The caravan advanced in silence beneath a gray, lifeless sky.
After a week of relative calm, that silence no longer felt uncomfortable. The soldiers marched more relaxed, the refugees spoke quietly among themselves, and even the horses seemed less tense. For the first time since the disaster, the feeling of merely surviving had slowly begun to transform into the hope of truly continuing to live.
Then the first snowflakes began to fall.
Emily immediately looked up.
—…Snow? —she murmured, confused—. At this time of year, that shouldn't be possible.
The others began noticing it as well.
At first, it looked like a gentle snowfall, almost beautiful.
But something was wrong.
The flakes were not ordinary white. They glimmered faintly, like tiny fragments of crystal infused with pure mana. And when they touched the skin, the cold did not remain on the surface.
It felt deeper.
As if it were trying to pierce through flesh and freeze the soul itself.
The atmosphere changed within seconds.
The air became heavy, dense, difficult to breathe. Even the mana naturally floating through the environment seemed motionless, paralyzed by that unnatural temperature.
The wind began to moan between the trees.
It did not sound like a storm.
It sounded like something dying.
Lusian frowned as he slowly advanced at the front of the formation. His instincts screamed that this was not a natural phenomenon.
And then the figures appeared.
First one.
Motionless at the side of the road.
Then another.
And another.
As the caravan advanced, dozens of frozen silhouettes began to emerge between the snow and the trees.
Ten.
Twenty.
Fifty.
Human statues.
Albert immediately raised his arm.
—Stop the march!
The wagon wheels screeched against the frozen ground as the soldiers moved into defensive positions around the refugees.
Several men cautiously descended to inspect the figures.
One of them slowly extended his hand and touched the shoulder of one of the statues.
The instant he made contact, the entire body cracked apart.
CRACK.
The figure collapsed into itself and disintegrated into a cloud of frozen dust.
The soldier staggered backward in horror.
—G-Gods…
One of the captains paled as he looked at the face that had just shattered apart.
—They're people!
Yes.
People.
Frozen in the exact instant of their deaths.
Some were still turned as though they had tried to flee.
Others remained embracing smaller bodies.
One even still held its arms raised before its face, trying to protect itself from something that had never given it a chance.
And all of them still had their eyes open.
The terror remained trapped in their expressions.
As though death had arrived too quickly to even allow them to scream.
Emily stepped down from the carriage and slowly approached one of the shattered figures. Her hands trembled slightly as she knelt in the snow.
She closed her eyes.
She tried to sense the core.
Residual mana.
Any trace of life.
But she found nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
The color drained from her face.
—They have no cores… —she whispered with difficulty—. There isn't even a spark of mana left.
Her fingers slowly tightened against the frozen snow.
—They were drained.
The silence that followed was worse than any scream.
Leonardo stared at the frozen remains and unconsciously stepped backward.
For the first time since awakening as a hero… he felt genuine fear.
—What kind of creature does something like this…?
No one answered.
Because in that instant, the earth itself trembled.
BOOOOM.
The explosion echoed in the distance like a gigantic thunderclap.
The horses neighed in terror.
Then came another explosion.
And another.
Each impact made the ground beneath their feet vibrate.
Explosions.
Still far away.
But getting closer.
Something was fighting.
And judging by the intensity of those sounds… something was being destroyed.
The four heroes of the Kingdom exchanged glances.
No words were needed.
Alejandro gritted his teeth and unsheathed his sword.
—Let's go.
The next instant, the four of them shot toward the storm, tearing through the snow and vanishing into the freezing wind.
Albert reacted immediately.
—Defensive formation!
—Protect the carriages!
—No one break formation!
The soldiers quickly reorganized themselves around the refugees as fear began spreading through the caravan.
Then Albert looked toward Lusian.
—Sir, what are your orders?!
Lusian inhaled slowly.
The movement caused the pain beneath his bandages to flare violently, but he did not allow it to show on his face.
His eyes scanned the storm.
The frozen figures.
The dead mana saturating the environment.
And an unpleasant feeling settled in his chest.
This was not an ordinary attack.
It was something far worse.
Something even the world itself seemed to reject.
Lusian tightened his hand around the hilt of his sword and stepped forward.
—We keep moving —he ordered firmly—, but nobody separates from the formation.
