Zay finally came to a halt, his boots sinking deep into the snow as he doubled over, hands braced against his knees. Each breath left his lungs in sharp bursts, his chest rising and falling rapidly. Snowflakes drifted lazily from the sky, melting the moment they touched his flushed face.
The others skidded to a stop around him, panting, their exhaustion painting their expressions with a heavy silence.
Several minutes passed—only the sound of wind and slow breaths filled the space between them.
"W-What the fuck was that?" Renzo managed between gasps, his voice cracking with disbelief.
Zay slowly raised his head, staring up at the sky, the soft snow dancing down from above.
"I-It's called... Flames of Frosted Winds, It's a sort of a last resort attack. Triggers when the fox is near death. It ignites itself... creates a firestorm that burns everything in a 300-mile radius to ash."
He let out a breathless chuckle and gave a tired thumbs-up.
"We should've been roasted alive. There wasn't a real point to running, but... I guess we got lucky?"
Lily and Renzo stared at him like he'd lost his mind. Lyra, however, simply rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
"Oh, give me a break," Zay said with a grin. "It worked, didn't it?"
Lily shook her head, still wide-eyed. "Y-Yeah, well... what about that thing? That serpent?"
Zay's smile faded slightly as he turned to her, his amethyst eyes darkening with thought.
"I've... read about snow serpents before. Most of them are territorial, dangerous but predictable. But that one..." he paused, narrowing his gaze. "I've never seen one with black fangs, and of that size as well. The largest I've read about was like half that."
He let the words linger for a moment, his tone dipping lower.
"No damn clue what it is. But whatever it was, it saved our lives. Let's just hope it stays in a good mood... because we sure as hell don't want to make an enemy of that."
A cold gust blew past them, carrying with it the distant echo of the explosion's aftermath. The land behind them was silent now—charred, frozen, and forever changed.
After several more minutes of silence and cooling adrenaline, Zay turned without a word and began walking—his boots crunching against the ice-laced snow. He retraced their path for nearly ten minutes, eyes locked ahead, until the frozen corpse of the fox came back into view, still encased in jagged, glassy ice.
Renzo followed close behind.
Zay stopped a few feet away, the wind tugging at his coat, his amethyst eyes narrowing on the creature. "Try that heat thing again," he said, voice low. "Whatever you were doing earlier to warm yourself. Try to do that but expand it into your hand and see if you can melt this block of ice. I want to test something."
Renzo nodded, stepping forward with a quiet breath. He crouched beside the ice, placed his hand flat against it, and slowly exhaled. His body responded instantly—his passive flaring to life as waves of heat rippled from his skin. His blood beginning to warm within his palm, steam hissed into the cold air, the frost around the block beginning to weep and vanish in seconds.
The ice cracked, shattered, and fell away in steaming shards. Within the melting tomb, the fox's corpse slumped forward—limp, and eerily suspended. Its fur was slick with frozen blood, fangs still bared in defiance.
Zay stepped closer, expression unreadable.
Then, without hesitation, he infused his leg with aura and drove it down with brutal force into the fox's midsection.
Squelch.
A sharp burst of droplets of crimson exploded outward, splattering across his boots and painting the snow a vivid, violent red. The impact twisted the body, but Zay wasn't done. He raised his leg again, and then slammed his heel directly where the heart would be.
Crunch.
More blood gushed upward, soaking into his pants, his coat, the white blanket of snow now stained in grotesque streaks of gore. Pieces of frozen tissue slid from the cavity with a wet slap, the metallic scent thick in the frigid air.
—
[+1 Sacred Relic]
—
Zay blinked as the messages flickered across his vision. A faint hum echoed in his chest—something responding to the carnage.
'A Sacred Relic, huh?' he thought, his gaze locked on the remains. 'Is this what the first Sequence is about? Collecting relics?'
