“Jinyoung…!”

The old monk wobbled slightly before his knees buckled and he swayed precariously. Willow’s cry was the only reason Jinyoung was able to reach the old man’s side in time.

Youngho struggled to stand. The burning had taken over his entire body and transformed into a fever. Whatever this was, his body was doing its best to fight it off like an infection. And by the progression of his symptoms, he was losing.

His [scan] was beyond comprehension. Whatever had happened to Youngho, the system was absolutely losing it.

“What do we do?” he asked Willow.

Unable to think of anything else, Willow placed a hand Youngho’s forehead.

“He’s burning up.”

“That’s good, right?” Jinyoung asked hopefully. “That means his body’s fighting this thing off, right?”

She shook her head. “He’s too hot. Sin or no, his body’s going to kill itself fighting the infection.”

Willow raced through the options in her mind. They didn’t have a medic here and there were no first aid supplies anywhere to be seen. The few supplies they brought with them were used or lost during previous battles.

Think, Willow.

A hand gripped her shoulder. Jinyoung’s.

He looked her straight in the eye and spoke one word. “Frost.”

It took her a minute to understand, but once she did, she nodded quickly.

Willow practiced her spells for the past few weeks, enough to be relatively skilled in their usage. Enough to know that [shock] and [ember] were impossible to control. But [frost] could be tamed enough for use in situations like these. At least, she hoped so.

Willow took in a deep breath and channeled mana to her hands. Slowly, she sculpted the raw energy into a cold, lifeless chill. In most circumstances, she would use this as a weapon against her opponents, but this time Willow needed to harness it to save a life.

“Hold him down, Jinyoung.”

By now, the fever had transported Youngho into another world. He shut his eyes tightly and grimaced, quiet save for the occasional grunts that escaped his mouth. Jinyoung put his hands on the old man’s shoulders and held him down.

When enough mana had pooled into her hands, Willow tapered off the spell and focused on holding onto the power she had accumulated. Slowly and carefully, she placed one of her palms on Youngho’s forehead.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

There was a slight sizzle of air as the cold mana met his feverish skin. All at once, Youngho’s eyes flew open and he struggled under Jinyoung’s grip.

“Hold him down!” Willow shouted.

Jinyoung held fast and leaned his weight down until slowly, the struggles ceased. Youngho’s expressed slowly relaxed as the cold fought the heat back and returned his body to a normal temperature.

“I don’t know how long this is going to last,” Willow whispered between breaths. The [frost] wasn’t a powerful and by necessity, it couldn’t be. But holding a constant stream of mana was a tiring task. “We don’t even know how to stop this infection.”

Jinyoung leaned back. “You’re right, we don’t.”

He turned his head to look at the tall figure that had quietly watched them. Their opponent made no move to interfere, but Jinyoung could see that it was also completely on its guard.

Jinyoung opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, the armored figure spun on its heel to face the gate and immediately summoned its spear.

“What the hell-”

He didn’t finish the thought. The gate flashed with chaotic energy until it grew blindingly bright and let off two tiny explosions. When the light faded, Jinyoung saw that six additional shapes had crossed the boundary of the gate from the other side.

His [scan] told him what they were, but still he could scarcely believe how bad his luck was.

“Sin wraiths.”

***

The tunnel wasn’t very long, but Seunghyo was having trouble walking. Hana put his arm around her shoulder and did her best to shift his weight, but each step grew more difficult.

“Not exactly the reunion I had planned,” he mumbled.

Hana sideways at him and Seunghyo flashed her the same boyish smile he had when they were at the Academy together.

“Oh, please. That doesn’t work on me anymore.”

He feigned surprise and held a hand to his chest. “Whatever will I do?”

Hana snickered as they limped on. The dagger wound to Seunghyo’s shoulder wound had bled profusely before they were able to bandage it properly. But whatever curse or poison the shadow walker had used was an effective one. As time went on, Seunghyo found it harder and harder to walk until he was unable to do so unassisted.

“After everything I did to keep you out of this,” Seunghyo whispered. “I just ended dragging you into my shit.”

His shit.

For years, Hana had resented herself. She had found it difficult to move on after Seunghyo had left her. And even after, part of her never did. The only solace she was able to find was by turning her sadness into anger. But now she had something that she’d never had before. She had the truth.

“That’s not how this works,” she said. “It’s our shit.”

Seunghyo choked out a laugh. “God, that’s corny. But I’ll take it.”

“Damn right you will.”

They weren’t far now. Just a few more minutes and Hana would deposit Seunghyo in the control room before joining the others in battle against the thing that had come through the gate.

“I’m guessing whatever Henry left behind was important?”

Stupid! Hana thought to herself.

In her haste to check on Seunghyo, she’d forgotten to check the quest that they had taken on. The research drive was secure in her pocket along with the sample, but she could just as easily check on the status of the quest to see how the others were doing.

“Yeah, it’s-”

Hana stopped. The quest status appeared before her but something had changed. The first requirement was the destruction of the research drive, but the second one had changed. Originally, it had read, Destroy samples of purified SIN, but now…

QUEST: CRADLE of Ice (UNIQUE)

Destroy the research drive

Destroy SIN (0/2)

Destroy the CRADLE and close the GATE

Reward: None.