Lightning and Maisie slowly landed on the roof of the Witch Building.
After closing the door to the stairwell, the howling wind subsided a lot, leaving only a few whispers slipping in through the cracks.
"Whew, my hair is all wet, gu," Pigeon shook off the snowflakes clinging to her and transformed back into human form. Her wings expanded to both sides, eventually turning into her ankle-length white hair. Although it looked and felt very soft, the girl's hair would not be blown into a mess by the wind, but would wrap around her like a jacket, like a ball of cotton.
However, due to being soaked by snow water, her hair looked a little dull and lost its initial fluffiness.
"Well, go take a bath first, lest you catch a cold." Lightning took off her windproof goggles and glanced outside the door—the climate of the Months of Demons was so fickle. Just now there were only sporadic snowflakes falling, and now it was a blizzard, with palm-sized snowflakes filling the sky and the earth. Restorative training had to be temporarily suspended.
"Aren't you going to take a bath with me?" Maisie asked in surprise.
"Didn't His Majesty say that the wound should be kept as dry as possible and not exposed to water?" Lightning shrugged. "So I'll just wipe it with hot water. Anyway, this coat won't let the snow water seep in."
"I see!" She brushed aside the bangs sticking to her face and grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. "Then I'll help you scrub your back after I'm done washing. Ashes always praised me for scrubbing backs very comfortably, and without needing a towel, gu!"
"Uh... how do you scrub it?"
"Like this, gu," she grabbed two strands of long hair and made a circular motion.
"I refuse." Lightning rolled her eyes. "If it's a towel, I might consider it—anyway, hurry up and go."
"Okay!"
After Maisie headed towards the castle carrying the bathtub, Lightning turned back and walked into the bedroom alone.
Closing the door, she leaned against the door panel and stretched out her right hand.
Even now, her fingertips were still trembling uncontrollably, as if they were beyond her control.
She couldn't help but reveal a wry smile.
As long as she closed her eyes, the image of the demon grabbing at her would always appear in her mind. After these days of recovery, the fear had not left her, but had taken root in her heart—Lightning was experiencing this for the first time.
Whether facing Roland or her fellow explorers, she tried her best to put on a relaxed appearance, as if "this little injury is nothing serious." And when only discussing the injury, even Nightingale couldn't detect her abnormality. But in fact, only she knew how bad her situation really was.
Letting Maisie go to take a bath alone was also out of fear that the other party would see this—see how vulnerable this self-proclaimed extraordinary explorer actually was!
Lightning slid down to the ground little by little, burying her head between her knees.
Although Phyllis comforted her by saying that the enemy probably possessed an ability similar to that of a Fear Demon, and could inflict fear through eye contact, she knew that this could not be an excuse. Witches themselves have a high resistance to mental influence, not to mention that so much time has passed. Maisie was also within the enemy's range of influence at the time, but her performance was far better than her own.
It wouldn't matter if it was just fear.
This wasn't the first time she had felt fear.
Fear stems from the unknown. Unless one can be omniscient, one cannot avoid fear.
The key lies in what happens after fear.
In the past, such emotions would not bother her for too long, but would instead arouse her fighting spirit—she had always believed that nothing could truly scare her.
However, this time, Lightning found that her heart was only empty.
Let alone fight back, she didn't even want to recall the scene at the time.
Today's recovery training always hovered to the east of Neverwinter City, without crossing the city walls even a single step, not because of ability or physical reasons, but because she had developed a fear of the unfathomable snowfield—the ground under her feet seemed to have turned into a towering cliff, and the edge of the sky was like a crack that swallowed everything. Just looking into the distance, she could feel the tremor from the bottom of her heart.
She was not defeated by the demon's magic, but was shocked by the demon's power, like prey encountering a predator. The influence of this kind of fear was even more serious, and even hindered her flight.
Lightning hugged her knees tightly.
What leader of the exploration team? She was just a coward!
If Thunder was still by her side, what would he do? For him, who had crossed countless dangerous seas, there must be a way to deal with this situation, right?
"Father..."
She couldn't help but murmur.
"What should I do?"
*******************
Southern section of the Misty Forest, Station Zero.
This is also the starting station of the Barren Railway Line.
With the successful development of the steam train, Neverwinter City's development of the forest will be greatly improved—from timber to grain, and even coal mines near the snow mountains, all are included in the new route planning scheme. By next year, this vast forest sea, which was originally sparsely populated and full of wild animals, will become a real treasure.
But now, the railway is still only built for one purpose.
That is war.
The area around the station has been blocked by the First Army, waiting for His Majesty to test the new weapon.
Iron Axe was naturally one of them.
He still remembered the scene when he followed His Majesty to participate in the black gunpowder test explosion four years ago. At that time, he was just an insignificant hunter, and he regarded gunpowder as the fire of divine punishment. The deafening roar seemed to open a door to an unprecedented world for him, and from that day on, his fate underwent earth-shattering changes.
Now, as the commander of the First Army of Graycastle, Iron Axe would naturally not participate in the experiment passively as before. He had known for a long time what he was going to face today—in fact, it could not be regarded as a truly "new" weapon. Its two main parts: the cannon and the train, had already been shown to everyone, so there was definitely nothing new to talk about. Precisely because of this, he believed that this test could finally put away his surprise and spend it in a relatively calm mood.
That's how it should be.
After all, he was an important minister of Roland, and he should be calm and composed at all times, even if he was facing thunder and fire, he should smile like His Majesty himself...
However, as the whistle sounded and the new weapon slowly drove out of the garage, Iron Axe realized that he was wrong.
The train was completely different from what it looked like when he first saw it—its entire body was surrounded by black steel plates, only revealing the lower half of the wheels. Its outline was square and angular, giving people a strong sense of oppression when viewed from the front, forming a sharp contrast with the surrounding snow scene.
It was definitely not a benevolent thing.
Just one look would make this clear.
His Majesty often said that machines were a wonderful thing. He had never quite understood it, but when he saw the white mist spewing out from the top of the train and between the wheels, brushing past the armored surface covered with neat rivets, Iron Axe suddenly understood the meaning of this sentence somewhat.
The Ironclad was also shocking, but compared to the train in front of him, it lacked a bit of infectiousness.
Because it was not just a machine.
It was also a weapon full of murderous intent!