“Let me recap this,” I interrupted, trying to piece together everything that had been said.

  “A long time ago, your Guardian erected The Great Barrier and then disappeared beyond it?” I asked, glancing at the Frost Elves. They nodded in unison.

  “And now, you’ve asked NorthStar to help you find your Guardian, which led to this expedition. During the expedition, the team found a trace of the Guardian, which brings us to this plan to fix the barrier.”

  “That’s correct,” Zenth confirmed with a solemn nod. “The only way to protect our village is to ask the Guardian to repair the barrier. He created it, so he’s the only one who can fix it.”

  I scanned the room, noting the hopeful yet desperate expressions on the Elves’ faces.

  It was clear they were gasping at straws here. But before I could voice my concerns someone else beat me to it.

  “I’ll do it.”

  Elfina stood up abruptly, her voice more resolute than I’d ever heard before.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose, exhaling slowly.

  Do you even understand what’s inside you right now, girl? We risked our lives to keep that blessing seed safe, and now you want to throw yourself into danger? Oh, for fuck’s sake.

  “No,” Zenth interjected, rising to his feet. His tone left no room for argument. “You are not going on this mission.”

  “I’m a priestess, dad.” Elfina’s voice didn’t waver.

  “If I can communicate with our Great Tree, then I can communicate with our Guardian and persuade him to help. I don’t know why he abandoned us all those years ago. But if he still holds his duty sacred, then it’s my responsibility to remind him of it.”

  Zenth opened his mouth to argue, but before he could, Thnari spoke up.

  “Your child is right, Zenth.”

  “What?” Zenth snapped his head toward Thnari. “You’re sending her on a suicide mission? Even if we’ve found a trace of the Guardian, how can we know where to find him or how long it will take? I won’t allo...”

  His protests were cut off abruptly as one of the elders seated beside him stood and knocked him out with a pouch filled with golden dust.

  The room fell silent, some of us staring in surprise as Zenth slumped to the floor.

  Elfina gripped her staff tightly, her knuckles whitening as her gaze remained fixed on Thnari.

  “I can do this,” she said firmly. Her eyes flickered briefly to her unconscious father. “I’m sorry.”

  “No. I’m sorry, child,” Thnari responded, his voice heavy.

  Was he apologizing for knocking out Zenth? Or for sending her into what could very well be a death sentence, her body lost forever in the Endless Tundra?

  “Do you know how to follow the Guardian’s trace?” Ragnar asked, breaking the silence.

  Elfina shook her head. “No, I don't."

  “Then I’ll accompany her,” Ragnar offered without hesitation. “My experience with relics and my knowledge of the tundra will significantly increase our chances of survival.”

  “Thank you,” Elfina said, bowing deeply, gratitude evident in her words.

  “Don’t mention it,” Ragnar replied with a calm smile, as if volunteering for a mission fraught with danger was the most natural thing in the world. “As for the third member of our team...”

  “It’s me, right?” Sera interjected, standing confidently. “That’s why I was called here.”

  “Actually, no,” Thnari said, shaking his head.

  “Eh?” Sera blinked, her confidence giving way to surprise.

  “I ask you instead to convince your clan to help defend our village,” Thnari explained. “This battle will be long and dangerous, and I can’t promise you’ll come out unscathed. But please...”

  Thnari bowed deeply, and the other Elves followed, their voices a plea.

  “Please lend us your strength.”

  Sera hesitated. After a moment, she nodded.

  “Okay,” she said softly.

  “Thank you,” Thnari said. Then he turned to Aria. “Lady Leonheart, please lend us your strength as well.”

  Thnari and the elders bowed again, their humility striking a stark contrast to the authority they usually commanded.

  “Please, rise, elders,” Aria said gently, stepping forward to help Thnari back to his feet. “Hilda and I will do everything we can to assist.”

  “Thank you,” Thnari replied sincerely.

