The ice blade summoned by the stranger looked like a mirror held up to death; in its reflective shimmer, shimoro saw his own image: a trembling boy, powerless and helpless. Death drew near to kiss his forehead, and he felt the chill of the metal caressing his skin, which was a shade less than pure white. He closed his eyes, a silent scream trapped in his throat.
Clang!
It was not the sound of his flesh tearing, but a resonant metallic ring, as if flint had struck a mountain of diamond.
shimoro opened his eyes slowly to find a wall of rough, blue ice, filled with defensive protrusions, erupting from the ground like a sacred shield.
"In my village, we teach children that strangers knock on doors first... not necks."
shimoro turned in astonishment. This was not the grandmother who scolded him over breadcrumbs. Kaina stood with a tall, erect posture he had never seen in her before; her eyes sparkled with the coldness of a harsh winter blue, and steam rose from her palms, which were held open with iron steadiness.
The stranger stepped back, eyeing the ice wall with mocking appreciation. "Solid formation? In a village inhabited by woodcutters? It seems I underestimated the nanny."
Kaina shouted, her tone brook no argument:
"shimoro! Behind me! Do not leave my shadow no matter what happens!"
shimoro crawled across the snow, hiding behind her back, which seemed at that moment sturdier than castle walls. He whispered in a shaky voice, "Grandmother... he... he has a crystal like the one I found..."
Kaina did not turn, but her jaw tightened firmly. "Be quiet and keep your head down. This is no longer just a scolding."
The man brushed the dust off his black coat, and a dark aura began to rise from beneath his feet, turning the pure white snow into a bleak, charcoal color. "I do not like wasting my time with those whose expiration date has passed."
Kaina responded with absolute silence. She pressed her palms together and then pulled them apart; the snow moved, shaping into solid ice between her hands in the form of an ice bow. With a swift motion, she unleashed a barrage of ice arrows that sliced through the air with a sharp whistle.
However, the stranger moved like a shadow that light could not catch. He tilted his body with terrifying fluidity, letting the arrows pass mere millimeters from his coat. When an arrow drew near his eye, he caught it with his bare hand and shattered it like cheap glass.
"Your techniques remind me of old books, old woman... boring and predictable."
In the blink of an eye, he vanished from his spot.
Kaina screamed with her combat intuition: "Behind me!"
She spun around to raise a thick shield, but the man's kick was faster. Bam! The ice shattered into flying shards, and Kaina was sent hurtling backward for meters, leaving deep furrows in the snow before crashing into the trunk of an oak tree.
"Grandmother!" shimoro cried out and tried to run, but a long shadow blocked the light from him.
The stranger stood before him, his eyes empty like a bottomless well. He extended his long hand, gripped shimoro's neck, and lifted him off the ground until the boy's breath faded.
"And now..." the stranger said, staring into shimoro's tearful face, "let's see if this body is truly as they said..."
Kaina tried to stand, blood dripping from her forehead. "Leave him... you monster!"
The stranger pointed his free hand toward her, and black ice—like frozen tar—erupted from it, crawling with supernatural speed to bind Kaina's limbs to the tree, freezing her movement entirely.
The world began to darken in shimoro's eyes. The man's fingers pressed against his throat, and in that moment of suffocation, shimoro felt the aura in his body pulse powerfully... one pulse, two. He felt a sensation strange for a child... something was permeating deep within him... the aura was passing through his energy channels to break out in a state of danger.
It wasn't just fear he felt now; it was like energy boiling in his veins... he felt a stinging in his chest, and pain overwhelmed him.
Suddenly, shimoro's eyes snapped open against his will, but instead of their natural sky-blue color... a terrifying sky-blue glow took their place. The man's arm holding his neck began to be covered in a layer of bright ice that started to consume the stranger's "black ice."
"What?!" The man wondered, feeling a chill pierce through his glove and reach his bones.
A voice emerged from deep within shimoro, a voice with a shout and tears... "Do not kill my grandmother!"
A light aura of white snow energy exploded like a bomb of raw snow. The stranger released shimoro and stepped back two paces.
shimoro fell to his knees, gaspling like someone who had returned from the dead. The aura around his body stopped suddenly, leaving a circle of snow surrounding him, shimmering under the weak sunlight. The crystal fell from his pocket, pulsing with a faint light before going dark.
The stranger stood and looked at the fallen shimoro. Then he brushed the frost off his arm, looking at shimoro once more with a gaze that mixed greed with astonishment.
"He is the one we seek..." he whispered in a deep tone, "Hope or Destruction..."
Kaina tried to speak, but her breath was cut off from the pressure.
The stranger retreated a few steps as black mist began to wrap around his body again.
"I was going to kidnap you and rid myself of this burden," the stranger said, shouting loudly while looking at the sky, "But, I want you to grow, shimoro! Become stronger for my sake, explore this world before your fate arrives! Venture forth before you are struck by the truth!"
Then he looked at shimoro and smiled. "My name is Vargas. I will let you live today to prove you are worthy of power! Discover the truth before my return, shimoro!"
Vargas vanished like black smoke in the wind, leaving behind a silence torn by shimoro's exhausted moans.
shimoro fell unconscious. Kaina rushed toward him after her black bonds melted, cradling his head in her lap, whispering bitterly: "The aura inside you has begun to leak... how foolish of me... I should not have made you trust yourself more so that you wouldn't become arrogant and leave us forever..."
She carried the crystal in her pocket and the young boy in her arms, walking toward the village while the traces of snow and black ice behind them faded away....
To be continued...