The frigid air from the portal clawed at their skin, sending shivers down even the most seasoned warriors’ spines. Lena, Gail, Snow, and Darkness stepped closer to the shimmering veil of energy, its edges crackling like frost-laced glass. Beyond the portal, the vague outline of a frozen wasteland stretched endlessly, jagged cliffs and frost-encrusted ruins barely discernible through the biting gale.

  Lena took a slow, steady breath, watching as her exhalation crystallized in the air. Her ice blade shimmered faintly, its translucent form reflecting her resolve. This was no ordinary environment—it felt hostile as if the land itself was imbued with ancient malice.

  She gulped and turned on her tracker. “I will be the first one to step in. This is my element, after all.”

  No one seemed to object to her decision. They were all ascenders but there was still so little that they knew about the divine realm as it rules. So no one questioned why there was a frozen wasteland in a tower that was or was not built by the gods.

  “Be careful. We will be right behind you,” Snow reassured her as he stared at the wasteland below. Gail mentioned that they could appear anywhere due to how unstable teleportation usually was. It would be like a gateway.

  “Thanks…” Lena nodded with confidence and spared a glance at the Siege Tower’s exit. A part of her hoped that Luna would run in to say goodbye. But that moment never came.

  “See you on the other side then. Don’t get yourself killed Captain Frosty.”

  Lena reacted to Darkness’s words with a nod. She got even closer to the circular rift and drew in a sharp strong breath before jumping right into it. She first felt a great pull, sucking her into the next floor. She saw multiple colors flash past her as both the images of the siege tower and her cohort faded away as she got further and further.

  Before she could make sense of what was happening, Lena found herself getting caught in a powerful blizzard while falling from the cloudy sky. She quickly realized what the great pull was.

  Her vision blurred as snowflakes kept hitting her face. She had no control of the snow here because the powerful winds were not giving her a chance to understand what was happening. The intensely cold wind whooshed past her ears ruining her sense of direction and balance.

  She almost panicked but her resolve kicked in just before the coldness got to her head.

  ‘Calm down. You’re the Ghost of Winter. That is your true name.’

  As soon as she remained herself that single truth, Lena straightened her body and unleashed the power of her second gate. Her grey eyes turned silver-blue as she tried to slow herself down by commanding the snow around her. She did this by transforming her lower half into a fog extending her reach as a second gate user.

  Thankfully, it worked, and she plummeted from the sky, falling into a leafless, snow-covered tree before landing on the soft, snowy ground.

  Her sword wasn’t that far either.

  ‘Argh! Gods….’

  With a groan, she lifted herself off the ground and granted herself a good look at her surroundings. There was nothing much to see—aside from the small orange light that glowed from a distance. It must’ve been very bright because it tore through the darkness and the thick snow of the active blizzard.

  This floor appeared to be trapped between daylight and nighttime. Above, thick dark snow clouds covered the skyline and blocked most of the light from the sun above.

  ‘I need to create a signal for the others.’ She recalled protocol and quickly got to work. She moved her quick gaze away from the distant orange light and looked up for any signs of the portal.

  “ I can’t even feel its energy. Is it too far away or was Gail right?” She asked herself.

  Anyways the only person that could worry her was not her. Her group was the strongest.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Len then went on to create the beacon meant to guide her teammates to her just in case they ended up here. Lucky for her, Lena happened to be surrounded by a bunch of twisted trees covered with snow. It was strange and amazing that something could grow in a place like this.

  Even her resistance to coldness had grown weak in this place.

  She located the tallest of the twisted trees, placed her right hand on its thick bark, and started pouring zenshi into it. Her zenshi was almost white because of her Aura so anyone who knew her could identify her zenshi.

  Also, if any creatures were lurking in the darkness, they would try to remain hidden because of the divine nature of zenshi itself.

  When she was done creating a beacon, Len began her exploration of the frozen wasteland. The most obvious place she needed to go to was the distant orange light. It was obvious that something waiting for them there.

  With a sigh, dismissed her forged weapon and began running through the twisted tree woods. The blizzard was difficult to navigate, especially with all the falling snow. But she didn’t stop.

  Even when the snow got thicker and the wind got colder.

  After running through the twisted woods for almost thirty minutes, Lena stopped when she noticed something odd. She had felt a strange but powerful presence that caught her by surprise.

  ‘This presence feels so similar to mine.’

  “No…not similar.” She corrected her thoughts as she approached the source of this presence.

  ‘No…way.’ Her eyes stretched open when her eyes landed on the familiar twisted tree. She got closer to confirm and touched its surface with a trembling hand.

  “Crap.” She cursed upon identifying the energy as her own.

  This was the tree she was using as a beacon for the others. How did she get back here?

  ***

  Luna returned to the camp, fuming with rage after what her sister had done.

