CRACK!
Glass exploded into a thousand glittering fragments, raining down like deadly stars.
"Uwaaaaaaaaa…!" Karma's voice tore through the night air as he plummeted from the rooftop, shattered spikes of ice falling alongside him like arrows. The ground rushed up to meet him with terrifying speed, and he knew with grim certainty that he would at least have broken bones—or might crack open his skull.
Think, damn it! His exhausted mind raced even as his body fell. Instead of letting his skull crack open like an egg—a surefire ticket to the afterlife—he forced his trembling muscles to respond one last time. Rolling midair like a falling cat, he positioned himself to land on all fours. It wasn't elegant, but it might just keep him breathing.
His stamina was completely shot. This pathetic maneuver was all he had left.
Well…well
As he rolled to face the fast-reaching ground. There is a pool, ohhh…damn. Thanks to the stars being extra benevolent to him today, He…will survive.
"Ahh," a faint female scream fell on his keen ears.
Oh, shit.
His heart lurched as he spotted her—a figure in the water, right in his landing zone. If he crashed into her at this speed, her neck would snap like a twig. If that happened, he would become a murderer and would be captured and executed in the town square.
Move away, woman! I don't want to be stoned to death just because of some salted fish! he screamed internally, his brain already painting vivid pictures of his very short future.
GLOOP… SPLASH!
The impact drove them both deep underwater. His rock-hard skull connected with her face with a sickening thud, sending her blank for a few moments. When Karma finally managed to orient himself in the churning water, he found himself tangled with an unconscious woman, Pinning and cuddling with her down on the pool floor.
And then he saw her face.
Time seemed to freeze—his heart skipped a beat, and air bubbles left his mouth as he just stayed there mesmerized.
As in the darkness of night, candlelight falls on the water of the pool, and light gets distorted because of refraction.
Badump… badump.
His heart hammered against his ribs with a rhythm that had nothing to do with his recent chase or his fear of heights. Her lips—soft, pink, perfect—parted slightly as she bit down on them unconsciously. Her skin was porcelain-pale and flawless, seeming to glow like pearls in the distorted light. But it was her hair that truly ensnared him: blue as midnight silk, flowing through the water like living serpents that caressed his face with every gentle current.
Her eyelids fluttered.
"Hmm?!" A small, confused sound escaped her lips.
"Eh!" Karma's own voice cracked as their eyes met.
What she saw when consciousness returned was a strange man pinning her naked body underwater, his black hair plastered to his skull and his dark eyes boring into hers with an intensity that could have melted steel. His expression was somewhere between dumbfounded and predatory—not exactly the face you want to wake up to while drowning.
He snapped back to reality and tried to push himself away from her.
BOING-BOING
What in the—? His hand had found something impossibly soft and springy. The sensation was completely unlike anything he'd ever touched. he never touched something so gropable.
BOING-BOING
He squeezed again, lost in this softness.
When he finally looked up to meet her gaze, her face had transformed into something resembling a ripe tomato. Her eyes held the kind of disgust like she was looking at a garbage bag.
Her eyes sparked and suddenly blazed with blue light.
The water around them went completely berserk. The pool's heated water flash-froze in seconds, dozens of wickedly sharp icicles materializing from thin air with the sound of a thousand wind chimes in a hurricane.
"Mona, get them out of the water." Neena instantly grabbed two women, tucking them to her sides, and jumped out of the water by sheer force.
Mona responded quickly; she punched the ground, and a few tiles jumped up from ground, she rotated her body and gave a spinning kick to the tiles, shooting them like a cannonball and shattering the icicles, which rose and moved towards the ladies in the sauna.
But the real show was just beginning.
The water itself seemed to come alive, rising and twisting into a massive whirlpool that caught Karma in its grip. He spun helplessly, his lungs burning as the last of his air escaped in silver bubbles. Then, with a sound like the world's largest bell cracking, the entire whirlpool froze solid, trapping him in its crystalline heart like some macabre ice sculpture.