He reached down and grabbed what looked like a twisted fang embedded in a fragment of pink crystal, then casually wiped a streak of blood from his face with the back of his hand. He tossed the fox's shredded throat aside like garbage and turned back toward the others, red staining the white world behind him.
"I think I just figured out how to clear the first Sequence."
Renzo looked up from the mangled corpse, eyes tracing the blood-soaked snow around Zay's feet. "How's that?" he asked, voice low and cautious.
Zay grinned, breath curling in the cold.
"We collect Sacred Relics."
Zay's grin slowly faded into a quiet, thoughtful smile as he tilted his head upward, eyes tracing the outline of jagged mountains in the distance. Snowflakes drifted lazily through the wind, clinging briefly to his dark lashes before vanishing. His coat flared behind him, the black fabric snapping in the breeze like a banner as he crossed his arms—his gloved fingers tightening around the opposite sleeves, pulling them in with a soft creak of leather.
"I say we head up," he murmured, voice steady but low, like he was speaking more to the wind than to them. "I bet there's something waiting for us at the top of those peaks."
The group followed his gaze. The mountains stood like ancient sentinels, cloaked in mist and snow, their tips spearing through gray clouds. The ascent ahead looked brutal—icy ridges, wind-carved paths, and twisted trees barely clinging to the cliffs.
A soft laugh from Lyra broke the silence.
Her lips curled into a smile as her icy blue eyes drifted toward Zay. She said nothing—only closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the chill on her face, the sound of snow shifting beneath their boots. Then, without a word, she laced her fingers together behind her back. Her pale, gloved hands flexed slightly before locking in a delicate hold, the tips of her fingers pressing into each other with barely any pressure. Her steps were light as she moved behind Zay.
Zay glanced at her from the corner of his eye, catching the strange serenity in her expression. He knew something was off about her, yet he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was that made him feel so uneasy.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to read her. But her face gave nothing away—just that same smile, still lingering like a hidden blade cloaked in a sort of venom, waiting. 'It's something to do with me... I'm sure of it,' he thought grimly. Without another word, he turned back to the path and began walking toward the mountains, boots crunching over the frosted earth.
Renzo and Lily exchanged a look behind her. It wasn't subtle—just a brief moment of silent, shared thought. Then their eyes flicked to Lyra, who was now several paces ahead, her silhouette framed by the glowing white expanse. After a short pause, they moved to follow her.
'I still can't get a proper read on her...' Renzo thought, exhaling sharply through his nose as he shoved the concern aside. But the unease in his gut didn't fade. It only grew heavier.
Their trek took them to a steep incline coated in ice. Strange grooves lined the slope—narrow footholds and uneven handholds carved recently into the surface, still sharp and unweathered. Wind howled between the mountain crevices, sending flurries dancing across their boots.
Renzo's steps slowed as his eyes darted back to Lyra. She moved with an eerie grace, hands still clasped behind her back as she stepped onto the icy incline with no hesitation. His heart thumped once—then harder.
'Wait… what if she's trying to wear us down? Tire us out until we're too weak to fight back?'
His pulse spiked.
'Zay's drained—I saw how much aura he burned during the past few hours and I'm not much better. Lily's the best chance among us... but we still don't know what Lyra's capable of.'
He reached out abruptly, arm sweeping across Lily's path. His hand opened, fingers splayed, and pressed gently but firmly into her abdomen to stop her. She blinked at him in confusion.
Renzo didn't take his eyes off Lyra—not for a second.
She glanced over her shoulder. Her blue eyes met his, she smiled. A small, faint, almost playful smile.
Then she turned back around and continued her ascent, trailing behind Zay with the same poised elegance.
Renzo's lips curled into a low scowl. He dropped his arm back to his side, clenching his hand into a fist before relaxing it. "I feel like this bitch is trying to tire us out before killing us or something," he muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing with sharp suspicion.
He pressed on, quickening his pace to close the gap. Every crunch of snow beneath his boots sounded louder now.
'I don't trust this bitch for a second.'