The caravan advanced in silence.
The morning was gray, almost peaceful… until the first snowflakes began to fall.
Emily looked up.
"…Snow? At this time of year, that's impossible."
But it wasn't ordinary snow.
The flakes glittered like tiny crystals of pure mana, frozen to the core. The air grew heavy, difficult to breathe, and the wind wailed like a dying beast.
As they moved forward, shapes began appearing along the roadside.
Ten.
Twenty.
Fifty.
Human statues.
Albert ordered the caravan to halt, and several soldiers approached to inspect them. One touch was enough for a statue to collapse, crumbling into powdery ice.
"G-Gods…" one of the captains whispered."They're people!"
Yes.
People.
Frozen upright, still in the posture of flight…
their eyes wide open in a terror that death had not erased.
Emily dropped to her knees.
"They have no cores… not even a spark of mana. They were… drained."
Leonardo took a step back, frightened for the first time in his life.
"What kind of creature does THIS?"
No one answered.
Because at that moment, the earth trembled.
BOOM.
A distant thunder.
Then another.
And another.
Explosions.
Far away—but getting closer.
The heroes of the Kingdom exchanged glances.
"Let's go," Alejandro said through clenched teeth.
The four of them ran toward the sound…
leaving Lusian and the army behind.
Albert did not hesitate.
"Form ranks!"
"Lusian, guide us!" the captain called.
Lusian took a deep breath, hiding the pain of his wounds.
"We advance… but in formation. I don't want anyone left behind."
Half a kilometer from the road, the storm parted to reveal a frozen battlefield.
And there they were.
A man surrounded by a storm of living frost, his sword shining like the moon.
A woman drawing a fractal bow, each arrow a shard of ice sharp as crystal.
Both were panting.
Both were covered in blood already freezing against their skin.
The Kingdom's heroes slowed as they saw them.
The woman was the first to turn.
Her gaze was wild—determined and fractured by desperation.
"They're alive!" she shouted."Heroes! Help us!"
The Imperial man slammed his sword into the ground, raising a wall of ice that shattered instantly under an invisible impact.
"It can't be… that attack again!"
Alejandro didn't even have time to ask what was happening.
The wind changed.
The cold became unbearable.
The air thickened.
The ground beneath their feet cracked as if it might split apart.
Something enormous was approaching.
The Frostwithering emerged from the blizzard like a living fragment of the world's end.
Its shadow swallowed the heroes.
Its breath froze the air—and several legionaries who had not managed to flee in time.
Alejandro clenched his teeth.
"…I can't defeat you.But I can stop you."
Kara shouted:
"Alejandro, don't be insane! That monster—!"
But he had already stepped forward.
Flames erupted beneath his feet, climbing his body like a living mantle.
His divine artifact—the Sword of Solaris—began to burn. Not red…
but a white-gold blaze, the purest form of blessed fire.
The ice around them melted instantly.
The Frostwithering tilted its head.
It observed the light.
It felt the divinity.
For the first time since it had appeared…
it stopped.
Alejandro inhaled deeply.
Flames burst from his back like shattered wings of fire.
"SOLARIS… CLEAR MY PATH!"
The hero advanced.
Each step burned away the absolute frost surrounding the monster.
Each heartbeat intensified the flames until they became almost unbearable for everyone nearby.
The other heroes had to retreat.
Dorian—the Imperial hero—stared in disbelief.
"It's… it's impossible…That fire… that's real divine flame!"
The Frostwithering lowered its body.
Its plates of ice cracked.
Not from pain.
From analysis.
From caution.
The creature knew that fire could harm it.
Perhaps not kill it…
but wound it.
And apex predators do not gamble their survival out of arrogance.
Alejandro raised his weapon.
The world turned white.
FWOOM!
A column of divine fire tore through the blizzard, slamming into the creature's flank.
For the first time, the monster roared.
Not in agony—
but in irritation.
A plate of ice along its side melted away, revealing a dark blue mana core within, pulsing like a heart.
Kara covered her mouth.
"He hurt it…!Alejandro actually hurt it!"
Emily shivered.
"A flame that can burn condensed mana…That's… only possible with blessed artifacts of Numen grade…"
The Frostwithering stepped back.
Then another step.
Its fractal eyes settled on Alejandro.
It studied him.
Recognized that this human…
could become a problem.
Not worth expending energy here.
The wind shifted direction.
The creature straightened, shaking frost and melting fragments from its body.
Then, with a movement almost elegant for something so immense, it turned and vanished into the blizzard.
It did not flee.
It withdrew.
Because fighting here made no sense.
Alejandro dropped to his knees just as his flames began to fade.
"Haa… haa…Damn it…"
Dorian ran to him.
"Hero of the Kingdom—you did it!You stopped it!"
Alejandro shook his head, exhausted.
"No…I only… convinced it… there were easier things to devour."
Emily reached him and supported his weight, trembling.
"Alejandro… you were about to die…"
He managed a faint smile.
"We all were.
But now we know something important."
Slowly, leaning on her, he stood.
"The things that are coming…
they can bleed.
They can be wounded.
They are not invincible."
In the distance, the ice was beginning to melt.
The surviving legionaries were crying.
The Imperial heroes looked at Alejandro with a mixture of respect and relief.
And from afar, Lusian watched with narrowed eyes.
The most terrifying enemy they had ever seen had left.
But not because they were strong.
Because they still weren't…
important enough to kill.