The transition was jarring. One moment, Vyus and Tryss were marching through the forest, amidst the trees and moss; the next, they stepped across an invisible threshold into a world covered in a deep blanket of pure white snow, that stretched endlessly before them, swallowing all other colors.
Even the air transformed instantly, dropping degrees to what felt like absolute zero.
It sent a violent shiver down Vyus's spine despite his Deep One resilience.
"Damn! It's cold, right Tryss?"
The wolf gave out a delightful bark, which symbolized his agreement with Vyus.
'I'm so happy that I carved off the fur of those wolves,' Vyus turned his mind back to his memories just moments prior.
If he hadn't thought of doing that, he would've turned into a body of ice right about now.
Vyus pulled the rough fabric of his clothing tighter, to defend himself against the penetrating chill. His biggest fear was getting frostbite, so he needed to be careful.
Vyus exchanged a glance with Tryss. They've already made so much progress that, there was no going back now, only forwards.
The cold immediately intensified, which made Vyus curse its weather.
Unfortunately for him, a deep numbness began to creep into his fingers, even with his arms and hands tucked behind his wolf-made cloak.
His breathing felt like swallowing ice shards — not very pleasant.
'Can't... too cold...' the thought echoed in his mind.
Tryss whined beside him, sensing Vyus faltering.
'Damn it... I think I'm going to pass out...'
Vyus could feel his core temperature plummeting, the shivering becoming almost uncontrollable. He was losing his consciousness.
Abruptly, something familiar and fierce emerged within him. It wasn't a conscious thought, but that same primal, desperate survival instinct that had surged when the golem beat him down, the same core energy that fueled his "hell itself" declaration.
"It's about damn time you awakened..."
Adrenaline flooded his system like a tidal wave. The pain didn't vanish but rather retreated, becoming a manageable subject.
Vyus's muscles unlocked, trembling now not just from the cold but from contained power.
Vyus pushed himself fully upright, shoving against the snow. He stood taller now, his silver eyes blazing with intensity.
"This... is all good! We can manage!"
The cold was still an annoying physical weight, but the force awakening within him pushed back.
Vyus mustered up the energy to give a nod toward Tryss, which acted as a silent agreement between the two.
Turning his gaze forward, Vyus took a step, then another, he was barely hanging on. Tryss fell into step behind him.
They moved efficiently now, two figures against the frozen landscape.
Vyus and Tryss hadn't traveled far, perhaps only another hundred meters, until Tryss suddenly growled.
Vyus halted instantly, his senses already on high alert.
'What... is going on?' Vyus mentally questioned.
Ahead of them, the snow seemed to... shift. Figures began to emerge by clawing their way up from beneath the snow itself.
They seemed to be humanoid but their appearance was seemingly from ice and frozen snow and had a somewhat deformed structure. Not to mention the fact that their eyes were like emerald green, glittering with malice.
It seemed to be a bunch of them, maybe five or six, blocking the way forward like statues that come to life — Frost Demons.
There was no hesitation. One of the Frost Demons lunged, its icy claws extended. Vyus reacted instantly.
"Tryss!" he snapped, drawing the crude claw-dagger — cracked, but still a weapon.
Vyus met the first demon's charge head-on as Tryss snarled and flanked, ready to engage the others. The battle had begun.
The Frost Demon lunged with a burst of speed. Vyus sidestepped the jagged claws, his cracked claw-dagger slicing outwards, aiming for what looked like a joint at the creature's shoulder.
The impact sent a vibration up his arm as the claw scraped against the super-hard ice.
The demon hissed and retaliated with a swipe that radiated intense cold.
Vyus fled back, as the wave of coldness washing over him resulted in momentarily slowing his movements.
Simultaneously, Tryss darted in, a blur of white fur against the snow, snapping violently at the legs of another demon.
Vyus relied heavily on his speed, waving between the lunges and swipes of two Frost Demons now focusing on him.
Their movements were somewhat stiff. He landed blows, shattering surface ice, trying to find a spot where his claw-dagger would come in handy.
Tryss, meanwhile, was locked in a deadly duel with a third demon, dodging and snapping against the demon's swipes.
The wolf let out a sharp yelp as a claw grazed his flank, but he viciously clamped down on the demon's leg in return.
Seeing Tryss take a hit spurred Vyus. He feinted towards one demon, then spun low, kicking up a cloud of snow to momentarily blind it.
In that instant, he drove the cracked claw-dagger with all his might into the glowing green eye of the other demon he faced.
There was a sharp crack, not just from his dagger this time, but from the eye itself as it shattered inward.
The demon shrieked, stumbling back, temporarily disabled.
Vyus didn't pause, immediately turning to aid Tryss, his speed allowing him to flank the wolf's opponent and shatter its already leg joint with a series of slashes.
With two demons effectively down and Tryss finishing off the third distracted one, the remaining couple seemed to pause.
Vyus and Tryss stood side-by-side for a breath, panting slightly in the freezing air, ready to finish the job.
But before they could advance, the temperature plummeted even further, making Vyus's teeth ache instantly.
Snow swirled violently, not from wind, but from a rising presence.
