Fray looked up.
A colossal hand was descending toward him.
It was made entirely of condensed cold.
Six fingers stretched downward, each one thick enough to crush a building beneath its weight. Yet the hand did not appear fast. Its enormous size distorted the perception of its movement.
Fray knew better.
It was moving fast enough.
His instincts screamed at him to move.
He immediately grabbed Shad with his mouth and accelerated.
The hand struck the cooled lava where they had been standing.
BOOM!
The impact shattered the surface.
Blackened rock erupted into the air alongside fragments of molten lava, while the shockwave tore outward across the battlefield.
Fray kept moving.
Then he felt it.
The cold.
It did not travel like wind.
It did not spread like an ordinary wave.
Wherever the shockwave passed, the cold simply appeared.
The force moved far beyond Oakhaven.
Hundreds of miles away, a farmer suddenly collapsed to his knees.
He gasped.
His breath appeared in front of his face.
He looked around in confusion.
There was no snow.
No storm.
No clouds.
Yet the air had become cold enough for him to see his own breath.
He barely had time to wonder why before his body began to tremble.
Farther away, in another settlement, children playing tag suddenly stopped.
One child froze in the middle of a step.
Another wrapped both arms around herself.
"Why is it so cold?"
The adults noticed moments later.
Windows began frosting over.
Water stopped flowing through exposed pipes.
Animals lowered themselves to the ground, instinctively trying to conserve heat.
And still, the cold continued.
It did not weaken.
It moved farther.
By the time it reached Grevlyn, nearly five hundred miles from Oakhaven, the weaker residents had already begun collapsing.
Anyone below Realm Three struggled to remain conscious.
Some fell immediately.
Others managed to stay standing for a few seconds longer, only for their legs to stop responding beneath them.
Even those at Realm Three struggled to resist.
Their bodies stiffened.
Their breathing slowed.
Their Energy Flow began to weaken until it was barely moving at all.
Rosalind was among those still standing.
Barely.
She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering violently as her teeth chattered.
The cold felt wrong.
Not simply powerful.
Familiar.
Something about it reminded her of him.
Her eyes narrowed as she struggled to remain conscious.
The moment she thought this , the cold intensified.
Rosalind nearly collapsed.
Instead, she forced herself upright.
Whatever was happening to Oakhaven, Shad and Fray were still there.
And somehow, she knew it.
---
The cold should have reached Veyris City next.
It didn't.
Something was holding it back.
At the center of Veyris's mansion, Veyris stood beneath an enormous construct suspended in the air.
Gold formed its outer frame, creating a vast circular structure around him.
Inside that frame, countless silver channels branched outward, all connected to a single diamond at the center.
The construct was not simply a barrier.
It was a defensive system.
The gold frame received the force.
The silver channels divided it.
And the diamond core anchored the entire structure, preventing the redirected force from breaking through.
That was how Veyris stopped the cold.
Every surge that reached the city was caught by the gold outer frame first.
Instead of allowing the force to spread through the city, the silver channels split it into smaller streams and redirected them away from the people below.
The diamond at the center kept the entire structure stable as more and more pressure poured into it.
And there was a lot of pressure.
The construct extended high into the sky, its light spreading across the continent.
Far beyond Veyris City, the effects of the creature's attack continued to spread.
But whenever that force reached the defensive network, the construct caught it, divided it, and sent it elsewhere.
The city remained standing because Veyris was taking the creature's force and refusing to let it reach them.
Frost slowly formed across Veyris's shoulder.
He ignored it.
A tremor passed through the mansion.
The windows rattled.
Veyris looked toward the horizon.
"Ah."
His expression remained relaxed.
"That damn creature."
His fingers moved.
Immediately, the silver channels inside the construct shifted.
A new surge reached the outer frame.
The gold structure absorbed it.
The silver channels divided it into several separate streams, and the diamond core held the entire network steady as the force was redirected away from the city.
