Editing Amaryllis in the Ice Country:Chapter 10 (section)

===Part O===

We’re getting closer to the surface.

“The remaining depth is twenty meters…no, fifteen.”

Viscaria mutters as she looks at the terminal.

“Ah! This road! I was here before!”

I arrive at this familiar place, and start to feel emotional. Right, the one place I went to alone; I once stepped here while trying to make my way up.

—It’s close. It’s very close…!

My footsteps hasten increasingly, and finally ends up as a jog. The others too start to hurry up. After a while, I’m final confident. There’s a little light shining in through the dark tunnel, and the wind blowing through the ice cave is undoubtedly from the outside.

—Just a little more…!

We advance towards the place with the light, and finally arrive at a spacious place. A wide ladder can be seen before this hill comprised of ice residue and rubble, and this ladder leads further up. There’s an exit leading to a manhole.

I hastily climb the ladder, and push the exit with my hand.

“It’s frozen?”

I take out the ‘Black Pointer’ in my pocket, and flip the switch. The Black Pointer gives off a little light, and I draw a line along the silhouette of the manhole. Bsst, with a melting sound, the manhole drops with a thunk. “Ouch!” I cup my head.

And then,

“Woah…!”

I leap out, and cheer in joy.

The land remains covered in ice, the winds remain freezing, and the weather isn’t fine. Despite this, there’s a weak light shining through the clouds, and surely it’s the sunlight that gives life to this world.

—We did it, we did it…!

I raise my fist in elation. There’s no doubt the Ice Age’s about to come to an end.

I look around, three hundred and sixty degrees, over and over again, as though wanting to etch the scenery outside. The land covered in ice everywhere is an eyesore, but I can see a building with a sharp top at the horizon to the west—a large generator. It’s right above the Snow White, and this shows that the distance inside the tunnel is rather long.

“Ahh…”

A trail of hot tears roll down my cheek. This world we’ve returned to after a hundred years is so vast, tall and far, bright, dazzling—an elation rising in my chest is causing me to quiver all over. Everyone else is looking around, patting the shoulders, sharing joy. Everyone’s moved.

“Alright, everyone, let’s go!”

On my command, we start running. Our feet step on the frozen landscape as we head towards our destination. We shove aside the frozen snow, climb up the hill, running, running, falling over, getting up, and running again. The landscape remains as uneven as it was a hundred years ago, and we tumble and hustle as we head forward.

So we keep heading on, just a few hundred meters from the generator.

Suddenly, Viscaria yells,

“Warning detected on the monitor…massive heat source approaching…!!”

—Eh?

Everyone stop in unison to look at her—

And at that moment,

A blue light sweeps right above our head.