It scraped across the wooden floor like the clawed feet of mice scrambling across boards— though far larger than any mouse had a right to be — as it disturbed the peaceful silence of night. Moonlight slipped through the blinds, throwing bands of light across an otherwise darkened room, illuminating the various articles of clothing littering the floor. In one corner, across from the bedroom closet, sat the large bed Tanya had all to herself.

Her room. Her bed. Hers.

But tonight, it all felt alien.

Ever since her kidnapping by the hands of those thugs, Tanya hadn’t gotten a single ounce of sound sleep. Every time the fifteen-year-old closed her eyes, something dark and unseen and wrong crept its way into the depths of her dreams.

And tonight was no exception—

–Scuttle–

“Hello?” she whispered, her voice laden with fear.

Nothing answered back, but the moonlight continued to make odd shadows dance across her room.

–Scuttle–

“Is— is anyone there?” she whispered again, mustering a little more courage into her weakened voice. She didn’t know what made her feel so… insecure and afraid. She was the Shimizu heir, a prodigy, a talented user of lifeforce. Even without a kami, she was perfectly able to fend for herself.

But the kidnapping had struck a severe blow to her confidence.

And there was also that… thing.

–Scrape–

“There’s no use hiding, I can hear you. I know you’re there.” She tried to sound brave, but the nervous quiver in her voice belied her true feelings. “Come out now, and I won’t be mad.” Her eyes cast another glance around the room, as if trying to pierce through the darkness. “I promise.”

Once again, Tanya was met with nothing but palpable silence.

She warily watched the edge of her bed, ready for anything to appear, but when nothing happened, she knew she was the one who had to make the first move. Swallowing, she crawled on her hands and knees, making her way forward. She had barely lowered her head enough to look into the pitch-black darkness beneath—

“I am not under the bed, young one.”

The voice came as a thin whisper, right next to her ear. Tanya could feel something cold breathing down her neck, and she shrieked loudly, before losing her balance and falling head-first onto the cold wooden floor. Lifeforce flooded into her arms and legs and her instincts kicked in.

“Who— whoever you are, don’t come near me!” Tanya warbled. “I’ll— I’ll kill—”

“Of course you will, youngling. That is what you’re born to be.”

–Scuttle–

Managing to limit her reaction to the barest of flinches, Tanya flooded her palm with lifeforce. It glowed with a familiar blue light, one of the easiest tricks her father had taught her with the esoteric power.

What wasn’t familiar to her, however, was the eerie coldness that accompanied it.

She couldn’t help but shiver as the strange voice laughed in the darkness.

What was happening?

“Stop laughing!” Tanya yelled, no longer holding back her tears. “Who— whoever you are, stop playing your dirty tricks with me.”

“Oh, but I’m not, youngling.”

Her father had warned her about the spirits that roamed the lands at night. Things that the wards of their homes kept them safe from. Wraiths, spirits, monsters of the vilest kind that made people’s skins crawl by mere mention of their name.

“Listen,” she intoned, putting on a brave face despite the wetness of her cheeks. “My father is the strongest. He’ll kill you no matter what you are. So if you want to live, come out and face me!”

A brief silence followed the declaration, before it was broken.

“If you insist.”

That was when Tanya saw it.

Frost.

Spikes of ice jutted out from the entity in front of her, coating its surface with sheets of dense hoarfrost. They were like rings of thorns coiled around the stem of a rose, contorted in random meandering patterns. Jagged barbs, their chilling surfaces serrated like the edge of a knife, sat in rows across the creature’s exterior. And dotting its form were great tendrils extending far beyond the spears— lonesome edifices surrounded by smaller structures.

Tanya looked up.

And up.

The creature in front of her looked absolutely fiendish, with two bulbous, blue eyes staring right at her. Tanya felt like she was sitting in the nude with the way its gaze stared right through her, as if it looked beyond her outer skin and flesh right at her soul.

A pair of sharp, ivory fangs showed themselves next.

Its arms were too large for its misshapen body.

Its hands were too large for its gargantuan arms.

It was… this was…a nightmare made manifest.

It was Frost.

And it had come for her.

“You—” Tanya pointed an erratically shaking finger towards it. “You’re a monster.”

“Yes,” the monster replied. “And you are Me.”

Being Tanya was difficult.

She was uppity, headstrong, self-restraining. Even when standing upon the precipice of life and death, the wily Asukan restrained herself from giving into her true powers. Tanya always knew her reserves were greater than most, but still not enough to surpass her father.

Not the Wind King.

And certainly not enough to draw out the full strength of her kami’s wrath.

Even Ezzeron had no qualms about letting the wily girl know that. Every time she drew on its power, Ezzeron’s constant hum of disappointment was present. Could he be blamed? Could you blame a fierce storm for not wanting to be kept tamed? To be forced to flow through a tiny pipehole when it wanted to ravage and destroy everything at full strength?

