Damon awoke without any sense of transition.
There was no interrupted dream. There was no slow recovery of consciousness that normally accompanies a sleeping body. One instant there was darkness.
The next, there was only white.
Absolute white.
The horizon disappeared in all directions under a silent storm of fine snow. There was no sun. There was no moon. There were no visible clouds. The sky was just a pale vastness that rged with the ground itself, transforming the entire world into an infinite expanse of ice and emptiness.
For a few seconds he remained motionless.
Confused.
Observing.
Trying to understand.
Then he took a step.
His foot sank several inches into the snow.
The sound was muffled.
Soft.
Strangely distant.
Damon frowned.
One more step.
Then another.
The snow continued to crumble under his weight as icy winds swept across the endless landscape.
But sothing was wrong.
Very wrong.
He should feel cold.
Anyone should feel cold.
This place felt colder than any mountain he had ever visited. Colder than any winter. Colder than any glacial technique he had ever used.
And yet...
Nothing.
No sensation.
No discomfort.
No pain.
It was like walking within the very concept of winter without suffering any consequences.
Damon slowed his pace.
He looked at his own hands.
And imdiately froze.
Literally.
Not because of the environnt.
Because of what he saw.
His fingers looked different.
The skin was absurdly pale.
Tiny crystals crawled across parts of his knuckles.
Bluish veins could be seen beneath the surface of his skin like frozen rivers.
He turned his hands over.
He observed his wrists.
Then he looked at his own arms.
The cold seed to exist there.
Inside him.
But without causing pain.
Without causing suffering.
As if his body had beco part of that world.
"What happened to ?"
His voice echoed weakly in the white vastness.
No answer ca.
Only the distant sound of the wind.
Then he noticed sothing else.
His hair.
Instinctively he brought one hand to his head.
Strands slipped through his fingers.
Long.
Very long.
Much longer than they should be.
Damon pulled a strand forward.
White.
Completely white.
There wasn’t even a single trace of its original color.
The strands of hair hung down to the base of his back, swaying gently in the freezing wind.
He stood there for a few seconds, staring at it.
Trying to understand.
Trying to organize his thoughts.
Trying to figure out if it was so kind of dream.
Or perhaps a hallucination caused by the coma.
Or perhaps...
Sothing worse.
A small blue light appeared before his eyes.
Damon instinctively recoiled.
The light flickered.
Then words began to erge within it.
Not written on air.
Nor engraved on any surface.
They simply existed.
Like concepts being inserted directly into his mind.
[You have entered a mory of the Celestial Ice Demon.]
The silence seed to deepen.
Damon read the sentence once.
Then again.
Then a third.
None of the readings made it any more logical.
"Celestial Ice Demon?"
The na alone was absurd.
But the feeling that arose in his chest was worse.
Because so part of him recognized it.
Not rationally.
Not through mories.
But through instinct.
As if sothing buried deep within his existence had reacted to those words. An uncomfortable feeling ran down his spine.
The world remained silent.
Still.
Until sothing finally changed.
Very far away.
Almost at the edge of his vision.
A figure appeared.
Damon imdiately raised his head.
The silhouette moved slowly through the white storm.
Step by step.
Without haste.
Without hesitation.
Like soone walking along a road they knew perfectly.
He remained motionless, watching.
The figure gradually approached.
The snow swirled around her.
The winds seed to follow her.
And as the distance decreased, Damon began to see details.
It was a woman.
Young.
Or at least she looked young.
But there was sothing profoundly wrong with her appearance.
Her skin possessed an almost impossible pallor.
White.
Not a pallor caused by disease.
Not even for lack of sun.
It was the sa shade as the snow itself.
As if she had been born from that frozen world.
Her hair was equally white.
Long.
Silky.
Moving slowly in the wind as it fell well below her waist.
Her eyes caught his attention imdiately.
Blue.
But not just blue.
They were so clear they seed made of liquid ice.
Beautiful.
Hypnotizing.
And strangely empty.
Like a winter sky incapable of producing warmth.
She wore a white hanfu adorned with delicate jade-green details that ran along the sleeves and collar in elegant patterns.
The clothes would be beautiful under any circumstances.
But in that environnt they seed almost unreal.
Like a painting walking through the snow.
Then Damon realized the worst part.
