Location; Himalayan Ice Crypt, Northern Nepal
The cold bit like a thousand needles.
Damien's boots crunched into centuries-old frost as he led the team through a hidden crevice that opened into an ancient stone stairwell. The deeper they went, the colder it grew—unnatural cold. The kind that whispered through the bones.
Beside him, Nora clutched a thermal scanner. "Life signs... faint, but steady. It's her. She's alive."
Fey followed closely, a sonic disruptor in hand. "The energy in here... it's not just electrical. It's magnetic. Like the whole place is suspended in a static field."
The chamber opened wide before them, vast and circular, cut from crystalized ice. In its center stood a massive sarcophagus—etched in a language older than Sanskrit. Bound to a platform beside it was Alina, eyes half-shut, breath shallow, veins glowing with a pale blue hue.
"She's connected to the crypt," Damien murmured. "It's drawing from her."
Nora rushed forward, fingers working at the biometric cuffs on Alina's wrists. "These locks are coded to her blood."
From the shadows, a cold voice echoed, amplified by the acoustics of the chamber.
"You're too late."
Esmeralda stepped into the light, robed in frost-blue armor, a circlet of ancient origin on her brow. Behind her, hooded followers emerged—silent, faceless, cloaked in ivory furs.
"She is the Key. The Cryo-Queen will awaken," Esmeralda said. "And the world will finally kneel to true balance—frozen in eternal peace."
Damien drew his pistol. "Not if I freeze you first."
The sarcophagus trembled. Cracks spread like spiderwebs across its surface. Blue light erupted from within, casting dancing beams through the ice-covered walls.
"No," Fey hissed. "She's awakening."
Suddenly, the temperature plummeted. The wind screamed through the cavern like a banshee. Nora screamed as ice snaked across the floor, threatening to encase their boots.
Damien lunged for Alina, pulling her away just as the sarcophagus exploded.
Out of the blinding light rose a figure—tall, draped in translucent robes of living frost, hair white as snow, eyes burning with otherworldly fire.
The Cryo-Queen had awakened.
She surveyed them all with detached curiosity, as if deciphering who among them was prey... and who was worth keeping alive.
Esmeralda bowed low. "Mother of Silence. The world awaits your judgment."
The Cryo-Queen looked at her first. Then Nora. Then Alina—who blinked, suddenly lucid, now free from the bindings.
"You woke me," the Queen said, her voice crystalline and reverberating like chimes in a blizzard. "But you are not ready."
Without warning, she raised a single hand. Esmeralda was frozen solid in a block of transparent ice.
"No one commands me."
Location; Cold Network Mobile HQ – Siberia
Archer watched the feeds, lips twitching in disbelief. "She froze her own summoner?"
Ayuba turned pale. "This is beyond us. If she chooses to expand her reach... continents could fall into permanent winter."
Archer lit a fresh cigar. "Then we push the failsafe."
Ayuba hesitated. "You mean... Operation Eclipse?"
"If the world can't handle gods," Archer said, voice low, "then it's time we become devils."
Location; Himalayan Crypt – Emergency Extraction Point
Damien, carrying a weakened Alina, rushed alongside Nora and Fey through the collapsing corridors.
Behind them, the Cryo-Queen ascended the temple, her frost spreading across mountains, awakening other crypts buried in the Himalayas.
As their Blackwood extraction jet appeared through the clouds, Damien turned to Nora.
"She's not a weapon."
"No," Nora agreed. "She's a reckoning."