“Precisely two weeks ago, Alina Vuk, and her region of rebellious military forces attempted to take down the establishment, and put themselves in power!”

The man in the white and purple gown declared as the chariots continued rising up into the air and became stationary as pillars made from the Wave extended from the ground, creating a floating platform for her execution, “However, thankfully, the brave souls of the Descendants of Winter, in the midst of their preaching duties in the Palace, were able to step up and protect the royal family from the Valkyrie’s aggressions. And thus, was also given the honor of executing the traitors as well as declaring the end to the barbaric system of Valkyrie transformation programs!

“Let this be a lesson to the sons and daughters of Talonia that the horrific pasts of the Valkyrie program…the ridiculous promise of power, and the sacrifices was not made in vain…This...is the end of it all. The end of the abominable practice, and the start of a brighter future.” The man slowly turned around, his dark eyes filled with life as he turned and looked at the prison and Alina who’s chained down within.

“You will not get your chance at a final word, Alina.” He lowered his tone, the black eye bags under his eyes twitching with his every word as he took off his hat, revealing the bald head and grey strands to the side, “My daughter will have enjoyed this moment if you didn’t take her away from me.”

Alina looked up and she stared straight into the eyes of the man when he undid the locks to the cage. A pair of guards floated up onto the platform before they yanked Alina through her shackles and pinned her against a set of pillory strengthed with embedded Casts.

Her eyes appeared unfocused, and her mind was clouded.

“Now…may you be spared when you return to the great winter…” The man continued, his hands raised high up as one of the guards unsheathed a glowing blade before prepping himself.

“Now.”

At the same time as the blade was raised overhead, multiple figures in the crowd moved at the same time. They were all dressed in brown winter jackets with black hoods covering their faces, and four of them broke the formation maintained by the guards at the ground level, drawing the attention of the soldiers while another four waited before leaping through the rooftops nearby, making a beeline towards the floating platform.

“Hurry! Kill her now!” The man ushered the guards who grunted out loud and slashed the blades downward. However, before it could cut cleanly through Alina’s smooth neck, a glowing rod made from the Wave flew through the air like a javelin the length of a flag pole and pinned itself straight into the Cast-strengthened pillory.

“GET HER NOW!” The feminine voices from the attackers cut through the air, and a muscular woman grunted with effort as she held onto the other end of the glowing rod, lifting the entire pillory up into the air as another woman with the build of a skinny girl bounced herself off the body of a guard and flew up towards Alina.

With a pair of blades swirling in her hands, she timed her slices to the spinning pillory with the movements of her own body, cutting straight through the Casts and the metallic connections as the pillory opened around Alina’s neck and wrists.

Then, as the heavy wooden machinery slammed down onto the ground and splintered into countless pieces, a whip was suddenly thrown out from a building on the side, catching the body of Alina and the little girl before pulling them away from the scene.

“Shit!” The man cursed before pointing his fingers forward, “Get her! Get her! Where the hell is she doing?! Why isn't she here yet?!”

“Grand priest! She refused to move unless it’s the perfect time to act…” The guards hurried to get up as the groups of soldiers surrounded the individual attackers close to the ground.

Then, before they attempted to get away, a harsh winter breeze filled the entire capital, bringing a new dimension of cold as the crowds started shivering and dispersing. The road that was so carefully cleared of snow every morning now became covered in a thin layer of ice as the feet and ankles of all the soldiers and attackers started to freeze up.

“She…she’s finally here!” The grand priest smiled with satisfaction, leaping off the platform and gracefully landing next to the cloaked figure that’s slowly walking forward, her face hidden by the hood though her presence in the Wave unmistakable to anyone with a hint of Wave sensing ability.

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She was the definition of Winter. She was the definition of cold, the culmination of darkness, and the manifestation of Ice.

With her long slender blue fingers, Icy Hale rolled back her wood, revealing her silvery hair that was rolled to the side. Her mouth was covered by the black mask, and she slowly raised one hand that was covered with splinters of ice before she shoot it forward, freezing through the shields of the nearest attacker and puncturing her armor.

