The Forsaken Heir of the Frozen End

Chapter 6 The Corruption Begins

The roar that echoed through the storm did not sound like any creature born on Earth. It rolled across the city like the voice of a dying god, deep enough to shake the walls of the Beckham mansion while icy vibrations rippled through the marble floor beneath their feet. The windows trembled violently. Frost spread thicker across the glass. Somewhere outside, car alarms began blaring all at once before abruptly cutting off in eerie succession.

Hundreds of voices rose together beyond the snowstorm.PanickedAgonizedDying.Complete darkness swallowed the mansion after the power failed, leaving the family trapped inside a frozen silence broken only by Charlotte’s uneven sobs and Ben’s painful breathing.

Pascal stood perfectly still near the corpse of the Frost Wretch while his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. His pulse remained steady. Not because he was unafraid.But because this nightmare no longer felt unfamiliar.

In his previous life, the first week of the apocalypse had destroyed his ability to panic normally. Human beings adapted quickly to horror when survival demanded it. Eventually, screams became background noise. Corpses became scenery. Fear transformed into calculation.

That realisation disgusted him. Because part of him understood he was already changing again.“Victor…” Charlotte whispered shakily somewhere in the darkness. “Do something.”

A metallic clicking sound echoed softly before a flashlight beam suddenly cut through the room. Victor held the light in one hand and the handgun in the other, his sharp expression illuminated by a pale white glow. Years of business leadership and emotional restraint were the only things preventing him from collapsing like everyone else.

Even so, fear lingered behind his eyes now. Real fear. The kind of money could not be solved. The flashlight shifted downward toward Ben. Charlotte immediately gasped. The frost corruption had spread further.

Dark crystalline veins crawled beneath Ben’s skin from his ankle upward across his calf, pulsing faintly beneath the surface like frozen parasites moving through his bloodstream. Thin layers of ice had begun forming over parts of his exposed skin despite the room itself not being cold enough to create natural frost.

Ben trembled violently.“It hurts…” he whispered weakly.

Charlotte fell beside him instantly. “We need a hospital.”

Pascal closed his eyes briefly.Hospitals.The word itself felt meaningless now. During the early collapse, medical centres became death traps within days. Frost Corruption spread uncontrollably among patients while overcrowding triggered panic, riots, and mass infections.

Most doctors died before understanding what they were fighting.“There won’t be any functioning hospitals soon,” Pascal said quietly. Charlotte looked up sharply. “Stop saying things like that!”Her voice cracked halfway through the sentence. Not from anger.From desperation.Because deep inside, she already sensed he might be right. Victor slowly turned the flashlight toward Pascal again.

“You know what happened to him.”Pascal remained silent.“You know what those creatures are,” Victor continued coldly. “And somehow you keep predicting everything before it happens.”

Ben looked toward Pascal weakly through the pain. Even now, confusion dominated his expression more than fear. He could not understand why his older brother suddenly felt like a stranger. Pascal noticed it immediately. And against his own will, old memories surfaced again.

Ben followed him around as a child. Ben is asking him for help with homework. Ben smiled proudly whenever Pascal defended him from school bullies years ago. For a brief moment, Pascal hated himself for remembering any of it. Because those memories made hesitation possible.

And hesitation killed people during the apocalypse. A loud crash suddenly echoed from somewhere outside the mansion. Victor immediately swung the flashlight toward the windows. Several dark shapes moved beyond the snow-covered courtyard.

More Frost Wretches.At least five. Their distorted figures circled slowly through the storm while pale eyes reflected faintly against the frozen darkness outside. Charlotte’s breathing grew ragged. “They’re surrounding us…”

Pascal’s expression darkened. That was abnormal behaviour. Frost Wretches hunted aggressively, but they rarely coordinated during early-stage evolution. Yet these creatures moved with disturbing patience, almost as though they were waiting for something. Or someone. Then Pascal remembered the hesitation from the first creature earlier.

The way it froze after seeing him. A cold sensation spread through his chest that had nothing to do with temperature. No. Impossible. Before he could process the thought further, Ben suddenly cried out in pain. Everyone turned instantly. The frost veins beneath his skin pulsed violently before spreading another inch upward on his leg.

Charlotte grabbed him desperately. “Ben!”

Victor knelt beside them, his face tightening. “His temperature is dropping too fast.”

Pascal stared silently. In the previous timeline, early Frost Corruption survival rates remained horrifyingly low without a Frost Core awakening. Most infected victims either transformed into Frost Creatures… or died screaming.

