(Opening sequence: Dawn breaks over Glaciem. The sun appears pale, filtered through veils of frost mist. Snow crystals drift like ash. The palace bells toll three slow notes — the signal for an honor duel.)
"To fight without hatred is the purest confession of truth." — Law of the Northern Courts.
Scene 1
Ren adjusted the clasp of his coat, breath rising in white clouds.The cold still pierced him despite Ignis's enchantments. Every breath tasted like steel.
Across the training yard, soldiers and nobles gathered, silent in ritual circles drawn upon the ice. Above them, Princess Glacielle watched from a balcony, her presence alone enough to keep the snow from falling.
Ignis stood at Ren's side, arms folded, her flame aura suppressed to avoid melting the field.
"You don't have to do this," she said quietly.
Ren gave a crooked smile. "I think that's the first rule of my life: I don't have to, but I will anyway."
Her lips curved, though worry lingered. "The duel of Glaciem isn't about victory. It's about restraint. Show too much fire, and they'll call you an invader."
Ren nodded. "And if I show too little?"
"Then they'll call you unworthy."
(Camera pans upward — light refracts through the frozen air; the ring glows faintly blue.)
From the northern tunnel emerged his opponent: Commander Vael, Glacielle's personal champion. His armor shimmered with frost plating; a two-handed glaive rested across his shoulders.
He bowed formally. "By command of the Ice Empress, I test the heart of the anomaly."
Ren exhaled, steadying his pulse. "Let's make it quick. I hate long winters."
A few soldiers snorted; others frowned at his insolence. Glacielle raised one hand.
"Begin."
(A low chime echoes — ice cracks — snow flares into a thousand sparks.)
Scene 2
Vael moved first — impossibly fast for his size. His glaive traced a semicircle that released a blade of compressed frost.
Ren ducked, flame bursting from his palm to counter. The impact erupted in steam, blinding both fighters.
He could feel the temperature drop around him. The arena's enchantments fed Vael's strikes, stealing warmth from the air.
He's using the field itself, Ren realized.
Ignis's voice reached his mind through their link:
Don't meet him head-on. Use the rhythm. Fire breathes, remember?
He grinned. "Yeah, yeah."
Ren inhaled deeply, drawing the flame inward until it was a thin coil of heat spiraling through his core. Then he exhaled — releasing narrow bursts rather than waves.
Each pulse deflected Vael's frost arcs with precision instead of force.
(Camera slows — steam and snow weave around them like two dragons: one crimson, one silver.)
The audience murmured; Glacielle leaned forward slightly.
Ren felt it: the same resonance he'd found in Ignis's trial, but colder, sharper. Fire wasn't fighting frost — it was sculpting it.
Vael pressed harder, strikes hammering like hail. "You wield her power well," he said between blows, "but not your own."
Ren slid backward, boots scraping the ice. "Guess I'm still figuring out who 'my own' is."
Then Vael's glaive split into twin blades of ice. The tempo doubled.
Ren's flame flared crimson-white; he ducked, twisted, caught one blade bare-handed. Frost crawled up his arm instantly — pain searing — but he didn't let go.
He shoved forward, forcing the glaive aside and countered with an upward blast of heat that melted the ground beneath them.
Steam engulfed the arena.
(Sound fades — heartbeat only. Camera rotates around Ren's silhouette, half-light, half-shadow.)
Scene 3
Through the mist, he saw fragments of his reflection on every piece of ice — each showing different emotions: fear, rage, doubt.
The same illusion from Ignis's chamber, but colder, quieter.
Not again, he thought. No time for ghosts.
He stepped forward — and froze mid-motion. One reflection spoke.
"You think warmth saves everyone. But warmth also melts what keeps them whole."
Ren's pulse stumbled. The memory of the reactor battle flickered — those who'd nearly died in the blast of his uncontrolled fire.
Vael's voice broke through the haze: "Your flame hesitates."
Ren blinked back clarity, exhaling smoke. "Maybe. But hesitation keeps it human."
He thrust his hand outward; flame curved like a ribbon rather than an explosion, wrapping around Vael's blades and solidifying into glowing chains.
"Fire that binds instead of burns," Ren muttered. "Let's call that progress."
Vael struggled, then smiled faintly. "Impressive. Now break your own chain."
He slammed his gauntlet to the ground; a shock of frost traveled through the bindings, freezing Ren's flame solid. The backlash threw Ren backward, crashing onto the ice.
Pain flared through his ribs; the world tilted.
He heard Ignis shout something, muffled by the crowd's gasp.
Vael's shadow loomed over him. "Courage must survive defeat. Rise, anomaly."
Ren coughed, pushing himself up. "I was planning to."
He steadied his breath again. The frost creeping along his flame arm glittered, crystalline veins against skin. He focused, not on burning it away, but on listening to it.
The frost didn't feel hostile — just… waiting.
He closed his eyes, whispering, "Okay then. Let's move together."
(Camera close-up — frost lines pulse once, then turn faintly orange.)
When he opened his eyes, the frost and flame had merged in fractal patterns across his arm — glowing like molten glass.
Gasps rippled through the audience. Even Glacielle's composure faltered for half a heartbeat.
Ren lifted the hybrid arm. "Let's finish this properly."
