In an age long forgotten, the world was bound by an ancient pact that severed the realm in two: a land for mortals and a domain for demons. Yet, the children of darkness are not known for their loyalty to ink and parchment. They breached the borders in two pivotal locations: the village of Kurayami-mura and the desolate Frozen Wastes—the fragile buffer between the Demon Realm and the Kingdom of the Holy Sword. A legendary Hero was meant to be their shield, but faced with the encroaching tides of malice, the Heavens sent a colder justice. They sent the Lord of Ice.

  ?In the Village of Spearmen, peace had become a memory. Nightly, demons descended like vultures. They wore the skin of men, but their curved horns and eyes burning with a thirst for slaughter betrayed their hellish origins. The village’s finest warriors fought with the desperation of the dying.

  ?Among the chaos, nine-year-old Roz stood paralyzed. A demon lunged, its claws inches from her throat, when a blade hissed through the air like a silver flash. With a sickening thud, the demon’s head rolled away, and its dark ichor sprayed across the pristine snow, staining the white world a jagged crimson.

  ?Above the carcass stood a boy, his chest heaving with exhaustion.

  "Roz... are you alright?"

  "Big brother Volak!"

  ?The small girl, barely reaching a meter and a quarter in height, threw herself into his arms. Her brother, a youth of thirteen standing at 158 centimeters, held her firmly despite his trembling hands.

  "Brother, who are they? I'm scared," she whispered into his chest.

  Volak placed a steadying hand on her head, his voice hardening with protective steel. "Are you worried while your brother is beside you, silly? Anyone who dares to touch you is already dead. Do not fear."

  ?Their respite was short-lived. Three more demons emerged from the shadows. Volak lunged, but these were no common grunts; they moved with a blurring, supernatural speed. Realizing he couldn't catch them with steel alone, Volak slammed his sword into the frozen earth. He channeled his inner essence into the permafrost, causing the ground to buckle and crack. As the demons faltered, Volak surged forward, reaping the life of the first and then the second. But as he turned, the third demon was already mid-leap, aiming for his exposed back.

  ?Suddenly, a spear whistled through the wind, skewering the demon’s torso.

  It was Volak’s father.

  "Are you hurt, Volak?"

  "No, Father. Thank you for saving me."

  His father’s gaze was stern yet filled with unspoken pride. "Saving you? I was saving your sister. I raised a man so that I would never have to worry about him as long as I draw breath." He gestured toward the fray. "Now, guard her. I shall handle the rest of this filth."

  ?The tide seemed to turn for the Spearmen, until a Demon Sorcerer—who had been watching the slaughter with chilling indifference—raised his staff. At his command, the severed limbs and shattered corpses of the fallen demons began to twitch. They crawled toward one another, stitching themselves back together in a grotesque display of necromancy.

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  ?"The severed pieces... they're reforming! This is impossible!" a warrior cried in despair.

  ?Volak retreated toward the leader’s hut, where the other children were hidden in the cellar. "Roz, get inside and bolt the door! This is getting ugly. I’ll stay here. Go!"

  As Roz turned to flee, a speed-type demon bypassed the line, its blade-like claws whistling toward her arm. Volak threw himself into the path of the strike, the blade tearing through his own flesh instead.

  "Brother!"

  "Don't look back! I'm fine!"

  ?Gripping his sword through the searing pain, Volak fought like a cornered wolf. Two demons circled him, attacking in a relentless rhythm that pushed him to the brink of collapse. "They’re coordinating... from both sides... I can't..."

  ?A sudden gust of razor-sharp wind cut through the air, forcing the demons back.

  "Need a hand?"

  Volak gritted his teeth. "Iris?! The last person I wanted help from... my rival."

  The girl smirked, her eyes fixed on the enemy. "Really? I don't recall seeing you as a rival. Are you joking? Do I look like I'm joking?"

  "That’s the attitude that annoys me," Volak growled. "We are equals in strength."

  "If that helps you sleep at night. But for now, focus!"

  ?The two became a whirlwind of steel, carving through the demonic ranks. But the horror continued; while some demons stayed dead, others simply reformed. The sorcerer remained invisible, pulling the strings of the macabre puppet show.

  "More of them? Fine! Let's see who can claim the most heads, Volak!"

  "You’re challenging me now?!" Volak laughed bitterly. "Fine! You won't outkill me!"

  ?They unleashed their full power, hacking the monsters into fragments. This time, the regeneration slowed. Only half the demons rose.

  "Look! Their power is waning! Let's end this!"

  ?But the demons had a final, cruel trick. The pieces that didn't reform didn't die—they transformed into living shackles. Hands of dead demons erupted from the snow, gripping Volak’s and Iris’s ankles and wrists.

  "What?! It’s a trap!"

  Volak tried to sever the hand holding him, but the flesh merely split and fused back together instantly. He looked up in horror to see Iris and the other villagers pinned, their movements frozen by the grasping dead.

  ?In the cellar, Roz heard the muffled screams. Driven by a frantic need to save her brother, she burst from the hut—a fatal mistake. The demons immediately turned their predatory gaze upon the lone, defenseless child.

  ?"ROZ!!!" Volak and Iris screamed in unison, straining against their fleshy bonds. Her father was swarmed, blocked by a wall of monsters every time he tried to reach her. Roz’s heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. She saw the glint of a demon's teeth. Death was a heartbeat away.

  ?"I have you now, you wretched, deceitful thing."

  ?A voice, cold enough to freeze the very soul, resonated through the village.

  "Ice Magic: Absolute Zero."

  ?Before the demon could blink, he was encased in a pillar of solid ice. A violent blizzard erupted from nowhere, a white-out of frost that swept through the village, instantly flash-freezing every demon in its path into statues of jagged crystal.

  ?The stranger descended from the sky, landing softly before the trembling girl.

  "Little one," he said softly.

  Roz looked up, shaking with terror and awe. The man unclasped his heavy, fur-lined cloak and wrapped it around her small frame.

  "It is alright now. There is nothing left to fear—because I am here."

  ?He stood tall, his presence radiating an aura of absolute authority.

  "I am Hyoga, the Lord of Ice, Seventh Knight of the Order. I have come to ensure that the tragedy of this day... never happens again."

  ?As he stood against the backdrop of the frozen battlefield, Roz looked at him as if a god had stepped out of the legends. For a moment, even the wind held its breath.