Chapter 316: White Frost (Part 1)

The final traces of Burning Earth still glowed faintly across Mythal when another snowflake fell.

Kai caught it in his palm. It melted instantly.

Another landed on the road nearby. This one didn’t melt. It became ice immediately, spreading a thin white sheet across the stone.

He looked down at it, brow furrowing.

Raze rubbed his arms, breath fogging in front of him. "That got cold fast."

"It’s getting colder," Sera said, looking toward the sky.

Gabriel said nothing, staring toward the horizon where a white haze had begun spreading across the outer districts.

Kai turned to her. "This is White Frost?"

"Yes." A pause. "And it gets worse."

[Calamity Four Detected.]

[White Frost.]

Kai’s eyes narrowed. A wave of cold swept through Mythal all at once.

WHOOSH.

The snow thickened instantly, frost racing across the streets, walls turning white, metal railings creaking as they contracted. Several hunters activated abilities on instinct.

Their skills flickered and died.

One stared at his own hand. "What?"

Another tried raising a barrier. A weak blue glow flared, then collapsed entirely. "My barrier..."

Lily was already checking the network. "Mana output is falling."

"How much?" Elden asked.

"Almost thirty percent already."

A hunter nearby tried forcing a stronger skill through. Nothing happened at all. "I can’t use it!"

"Stop forcing your abilities!" Mira shouted, and every head turned toward her. She pointed at the frozen ground spreading beneath their boots. "If the environment is suppressing mana, you’re wasting energy."

"Listen to her," Kai said. "Don’t burn through your reserves trying to overpower the cold."

The city barriers activated across the districts, holding steady for a moment before the frost reached them.

CRACK.

One collapsed outright. Another sagged, weakening fast.

"Output is dropping rapidly," Lily said, hands moving across her console.

"Can you compensate?" Elden asked.

"I’m trying." She rerouted power, and the barrier strengthened briefly, then weakened again just as fast. She sighed. "The environment is interfering with the mana circulation itself."

Kai looked toward the whitening skyline. "Then don’t fight the environment with mana."

"What do we use?" Elden asked.

Kai drew the Fractured Blade. "Everything else."

He raised his free hand and tested Water Authority, the frost beneath him beginning to melt, water spreading briefly across the ground.

CRACK.

It froze again almost instantly. He tried harder, more mana this time, and the ice melted only to reform seconds later.

"Stop using so much mana," Tiamat said.

He paused. "...You’re enjoying this."

"A little."

He laughed despite himself. "I knew it."

"The cold is suppressing the connection. You’re wasting energy trying to force your Authority through it."

He lowered his hand. "So brute force is out."

"For now."

He sheathed the thought along with the Authority and simply raised the Fractured Blade, no skill, no emulation, just the sword. A frozen creature burst from the snowbank ahead, all jagged ice and hollow eyes.

[Frost Stalker.]

It lunged. He stepped aside and cut through its neck in one clean motion.

SLASH!

It collapsed into shards. Another came at him from the side, and he ducked beneath its swipe, turned, and finished it the same way.

SLASH!

Sera watched, impressed. "You’re not using your abilities."

"Not unless I need them," he said, wiping frost off his blade.

She smiled. "Probably smart."

"If the cold wants us to waste mana—" he raised the sword again, "—we won’t give it any."

More creatures rose out of the snow, their bodies layered thick with ice. Hunters engaged them, and the usual overwhelming skills fizzled out into nothing. A fire-user summoned a flame barely the size of a candle and stared at it in disbelief. "...That’s it?"

"Weapons!" Mira shouted.

Hunters drew steel instead, and the fight turned brutally physical. Blades cracked against ice. Axes shattered frozen limbs. Spears found weak points between plating. Shields caught claws meant for softer targets. The hunters adapted fast, and Kai moved through the chaos without trying to dominate any of it, stepping in only where the line started to buckle.

A creature lunged at him, and he shifted his weight, the claw passing a hair from his face. His blade answered before he’d consciously decided to move.

SLASH!