  While all of this was unfolding, I couldn’t shake the feeling of Ragnar’s gaze. He never took his eyes off me, scrutinizing my reactions as though he were trying to gauge how I was judging the situation. Or maybe it was something else entirely.

  If it was for the other reason — the one I suspected — that would mean he wasn’t as subtle as I’d thought. That seemed unlikely. Ragnar wasn’t stupid. But still, there was a slight chance my suspicion was true.

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  “Karl,” he called out.

  “Yes?” I replied, meeting his gaze directly.

  Whether Ragnar was a friend or foe might hinge on what he asked of me next.

  “Once we cross The Great Barrier into the Endless Tundra, we’ll encounter significant residual crimson fog. Our team usually takes detours to avoid it, but we don’t have that luxury anymore. We need your help.”

  I had been expecting a different request, but this was revealing in its own way. With a few more tests, I could solidify my understanding of which side Ragnar was on.

  “Of course,” I replied. “I never back down from a challenge.”

  “Big brother...”

  Sera’s voice made me turn. Her eyes, filled with lingering sorrow, betrayed the fact that she still hadn’t moved past the loss of our parents. The memory haunted her, anchoring her.

  Maybe now was the time to change that, to show her there was no need to let those memories rule her.

  I walked up to her and tapped her shoulder lightly. “Protect this place well, okay?” I said with a playful grin. “You don’t want me coming back to a pile of rubble now, do you?”

  Her lips twitched into a faint smile, the heaviness in her eyes momentarily lifting.

  Turning toward Ragnar and Elfina, I asked, “When are we leaving?”

  “Tonight,” Ragnar replied without hesitation. “Once we’ve prepared enough supplies for about ten days, we’ll head out immediately. Time is of the essence.”

  “Okay.” Elfina and I nodded in unison.

  “Then it’s settled,” Thnari declared. “Our lives are in your hands.”

  He bowed deeply once more, his respect and trust evident in the gesture.

  *****

  “Did you bring enough smoked jerky? What about water? Do you have enough water? And warm clothes. You’ll need warm clothes, too,” Sera fretted, bustling around like an anxious mother preparing her son for his first school trip.

  “Calm down, Sera.” I chuckled lightly, taking a sip from the cup of water on the table. “I’ll only be gone for a few days. You’re the one who has to defend this place against almost endless waves of enemies. Shouldn’t I be the one worrying about you instead?”

  I laughed a little, hoping to ease her anxiety with some lightheartedness. She opened her mouth to respond but hesitated, choosing instead to remain silent.

  Before we could continue, a projection of an owl landed on the windowsill — a familiar conjured beast, the same type the expedition team used to pull their sled.

  “Time for me to go,” I said, standing up and grabbing the backpack an Elf had prepared for me.

  Her worry was still etched into her expression, so I stood before her and lightly tapped her forehead with my index and middle fingers — the same way our elder sister used to do before she left for war.

  “If things become too dangerous, run away and don’t look back,” I said.

  The gesture seemed to stir something in her. Her shoulders trembled briefly, as though the memory had triggered her old trauma. But just as quickly, she regained her composure and tapped my forehead in return.

  “Come home soon,” she said softly, echoing the same words she’d said when our elder sister had left.

  I smiled warmly.

  The little girl, who had once been so scared of the dark that she made her two older siblings sleep by her side for three nights straight, had grown into someone so dependable, so strong.

  “I will,” I promised.

  *****

  “Prepared everything?” Ragnar asked one last time as we gathered around the table before the mission began.

  “Yes,” both Elfina and I replied in unison.

  “Let me remind you of what we must do.” Ragnar spread out a self-drawn map of the Endless Tundra across the table.

  The map had clearly seen better days. Its edges were rough and torn, the colors faded with age, and the bottom crumbled slightly as if it had been handled far too many times.

  “We are here,” Ragnar said, pointing to a circle with a tree icon on the bottom-left corner of the map. “We found the Guardian’s trace here.” He traced his finger across the map, crossing a blue line that divided the map in half, past several black smoky dots, toward the far-right edge.