His gaze hardened as he watched the snow slowly falling over the frozen corpses.
—I will not leave anyone behind.
Half a kilometer away from the road, the storm finally opened.
The freezing wind dispersed for a brief moment, revealing a battlefield covered in frost and frozen corpses.
And there they were.
A man held a long sword covered in bluish runes while a storm of ice swirled around his body like a living creature. Every movement he made unleashed blades of frost capable of splitting entire trees apart.
A few meters away, a woman kept a fractal bow drawn between her hands. The weapon appeared to be made from pure crystal, and every arrow forming upon the string was born directly from the frozen mana saturating the environment.
Both of them breathed heavily.
Both were injured.
The blood staining their clothes had already begun freezing over their bodies.
The Kingdom's heroes abruptly stopped when they felt the monstrous pressure permeating the entire area.
The woman was the first to turn her head.
Her eyes were filled with exhaustion.
But also with a desperation so intense it bordered on madness.
When she saw the heroes, something resembling hope crossed her expression.
—Y-You're alive! —she shouted with a broken voice—
Heroes! Help us!
The Imperial man did not even fully turn around.
He slammed his sword into the ground.
A gigantic wall of ice rose before them…
And exploded one second later.
BOOOOM.
Something invisible had just struck it.
Cracks spread through the entire structure before it shattered into thousands of frozen fragments.
The Imperial gritted his teeth furiously.
—Impossible… not that attack again!
Alejandro stepped forward, confused.
—What the hell is—?
Then the wind changed.
The cold intensified instantly.
This was not a normal drop in temperature.
It was something unnatural.
Something that seemed to absorb heat directly from the world itself.
The air became heavy.
Difficult to breathe.
The ground beneath their feet began cracking violently as entire layers of ice spread in every direction.
The trees froze.
The rocks became covered in frost.
And several Imperial legionnaires began screaming as black ice trapped their legs.
Something gigantic was approaching.
Something monstrous.
The storm exploded outward.
And then… the Frostblight emerged from the blizzard.
Its body resembled a living fragment of the end of the world.
A colossal creature covered in irregular layers of absolute ice and crystallized flesh. Its mere presence distorted the environment; snow floated around it as though the climate itself obeyed its breathing.
Its shadow covered the heroes.
And when it exhaled…
The air froze.
Several legionnaires did not even have time to scream before becoming ice sculptures.
Alejandro felt terror crawl down his spine.
He could not defeat something like that.
He understood it the instant he saw it.
That creature stood far above any monster he had ever faced before.
But he also understood something else.
If they did not stop it there… the caravan would die.
He gritted his teeth.
—…I can't defeat you.
His fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword.
—But I can stop you.
—Alejandro, don't be an idiot! —Kara shouted as she felt the mana around him spiral out of control—. That monster isn't something you can fight alone!
But Alejandro had already stepped forward.
And the flames appeared.
Fire erupted beneath his feet as though the ground itself had ignited.
The flames slowly climbed across his body, wrapping around him like a living mantle.
Then his divine artifact responded.
The Sword of Solaris began to burn.
First red.
Then golden.
Until it finally reached a blinding white so pure it hurt to look at directly.
The most sacred and destructive form of blessed fire.
The surrounding ice melted instantly.
Rivers of steam exploded into the sky.
Even the other heroes could feel the heat burning their skin despite standing several meters away.
The Frostblight stopped.
Slowly, it tilted its head.
It observed that light.
It felt the divinity contained within the flames.
And for the first time since its appearance… it stopped advancing.
Alejandro inhaled deeply.
The fire exploded from his back.
The flames took shape.
They spread outward like incomplete, broken wings made of burning light.
The ground beneath him began to melt.
His eyes shone like miniature suns.
—SOLARIS… ILLUMINATE THE PATH!
Alejandro advanced.
And the world burned in his wake.
Every step destroyed the absolute ice surrounding the monster.
Every heartbeat caused the flames to grow even stronger.
Every second increased the pressure until it became unbearable even for the other heroes.
Kara stepped backward, shielding her face.
Leonardo gritted his teeth as the heat collided against the creature's monstrous cold.
Even the Imperials stared in shock at the intensity of that divine flame.
Because in that moment…
Alejandro seemed less human.
And more like a living torch challenging winter itself.