"So it finally woke up."
Veyris watched the construct stabilize.
Then he smiled faintly.
"I wonder how long they can hold out against that thing."
His expression remained calm.
His eyes did not.
---
Back in Oakhaven, Fray landed hard.
His claws dug into the cooled lava as he released Shad from his jaws.
Shad remained unconscious.
Fray lowered him carefully.
"Stay there."
Then he turned.
The creature was moving again.
Its mountain-sized body shifted, and the terrain around it froze in response.
Fray's Defense Flow spread across his body.
The creature raised one arm.
Fray reacted immediately.
His Speed Flow exploded.
He disappeared.
The hand crashed down.
Fray reappeared behind it.
Before the creature could turn, Strength Flow gathered around one of his arms.
He struck.
BOOM!
The impact shook the battlefield.
Fray attacked again.
And again.
He moved around the creature's enormous body, targeting joints, limbs, and exposed sections whenever an opening appeared.
For several moments, it looked as though he was actually winning.
Then the creature stopped.
Fray froze.
His instincts screamed at him.
He immediately retreated.
Something had changed.
The cold surrounding him vanished.
For a fraction of a second, there was nothing.
No cold. No pressure. No sound.
Then—
Everything returned.
The force slammed into Fray.
His body struck the ground and rolled across the cooled lava.
Blood escaped from his mouth.
He forced himself upright.
"What was that?"
The creature stared at him.
Fray looked toward the place he had attacked.
The damage was gone.
Not repaired.
Gone.
The distinction bothered him.
He had seen regeneration before.
This wasn't regeneration.
The creature hadn't healed the damage.
It had simply returned to the state it had occupied before the damage existed.
Fray's eyes narrowed.
"So that's how you keep doing that."
The creature raised its hand again.
Fray immediately prepared himself.
But the attack never came.
The creature stopped.
Its enormous head slowly turned toward the horizon.
Fray followed its gaze.
There was nothing there.
He looked back at the creature.
Its body had become tense.
It was sensing something.
Something Fray couldn't see.
"What did you feel?"
The creature gave no answer.
It simply continued staring.
Then, for the first time since the battle began, Fray saw something that looked almost like hesitation.
The cold intensified around him.
Fray raised his guard.
He expected another attack.
Instead, the creature turned toward the horizon again.
Fray followed its gaze.
And then he understood.
It wasn't looking at something in the battlefield.
It was looking toward Veyris.
Five hundred miles away.
Veyris was still standing inside his mansion, his defensive construct suspended above him.
His eyes remained fixed on the battlefield.
The creature became completely motionless.
Fray stared at it.
Then toward the distant horizon.
Then back at the creature.
"…You know him?"
The creature didn't answer.
Its body began to distort.
The space beneath its layers of cold folded inward.
Fray stepped forward.
"Hey."
The creature disappeared.
Not through death.
Not through physical retreat.
It simply ceased to occupy the space it had been standing in.
Fray stared at the empty battlefield.
Then at the horizon.
His expression hardened.
"You aren't running from me."
The remaining fragments of the creature's mountain-sized body began thinning.
Their edges dissolved into the surrounding cold.
Fray watched silently.
Then the realization settled into place.
"You're running from him."
The final fragment disappeared.
Silence returned to the ruined battlefield.
Fray stood alone.
He looked toward the empty space where the creature had been.
Then he turned toward Shad.
His expression became grim.
"Who the hell are you, Veyris?"
---
Five hundred miles away, Veyris slowly lowered his hand.
The enormous defensive construct above him stabilized.
The gold outer frame stopped shifting.
The silver channels settled into their original positions.
The diamond core continued glowing steadily.
The redirected force had stopped surging.
Veyris continued staring toward the horizon.
His faint smile was gone.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then, quietly:
"So it remembered me."
Silence.
Veyris's eyes narrowed.
"That wasn't supposed to happen."