Strength 99999 but the Holy Sister

"This is……"

Charlie saw a small piece of black metal in the middle of the scratches.

Tricia also came over.

"Is this a blade?"

"Take it out and see."

Elsa dug her fingers in and forcibly plucked the metal piece out, leaving Tricia and Charlie speechless.

"It's very irregular in shape, quite hard, with a distinct fracture and even slight jagged cuts—it looks like the marks left by a clash with a weapon. Apparently, it must have damaged the earth veins."

Aisha took a quick look and looked puzzled.

"However, it seems that the person who caused all this had more than one weapon in his possession. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to completely break through here. The weapon would have been completely destroyed. I think he would have had more than ten identical weapons. Is that possible?"

Aisha handed the black fragment to Tricia.

Tricia also took a look. "It's mixed with moon-patterned steel, but it's not a relic product. In terms of hardness, it's almost a quasi-saint-level weapon, but I can't see its forging process. Perhaps a friend of mine can explain it to me."

The Ute masters living in the North are all experts in blacksmithing, so you can definitely go to them.

"There are footprints here. It looks like... a woman? And a woman who isn't very tall."

Aisha said, pointing in front of the broken leyline.

There were a large number of knife marks and many indentations of footprints - to split the earth veins, a powerful force was required. Even with exquisite control of force, it was difficult to avoid leaving marks on the ground. From these marks, one could roughly judge a person's body shape, of course, it might not be very accurate.

At this time, Tricia couldn't help but say: "Elsa really knows these things..."

Had Elsa always given Tricia a very... contradictory feeling? Perhaps it could be said that, despite being barely twenty, she always came across as steady and reliable beyond her years, with a personality quite different from other girls her age. Just look at Vivian and Charlie; this was exactly how a girl her age should be. Even though Charlie often hid her personality, her eyes never lied.

Moreover, Aisha unexpectedly knows a lot about some things.

Elsa just smiled with the corners of her mouth curled up.

"I'm pretty confident I can't make a mistake when it comes to women's feet."

Rather, Elsa is quite knowledgeable in this area, but in front of Tricia and Charlie, Elsa won't say much, nor does she need to say much, because they will naturally know it in the future anyway.

"—Anyway, let's investigate and see if there are any other clues."

Charlie and Tricia looked at each other and saw something strange in each other's eyes.

Tricia collected the fragments, and then the three of them cleaned up the place briefly and found the same traces of magic in the cave, but other than that, they didn't gain anything else.

"By the way, is this place still within the Northern Territory?"

"We've been heading south and should still be below the Alba Mountains."

"Go out and see."

This is also to confirm the location.

Walking out of the cave, the wind and snow hit them in the face, blowing up Elsa's golden hair - the exit was actually in a canyon in the snowy mountains. Everywhere they looked, it was a vast expanse of white, with heavy snow flying all over the sky. Almost only a small shadow of the original mountain range could be seen. The biting north wind howled, and ice chips immediately appeared on the three people's bodies.

The temperature here is very low. It is the first time for Elsa to come to such a low temperature place. Although Elsa does not feel cold, Tricia and Charlie both feel the chill.

Tricia used magic to dispel the cold and wrapped Charlie in it.

"It seems that this is still the Alba Mountains. We haven't left the northern border. It seems that we have come from the western forests to the snow-capped mountains in the southeast."

Tricia said, frowning.

"In other words, the scope of the Death Zone isn't just the small area we saw, but extends from the forest into the Alba Mountains. However, because this snowy mountain is uninhabited and frozen year-round, the appearance of the Death Zone doesn't bring any obvious signs, making it extremely difficult to detect... From the forest to here... Is this a coincidence?"

"I don't believe in coincidences."

Elsa said, looking at the magnificent snow-capped mountains in front of her, she suddenly narrowed her eyes, her gaze passed through the falling snow to the horizon.

"There seemed to be some people there—I couldn't see clearly, maybe four or five."

