The Forsaken Heir of the Frozen End

Chapter 3 The Snow That Should Not Exist

“The snow isn’t normal.”Pascal’s voice cut through the living room with such sudden intensity that everyone turned toward him immediately. Charlotte frowned in annoyance. “What are you talking about now?”Pascal ignored her completely.

His attention remained fixed on the massive glass window overlooking the Beckham estate. Outside, pale snowflakes drifted silently from the grey morning sky, coating the trimmed hedges and marble pathways in a thin layer of frost. At first glance, the snowfall appeared harmless. Beautiful, even.

But Pascal knew better. Every instinct inside him screamed that something was deeply wrong. In his previous life, the early stages of the Eternal Winter had begun gradually. Temperatures dropped unexpectedly across several countries before worsening week after week. Scientists blamed the climate collapse. Governments insisted the situation remained under control.

Then the impossible storms arrived. Then the monsters. Then humanity learned the cold itself was alive. But this…This snow carried traces of Living Frost already. That was impossible. Pascal watched another snowflake strike the glass.

The moment it touched the surface, tiny silver veins spread outward like blood vessels beneath frozen skin before disappearing again. A chill crawled down his spine.

The Living Frost phenomenon only appeared near high-density Frost Corruption zones. In his previous life, entire military divisions had vanished trying to investigate contaminated regions. And now it was appearing before the apocalypse had officially begun. The timeline was accelerating. No, something had awakened early.

Victor rose from his chair and walked toward the window with narrowed eyes. “You’re overreacting,” he said calmly, though tension lingered beneath his voice. “It’s just snow.”Pascal almost answered immediately before stopping himself. That was the dangerous part. Everyone always thought it was just snow.

Until cities disappeared overnight. Ben moved closer to the window as well, his reflection faintly visible against the growing frost outside. “It does look strange,” he admitted quietly. Charlotte scoffed. “Both of you are acting ridiculous.”

The chandelier lights flickered again. This time, the interruption lasted longer. The room dimmed violently before stabilising once more, and for a brief second, Pascal noticed something horrifying reflected within the darkened glass. A shadow.Tall.Distorted.Standing behind the family outside the window. Pascal’s heart nearly stopped. He blinked instantly.

The figure vanished. Charlotte sighed impatiently. “The power company has been unreliable all month. Stop staring outside like paranoid lunatics.”Pascal stepped backwards slowly. His pulse hammered painfully against his ribs. He remembered those shadows. Frost Echoes.One of the earliest manifestations of dimensional instability during the apocalypse.

But Frost Echoes should not exist yet. Not this early. Something catastrophic was changing. Victor suddenly frowned at his phone again. “The entire network is down.”Charlotte crossed her arms. “That’s impossible.”Victor showed her the screen. “No internet. No signal. Nothing. A strange uneasiness spread across the room immediately. Pascal knew exactly what came next.

Within hours, news stations across the country would begin reporting unexplained communication failures. Emergency broadcasts would follow. Then, transportation systems would collapse as sudden ice storms spread across major highways. Humanity still believed modern civilisation was invincible.

The Eternal Winter was about to prove otherwise. Pascal turned toward the staircase. He needed to move quickly. Every wasted second mattered now.“Where are you going?” Charlotte demanded sharply. Pascal did not stop walking. “Out.”You’re not finished with this conversation.”I am.”Charlotte’s expression darkened immediately. “Don’t test my patience.”

Pascal paused near the hallway entrance before glancing back at her. Something in his eyes made even Victor slightly uncomfortable.“Trust me,” Pascal said quietly, “you have much bigger problems coming.”Then he left the room.

Charlotte stared after him in disbelief. “What is wrong with him today?”Ben remained silent. Because deep down, he was beginning to feel it too. That strange coldness surrounds Pascal. It was not ordinary anger. It felt more like distance. Like the older brother who once centred his entire world around this family, he had emotionally vanished overnight.

And somehow…That frightened Ben more than rage would have. Upstairs, Pascal shut his bedroom door immediately and locked it. The calm expression he maintained downstairs disappeared instantly. His breathing grew heavier while his thoughts raced. This was bad. Far worse than he originally feared.

He quickly opened his laptop and connected to several archived forums from his previous life. Most pages failed to load due to the growing communication outage, but eventually, one survival discussion board appeared. Hundreds of new posts flooded the screen.“Massive temperature drops reported in northern regions.”Birds falling dead from the sky.”Anyone else seeing strange frost patterns?”My town lost power completely.”

Pascal’s eyes narrowed. Then one specific post caught his attention.[Emergency evacuation reported near Black Hollow Research Facility.]Pascal froze. Black Hollow. In his previous life, that name became infamous months after civilisation collapsed. The facility had supposedly conducted classified climate experiments before vanishing entirely during the early apocalypse.

Rumours claimed the scientists there discovered something buried beneath ancient polar ice. Something alive. Pascal clicked the post immediately, but the page failed to load. Seconds later, the entire forum crashed.

