The sky over the Western Wastes turned a sickly shade of gray as Black Scorpion and his armies began their march. Thousands of armored men moved in grim silence, their banners whipping violently in the wind. The air was bitter, sharp with the scent of frose. Even the horses moved uneasily, their breaths coming out in thick clouds.
The land around them grew colder with every step. Trees stood like frozen skeletons, their limbs twisted toward the sky in silent screams. The sun, once defiant, disappeared entirely, swallowed by heavy, swirling clouds that rolled like a curse across the sky.
Crows followed them. Not in twos or threes, but in entire flocks, cawing in circles overhead. Some soldiers whispered that they were not birds at all, but the souls of the fallen, watching their old comrades march into doom. One man dropped his sword and fled in terror to the wrong path —but a shadow leapt from the trees and dragged him into the snow. No one dared speak again.
"Cowards," Black Scorpion muttered.
Beside him rode Lady Xhurai, her long, silver-black hair untouched by the icy wind. She wore no armor—only a flowing, translucent robe that seemed to absorb the cold. Her lips curled into a smile every time lightning flashed behind the distant peaks.
"Do you feel it?" she said, her voice like silk dragged across glass.
Black Scorpion grunted. "The air here tastes of death."
"It is where the world ends and something else begins."
As they drew closer to the Frozen Spine, a thick fog rose from the ground, swallowing the soldiers' legs. Whispers swirled through the mist—whispers that sounded like names, promises or screams.
Men began to lose their minds. Some saw old lovers. Others saw mothers, calling them home. Some even saw their own house.
But Black Scorpion didn't flinch. And Lady Xhurai—she laughed.
One soldier knelt by the roadside and refused to move. Another froze in place, staring at nothing until his blood turned to ice. Still, the army moved on.
Finally, after days of marching through cursed woods, shadowed hills, and rivers black as ink, the jagged teeth of the Frozen Spine appeared on the horizon.
Towering mountains clawed at the heavens, their peaks hidden by eternal stormclouds. The wind here howled with the voice of ancient things. The snow no longer fell—it hissed.
Black Scorpion raised his hand, signaling the army to stop. The ground rumbled beneath them.
"We have arrived," he said.
Lady Xhurai narrowed her eyes at the frozen peaks and whispered "long way home".
The moment Black Scorpion and Lady Xhurai crossed the threshold of the Frozen Spine, the wind howled like a grieving widow. The icy caverns groaned under their weight, and the deeper they ventured, the darker and colder it became. Their torches flickered, casting trembling shadows on the frost-covered walls where old symbols, warnings in forgotten tongues, were etched deep into the stone.
Soldiers shivered behind them, whispering prayers to gods who had long abandoned the mountain.
But Black Scorpion and Lady Xhurai walked ahead unfazed—he, wrapped in his black fur cloak, sword at his hip; she, her long coat swirling like smoke, eyes locked ahead with eerie calm.
At the very heart of the mountain, they came upon it: the Sanctum of Silence.
The great doors were frozen shut, with thick vines of frost creeping from the corners like veins of death. With few murmured words from Lady Xhurai, they creaked open, revealing a chamber bathed in deathly silence.
There, in the middle of the frozen throne room, two figures stood unmoving—trapped in a spell that had lasted for centuries.
One was a woman with long, dark hair and eyes closed in eternal slumber: Ji Woo, once a powerful witch, who betrayed her people.
Beside her was Fang Leng, the Tyrant Vampire King, feared across the realms and sealed away with her.
Their bodies had not aged. Their faces remained as they were the day the Witch Queen imprisoned them—arrogant, powerful, and sleeping like the dead.
Lady Xhurai stepped forward, her breath fogging in the cold air. "So this is the legend" she said, studying Ji Woo. "The one who turned her back on the witches… for love."
She raised her staff, murmured an incantation she learned from abook, and pressed the crystal tip to Ji Woo's forehead.
The ice cracked.
A red light bloomed beneath Ji Woo's skin.
With a sharp gasp, her eyes flew open—glowing with the same eerie crimson as the magic that bound her.
She took a step, staggering slightly, and then caught herself.
Ji Woo turned her head toward the fang Leng and smiled.
She walked straight to him and placed her hands gently on his cheeks. "It's time," she whispered.
And with a whisper of words in the language of the old blood, she kissed his forehead.
A violent gust swept through the chamber. The walls trembled.
The ice that bound the Vampire King shattered like glass under fire.
Fang Leng's eyes opened, burning gold like suns drowning in blood.
Fang Leng's golden eyes blazed as he stood from the shattered ice, his presence stretching like a storm across the frozen spine.The remaining soldiers trembled, overwhelmed by the oppressive weight of his return. Ji Woo stood by him, silent and still, like a dark shadow waiting to strike.
Black Scorpion took a step forward. "So... the infamous vampire king returns," he said with a cruel grin. "You owe your freedom to us. Perhaps it's time you kneel."
But Ji Woo turned her gaze on him sharply—her expression unreadable. "You brought us here, yes," she said softly. "But do not mistake your role in prophecy. You were never meant to command Fang Leng."
Lady Xhurai narrowed her eyes. "You dare threaten us?"
Ji Woo did not answer. Instead, she raised both arms—and from the ancient sigils carved into the chamber walls, magic erupted. Crimson chains, glowing with cursed runes, lashed out from the shadows like serpents. They snaked around Black Scorpion and Lady Xhurai, binding them in place. No matter how they struggled, the chains pulled tighter, draining their strength.
"You were never the masters," Ji Woo whispered. "Only vessels."
Lady Xhurai screamed in rage. "You witch!"
"I am a witch," Ji Woo said calmly. "But more than that… I am his."
She turned to Fang Leng, whose face twisted into a smile more terrifying than any monster.
Fang Leng stepped toward the bound Black Scorpion, eyes glowing with cold satisfaction. "Two souls in one body,"he murmured. "It's the only way to rise again… without alerting the people."
Ji Woo began to chant in the language of the forgetting tone, her voice echoing like thunder. The spell swirled around the room, drawing Fang Leng's essence into a rising vortex of power.
Then—with a sudden, terrifying force—the entire soul of the vampire king was cast into Black Scorpion's body.
He screamed, once—long and piercing—as two souls merged, clashing in violent silence. His body shuddered, twitched, then fell still.
Moments later, Black Scorpion raised his head—but his eyes now shimmered gold.
Ji Woo knelt before him. "It is done, my king. You now have a kingdom… and a body that will not decay."
Inside the vessel, both souls lived—Black Scorpion, raging and trapped, and Fang Leng, smiling with cruel delight.
Then, the golden-eyed man turned toward Lady Xhurai.
She spat at him. "I should have killed you both."
"You should have," he agreed—and then he sank his fangs into her throat.
She choked, body arching in pain as her lifeblood was drained. The magic in the chamber flickered wildly as her scream faded into silence. When he dropped her lifeless body, the ice around them had turned red.
The remaining soldiers—frozen in fear—began to run.
They didn't make it far.
Fang Leng moved like shadow and fire, tearing through the last of them without mercy. Blood sprayed across the icy floors. Not a soul escaped.
When the last body dropped, silence returned to the Frozen Spine.
Ji Woo stepped to the side of the golden-eyed man, her voice low. "Now we return… to rebuild your kingdom."
He looked down at his blood-soaked hands. Black Scorpion's strength, combined with Fang Leng's ancient power, surged through him.
Two kings. One body. One destiny..
And so, they left the mountain—a new terror born into the world