Tricia and Charlie also looked in the direction Elsa was looking at, but the wind and snow were so strong that they couldn't see that far away. However, they could vaguely see that there seemed to be tiny black dots slowly wriggling in the wind and snow.

"There are actually people in a place like this... We should persuade them to leave," Xia Li, a vampire, felt a little cold in such a place. She said with a hint of concern, "If they enter the deadly place, especially in this icy and snowy place, it will be very dangerous, right?"

It would not be a big deal for most people to enter the death zone for a short time, but if they stay there for a long time, there is indeed a certain risk - and if you enter the snowy mountains in such severe snowy weather, if you accidentally get lost and stay in the death zone for a long time, you really won’t be able to get out.

"I think that the person who can take the initiative to enter such a place is probably not that simple."

Aisha said.

"Since the entrance to the cave has appeared here, we should not take anyone here lightly."

Tricia nodded in agreement: "Let's go and see what's going on."

After Tricia left a simple mark at the entrance of the cave, the three of them headed straight in the direction where the figure appeared. Soon, they arrived at a snowy peak.

At this time, halfway up the mountain, several people in military uniforms were struggling to move forward slowly against the wind and snow. They were dragging two stretchers behind them, on which lay people who were also in uniform and wrapped tightly.

Their faces were all frozen purple, their eyebrows and eye sockets were covered with a layer of snow, the tips of their noses were black, and a thick layer of ice hung underneath.

It looked like they were in trouble.

"This uniform is...are they from the West Wind Brigade? Duke Ryanfort's men...but why are they here?"

It was Tricia who recognized their uniforms.

……

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442. Clues to the Black Hell Armor (5K6)

The Alba Mountains are one of the coldest areas in the Eastern Continent. Although geographically speaking, the Alba Mountains are still quite far away from the extremely cold north of the Northern Kingdom, unfortunately, the earth veins of the Alba Mountains are inherently icy. Even though the earth veins under your feet are now dead, the huge earth vein network of the entire Alba Mountains has not been greatly affected.

In addition, the cold wave coming from the north will go straight into the Alba Mountains and settle in the mountains. Under the impact of the cold wave, more than half of the mountain area will be covered with extremely cold ice and snow.

Elsa had read about "cold waves" in the book left by the old priest, and had a certain understanding of the cold waves in this world. Different from the strong cold air activities in the original world that invaded the polar regions or polar regions to lower latitudes, the cold waves in this world seemed to be much more terrifying. What was different was that although the occurrence of cold waves in this world was also inseparable from the influence of geographical factors, the more decisive factor was not geography, but a kind of "magic tide" that changed with periodic activities, a magic invasion phenomenon with extreme cold properties.

Sometimes, similar magical element invasions would trigger beast tides, and sometimes they would cause disasters such as high temperatures and droughts, but when it happened in the Alba Mountains, it was an extremely cold cold wave.

When a cold wave strikes, affected areas experience intense cold weather. The heavy snow in the Alba Mountains was brought on by the cold wave. Even Charlie, a vampire, felt the chill, requiring Tricia to use magic to block out the wind and snow. Even ordinary people were engulfed by the cold wave—even the troops transporting mithril from Baron Fisher were engulfed by it, demonstrating its destructive power. Even powerful adventurers like gold medalists had to exercise extreme caution when facing a cold wave.

It can be said that under the influence of the cold wave, the depths of the Alba Mountains are undoubtedly a veritable "no man's land" where no one can live for a long time - that is why the imperial capital at that time built the entire Alba Mountains as a natural barrier to the north.

At this time, the people from the West Wind Brigade looked very embarrassed. The surging wind and snow like the waves of the sea washed over them, just like a sudden rain washing away thin dead leaves. They walked unsteadily, dragging two stretchers, which seemed to be their comrades.

"Judging from the climate here, we're deep in the Alba Mountains. I'm curious why the West Wind Brigade would appear in a place like this. The West Wind Brigade's activities are generally concentrated in the Eastern Province. Most of the time, they don't leave there. Their duty is to serve as the spokesperson and executor for Duke Ryanfort, and of course, to curb the Knights' influence in the Eastern Province."

