Eugeo claimed his Perfect Weapon Control was designed for slowing down opponents. He was dead wrong—anyone trapped in this hell of ice would lose their life before long.
Perhaps he really did defeat the legendary hero Bercouli. I looked around, desperate for information. The darkness element had indicated that the Blue Rose Sword would be around here, and that meant Eugeo was here, too.
Just then, I heard Alice gasp.
“…!”
I sucked in a sharp breath, too. About twenty yards away was a rather large silhouette. It was unmistakably a human head and shoulder. Someone buried in the ice.
Alice and I shared a glance, then we raced over, scattering ice roses.
I soon realized the person trapped in the ice was not Eugeo. His shoulders and neck were at least twice as thick as my partner’s.
I slowed down out of disappointment and caution, but Alice only went faster. “Uncle!” she cried, racing for the frozen silhouette.
That’s Commander Bercouli?! Then where’s Eugeo…?!
Confused, I increased my speed again. When I caught up several steps later, Alice was on her knees before the burly man, clenching her fists and screaming, “Uncle…! Commander! What happened to you?!”
Alice had seen Eugeo’s ice power on the eightieth floor, so she should have understood what the Blue Rose Sword’s effect was; when I got closer, I realized what she meant.
The man wasn’t simply frozen up to his chest. His rippling, muscular shoulders, trunk-thick neck, and fierce, proud features were all colored in a drab, inorganic gray.
“That’s…not part of Eugeo’s…Perfect Control effect…,” I murmured, stunned.
Her back to me, Alice said, “I…I agree with you. Long ago, Uncle told me…the prime senator has the authority to turn all human beings into stone…even Integrity Knights. I believe the name of the ability is…Deep Freeze.”
“Deep…Freeze,” I repeated. “Then this old guy—er, I mean, the commander—got turned this way by the prime senator? Aren’t they on the same side? Why…? I mean, he should be a valuable force in fighting off intruders, right?”
“I think Uncle secretly questioned the senate orders handed down to him…but like I did, he believed peace was impossible without the rule of the Axiom Church, and he spent countless days battling for that purpose. No matter what powers the prime senator has, there is no call…no reason for him to do such a horrid thing!!”
Tears dropped onto Alice’s knees from her left eye. She reached out, not bothering to wipe her cheeks, and clung to the petrified Bercouli. One of the teardrops landed on the commander’s forehead and vanished into little sparkles of light.
A sharp crack split the scene.
Alice leaped up to her feet, staring at Bercouli’s neck. There was actually a small split there, as though the mild warmth of her tear had melted the stone effect. The fissure widened and grew, throwing off tiny shards of material.
We watched in amazement as the gray statue continued splitting, very gradually changing the angle of its neck. Soon the face was pointing toward us, and the stone around the mouth began to crack. Shards of stone that would have been flesh and blood just hours ago continued to fall away.
Based on the name Deep Freeze, I assumed the command would completely pause an Underworldian’s state, body as well as mind. It wouldn’t be like spreading liquid plaster over someone in the real world. Through the orders of Stacia, the god of all, his every movement was forbidden—and he was trying to overcome it through willpower alone.
“Uncle…stop, stop it! You’ll tear your body apart, Uncle!!” Alice pleaded tearfully. But not for an instant did Commander Bercouli stop his defiance of the gods. With an especially loud crunch, he lifted his eyelids. The eyes revealed were as gray as his skin, but the irises rippled like the surface of water, and they began to regain a very faint bluish color. The absolute strength of will they exuded was so overwhelming, it gave me goose bumps.
He grinned, throwing off another shower of shards, and opened his mouth to emit a hideously raspy but powerful voice.
“…Hey…little Alice. You shouldn’t cry…that hard. It ruins…your pretty face.”
“Uncle…!!”
“Don’t…worry…A single art isn’t going to kill a guy like me. Besides…”
Bercouli paused, taking in Alice’s tear-streaked face and the impromptu bandage that covered the right side. He gave her a smile full of fatherly love and said, “Oh, I see…little Alice, you made it over that wall…You broke through…the right eye…like I never could…in three centuries…”
“U-Uncle…I…I’m…”
“Don’t look at me…that way…I’m…happy for you…Now there’s…nothing left…for me to…teach you…”
“That’s…that’s not true! There are so, so many things…I still want to learn from you, Uncle!!” she cried, not even trying to hide her childish sobs, flinging her arms around his neck.
“You can do it, little Alice,” Bercouli whispered into her ear, beatific smile on his lips. “You can…correct the mistakes of the Church…and help guide this world…to its proper…state…”
I could tell that the strength was rapidly draining from his voice. The remarkable willpower coming from the knights’ commander’s fluctlight was reaching its end at last. His eyes suddenly turned to me; they were losing their focus and turning gray again. He worked stiffening lips and croaked, “Hey…kid…Take care of…little…Alice…”
“…You bet,” I said simply, and the hero of old nodded back, creating a fresh crack in his stony neck. What I interpreted as his final words emerged as white, frosty mist. “Prime Senator Chudelkin…took your…partner ’way…I bet it was…to ’ministrator’s…chamber…Better hurry…before he gets trapped in the labyrinth…of his memories…”
And with that, Bercouli the Integrity Knight Commander returned to silent stone. There was something truly appropriate about the heroic figure he struck, buried to his chest in solid ice, neck and face covered in fine, tiny cracks.