?????°???°?????

  Victor’s body lay collapsed before him, the head crushed several steps away, snow partially covering what remained. No mana was being released. No regeneration. No reaction.

  Orion took a deep breath, feeling a bitter relief mixed with something he refused to call fear.

  “It’s over. I did it,” he murmured.

  He watched the corpse for a few more seconds, alert for any strange sign. Nothing. The core of Metamorphs—at least humanoid ones—was located in the head. Always had been. He knew that better than anyone.

  No matter how minuscule their core might be, Orion had studied it for a long time to ensure it would be destroyed.

  No monster survives without its core, yet even so, Orion did not sheath his daggers.

  The wind blew through the shattered trees, lifting snowflakes that passed through Victor’s lifeless body as if it were already part of the scenery. A slain monster. An aberration finally corrected.

  Orion turned his back. He still had to find Serena and finish the job.

  Snow crunched beneath his feet as he moved through the forest.

  Serena wasn’t far. Orion could feel it. He had learned to track prey early in life, back when he still believed effort alone was enough to reach anything. When he believed the world rewarded those who persisted.

  “You always ran,” he said, his voice low, almost calm. “Even when you didn’t need to. Didn’t you?”

  Shadows stretched between the trees, following his steps like silent, obedient dogs.

  He remembered. The first measurements. The looks. The whispers.

  ‘He has potential.

  This boy will go far.

  Maybe farther than all of us.’

  That was what they said about him.

  Until Serena appeared.

  “You ruined everything,” Orion continued, his tone beginning to crack, the calm shattering like thin ice. “Before you… I was the future.”

  He scanned his surroundings, alert, searching for any flaw in the white landscape where Serena might be hiding. Nothing. Only silence and snow.

  “I brought a guild to Cirgo with my own effort and time,” he said, his voice growing stronger, almost defensive, as if justifying himself to someone who no longer listened. “We— I was going to bring a better future to this kingdom.”

  He took a few more steps.

  “We would stop being a small territory with that ridiculous military power. Maybe one day we could finally advance. Expand. No one would have to live like an animal just to survive. No one would have to rely on the mercy of the strong.”

  His voice faltered for a moment.

  “I thought of everything.”

  He clenched his fists, feeling the daggers vibrate faintly with his mana, reacting to the storm inside him.

  “But then you came,” he snarled. “Blind. Fragile. And absurdly strong.”

  He accelerated, weaving effortlessly between the trees, his body moving almost on instinct.

  “I trained. I studied. I bled,” he said, each word heavier than the last. “While you… just existed.”

  The snow creaked beneath his steps.

  “With a potential someone like me could never reach. No matter how hard I tried.”

  The anger grew, hot and suffocating, clashing violently with the cold that ruled everything around him.

  “They stopped looking at me,” he spat. “Everything became about you. About what you were. Not about what I could become.”

  Then he saw it.

  A trail in the snow. Footprints too light to be old.

  Orion slowed his pace.

  “And then, when you grew up… and killed the queen,” he continued, his voice lower, thick with resentment. “A hellish winter fell over Cirgo.”

  He looked around at the white forest, as if it were living proof of his words.

  “My guild was forgotten. No one wanted to come to us. The routes dried up. The promises too.”

  Everything turned white. Everything went silent.

  Orion smiled, a crooked, empty smile.

  “I was supposed to be the one who changed everything,” he said. “Not you.”

  °??──────??°

  The pain came before Serena realized it.

  A sudden pressure in her chest, as if something were being crushed from the inside. The collar reacted first, vibrating against her neck with unnatural cold, and then came the agony.

  Serena grabbed the collar and collapsed to her knees in the snow.

  [Ice Rose] bloomed inside her like a desperate reflex. Not to protect her from a common monster, but from someone her very existence recognized as an absolute threat.

  She tried to breathe, but the pain made it difficult.

  “Ah… there you are.”

  The voice came from ahead.

  Serena slowly raised her head. This time, she saw his temperature, he was not a shadow like before.

  Orion stood there, between the trees, daggers hanging loosely in his hands. His gaze was far too calm. Evaluating. Like someone who had finally found something lost.

  “I knew you wouldn’t get very far. That thing inside you gives you away. Must be hard not being able to manifest your mana outside your body anymore, isn’t it?”

  Serena tried to stand. Her body didn’t respond. The collar tightened, as if punishing any attempt at resistance.

  “Ironic, isn’t it?” Orion continued, walking slowly toward her. “Even in a situation like this, you insist on hurting everything around you, even if it causes you so much pain.”

  She opened her mouth to speak, but no voice came out. Only a weak, broken sound.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Orion stopped a few meters away.

  “You know what you are, don’t you?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. “An aberration.”

  The words cut deeper than any blade.

