Because Giges moved under a moonless veil, almost no one in Hedon Kingdom’s upper crust knew, save the radicals he led like wolves in the reeds.

Those radical ministers used “weak border defenses” as a fig leaf, then siphoned off a tide of one hundred thousand troops from the capital, and hid them in Dragonbreak City like ants under a stone.

They sealed news in the ring of cities around Dragonbreak City; the surface stayed calm as still water, while a riptide gathered in the dark halls under Giges’s roof.

“These bastards really can stir the pot.” Heat flared in Nana Toki’s chest; she bit down and tasted iron.

Host, we need to move now, or we’ll be late and it’ll turn ugly! the System pinged, pop-up boxes blinking like fireflies. According to the next plot beat, Giges may declare war on the Marl Kingdom.

“He wouldn’t dare!”

Her rage spiked like a struck gong.

Her hidden quest was to unite the two crowns, not split the river in two. And that clown even colluded with the Four Heavenly Kings to kidnap Nesting Phoenix. Smoke clawed at her lungs.

Did he think she didn’t have a temper?

She shot down the back mountain of Mida Village like a hawk. She returned to shore up the warding arrays around the village, then knifed south for Dragonbreak City on a wind that smelled of pine and dust.

By the time everything was set and she reached Dragonbreak City, dusk had spilled like ink across the second day’s sky.

She slipped over a wall with a grappling line, a swallow skimming a ridge.

Landing, she glanced back. Inside Dragonbreak City, every building wore canvas skin; the place was a forest of barracks and tents.

Soldiers flowed like a river of helmets and spears. From afar, it was just a seething, ant-black tide of heads.

This just got messy.

She hadn’t expected them to move this fast. Her plan had been to snatch Nesting Phoenix before the troops arrived, but that hope froze and cracked.

Even with her body arts, she couldn’t smash through a hundred thousand elites head-on. Not without shattering like glass.

She skimmed the System’s estimate, her brows knotting like tangled twine.

Only thirty thousand were garrisoned in Dragonbreak right now, but that was still far from a clean, quick sweep.

So this was a phase-three plane after all.

This plot wasn’t something a sane player could clear.

Vmm—

A heavy hum rose from the earth, like a drum beaten under the soil. A black magic array flared in the sky, and Dragonbreak City shuddered as if under a giant’s hand.

Hiding in shadow, Nana Toki turned to slip out and regroup. But an unseen force webbed the air above the walls; the moment she touched stone, a strange power snapped and flung her back like a twig.

“An Earthbinding Array?”

She pushed up, face paling like chalk. Why was a xuanhuan-grade formation showing up here, in this world?

Bang!

A spear-thick bolt of lightning slammed down. She tumbled, mud on her cheek, as log-thick thunder smashed the wall behind her with a crack like a felled tree.

Host! There!

The System’s voice hit like a slap. She drew her ice sword on reflex and cut at the wind.

Sure enough.

A shadow peeled out from a tent, caught in the sword-light like a fish in moonlit water.

“No wonder you were acknowledged by that lord. Even with me suppressing my breath, you still found me.” Trollop hovered at a safe distance, eyes cool as glass. “Pleased to meet you, Princess of Hedon. I’m Trollop, one of the Four Heavenly Kings under the Demon Ki—”

Whoosh!

Before his words cooled, Nana Toki was in his face, ice blade snarling like winter wind.

“Trollop, you idiot—so you’re the one who snatched my person, huh?”

To hell with polite openings. She brought the ice sword down in a clean, brutal arc.

“Why the hell are you dodging?”

Strands of hair sheared off and drifted like black snow. She jabbed a finger at him, fury sparking. “Can’t you play fair?”

Trollop: …

What, stand still and let you chop me?

This woman was crazy.

“Relax, Princess. Our game’s just begun,” Trollop smoothed his cuffs and raised his voice, floating like a paper crane on the breeze. “This will be a challenge worthy of the annals!”

“Game my ass!”

Her curse cracked the air; she flashed up and hacked again, ice singing like a whetted saw.

Trollop: …

I dodge.