But a tiny percentage awakened supernatural abilities instead. Those survivors became the foundation of humanity’s future power structure.Frostbearers.And Ben eventually became one of the strongest among them.

Pascal remembered it clearly now. Ben’s awakening began with unbearable cold. Then hallucinations.Then dreams of endless snow. The realisation twisted painfully inside Pascal. If Ben survived this corruption, the future monster hidden within him might awaken far earlier than before.

Charlotte suddenly grabbed Pascal’s arm. The contact startled him.“Please,” she whispered desperately. “If you know anything that can help him… tell us.”

Pascal looked down at her hand gripping his sleeve. This woman once shoved him into a blizzard to die. This same woman ignored his screams while he froze outside her door. And now she was begging him for help. The irony felt almost cruel. Yet strangely…He did not feel satisfied. Only exhausted.

Victor stood slowly, his gaze never leaving Pascal.“You know more than you’re saying,” he said quietly. “I don’t care how impossible it sounds anymore. Start talking.”

The flashlight illuminated Pascal’s face sharply within the dark room. He could lie again. Make excuses. Continue hiding the truth. But the apocalypse had already accelerated beyond his expectations. Events no longer followed the original timeline perfectly, which meant surviving alone would become far more dangerous than he anticipated.

He needed resources, Shelter, and information. And perhaps most importantly…He needed people who could fight. Pascal finally spoke carefully.“The world is collapsing.”

Charlotte stared at him blankly. Victor’s expression hardened. Pascal continued before anyone could interrupt.“The storms won’t stop. Temperatures will continue dropping. Communication networks will fail within days, maybe sooner. Those creatures outside are only the beginning.”

Ben swallowed painfully. “How do you know this?”Pascal’s eyes lowered slightly. Because I already lived through it. The truth hovered painfully at the edge of his tongue. But before he could decide whether to reveal it.

The corpse of the Frost Wretch moved again. Victor reacted instantly, raising the handgun. But this time the creature did not attack. Instead, its shattered body convulsed unnaturally while black frost spread outward beneath it in circular patterns across the marble floor. Then something horrifying happened. The frost began forming symbols.

Ancient-looking patterns carved themselves into the ice like invisible hands writing across frozen glass. The air temperature dropped violently as pale mist filled the room. Charlotte backed away in terror. “What is it doing?”

Pascal’s heart pounded once. He recognised those markings. Frost Script.One of the oldest forms of corruption linked to high-level entities during the late apocalypse. But Frost Script only appeared near Frost Thrones or catastrophic-class beings.

Seeing it now was like finding ocean water inside a desert. Completely impossible. The symbols suddenly stopped moving. Then, in the centre of the frozen pattern…An eye opened. Not a physical eye.Something formed from frost and darkness itself. A massive vertical pupil stared upward from the floor directly at Pascal.

Everyone froze. The pressure filling the room became unbearable instantly. Charlotte nearly collapsed again while Victor instinctively stepped backwards. Ben’s breathing turned shallow. But Pascal could not move at all. Because the eye was looking only at him.

Then a voice whispered inside his mind.“You returned.”

Pascal’s blood ran cold. The voice sounded ancient beyond comprehension. Not loud.Not human. It felt like frozen mountains speaking through endless snowfall. Nobody else reacted. Which meant they could not hear it. Only him.“You should not exist,” the voice continued softly.

Pascal staggered backwards. Impossible. No Frost Entity should recognise him this early. Unless his thoughts froze.The rebirth.The thing that brought him back. A terrifying realisation surfaced slowly. What if his return was not an accident?

The eye within the frost suddenly narrowed.“We found you again.”

The moment those words echoed inside his head, unbearable pain exploded through Pascal’s chest. He dropped to one knee instantly. Charlotte shouted something nearby, but her voice sounded distant beneath the roaring pressure inside his skull. Fragments of memory flashed violently through his mind. A frozen throne buried beneath endless snow.

Black skies splitting apart. Gigantic beings kneeling before a figure made entirely of frost. And standing at the centre of it all…Himself.

Pascal’s breathing became ragged. No, those were not memories from his previous life. They felt older. Far older. The frost eye suddenly shattered apart. The symbols across the floor cracked violently before dissolving into mist moments later.

The pressure vanished instantly. Pascal remained kneeling while sweat ran down his face despite the freezing air. Victor grabbed his shoulder firmly. “What just happened?”Pascal slowly looked upward. And for the first time since his rebirth, genuine fear appeared inside his eyes.

Because deep down, he finally understood one horrifying possibility. The apocalypse had not accelerated randomly. Something within the Eternal Winter remembered him. And it had just awakened.