Frostfire Legacy

Some time ago, somewhere in the world, a portal appeared inside what seemed to be an old, dusty warehouse. Figures slowly emerged from it, pouring out one after another, their silhouettes faintly illuminated by the flickering lights overhead.

The first to step through was a rabbit woman with orange fur. She looked utterly exhausted, her limbs trembling with each step, and blood dripped from a fresh wound over her eyes. It was painful just to look at her, so one could only imagine the sheer agony she was enduring.

Yet, despite her dire state, her expression remained firm and resolute, showing no hint of weakness or fear.

Following her were five more figures. Each had different hair colors, but they shared one striking feature—they all had feathery wings sprouting from behind their ears. This wasn't a defect but something closer to Atavism, a remnant of their ancestral traits.

One of them, a girl with flowing blonde hair, approached the rabbit woman, holding a staff that resembled the hands of a clock, glinting in the dim light.

"Miss Cassandra, pardon me, but may I heal your wounds? If left untreated, you may bleed to death," she urged, her voice soft yet firm.

Though her eyes were destroyed, the rabbit woman, Cassy, couldn't see the speaker, but her trembling ears caught the urgency in her tone.

"Don't try to fix my eyes or pull anything funny," Cassy replied, her voice steady and laced with grim resolve. "If you do, I'll either slash my throat or gouge my eyes out."

She gripped a sharp piece of wood lying at her feet, ready to defend herself. The blonde woman, Chronalisa, smiled at Cassy's extreme distrust but understood her point.
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"Don't worry. Even though you're just a worm crawling on the ground, you're still useful to us. I'd rather keep you alive for now," she explained, her voice sweet but the content dripping with disdain.

Without doing much else, simply by looking at Cassy, something miraculous happened. The wounds on her body began to scab over, the bleeding stopping completely. Cassy felt the wound over her eyes itch, and from that alone, she knew what the woman did wasn't "healing."

"...You sped up the time on my wounds?" Cassy guessed accurately, her usual naivety nowhere to be seen, replaced by a keen awareness of her situation.

It was as she had deduced. Rather than turning back time to close the wounds as she had done for the redheaded man earlier, Chronalisa merely accelerated time for the selected area. The level of control and mana required was beyond Cassy's abilities—a truly godlike feat!

"Is everyone here?"

At that moment, the last person passed through the portal just before it closed behind them. The final arrival was a striking woman with flowing silver hair and eyes mixed with red and blue, giving her the air of a strict officer. She was none other than Lorelai, Cassy's "former" party member.

"Yes, yes, everyone's here, Lady Lorelai," the red-haired man, Lionel, responded offhandedly, his tone casual as if their circumstances didn't matter. "Only those we left aboveground aren't present."

"..."

Lorelai glared at him but decided it wasn't worth reprimanding him further. As her mood soured, another voice raised from the side.

"Huh? Garreth and the others aren't responding to my call," a pink-haired woman said, frowning at her holo-phone, concern etched on her face.

"...Leave them," Lorelai sighed, her voice heavy with resignation. "If they're dead, they're dead. We'll proceed with the plan with whoever is here."

She was keenly aware of the strength hidden within Orinfeld City, having moved through it for quite some time. To her, it wouldn't be surprising if all six members left aboveground had already turned into fertilizer, their fates sealed in this unforgiving world.

Lorelai turned to Cassy, noticing her wounded eyes were already scabbed. She shot a glance at Chrona, opened her mouth, then closed it with a frown, as if changing her mind.

"Let's go. We don't have much time. The mayor will have found this place by now."

If he sent anyone from the Hit Squad, they'd all be dead. They were far too low-leveled to put up a proper fight. Control the enemy? If the enemy closed their eyes, there was nothing they could do. And with a level gap, even without their vision, it would be child's play to eliminate all of them.

"Sebastian, open a path," Lorelai commanded the black-haired man, her tone leaving no room for argument. "Yinfa and Dex, clean up the scene. Make sure no one can follow us."

The pink-haired girl and a man with no presence, wrapped in bandages, nodded in response, their expressions serious.

Right on cue, Sebastian finished opening a new portal, ready to lead the way. One after another, aside from Yinfa and Dex, the others entered, their faces set with determination. Chrona guided the blind Cassy through, careful not to let her stumble.

"..."

Though she had steeled her resolve, the faint gnawing fear in her heart was hard to chase away. 'Star...' she thought, praying he would come to save her soon, her heart clinging to that hope as a flickering light in the dark.

---

"What?" Aster asked, doubting his ears, his brows furrowed in confusion. "Did you mean what you just said, Magnus?"

"It's Mayor Magnus to you, brat," the man responded, grinning wide, his confidence oozing. "And yes, I'm serious. I told you I had a way."

Aster frowned, his mind racing with the implications.

It had been a day since their last meeting, and a full night since he'd spent some "quality time" with Faeloria. And now, Magnus had explained his plan, one that unsettled him.

"But killing prisoners just to raise my level is..." Aster muttered, the moral weight of the proposal pressing down on him.

Magnus' plan was simple: let Aster kill death row prisoners to level up. It was efficient, yes, but Aster couldn't help feeling it was fundamentally wrong. "It's like treating humans as livestock!" he growled, anger rising in his chest.

*Sigh…*

"You're so naive, Aster," Magnus said, exasperated, waving a dismissive hand. "This is the fastest, easiest way for you to level up, and you're going to pass it up? What a waste."

"..."

Aster couldn't deny it was fast and efficient. But killing those openly hostile to him, like members of the Anti-Human Movement, felt very different from executing those who had no connection to him.

"Well, the decision is yours."

Magnus sat down, sipping tea as if he had no worries in the world, his demeanor relaxed and unbothered by the weight of the conversation.