Tricia thought for a moment.

"The West Wind Brigade is an armed force under Duke Ryanfort. However, unlike the war-hardened Ninth Infantry Division, the West Wind Brigade has only a history of over thirty years, having been established around the same time as the Seventh Agency. Compared to the Empire's long history, it is a relatively young unit, primarily equipped with magical equipment.

Duke Ryanfort's purpose in forming the West Wind Brigade was to expand his sphere of influence—primarily the eastern province of Hekloski and a small portion of the southern border. He also took over some of the Earth Dragon trafficking and hunting business. This was just the surface statement, but in reality, it was more of a means to curb the Knights' influence in the eastern province and to unify and balance the various nobles under his command.

Simply put, Duke Ryanfort formed the West Wind Brigade not only to restrain the power of the Queen, but also to restrain the development of the new aristocratic forces. In a sense, Ryanfort was very clear about the ideas of the new aristocrats. This was also one of his means of maintaining stability in the empire as the Grand Duke of the Empire. At least, at this stage, too many new aristocrats should not be allowed to interfere in military affairs. Of course, even if the West Wind Brigade was established, it could only delay this process, but could not completely stop it.

"But anyway, judging by the current situation, if we leave them alone they'll probably freeze to death in the snow and wind soon. Let's rescue them first, and ask them why they're here. I have a hunch that their presence might be related to what we're pursuing."

Even though Elsa and Tricia didn't have much good feelings towards Duke Ryanfort, after seeing what they saw, they would not stand by and watch these people die.

"Let me do this."

Tricia said.

She and Shirley appeared in front of those people in an instant. When she raised her hand, a blue light curtain enveloped the entire mountain. However, the members of the West Wind Brigade seemed to have been frozen unconscious. They didn't even notice Tricia and Shirley appeared in front of them until a warm wind enveloped them. The snow on the snow-capped peaks retreated at a speed visible to the naked eye. With Tricia as the center, an area as warm as spring was forcibly opened up on the white snow-capped peaks.

In order to avoid breaking Tricia's magic circle, Elsa did not rush over, but jumped high into the sky and carefully observed the snow-covered mountains below her feet. However, even with Elsa's eyesight, she could not see anything unusual, nor did she see any other human figures, or even if there were any, they had probably been swallowed up by the snow.

On the top of the mountain, the leader of the West Wind Brigade raised his head in a daze and saw Charlie and Tricia. He was stunned and stared in Tricia's direction with distracted eyes. He did not recognize Tricia's identity immediately because his vision was very blurry and he could not see clearly, but he saw Tricia's black hair and black skirt.

Dressed entirely in black, this was very similar to the characteristics of the target they were pursuing - the "Armor of Black Hell".

“Black…black…”

He opened his mouth, and a hoarse sound came out of his dry lips, but it was immediately drowned out by the wind and snow. Tricia saw him draw his sword and point it at them in a stiff posture - but he looked weak and powerless.

At this time, the snow on the snow-capped peaks had already faded away layer by layer. Only then did the soldier see Tricia's appearance clearly. He was stunned at first, and then he exclaimed belatedly.

"Sage? Are you Sage?"

As soldiers of the empire, especially Ryanfort's subordinates, there was probably no one who didn't know the characteristics of the arcane sage: rare black hair, a black dress, and clear and bright emerald eyes, which were very different from the target they were chasing.

After the surprise, there was ecstasy.

"It's the Sage! We are saved!"

He shouted hoarsely to his companions, and the others behind him finally stopped one after another, looked up at Tricia, their cloudy eyes full of disbelief.

Although they are all subordinates of Duke Ryanfort, they are also soldiers of the empire. They grew up listening to the stories of Tricia. For the humans living on this continent, Tricia is a living legend that people praise and admire.

"It's me." Since she knew him, Tricia didn't bother explaining. She looked at the stretcher dragged across the snow behind the soldier and asked, "We can talk about the rest later. Put your companions down. They look like they're dying."

