‘Cut….’

The sound of her ice blade cutting whooshed through the air as it tore through an undead abomination. The creature’s insides were dry, and no blood splattered as its parts split in different directions, the severed halves crumbling into the dust of the red desert.

Before the defeated abomination’s body even touched the ground, Lena was already rushing toward another adversary. This one was a cursed creature with limbs resembling black tentacles attached to a humanoid body with red spikes growing out of its stone-like ebony carapace, each spike glinted ominously under the harsh sun creating a disgusting sight for anyone who looked at it.

With precision, her translucent blade flashed at the attacking tentacles. Each tentacle that made contact with her weapon immediately turned to solid ice. The cold from her blade moved rapidly from the point of contact and immobilized the creature’s limb.

This was the true strength of her Aura, Divine Ice. Each time she drew it out, the desert cooled down for a moment.

As the Ghost of Winter, Lena moved with its presence like an extension of her soul, just as the sword was for her body. The temperature dropped noticeably around her, the heat of the desert retreating from the biting chill she exuded.

With ease, she phased through the abomination’s offense, her movements fluid and ethereal. Once she was close, she plunged her sword right into its neck and smirked as white ice flowed from the point of penetration, rapidly encasing the entire creature in a crystalline prison until it stood as a grotesque ice sculpture. Its once menacing form now frozen in an eternal moment of defeat.

Another creature burst out of the red sand and lunged at her, its maw gaping and claws outstretched. But before it was even close, a spear of steaming ice had already materialized in her hand and shot through the air, piercing the creature's chest. The creature halted abruptly, the attack was both immediate and lethal enough to destroy its core.

It collapsed to the ground, lifeless. For real…at least.

“That was easy…” Lena muttered to herself, her breath visible in the cold air surrounding her.

The red desert, a stark contrast to her frosty aura, seemed to momentarily accept her dominance. The heat was pushed back by the ghostly chill she wielded.

She surveyed the battlefield, her icy grey eyes scanning for any additional threats.

The other soldiers seemed to be winning the ongoing battle against the horde of abominations. The number of their forces had fallen drastically since entering the dungeon weeks ago.

Right now, the original fifty men and women had been reduced to almost half after the countless battles they had gone through. Unfortunately for them, the cursed creatures had only gotten stronger as they drew closer to the portal supposed to lead them to the next floor.

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Luckily, even after losing almost half of their original number, the available humans and ascenders were still capable of fighting against whatever cursed creature that came in their way. This was all thanks to Snow’s leadership and strategic skills. He was the main captain of this entire operation.

Lena’s only job was to assist the captain in case he faced powerful creatures of higher ranks like Generals or higher. And so far, she had assisted in killing three Cursed Tyrants with deadly abilities that killed most members of the unit.

***

When the fight was over, the unit regrouped to see how many survived the fight against the horde and treated those who were severely injured. The arachnid machines also needed maintenance. Only three of the massive machines had made this far into the blood desert. Because everyone was exhausted, the unit decided to make a stop and camp not so far from the battlefield.

They needed the rest to recover from the fatigue and their zenshi reserves.

Lena was now quietly relaxing under her tent with a piece of roasted meat from a living cursed beast that was killed by one of the soldiers. At first, she was against eating foreign meat. But after learning that the black ether could be burnt away with zenshi, her fears of turning into an Infected by eating monster meat were no more.

After giving it a long stare, she led the spicy meat to her mouth and started eating it like there was no tomorrow. It was soft and tender…just the way she liked it.

Len had never been the type to chow down on fatty meat like this but she was wary of losing so much weight as every day here made her feel like she was working out. The battles seemed to wear her down even before the sunset.

Today was the first night of pure peace since they entered this horrible place.

Once she was done with her meal, Lena decided to go out for a stroll. She stepped out of her cold tent which was in the far corner of the camping area to avoid affecting her comrades with her presence.

The night was already cold. So she didn’t want to make it worse with her chilling presence.

As she moved across the campsite, her silver hair flattered in the wind while she marched. Under the crimson light, she looked like a divine being. Her pale white skin was smooth and free of any scar, a flawless canvas that seemed to glow ethereally under the moonlight. The soft radiance accentuated her serene beauty, making her appear almost otherworldly amidst the desolate landscape.

Her grey eyes, cold and piercing, remained devoid of any emotion, reflecting the stark, unfeeling red light of the moon. In this harsh, unforgiving world, she stood as an enigmatic figure, a ghostly presence of winter that commanded both awe and fear.

“It's Ghost of Winter, I heard she took down a general today all on her own. And she didn’t get hurt at all.”

“Did you see how she killed it with so much ease? Legacies are indeed something else…even Captain Snow. You saw what he did with that Cursed Tyrant. He killed it in one move…”

Lena made no reaction to the soldiers’ weirdly loud conversations. Most of them were mundane humans who were excited after seeing the ascenders use their powers…especially herself and Snow.

The two were only using their second gates, but had already left quite the impression on both ascenders and mundane soldiers.

…Which was a good thing since needed all the morale they could get from them.

She arrived at the main tent and walked in.

Inside the tent was a group of five soldiers studying a hologram of a map they had come up with after traveling for so long. Snow was standing at the side as a red-haired woman explained everything to him and the rest of the soldiers.

The woman was a diviner clairvoyant and was currently the most important person here. To be more clear, without her, the path to the portal would’ve been much harder than it already was.

Also, she was the one tasked with making a map to be used by the unit meant to join and take on the second floor of this damn dungeon.

They all paused what they were doing and lowered their heads to welcome Lena’s presence.

“Um…Good evening.”

“How was the meal?” Snow asked with a mischievous grin. “Cursed creature meat is top-shelf quality, don’t you think?”

Len turned and faced the handsome man. Then covered her mouth to hide her smirk. “Don’t expose your weird fetishes to your co-workers, cousin. You might destroy the slim chances you have with Ascender Rita.”

The red-haired woman’s eyes widened, her face turning red after hearing Len’s teasing words.

Snow gritted his teeth, feeling embarrassed. He looked at the surprised redhead and then at Lena with eyes burning with animosity.

“Anyway, I think we should save the confessions for later when we get out of this place.”

Both Rita and Snow replied in unison.

“You’re right.”

Len snickered before letting out a satisfied sigh. She turned to the nervous Rita and asked:

“How far is my sister from here?”

“Very close, Lady Feng. Mr. Shin has successfully guided them across the desert.”

A wide smile found itself on Lena’s face as she said:

“Music to my ears.”