Tanya was… Tanya. Difficult.

But not Her.

Not Everfrost.

Something large and muscular slammed into her from behind. The snowflakes revolving around her like a fierce shield of winter stopped most of the momentum, but it was enough to push her against the wall.

A single drop of blood trickled down her cheek.

She sneered. No matter how many times She manifested in this mortal form, she could never get over its absolute frailty. How the Emperor himself had attained Her while being so restricted… she’d never understand.

Then again, the Emperor was special.

Tanya Shimizu was not.

Her bearings returned to her in a riot of color. The link to Ezzeron— constantly draining mana from her, keeping her protected from stray attacks —continued to exert its existence as a continuous throb in her head. It took her a split second to reorient her senses. Her vision steadied, her hearing expanded, and her arm reached for the hilt of the whip hanging on her back.

Focus.

She regarded her surroundings with a critical eye. A predator She may be, but a logical one. The environment had changed. The terrain had changed. What constituted an enemy and an ally had changed.

Fleeting images of a certain brown-haired man and a brunette changeling flickered through her mind. Her lips twisted in distaste and disapproval. Trust Tanya to make friends with weaklings when She wasn’t around.

As if a predator could be friends with prey.

Still, it would not do to traumatize her more than She already had. The last time She had taken things directly in her own hands, Tanya had lost her entire team. The Blues, they called themselves. True to their name, they looked rather blue after being frozen to death.

The poetry of it all did not escape her.

The six-legged monster with horns that attacked earlier came down on her with a snort, its large horn digging into her flesh. Contemptuously, she touched the side of the horn with a single finger, dragging it all the way up to the tip.

It shattered like glass.

A cold, hungry laugh escaped her throat as every monster in Her vicinity hesitated at the sight.

It was then that she felt… it.

A presence, not Her own. Powerful. Intriguing. Stalking its way through this nest full of prey. Something that the Frost wanted to subdue and claim for itself. The cold rhythm of battle logic clamped down on any wayward hint of emotion. She scanned, analyzed, and everything else was shunted aside.

Compartmentalization was key.

And the decision was made.

She’d get through all the pointless rabble first. She’d find this new presence. And she’d make it Hers.

The rabble charged altogether once more, in some blind hope. As if they could even dream of overpowering Her.

She flipped her golden curls.

Time to correct their ignorance.

Lukas remembered the first time he’d faced monsters in this anomaly.

Inhuman.

That was the word he would’ve used to describe them. Their speeds were too fast to keep track of, their blows too strong to be deflected. But most of all, he remembered the absolute helplessness when facing a creature that overpowered him to the point of hilariousness. Was it when he was running from the khorkhoi? Or fleeing from the thoggua? Or was it the endless droves of cinderfaces coming at him as he escaped with his life?

In the end, it didn’t matter.

But if one of those monsters came back and watched him fighting the endless hordes that now marched his way, would they think the same of him now?

Inhuman? Monstrous?

Claws struck at his position in quick succession, so fast they left after-images in their wake. Creatures came at him with no sense of self-preservation, throwing themselves at him wholly if it meant an opportunity for another to stab him in the back. The entire cavern was filled with the sounds of crystals being reduced to dust, monsters screeching, and claws grating against the blades of his daggers as he dodged, ducked, and weaved through them all.

Every strike that came his way was meant to kill. Every blow he dodged was nothing short of lethal. But despite knowing that, Lukas couldn’t help grin like a maniac.

All the while, the Screen kept popping up, reflecting the constant additions to his Monster Prototype Collection as he kept butchering the incoming monsters left and right.

He’d lost count after a hundred and fifty.

Scan and Analyze worked nonstop in the back of his mind with Tachypsychia quadrupling his response times, their fusion creating a constant awareness of sorts that existed in a certain range around him. Lukas didn’t exactly understand how, but the more he gave into his instincts, the more he could sense everything in his vicinity.

It wasn’t exactly 360-degree vision, nor was it keeping track of heat signatures.

It was as if his mind kept track of every single opponent within the range and drew out all possible trajectories of their path of attack. All he did was place his counters just before the attacks came. After all, no matter how fast you were, you couldn’t outrace something already at the finish line.

“Beware mortal,” Inanna’s voice distracted him for a split second. “A greater power appro—”

The rest of her words drowned away as the wall to his left exploded with the force of a small bomb, as layers of stone and rock alike shattered and fell apart.

Even the monsters fighting him paused for a second.

Amid the falling dust and debris, a beautiful figure stepped forward. Her blonde curls shone as if flecks of ice were embedded into her very hair. Piercing white eyes smiled at him while her right hand, belaying her lithe figure, held a disembodied spider-looking creature by the head before flinging it to the other side.

Lukas stared at her. At the very first human he’d seen since arriving at the anomaly.

White pupils met brown ones.

And then, out of nowhere, the Screen popped up with an angry red message.

Prey, found you.