  “Of course you are. What kind of daughter kills her own mother in such a cruel, painful way?” he said, with the same unchanging calm. “The day you were born was the day everything around you began to die.”

  Serena squeezed her eyes shut, hot tears clashing against the cold around her.

  “Your own people suffered for years just because you kept breathing,” he spat.

  He stepped closer.

  “Lost crops. Eternal winter. People starving to death. All because your father didn’t have the courage to do what needed to be done.”

  He leaned down, forcing Serena to raise her face.

  “If you really wanted to do any good…” he whispered, “you would have killed yourself a long time ago.”

  The world seemed to stop.

  The pain from the collar peaked absurdly. Serena screamed, a short, torn sound that vanished into the wind. [Ice Rose] tried desperately to attack, but only brought more pain.

  Everything froze when Orion moved to strike Serena.

  A chill ran down his spine.

  It wasn’t Serena’s mana. It was something heavier. Filthier. Just like what he had felt thirty years ago.

  Once again, that same mana paralyzed Orion with fear. Memories of that day played like a film as his breathing grew heavy.

  Slowly, he turned his head.

  Behind him, amid the snow lifted by the wind, something stood.

  A body was upright, its head nowhere to be found, just like the sword it had wielded before.

  Snow did not cover it. The cold did not affect it. The mana emanating from it wasn’t violent, it was dense. Silent. Like an abyss that had decided to walk.

  When Serena thought the pain would kill her, it stopped. The skill that moments earlier had fought desperately to protect its user decided it was no longer necessary. That everything was fine now.

  The first thing Orion felt was anger.

  Anger at himself.

  His body had retreated on its own. A short, almost imperceptible step, but enough to betray him. Fear came first. Anger followed, trying to crush it.

  “How…?” His voice came out too loud. Too shaky. “How the hell are you still alive?!”

  He clenched his teeth, swallowing the metallic taste rising in his throat.

  It was impossible. He had seen it. The severed head. No reaction. A humanoid Metamorph cannot survive without its core. Never.

  The headless body moved.

  There was no rush. No hesitation. Victor simply took a step forward.

  Then he advanced.

  Orion only realized he was too fast when the air exploded beside him. Snow was torn from the ground, thrown backward as if something invisible had passed through it.

  Victor was there.

  Too close.

  Orion’s eyes widened as he saw Victor’s hand opening, fingers stretching toward his face.

  It wasn’t a punch. It wasn’t a slash.

  It was a simple motion.

  To grab.

  The image overlapped reality before he could stop it.

  The mountain. The silence.

  The turquoise-haired girl. A small hand gripping his father’s face.

  The sharp pull.

  The sound.

  Orion screamed, more in fury than panic, and threw himself backward as he sank into his own shadow.

  Victor’s hand closed on empty air.

  The attack tore through the space where Orion had been a moment earlier, ripping the air with enough force to make the surrounding trees groan, as he slammed onto the ground behind Serena.

  Inside the shadow, Orion’s heart pounded erratically.

  Not from hatred.

  From fear.

  ‘This is impossible! What happened? What is this I’m seeing?!’

  Swallowing his doubts and terror, Orion burst from the shadow, attacking Victor with his daggers. He hit. The sound of Victor’s flesh being pierced was real.

  But Victor did not move.

  Extending his hand again, Victor tried to grab Orion, but he leapt backward, analyzing as he fell.

  ‘He’s using my mana to locate me. And he’s using mana to reinforce his own body. Did he… adapt to fight without a head?!’

  Victor came like a train.

  There was no warning. No preparation. Just imminent impact.

  Orion raised his daggers by reflex.

  The collision came an instant later.

  The force surged through his arms like lightning, tearing muscles and dislocating bones. Orion was thrown backward, boots sliding several meters across the snow before he managed to plant a blade into the ground to stop himself from falling.

  Creating his shadow on reflex, he tried to regain control of the fight. But to his shock, Victor attacked the shadow instantly and leapt toward him again.

  Orion slipped into the shadow for half a second, reappearing to the side and striking with everything he had. The daggers sank into Victor’s torso once more.

  No reaction.

  The next blow nearly tore Orion’s arm off.

  He threw himself backward, rolling through the snow, heart racing, his thoughts finally forced into alignment.

  ‘It doesn’t make sense…’

  Common Metamorphs don’t survive like this. Humanoid Metamorphs have their core in the head. Anyone who’s studied even a little knows that.

  Orion had studied that species his entire life. There was no way he was wrong.

  The image from thirty years ago returned without permission.

  ‘What if…’

  The realization hit like a punch to the gut.

  ‘What if she wasn’t a common Metamorph?’

  Victor advanced again, each step closer, heavier.

  Orion barely blocked, feeling his daggers almost shatter.

  ‘Original Metamorphs…’

  Beings that don’t inherit a form, they shape it. The first of a lineage.

