These mountains were covered in snow and ice that seemed to have been there for all of eternity, and they set the scene for the entirety of the Terarody Mountain Ranges as a gloomy place that was completely devoid of vitality. Initially, the scenery was quite spectacular to behold, but after seeing it for some time, one would quickly grow sick of the never-changing environment.

It had already been two days since they left the Zam Highlands and ventured into the mountain ranges. The landscape down below continued to consist of the same monotonous snowy mountains, and Mother Nature also seemed to be in a bad mood as the sun had always been concealed behind dark clouds, not making even the briefest of appearances over the course of the past two days. Thankfully, there was no rain or snow. The gusts of frosty wind blowing through the sky were already quite a handful to deal with, so rain and snow certainly wouldn't have been welcome.

Theoretically speaking, if no special circumstances arose during the day, everyone could go to the bottom level of the airship to rest, leaving Christine alone on the deck to pilot the airship. However, Erwin was very reluctant to follow such an arrangement.

The first reason for this was the countless magic beasts in the Terarody Mountain Ranges, against which they had to keep up their guard at all times. Having battled Falcon Beak Lizards and a fire dragon, and witnessed the fearsome might of twin-foot flying dragons, Erwin knew that there could be danger at every turn in these mountain ranges. Furthermore, it simply didn't feel right to him for a bunch of hardy men to be resting on the cozy and warm bottom level, while Christine was left alone to pilot the airship on the deck. 

During the past two days, Erwin had tried to persuade Christine at times to take a rest while he took her place in piloting the airship, but she stubbornly refused each time. Even at night, she continued to persevere without rest, refusing to hand over the steering wheel to anyone else. Her father, who was still refusing to interact with Erwin, had been staying by her side throughout the entire duration of the past two days.

Erwin was beginning to grow a little suspicious. Judging from Christine's wary and alert expression, he could tell that she was worried about a certain type of magic beast that inhabited these mountain ranges, and he had asked her about this on multiple occasions, but she refused to tell him what she was so concerned about.

This made Erwin even more reluctant to allow Sherry and the others to rest on the bottom level.

Not long after they entered the mountain ranges, everyone was already shivering from the cold, so Erwin decided to cast a windproofing magic array onto the deck of the airship in order to keep out the freezing wind and create a less hostile environment. However, he quickly discovered that he had underestimated the strange nature of these mountain ranges. He attempted to cast the windproofing array several times, experimenting with different magic languages and even using the ancient magic language as a last resort. However, the magic arrays that he conjured up were completely ineffective in keeping out the wind.

Having finally run out of tricks, he could only ask Onean to give it a try, but to his surprise, even with her powers as a grand magic mentor, she also failed at the same task.

In the wake of her failure, the two of them stared at each other with blank expressions, and both were very surprised by this outcome.

Thus, everyone thought that they would have to resign themselves to the fate of shivering through this freezing environment until they reached the other side of the mountain ranges. However, Erwin later discovered that even though they were unable to keep the wind out, the wind was unable to snuff out the magically ignited fire in the furnace, either.

After making that observation, he gathered everyone around the furnace, and it was quite a sound strategy for warding off the chill.

The pilot's seat at the center of the airship's deck was situated directly under the blast furnace, so there was no need to worry about Christine and her father suffering from the cold.

...

At this moment, Onean was leaning against the rosewood railing, standing in the fierce wind and allowing it to blow her hair in all directions as she looked at the undulating snowy mountains down below with an absentminded expression. There was a dancing ball of fire that was revolving around her to provide her with warmth. She noticed Erwin making his way toward her, and she took a glance at the leather glove on his hand as she asked, "How is your hand feeling?"

"The wound is aching a little from the cold," Erwin replied in a casual manner.

Onean nodded in response, then took a subtle glance at Christine before asking, "What is she so worried about?"

"I don't know," Erwin sighed, watching as his breath fogged up in the cold air. "She's traveled this route many times before, so I'm sure she's seen some fearsome magic beasts here."

"Looks like we might be in some danger, even though it's only our first trip," Onean said.

"Don't jinx it! We haven't encountered anything yet, and let's hope that it stays that way," Erwin said. "Having said that, given how insistent Christine was on removing all of the armor plating from the airship, it looks like the journey between the south and the north is indeed a rather perilous one."

"Are the pieces of armor plating very heavy?" Onean asked.

"They are," Erwin replied in confirmation. "I don't know what type of material they're made from, but normal spells have no effect on them at all, and bows and arrows may as well be peashooters. Didn't you already see how strong the armor plating was back in Xeto?"

"She clearly removed the armor plating in order to improve the speed and maneuverability of the airship, which means that she's preparing to run away from something. What could that be?" Onean asked as her brows furrowed slightly.

"I asked her about that, but she refused to tell me," Erwin replied with a resigned shrug, following which an amused smile appeared on his face. "You don't think it's going to be twin-foot flying dragons or something like that, do you?"

"Didn't you just tell me not to jinx it?" Onean chuckled in amusement.

"Maybe the gods still don't think that we're in a terrible enough position, so they want to put us through even more hardsh..." Before Erwin had a chance to finish his sentence, he was abruptly cut off by Onean.

"Shhh!" Onean suddenly brought a finger to her own lips in a silencing gesture as her eyes widened with alarm.

Erwin immediately fell silent as an alert look appeared on his face, and he began to listen carefully for any abnormal sounds around the airship.

Sherry and the others quickly noticed what Erwin and Onean were doing, and they fell silent as well.