A figure emerged from the depths of the snowfield, significantly larger than the others, its form more intricate.
It carried an aura of ancient cold and power that dwarfed the lesser demons. Instead of simple glowing eyes, piercing blue light burned within its horned head. The Frost Devil had arrived.
The lesser frost demons were forgotten, their shattered remains insignificant before the presence that had risen.
Vyus felt Tryss tremble beside him, the wolf's instinctive growl now silent, due to the pressure emerging from the Frost Devil.
It wasn't just the plummeting temperature; it was the terrifying authority of the Frost Devil, a presence that screamed death.
For a paralyzing moment, Vyus's resolve vanished. The "hell itself" declaration feels fragile against this primordial coldness.
But the feeling was fleeting, burned away by the same stubborn spark that refused to let him die.
'I have to kill him... no matter what," Vyus tightened his grip on the cracked claw-dagger.
He took a deliberate step forward, planting himself between Tryss and the imposing figure.
There was no more waiting. In the same instant, both Vyus and the Frost Devil exploded into action, launching themselves towards each other across the snowfield, with the intent to kill.
They met in the middle with a violent clash, the Devil's sharp ice claws grating against the parry of Vyus's claw-dagger.
The force of the impact sent them both recoiling slightly. The Frost Devil recovered instantly, whipping his arm around in a slice aimed directly at Vyus's neck.
Instinct took over as Vyus dropped into a low duck, the edge of the claws just inches above his head.
Without pausing, the Devil transitioned into another slice, aimed at Vyus's forehead. Vyus twisted, weaving the attack completely.
Changing the tactics again, the Frost Devil charged forward, aiming to impale Vyus through the abdomen.
Reacting with intense speed, Vyus snapped his dagger up, intercepting the point of the icy claw with a block.
Immediately following the blocked thrust, the Frost Devil lashed out with a powerful kick aimed at Vyus's center.
Instead of blocking again, Vyus dropped even lower, converting his evasion into a forward dash that shot him directly underneath the kick, ending up positioned right behind the creature.
Seeing his opening, Vyus surged upwards from his low stance, swinging the claw-dagger aimed at the Frost Devil's head from behind.
But the Devil's reaction speed was unparalleled; it ducked low at the last possible second, Vyus's blade slicing through empty air just above the creature's horned head.
Having narrowly avoided Vyus's attack from behind, the Frost Devil started to turn, but Vyus gave it no time to fully reorient.
He pressed instantly, snapping out another powerful kick that connected with the creature's solar plexus.
The blow lacked the raw weight of the golem's strikes, but the focused impact sent the Frost Devil staggering backward several steps, disrupting its balance.
Both combatants used the brief separation to quickly reposition.
Vyus exploded forward again in a blur. He feinted a low slash with the claw-dagger, drawing a defensive reaction from the Frost Devil.
As the creature lowered its guard momentarily, Vyus used his incredible speed and agility, planting a foot and launching himself into a flip clean over the Devil's horned head.
Twisting in mid-air, he managed to land a solid slice across the creature's icy shoulder before landing behind it once more.
The Frost Devil let out a furious hiss, spinning instantly to retaliate with a wide slice of its own.
Vyus sidestepped the attack, the icy claws passing by harmlessly. Without hesitation, Vyus pivoted on his back foot and lashed out with a roundhouse kick aimed low against the side of the Devil's leg with a loud crack of ice.
Determined to control the distance, Vyus executed a series of short dashes backward, trying to create space between him and the Frost Devil.
However, the creature matched his retreat, viciously pressing forward, its blue eyes locked onto him.
It lunged, aiming a deadly slice directly at Vyus's chest. Vyus leaned back sharply, the claws just barely skimming past his torso by a hair's margin.
He countered instantly, darting forward again and aiming a precise upward slash toward the Devil's eyes.
It retreated its head back evading the potentially blind strike narrowly. Faster than thought, it countered Vyus's failed attack with a piercing thrust of its claws, like sharpened daggers, aimed directly at Vyus's face.
Vyus tried to pull away, but the attack was too precise. He felt a line of pain as the tip of the ice claw cut his right cheek.
Ignoring the sting, Vyus leaped high into the air, spinning to deliver a powerful kick aimed straight at the Frost Devil's horned head. He sought to stun or disorient it.
The Devil, however, proved incredibly adaptive; instead of simply bracing against the blow, it seemed to absorb and redirect the force, using Vyus's kick to spin its own body rapidly in the opposite direction.
As Vyus began to descend, the Devil lashed out with a low-cutting sweep of its claws, catching Vyus across the back of his calf.
Yet, even as the claw cut into his leg, Vyus reacted with sharp instincts. As the Devil's arm swept past, he reached out with his good hand and grabbed the attacking limb just above the wrist.
Using the captured arm, Vyus lunged forward, driving the point of his cracked claw-dagger deep into the Frost Devil's stomach area.
With the blow landed, both wounded combatants simultaneously dashed away.
As they kept their gaze on each other, Vyus kept on panting, his breathing uncontrolled.
"This guy... he must be one of the lower echelon beasts within this mountain... I wonder how powerful the rest are," Vyus commented, as he aimed his dagger at the Frost Devil.