Something had shifted the moment Kassie spoke. The air felt heavier, thicker — like the cavern itself was holding its breath. She'd gone completely serious, well she was usually serious but there was something unassuming about this level of seriousness.

I found myself moving carefully, keeping my mouth shut as we followed the trail of corpses deeper into the ice.

Eventually, we reached what I could only describe as a massacre site. The makeshift bag of cores dropped from my hand when I saw it.

I didn't need Kassie to tell me she'd been right. The scene spoke for itself — screamed it, actually. The Glacial Patriarchs and Blizzard Maulers weren't just dead. They'd been destroyed. Whoever did this... their humanity was seriously questionable.

'I know these are monsters, but don't you have to be a different kind of monster to kill things this way?'

And this particular monster had to be incredibly, terrifyingly strong.

The spirit beasts were impaled on jagged ice spikes jutting from the cavern walls and floor, their blue blood dried in rivulets down the frozen surfaces like some kind of ritualistic sacrifice. Others had their skulls pulverized against the ice — literally smashed to paste, fragments of bone and brain matter frozen to the stone. The white fur of several corpses had turned a sickly, dirty blue from the sheer volume of blood loss. Hollow eye sockets stared at nothing. Limbs had been completely torn away. Gaping holes punched through torsos — holes large enough that I could see straight through to the other side.

'This is... this is actually insane.'

"Kassie... you're right."

No way any of my classmates did this. Not because they weren't cruel enough — hell, some of them would probably enjoy this kind of brutality. They simply weren't strong enough. Even Kai, who'd apparently become the most twisted version of himself, had still managed to lose to me somehow. And with the level of unhinged he was operating at, I still couldn't picture him being this bad.

'I think he's just broken. Like, genuinely broken before we even entered this world. Not... whatever madness this represents.'

Still, I wasn't going to be too quick to judge. Assumptions got people killed.

Kassie surveyed the carnage around us, her voice completely flat.

"Of course I am."

I rolled my eyes and glanced at her.

"So... what do we do from here?"

She'd retracted her helmet the moment we'd reached this section of the cave. Now she looked at me with a strange, almost exasperated expression.

"You're the summoner. I'm the summon. Aren't you starting to depend on me a bit too much?"

I offered her my most shameless smile.

"Which is exactly what I should do. I summoned you to depend on you, not to be depended on..."

She frowned.

"That's not... wrong."

My smile persisted.

"It isn't."

Her frown deepened.

"It's also not quite... right."

"Look, I just got dumped into this world like three weeks ago. You've existed for what — clearly way longer than I have. Wouldn't I be boring and stupid if I didn't take advantage of that?" I gestured broadly at the frozen hellscape around us. "Feel free to help me until I have sufficient knowledge to help myself."

I jabbed my finger at her with mock accusation in my tone. "You really should relish this moment, you know. One day — one day very soon — I won't rely on you or even look at you anymore because I'll be so ridiculously strong. Then you'll be sitting there wishing I'd depended on you more in the past. So quit complaining, okay?"

She said nothing after I finished. Just stood there looking at me with that completely blank expression.

'Did I break her? Can you break a summon with logic? That seems like a design flaw.'

The silence stretched between us.

Then we heard it — a footstep. Heavy. Deliberate.

Then another.

And another.

Each one echoed across the deathly quiet cavern like a hammer strike.

Kassie flinched but immediately froze, going utterly still. She stood there, staring at the figure as they walked into the cavern expanse from the tunnel ahead. They wore a brown hooded cloak, tattered at the edges and heavily stained with blood — both fresh and old, layers upon layers of it.

The air around this person felt wrong. Colder than the already freezing atmosphere, like they carried winter itself in their wake.

They walked forward and stopped directly between Kassie and me.

Underneath that hood, hidden deep in its shadows, I caught a glimpse of sharp, white-hot radiance burning in their eyes. They ground their teeth together, frustration dripping from every syllable.

"It's not here either… tch!"

I stood frozen. Kassie was also standing completely still, every muscle coiled tight.

For Kassie to be this cautious... that sent every alarm in my brain screaming at me not to try anything reckless. Not even slightly reckless.

'I really, really wish I had an invisibility ability right now.'

Though honestly, I had the sinking feeling that invisibility wouldn't matter to someone like this. The air, the eyes, the presence — everything about them radiated power. The kind that made my current strength look like a joke.

Even though I silently begged the universe for mercy, their hostile gaze slowly drifted toward me. Their eyes flared brighter for a moment, burning like twin stars.

"Huh... you…"

Their voice sounded like silver bells wrapped around a blade's edge.

With those words came a sharpened glare, and suddenly something plundered into my body a hundred times. All at once. My vision blurred and twisted, the world vanishing before my eyes as pain erupted across my entire body.

'What the—'

Kassie moved.

Her sword spun through the air as her body twisted away from her position in a blurred spiral that seemed to tear at reality itself. The blade arced toward the cloaked figure with lethal intent—

They casually raised one gloved hand from beneath their cloak and caught the sword's tip between their fingers, killing its momentum with vicious, casual power.

'They just... caught it. With their fingers. Fuck this world.'

Then the person looked at Kassie. Her helmet had already materialized back over her face, giving her that intimidating, demonic aura.

The figure merely chuckled — like they were genuinely impressed — and released Kassie's sword with a slight push that sent her staggering backward several steps.

The air around them suddenly changed. They began to laugh, a genuine, hearty sound that echoed through the frozen cavern. Then they looked at me — still frozen like an idiot — and their laughter continued as they strolled forward with dancing, almost playful steps. They hummed a tune, step-dancing to their own rhythm as a blue portal materialized in front of them. A miniature version of the gate's portal, swirling with energy.

They entered it without looking back.

And vanished.

The moment they disappeared, I felt the oppressive weight lift from the atmosphere. My legs gave out and I dropped to my knees involuntarily. My hands flew to my torso, frantically searching for stab wounds, but I found nothing. Not even a scratch.

'What the hell... I definitely felt...'

"Bloodlust."

I looked up at Kassie. Her helmet had vanished again, her expression grim as she spoke.

"It's something only seasoned killers develop..." She stared at the space where the portal had been, then looked back at me. "We need to get stronger."

'Yes. Absolutely yes. No arguments here.'

Also, more importantly — 'Simply means we need to have more sex and unlock more villainesses.'

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