All of a sudden, the only sounds that could be heard were that of the opening and closing of the air valve in the blast furnace, and the howling of the wind.

However, immediately thereafter came the rumbling of an avalanche.

Massive chunks of snow and ice were crumbling down from a mountain not far away from the airship, and in addition to that, the mountain was slowly growing taller and taller!

Initially, Erwin thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him, but soon, it became apparent to him that the mountain really had grown significantly taller.

"What the hell is that?!" Erwin couldn't help but exclaim.

Sherry, Lanyon, and everyone else quickly reacted as well, and all of them turned to the mountain that Erwin was looking at in unison.

Right at this moment, Christine hurriedly stood up from the pilot's chair, then yelled, "Hold on tight, everyone!"

After that, the airship went on a rapid ascent with the front of the airship tilting upward. Thankfully, with her advance warning, everyone found something to grab onto, so no one was sent tumbling down the deck.

Erwin cast an advanced levitation spell onto himself, then quickly flew over to Christine's side as he said, "Do you see that, Christine? That mountain up ahead is moving!"

At this moment, Christine's gaze was focused directly forward, and her attention was entirely dedicated to piloting the airship, so she didn't have the spare capacity to reply.

"That's not a mountain, that's a giant ice dragon!" Christine's father said in a grim voice as he cast his gaze into the distance with tightly furrowed brows.

Right at this moment, a thunderous dragon's roar rang out, and it echoed throughout the mountain range, making it sound as if the roar were coming from all directions.

The "mountain" up ahead shook off all of the snow and ice covering its body, and only then did everyone realize that the ridge of the mountain was actually the spine of the giant ice dragon.

The dragon's head swiveled around as its giant blue eyes focused on the airship, and it opened its cavernous mouth in a terrifying sight to behold. Even though Sherry and the others had already seen twin-foot flying dragons on the Marrod Plain, the sight of this giant ice dragon still struck them with such intense fear that they felt as if their hearts were about to leap out of their throats.

The twin-foot flying dragons were already enormous creatures, but this ice dragon was around thrice to four times the size of a twin-foot flying dragon!

In contrast with everyone's panic and horror, Onean remained completely calm and collected, and her golden eyes were particularly bright under the gloomy and overcast sky. She stood atop the rapidly ascending airship in a composed fashion while her clothes and silver hair flapped incessantly in the wind. Her staff had already appeared in her grasp, and there was a look of unbridled killing intent on her face. It seemed that she was ready to lash out at this ice dragon at any time. A series of negative emotions had been brewing inside her this entire journey, and it was time for her to release them.

The enormous dragon looked at the ascending airship in the sky, and it flapped its wings with excitement, sweeping up ferocious storms of ice and snow all around it.

"I'm sorry, Brother Erwin. I didn't want to tell you because I was worried that you wouldn't want to come to the north with me if you heard about how dangerous the journey was," Christine said in a sullen voice as she stood up from the pilot's chair and turned to Erwin.

"You're such a silly girl. Do you think I would be the type of person to be fearful of an ice dragon or two?" Erwin consoled in a gentle voice at the sight of Christine's guilty display. Unbeknownst to her, he was more determined than anyone on this airship to get to the north, and his resolve certainly wasn't going to waver at the prospect of encountering a few magic beasts.

Having said that, as he cast his gaze toward the mountainous ice dragon, he still couldn't help but tremble involuntarily in fear and awe of the almighty creature.

"Look out!" Right at this moment, Christine's father pounced onto the control panel before pushing a certain lever, and the airship immediately swooped toward the left.

An ice-blue burst of dragon's breath skimmed past the underside of the airship, then flew past the airship before exploding into a hailstorm in the distance. Even though Christine's father had reacted very quickly, the underside of the airship had still sustained some damage, having suffered a glancing blow from the dragon's breath, which had shattered some of the rosewood planks that the airship was constructed from.

Erwin was very surprised by the attack as the ice dragon hadn't displayed any sign that it was going to release a breath until the very last moment. It seemed that it was sufficiently intelligent to unleash surprise attacks.

The ice dragon stomped its foot in frustration, clearly not very pleased that the airship had evaded its attack. With that almighty stomp, the entire earth seemed to have been awakened, and all of the mountains within hundreds of kilometers of the ice dragon trembled incessantly.

The ice dragon then spread its enormous wings, sweeping up ferocious gusts of wind as it prepared to take flight.

On the deck of the airship, Erwin and Onean exchanged a glance, and without even requiring any verbal communication, both of them sprang up from the airship in unison.

"Sherry, Lanyon, make sure the airship doesn't sustain any more damage," Erwin yelled at everyone on the deck while flying up into the air.

Even though Sherry and the others were already accustomed to Erwin's extreme recklessness, they couldn't help but be impressed once again. The courage of Onean and Erwin was something that they could only admire.

"Brother Erwin!" Christine called out in a panicked voice, but at this point, Erwin had already flown far away from the airship.

Meanwhile, Christine's father was staring at Erwin and Onean in a stunned silence with an incredulous look on his face. In his eyes, these two were essentially committing suicide!

The giant ice dragon was about to fly after the airship, but upon noticing the two people flying toward it, it immediately stopped cold in its tracks before spreading its massive wings, which seemed to encompass the entire sky. There were layers of azure light flashing over the bones in its wings, presenting a rather peculiar sight to behold. 

Furthermore, all of the fierce wind swept up by its wings were also tinged with specks of azure light.

In the face of the mighty dragon, Erwin and Onean remained completely unfazed, and they flew directly toward the glistening storm without any hesitation.