Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"Pff-- Ahahhahah! Oh my goodness, little cub, that was quite a show!" General Zhang laughed his butt off once we reunited again, this time a bit far from the diner in order to avoid suspicion.

We hid behind a house beneath a huge tree that we had confirmed to be empty. After gathering just enough clothes for all of us, I left them a considerable amount of money that I fetched from the orc's hideout. I would've given them my money, but based on the looks of their coins, they weren't using the same currency as we humans did. I should make sure to pay back the orcs in one way or another.

"Hey, at least we got what we came for." I pouted as I distributed the clothes among us.

"We could've just stormed right in, you know~ Then you wouldn't need to seduce him like that. Or touch his hands." General Zhang tugged the hem of my robe.

"That won't do. It'll make a huge commotion, and people will flock around us." I sighed.

"I can kill every single one of them if you want me to~" He hummed and took the clothes I gave him.

"Then kill their king for me," I turned my back away from him, "... Sorry, can you guys go change somewhere else? We need some, uh, privacy." I scratched my cheek nervously.

"But I wanna see--"

"Yes." General Emilio immediately grabbed the white-haired general and dragged him away before he could finish his sentence.

I sighed as we girls proceeded to change our clothes into something more elf-ish. This way, we only needed to wear a hat or a hoodie to hide our hair and eye colour. Well, Jeanne and Firiell didn't really need to hide their hair colour, but they needed to hide their eye colour still. Meanwhile, I, being a Korean with dark hair and eyes, had to tie my long hair into a bun and wore a cap.

"... How come they're wearing skimpier clothing than us?" I frowned as I inspected myself from top to bottom after we had finished changing.

My green armor with golden rim just barely covered my chest with separate shoulder plates and matching gloves, Meanwhile, the bottom part only started from my waist down, leaving my neck, my stomach, and my thighs completely open.

"Maybe because we took these from villagers, not soldiers..." Jeanne also sighed when she saw her own outfit, which wasn't very different from mine, aside from the fact that she had her stomach covered, at least.

"Ack, kinda annoying." I let out a long sigh and crouched down to give Firiell a jacket as a finishing touch, to make sure that at least she was dressed properly.

Although this outfit was extremely impractical, at least I had my brooch with me, which acted as armor. For now, we had to make do with what we have.

"Mkay, now let's head to the last well, shall we?"

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'Splash!'

"Nice. Now our preparation is complete." I grinned as I dropped another ice shard into the well.

Although this well was located in the middle of the most populated housing area, nobody suspected us when we strolled around freely, and I assumed that was mainly because I told Jeanne and Firiell to hold hands while general Emilio walked beside them. Me and General Zhang, however, walked a little bit behind them.

I suggested that because upon a short glance, people would only think of them as a regular happy family of three. Families, especially ones with kids, usually arouse less suspicion and attract less attention.

"Well, what do we do now, little cub?" General Zhang, who was leaning on the well beside me, asked with a smirk.

"Let's immediately head towards the castle. It's freezy-freezy time," I grinned back at him, "and you're gonna help with the zappy-zap."

"Gotcha~"

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'Crumple!'

The sound of dry leaves crackling beneath our feet felt so lonely in the middle of the suspiciously calm night. We had been walking for hours now, including the time we spent before reaching the third well, and all the way over here.

I knew that the castle was located quite far from the village, but I didn't realize that it was this far, since we rode... Um, maybe the correct word was, we were carried? Well, we were carried by a giant tree monster the first time we came here.

I nervously gulped when I thought about having to fight that giant tree monster, alongside the elf king. And quite possibly, if things took turn for the worse, the rest of the elves. I would like to avoid that if possible, though.

Haa, this was going to be a long night, that was for sure.

"Halt!"

A new, raspy voice came from right in front of me. It belonged to a tired-looking elf guard, who was clad with the same armor I saw when we first visited this castle.

I continued walking forward as the elf guard called out for us a few more times. Even though we decided to take a little detour and approached the castle from the side instead of the front gate, it turned out that they had prepared some guards over here, too.

Well, not a problem as long as there weren't any villagers around, I guess.

"I said halt!" The guard repeated again, this time with a wider and lower stance. His friend, the other guard, also followed suit by raising his shield. Huh, did he think shields would be useful against us?

