Damon continued following the woman across the white expanse, unable to shake the growing feeling that sothing profoundly wrong was happening inside him. It wasn’t just a matter of being trapped in an impossible mory or walking through a frozen world that seed to exist outside the normal rules of reality. The real problem was how his own body reacted to that place. The further he advanced, the more he realized his energy felt comfortable there. Not comfortable like soone finding a pleasant environnt. Comfortable like sothing that had returned ho after a very long absence.
That disturbed him more than any physical threat.
For years, Damon had cultivated his Qi with almost obsessive discipline. Each advance had been achieved through effort, training, risk, and a gradual understanding of his own limits. He knew the behavior of his energy the way a musician knows their instrunt. However, at that mont, walking behind that silent figure, he felt sothing different. The Qi wasn’t just responding to him. It seed to react to the environnt. It seed to listen to sothing.
Or soone.
The woman continued moving forward through the snow without leaving footprints behind. The detail continued to bother Damon. Even knowing it was a mory, his brain insisted on searching for logic where it clearly didn’t exist. The snow sank beneath his feet. The wind pushed his clothes. The world reacted to his presence. But he traversed that landscape like a painting walking through another painting.
This wasn’t natural.
This wasn’t even supernatural.
It was sothing far stranger.
The black mountain continued to grow on the horizon as the two advanced. The closer they got, the more Damon could distinguish details of the structure built on its summit. Colossal towers rose from the snowstorms. Crystalline walls reflected the white light of the sky. Impossible bridges connected frozen peaks above invisible abysses. The entire construction seed to defy any reasonable concept of architecture.
It was beautiful.
It was terrifying.
And sohow it seed familiar.
This last realization made Damon frown imdiately. He had never seen that place. He was absolutely certain of it. Still, so part of his mind watched the distant fortress with an uncomfortable sense of recognition. Like when soone forgets an important word and continues to feel its presence on the tip of their tongue.
The feeling worsened when he noticed sothing else.
The woman was walking directly toward that place.
Without hesitation.
Without a doubt.
Without even looking to the sides.
Like soone returning to an inevitable destination.
Damon felt a strange weight in his chest.
It wasn’t fear.
Nor was it curiosity.
It felt like an involuntary anticipation.
Sothing inside him reacted to that fortress in the sa way it had reacted to the na Celestial Ice Demon. There was no rational explanation. There was no associated mory. There was only an instinctive reaction that he couldn’t control.
Then the woman stopped.
The movent was so abrupt that it took Damon a few seconds to realize she was no longer moving forward. The wind continued to blow. The snow continued to fall. The mountain remained distant. But she had simply stopped walking.
And remained motionless.
Damon slowed his pace imdiately.
The distance between them was only a few ters now.
He watched her back for a few seconds while trying to decide whether he should say sothing. Until that mont she had behaved exactly like a mory. An echo repeating past events. Nothing indicated that she was capable of interacting with him.
Then she spoke.
"Why is a child following ?"
The question pierced the silence of the snow like a stone thrown against glass.
Damon froze imdiately.
His brain took a few seconds to process what he had just heard. Not because the words were difficult to understand. The problem was much simpler.
She had spoken to him.
Not to him.
With him.
The woman hadn’t even turned her head.
She continued looking ahead.
But there was no doubt.
She was addressing him directly.
"Wait..."
That was all Damon managed to say.
His thoughts stumbled over each other as he tried to understand the situation. This should be impossible. mories didn’t improvise dialogues. mories didn’t perceive observers. mories didn’t complain about the presence of strangers.
The woman let out a small sigh.
Even with her back turned, Damon could sense a slight irritation in that gesture.
"Children really are troubleso."
Damon blinked.
Once.
Then again.
"I’m not a child."
The answer ca out before he could even think better.
The woman tilted her head slightly.
"From my perspective, you are."
"That doesn’t make sense."
"Neither does you being here."
Damon opened his mouth to reply.
He never had the opportunity.
The world disappeared.
There was no displacent.
There was no blur.
There was no movent.
One instant she was in front of him.
The next, sothing extrely cold touched his neck.
Instinct took over imdiately.
Every muscle in his body froze.
His breath stopped.
His heart raced.
A brutal sense of danger coursed through every fiber of his being.
Slowly, Damon moved only his eyes.
