Venghaan:

  This choice of character surprised me as much as likely did you.

  The honored general of the Gunka Army rested cozily on the second-highest floor of Chikukei's main coop, the home of the near-divine Chōkō and his trusty enforcers. Only this city's leader had the privilege of keeping a room for himself. The rest of the inhabitants had to share their quarters with numerous roommates. Venghaan slept near almost a hundred of his closest subordinates, peacefully resting on their perches under near complete darkness.

  The Basan general was the last to arrive after an uneventful night. No messes from crimes from the daytime to fix, no unruly youths to reprimand, and no news from the terrorists who tempered with the Chōkō's dreams, nor the ones who mortally wounded his cousin...

  ...

  He wondered how Tash was holding up. They never looked eye-to-eye, especially since his niece was a constant thorn in the peace of Chikukei. However, even he flinched after learning what Yuki-onna put her through.

  Ugh. The mention of that Yūrei difficulted Venghaan's sleep. She single-handedly fooled him and an entire squadron of trained Basan soldiers. While she diverted their attention and held her ground against their fire spells, which was an admirable feat that he couldn't fool himself into thinking otherwise, she had a perfect ice construct of herself sneaking around, which destroyed their Weasel friends' bindings, allowing them to escape as fast as greased lightning.

  He couldn't figure out who made him more angry - the Baku or the Yūrei. The former's crime felt less personal, at least.

  WHOOSH!

  The general heard the coop's paper walls ravaged by what sounded like the mother of all winds. A loud, sharp noise appeared from all corners of their quarters, annihilating any simulacrum of quiet and sleep from everyone inside the room. Nay, the entire building.

  "What in the world is this about?!" Venghaan jerked himself out of his perch, stomping and fuming with his head held high. "Someone, open a window for a smidge to see what disaster is happening outside!" he ordered.

  "At once, General!" one of his soldiers shouted in the distance. As instructed, the soldier opened only enough for a crack wide enough to see the outside world. However, it was enough for a powerful whirlwind to send him flying to the opposite side of the room, barely missing Venghaan for a feather.

  Intense cold immediately invaded the expansive chamber. The oppressive currents carried sparkly snowflakes, forming a layer of frost on the walls so quickly that it brought genuine dread to the Basan general.

  "This amount of cold... It's unnatural..."

  Then, a terrifying hypothesis popped into his mind as he shivered and his beak quivered.

  "That can't be... How would she pull this off!?"

  The Silver Knight:

  "HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!?"

  The hero's cape fluttered violently as the harsh winds threatened to tear it from the rest of the costume. Snow amassed throughout his visor's surface, forcing him to wipe it clean with his glove every ten seconds. Regardless, the storm was so thick and oppressive that he could barely see two inches before him. Fortunately, the winter mode in his suit warmed his body with wires between layers, which converted the electricity that powered his visor and keyboard into heat.

  The howls of the Wolf captains served as an auditory beacon for their respective packs. Even if, technically, Asra was an independent agent, he decided to approach Captain Tash's cry of regrouping. It wasn't like he could use his communicator since the weather barrier was enough to block his signal, most likely applying to the rest of the Guard.

  The shapes of five Wolves flickered in the whiteish, blurry landscape.

  "CAN YOU SEE ANYONE ELSE!?" Captain Tash's voice broke through the windy barrier. "THE BLIZZARD IS BLOCKING THE COMMUNICATOR'S SIGNAL!"

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "CAN'T SMELL CRAP UNDER THESE WINDS, LET ALONE SEE ANYTHING!" Tarb answered.

  "I CAN SENSE THE KNIGHT'S SANIYA! THIS WAY!" The captain starts to wave in his general direction. "CAN YOU HEAR ME, KNIGHT?! GET OVER HERE!"

  Asra sighed with relief as he sprinted towards the pack, opting to not use Lightspeed to conserve energy. It was somewhat odd hearing Tash actively requesting his presence. By all means, he should be glad, but...

  "The Silver Knight is here, Captain Tash!" he proudly announced, saluting her.

  "Have you seen the Baku and his posse?!" Her voice trembled with brewing agitation, which brought a shiver down his spine, independent of the weather.

  "No!?" The turbulent currents threatened to fling him off his feet. Still, he hastily straightened his posture, as immovable as a mountain. "Do you think he's in cahoots with Yuki-onna? Could he have shared false information for her schemes?!"

