The memory shattered just as fast as it came. My body shook violently. My skin cracked, tiny fractures forming along my arms and chest. Frost filled the cracks like liquid crystal, sealing them again with a hiss. My bones felt like stone wrapped in cold steel. Every nerve grew sharper, more responsive. The green flame tried to break me, but the flower answered each assault with a burst of frost that pushed back.

Beelzebub drifted closer, wrapped in his own cocoon of cold fire. His small body glowed faintly green, and the change inside him felt almost identical to mine. I could sense how much frost he was channeling. It was overwhelming, enough to make even me uneasy. Was he growing stronger than me? How much power could a tiny hamster even endure before something snapped?

I prayed he would survive this, and maybe even grow from it. The flame did not feel like it wanted to kill us. It only wanted to reshape us through pain, forcing strength into every corner of our beings.

[Progress: 90%]

By now, the flames reached their peak. The temperature dropped so low that even my frost-touched veins screamed. Every part of me felt brittle, like a living sculpture made of thin ice ready to shatter with one wrong movement.

My vision dimmed at the edges. I heard the faint thrum of my halo, beating like a second heart. My actual heart felt like it was made of shattered crystal, still beating somehow, still trying.

The flower inside me pulsed wildly. Too much frost gathered around it. I felt something crack somewhere inside. And then the fire made its final assault.

[Progress: 95%]

It hit me like a frozen explosion, tearing through every cell, every bone. My soul felt like it was being squeezed through a narrow passage, compacted, sharpened, reforged by an ancient will that did not care about my screams.

The pain climbed higher and higher until the world turned white. I felt Beelzebub scream. I felt myself scream in silence. I wanted to die.

[Progress: 100%]

When the system window finally declared the end, the green flames vanished and a deep silence fell. The entire chamber froze solid in a single breath, the cold sweeping outward so fast it locked the ancient carvings and walls inside one seamless block of emerald ice. The frost clinging to my skin cracked and peeled away in thin shimmering flakes, revealing something new beneath.

A soft light pulsed from my chest. I looked down and saw the flower, the same crystal thing that once bloomed inside me, now forming in my palm. A small translucent flower, glowing with shifting greens and blues, as if frost and soul had fused into one living thing. It pulsed with each breath, beating with the same rhythm as my heart.

Behind me, the halo rotated in slow circles. It was no longer thin. It was thicker, brighter, layered with ice patterns that resembled blooming flowers.

My skin shimmered faintly. Hard like the thickest ice, but smooth and beautiful. It felt strong, but it felt like me.

This is incredible… I could not help but feel a quiet awe bloom in the back of my mind.

A soft sound came from the right. Beelzebub dropped gently into my hands, glowing with green frost. His eyes were bright, sparkling with new awareness. When he opened his tiny paws, a faint ripple of green ice flowed out as if answering his will.

"Whee!" he squealed, rubbing his head into my palm. His fur felt softer than ever, almost too smooth, like fine ice polished by flowing water.

"Beelzebub, are you alright? Is it hurting anywhere? Can you control ice now too?" I bombarded him with questions, unable to hide the worry tightening my chest. He looked unharmed, but the flames that reshaped him were not gentle. I needed to be sure he was truly fine.

Before he could answer in his usual squeaks and tiny gestures, a shimmering system window unfolded in front of us. Its glow brightened the entire chamber, and my eyes widened the moment I saw what was written there.

[Passive skill unlocked: {Ice Empress Body}]

[Description: Your body has completed a perfect tempering. Your bones have the density of ancient ice compressed over ten million years. Your skin resists elemental damage. Frost flows inside your veins like blood. Your body is now capable of surviving temperatures below negative 500 degrees]

[Skill unlocked: {Soulfrost Blossom}]

[You may now manifest the crystalline flower formed from your soul. This flower can freeze any target it touches, drain frost energy from surroundings, or bloom into a larger manifestation for combat.]

[Beelzebub has awakened: {Emerald Frost Manipulation}]

[Your companion now possesses control over green frost, capable of shaping, freezing, and amplifying your own abilities.]

I stared at the screen with my jaw nearly on the floor. Every breath left me slow and uneven. Even the chamber around us seemed to pulse once, as if the cave itself acknowledged us as its new rulers.

I answered the call without hesitation, lifting my hand. The moment my fingers stretched forward, the entire cave began to tremble. The green energy that lingered in every crevice rushed toward my palm in a furious stream, drawn to me like I was a vacuum. The sensation was cold, impossibly ancient, carrying the weight of something that had waited here for millions of years.

The walls around us began to melt in streaks of emerald light. Shapes blurred in the distance as the ice dissolved, revealing something hidden all along. At first it was only a vague stone-like outline, distorted by the shifting frost. Then the details sharpened, layer after layer stripping away until I finally saw it clearly.

My eyes widened so hard they almost hurt. I rubbed them once. Then again. I still could not believe it.

There, seated upon an ancient throne carved entirely out of ice that even I would not dare touch, was the girl I had parted ways with not long ago.

"Elira?!" The name tore out of me in a gasp. "How is that possible? Hey! Elira! Are you alive?"

I rushed forward without thinking, heart slamming against my ribs. She looked like she was sleeping, almost like a porcelain doll placed upon a frozen altar. But the cold that radiated from her was so intense that it stopped me mid-step, freezing the air around my ankles.

And then her eyes opened.

In that instant, everything in the chamber halted. The frost. The air. Even my thoughts froze, locked in place as her gaze met mine.

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