While Fernanda would soon leave her world for the mortal one, it would take Plum a while to recover and send everyone back home. Now, they have a crazed witch to deal with and keep under control. For now, she looks calm, but only time will tell.

So while Arad’s castle awaited a new guest, far away north, among the land of snow, ice, and frigid wind, resting in the middle of a jagged forest of great oak trees, Agnar and his group had long since reached their goal.

Agnar approached a massive cave, looking at its maw with a stern face. Behind, Yuwaku stood with a carefree smile, and Obelisk couldn’t help but feel worried about this team of theirs.

A kid, a Nymph, a Wyrmling, and a Slime... The devils who were supposed to guard this place have all died, so it should be safe... but that’s just being optimistic. From the information that Lucy gathered, they don’t know if they’ll find abominations or Gojo’s lost jewel at the end of this trip.

One of which is a certain death; none of them is prepared to face any abomination. The other... last time it was a god and a demi-god, so another certain death.

Maybe they should retreat and get someone more capable on the team. Obelisk isn’t sure what kind of people Lucy would be able to gather, but she is certain Arad has one or two gods napping in his castle. She certainly wouldn’t mind having Kali or Eris around.

Agnar sneezed, looking down into the cave with a tired face. "This place is so damn cold, it’s making my fingers numb." He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked back.

His hands were shaking, fingertips blue, and the blood barely flew through his veins. Alina never gets this cold.

"I can feel some latent curses from below, but they are just that, latent. They are what remain after a powerful curse is cast." He kicked a stone into the cave and listened for it falling and rattling inside the cave for a while.

Agnar expected some trap to kick in, but nothing happened. It was a reassuring sign. He expected something to explode or a bear to rush out. He can handle the first by jumping back and bracing himself, but the second, a whole bear, he isn’t Arad.

Albeit, he won’t mind trying to wrestle one. Arad is Yuwaku’s father after all, and he did wrestle his share of bears. It won’t be bad to do the same.

Thinking about that, Agnar was more sad that a bear didn’t jump at him. ^Come on, give me something to show off with.^

A tiny, cute, and fluffy bunny rushed out of the bushes and dove into the snow, drawing their attention for a second.

^Yeah... Yuwaku would never talk to me if I wrestled that.^

Clearing his throat, Agnar went back to talking about the curses.

"Problem, it could be a normal curse, or a trap curse. I don’t know much about devils, and my contract with Maharaja only allows me to know that this cave is a real threat." He reluctantly pulled his hands out of his pockets and showed them his arm.

"See those goosebumps, my senses are tingling. If we go inside, we might die." He started blowing on his hands to warm them up.

Obelisk nodded. "So we got the location down. We don’t need to risk our lives." She pointed her arm at the sky and sent a bright green flare.

Red flare was a call for help.

Green flare signaled that they found their objective and needed someone to collect it.

A Blue flare was a call for magical surveillance to inspect the area.

And Black flare was an extreme emergency, usually requiring Gojo or Lucy’s direct and immediate intervention.

"We’ll camp here and wait for help to arrive. Lucy should see this flare and act." Lucy looked at them. They could quickly build a cabin with magic, but something in her guts told her that using excessive magic around the gate was bad. So she looked at Agnar.

"In case this cave has a system that triggers by magic, I’d suggest we camp nearby and without using too much magic." She looked around, "Weak monster can use it as well, like fire-breathing hare..."

The bunny from earlier rushed at them, breathing flames at Obelisk, only to get kicked into the clouds.

"So, small and weak magic is okay, but me building a whole cabinet again might trigger something. Even as a slime, I’m a demonic slime, and my magic is mainly demonic in nature. Demons and devils hate each other’s guts."

Agnar nodded and reached into his pack, pulling a whole shovel out of the bag’s small maw. The bag was a magical bag that could store much more than its outer size looked. Agnar didn’t buy it, Merida made it and Merlin enchanted it for him.

"Yuwaku, you shovel the snow away, Ignis would thaw the ground, and I’ll go cut wood to build us a shelter." He shifted his gaze to Obelisk. "You’re a flexible slime, so if you can, go hunt us something fresh to eat."

He looked at the forest. "And stay as far away from the gate as you can. We don’t want you using your magic to fight activating anything in that cave."

"Got it." She jumped away with a loud thud, leaving them alone and stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Agnar gave the shovel to Yuwaku and pulled a wood axe. "Let’s go with that place over there, in front of that root ball. It’ll be a good wind shield and a heat reflector."

When Yuwaku looked, she saw a huge fallen oak tree, its roots were pulled from the ground, forming a sizeable mound several meters wide like a wall.

"Can’t we just have Ignis melt it?" Yuwaku asked, and Agnar stared at her with a confused face.

"Huh, where do you think all of that water would go? Into the ground, and it’ll take her more time to thaw the ground. We need the shelter done before dusk, not before next week." He patted her on the back, pulled a saw from his bag, and left.

Yuwaku looked at Ignis for a second, then smiled. She rested the shovel on her shoulder and got ready.

"Should we get to work?"

Ignis roared back, a buff of flame escaping her maw.

Yuwaku approached the root ball and looked at it for a while. It was big, massive, and huge, like twice her height.

Then, she started shoveling the snow away. They needed a lot of room, so her first goal was to clear a nice and large three-meter by three-meter square, the size of a small room.

From what she knows, they only need a bed and a fire. Usually, in Alina, she and Agnar would sleep together on the bed while Ignis would sleep in the firepit on the red coal.

After just a few scoops of the snow, Agnar showed again from the forest, dragging a small, dead spruce tree.

"That’s all you’ve got done?" He threw the tree aside and looked at the ground, a bit disappointed.

"What! This is enough work." Yuwaku stared at him with a pout, and he ignored her and walked to the middle of side of the root ball.

To be honest, he was the fast one. Quickly cutting a small tree in such a short time, and even dragging it all the way here.

"It’s not. I thought I’d come back and find you’ve cleaned a nice spot for a fire. But you’ve started from the edge. Clean this place right beside the root ball. We’ll use it as a heat reflector." He kicked some of the snow away and marked the spot for Yuwaku to shovel.

"I’ll go cut another tree, and when I come, we’ll start a fire here. It’ll keep you warm, help Ignis thaw the ground, and keep small monsters away." He looked at the forest.

"This isn’t Alina, where snow barely piles up to knee height. I’ve seen places here almost two meters deep. We’d better work quickly; if it starts snowing, we’ll get buried alive." He then left, leaving Yuwaku to keep shoveling the snow.

The snow was indeed deeper and heavier here; it was also much, much colder. Yuwaku, Ignis, and Obelisk won’t feel it much thanks to their power, but Agnar was just a kid, and he won’t last long without enough heat and food.