Considering that the people of the West Wind Brigade were in a rather dangerous situation, Tricia did not send them out of the mountains directly, but planned to settle them down there temporarily. By the way, Tricia also had some things she wanted to ask them.

The man immediately called on his companions to put down the stretcher.

"Sage... please save us..."

he requested.

"Are there any other people among you?" Tricia asked, and cast a holy light magic on everyone. Everyone felt a warmth flowing through their bodies, quickly dispelling the cold.

"Just a few of us..."

……

All the men in the West Wind Brigade were badly injured—frostbitten.

Even their noses were frozen black, and their faces were red and purple, making them look extremely miserable. On the stretcher was their wizard. Obviously, the wizard with a weaker body could not withstand the cold of ice and snow. After his magic was exhausted, he quickly fainted from exhaustion. Only a few strong warriors were struggling to support them. Fortunately, they did not choose to abandon their companions, otherwise the two wizards would have been frozen to death in the snow.

However, if Aisha had not discovered them in time and Tricia had not come to their aid, judging from the current situation, they would not have been able to hold on for too long and the outcome would have been the same.

Tricia used holy light magic to temporarily stabilize the poor physical condition of these people. At this time, a dull explosion was heard in the wind and snow. Everyone felt a shock under their feet, and then large avalanches occurred on the distant mountains.

"This is……"

The members of the West Wind Brigade obviously didn't understand the situation, and then they saw Aisha's figure emerging from the wind and snow.

"Tricia, I dug a cave down there. Let's send them there first."

Aisha said.

It would be exhausting for Tricia to support such a large-scale magic alone for a long time, so Elsa just went to the leeward slope of the snow peak and dug a big hole.

Tricia looked at Aisha and couldn't help but smile.

After a brief conversation, Tricia sent everyone from the West Wind Brigade into the cave. It was obvious that this cave was indeed "dug" out by Elsa. It was very rough, and it even felt like it would collapse at any time. So Tricia used magic to process it again, and then temporarily sealed the cave entrance with magic. Not long after, the air in the cave became warmer with Tricia's magic.

Elsa used holy light magic to heal everyone again - Elsa's holy light magic made their eyes stare open. No one had ever felt such pure holy light. The holy light dispelled the cold for them, healed their pain, and even the bruises caused by frostbite under the skin almost disappeared, and the originally dark skin became shiny.

As for the people on the stretchers, they woke up one after another and coughed up dark blood - their lungs had suffered varying degrees of damage due to inhaling too cold air, but after receiving Elsa's treatment, their conditions have now stabilized.

Charlie cooked some hot soup, filled a bowl for each person, and brought it over.

"Thank you very much, Miss Bran..."

The soldiers thanked her repeatedly, feeling a little flattered for a moment - in the brief conversation, they already knew Elsa's identity. As for Charlie, although they had never heard of this name, since she was working with the Holy Sister and the Mystic Sage, her identity must be equally extraordinary.

"The goddess is blessing you. You are lucky to have met Elsa. If Elsa hadn't found you, you would still be in the snow."

Tricia said, and the soldiers quickly thanked Aisha with great gratitude.

Elsa waved her hand and asked, "I also have something to ask you. Why are you here? Also, have you found any caves elsewhere?"

The leading soldier was named Dino. Dino said, "We didn't find the cave..."

As he spoke, he sniffed hard. Although the cave was warm and his body was warm, he still couldn't help shivering. When he answered Aisha's question, his expression seemed a little hesitant.

"We came here to... to investigate something..."

Dino gave a brief explanation - they came to the mountains to investigate "something", but, perhaps because they all lived in the Eastern Province and had never seen or been to such snowy mountains, they were inexperienced and got lost after the heavy snow fell.

"There are many search teams like ours. I don't know if there are others who are like us..."

Dino looked very depressed.

"I'll go out and take a look. If there's anyone else around here, I'll bring them over."

Aisha said, getting up and coming here.

Tricia continued, "So, what are you investigating?"

"We..." Dino didn't say it out loud. He seemed to be struggling, and the other soldiers also shut up tacitly at this time.