Chapter 45

After cutting a sufficient portion of the Glacial Patriarch’s meat, we made fire and roasted the chunks over the flames. The beast’s fingernails were quite long—thick, curved talons that could serve as makeshift stakes.

Cutting them off was another problem entirely.

Kai had to use his summon to sever the bone. The sound of cracking chitin echoed through the cave, making me wince. Of course, I didn’t even dare try it myself.

’Kassie would absolutely roast me if I suggested she play butcher.’

I knew that glare well enough by now—the one that promised swift and creative retribution.

We waited around the fire, kept ourselves warm, and ate while discussing the mundane and the tactical. Sharing information. Piecing together how we’d all ended up scattered across this frozen hellscape.

Apparently, the blizzard had caught everyone—even Kai and his team. It had separated them, torn their formation apart like tissue paper. He’d woken up alone on a snow field, disoriented but functional, and just kept moving forward.

Survival first. Questions later.

He claimed to have encountered two Blizzard Maulers at different times, forced to fight both in running battles that left him drained.

’No wonder he looked half-dead when we found him.’

The experience had taught him something useful, though: walking openly in this place was like painting a target on your back. The beasts were drawn to movement, to warmth, to anything stupid enough to march across open snow.

So he’d searched for shelter instead. A cave. Any cave.

Which was what led him into this one. He’d only walked a few minutes into the tunnel system before losing his way in the twisting passages—and then encountered the Glacial Patriarch that had nearly killed him before we arrived.

Lucky timing. For him, anyway.

Afterwards, we tried to draw a mental map of what we knew, attempting to piece together the gate’s terrain from fragments of memory and guesswork. We needed to figure out a path to the Boss Spirit Beast—the Gate’s guardian. The thing standing between us and escape.

The Gate’s guardian had to die.

Simple as that.

With those plans in place, we eventually decided to rest. Regardless of the ever-bright sky of the spirit gate, the cave interior was dim, shadowed. After eating the tough meat of the Blizzard Mauler grandpa, our teeth ached and our bodies naturally sought sleep—a deep, bone-weary exhaustion that couldn’t be ignored. Unaware of how long we’d actually been trapped in this damn place, we decided to lay our heads down and rest for a bit. Each of us took a position beside the flames, soaking in what warmth we could.

I wanted to summon Kassie to keep watch. It made sense—she was tireless, vigilant, and frankly better at staying alert than any of us in our current state.

But Kai decided against it.

He insisted that people like Kael and me needed time to replenish our spirit essence, not drain it further by maintaining summons. Instead, he was going to ask his own summon to protect us while we slept.

’Fair point. My reserves were running on fumes anyway.’

After some contemplation, I eventually settled. Let his summon keep watch. We all needed this.

It was difficult for me to fall asleep—the cave floor was cold, hard, and thoroughly unwelcoming. But after a while, the crackling fire and the steady breathing of my companions lulled me toward unconsciousness. Kai and Kael were already gone, snoring deeply, their exhaustion finally catching up with them.

Eventually, I had no choice but to follow.

The sleep was cold—very cold—but deserved. I felt lost in it, suspended in that half-aware darkness where exhaustion finally wins.

At least until the air around me grew colder.

It was a creeping sensation, subtle at first. The temperature kept dropping, degree by degree, like the flames had gutted out.

’Something’s wrong.’

Frowning slightly, I opened my eyes. Everything was blurry at first, unfocused shapes swimming in dim firelight. Then, before the blur cleared, I saw it.

That long silver blade, shimmering coldly above me.

Falling.

My instincts screamed. My eyes widened and I twisted away with a desperate roll, throwing myself sideways. Steel kissed my ribs—a burning line of pain across my side. Not deep. Close enough.

’Too damn close.’

I came up in a crouch, breath sharp, and found Kai standing over the spot where I’d just been sleeping. His brown hair shifted slightly in the frigid air. His eyes—also brown, but darker now, emptier—tracked my movement with clinical precision.

He shifted his sword, the blade angling down toward the ground. Looking at the stone floor where he’d missed. Regret, maybe. Or just disappointment.

Then he brought those cold, nonchalant eyes to me.

"I hesitated for a bit," he said quietly. "That is the only reason you’re alive."

My brows knitted fiercely as I stood up, blood warm against my side.

’This bastard really just tried to unalive me.’ The thought settled in my head with startling clarity. ’He actually tried to gut me in my sleep.’

"Are you insane?"

I summoned my daggers. The familiar weight materialized in my hands, solid and reassuring.

Kai observed my hands as the weapons formed, his expression unchanging.

"I see you’ve learned about it too."

His voice was casual. Like we were discussing the weather.

"I was the only one who was told. How did you manage to learn... ah, wait. Let me guess." He tilted his head slightly. "That heretic Tristan, isn’t it? The Church really hates that guy, you know. And the Church really hates you too."

His tone was almost cheerful. Comical, even.

"So they deployed you to take care of me?"

He laughed—a cold, eerie sound that echoed off the cave walls. A golden glow began approaching his eyes, faint but unmistakable.

"You’re quite sharp, Cade. What a waste of resources killing you will be." He nodded, as if acknowledging some internal calculation. "But yes, this could easily be disguised as a gate accident. You died while fighting the Glacial Patriarch. Your body will vanish with the spirit gate itself when it closes, and there will never be a mystery surrounding your death. You know..." He paused, smile widening. "I actually discovered that gates are used to commit all sorts of crimes. Terrible crimes. Because whatever happens in the gate always stays in the gate."

He chuckled.

"Really convenient, don’t you say?"

To be honest, I was beyond dumbfounded.

Kai—he seemed like a completely different person. The friendly teammate, the capable fighter, all of it stripped away to reveal... this. But somehow, it wasn’t entirely surprising.

When you considered the twisted family he grew up in, the scandals that followed his name like ghosts—murders, assaults, corruption cases that disappeared because the right people got paid—it made a sick kind of sense. Money and power had a way of rotting things from the inside out.

The apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.

I pressed my lips together as I endured the sharp sting of the shallow cut along my ribs. Warm blood soaked into my shirt.

’This bastard really almost gutted me!’

Thinking about it, my blood began to boil. Rage twisted my face, hot and immediate. I glanced around quickly, tactical instinct kicking in. His summon wasn’t there.

Kai noticed my searching gaze and scoffed.

"I don’t need a myth-tier summon to dispose of trash."

I chuckled despite myself. Dark humor in a dark situation.

"Okay then. Please allow me to indulge myself." I raised my voice slightly. "Kassie."

At the same time, I brandished my daggers and exploded forward, closing the distance between us in a burst of speed.