"Ice does not scream. It endures."
The battlefield changed the moment Stellar stepped forward.
Where Kaelus's wind tore the sky apart, and Darius's shadows swallowed it whole—
Stellar's presence silenced everything.
Not with fear.
Not with pressure.
With stillness.
The scorched ground beneath her boots whitened. Cracks sealed themselves with creeping frost. Smoke froze mid-curl, hanging in the air like shattered glass.
Even the distant roars of monsters dulled, their echoes swallowed by a sudden, unnatural calm.
She exhaled slowly.
Mist bloomed from her lips.
And the world listened.
Stellar Vaelwyn did not look intimidating at first glance.
Silver-white hair tied back in a loose braid. Pale blue eyes calm to the point of seeming detached. A lean frame, wrapped in layered academy attire reinforced with frost-runes along the seams.
But those who knew what she was—
Or rather, who she descended from—never mistook her silence for weakness.
She was the God Candidate of Queen Frost.
The Primordial Ice Sovereign.
The goddess who ruled over stillness, endurance, and the cold that outlasts fire, storms, and even stars.
And Stellar was her chosen heir.
The creature emerged from beneath the frozen rubble with a sound like splitting mountains.
A Glacial Ravager.
A World-Level entity born from ancient ice dimensions where time barely moved. Its body was a fusion of crystalized muscle and jagged frost-bone, four massive arms ending in serrated claws. Its back bristled with frozen spines that radiated killing cold.
Its breath alone dropped the temperature dozens of degrees.
This was no simple beast.
It was a walking extinction.
Students nearby staggered back as its aura crushed down like a blizzard.
Someone shouted—
"DON'T ENGAGE IT—!"
Too late.
The Ravager locked onto Stellar.
And charged.
The monster moved with terrifying speed, its massive body skidding across the frost-covered ground, claws tearing trenches deep enough to swallow buildings.
Stellar did not raise her voice.
She did not panic.
She stepped forward.
Her foot touched the ground—
And the battlefield froze solid.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
The Ravager's charge halted mid-stride as ice crawled up its legs, locking joints, sealing muscle, stopping momentum like time itself had decided enough.
Stellar lifted her hand.
A single, delicate motion.
"Crack."
The ice binding the Ravager detonated outward into a thousand razor-sharp shards, ripping into its body from the inside.
The monster roared, pain echoing like breaking glaciers.
But it didn't fall.
It adapted.
Its body thickened, frost layers reforging faster, denser.
The Ravager slammed its fists into the ground—
BOOOOOOM!
A shockwave of glacial energy erupted, shattering Stellar's ice field and hurling her backward.
She flipped mid-air, landed lightly on one knee.
Her expression never changed.
"…Good."
Stellar rose.
And then she moved.
Her style was nothing like Eryndor's storm-driven brutality or Rein's dominion-charged aggression.
Her martial art was precise.
Measured.
Economical.
A style passed down through the Vaelwyn bloodline, refined by Queen Frost herself.
⟬ Frost Vein Flow ⟭
Every step formed ice beneath her feet.
Every motion redirected force rather than meeting it head-on.
The Ravager swung—
She slid past the blow, palm striking its elbow joint.
CRACK.
Ice formed inside the joint, expanding instantly.
The arm shattered at the bend.
The monster howled.
Stellar pivoted, sweeping its legs with a spinning kick infused with condensed frost. Ice climbed its knees, locking them.
She followed with a precise elbow to the chest—
⟬ Winter Pulse ⟭
A focused burst of freezing energy detonated point-blank, blasting a crater into the Ravager's torso.
The beast stumbled back, chunks of ice and crystal raining down.
Students watching from afar stood frozen—not from cold, but awe.
Kaelus muttered—
"…She's not fighting it."
Darius finished—
"She's dismantling it."
The Ravager roared again, its body glowing with a deep, ancient blue.
It was drawing on its core.
Preparing a glacial annihilation breath capable of freezing an entire district solid.
The air screamed as temperature plummeted.
Stellar closed her eyes.
And for the first time—
Her aura changed.
The frost around her deepened, not brighter, but older.
Her silver hair lifted, strands glowing faintly.
A presence descended.
Not oppressive.
Not violent.
Regal.
Queen Frost watched through her.
Stellar opened her eyes.
They were no longer pale blue.
They were arctic gold.
"You are not eternal,"
she said calmly.
"You only borrowed winter."
She raised both hands.
The world dimmed—not darkened, but muted.
Sound softened.
Movement slowed.
Energy thickened.
A Domain Fragment bloomed around Stellar.
An endless frozen expanse under a pale, cold sky.
At its center—
A crystalline throne of ice and snow.
The Ravager's breath attack fired—
And froze in mid-air.
A cone of destruction, suspended, powerless.
Stellar stepped forward through it.
Each footstep echoed like cracking ice across eternity.
She placed her hand on the monster's chest.
⟬ Absolute Zero Palm ⟭
There was no explosion.
No spectacle.
Just silence.
The Ravager's entire body crystallized instantly—every molecule locked, frozen beyond reaction.
Stellar stepped back.
And snapped her fingers.
SHATTER.
The monster collapsed into glittering frost dust.
Gone.
The Domain faded.
The battlefield returned.
Stellar's eyes returned to blue.
She exhaled softly.
For a moment, she swayed—
Then steadied herself.
Kaelus jogged over, grinning.
"That was… terrifyingly elegant."
Darius nodded.
"You fight like winter itself."
Stellar allowed herself a faint smile.
"I was raised for this."
She looked toward the frozen remains, her voice quieter.
"My family guarded the Northern Gates for generations.
Queen Frost doesn't choose heirs lightly."
She paused.
"I don't fight to dominate."
"I fight so others don't have to."
Long ago, when the world first learned cold—
Queen Frost granted a fragment of her essence to a mortal clan who stood against extinction.
The Vaelwyns.
Their blood carried resilience.
Endurance.
The ability to survive when others broke.
Stellar was born during the coldest winter in recorded history.
She did not cry.
She opened her eyes.
And the snow fell gently for the first time in weeks.
High above the battlefield, unseen—
The sky-figure observed.
The figure smiled.
"Queen Frost has chosen well."