“NO!” Her companion cried out in pain as she reached towards her fallen companion. However, the big muscular woman instead grabbed onto her and threw her away like a ball before she turned to face up against Icy all by herself.

“I have seen what you can do, Icy.” She pointed towards the woman, “A woman who lost to outsiders is no one to me.”

“Oh?” Icy tilted her head and examined the muscular woman close as she tossed away her jackets, revealing the light blue armour underneath. Her arms was exposed and jacked to the extreme as she squatted down, an outline of the Wave forming around her body as she prepared to attack, “Isn’t it funny, how a Valkyrie talk about being nobodies?

“Isn’t it ironic, how Valkyries were recycled from lost little girls?” Icy said, her teeth gritting together as more and more ice splintered from her body, extending like spikes, “How those that entered the program became nobodies, dead or alive?!”

“You know nothing about our sacrifice.” The giant woman charged forward, her body seemingly growing larger and larger with every step until she filled up the entire width of the street, her shadow looming over both Icy and the Grand Priest behind her.

“No, I know far too well.” Icy darted forward, a column of ice propelling under her feet and sending her body forward.

The giant woman let out an earth-quaking roar and clashed straight into Icy’s body.

However, from the moments their Waves made contact with one another, dark blue circles immediately started spreading from the points of impact before a chill shot out in all directions. The giant woman’s eyes opening up wide before she gritted her teeth and pressed forward.

Like a hot knife melting through butter, Icy submerged into the Wave of the giant woman before she sliced her arms diagonally down across, breaking down and freezing up parts of the giant woman’s Wave armor before tearing down her physical armor. Everything immediately became frozen into a single piece as the giant roared and tried to break free.

“As I expected.” Icy said, raising herself up to the eye level of the giant woman as she struggled in place. Then, she reached forward, stabbing a spike of ice into her eyes like a dagger as blood streamed down from her face, “The Valkyries are nothing but pathetic outputs from a broken system.”

“ARGHHH! EVEN IF I DIE HERE, I AM TAKING YOU WITH ME!” The giant woman grabbed onto the shard of ice as her hands became purple and started freezing over immediately. However, through brute force alone, she yanked Icy’s body close and prepared to crush her within the mountain of muscles.

Sister…this was for you…For every one of those that survived, dozens more like her did not make it.

Icy reached her finger out, and a dark wave of cold transformed the mountain of flesh into an iceberg before she sliced off the woman’s arms and slid down her body back onto the ground like a kid on a slope.

“What…what about the others?” The grand priest asked as he approached the frozen tower of flesh with the giant woman’s expressions frozen in time and space, “May you be spared when you return to the great winter…”

“The ice shards will chase after them.” Icy said, retracting all of the splinters back into her body as she powered down from her condensed Absolute Zero mode, “There’s no place to run within the kingdom of snow and ice.”

“Is she still alive?” The groups of runners all lost their jackets, moving solely on feet as they held onto Alina, “We…have lost too many just to save her…”

“She is,” The little girl said, carrying Alina’s body on her back as she bounced from roof to roof. There were sounds of shouting soldiers coming in all directions, however, what bugged her more was the unshakable uneasiness from behind her.

There was a sound of a flesh being pierced, and a low grunt followed by a body shattering as the girl who yanked them out of the tricky situation had been turned into a column of ice and shattered into pieces.

“Shit…” The little girl forced herself to look ahead, diving down to the street levels and making sharp turns after sharp turns. However, the ice shards behind her continued flying after her relentlessly.

After jumping off an elevated staircase, the girl spun around and launched her blades at the ice shards, though it simply deflected her projectiles and continued chasing. As the sharpened tip approached her body, she held Alina overhead before the shard punctured through her skinny trunk too.

Landing hard on the slopes with a trail of blood running through her armor, the girl shielded Alina’s body from the impact before slapping her on the face.

“Wake…up…” She said as her breathe became weaker and weaker, “W…”

“Shit…shit shit shit…” In the last moments of her fading consciousness, she spotted a couple rushing towards her. She tried to warn them to get away, tried to ask them to be careful, tried to plea for them to take care for Alina, but nothing came out.

Instead, she simply watched the pale face of Alina fade into obscurity as a line of tears became frozen up into droplets of ice.