At the center of it all stood Liana, motionless as a statue, her power radiating outward in waves of bitter cold. The entire sauna had become a frozen wasteland, steam crystallizing into ice that fell like hail from the ceiling.
"Miss Liana!" Neena moved with impossible speed, snatching towels from thin air and wrapping herself mid-leap. She landed beside the ice princess, who swayed dangerously before beginning to collapse.
Neena caught her sliding across the frozen pool surface. Liana is unconscious as she shivers because of the cold and looks in crucial pain.
Neena wrapped her in a towel and hugged her to keep her warm.
"Neeeeenaaa! Is Lia alright?!" Mona's voice cracked with panic as she stood at the pool's edge, her face pale as snow—though whether from cold or terror was anyone's guess.
"She's unconscious. Get a stretcher—now!" Neena lifted her into her arms, and just in a single Leap, they were out of the pool.
As they rushed toward the reception area, Mona's steps faltered. Her gaze was drawn to the frozen pillar at the pool's center and the dark figure trapped within its crystalline prison.
"Ne... Neena, what about him? He'll die in there." She grabbed Neena's arm, pointing with a trembling finger at the ice statue.
"Forget him, Mona. He's already dead." Neena's voice was flat, emotionless.
"What... what do you mean?!"
"Normally, ice made of Urja would melt when the caster loses consciousness or dies," Neena explained with clinical detachment. "But Princess's unique Trait makes her different. Her ice is tougher than steel and melts slower than glacier flow. If he's an Urza wielder, he might survive a few more minutes—feeling every agonizing second as the cold freezes him bit by bit. But if he's just an ordinary person?" She shrugged. "His blood has probably already turned to slush."
Mona's hands flew to her mouth, her eyes wide with horror at the casual brutality of it all.
"The Ice Princess's creations cannot be melted or broken," Neena stated with absolute certainty.
SHATTER!(Ice shatters)
The sound was like a mountain splitting in half.
THUMP!
Both women spun toward the noise, necks cracking with the speed of their movement. Where the frozen prison had stood moments before, a dark figure now lies on the ground, surrounded by glittering ice fragments. Steam rises from his body like mist.
Mona sprinted toward the motionless form, grabbing him by his torn robes and yanking him clear just as a massive icicle crashed down where his head had been.
"Whew..." She wiped sweat from her brow despite the arctic temperature, her breath coming in visible puffs.
Quickly, she pressed her fingers to his throat, then leaned close to check his breathing.
A steady pulse. Warm breath against her cheek.
He's… alive.
"How?! How is this possible?" Neena stared at the boy with something approaching awe, Liana still unconscious on her back. "He broke through Lady Liana's ice. That's supposed to be impossible."
Mona studied Neena's rarely seen expression of surprise, then turned back to examine the boy more closely. "He's warm," she murmured, watching steam continue to rise from his skin. "Really warm. That's... unusual." She began searching through his tattered robes. "Maybe he's got some kind of artifact—"
Her hands stopped moving. Her entire body went rigid.
"Neena." Her voice had dropped to a dangerous whisper, heavy with implications.
Something in her tone made Neena approach immediately. When she saw what Mona had uncovered, her own expression hardened into granite.
"He's a slave," Mona said, her fingers tracing the burn scar branded into his flesh—a mark of ownership seared deep enough to last a lifetime.
The brand identified him as one of society's unwanted: criminals, rebels, traitors, or simply those unlucky enough to be born without status. They were considered less than human, despised by all, and treated as disposable tools.
"It's the seal of Frozenite," Neena observed, her voice grim as death. The muscles in her jaw tightened. "The mining collective."
She looked down at the unconscious slave, then at Liana's still form. "Mona," she said finally, her decision made. "Drag him out."
Mona rose to her feet; her face is still gloomy.
She grabbed the slave's collar, without any care or concern, through the sharp, pointed glass. Frozen ground and edged stairs ruthlessly dragging him on the floor like a slaughtered Beast, leaving behind blood trails. They disappeared into a dark room.
"Life is neither equally kind nor equally challenging.
Some struggle in life, and for some, struggles to live.
Life is a Bitc—."