“Don’t you run!”

“Hit me if you can!”

…

Teeth gritted, she chased again, blade a streak of frost. A few exchanges in, cold realization crawled over her skin—she hadn’t even brushed the bastard once.

“You turtle, did you dump every point into Agility? How are you this fast!” Her latest swing bit only wind. She glared up, jaw tight.

“Thank you for the compliment.” Trollop dipped a gentleman’s bow midair, smooth as silk. “I’ve no other virtues. I just run.”

Nana Toki: …

How was he this punchable?

Fwoop—

Another whistle tore the air. She cut backward without looking; the incoming arrow split clean in two, halves hissing past like twin snakes.

“Ah, looks like the show’s begun.” Trollop glanced past her. Soldiers had pooled behind her like stormwater. A playful smile curled his pretty face. “Regrettable, Princess. Time’s up. Let’s save our passionate rendezvous for next time.”

“Who the hell wants a rendezvous with you!”

She couldn’t stomach his pose for one more breath. She hurled the ice sword straight at his chest, a shard of winter sky.

“Ah… ruthless woman.”

The blade passed through him like through smoke. Arms wide, Trollop hugged himself and drifted back, his shape turning see-through, a ghost at dusk. “The princess who wore crystal shoes should become Cinderella. Princess, it’s time for your curtain call.”

Snap.

His finger popped like a firecracker. His form bled away into the air. A bad chill dropped into Nana Toki’s gut, a stone into a well.

“Intruder spotted! Kill!”

At that same beat, soldiers crashed toward her like a wave of iron, swords up, voices raw.

“Out.”

Her eyes sharpened. Cold burst from her like a winter squall.

The nearest soldiers were hammered aside as giant ice boulders punched up from the earth, geysers turned to glaciers.

“What—what’s going on!”

Men in the rear faltered, their feet dragging as fear pooled like oil.

The next second—

Boom!

She kicked, channeling every grain of ice element into one point. The ground bucked.

A mountain of ice, nearly fifty meters tall, reared straight up from the dirt like a white fang.

The air filled with the copper bite of blood. Soldiers hung impaled on ice spires, twitching like moths pinned to a board, their screams ragged and thin.

Beneath the mountain, Nana Toki rode the blizzard. She swung her ice blade with a dancer’s poise and a butcher’s certainty.

Shnk, shnk, shnk—

The keen edge punched through silver-white armor again and again. Wherever she passed, a neat red fountain followed, not large, not small, just final.

Since it had come to this, she might as well force it all the way and drag Ling’er Long out by sheer force.

Facing the surge of fresh bodies, Nana Toki became a machine made of frost and will. Her ice-blue hilt burned cold in her palm.

Blinding ice-light threaded through the crowd. One by one, men died without ever seeing her face, their throats erased by a ghost-quick edge.

“L—Lord Giges! Bad news, someone broke in!”

Elsewhere in Dragonbreak City, a soldier in armor clutched his sword and stumbled into Giges’s room, voice cracking like dry wood.

“What bad news? If someone broke in, kill them. Why are you bringing me every fly that buzzes?”

Seated at his desk, Giges scowled at the intruder. “Can’t you think through something this simple? What does the state pay you for?”

“N—No, Lord Giges, this one isn’t ordinary. It’s the Princess!”

“What?!”

Giges shot to his feet like a spring loosed. “You’re sure?”

“As true as steel! The intruder wields ice-element magic and bears the Demon Hand! It’s definitely the Frost Princess!”

Plenty of women in Hedon bore the Demon Hand. Only one woman in the whole kingdom commanded ice.

Giges didn’t need to think to know who it was.

“Go! Take me to see!”

He strode after the soldier, his face stormy, sun and rain warring behind his eyes.

He’d sealed every channel of news. How had this woman found him?

He stepped onto the outer rooftop, thoughts still snarled. Below, in the camp at the castle’s foot, a blood-red ice mountain speared up from a sea of helmets, hung with twisted corpses like a macabre banner.

At the mountain’s base, a woman waded through bodies and killed, her boots treading a path of scarlet through the snow-blue light.