They had finally reached what they believed was the heart of the creature.
That was when the cold changed.
It did not become colder.
It became something else.
A numbness spread through the space around them, so deep that Shad could no longer tell where the cold ended and his body began. His thoughts grew heavy. His senses dulled. Even the concept of movement seemed distant.
Fray noticed it first.
Something had changed.
Since the beginning of their battle, the creature had been testing them. Observing them. Responding to them.
Now that was gone.
For the first time, they understood its true intent.
It wanted them dead.
Not defeated.
Not driven away.
Annihilated.
The creature was no longer playing with them.
Fray barely had time to understand what that meant.
His entire nervous system went silent.
His body stopped responding.
His scales turned pale beneath the frost, and within an instant, he was colder than a corpse. His heart stopped. His muscles locked. Even his eyes ceased moving.
There was no warning.
No opportunity to react.
Shad suffered the same fate.
But the creature barely acknowledged him.
Its attention remained fixed on Fray.
Fray was the greater threat.
And the creature intended to remove him first.
Shad's mind screamed at him to move.
Nothing happened.
He forced Healing Flow through his body.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
He pushed harder.
His body remained still.
Healing Flow could restore damaged tissue, but there was nothing damaged to restore.
The creature had not injured him.
It had simply stopped him.
Shad tried again.
Still nothing.
Then he saw Fray.
The Reptilian giant was slowly disappearing.
His body was breaking apart into thin wisps of cold air.
Shad's thoughts accelerated.
What the hell do I do?
Nothing came.
His reasoning itself was slowing.
Then a familiar voice spoke inside his mind.
'Hmm. Seems like you're in a bit of trouble.'
The Lonely King.
Shad said nothing.
'What to do, what to do,' the Contemplator murmured.
The Quiet Observer spoke next.
'We have less than ten seconds to survive this creature's hold.'
Then what do you suggest I do?
The Contemplator answered.
'Based on everything we've seen, its ability is tied to cold—and more importantly, the concept of cold.'
Shad's thoughts struggled to keep pace.
'Cold is the absence of heat. The absence of active energy. It is using that principle to suppress movement, energy circulation, and even thought itself.'
'Five seconds.'
The Lonely King spoke.
'I have a plan.'
Of course you do. So don't stress my already stressed mind.
'How rude.'
A pause.
'But I'll let it pass.'
'Forcefully create ice lances around yourself,' the Lonely King continued. 'Coat them with Strength Flow. At the same time, reinforce your body with Defense Flow while using Healing Flow to maintain your internal functions.'
Shad almost laughed mentally.
And you think I can do all that at once?
The Lonely King said nothing.
The Observer answered instead.
'Then do one thing at a time.'
'Two seconds.'
Shad made his decision.
Then let's start with the first.
He forced the Flow inside him to move.
It was like trying to push a river through frozen stone.
His body resisted.
His mind resisted.
The creature's cold resisted everything.
But Shad forced the energy outward.
Ice formed around him.
One lance.
Then another.
Then another.
Six enormous ice lances materialized around his body, each nearly twice the size of a rocket launcher.
He had wanted twelve.
The creature's cold would not allow it.
'One second.'
Shad immediately converted the World Flow.
The energy changed.
Strength Flow poured into the six lances.
It was the first time he had attempted something like this.
He had always used Flow to strengthen himself—to increase his strength, speed, defense, or healing.
He had never thought to strengthen the ability itself.
Yet somehow, it worked.
The ice lances trembled.
Power condensed inside them.
Shad released them.
The air exploded.
BOOM.
BOOM.
Multiple sonic booms followed as the six lances tore through the frozen space.
For less than a heartbeat, the creature's attention shifted.
That was all Shad needed.
He immediately converted World Flow into Defense Flow and forced it throughout his body.
His control was crude.
The Flow barely covered him.
A faint, transparent blue aura clung to his skin.
But it was enough.
The stillness broke.
Shad moved.
The six lances reached the creature's heart.
And instantly lost all momentum.
Their energy vanished.
Their massive forms dissolved into wisps of cold air.
Shad didn't even look.
He was already moving toward Fray.
Speed Flow exploded through his body.
He crossed the distance like a projectile.
Fray's body was already half gone.
A dense mass of cold surrounded him, pulling him apart piece by piece.
Shad reached it.
Snow erupted from his body.
He covered Fray's dissolving form, trying to absorb the cold into the snow.
For a moment, it worked.
Then his movement slowed.
Not naturally.
Not because he was tired.
The creature was slowing him.
His body moved as though he had been submerged in something impossibly thick.
The snow around Fray disappeared.
Absorbed.
The cold surrounding Fray became even denser.
Then Shad understood.
It was absorbing him.
Fray's energy.
His body.
Perhaps even his existence.
Not under my watch.
His subconscious searched desperately for an answer.
Thinking itself had become painfully slow.
Every thought dragged.
Every decision took too long.
Shad had one option left.
He flooded his body with Defense Flow.
The pressure nearly crushed his control.
But he forced it through.
A thin blue aura finally wrapped around his skin.
Then he converted it.
Defense Flow became Strength Flow.
His eyes changed.
They became unnaturally still, reflecting the faint blue glow like clear water beneath a pale sky.
For one brief moment, the cold released him.
Shad moved.
Raw speed exploded through his body.
He crossed the remaining distance like a ballistic projectile.
BOOM.
His hands struck the dense cold surrounding Fray.
He coated them in snow.
Then reinforced them with Defense Flow.
His fingers broke through.
The instant his hands entered the barrier, agony consumed him.
His heart seized.
His blood went numb.
His nerves stopped transmitting.
His organs seemed to forget how to function.
For one terrible instant, Shad was certain he was already dead.
But something inside him refused to accept that conclusion.
Something he still did not fully understand.
Something he had spent years refusing to believe existed.
Deep within his subconscious, the Contemplator issued an order.
'Speed Flow.'
Shad's body responded.
It vanished.
So did Fray.
The creature's cold closed over empty space.
And then—
they were outside.
Shad's consciousness disappeared.
His body continued falling.
Below them, the lava waited.
Fray remained encased in frost, his body completely rigid.
But unlike before, his mind was awake.
How could I have allowed myself to become so careless?
His eyes remained closed.
This won't happen again.
He forced Defense Flow through his body.
The energy circulated inward.
Then outward.
Again.
And again.
Heat began returning to his frozen flesh.
The frost cracked.
Fray opened his green, reptilian eyes.
He saw the lava below.
He saw Shad falling beside him.
Shad was unconscious.
Fray moved.
For something of his size, controlling his descent should have been impossible.
Yet his body twisted in midair.
He opened his jaws and caught Shad between them.
The next instant, both of them crashed toward the lava.
Fray coated his body in Defense Flow.
They nearly disappeared beneath the molten surface.
The lava swallowed the remaining frost around his body.
Fray used it.
He allowed the heat to melt what remained of the creature's hold.
Then he pushed off.
The massive reptilian body erupted from the lava.
He landed on a cooled section of rock and immediately dropped Shad beside him.
For a moment, neither moved.
Fray slowly lifted his head.
Across the battlefield stood the mountain-sized abomination.
Its presence had changed.
There was no curiosity in it anymore.
No experimentation.
No hesitation.
Only cold.
Fray's eyes narrowed.
He stared at the creature.
Then at Shad.
His fingers slowly tightened against the cooled rock.
The creature had finally shown them what it was truly capable of.
And Fray had no intention of being caught that way again.