SSS Frost Sovereign: Rewinding The Apocalypse!-Chapter 32: A quiet resolution

Icard drew a slow, steady breath. He needed to resolve this calmly.

He straightened and turned to face Luna and Marcus, who were already standing opposite him.

"What do you think you’re doing?" Marcus demanded.

Luna’s cold gaze was locked onto Icard. She had recovered enough to confront him now, her posture rigid and her presence sharp.

Icard met them evenly, bracing himself despite the emptiness in his mana reserves. In his current state, he couldn’t afford a real confrontation.

Eric then stepped forward beside him, fists clenched tighty, getting ready for anything.

The air grew tense at once as it was no longer Icard standing alone.

"Marcus, wait," Luna said, lifting a hand as her eyes narrowed slightly. She studied Icard again and then, her expression shifted. "They’re the boys from the gate."

Marcus looked back at Icard, disbelief flickering across his face.

"He is? Are you sure?"

"Yes. They are," Gremit said calmly as he and Albert walked past them, approaching Icard.

"It’s been a while, young men," Albert said.

His voice was deep and steady, carrying authority without needing volume.

Eric instinctively stepped in front of Icard, his eyes sharp and untrusting, ready to react at the slightest wrong move.

"I believe we did not properly introduce ourselves last time," Albert continued, gesturing briefly toward the erwald beside him. "My name is Albert. This is Gremit. What are your names?"

"I’m Eric," he replied without hesitation. "And he’s Icard."

Eric’s gaze did not waver under Albert’s scrutiny. Neither did Icard’s.

"It’s fine, Eric," Icard said quietly, resting a hand on his shoulder. "I’m sure he understands why I did that."

The tension lingered still, thick and uncomfortable.

"I’m sure you saw it too," Icard continued, his tone measured. "And I’m sure you agree it’s better that I took it than letting some unknown thing steal the result of all our work."

"What do you mean?" Luna asked, following Albert as he moved past, with Marcus close behind, both still watching Icard warily.

Albert looked down at Eric and Icard, his build seeming to tower over them. His black eyes were heavy and unreadable and after a moment, he exhaled.

"I agree," he said.

Marcus stiffened. "What?" he muttered, clearly thrown off.

"I did notice something moving toward the core stone," Gremit added carefully. "You acted decisively." A faint smile crossed his face before he turned away.

Luna and Marcus exchanged confused looks. They had not seen anything.

Albert then raised a hand, signaling them to stand down.

"He did nothing wrong," Albert said as he headed back toward the vehicles. "It is far better that one of us secured it."

With Albert’s judgment delivered, neither Luna nor Marcus could press the issue further.

More importantly, everyone felt the same quiet relief as one wanted a fight here.

As the tension finally dissipated, Icard covered his face with one hand while Luna and Marcus remained visibly unsettled.

"Albert," Luna said after a moment, "you mentioned something tried to steal the core stone. What was it? Another spawn?"

"Are there spawns capable of that?" Marcus asked.

"Possibly," Gremit replied. "Scavenging types."

Meanwhile, Eric moved ahead with the others before noticing Icard was not following.

"What’s wrong?" he asked. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Icard did not answer. His fingers dug into his face, scratching his skin as he struggled to contain the surge of anger burning inside him.

"Wester," he muttered under his breath.

He paused, forced himself to breathe, then lowered his hand.

"Icard..."

"I’m fine," Icard said, scoffing lightly as he met Eric’s eyes. "Really. It’s nothing."

They walked back toward the convoy with Icard scanning the area, but Wester was nowhere to be seen.

’No wonder,’ he thought grimly. ’I was so focused on spawns that I let him slip off my mind.’

He let out a quiet harrumph.

’That was his ability. I’m sure of it.’

’If I had proof, I would have ended this here.’

With that thought weighing heavily on him, Icard climbed back into the truck with the others.

---

Everyone regrouped and climbed back into the trucks.

The battlefield they left behind was a ruin of scorched earth and broken stone.

Blackened craters dotted the ground, wisps of white fog still rising where the chieftain had fallen. Shattered monster remains were already dissolving, their essence thinning into the air.

The sounds of battle had faded, replaced by hurried voices, rattling engines, and the strained breathing of those who had survived.

People moved quickly, preparing to leave.

Among the crowd, Wester stood quietly.

His eyes followed Icard as he boarded the truck with Reya and the others. Alia was beside Reya, carefully bandaging her arm while the vehicles prepared to depart immediately.

"Who the hell is that bastard?" Wester muttered under his breath.

"Did he just sense my ability? How could he tell what I was about to do?"

Malice flickered in his gaze, but his expression remained smooth and composed. Like a snake coiled in tall grass, Wester hid his hostility beneath calm restraint.

The more he observed Icard, the more uneasy he felt. There was something wrong with him, something unfamiliar...something dangerous.

’This one requires caution,’ Wester thought. ’Like I expected, I need that power sooner’

With that conclusion reached, he melted back into the crowd, disappearing as if he had never been there.

---

They all returned to their vicinity as quickly as possible, unwilling to risk another incident.

Fortunately, they had not ventured too far.

At the gates, a crowd had gathered. Civilians, guards, and officials waited anxiously with the mayor standing at the forefront.

The moment the trucks came into view, tension released all at once.

The trucks rolled in.

Icard and the others disembarked. Those who needed immediate medical attention were escorted away at once, while the rest began heading back to their homes.

Reya was the most injured among them, but she managed to walk with Alia’s support.

"Hehe. I really thought I was gonna die," Reya said as they made their way down the street.

"Me too," Alia muttered, her voice trembling slightly, still thick with emotion.

"You two were amazing, by the way," Reya said, forcing a grin. "Taking on something that huge."

"Hmph. It was nothing compared to what we saw in the yellow gate," Eric replied.

Alia nodded in agreement.

"Still," Matt added, "I don’t think I could ever face something like that."

"Well, it’s not like anyone faced it alone," Icard said evenly.

They reached home just as the sun dipped low.

Cars that once cluttered the street had been pushed to the roadside earlier by Reya, leaving the path clearer than usual.

The road was narrow and familiar, lined with worn stone and broken buildings. Their small manor-like home stood ahead, built of reddish bricks, sturdy but modest.

Katar was seated at the front doorway, as he often was around sunset on training days. He looked up as they approached.

Matt and Alia were already itching to scold him for not coming along, but his attention was on their condition.

The evening passed quietly.

Inside the living room, they cleared the sofas to make space and sat on the floor before him, recounting everything that had happened.

"I see," Katar said after listening. "That sounds almost like a plague. They are uncommon, but ant lizards will swarm if you approach their nest."

While he spoke, Icard sat unusually still, his thoughts elsewhere.

And Eric could noticed easily.

’Is it because of that?’ he wondered, before facing forward again.

"I have a question," Eric said.

"I did not see it myself, but after we defeated the chieftain, I heard Albert say something tried to steal its core stone."

At that, Icard lifted his head sharply.

"Tried to?" Katar repeated.

"Yes. But Icard stopped it."

"You mean Icard absorbed the core stone?"

All eyes turned to him.

At that time, they had been too far away to witness what happened between him and Albert, so the silence pressed in.

"Hm," Katar murmured. "Core stones are different from mana essence. They are far denser, far more concentrated, and far more valuable."

Katar sank into thought then.

"If something attempted to steal it," Katar said calmly, "then you may have an avarice amongst you."

The room reacted at once.

Matt stiffened. Alia’s eyes widened and Reya frowned, confused and uneasy.

Katar, however, remained completely unbothered, as though he had merely commented on the weather.