The blue fruits were delicious. That was Chloe’s final conclusion after devouring nearly every fruit hanging from the strange tree. They were sweet, juicy, and refreshing. Each bite felt like drinking cold water after wandering through a desert. The hunger that had plagued her for days disappeared almost instantly. And she cleared the tree of fruits.
"..."
Satisfied, she returned to her cave, unaware or just too focused on sothing else to notice the pair of malicious eyes staring at her. The frozen landscape outside had beco darker as evening approached. Snow drifted through the air while icy winds howled across the mountains.
She didn’t feel any of it, not the cold, not the wind, and definitely not the freezing temperatures. Her SS-Rank ability made such things aningless. The cave welcod her like a second ho. She found her usual spot near a wall of ice and sat down.
Silence filled the cavern. For the first ti in days, Chloe wasn’t hungry. She wasn’t cold, she wasn’t fighting, and she wasn’t running. She was simply... resting. Her icy blue eyes slowly drifted toward the cave entrance. Without aning to, she found herself thinking about soone. Silas. The pink-haired idiot. The boy who sohow turned every situation into chaos, and a small smile appeared on her face.
"He’d probably eat those fruits without checking them, too." The thought amused her. Actually, knowing Silas, he’d probably eat twice as many, then sohow convince himself it was a good idea. The smile lingered. Eventually, her eyes beca heavy. Sleep claid her quickly, and the cave returned to silence, while the monster or whatever creature outside waited. It was a mystery why it hadn’t attacked her after so long.
Hours passed, and the world outside darkened completely. Night arrived, then eventually midnight. Chloe’s eyes suddenly snapped open.
"Ah..." A pained sound escaped her lips. Sothing was wrong. Heat. She was feeling the heat. An unbearable heat was spreading through her body. She sat up abruptly, her breathing coming out ragged. The cave seed strangely brighter. At first, she couldn’t understand why. Then she looked at her hands and found out that they were glowing red. Her pale skin had turned crimson while thin wisps of steam rose from her arms.
"What..." Her voice sounded weak and confused. She instinctively touched her forehead and felt a searing heat. Her skin was burning. Her entire body was burning, and the heat made the cave floor under her begin to lt.
The ice turned to water, and the water turned to steam, while the temperature continued rising. Pain exploded throughout her body.
"AAAAAH!" Her scream echoed through the cavern. The agony was unlike anything she had ever experienced. Every muscle, every organ, every drop of blood... it felt as though molten tal had replaced them all. She collapsed onto her hands and knees, causing the cave to tremble dangerously.
The ice walls lted rapidly around her. Chunks of frozen rock fell from above. The pain only intensified. Her eyes had beco completely red and bloodshot, almost glowing. Veins spread beneath her skin like burning cracks. She had been poisoned. She could feel it. The poison was working its way through her entire body.
The fruits had been poisoned, or perhaps they had never been ant for ordinary consumption. Unfortunately for Chloe, she had eaten enough to poison a small army. Another scream escaped her lips, and the heat beca more unbearable.
But her Absolute Zero ability reacted instinctively. Cold mana erupted from her core, and the poison responded imdiately. A fierce battle began inside her. Heat against cold, poison against power. Chloe’s body had beco the battlefield. Hours passed, and the struggle continued. Her flesh cracked, healed, and cracked again. Her body alternated between freezing and burning. Steam filled the cave while ice spread across the walls and lted. Then froze again.
The process repeated endlessly, until finally, her body stopped moving, and the cave beca silent. Chloe lay motionless on the frozen ground. The poison had won, or so it seed. For the second ti since entering the rift, Chloe Montreal died.
Silence reigned for several long minutes. Then sothing strange happened. A single strand of icy-blue mana erged from her chest, followed by another, and another. The mana gathered around her body layer after layer, slowly forming a crystalline shell.
In no ti, a cocoon, pure white, beautiful, and cold enough to freeze the surrounding cave instantly, was ford. The lted water solidified, the steam vanished, and the temperature plumted, while the cocoon continued growing larger, denser, and brighter.
Ancient-looking snowflake patterns appeared across its surface. Strange runes illuminated one after another, the sa runes that were hidden under the stream where she had first awakened. The cave trembled while a distant rumble echoed through the mountain. The monster, which had gotten out of its hiding place to enter the cave and finish the job, halted in its tracks, eyes widening in shock and fear. It swiftly turned and retreated, passing its hiding place and leaving the area forever. It had felt sothing. Sothing that could end it with just a gaze.
Everything beca still once more. The cocoon remained silent and motionless. Whatever was happening inside was beyond Chloe’s understanding. It was beyond human understanding. But one thing, however, was certain. The girl who had entered that cave days ago no longer existed. She had already changed after her awakening. This was just the second phase of it. Whatever erged from that cocoon in the future would not be the sa Chloe Montreal.
***
As for Silas, he had managed to "talk" to the orcs "peacefully." None of them was lying on the ground with a few bruises. He was a good and benevolent guy after all. Even Gromda felt sorry for them. They should have just listened to them, but unlike her parents and herself, the rest of the orcs were uncivilized and more barbaric. Silas had to beat them up, and what a good ti they ca for him to test his new gauntlets.
It was comical seeing about ten monstrous, eight-foot-tall green giants lying around with pained expressions and bruises on their bodies.
"Anyone wanna try again? I will be gentle..." Silas said with a beautiful smile, his eyes glowing, but to the orcs, he looked like the devil they’d heard of in the stories.
"Tch! Pathetic. I have sowhere else to be. Heal yourselves, head back to the village, and make it habitable. Anyone who slacks off will answer to ."
The orcs visibly shivered, shocking Gromda. The past three days had been hectic, but those three days had brought more of the true Silas out, and one of them was his dominant nature. It made her insides squirm and pussy clench. That gaze, that aura...
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