  Valentine followed behind her. He hadn’t said a word since they were dismissed from the subjugation.

  Everyone else had left the night before with Mira and Rita leading the journey back to the real world. Rita had been tasked with the duty of informing the second army about their conquering of the first level. She was to also deliver the map of the quickest route to Verge through the blood desert.

  If they moved now, her and Valentine would catch up in a few hours if they were lucky not to meet any enemies on the way. But Luna didn’t want to leave the Blood Tower yet. Not when she still had so many questions. She might never get a chance like this ever again.

  Because of those unanswered questions, Luna had decided to wait here for the second army and join them in conquering the second floor of the Blood Tower.

  “We can just activate it ourselves and sneak through.”

  She stopped her pacing and faced Valentine who had just broken the silence with his suggestion. He was seated on a stone chair. This was where they had held the final meeting before parting ways with Mira and the others.

  “Are you an ascender by any chance? Because if you’re not, I’m not really in the mood for jokes.”

  “Lady Lunaris. Of course I am not an ascender. But I come from house Artemis where even mundanes know how to turn the tides on some things. Isn’t sorcery fascinating?”

  He put out his hand one of his short blades appeared in his hand as if he had summoned it.

  Frightened by this, Luna instinctively backed away from the tall man and pulled a steel black blade from the scabbard attached to her waist.

  All her life, she had never seen a mundane human summon a forged weapon. Storing forged weapons required zenshi and a special rune that connected the user and the weapon itself. A mundane human summoning one was meant to be impossible.

  “How is that possible? You're....mundane” She asked in a serious tone while pointing her blade at him.

  Valentine scoffed and put both his hands up to mean no harm. “We call it Human reconstruction. I am an unblessed with Blood Group A1,” he began to explain. “My clan specializes in mixing science and whatever zenshi. And through that, my father, Lord Artemis succeeded in creating something revolutionary.”

  He dismissed the short katana and grinned.

  “I am a freak now.”

  Although she was still stunned, Luna exhaled sharply and put away her dagger. House Artemis never kept its human experiments a secret to the world, of course. Lord Artemis was a proud ruler who believed that all humans had great potential buried in them. The methods he used to awaken this potential were usually dehumanizing in a sense.

  But that was none of House Feng’s or the rest of the world’s business. Morals were not that necessary in a world falling apart.

  “Can you perform sorcery?”

  He nodded. “A little. I can also manipulate zenshi to an extent.”

  That’s all she needed to hear. If she had someone that could manipulate zenshi with her. Then opening a portal to the next level wasn’t going to take as long as she had expected.

  “Then we should head back at…”

  She suddenly paused after something made the world around them tremble.

  They both turned their heads to the tower and fell silent as an eerie feeling possessed the pair.

  Something was wrong….

  In that moment of silence, a golden teleportation circle appeared right beneath their feet.

  Luna was quick to catch on. This circle was made from life essence. Its pure nature confirmed that.

  She tried to extend her arm to hold Valentine…

  But she was a second too late.

  They were both sucked into the portal.

  ***

  Inside the Siege tower, Darkness was the second to jump through the portal. She felt a great pull before she realized she was in the air, falling through a powerful blizzard and clouds.

  Below, her eyes settled on the snow-capped peaks of a very tall mountain. They were growing larger as he continued to fall at a faster rate.

  “Hehe....it seems the Gravity is pulling me in.”

  She grinned and her sapphire eyes glowed. She opened her second gate and manipulated the gravity field around her to slow her fall.

  She landed safely on a snow-covered rock. That cracked from the force of her landing. Darkness spared a moment to gather her thoughts and take in her surroundings.

  There was only snow as far as the eye could see.

  But, within all the white and darkness, Darkness noticed the orange light glowing at a distance.

  “I guess I have to go there.” She muttered before shooting into the blizzard at an incredible speed.

  She was flying into the mountains.

  ***

  Gail and Snow entered the portal at the same time and they were both welcomed by the horror of realizing that they were plummeting to the ground at an incredible speed while the raging blizzard heavily obscured their vision.

  “Oh shit!” Snow rasped as he braced himself for one hell of a landing. If he died he would resurrect anyway.

  However, before he could hit the ground, Gail swooped in and grabbed him. Unfortunately, he lost control to the blizzard's powerful winds and they both collided into an ice wall.

  The collision was so powerful that it left a crater in the ice wall where the pair had crashed.

  'Oh gods!'

  Snow was surprised they were alive after that. They both winced and lifted their pain-filled bodies. Gail was rubbing the back of his head while trying to make sense of where they were.

  “I mean it could’ve been worse," he laughed painfully.

  On the other hand, Snow was already staring at the blizzard with heavy concern. “We shouldn’t have come to place…” he murmured when he felt the mark of death left on this floor.

  [END OF PART ONE: BLOOD DESERT]