  "That was the first thought that crossed my head, but no!" The constant shouting was already taking a toll on their voices. "Hōkō could detect if the Baku's information was altered by mind magic!"

  Tarb shivered, the frozen drool on his cheeks acting like a beard of stalactites. "Well, that intel clearly amounted to a pile of boar dung! How's that possible!?"

  "I don't know!" Tash snarled. "I can't think straight in this cold!" With a loud howl, the captain's Saniya erupted into a wild display of flames, which shrunk and coiled around her body like a second coat layer. "Okay..." Her chest heaved. "Much better."

  Everyone, including the Knight, circled around their captain, craving her warmth like a talking, barking bonfire. Hufen and Euraidd cuddled each other tightly as Locci seemed unfazed by the extreme environment. It wasn't too much to imagine that he was holding his discomfort to himself.

  Trying to keep everyone's gears turning, Asra pressed on the issue. "If Yuki-onna's memories weren't modified, how could she still weaponize them to trap us? For a complex rune grid like Gentō disclosed, she would have to have been working on it for-" His mouth ceased as realization settled.

  Tash's mind was in sync with his, shown by her widening eyes and quivering ears. "A couple of weeks, at least..." She sat on a pile of snow, quickly melting and drenching the grassy floor. "It wasn't the memories that were altered. It was the perception of TIME! She made her memory feel like it happened only a few days ago when, in reality, it was from way before that!"

  Asra frowned. "That's impossible. Hōkō would still-"

  "It doesn't matter if he didn't see the actual memory from Yuki-onna's head," Tash interjected. "He analyzed it as seen by the Baku's memory."

  "Very astute, dear captain. I only expected you to figure that out much sooner..."

  The Icy Sorceress' voice prompted everyone to jolt into position, securing their dear leader in the middle of their formation. No one wanted that disaster to repeat itself.

  "Be ready for the worst, everyone!" Captain Tash warned. "I feel multiple Saniya signatures, Yuki-onna's, surging around us!"

  "Excuse me?!" Euraidd's tone faltered. "Are you talking about-"

  The Yūrei interrupted. "Do not mind the extra set of hands I've self-employed. It may look a tad... narcissistic, but I find it imperative that your defeat is brought by MY visage."

  The Silver Knight kept his eyes peeled for any foreign shape that crossed the white and cold barrier the blizzard imposed on their vision. Once he'd figured out how to input a Saniya detector feature on his helmet...

  "Is... Is this going to be the fight of our lives?" Hufen asked.

  "Sure looks like it, Sis," Euraidd answered. "I guess that's the best opportunity to tell you about the time I ruined your 6th-grade crush's favorite dress, then put the blame on you?"

  "Fring?!" She groaned. "That's why they started ignoring me after the Pardraba..."

  "FOCUS!" Tash howled. "Here they come!"

  A vaguely humanoid shadow popped into Asra's compromised view, hastily multiplying by the tens, if not hundreds. For a moment, the hero couldn't break from his fighting stance, contrasting with his racing heart.

  The footsteps on the increasingly thicker layer of snow grew louder with each passing moment. Asra was tempted to use his Lightspeed to throw away suspense and meet this army, but he couldn't will his muscles to budge.

  Finally, he could see their faces - perfect replicas of their creator, carved from pure ice like the sorceress' weaponry, which they also wielded, varying between the identical katana that pierced through Tash's torso, the scythe that almost claimed his life, and a pair of kunai. Their icy hair was rigid, unmoved by the powerful blizzard. However, their kimono still acted like a regular piece of clothing. Perhaps a delicate construct from tiny particles of blue-tinted snow? The handicraft on display struck him with begrudging awe.

  Regardless, the most calling feature resided on their forehead - an X with its "legs" bent to a spider-like formation, the same on Gryla's pego jam puppets. Unfortunately, these surely wouldn't be nearly as easy to dismantle.

  "Now, Captain Tash, before you smear my name to the winds, bear in mind that I have warned you."

  Asra took a quick moment to glance at the captain, whose pain was erupting through her eyes.

  "From the moment you denied me, everything that will transpire..."

  Each puppet took a fighting stance in a rigid motion, their eyes gleaming with a freezing, azure glare.

  "...will be your fault."

  Yuki-onna's words ceased echoing in their minds as a switch had flipped in the golem army. Their stiffened movements were replaced by swift, uncanny motions as they sprung into action, lunging at them from all sides!

  Asra's fear was thrown to the recesses of his psyche as his shining fist clashed against an ice sword.