Kealix stared at Thalia, confusion tightening behind his eyes. What did she mean by "see who he really was"?
Did they think he was wearing a disguise? That he'd hidden his identity somehow? That he wasn't... himself?
He glanced her over, subtly but quickly, while she prepared whatever "test" they had in mind. There was nothing unusual in her hands—just a small bottle. No glowing relics. No blades. No obvious threats.
His brow twitched.
It couldn't be that... could it?
Before he could think further, Leo spoke up from nearby. He leaned lazily on his sword, an easy grin plastered across his face—far too relaxed given the context.
"Don't worry too much about it," Leo said, voice casual. Then he added, almost cheerfully, "Worst-case scenario is that you die by our hand."
He said it as if it were nothing. Like offering someone tea. His grin didn't waver. If anything, it deepened.
Kealix blinked, stunned. "How can you say something like that so casually?" he demanded, his voice a shade higher than usual. His eye widened despite himself, his expression cracking as he tried—and failed—to hide the spike of nerves that surged through him.
But Leo never got the chance to answer.
Thalia had already moved.
While Kealix's focus had been on the swordsman, she'd slipped the bottle open and, with unsettling precision, brought it just beneath his nose.
Wait—am I supposed to smell it? he thought, too late.
He inhaled.
And instantly regretted it.
The stench hit him like a punch to the soul—rancid rot, clotted blood, shit-stained fur, something long-dead and crawling with things that should never see sunlight. His body recoiled violently, instinct lurching him back with a choked gag. His stomach twisted, rebelling.
"What the—" he coughed, eyes watering.
Thalia recorked the bottle with an almost bored flick of her wrist and slipped it away again.
"Very well," she said simply. "You pass."
Pass?
Kealix staggered a step back, wiping at his nose, trying not to dry heave. The awful scent still lingered, clinging to the inside of his skull like mold. But even through the disgust, something clicked.
He was awake now. Really awake. Not just physically, but present. The haze of exhaustion had lifted. The lingering trauma of the last few days faded just enough to sharpen his thoughts.
And that's when it hit him.
Frost.
Shit.
Where is he?!
Panic surged. He twisted around, scanning the clearing. Nothing. No pawprints. No silver fur. No bright eyes watching from the trees. Just him, Thalia, and Leo. His heart lurched.
"Looking for something?" Leo asked, tone innocent, though there was a curious glint in his eyes now. He straightened slightly, the grin still in place, but something sharper behind it.
Kealix didn't answer at first. His mind raced. Could he trust them? These strangers? He didn't even know who they really were. But they hadn't hurt him. Not yet. And they were the first living people he'd seen in days. That had to count for something.
"I'm looking for my pup," Kealix said at last. He tried to sound calm, controlled—but it didn't land. The worry leaked through, threading into every word.
Leo tilted his head. A pause. Then he said, slowly, "You mean that tattoo on your shoulder?"
Kealix froze. His breath caught.
"…What?"
Leo shrugged with deliberate ease. "The one that looks like a wolf? It looks a awful lot like one''
Kealix's pulse pounded in his ears. Slowly, he turned his head and looked down at his shoulder—at the inked mark
It was new.
Kealix had never seen the mark before—not on his skin, not anywhere. The shape was subtle but unmistakable: a curled, sleeping wolf pup etched in glimmering ink across his shoulder, faintly pulsing with a quiet, internal light.
It hadn't been there before.
It had appeared only after Frost disappeared.
Were they linked?
Was Frost… this?
Had he somehow become the mark?
The questions came fast, tumbling over each other in Kealix's mind like a flood. But before panic or confusion could take full hold, something shimmered into existence before his eyes—words, glowing softly, suspended in midair.
[Mystical Beast: Frost has entered hibernation in Mark State to undergo an evolution.]
The letters pulsed once, then slowly faded from view.
Kealix exhaled. A long, shaky breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Relief washed through him, so sudden and overwhelming it almost knocked the strength from his knees.
He's okay.
Frost is okay.
Not gone. Not taken. Not dead.
Just... changing.
Kealix placed his fingers lightly on the mark, feeling its gentle thrum against his skin. A smile flickered across his face—small, but real.
But the relief didn't last long.
The beasts.
He stiffened, posture tightening as his mind snapped back to the memory of them—those eyeless, bone-white horrors with twitching limbs and rotting hunger. The pale beasts. The ones that had chased him like he was prey.
What happened to them?
He glanced up at the two strangers again—Leo still leaning on his sword with effortless arrogance, and Thalia standing silent beside him, her face hidden behind that smooth, unreadable mask.
Cautiously, Kealix cleared his throat.
"…Did you guys kill the pale beasts that were chasing me?" he asked.
Leo blinked. A look of confusion flickered across his face.
Thalia gave no reaction.
"The what beasts?" Leo said, tilting his head.
Kealix frowned. "The pale ones. No eyes. Moved like—like marionettes with too many joints. You didn't see them?"
Leo gave a short laugh and raised an eyebrow. "Oh. You mean the Frozen Tiger Worms?"
"Frozen?" Kealix repeated, the word strange in his mouth. He hadn't seen them freeze, exactly—just vanish. But something about the term caught at his memory.
Thalia finally spoke, her voice even and distant behind the mask. "So it wasn't you, then."
Kealix's gaze narrowed. "Wasn't me what?"
She didn't elaborate. Just stood still, watching.
But something had clicked. The phrase stuck in his mind, "Frozen Tiger Worms." The way Leo said frozen.
He thought back.
