The next morning, the convoy was already on the move.
A massive, highly advanced magic aircraft cut through the gray sky, crossing the ocean and heading north…
toward an unforgiving land.
Canada.
The team sat in a single row inside the aircraft.
Suho was by the window.
He stared into the emptiness beyond the glass, where there was nothing but clouds.
His face was calm… more than it should have been.
Reinhardt was reviewing a digital map on his tablet.
— "Hunting zone: Northern Quebec."
— "Sub-zero temperatures."
— "Ice-type monsters… fast and aggressive."
Kevin raised an eyebrow.
— "So… we hit them while they're cold?"
— "It means we're the ones who'll freeze if we're careless," Reinhardt replied.
Across from them, Eileen and Shuang-Yu sat side by side.
Eileen was trying to put on her heavy combat coat, but the zipper got stuck.
— "…This is stupid."
Shuang-Yu reached out, pulled the zipper up in one precise motion.
— "You're pulling too hard."
— "Because the cold is stupid," Eileen muttered.
Shuang-Yu glanced at her from the corner of her eye.
— "You're the one who chose the fire element."
— "Take responsibility for it."
Eileen narrowed her eyes.
— "You're saying that because you don't feel the cold at all."
— "I do."
— "I just don't complain."
Eileen smirked.
— "You lie beautifully."
A short silence followed… then a faint laugh from Shuang-Yu, barely audible.
— "You're annoying."
— "And you're emotionally frozen."
They stared at each other.
A brief challenge.
Then… they sighed at the same time.
Shuang-Yu said:
— "In battle, I'll cover your left side."
Eileen raised an eyebrow.
— "Heh. Fine."
They exchanged a silent look of understanding.
A hint of jealousy.
A bit of stubbornness.
But beneath it all… genuine trust.
The aircraft landed.
The air hit them first.
Brutal cold.
The ground was buried in snow as far as the eye could see.
Black pine forests. Silent.
Kevin shivered.
— "I hate this place."
Reinhardt replied:
— "We haven't even started yet."
They moved into the designated hunting zone.
The sensors were eerily silent.
No roars.
No movement.
Just… stillness.
Suho moved first.
His steps were steady on the snow,
his eyes scanning the area without haste.
Then he stopped.
He raised his hand.
— "…Stop."
He took a few more steps and crouched down.
The snow was… stained.
Not with mud.
With something darker.
The others approached.
There was a body.
Then another.
Then… more.
Men.
Women.
Some without weapons.
Torn civilian clothes.
Faces frozen in expressions that never finished forming.
Someone said:
— "…These aren't hunters."
— "And monsters didn't kill them randomly."
Kevin fell silent.
For the first time… he had no joke.
Reinhardt tightened his grip on his sword.
— "This isn't just a hunt."
Suho stood in the middle of the scene, the snow around his feet tainted with frozen blood.
He looked at the bodies.
Then at the forest.
A cold sensation…
not from the weather.
— "It seems we're… too late."
There was something wrong.
Snow doesn't keep secrets for long…
but in this land, it was enough to hide a crime that kept repeating.
The team had been moving since early dawn.
The northern wind was sharp, and the sky was heavy with gray clouds.
This wasn't a hunt in the usual sense.
It was a search.
Between short clashes with ice monsters—mutated wolves and hollow-eyed creatures—they would stop.
Look.
Examine the ground.
Human footprints…
then suddenly gone.
Frozen bloodstains, with no bodies.
And sometimes—bodies, missing something.
Reinhardt crouched beside one, his voice low and firm:
— "The wound is clean."
— "Not a monster's tear."
Eileen pulled her coat tighter, her gaze fixed on the open chest.
— "The heart was removed precisely."
— "Even I couldn't do this in the middle of a fight."
Shuang-Yu didn't speak at first.
She stared at the ice beneath the corpse, where tiny black crystals had gathered, barely visible.
— "Something… stayed here."
— "This isn't normal."
Kevin finally spoke.
— "This isn't monster hunting."
— "This is slaughter."
Suho said nothing.
He walked a short distance away, following a faint sensation in his chest.
Something indescribable…
yet his body recognized it.
Several kilometers away, inside a large field tent, a different conversation was taking place.
Academy supervisors sat across from a high-ranking Canadian police officer.
Maps were spread across the table, filled with red markers.
The officer spoke, his voice weary:
— "This isn't the first incident."
— "Nor the fifth."
One of the supervisors crossed his arms.
— "How many cases so far?"
— "Twelve over the past three months."
— "Same pattern."
— "Disappearance, then a body… without a heart."
He paused, then added in a lower voice:
— "And the worst part…"
— "Some victims were alive when their hearts were removed."
Silence filled the tent.
Another supervisor spoke slowly:
— "Any cult activity?"
— "Unlicensed magic?"
The officer shook his head.
— "Nothing conclusive."
— "But sensors record mana interference before every incident."
Outside the tent, Suho passed by.
He wasn't eavesdropping…
but some words, in this white silence, didn't need sharp ears.
Hearts… while alive.
Mana interference.
He stopped for a second.
Then continued walking, his expression unchanged—
but inside him… threads were beginning to connect.
As evening fell, the cold intensified.
The team was forced to set up a temporary heating point near a dense forest.
Emily was unusually quiet, watching her detection spells fade quickly.
— "The mana here…" she finally said.
— "It's exhausted."
— "As if it's… polluted."
Suho raised his head immediately.
He approached her, then closed his eyes.
He extended his senses.
At first—nothing.
Then…
A sticky feeling.
Heavy.
Not just dark—but rotten.
He opened his eyes slowly.
The snow beneath his feet wasn't entirely white.
There was a faint, dark trace.
He knelt, touching the ground with his fingertips.
— "…Found it."
Everyone gathered.
Reinhardt asked seriously:
— "What is it?"
Suho lifted his hand slightly, the air around it trembling faintly.
— "Dark mana."
— "But not natural."
Eileen clenched her fist.
— "Magic?"
He shook his head.
— "Closer to… the trace of an entity."
— "Something passed through here and left the land polluted behind it."
Silence fell.
Snow continued to fall.
Suho finally spoke, his voice low but decisive:
— "This isn't an isolated incident."
— "And this place…"
— "Won't stay quiet for long."
And deep within the forest…
something
had begun to notice them.