He cut through the exposed joint at its shoulder. Another attacked from behind, and his body moved sideways on its own, Distortion pulling him clear without a conscious thought behind it. He spun, blade finding the weak point along its spine.

CRACK!

It shattered.

"Your Distortion remains unaffected," Tiamat noted.

"The System can’t suppress it."

"Apparently neither can the Calamity."

He smiled. "That’s useful."

He tried Air Run next, curious, taking one step upward. The ability activated, his foot settling against nothing solid — then the support vanished entirely, and he dropped, catching himself with a hasty Air Step before he hit the ground.

"...That’s annoying."

"The cold interferes with the ability," Tiamat said.

He looked up at the swirling white sky. "So Air Run isn’t reliable."

"Not in this environment."

He nodded, turning back toward the fight. "Then I’ll stay on the ground." A beat. "For now."

Snow kept building across the whole city, visibility dropping fast, frost climbing buildings, water freezing inside cracked pipes, stone splitting from the sudden cold. The last stubborn embers from Burning Earth’s scars sputtered out one by one.

"We’re losing several systems," Lily reported.

"Which ones?" Elden asked.

"Heating, environmental stabilization, two relay clusters."

"Can we repair them?"

She shook her head. "Not while the temperature’s falling this fast."

"Don’t repair them," Kai said.

Lily glanced up. "What?"

"Protect what’s still working."

She understood immediately. "We abandon the rest."

Gabriel stood watching the frost spread, her expression tightening. "Don’t underestimate the cold."

"You know something," Mira said, more statement than question.

"The old records describe White Frost as a disaster that gradually removes options." Gabriel gestured toward the hunters fighting through the snow. "First it suppresses mana." A pause. "Then it takes the buildings. Then infrastructure. Then the snow itself takes movement."

Kai’s expression sobered.

"By the end," she continued, "civilizations weren’t fighting the Frost anymore." She looked out at the whitening horizon. "They were fighting just to move."

Kai looked down at the frozen street beneath his boots. "...Then we move while we still can."

[White Frost Duration: 2:47.]

The temperature dropped again, sharper this time. Hunters began struggling against the cold itself, frost forming along armor seams.

"Stay together!" Mira ordered, and the groups fell into pairs on instinct, some hunters half-carrying teammates who’d gone too stiff to keep fighting on their own.

Kai summoned Tempest Fang, testing Storm Authority through it. A tiny arc of lightning flickered along the blade, then died.

"...Barely anything."

"You’re trying too hard again," Tiamat said.

He lowered the weapon. "Right."

He stopped chasing the special properties entirely, using the blade purely for its weight and edge instead, cutting through one frozen monster, then another, the weapon working exactly as well as a well-forged sword should. He switched to Bloodthorn next, same approach, same result.

Sera fought beside him, blocking a monster’s strike so he could finish it clean. Another approached, and she stepped in first this time, letting him land the killing blow a half-second later. Across the street, Mira directed two hunters into a flanking position. "Left side!" They turned, blocked, and a third hunter finished the creature from behind.

Nobody was overpowering anything. They were simply covering each other.

Kai watched it happen and thought, We’ve gotten too used to having overwhelming abilities. White Frost had stripped that away entirely.

And yet they were still fighting.

"Stop using so much mana," Tiamat said again as he walked through the snow.

He smiled. "You already told me that."

"You keep ignoring me."

"I’m experimenting."

"You’re wasting energy."

He sighed. "Fine."

He stopped reaching for his abilities almost entirely after that, relying on the sword, his footwork, and Distortion’s quiet guidance instead. The difference showed immediately, his mana consumption dropping, his whole body feeling lighter.

"You’re right," he admitted.

"I know."

He laughed. "Don’t get used to hearing that."

A creature burst from the snow without warning, and he didn’t see it coming at all. His body simply moved, one step sideways, the claw passing exactly where his head had been a moment earlier. He turned and cut it down.

SLASH!

He paused afterward, looking at the empty space he’d been standing in. "...It really is doing that automatically."

"It always has," Tiamat said.

