The cold of the night had become worse than before.

The wind howled through the abandoned buildings, and its sound echoed through the empty streets of the village.

Lian and Seris stood right in front of the exit of the abandoned house. But neither dared to move.

Because what stood in front of them, what they had once looked at with human eyes, but now? They doubted that thing was anywhere close to being human.

Mira stood quietly in front of the door. Her eyes... those eyes no longer belonged to a human. No emotion could be seen in them.

No warmth, no fear, no anger or joy. Only coldness. Absolute coldness shone in her eyes.

Lian stared at her with a frown. His heart was still pounding hard because of that underground slaughterhouse. The images of those hundreds of dried bodies were still in front of his eyes.

Drops of blood slowly falling into that huge lake of blood. And the hearts that had been pulled out of every victim’s body.

"What are you?" He tried to stay calm and asked.

Mira showed no reaction. She just kept that same cold look.

"You should not have come here." Then her lips moved and she answered. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Lian’s frown deepened.

"We should not have come?" His voice became louder.

"Down there is a slaughterhouse!" He pointed to the building behind him.

"Hundreds of humans were butchered like sheep! They were hanging from the ceiling! All their hearts were torn out!"

"And you tell me we should not have come? So you could hide such a horrible secret from us? So you could do the same thing to us?" For the first time, anger could be heard in his voice.

But Mira just looked at him. As if all those events did not matter. As if they had nothing to do with her.

"Talking to her is useless." Seris let out a cold sigh.

She did not like wasting time. Especially since she was worried that the other guards of this village might also notice and come here.

It was better to defeat this one as soon as possible and leave the village.

The sound of metal echoed in the air. Her sword came out of its sheath. Without any further warning, she charged forward.

BOOM!

The ground under her foot cracked. The ten-meter distance between them disappeared in a fraction of a second. The blade of her sword went straight toward Mira’s neck.

But... what happened made even Lian shocked.

Mira’s body suddenly dissolved. No blood sprayed. No flesh was cut. Her body turned into mist. Seris’s sword passed through the mist.

"What?!"

At that same moment, the mist gathered behind Seris. Suddenly, dozens of black branches shot out from inside it.

Branches covered in thorns. Branches that looked like living creatures.

Seris’s face changed. She tried to dodge, but it was too late. The branches hit her body like huge snakes.

CRAAACK!

The sound of breaking bones echoed in the night. Blood sprayed in the air. Seris’s body shot back like a bullet.

She was thrown dozens of meters back and hit the wall of a building with great force.

BOOM!

The wall collapsed.

For a moment, Lian froze. He had seen Seris’s power. A girl who had alone killed dozens of mammoth bears and had even managed to wound a Fallen Wolf to near death.

But now she had not even been able to land a single hit.

"Damn it..." He tried to look at that girl’s information. He had not done this before because he thought Mira was human, and you cannot see other humans’ information. But for monsters, it might be possible.

[Race: Unknown]

[Level: ???]

"How is this possible?" He frowned. How could the system not identify Mira’s race? Did that even make sense?

Was there a race that The Will could not identify? Or was it because this was a new ruined realm and the system had not yet been able to get all the information about it?

But he had never heard of such a thing before.

"She is at least 10 levels above me." He whispered to himself. The fact that the system could not identify the enemy’s level meant the enemy was at least ten levels above him.

"No choice." He entered the fight without hesitation. If Seris alone could not defeat her, then both of them would attack together.

His body moved like a shadow. He charged straight toward Mira. His fist went toward the girl’s face. But just before impact, a branch shot out from the ground.

CRACK!

A terrible pain went through his side. Lian felt something inside his body break.

Then the second hit came.

And the third.

And the fourth.

Each time, before he could even react, his body was thrown like a rag doll among the branches.

Blood spilled from his mouth. The ground under his feet broke. But he could not land a single hit on the enemy.

There was no chance. No hope. No way to win. This was no longer a fight. It was a hunt. And they were the prey.

If they could not even wound this one, then what chance did they have against the whole village?

Lian’s eyes went to Seris. The girl was breathing with difficulty. Blood covered all her clothes. If this continued... she would die.

Lian clenched his teeth.

[Wolf Speed Activated]

"Not enough!" He immediately opened his panel.

[Stat Points: 41]

Without any hesitation, he put 30 points into Speed.

[Speed: 25 --> 55]

Suddenly, a wave of energy exploded inside his body. He went to Seris, put her on his shoulder, turned, and ran.

That was the only option left. The enemy was so strong that fighting was stupid. Besides, this was only Mira. What if the other villagers suddenly appeared?

If each of them had even half of Mira’s power, they would be killed without any chance.

"Running is foolish." Mira quietly watched them.

Dozens of branches rushed toward them again.

Lian thought he could escape. But before he realized it, those branches had suddenly reached him. They tried to hit him, but he was lucky enough to dodge.

He cursed and put the remaining fifteen points into Speed as well.

[Speed: 66]

The world around him blurred.

BOOM!

The ground under his foot exploded. He shot out of the village like a bullet.

But even this was not enough.

Mira disappeared. She moved through the shadows. Through the trees, on the roofs of houses, through the darkness. She was still chasing them.

Lian forced his breath out. His damn speed had reached 66 points! It was unlikely that even a level 15 Awakened had such speed.

And he should not forget that he was using Wolf Speed, which brought his speed to 100 points! A speed that no Awakened below level 20 had!

Then how was this monster chasing them so easily? At this rate, they would definitely be caught.

"How could I forget them?" Then suddenly he remembered something. Fragments.

He immediately opened his panel.

[Fragments: 6]

Fragments were a kind of mechanism. You could use them to upgrade skills. Fragments could be obtained very randomly after killing monsters.

Of course, it was very random. You might kill dozens of monsters and not get a single fragment. Or you might kill one monster and suddenly get 5 of them.

Exactly like him. After killing the Fallen Wolf, he had gotten 5 fragments. And another one after killing all those mammoth bears.

He clicked on his skill.

[Wolf Speed]

[Rank: Common (+)]

The upgrade option appeared.

[To evolve Wolf Speed, 5 Fragments are needed.]

[Do you confirm?]

"Confirm."

[Confirmed]

[Wolf Speed has been upgraded]

[Fallen Wolf Speed]

[Rank: Great (+)]

[Increases your Speed by 60 points for 15 minutes and greatly enhances all senses]

Suddenly, a wave of energy exploded inside his body. He felt the world become slower. Much slower. He could hear his own heartbeat.

Even the sound of blood moving through his own veins.

And then he ran. This time he really ran. Faster than any speed a human could run. Mira slowly fell behind. The chasing shadows disappeared.

The village was lost in the darkness. The golden mountain faded behind them.

But Lian did not stop.

One hour.

Two hours.

Three hours...

Maybe more. He did not know. His skill had run out a long time ago.

But he just kept running.

Until there was nothing left in his body. Until snow started to fall. Until the cold was breaking his bones.

And finally, he stopped.

He put Seris on the ground. He himself fell onto the snow.

He was breathing heavily. His whole body was burning. But they were alive. Luckily, they were alive.

A few minutes later, Seris slowly opened her eyes.

"What... happened?"

"Where are we?"

Lian took a heavy breath.

"I don’t know."

Then for the first time, he raised his head and looked around. And at that moment, he froze. They were no longer in a normal forest.

Snow was falling everywhere. Terrible snow that looked like it wanted to swallow everything.

And in the distance, behind the blizzard, something could be seen. A city. But not a normal city. Huge ice towers and shining ice walls.

[Hidden area discovered]

[Frostheart, The Fallen City]