It was a peaceful dream—warm sunlight spilling across endless fields, the sound of wind brushing gently against tall grass, the distant echo of laughter that felt familiar but just out of reach.
Then the voices came.
Faint at first.
Distant.
Like whispers carried by a storm.
"We have to kill the terror trapped in the ice."
The wind stopped.
The warmth faded.
"No matter what, we have to kill it. If we don't, everything will end."
"This is the only way for humanity to survive."
Chino stirred in her sleep, her brows knitting slightly.
"…kill the terror… trapped in the ice…"
The words slipped from her lips unconsciously.
Something cold pressed against her back.
The warmth of the dream vanished completely as she woke up to the cruelty of the world.
"Wake up."
Her eyes opened.
At first, everything was blurred. Her vision swam as her mind struggled to catch up with reality. She blinked slowly, her breath shallow.
Cold.
That was the first thing she felt.
A biting, unnatural cold that seeped into her bones made her shiver unconsciously, and she stood up.
She frowned as she pushed herself up, her hand pressing against a smooth surface.
'Ice?' She stared at the hard ground below her that had turned into ice decades ago, and she stomped her foot down out of curiosity and frowned when nothing happened.
"Hey.....let me out."
Chino's heart skipped a beat, and she licked her lips after feeling that they were dry and slowly turned around, ready to run at any moment.
"W-what?"
Before her was a pale-looking girl with strikingly white hair that reached her legs.
Her skin looked almost translucent under the dim light, as if she had never known warmth.
She was completely still, frozen in ice. Her eyes were half-lidded, filled with emptiness and loneliness.
Her expressionless face and those lifeless eyes made every bone in Chino's body scream.
Something was wrong. Something was very wrong!
Her instincts told her to run.
To run as far as she could from the girl frozen in front of her.
"W-who are you?" Chino asked with weariness in her voice.
What answered her was silence. The girl didn't react, as if she was indifferent towards everything.
Well, she can't react—frozen in all that ice, right?
Hm, yeah… so whose voice did I hear, or did I imagine it?
Chino stood there in silence and started observing the girl in ice. Her eyes moved up and down the girl, and she only realized that this girl…
'Yeah, she's definitely naked. How indecent!' Chino said with a smug grin on her face.
"Eh?" Chino walked closer to the girl despite her body trembling with the urge to run away, a feeling she didn't quite understand.
This girl couldn't be some dangerous monster, right?
Surely not—she's too cute!
'Ugh, enough with all these unnecessary thoughts. What was it that I saw again?'
Oh… right! Her face is quite rosy right now. Is she blushing?
A voice resounded in her head as if answering her question.
"Y-you fucking PERVERT!"
Chino's body trembled, and she pointed her trembling finger towards the girl. "Y-you can speak!?.. W-wait, I'm not a pervert!"
Chino said with a righteous tone, as if she wasn't grinning at seeing a nude body a few seconds ago.
The ice trembled for a second and stopped. She heard the voice again, but this time weaker.
"Can you stop looking at me like that?"
The voice trembled with a hint of anger.
"S-sorry." Chino covered both her eyes with her hands and sneakily stole a few glances at the girl through the gap of her hands.
She really is quite cute and small.
Snowy white hair.
Lifeless blue eyes.
Pale skin and a surprisingly small build for someone who invoked fear in Chino's body.
"Can you free me?" the girl asked.
Chino stood there without answering that question, as if deciding if she should or not, and finally she opened her mouth.
"What's your name?" Chino asked.
"I have no name," the girl answered.
Silence followed before Chino opened her mouth once more.
"Why are you trapped in that ice?" Chino asked another question.
Depending on what answer she would get, she would decide whether to help the girl or leave her.
She wasn't going to help someone she knew nothing about in this creepy place made up of snow and ice.
"I don't know. I just woke up a few hours ago." Her answer came, and it placed a frown on Chino's face.
She stood there pondering whether to help this strange girl in front of her.
She had read in ancient texts and books in the academy's library that some ancient beings could take the form of children.
If it were someone else with common sense who saw a girl trapped in ice, they would immediately do one simple thing.
Turn around and run!
There's no way a girl sealed in a danger zone could be human.
This was definitely one of those horrors of the world that could threaten the peace of the world.
Wait… do we even have peace to begin with?
Of course, there are some exceptions—for example, a guy seeing a girl inside ice and immediately trying to free her so he can hit her.
And not in the physical sense, mind you.
Some people in this world would actually free this girl as if they had unlimited lives or had the totem of the undead.
Reality has no respawn point.
Chino was one of those crazy people, because the reason she was still standing there instead of getting the fuck out of here was because the girl in front of her was cute.
"Hey, let me out. I feel uncomfortable here," the girl said with a hint of sorrow.
"You're not some evil monster ready to attack me once you're free, right?" Chino asked and licked her dry lips for a second time.
This whole situation was nerve-wracking. She could help the girl and find out that she's a monster a few seconds later, or leave her here and live in guilt if this really was just a lost girl.
"....I understand. You're just like the other group that came here. They thought I'm a monster and immediately ran away.
Everything makes sense. Why help someone trapped in ice? I do smell like danger," the girl said, her voice trembling slightly with sadness and loneliness.
Chino frowned and clenched her hands while trembling, then slowly loosened them and sighed.
Her heart felt a stabbing pain.
Pain she didn't know existed inside her heart, as if something that had been sleeping for years woke up.
"Fine, I'll free you… so how do I do that?"
If she's actually a monster, I'll just have to run fast enough or just accept my fate.
[The child of stars wishes to form a contract with you.]
[Accept/Decline]
Chino stared at the transparent screen in front of her with bewilderment.
Something deep inside her told her:
If you walk away now… you'll regret it.
She took a deep breath, her hand moving towards the screen, and she pressed accept.
[You've successfully formed a contract.]
[You've gained the following rewards....]
Crack.
Something immediately caught her attention. The boulder made of ice started splitting apart, with cracks slowly spreading.
Crack.
Crack.
As if announcing her freedom to the world, the ice broke apart in a small explosion, and the ice turned into sparkling fragments that rained down everywhere. Chino looked like she was in a meteor shower.
Chino fell on her butt and groaned, displeasure written all over her face.
She slowly stood up and focused her attention back on the girl who stood in front of her.
The space between them froze, and a bad premonition rose inside her mind.
Without the ice, Chino could see the figure of this girl much more clearly.
The girl's hair touched the frozen floor of ice, shining with an inhuman aura.
Her eyes were hidden beneath her bangs as she slowly turned to face Chino.
Her mouth opened, revealing two pointy fangs.
Yeah, she's definitely not human! Chino gulped as she took a step back.
The girl's mouth curled upward into a beautiful smile. The wind blew her bangs up, exposing two red and blue eyes shining faintly with black starry pupils.
"Thanks for freeing me," and just like that, the girl fell on the ice on her back.
"She lost consciousness?" Chino muttered, biting her lower lip, and quickly approached the girl and picked her up.
Her body was cold without a hint of warmth. 'What kind of mess have I gotten myself into?' Chino thought and sighed.
Click. Click.
Distracted by the sudden noise, Chino turned around and immediately paled.
[You've encountered a 5TH tier monster: Frozen Blade Spider.]
"Fuck."