"I just didn’t notice as much before."

"Because you had too many other options."

He smiled. "White Frost is forcing me to notice."

[White Frost Duration: 5:00.]

Halfway. He looked out at the city, snow blanketing every street, ice climbing every wall, the defensive network running well below capacity, hunters exhausted, mana suppressed nearly everywhere.

He breathed into his cupped hands. "...Halfway."

"We’re still here," Sera said.

He looked around at the group holding the line. "Then we’ll still be here at ten."

The snow thickened further, visibility collapsing fast. Ten meters. Then five. Then barely three.

"Everyone stay together!" Mira shouted.

Physical ropes went out, hunters tying themselves in pairs and lines. Lily placed glowing markers along the last known safe routes. Elden lit signal flares where the network couldn’t reach. Gabriel moved between clusters of Church members, keeping everyone accounted for. The city had turned into something closer to an expedition trapped inside a blizzard than a battlefield.

Kai walked point, Sera close behind him.

A hunter nearby tried his skill again. Nothing. "Again!" He tried once more. Still nothing.

Mira caught his arm. "Stop."

"But—"

"Save your mana."

He lowered his hand, reluctant. White Frost wasn’t just weakening abilities anymore. It was making them unreliable, and nobody could build a survival plan around something that might fail at the worst possible second.

Gabriel stopped walking suddenly, and Kai noticed immediately. "What?"

She stared at the snowfall. "The frost is spreading toward the heat."

He looked around. The remaining warm pockets across the city were the first ones vanishing under fresh snow.

"It’s consuming the temperature difference," Elden realized.

Lily checked the network readouts. "Then our heating systems are drawing it toward the city."

Gabriel nodded slowly.

"Turn them off," Kai said immediately.

Lily hesitated. "That’ll make the city colder."

"But it might slow the Frost."

She cut the systems. The last of the artificial warmth vanished from the network.

For a moment, the snowfall actually slowed.

Everyone noticed it at once. Kai smiled. "There."

Then the snow thickened again, heavier than before.

Gabriel’s eyes went wide. "...It noticed."

"The Calamity?" Kai asked.

She nodded. The Frost shifted direction, abandoning the warm zones entirely and spreading instead toward the largest concentration of life in the city.

Mythal’s own hunters.

Kai’s expression hardened. "So now it’s coming after us."

"It has changed its priority," Tiamat said.

He drew his sword. "Then we’ll change ours."

[White Frost Duration: 6:02.]

The temperature plummeted all at once, the snow turning nearly blinding, hunters shivering hard, some struggling just to lift their weapons.

"Stay together!" Kai called.

"Got it!" Sera answered.

"Protect the weaker hunters!" Mira ordered.

"Keeping the network alive!" Lily called back.

"Physical markers still holding!" Elden shouted.

"Nobody gets separated!" Gabriel added.

The whole team moved as a single unit through the whiteout.

Kai squinted into the swirling snow, and something moved in the distance, far too large to be another Frost Stalker. The ground around it rose in a slow wave, freezing solid wherever it passed.

His expression changed. "...That’s not a monster."

"What is it?" Sera asked.

He didn’t answer. The shape kept emerging from the white.

The fog broke for a heartbeat, revealing a gigantic silhouette standing far beyond the last row of buildings, its body built entirely from layered ice, shoulders rising higher than the rooftops around it. Its footsteps froze the ground on contact.

THOOM.

One step. The street beneath it turned to solid ice.

THOOM.

Another. The last flickering embers from Burning Earth’s scars went dark for good.

Kai’s grip tightened on the Fractured Blade. Tiamat stayed silent for a long moment.

Then: "The Frost has created a guardian."

His eyes narrowed. "A guardian?"

The giant lifted its head, two pale blue eyes opening slowly in the dark.

[White Frost Duration: 6:51.]

Kai stared at the creature, the whole city holding its breath around him.

"...So that’s the second half."

The giant took another step.

CRACK.

An enormous wave of frost tore outward from its feet, racing across the frozen street toward them.