"No can do, random guy." I raised my hand and a little zap came from behind me, hitting the first guard until he was convulsing on the ground for a few seconds before stopping.

"Wha--"

"Whoops, don't you dare do anything to my little cub~"

'ZAP!'

Another lightning zap came from general Zhang's finger, cutting off the other guard's speech while his body flopped on the ground beneath us.

"Ooh, thank you, my personal stun gun~" I giggled as I teased him, "now, everyone, please help guard the perimeter as I start freezing the castle."

"Are you sure you can do it?" Jeanne grabbed the hem of my robe, stopping me on my track with her worried face, "if you feel like you're running out of mana, you can stop anytime, okay? We can still go back..."

My eyebrows went up when I saw that she was concerned about me, and I smiled, "there will be no need to run away, Jean-jean. I'll get this done in just five minutes tops."

"Five minutes?" She tilted her head in confusion.

I just nodded and walked closer and closer to the castle gate's wall. I stopped for a bit to admire the view of the lush green vines that crawled along the dull brick wall. The tiny colourful flowers on them stood out in the middle of this dusky night.

As I flew my gaze upwards, I unconsciously held my breath for a second when I saw just how humongous this castle really was. I took a deep breath to calm myself down before doubt could start seeping its way into my heart, and tightened my fists.

"General Zhang, did you do the thing I told you to do?" I looked at the goofy general that was poking fun at the unconscious guards.

"Of course, little cub~ I won't disappoint you~" He answered with a grin.

"Good, thank you." I nodded.

Looking back at the wall, I secretly opened my inventory and took out the int-buffing scrolls that I had purchased. I carefully took them out under my robe so no one would notice, and immediately used all three of them.

[Ding!]

[Intelligence: 130 (+5) --> 130 (+65)]

I grinned as I saw the massive increase in stat. Too bad it would only last for five minutes. I had to get this done in that time frame, which was pretty nerve-inducing. Now all that was left, was to actually freeze this whole thing.

I took another step forward and placed my hand on the wall, feeling its damp surface.

"Freeze."

'CRACKLE!'

Ice shards shot out from my hand at an explosive rate, freezing anything and everything they touched. As the ice grew larger and larger, I closed my eyes and started controlling my breathing.

I focused my attention on controlling the ice, directing them to block all entrances first, from the gate, the doors, the windows, and even the ventilation, trapping everyone inside.

I could faintly hear the yelling of who I presumed to be guard elves from afar, but I paid no mind to it, because I trusted my teammates to be able to handle those guards while I did my thing.

"Just a bit more..." I muttered as the speed of my ice's growth rapidly increased, covering half of the castle from the bottom already.

'CLANG!'

I heard the sound of swords clashing against each other, but I didn't open my eyes even in the slightest. I knew that they had my back.

'CRACKLE!'

I could feel my ice going further up, just a little bit more till I reached the top...

"Ahahhaha!"

Now general Zhang's maniacal laugh was the one that entered my ears. He was probably being a little trigger-happy, zapping left and right. Ack, hopefully no elves died from the zapping though, we needed a big army for the minotaur raid.

'CRACKLE!'

"Done!" I exclaimed as I finally opened my eyes, gasping for air. I couldn't believe how tiring it actually was, until I tried stepping back and everything around me started to swirl.

"Oop! Watch out, little cub~" General Zhang suddenly appeared and held me up by my shoulder, preventing me from falling.

"Ah... Thank you," I fixed my standing position, "I was a little tired, but I should be okay by now."

"Wow, you actually froze the whole castle..." Firiell said as her eyes twinkled in amazement.

"We can't rest easy yet. We still have to 'talk' with that king." I said in-between my huffs. When I looked around me, I noticed that there were quite a big number of fallen guards around us. They must've noticed by now. And surely, that elf king, too.

'BOOM!'

"Ah! That's--!" Jeanne exclaimed in shock when a blast came from one of the top floors of the castle, breaking a chunk of ice off of the castle.

"... He's here." I smiled and frowned at the same time in anticipation as my heart raced.

I knew that he would easily get out of my ice prison, but that didn't matter. I needed him outside, anyway. After I quickly re-sealed the hole he made, my gaze followed the floating man that was slowly descending upon us.

Out of nowhere, a smile appeared on his beautiful, smooth face as his hair that was framing his angular face floated in the air oh-so-gracefully.

"I've been expecting all of you."