At the Northern Fort

Snow was piled up everywhere, and despite the fact that it was night, the area looked bright.

I clung to Father\'s arm to avoid being sent flying by the wind and was buried in snow in the blink of an eye as I remained there motionless.

"Why is Hyllis in a place like this!?"

Though Hilg-papa and Kugalg were right by us, it was hard to hear their voices over the roaring gale, and the blizzard made it difficult to see them too.

Father was staying as still as a statue, so Hilg-papa was the one who pushed through the snow to approach us.

Perhaps because of the heat being emitted from his body, all of the snow in Hilg-papa\'s surroundings was melting bit by bit, whether it was the snow blowing by him or the snow that had accumulated on the ground.

Kugalg was gallantly riding on Hilg-papa\'s, but the sheer strength of the headwind was about to blow him off, thus he had to have his behind supported by Hilg-papa.

"Milfee, are you okay!?"

"I\'m fine!"

I shouted back at Kugalg to avoid having my voice drowned out by the wind.

I was a snow spirit, so I was fine with the cold. Plus, this snow probably wasn\'t a naturally occurring blizzard.

"I think that this place is Mount Snowlea!"

And the one causing this blizzard was Mother.

However, the winds blowing this snowstorm were mixed together with an unfamiliar \'energy\'.

"That does seem to be the case! But what in the world are Hyllis and Snowlea doing?"

Hilg-papa\'s words paused momentarily, as the direction of the wind changed, briefly opening up our field of vision. Upon discovering two shadows amidst the darkness in front of us, he said-

"Look, over there!"

Standing there was Mother, and someone who was probably Hyllis.

The two took a considerable distance from each other as they locked eyes in a glare.

It was immediately apparent that they were fighting.

However, Mother still appeared to have some leeway, as she hadn\'t lost her calm yet.

On the other hand, Hyllis was like the bird made of her fairies. Her expression revealed intense emotions of anger, sadness and hatred.

She was incredibly petite and had an adorable face, and appeared far younger than I had imagined. I didn\'t know her actual age, but she looked around 15 years of age based on her appearance.

Right now, her eyes that looked like they had yellow eyeshadow around them were raised as she gritted her teeth in frustration, but I felt like she was normally the sort to have a cheerful and lively air to her.

She was wearing a pea-green one-piece that exposed a lot of skin, generously showing off her arms that seemed so slender they would break and her thighs.

She also had short curly blonde hair that was being blown up by the wind she created.

In contrast to Mother, who was standing firmly, Hylis was kneeling on top of the snow, and even now it seemed like she was about to collapse.

A wind spirit should fundamentally be stronger than a snow spirit. From what I\'ve heard from Mother, there were differences in power from birth even amongst spirits, and snow spirits were weaker compared to water, fire, wind, earth, wood, light, and dark spirits.

There were also flower spirits and lightning spirits, whose abilities fell behind compared to wood and fire spirits.

However, for some reason right now a wind spirit like Hyllis was visibly disadvantaged.

She distributed more of her power to her spirits compared to Mother, so that might be affecting her, and there may also be a difference in experience between them based on their ages.

Hyllis was probably younger than Mother, like her appearance suggested.

"Snow…lea……!"

Even though she was covered in wounds, Hyllis squeezed out her remaining powers and continued to fire out wind attacks.

"Cease this already. The match has already been decided."

Mother made a stern face while advising her opponent.

"Uuu……!"

Hyllis held her head while letting out a beastial growl.

"I hate…you so much…..! If you die, I\'m sure that I\'ll become his number one! I\'ll KILL you!"

"Mother!"

Looking at Hyllis\' ghastly appearance, I grew afraid upon realising that she was seriously planning on killing Mother.

I hurriedly jumped out from Father\'s arms to head to where Mother was, but the freshly accumulated snow was too soft, making it hard to advance with my short legs.

Swimming through the sea of snow – or rather, it felt like I was drowning in it – I simply continued to flail my four legs in an unsightly manner.

"Milfiria!?"

Mother let out a shriek upon noticing me, and was attacked by Hyllis\' wind at that exact moment.

"Mother!"

Thankfully, the attack was just a strong wind and not a wind blade or a tornado, so Mother was able to get through it uninjured.

It seemed that Hyllis didn\'t have enough power left to make that strong of an attack.

"Milfiria, why are you here! You mustn\'t come here!"

The moment she saw me, all the calm that Mother had maintained up until then completely collapsed.

Anxiousness started to appear in her cold, Ice Queen-like beauty.

Hyllis followed Mother\'s gaze and turned in my direction. Even though she was clearly fatigued, her face was still dyed with hatred.

"Snowlea\'s…child……with Hilg……"

After quietly muttering that, this time she sent a blast of wind towards me.

Though the wind was transparent, there was currently snow being dragged into it, so I could easily see its shape. I could also completely see how it was rapidly approaching me.

However, figuring that I wouldn\'t be able to avoid it with such unsteady footing, I steeled my body and prepared to be blown away by it.

"……!"

However, before the wind would reach me, I was carried away by a mass of water.

I didn\'t know that he could do this, but it seemed that Father had transformed his entire body into water and saved me.

With me on top of it, the mass of water that Father had transformed into slid across the snow and advanced towards Mother.

One might ask how I could do something so strange as riding on water, but only my paws were faintly submerged in the water, and I didn\'t sink any further than that.

"Mother!"

After arriving at Mother\'s location, I jumped and hugged her breast. Mother also properly caught me. Next to her, Father returned to his human form.

"Waterust! So you were the one who brought Milfiria here?"

"She was being attacked……by a wind fairy……"

"Being attacked!? I see……so she used a fairy."

Mother bit her lips tightly.

"Mother, what happened? Why are you fighting with Hyllis?"

The instant I asked that, the wind blowing in the surroundings grew a level stronger. It was blowing with Hyllis at its centre, as she sat in the snow, appearing as though she might collapse at any moment.

It seemed that she was planning on using all of her remaining power to make one last attack.

However, while her eyes that were dyed with hatred were looking in our direction, I felt like they weren\'t really looking at anyone at all.

"Waterust, you mustn\'t kill her."

Mother stopped Father, who was quietly about to make a move towards Hyllis.

"She is still immature. This is not all Hyllis\' fau—oh?"

After blinking once at the sight before her, she then followed with-

"So he also came? Perfect."

The one on the other end of Mother\'s gaze was Hilg-papa.

With Kugalg still riding on his shoulder, he advanced towards Hyllis in the raging winds.

The snow had already stopped, so I could also see him properly.