When Rimururu lifted her head from her sister's embrace, wiped away her tears, and noticed Cloud standing nearby, the smile on her face froze instantly.
Those pure blue eyes first flickered with curiosity, but within moments, curiosity transformed into deep wariness and hostility.
She reacted like a kitten whose territory had been invaded, her fur bristling in an instant.
She stepped forward, spreading her arms to shield Nakoruru behind her, fixing Cloud with the kind of scrutiny one reserves for a class enemy.
"Who are you? Why are you with my sister?" Rimururu's voice turned cold, filled with caution.
"Rimu, don't be rude!" Nakoruru quickly tugged at her sister's sleeve. "This is Cloud. He's my... my friend, and also my savior."
"Friend?" Rimururu's brow furrowed deeper. She could sense something about this man that made her deeply uncomfortable.
It was an ancient, evil aura—one filled with the desire for destruction and darkness.
Though that aura was well-hidden, wrapped within an equally powerful force as warm as the sun, Rimururu possessed an innate sensitivity to ice, snow, and negative energy. She could clearly detect its scent.
That scent was remarkably similar to the legendary "Orochi"—the entity said to seek the destruction of all things!
A man carrying the aura of Orochi had become her sister's friend? Had become her sister's savior?
The plot didn't add up! Someone had given her the wrong script! This was clearly a case of "the evil dragon kidnapping the princess"!
In Rimururu's mind, a melodramatic soap opera instantly began playing—"Innocent Sister Deceived by Scheming Dark Lord: A Tale of Heartbreak."
Her gaze at Cloud had already upgraded from wariness to something like looking at a human trafficker crossed with "the pig that rooted up my family's prize cabbage."
"Sister, don't let him fool you!" Rimururu lowered her voice to address Nakoruru. "There's... there's terrifying dark power inside him! He's incredibly dangerous!"
Nakoruru couldn't help but smile wryly. She knew exactly what her sister was referring to—the power of Orochi within Cloud.
"Rimu, you've misunderstood. Though Cloud possesses that power, he can control it perfectly. His heart is good."
But to Rimururu, whose every instinct screamed to protect her sister, this sounded exactly like classic "love-brain" rhetoric.
"Good? How can someone carrying evil power possibly be good? Sister, you're just too naive—that's why you've been tricked by this kind of bad man!" Rimururu puffed her cheeks like an indignant hamster.
Cloud watched from the sidelines, torn between laughter and tears.
Well, this is something. I haven't even opened my mouth yet, and I've already been labeled a "scheming dark lord" and "bad man."
This little sister-in-law has some serious potential.
He cleared his throat, deciding to take the initiative and demonstrate some of that friendly "future brother-in-law" charm.
"Hello there, Rimururu. Nice to meet you. I'm Cloud. You can call me... brother-in-law."
"Who's your sister! Who's calling you brother-in-law! You don't get to say that!"
His single utterance of "brother-in-law" was like stepping on a cat's tail, instantly igniting Rimururu's fury.
A layer of frost formed on the young girl's face as the surrounding air temperature plummeted!
"I won't let someone as dangerous as you stay near my sister! Leave this place!"
With a sharp cry, Rimururu's ice-crystal mirror "Shikuru" blazed with brilliant blue light.
"Frozen Bow!"
With a wave of her small hand, the moisture in the air instantly crystallized, forming a longbow made entirely of ice. She drew the string, and an ice arrow shimmering with deadly cold light aimed directly at Cloud's chest!
Nakoruru's face went pale with shock. "Rimu! Stop!"
But it was too late.
Whoosh!
The ice arrow shot toward Cloud with a piercing whistle of displaced air. Its speed was extreme, and it contained enough frigid energy to instantly freeze a brown bear solid!
Yet facing this sudden attack, Cloud simply stood his ground, not bothering to move a single step.
Just as the arrow was about to strike, a cluster of purple flames suddenly bloomed from the front of his shirt, forming a miniature fiery vortex.
The ice arrow plunged into the vortex without creating so much as a ripple, instantly melted, evaporated, and vanished by those purple flames.
Rimururu's pupils contracted sharply.
Her frozen arrow had been neutralized so easily? What was that purple fire?
It was clearly flame, yet it radiated a chill even colder than her ice!
"I'm going to say this nicely, little sis-in-law—sneak attacks are bad manners." Cloud's voice carried a hint of teasing. "Besides, when it comes to playing with fire, I'm a professional."
"You... you really are a demon!" Seeing those purple flames only confirmed Rimururu's suspicions. In her innocent worldview, only devils could possess such eerie fire.
"Sister, get out of the way! I'm going to purify this demon!" Rimururu was nearly in tears, convinced her sister had been bewitched by Cloud's dark arts.
The young girl raised her crystal mirror once more, this time channeling even greater power.
"Spirits of ice, heed my command! Become blades of ice, and slay this evil!"
"Divine Ice Blade—Ice Fog!"
At her incantation, frost instantly formed across the ground as countless razor-sharp ice blades erupted upward, forming a forest of frozen death that swept toward Cloud!
"Rimu! No!" Nakoruru desperately tried to intervene but was gently pushed aside by an invisible force.
"It's fine. Let her vent a little." Cloud smiled reassuringly at Nakoruru, then turned to face the oncoming forest of ice blades, a playful smirk appearing on his face.
"Playing with ice against me? Little girl, you've still got a lot to learn."
He slowly raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.
"KOF, Kula entrance theme—cue the music!"
Of course, only he could hear the BGM.
The next instant, a power infused with equal parts technology and mysticism exploded from within Cloud!
It wasn't magic. It wasn't sorcery.
It was a gift from Kula Diamond herself.
Crack... crack-crack-crack...
Something bizarre happened.
The imposing forest of ice blades Rimururu had summoned froze in place the moment it contacted the cold radiating from Cloud—"frozen" by an even colder freeze!
Ice, frozen by colder ice!
The blades hung suspended in mid-air, their surfaces now coated with an even deeper, more profound shade of ice-blue crystal, as if time itself had been permanently locked around them.
Rimururu was utterly dumbfounded.
...
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