As Glacius and Peggy made their way along the waters with Glacius freezing forth the waters— with Peggy melting his trail as usual — a buzzing sound echoed through the forest from a nearby island. It wasn't just one or two bugs. It was an entire swarm.
From the murky depths of a water body, countless insect-like figures emerged, their wings chittering, their beady eyes glowing with malice. These were no ordinary bugs — they were soldiers of the Bug Tribe.
At the center of the swarm stood their leader — General Venox. His form was more humanoid than his soldiers, but his insect traits were undeniable: an exoskeleton dark as midnight, long, serrated mandibles, and extra arms folded neatly behind his back like knives waiting to be unsheathed.
"Well, well," Venox hissed, his voice a sickly blend of a whisper and a buzz. "What do we have here? The icy prince and his… fairy pet?"
Peggy bristled. "Excuse me?"
Glacius didn't flinch. "State your purpose."
Venox chuckled. "Isn't it obvious? Infestation."
He spread his arms wide, and his soldiers swarmed the nearby water body, their dark forms diving into the water and corrupting it. A foul, oily film spread across the surface, and the once-clear river started turning murky and lifeless.
Glacius' cold smile remained. "A pathetic attempt."
Without a word, he extended his hand, and a sheet of ice spread across the river, trapping many of the bug soldiers inside. The ice shimmered, thick and unyielding.
Peggy, however, was horrified. "You froze the water! You're killing the fish and everything else in it!"
Glacius didn't respond — his focus remained on the bugs.
Venox simply laughed. "You think ice will stop us?"
The bug soldiers, seemingly unbothered by their frozen comrades, continued their work. They gnawed at the ice, secreting a strange acid from their pincers that slowly melted through the frozen sheet. Bit by bit, they broke free, spreading the corruption further.
It was an infestation — relentless, never-ending.
Glacius' eye twitched ever so slightly. "Annoying."
Despite his stoic exterior, the sheer persistence of the Bug Tribe was testing his patience. He kept freezing, they kept breaking free. Over and over. It was like trying to hold back a flood with a thin wall of ice.
Venox noticed the faintest flicker of irritation in Glacius' expression.
"Look at you," the bug general sneered. "Even the coldest heart can be warmed by frustration."
Peggy, flapping her wings to stay clear of the bugs, muttered, "More like boiling."
But Venox wasn't done. His insect eyes focused on the one thing that seemed off about Glacius and Peggy — the stubborn piece of their bodies still stuck together. The thin part of Glacius' rear was still fused to Peggy's wing.
Venox's mandibles clacked with excitement. "SOLDIERS! INFEST THE CONNECTION!"
The bugs swarmed the point where Glacius' back and Peggy's wing were still stuck.
Glacius' calm demeanor cracked for the first time. "Don't touch me."
But it was too late.
The bugs' acidic bites tore through the feathers connecting them— not cleanly, but violently.
The feathers snapped.
A sharp pain shot through both of them — Glacius' back bled from the sudden tear, a thin trail of ice-blue blood dripping down his spine. Peggy's wing fared no better, with a jagged gash now running through the delicate membrane, sending a dull throb through her entire body.
For the first time in what felt like forever, they were free.
Peggy staggered back, holding her injured wing. "Finally," she muttered through gritted teeth.
Glacius, however, stood frozen — not from his ice but from something darker.
Venox clapped his insectoid hands together. "Look at that! You're free at last. How liberating."
Without a word, Glacius slowly raised his hand. The temperature plummeted so fast that even Venox's breath came out in a misty cloud.
"You touched me," Glacius said softly.
Before Venox could react, a jagged pillar of ice erupted from the ground, impaling three bug soldiers instantly.
The rest of the swarm scattered in a panic.
Glacius advanced, his bleeding back ignored, his ice spreading like a disease across the land.
Peggy, clutching her wing, stumbled after him. "Glacius, wait! You can't just—"
But Glacius wasn't listening.
The bugs had dared to touch him, to force him into a situation where he wasn't in control. It didn't matter that the bond was broken. It mattered that they broke it.
Venox, for once, wasn't laughing.
"You're a touchier prince than I thought," he muttered. "No matter. You'll freeze, but my infestation never ends."
The battle raged on.
Glacius' rage, though subtle, was as deadly as the cold itself. His usual calm exterior cracked the moment the Bug Tribe soldiers dared to touch him. Now, freed from the magical bond with Peggy, he unleashed a merciless storm of ice.
Razor-sharp ice spears shot from his fingertips, impaling bug soldiers left and right. Each strike was precise, calculated — he wasn't just lashing out; he was observing. With every spear he formed, Glacius studied their movements, their patterns. The way they skittered unpredictably, the way they reacted to the cold.
"Hmm…" Glacius muttered as he froze another soldier mid-flight, watching its wings snap like glass before it hit the ground. "Interesting."
His pale lips curled into a small, dangerous smirk.
"This is… fun."
He started to fight like it was a game — impaling one bug, freezing another, shattering a third with a flick of his wrist. His icy attacks were fluid, each move as smooth as a winter wind. It was like he was painting the battlefield in frost and blood.
Venox, watching his soldiers fall one by one, clicked his mandibles in frustration. "Don't scatter, you fools! INFEST THE LAND!"
The bug soldiers obeyed, clawing through the icy ground, trying to corrupt more of the water and land beneath Glacius' feet.
But the Ice Prince kept his composure, freezing the corruption as soon as it spread. The more they infested, the more he froze. It was an endless cycle — his ice creeping along the battlefield, their corruption seeping into the cracks.
Peggy, meanwhile, didn't have time to enjoy or hate the chaos.
She was laser-focused on protecting the aquatic neutral villagers.
The bug soldiers, frustrated by Glacius' relentless attacks, tried shifting their focus — darting toward the floating stilt houses where the terrified neutrals huddled. The water was already murky from the infestation, and if the bugs got to the villagers, it would be over.
But Peggy was there.
"Oh no, you don't!" she shouted.
Her glowing hands radiated a soft warmth as she unleashed waves of light beams, thawing the areas of the river affected by both Glacius' freezing and the bugs' corruption. She melted the poisoned ice, purifying the water just enough to keep the villagers safe.
Every time a bug got too close, Peggy used blasts of light to push them back.
One particularly bold bug lunged for a young neutral child — its pincers clicking menacingly — but Peggy swiftly created a barrier of glowing energy, knocking the creature back into the freezing river.
"Stay behind me!" she called to the villagers, gritting her teeth against the pain in her injured wing.
The bugs kept coming, but not one got past her.
Glacius, even in his frenzied yet methodical fighting, noticed this. His gaze flickered to Peggy briefly, watching her struggle to protect the neutrals.
His lip twitched — just slightly.
Then, more bug soldiers emerged — dozens more — pouring from the underwater trees, from the water, from underground. It was a never-ending swarm.
Venox laughed. "You think you can kill us all? For every soldier you freeze, more will rise! Our infestation can't be stopped."
Glacius' smirk faded.
The battle, once "fun," was now annoying.