The Imperial hero widened his eyes in disbelief.
The frozen storm reflected the white-golden glow of Alejandro's flames across his blood-covered face.
—It's… impossible… —he murmured, unable to look away—.
That fire… it's real divine fire!
Even the woman with the fractal bow froze for a moment.
Because this was not simply powerful fire.
It was divinity.
An element capable of directly challenging the mana of the world itself.
The Frostblight reacted.
The creature slowly lowered its enormous body while the ice plates covering its back cracked against one another.
It was not pain.
It was analysis.
Prudence.
That beast had survived for far too long to act on simple instinct. It was an apex predator, a creature that existed at the absolute peak of the food chain.
And apex predators do not risk their lives unnecessarily.
Its fractal eyes remained locked on Alejandro while it calculated the danger of those flames.
Because yes.
That fire could hurt it.
Perhaps not kill it.
But wound it.
And that was enough.
Alejandro slowly raised the Sword of Solaris.
The flames exploded.
The entire world seemed to turn white.
¡¡FWOOOOOM!!
A gigantic column of divine fire pierced through the storm like a celestial spear, tearing apart the blizzard and evaporating tons of ice in its path.
The impact struck the Frostblight directly in the flank.
The sound was deafening.
Boiling steam covered the battlefield as the absolute ice began to melt.
And for the first time…
The creature roared.
It was not a roar of suffering.
It was irritation.
Annoyance.
As though an inferior existence had finally managed to scratch it.
One of the massive ice plates along its side partially melted, exposing something pulsating beneath it.
An internal core.
Dark blue mana compressed to a monstrous degree.
The core vibrated like a living heart.
Kara covered her mouth, unable to believe what she was seeing.
—He hurt it…!
Alejandro actually hurt it!
Emily felt a chill run through her entire body.
Her gaze remained fixed on the white flames still burning around the hero.
—A fire capable of burning concentrated mana… —she whispered—.
That… only a divine artifact can do that.
The Frostblight stepped backward.
One step.
Then another.
Snow spiraled violently around its colossal body while its fractal eyes remained locked on Alejandro.
It was studying him.
Recognizing him.
Understanding that this human… could become a genuine threat.
And it was not worth wasting energy there.
Not yet.
The wind changed direction.
The creature slowly straightened itself, shaking away fragments of melted ice and crystallized frost.
Then it turned.
And with a movement elegant and terrifyingly silent for something of its size, it disappeared into the blizzard.
The monstrous pressure slowly began to fade away.
And the silence left behind was almost worse.
Alejandro fell to his knees.
The flames around his body began violently extinguishing themselves as exhaustion struck every part of him at once.
—Haa… haa…
Damn… it…
Dorian immediately ran toward him.
—Hero of the Kingdom!
You did it! You stopped it!
Alejandro breathed heavily before slowly shaking his head.
—No… —he murmured—. That thing chose to retreat.
Emily reached him and caught him before he collapsed face-first into the snow.
Her hands trembled.
—Alejandro… you're hurt… don't be so reckless…
He let out a faint, exhausted smile.
—It was necessary.
His gaze drifted toward the storm still covering the horizon.
—That thing is dangerous.
With effort, he slowly stood again while partially leaning against Emily.
The remaining flames around the Sword of Solaris crackled weakly before fading away.
—But now we know something important.
His eyes hardened.
—The things that are coming… can bleed.
They can be wounded.
He slowly tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword.
—They are not invincible.
In the distance, the ice slowly began melting beneath the residual heat of the divine fire.
Several surviving Imperial legionnaires fell to their knees crying in relief.
Others stared at Alejandro as though witnessing a living legend.
Even the Imperial heroes looked at him differently now.
With respect.
With disbelief.
With hope.
And farther back, away from the center of the battlefield, Lusian silently observed everything.
His eyes remained narrowed as he analyzed the remains of melted ice left behind by the Frostblight.
He knew that creature.
He had fought it countless times in the game.
It was an absurdly annoying existence to kill.
The Frostblight constantly absorbed energy, draining mana, vitality, and even active abilities during combat.
That was why most players eventually fought it in the worst possible way.
With brute force.
Without abilities.
Without special techniques.
Only raw endurance.
But there was a trick.
A method almost nobody discovered during the first weeks of the game.