Light exploded around us, blinding.
For a moment, I felt nothing—there was no ground beneath my feet and all I could register was the sensation of falling through endless white.
Then, I realized I was on solid ground and the endless white was all around me.
Snow.
I looked around wildly, the freezing air burning my lungs.
We weren't at the industrial site anymore, but on top of a mountain somewhere, the area we were in lit only by the pale moonlight and surrounded by sparse trees.
Everything was quiet. Snow fell in thick, heavy flakes, coating my shoulders.
My coat's thermal regulation had completely failed and the cold cut straight through to my skin.
The change from the Distorted Realm blazing with fire was so strong, it was almost a shock.
I wiped away the sweat on my forehead, shuddering.
Penguin, still clutching my sleeve, had shifted back into his penguin form and trembled violently before launching into a small tantrum and headbutting me repeatedly.
"Hey! Hey!" I tried to stop him, gently. "I understand! I'm sorry I didn't listen to you."
Penguin chirped louder, then flopped down into my arms, shaking.
Right. He was really scared.
This sucked.
I shivered in the cold.
"Llewellyn?" I called out.
Llewellyn was a few feet away, huddled in his coat, eyeing our surroundings.
"What happened? Where are we?"
As I walked closer, my teeth chattered.
"On a mountain somewhere," Llewellyn said, his breath forming thick clouds. "Looks like the System is malfunctioning."
I vanished my sword into my Inventory, then fumbled with my System interface, trying to get a location reading, but the window distorted, unreadable.
"Yeah, my interface is glitching."
"Limited functionality. I'm assuming we destroyed the Knot but the System couldn't disperse the magic outburst and had to turn it into something."
"Like a Dungeon," I guessed.
Great.
Llewellyn frowned, huddling deeper into his coat.
"I don't think it's a full Dungeon. Just an environment to let the residual magic dissipate. It should dissolve on its own."
The wind picked up, driving the snow horizontally.
Llewellyn's teeth had started to chatter too. My fingers were already going numb, and Penguin had burrowed himself inside my coat.
"We need shelter," Llewellyn said, his breath turning into puffs of vapor.
Penguin turned into a fire fox, yipping frantically, before leaping out of my coat and starting to run in the snow.
"Hey!" I yelled, starting after him.
"He might know where to go," Llewellyn said. "Let's follow him."
We trudged after Penguin's glow through the thickening snowfall, but it looked like he was having trouble maintaining his fire fox form.
As soon as I reached him, he looked up at me with pleading eyes and turned back into a Penguin, burrowing back into my coat.
This had never happened before. Llewellyn tried something with his sword and gave up, putting it away.
"I think this environment doesn't allow Fire," he said, teeth still chattering. "The Distorted Realm was mostly Fire and this is its counterpart. That's probably why your creature is struggling."
However, it looked like Penguin had brought us far enough.
"Look!" I pointed to a dark shape in the distance. "Isn't that a cabin?"
Llewellyn followed my gaze. "Looks like it," he said. "Let's move."
We pushed through the snow, which was already ankle-deep and getting deeper by the minute. Each step was a struggle.
The cold had seeped into my bones, making my movements stiff and clumsy.
"You've probably saved our lives twice today already, you know," I told Penguin, through my chattering teeth. "You should be really proud of yourself."
Penguin let out a chirp and shivered some more.
"My coat's thermal regulation is dead," I said, hugging Penguin tighter. "Yours too?"
Llewellyn just panted out, "Yeah."
The cabin seemed to be getting no closer, though we'd been walking for what felt like ages. My legs were growing heavier with each step, and my face had gone completely numb. Sweat had frozen on my skin.
Penguin poked his head out of my coat, chirping anxiously. He turned into a fire fox, trying to generate heat, but he couldn't maintain it, his flames getting dimmer, until he morphed back in pain.
"It's fine," I told him, tucking him back into my coat. "Stay inside. We're almost there."
Through the curtain of snow, I could finally make out the cabin clearly—a wooden building with a sloped roof already heavy with snow.
We pushed forward with increased urgency. My feet had gone completely numb, and I stumbled more than once, Llewellyn's quick reflexes keeping me upright.
Finally, we reached the steps leading up to the porch.
Llewellyn went first, climbing quickly despite the ice. I followed more slowly, my frozen limbs refusing to cooperate.
Llewellyn reached the door, grasped the handle and turned.
It opened easily.
I nearly collapsed with relief. Llewellyn stepped inside cautiously, and I followed, shutting the door behind us to keep out the cold.
We fumbled around looking for a light switch, which surprisingly worked.
The main room was large, with a stone fireplace at one end—but there was no fire in it. A bed was pushed against the far wall.
Everything was neat and well-maintained, but there was no sign of anyone.
"Hello?" Llewellyn called out. "Is anyone here?"
Silence answered him.
Penguin wriggled out of my coat and hopped to the floor.
Llewellyn examined the cabin with a critical eye. "System-generated, most likely. A safe house."
"Does what you said about fire apply to this place too?"
My teeth were still chattering.
Penguin turned into a fire fox briefly and tried to breathe fire into the fireplace, but it didn't work.
He looked at me in despair, then turned back into a penguin and ran toward me again, jumping into my coat.
"It's fine," I said. "At least this place is sheltered. There are blankets. It won't take long."
"Blankets!" Llewellyn repeated suddenly, as if he'd remembered something.
He dragged me and Penguin towards the bed and took something out of his inventory.
"What?" I said, slightly alarmed. "What are you doing?"
He kicked off his shoes.
"Take your shoes off. Let's just sit on the bed with our backs to the wall. I have—"
"Wait, wait. Your coat's soaked through."
"Have you seen yourself?" Llewellyn replied, but removed that too.
A System window materialized between us, glitching violently:
[System Notification: Environmental Hazard! Extreme Cold Detected!]
No kidding!
Besides, now it was working?
Though "working" seemed like a big word, considering how much it was glitching.
[System Notification: Safe house discovered! +500 Coins awarded!]
Seriously—who needed Coins now?
The System wasn't done.
[Emergency Alert: Shared Body Heat Emergency Subroutine Activated! Sharing body heat is highly recommended!!!]
"We already figured that out," Llewellyn said, swiping his window away, apparently unimpressed by the amount of exclamation marks.
The System ignored him, clearly trying to push out one final notification.
[Survival probability without shared body heat: 31%!!!]
—it managed, before spluttering out and dying completely.
…Great.