprisonment Ring on Inanna's left hand. The luster of the ring body dimmed completely as if falling into dormancy.
In the ruins, only the residual warmth that hadn't dissipated and the severe cold that began to permeate again remained.
On the wall, that pile of rubble and hard ice covering the Ice Lord moved.
Rubble fell off, and that slender, crystalline figure slowly floated out.
The ice crystal long skirt on its body was also slightly damaged, but its bearing remained perfect and flawless as if it hadn't heard the Fire Elemental Lord's final vicious words.
The Ice Elemental Lord floated in front of Inanna, raising a hand composed of the purest ice crystals, then unceremoniously replaced the [Blessing of Fire] on Inanna's body with its own [Blessing of Frost].
This time, no one stopped it anymore.
After finishing, its long skirt swayed lightly as it floated behind Inanna.
Those hands without temperature affectionately held Inanna's cheeks.
Afterward, Inanna successfully subdued it through the Spirit... the Imprisonment Ring. This powerful Elemental Lord showed not a trace of resistance throughout the process.
Thus, with flames residing in the left hand, frost guided by the right hand, No. 4 lying on top of her head, and holding the Sword Saint Puchi in her arms, the strongest summoner of the current era was born!
And the temperature of the Northern Territory finally began to rise, even though it was still winter...
(End of Chapter)
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