  I raised my brows as I noted the location he was pointing to.

  “That’s right,” Ragnar said, as if answering the question forming in my mind. “We are heading into uncharted territory. It usually takes the expedition team about twelve days to get from the Forest Elf village to where we found the trace. Though, that’s because we spend a lot of time digging through ice to recover relics.”

  Elfina listened intently, hanging on to his every word, while my eyes remained glued to the map, committing its details to memory.

  “But we won’t be doing that,” Ragnar continued. “We’ll head straight for the trace. That should significantly reduce the time it takes.”

  “What are those black dots on your map, professor?” I asked, pointing to the markings scattered across the tundra.

  “Ruins we’ve already excavated,” he replied. “Some contained relics, but most were empty. I want you to accompany us because of this.” He tapped the red dots near the swirling cloud he had marked as the Guardian’s trace.

  “Every time we excavate relics, there’s a chance that Fiend Forgers will be released along with the ice. As an expert in dealing with that fog, you will serve as our guard.”

  Guard you? When you're clearly stronger than me?

  The thought lingered in my mind, but I kept my expression neutral as Ragnar continued.

  “Understood,” I replied simply.

  “What are the red dots, Mr. Xanderson?” Elfina asked.

  “They’re locations with large concentrations of frozen Fiend Forgers,” Ragnar explained.

  He traced his finger back across the map to the Frost Elf village and began reviewing the plan one last time. “First, we’ll slip through the crack in the barrier using this.”

  My eyes widened in shock at the object he pulled out, but I quickly calmed my racing heart when I realized it wasn’t quite what I thought it was.

  The item Ragnar held resembled a military-issued combat cloak — designed to eliminate scent, suppress sound, and reflect light. In my world, it was a tool reserved for high-ranking snipers, those with a triple-skull ranking and above. Before my ‘honorable discharge,’ I had the chance to test one out myself when we were tasked with upgrading it.

  But this wasn’t that cloak.

  Its design was nearly identical, but the Mana and Runes woven into its fabric made it clear that this was a product of this world.

  As I studied the relic, a realization struck me. Combined with the fact that the human who wrote that book of the Guardians I read had modern knowledge, I was now fully convinced that the author was a reincarnator from my world.

  Not that it changed anything. At least, not for now.

  Ragnar’s voice snapped me back to the present as he continued explaining the plan.

  “Usually, the Frost Elves open a path for us through the barrier, and we only need to use this cloak when we’re deep in the tundra. But under the current siege, this will be the first time we’ll need to use it while navigating between the Abyss Crawlers. So follow me carefully and don’t make any mistakes.”

  Elfina and I exchanged a glance before nodding in unison.

  Ragnar pointed at the map again, dragging his finger from the blue line that marked the barrier to a tent icon further into the tundra.

  “After we cross the barrier, we’ll walk through the night to reach a temporary scouting camp. Once there, we’ll rest for an hour and reassess the situation. If nothing changes, we’ll head straight to the location where the trace was found.”

  “What do you mean by changes?” I asked, seeking clarification.

  “The weather in the tundra is nothing like this side of the barrier,” Ragnar explained. “Blizzards can form in an instant and immobilize us without warning. Crimson fog can leak from unknown sources and block our way. And sometimes, strange magic causes us to lose our sense of direction, making us end up back where we started. Those are the least of what you can expect.”

  “What should we do in those situations, Mr. Xanderson?” Elfina asked.

  “I’ve marked your gear with Navigating Runes. If you lose your way or get separated, follow the direction indicated by the Runes to head back toward the barrier. It might still be dangerous, but you’ll have this.”

  He handed her a small wand. “Use this to shoot a fireball into the sky as a signal. That way, the defenders will know you’re coming back and won’t attack you by mistake.”

  “Understood,” we both said, nodding firmly at his instructions.

  “Good,” Ragnar said with a satisfied nod. “Then let’s start.”