Scene 4
Vael roared, his glaive spinning into a cyclone of ice shards. Ren met it head-on, sweeping his arm in a wide arc.
Fire and frost collided — not destroying, but syncing. Every spark turned to glittering snowfire that spiraled around them in luminous waves.
The air rang like struck glass.
Ren's orb flared — its color no longer just red but streaked with blue. The system's voice resonated faintly in his mind:
HEART SYNC: IGNIS + GLACIELLE — PRELIMINARY LINK ESTABLISHED.NEW ATTRIBUTE: THERMAL BALANCE / RESIST EXTREMES.
He didn't fully understand it, but the energy felt right.
Vael dropped to one knee, weapon embedded in the ice. The resonance had melted the frost around him into a ring of vapor.
He looked up, breathing hard. "The Empress… will want to see this herself."
(Silence. Steam dissipates. Camera pans to the balcony.)
Glacielle rose slowly. Her reflection multiplied in the crystal walls — dozens of eyes all fixed on Ren.
Scene 5
Moments later, in the throne chamber again, the duel ended, Ren knelt before Glacielle. Ignis stood beside him, visibly proud though pretending indifference.
Glacielle descended the steps, every motion precise. When she reached him, she extended her hand. "Stand."
He obeyed, uncertain.
Her fingers brushed the frost mark on his arm. A shimmer passed between them, faint but undeniable — resonance recognition.
"Few beings adapt to the cold," she said softly. "You listened instead of conquered. That is the first step to understanding Glaciem."
Ren blinked. "Does that mean… I passed?"
"Passed," she repeated, a hint of amusement in her tone, "is a word for schools. You survived. That is rarer."
Ignis chuckled. "Welcome to the club."
Glacielle's gaze flicked to her. "Do not think fire has won here, sister of flame. This balance is fragile. If your courage falters, the cold will reclaim him."
Ignis smirked. "I don't falter."
For a moment, the air between the two princesses crackled — red against blue — then eased into a truce of silence.
Glacielle turned back to Ren. "Tomorrow, you will accompany me to the Sanctum of Echoes. There lies the heart of my fragment. If the Protocol truly chose you, it will awaken."
Ren bowed slightly. "I'll be ready."
"Be careful," she murmured. "The mirror remembers more than truth."
(Her reflection lingers an instant longer after she turns away, eyes sorrowful — as though another version of her remained watching.)
Scene 6
That evening, Ren sat in the palace observatory. Frost patterns formed across the glass ceiling; auroras danced beyond.
Ignis joined him, carrying two mugs of heated nectar. "Here. It's not alcohol, sadly."
He accepted it, warmth seeping into his hands. "Thanks."
She studied him quietly. "You're changing."
"In a bad way?"
"In a dangerous one," she said. "The more fragments you resonate with, the more the system rewrites you. You might stop being… you."
Ren looked into his drink, steam curling upward. "Then I guess I'll have to remember who that is."
Ignis tilted her head. "And if you forget?"
"Remind me."
(Camera close-up: she looks away, pretending not to smile.)
Outside, faint blue motes rose from the distant spire — a signal from Glacielle's sanctum.
Ignis's voice softened. "She's inviting you into the heart of her domain. That's no small thing. Don't lose yourself to her chill."
Ren smirked. "Jealous?"
"Cautious," she said, though her eyes betrayed a spark of warmth.
(Cut to sky shot — two colors of aura intertwine briefly before fading into night.)
Scene 7
Later, alone in his chamber, Ren examined the frost-fire mark on his arm. When he traced it, fragments of memory surfaced — a vision:
He saw Glacielle as a child, kneeling beside a shattered mirror, whispering, "I'll never let them see me cry."
Then the image shifted — an ancient figure, cloaked in light, touching the same mirror and speaking words Ren couldn't fully hear:
"Heartbearer… seven become one."
He jerked awake, the vision gone. His orb glowed faint blue.
NEW ENTRY UNLOCKED: HEART PROTOCOL FILE #2 — ICE FRAGMENT MEMORY.
Ren rubbed his temples. "Okay, definitely not normal dreams anymore."
A knock sounded.
"Enter," he said.
Glacielle stepped in, unarmored again, her expression unreadable.
"You saw it, didn't you?" she asked quietly.
He hesitated. "The mirror… the child."
Her eyes closed briefly. "Then the fragment recognizes you. Tomorrow's resonance may complete the bond. When it does… things you don't wish to remember may return."
"What kind of things?"
She looked out the window, voice almost a whisper. "The truth buried in ice. The day the Heartbearer fell."
(Soft wind howls outside; her reflection overlaps with his in the window — fire and frost fused in glass.)
Scene 8
(Montage over quiet piano.)
— The Frost Spire towering under the aurora.— Ren training amid snow, small flame sparks hovering harmlessly beside his breath.— Glacielle alone before the Mirror of Echoes, touching its surface; tears freeze before they can fall.— Ignis watching from afar, her flame dimmed in thought.
Ren (voice-over):
"They say fire and ice destroy the world in different ways. But maybe they save it the same — by reminding it how to feel."
(Camera ascends through drifting snowflakes until only the aurora remains.)
[Next on I Can Upgrade My Status by Kissing the Seven Princesses of the World — Chapter 8: The Second Kiss]