  Orion sank into the shadow again, reappearing breathless, covered in snow, eyes wide.

  ‘If she really was an original… then she could alter her very being at will.’

  Original Metamorphs choose a form, grow, adapt, and all of it is passed down to their descendants.

  Facing that monster that ignored death, cold sweat ran down his spine.

  ‘She moved her own core… somewhere a human wouldn’t think to attack first when fighting a monster. But where? Was she really that intelligent?!’

  Orion clenched his teeth as something close to despair seeped beneath his rage.

  Victor didn’t give him time to think. He advanced again.

  Orion tried to retreat.

  He couldn’t.

  The first strike came low.

  Victor twisted his body and smashed Orion’s left leg with brutal force. It wasn’t a clean cut, it was pulverization. Bone gave way with a dry, grotesque crack, and Orion screamed before he even felt the pain.

  He collapsed sideways, trying to crawl.

  The second strike came with claws, tearing off the other leg at the knee, spraying hot blood across the white snow. The contrast was violently unbearable.

  Orion fell onto his back.

  The daggers slipped from his fingers.

  The summoned shadow vanished. Orion began activating his skill to heal himself, but regenerating lost limbs required an enormous amount of mana, and he didn’t know if he could keep fighting afterward.

  Victor stopped a few steps away.

  Then something happened.

  The flesh of his neck began to move.

  It wasn’t instant. Threads of mana stretched through the air, pulling invisible fragments together. Muscles rebuilt themselves, intertwining like roots growing too fast. Bones formed with muffled cracks. Skin closed last. Golden eyes opened.

  He touched his neck, rolled it slightly, like someone testing something that had been broken.

  “It took a while,” the voice finally came, whole. Steady. “But now I can.”

  Orion’s eyes widened.

  Victor looked at him.

  “[Ultra-Fast Regeneration],” he continued, as if explaining something simple. “I’d never had to regenerate a lost limb before. It took time, but I learned. I needed to send more mana to my regeneration skill. I didn’t know how, since it was automatic.”

  He stepped forward.

  Orion dragged himself using his arms, hatred replacing shock. His face was smeared with snow, blood, and tears he refused to acknowledge.

  He propped himself on his elbows and looked up.

  He stared at Victor.

  There was no fear there.

  Only pure hatred, burning strong enough to keep his eyes open.

  Victor held his gaze. As if judgment was over and only consequence remained.

  Orion laughed.

  There was no humor in the sound. It was dry. Broken. The laughter of someone with nothing left to lose.

  “Then do it already,” he growled, spitting blood into the snow. “Kill me.”

  Victor didn’t answer right away. He simply observed the mutilated body.

  “End this,” Orion shouted, his voice cracking with hatred. “Or are you going to pretend you’re better than me now?!”

  Victor looked away for a moment.

  “No.”

  The word fell heavy.

  Orion’s eyes widened.

  “What…?”

  “I’m not going to kill you,” Victor said. His voice was firm. Cold. “The one who will judge you is the kingdom. Not me.”

  Orion’s face twisted.

  Then he screamed.

  “KINGDOM?!” The sound tore from him, almost hysterical. “That kingdom never gave me anything!”

  He tried to move, failed, and laughed again.

  “You really think I should be here? In this position?” He gestured to his ruined body. “All of this… is her fault. That thing’s fault!”

  Victor stared at him.

  Orion continued, rage finally overflowing.

  “That thing… that aberration!” he spat. “She appeared out of nowhere, without a name, without a past, and decided the fate of all of us! She told me I was fragile.”

  His breathing grew heavy.

  “She ruined my life before I even had a chance to live!” His teeth ground together. “And now you… you’re her continuation. You came out of nowhere and ruined all my plans. One by one!”

  He laughed, far too loudly.

  “You should die too,” Orion said, his voice trembling. “You and Serena. Both of you. You shouldn’t exist.”

  Victor took a step forward.

  “That’s enough!”

  But it was too late.

  Orion’s eyes widened, not in fear, but in absolute fury.

  The memory returned in full.

  The mountain. The cold. Her gaze, looking down on him.

  “Fragile.”

  Something snapped.

  Orion’s body began to change.

  His skin darkened, as if shadows were seeping beneath the flesh. Veins bulged, thick, pulsing with uncontrolled mana. His bones expanded, tearing through skin with wet cracks, the sound echoing through the silent forest.

  Orion screamed.

  His body grew. His torso widened grotesquely, ribs jutting outward before forcibly rearranging themselves. The mana around him became heavy, dense, suffocating.

  Victor leapt backward on instinct. His body moved before his mind, sensing something wrong.

  Orion lifted his head, his eyes now glowing red.

  “I am not fragile,” he snarled, his voice layered with something deeper. “I never was.”

  The snow around them began to vanish under the ever-growing mana.

  The fight wasn’t over yet.

  ?????°???°?????