Just enough to see.
A sword rested against his throat.
The blade seed made of crystalline ice, but that was only the superficial appearance. As his eyes analyzed the weapon, it beca evident that it was much more than simple ice. Bluish runes moved through the crystalline structure like trapped rivers. Tiny stars seed to be born and die within the blade.
It was beautiful.
And absolutely terrifying.
Because Damon knew.
He knew with impossible certainty.
If that sword advanced a single inch, he would die.
There would be no resistance.
There would be no fight.
There would be no chance.
The difference between them was simply absurd.
"Who are you?"
The woman’s voice erged behind him.
Calm.
Controlled.
Almost polite.
That made the situation even more threatening.
Damon swallowed hard.
Or tried to.
The sword was too close to make movent comfortable.
"My na is Damon."
"That’s a na."
"That’s usually how introductions work."
"Not for my question."
Damon closed his eyes for a second.
That was irritatingly specific.
When he spoke again, he decided to be honest.
"I don’t know exactly who I am right now."
For a few seconds there was no answer.
The woman remained completely still.
Then, to his surprise, she gave a small laugh.
It wasn’t a loud sound.
Nor particularly warm.
But it was there.
And for so reason it was more frightening than the sword.
"That was the first intelligent answer I’ve heard today."
"I feel strangely offended."
"Good." The sword remained at his neck.
The wind continued to blow.
The snow continued to fall.
But now sothing had changed.
The woman was analyzing him.
Damon could feel it.
It wasn’t an ordinary look.
She wasn’t looking at his clothes.
Not even his face.
Not even his posture.
The sensation was far more invasive.
It felt like she was looking right through him.
Through his flesh.
Through his bones.
Through his soul.
The discomfort was imdiate.
It was like being completely naked before soone who possessed unrestricted access to his thoughts.
The analysis continued for long seconds.
Then her expression changed.
For the first ti.
Confusion.
Genuine confusion.
"Interesting."
Damon didn’t like that.
"When soone with a sword at my neck says that, bad things usually happen."
She completely ignored the comnt.
Which was apparently a habit.
The woman narrowed her eyes as she continued to observe sothing inside him.
"This shouldn’t exist."
"Excellent news."
"I’m not talking to you."
"Unfortunately, I think you are."
Silence returned.
But now it felt different.
Heavier.
More focused.
As if sothing important had just happened.
Then she finally lowered the sword.
The blade dissolved into thousands of shimring particles that vanished into the snow.
Even so, Damon didn’t relax.
Because her expression worsened.
Much worse.
Now she looked genuinely worried.
And Damon suspected this was terrible news.
The woman began to walk slowly around him.
Observing.
Studying.
Like a researcher examining a creature that shouldn’t exist.
Each turn increased her discomfort.
Finally she stopped before him.
Her blue eyes t his.
And for the first ti Damon perceived sothing hidden beneath all that supernatural coldness.
Exhaustion.
Not physical exhaustion.
Not sothing a night’s rest would solve.
It was an ancient weariness.
Deep.
Accumulated over ages.
Like soone carrying an impossible burden for far too long.
"You really don’t know."
The sentence ca out low.
Almost lancholic.
Damon frowned.
"Don’t know what?"
She remained silent for a few seconds.
Snowflakes landed on her white hair before disappearing.
When she finally answered, her voice seed much more distant than before.
"You carry an impossible fragnt."
Damon felt his stomach clench.
That sentence awakened sothing within him.
Sothing that imdiately tried to respond.
His Qi reacted.
Not violently.
Not aggressively.
But it reacted.
Like an animal awakening from a long sleep.
The woman noticed.
And for the first ti since they t, her eyes widened.
Not much.
But enough.
"Ah."
The sound escaped slowly from her lips.
This ti there was no confusion.
No curiosity.
No irritation.
There was recognition.
And that was much worse.
Because when she looked directly at Damon again, there was sothing dangerously close to amusent on her face.
An amusent utterly inappropriate for soone who had just discovered a cosmic secret.
"Well."
She crossed her arms.
"That explains several potential catastrophes."
Damon stared at her.
"I have a feeling I’m not going to like this conversation."
"On the contrary."
A small smile appeared for the first ti on his face.
A beautiful smile.
Terrifying.
And completely devoid of any good on.
"You’re going to hate her."
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