The internet connection died completely. A heavy silence settled inside the room. Pascal slowly leaned back in his chair. His memories from the previous timeline suddenly felt unreliable. If events were already changing, then relying entirely on future knowledge could get him killed. That realisation disturbed him deeply.

The only advantage he possessed might no longer be stable. Outside his bedroom window, snow continued falling steadily. The sky had grown darker despite it still being morning. Pascal grabbed a notebook from his desk and began writing rapidly Food.Medicine.Fuel.Weapons.Portable generators.Water filtration systems.

Thermal equipment. In his previous life, basic supplies became more valuable than gold within the first two weeks of the collapse. Supermarkets were looted almost instantly, and desperate survivors murdered each other over canned food and batteries.

This time, Pascal intended to prepare properly, no matter what it cost. Especially because he remembered what happened during the first starvation wave. People changed. Neighbours turned violent. Families betrayed one another. Entire districts burned because someone stole bread.

The apocalypse did not merely freeze the world. It exposed humanity’s ugliest nature. A sudden knock interrupted his thoughts. Pascal immediately reached beneath his desk instinctively before realising he no longer possessed a weapon. Not yet.“Brother?”Ben’s voice came softly through the door. Pascal’s expression darkened slightly.“What do you want?”There was a brief hesitation outside.“I just… wanted to talk.”

Pascal considered ignoring him entirely. Instead, he walked toward the door and opened it halfway. Ben stood in the hallway with a worried expression. His appearance remained harmless and gentle as always, but Pascal could now see the subtle manipulations hidden beneath every movement.

Ben always approached conflict carefully. Always spoke softly. Always positioned himself as the emotional victim. It was how he maintained control over everyone around him.“You’ve been acting strange,” Ben said quietly. Pascal leaned against the doorway. “Maybe I finally got tired.”Ben blinked. “Tired of what?”Tired of pretending this family cares about me.”

The words visibly unsettled him.“Brother…”Stop calling me that.”Ben fell silent again. For several moments, neither of them spoke. Snow drifted quietly outside the hallway windows while distant thunder echoed somewhere beyond the city. Finally, Ben lowered his voice.“Are you angry because of Elena?”Pascal studied him carefully. Interesting.

Even now, Ben genuinely believed Elena was the issue. That proved how little he understood the damage this family had caused over the years.“No,” Pascal answered honestly. Ben frowned. “Then why are you acting like this?”Because you left me to die.

The words nearly escaped Pascal’s mouth. Instead, he swallowed them. Nobody would believe him. Not yet. And revealing too much too early could create dangerous consequences. Pascal forced himself to remain calm.“You should focus on yourself,” he said quietly. “The future is going to become very difficult.”A strange expression crossed Ben’s face.Confusion.Suspicion.Fear.

“You keep talking like you know something.”Pascal did not answer. That silence disturbed Ben more than any explanation could have. Downstairs, Charlotte suddenly shouted.“Ben! Come look at this!”Both brothers immediately turned toward the staircase. Charlotte’s voice carried genuine alarm now. Ben hurried downstairs first while Pascal followed more slowly.

The moment he entered the living room again, his entire body tensed. The temperature had dropped dramatically. Thin layers of frost spread across parts of the ceiling despite the heating system still running. The windows had become partially covered in ice, and strange cracking sounds echoed faintly from somewhere inside the walls.

Charlotte stood frozen near the television. Every channel displayed the same thing. Emergency broadcasts. A nervous female reporter appeared onscreen wearing heavy winter clothing despite broadcasting indoors.“Unprecedented climate abnormalities continue spreading across multiple regions worldwide,” she said shakily. “Government officials urge citizens to remain calm and avoid unnecessary travel—”

The broadcast suddenly distorted. Static consumed the screen briefly. Then, for less than two seconds, another image appeared. A frozen landscape.Towering walls of ice.And a massive shadow moving beneath a blizzard. Pascal’s blood ran cold. He recognised that silhouette. Not clearly.But enough.A Glacier Titan.One of the catastrophic-class entities that appeared years into the apocalypse. The screen immediately returned to static before restoring the news broadcast.

The reporter looked confused, as though unaware of the interruption. Charlotte stared at the television nervously. “What was that?”Nobody answered. Because Pascal could barely hear her anymore. His thoughts raced violently. That image should not exist. Glacier Titans did not awaken this early.

Entire timelines of evolution and Frost Corruption were missing. It was as though the apocalypse itself had skipped forward. Victor quickly grabbed the remote. “They’re censoring something.”Even he looked unsettled now.

The room suddenly trembled faintly beneath their feet. A low rumbling sound echoed through the distance. Then came the screaming. Everyone turned toward the windows instantly. Outside the Beckham estate, people were running through the snow-covered streets in panic.

Several pointed toward the sky. One woman collapsed, crying hysterically near the gate. And high above the city, hidden behind dark storm clouds, something enormous moved within the blizzard. Pascal’s heartbeat slowed. Not from calmness.From dread. Because he finally understood the terrifying truth, the Eternal Winter had not merely returned. This time…It was hunting him.