That last moment before he'd blacked out. He remembered the sky lighting up—icy blue, brilliant and cold. A pulse of energy. His vision had swirled with frost as the ground seemed to lock beneath him. And at that exact moment, the system had spoken.
[Frost refuses to give up.]
He stared at the mark on his shoulder. Wolf of the Eternal Winter. That was Frost's divine name. His title.
Winter. Ice. Refusal to fall.
And now—those beasts, frozen. Completely. Without explanation. And Frost, gone, only to reappear as this glowing mark tied to something called evolution.
The puzzle pieces clicked into place all at once.
Kealix's lips parted slightly, eyes wide—not with fear this time, but awe. He murmured the words before he could stop himself.
"…It was Frost, wasn't it?"
His voice was quiet. Reverent. He stared down at his shoulder again, smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
A moment passed. Then he said, softer still, almost like he was speaking directly to the mark, "Seems like you're pretty strong… aren't you?"
The mark pulsed once, a flicker of warmth spreading through his chest—not heat, not fire. Something colder. Calmer. Ancient.
And in that silent beat of connection, Kealix understood something else:
Frost had saved him. Not just with instinct or loyalty—but with choice. With power.
And whatever this evolution was… it wasn't the end. It was only the beginning.
"Anyway," Leo said, breaking the silence as he idly tapped the flat of his sword against his shoulder, "what's the story behind your missing eye and that prosthetic arm of yours?"
His tone was casual—too casual, as if he were asking about the weather instead of the pieces of Kealix's broken body. Maybe now that they weren't trying to kill each other, he thought small talk was appropriate.
Kealix shifted, instinctively trying to use his hands to gesture. But the motion stopped short, yanked tight by the bindings still holding his wrists behind his back.
He gave an awkward, almost sheepish smile. "Maybe untie me first?" he asked, glancing between them.
Without a word, Thalia stepped forward. She moved with quiet precision, drawing a short gladius-shaped blade from her hip. The steel glinted briefly in the dim light as she slipped the edge between the ropes and Kealix's skin. With one clean stroke, the cords fell away.
Kealix blinked in surprise as he flexed his arms. Not numb.
Even after being pinned against cold metal for so long, his hands weren't cold. No tingling. No discomfort.
Strange.
He filed it away. Another oddity to deal with later.
Leo gave him a nod. "So?"
Kealix rubbed his wrists briefly, then looked up, still seated on the ground. "My arm was torn up by wolves," he said simply. "I didn't have a choice. I had to find a replacement or bleed out."
He hesitated before continuing. "As for the eye..."
He trailed off.
There was a brief pause—long enough for them to think he might've changed his mind.
"I don't know," Kealix finished quietly. "I just... woke up like this."
No memory. No explanation. Just pain, disorientation, and the cold absence where something used to be.
Leo frowned. "You just woke up missing an eye?" He squinted, his voice laced with disbelief. "That doesn't just happen."
Kealix shrugged with a crooked smile. "And yet... here we are."
Leo looked like he wanted to press further, but something about the way Kealix said it—the quiet conviction, the lack of defensiveness—made him hesitate.
Instead, he nodded at Kealix's left arm. "So how does that thing even work?"
Kealix glanced down at the gleaming metal limb, the way it caught the light in etched lines and quiet pulses of energy under the plating. He flexed his fingers—slow, controlled, deliberate.
"I'm still figuring that out," he admitted.
That earned him a small chuckle from Leo, but it didn't last long. The swordsman's expression shifted—thoughtful, maybe even conflicted. He opened his mouth to say something else, but stopped.
Thalia was the one who broke the silence.
"How did you get into the heart of the Scarlet Forest?" she asked, voice calm but edged with curiosity. "This isn't a place you just stumble into."
Her masked gaze fixed on him.
Kealix hesitated.
That was the question he'd been dreading.
The truth? He had no idea. One moment he was falling through a fracture in the sky, and the next, he was here—bleeding, confused, and being hunted by monsters. But he doubted they'd believe that. Not without seeing it themselves.
What do I say? he thought, scrambling for a believable lie.
Then the answer came—basic, vague, and just close enough to truth.
"I'm traveling," he said with a shrug, trying to play it off as nonchalant.
Silence.
Leo stared at him like he'd just said the dumbest thing imaginable. His expression screamed "Really?" without needing to say a word.
Thalia didn't react at first. But then, she sighed. A low sound, tired and knowing.
"I assume you're from a different world, then?" she said flatly.
The words hit him like a punch to the gut.
Kealix's entire body stiffened. His breath caught. He looked up sharply at her, the color draining from his face.
"What?" he asked, eyes wide. "How did you—?"
He didn't finish the sentence.
How did they know?
Could they read minds? Did the system give him away somehow? Or were they just that perceptive?
Shock laced every fiber of his being. His heart pounded against his ribs like it wanted out. That truth—his truth—was something he hadn't said aloud to anyone.
And yet… they knew.
Leo tilted his head, watching Kealix carefully.
"Your reaction just confirmed it," he said simply.
Kealix's mouth opened, closed, then opened again. "Is it that obvious?" he whispered, more to himself than them.
Thalia stepped forward, just a pace.
"Not at first," she said. "But no one from here looks at the Scarlet Forest like you did. No one gets dropped in the center like that and survives the beasts by luck. And certainly no one treats the system messages like a foreign language."
Kealix's breath hitched.
They had noticed.
Leo's grin softened. "Relax. You're not the first."
Kealix stared at them both in stunned silence, a thousand thoughts spinning through his head.
Not the first…
That meant others had come. Others had fallen from the sky like he did. And maybe—just maybe—they'd survived too.
But what did that mean for him?
And why did they care?