The girl, Aiko, was sitting on the ground.
Her back rested against the massive tree behind her. Her left hand pressed against the wound in her side, while her green eyes never left the monster standing before her. Her short orange hair had fallen across her face during the battle. Her breathing came in ragged bursts—not from exhaustion alone, but from the slow, painful realization that everything she was doing simply wasn't enough.
She launched another attack.
A concentrated blast of flame erupted from her palm and slammed into the monster's chest with a thunderous impact that shook the surrounding trees.
The monster didn't stop.
A tiny scratch marked its rocky hide.
Nothing more.
As though fire was nothing but a minor annoyance, unworthy of its attention.
Aiko attacked again.
Then again.
Her hands never stopped moving.
As if she knew that stopping meant the end, she continued pouring everything she had into the fight. Wave after wave of fire filled the air, the heat becoming so intense that the forest itself felt like an open furnace.
The monster took another step.
Then another.
Its four legs moved with heavy, deliberate patience. Its body was covered in cracked layers of stone that absorbed the flames as though they had been made for exactly that purpose. Its strange violet eyes gleamed beneath the dim morning light, holding neither anger nor haste.
Only the patience of a predator that already knew how this would end.
Rito—his messy black hair stained with blood across his forehead—lay between the trees ten meters away. His chest rose and fell slowly.
Alive.
But no longer part of the battle.
Kain had disappeared into the forest several minutes earlier.
Aiko tried to stand.
Her leg gave out beneath her.
She crashed back onto the ground as a sharp pain tore through her side.
She unleashed the strongest attack she had left.
A dense torrent of blazing fire burst from both hands, striking the monster directly in the face. Trees surrounding the impact ignited for a single second before burning out.
The monster paused.
For a moment.
Then it kept walking.
Aiko looked at her hands.
The flames were weakening.
Then she looked back at the monster.
Then at Rito lying in the distance.
She didn't attack again.
For the first time since the battle had begun, her hands fell still.
Not surrender.
Something quieter than that.
Something far more painful.
A calm acceptance of what could no longer be changed.
The monster was three meters away.
Two.
Then came the footsteps.
They weren't heard.
They were felt.
A presence moving through the air with a speed that no ordinary human should possess.
Leaves stirred without wind.
Small branches bent without being touched.
It was as though the very air itself stepped aside to make room for something approaching.
Then everything stopped.
The heat disappeared first.
Not gradually.
It vanished as though it had never existed.
The cold that replaced it wasn't ordinary cold.
It was something else.
Something pure.
Absolute.
Ancient.
A cold that knew exactly what it was.
Then came the ice.
It spread upward from the ground.
Perfect crystal formations grew at astonishing speed, flawless in every detail. They swallowed the earth first.
Then the trees.
Then the empty air between them.
Within seconds, the warm forest had become an entirely different place.
Silent.
Beautiful.
Deadly.
Countless crystalline shards reflected the morning light from every direction.
Aiko's breath turned into white mist.
The monster froze.
Not gradually.
In a single instant.
Ice pierced through its rocky body from within, branching through it like an intricate crystalline web.
Then it shattered.
Countless fragments scattered silently through the air.
No blood.
No scream.
Only ice.
Silence.
And the remains of something that, only a second ago, had believed itself invincible.
Standing before Aiko was Iris.
Her white hair was tied neatly behind her, though a few loose strands drifted within the cold air surrounding her. Each breath escaped her lips like pale smoke.
The icy sword in her right hand reflected everything around it upon its flawless transparent surface.
Her presence was overwhelming.
Not because of strength alone.
But because of certainty.
Aiko shivered.
"Absolute Zero…"
"Iris."
She whispered the words through cracked lips.
Yet something inside her eyes settled.
The fear remained.
But beneath it was something else.
A strange relief that came from seeing someone who possessed enough power to stand before the unstoppable.
"Thank you…"
"My teammates… could you—"
Part of Aiko's body froze.
Not all of it.
Only her left shoulder.
Part of her arm.
Pure crystalline ice wrapped around her without causing pain.
At least…
Not yet.
The icy blade appeared directly before her face.
Barely two centimeters away.
Iris hadn't moved much.
She merely tilted her head slightly toward Aiko.
Her blue eyes were cold in a way entirely different from the ice surrounding them.
This was deliberate cold.
Measured.
Calculated.
"Hand over every point your team has."
Her voice remained perfectly calm.
No raised tone.
No dramatic threat.
Just a simple statement of fact.
"Or I'll eliminate you in the most painful way possible."
Aiko opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
The words were there.
Balanced on the edge of her tongue.
But the ice around her shoulder…
The freezing air…
The sword only centimeters from her face…
Every attempt to speak simply vanished.
The ice crept a little farther toward her neck.
"Your points."
"Now."
"Iris."
The voice came from between the trees.
Calm.
Yet there was something in its tone that made Iris stop.
Shina stepped out of the forest.
She looked at the scene before her.
Then at Iris.
"We shouldn't treat our fellow students like this."
She tapped Iris on the head.
It wasn't painful.
But it was unmistakably firm.
"Release your ice."
Iris looked at her for a second.
Then slowly withdrew her aura.
The ice around Aiko's shoulder dissolved.
The sword vanished.
The temperature gradually returned to normal.
Shina turned toward Aiko.
The warmth in her eyes was startling after everything that had just happened.
"I'm sorry about this girl's behavior."
Aiko looked at Shina.
One word formed in her mind without permission.
Instead of keeping it there…
She accidentally said it aloud.
"An angel…"
Her face immediately turned bright red.
Shina let out a soft laugh.
"Stop joking."
She extended her hand and helped Aiko to her feet.
"My teammates…"
"Could you—"
"That would be difficult."
"We're taking the same exam."
"I see…"
Aiko answered quietly, disappointment creeping into her voice.
"You're right. How could you help us when we're enemies—"
"We may not be able to help you."
Shina interrupted.
"But we can make a deal."
"Give us a portion of your team's points…"
"And I'll heal all of you."
Aiko stared at her.
The warmth in Shina's eyes was genuine.
"But…"
"We don't have any points yet."
"Before your withdrawal—or before the exam ends—send us the agreed percentage."
"Fifty percent."
"Fifty—"
"That…"
"Or nothing."
Aiko looked toward Rito lying between the trees.
Then toward Kain, who had finally emerged from the forest, leaning against the trunk of a tree.
Then back at Shina.
She accepted.
"…Thank you."
The tears gathered in her eyes but never fell.
They simply remained there.
Shina healed them.
Rito slowly regained consciousness and sat up.
Kain returned with moderate injuries and an awkward silence.
They exchanged farewells.
Then the two groups walked in opposite directions until they disappeared among the trees.
Iris let out a quiet laugh.
"An angel."
"Iris—"
"What kind of angel takes fifty percent of an entire team's earnings?"
Her smile widened.
"You destroyed their chances of winning this exam even if they make it to the end."
Shina looked at her with mock seriousness.
"Look who's talking."
"They should give you an Oscar for playing the perfect villain."
"I would've been more efficient."
"You would've turned them into ice statues."
"And that would've been faster."