She was freezing.
Not taphorically.
Not even partially.
Her body seed to be slowly consud by ice.
Small crystalline layers ran down her neck.
They climbed up her jaw.
They ran down her fingers.
Parts of her skin took on a translucent appearance before returning to normal.
Then they froze again.
As if her body were waging a silent war against sothing impossible to stop.
Her breathing also seed erratic.
Irregular.
Trembling.
Heavy.
Each exhalation released dense clouds of white vapor.
Like soone constantly fighting to stay alive.
Even so, she kept walking.
Without complaining.
Without hesitating.
Without showing pain.
Just moving forward.
Step after step.
Step after step.
Step after step.
Damon watched this for several seconds.
Then he tried to speak.
"Hey."
Nothing.
The woman kept walking.
She didn’t even blink.
"Can you hear ?"
No reaction.
He raised his voice.
"Hey!"
Still nothing.
She walked through the snow as if he didn’t exist.
As if he were invisible.
Or worse.
As if he were incapable of existing in that place.
Damon watched the woman pass a few ters away.
His eyes followed every detail.
Her clothes.
Her hair.
Her unsteady breathing.
The crystals slowly growing on her skin.
The strange determination on her face.
Then sothing caught his attention.
The footprints.
Or rather.
The absence of them.
She walked on the snow.
But she left no marks.
None.
Not a single one.
The ground remained untouched after her passage.
As if she weren’t a person.
As if she were just an echo.
A recording.
A mory.
Damon looked again at the words that still lingered in his mind.
[You entered a mory of the Celestial Ice Demon.]
Understanding slowly dawned on him.
"A mory..."
His gaze returned to the woman.
"...she is the mory."
The figure continued moving forward.
Always in the sa direction.
Always at the sa speed.
As if incapable of acting any other way.
Damon decided to follow her.
Not because he had answers.
But because she was the only thing that existed in that world.
And because so part of him already suspected that this was no coincidence.
The snow crunched beneath his feet as he advanced.
The wind gradually increased.
But the woman remained the sa.
Neither faster.
Nor slower.
Just moving forward.
The more he observed her, the more uncomfortable Damon beca.
Because that person seed familiar.
Not her face.
Nor her identity.
But sothing about her.
A feeling.
A presence.
The sa feeling he had experienced inside Arven Manor.
The instant he lost control.
The instant sothing responded.
The instant his Qi ceased to feel entirely his own.
The thought made him stop.
His heart raced.
Slowly.
A possibility began to erge.
A possibility he didn’t like.
Not one bit.
The woman continued walking.
Then, for the first ti, sothing appeared on the horizon.
Very distant.
A structure.
Dark.
Enormous.
Partially hidden by the snow.
Damon squinted.
Trying to see better.
As they approached, the shape beca clearer.
It was a mountain.
But not an ordinary mountain.
The entire surface seed made of black ice.
Gigantic crystals erged from its slopes.
Impossible formations stretched for miles.
And at the top...
There was sothing built.
A palace.
Or perhaps a fortress.
Damon couldn’t quite make it out.
But it was gigantic.
Ancient.
Monuntal.
A structure that seed to have been erected to defy the very sky.
The woman continued walking toward him.
Without hesitation.
Without fear.
Like soone returning ho.
The wind picked up again.
The snow intensified.
The whole world seed to vibrate under an invisible pressure.
Then Damon felt sothing.
For the first ti since waking up in that place.
An emotion.
Not his.
Hers.
A sadness so profound it seed capable of freezing oceans.
A loneliness so overwhelming it made death itself insignificant.
The feeling pierced his chest like a blade.
Brutal.
Sudden.
Unbearable.
He staggered.
He put his hand to his chest.
Trying to catch his breath.
The feeling vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
But it left a mark.
An understanding.
That woman had been suffering.
For a long ti.
Too long.
Far beyond what any human being should endure.
And yet...
She kept walking.
Alone.
Always forward.
Without stopping.
Without resting.
Like soone condemned to follow a path they could never abandon.
Damon watched her figure slowly disappear amidst the growing storm.
And for the first ti since waking up in that place, he was certain of one thing.
That wasn’t just a mory.
It was a warning.
And whatever the Celestial Ice Demon was...
He wasn’t finished with it yet.
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