“This is the vill…”The village chief couldn’t finish his sentence.He stood frozen, staring at the devastation before him.Half the village had vanished beneath a massive blanket of snow.Desperate cries echoed from every direction.Men and women dug frantically with their bare hands, shovels, and broken pieces of wood, desperately searching for anyone still trapped underneath. Some shouted names over and over, hoping for a response. Others simply kept digging in silence, refusing to give up.The freezing weather only made everything worse.The bitter wind cut through every layer of clothing, and the snow continued to fall without mercy.“What happened here?” Meave gasped.Her eyes swept across the buried homes.“A landslide? An avalanche?”She frowned.“But… this is too far from where the snow normally accumulates…”Rhys’ face became grim.“Whatever caused it can wait.”He immediately turned toward Meave.“Meave.”“Use your abilities to clear the snow.”“Bring out all your Familiars

“Yes. We’ve been dealing with this ‘anger’ for almost a year now.”The village chief walked beside Rhys as they followed the narrow mountain path back toward the main village.“In the beginning, the shaking was so weak that no one paid much attention to it.”He sighed.“But over the past several months, it has become much stronger.”“And the time between each tremor keeps getting shorter.”“A year…”Rhys folded his arms.“That matches the information I received from the Ironhand Guild headquarters.”He thought for a moment before asking,“How often does it happen now?”The village chief scratched his beard as he tried to remember.“Actually, it has become completely irregular during the past month.”He counted on his fingers.“We experienced a small tremor together earlier.”“The one before that happened about two hours earlier.”He continued recalling the events.“Before those… there wasn’t one for four days.”“But five days ago, we had a very powerful one.”“And on that same day, th

Mirova pushed open the door to their room and stepped inside.Only Meave and Laura were there.She glanced around before raising an eyebrow.“Where’s Rhys?”Meave looked up from her seat and shrugged.“I don’t know.”“He went outside a little while ago.”“Oh.”Mirova nodded absentmindedly and walked toward the table.A plate of freshly baked cookies was waiting there.She reached for one, then suddenly stopped.Her eyes narrowed.“…Did someone eat my cookies?”She leaned closer to inspect the plate.“I’m pretty sure I ordered more than this.”Laura immediately shook her head.“Nope.”Meave answered just as quickly.“We didn’t touch them.”“We’re not really interested in snacks.”Mirova still looked suspicious.“That’s strange…”After staring at the plate for another moment, she decided to let it go.There were more important things bothering her.She pulled out a chair and sat down with a long sigh.“So…”“When are we actually going to do something?”She looked at the other two.“We’v

“I am its king!”The words had barely left Rhys’s mouth when an overwhelming surge of Mana burst from his body.“!!!”Everyone felt it.The sheer density of Mana made the air tremble.Before anyone could react, Rhys casually swept his hand forward.The world froze.It happened in an instant.An endless wave of icy blue energy spread across the mountain like an unstoppable tide.The snow beneath their feet froze solid.The snowflakes drifting through the air became motionless crystals.The rocky ground disappeared beneath layers of thick ice.Everything in front of Rhys was swallowed by the freezing cold.Only Meave, Laura, Mirova, and their Familiars remained untouched.His control was so precise that the ice curved around them as though it recognized friend from foe.The three Hands instinctively tried to retreat.Unfortunately…They were too late.The freezing wave reached them first.Thick layers of ice engulfed all three of them.Even the gigantic Minotaur was trapped inside a tow

Yin Zhen and Risa darted through the battlefield as enormous thorn-covered vines burst out of the snow one after another.The thick blanket of snow hid the ground beneath their feet, making it impossible to predict where the next attack would emerge. Every step became a gamble, and every hesitation could be fatal.The vines multiplied rapidly.Seeing there was no end to them, Yin Zhen gathered Mana into his leg before unleashing a crescent-shaped slash.The glowing arc sliced through one thorn after another.One…Two…Until the eighth.By the time it reached the ninth, the attack had already exhausted its power and disappeared.Risa immediately followed up.She summoned a raging blood tornado that tore through several more vines.Unfortunately, the result wasn’t much different.She managed to destroy the obstacles in front of her, but the attack lacked the strength to reach the Familiar controlling them.Without wasting another second, Risa spread her wings and shot into the sky.If s