Three days later, Nana's shoulder had healed enough that she could move without wincing—as long as she didn't do anything "barbaric," as Dr. Zayne would probably say.
The medical follow-up appointment was scheduled for tomorrow, but Nana had other plans for today.
The ice cave.
She'd been thinking about it non-stop.
The way Zayne had sealed it so desperately. The thickness of those ice walls.
The secrecy. What could possibly be inside that would make a doctor—a cardiologist—sneak into the forest at midnight to reinforce a magical prison?
Her motorcycle rumbled to a stop at the forest trail. It was late afternoon, the autumn sun filtering through golden leaves, casting everything in warm amber light.
Peaceful. Beautiful.Deceptive.
Nana made her way through the trees, following the path she'd memorized from that night. The temperature dropped as she approached, her breath misting in the air despite the mild weather. Frost crunched under her boots.
And there it was.
The ice cave stood exactly as Zayne had left it—walls upon walls of crystalline ice, each layer reinforced with complex lattice patterns that gleamed in the fading sunlight. It was breathtaking and terrifying in equal measure.
"Okay, Doc," Nana muttered, approaching cautiously. "What are you hiding?"
She pulled out her pistol, checking the chamber. Fully loaded. Her hunter watch was active, scanning for Wanderer signatures.
Nothing yet.
She aimed at the ice wall and fired.
BANG
The shot echoed through the forest. Birds scattered from nearby trees.
The ice didn't even crack. Not a scratch. Not a dent.
"What the hell?" Nana lowered her gun, staring in disbelief. Her standard-issue hunter pistol could take down Class B Wanderers. It should at least chip regular ice.
But this wasn't regular ice.
She holstered her weapon and tried kicking it instead—a solid roundhouse that would've shattered concrete. Her boot connected with the ice wall with a resounding thud, and pain immediately shot up her leg.
"Ow, ow, ow!" She hopped on one foot, clutching her shin.
The ice remained pristine.
Desperate now, Nana leaned forward and—in a moment of pure frustration—bit the ice.
Her teeth immediately regretted this decision.
"Ow! Ah! Cold!" She stumbled back, rubbing her mouth.
"Why did I think that would work?!"
"An excellent question."
Nana's blood turned to ice.
She spun around to find Zayne standing ten feet away, half-hidden in the tree line.
His expression was a mix of concern and what might have been exasperation—though with him, it was hard to tell.
Doctor Zayne!" Nana's face flushed crimson. "I—this isn't—I was just—"
"Testing the structural integrity of a sealed cave with your teeth?"
Zayne stepped forward, his coat billowing slightly in the cold wind emanating from the cave. His eyes—usually so controlled—held an edge of genuine worry.
"Miss Wang, what are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing!" Nana shot back, embarrassment quickly turning to defiance.
"What is this place? Why are you sealing it? What's inside?"
Zayne's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. "Nothing that concerns you."
"That's not an answer!"
"It's the only answer you're getting."
He moved closer, reaching for her arm.
"You need to leave. Now. This place is dangerous—"
The words died in his throat.
Nana's hunter watch exploded with warning signals, red lights flashing in rapid succession. The temperature plummeted so fast that frost spread across the ground in visible waves.
Behind them, something roared.
Zayne's eyes widened—the first time Nana had ever seen genuine fear cross his face. "Run—"
The Wanderer burst from the tree line like a nightmare made flesh.
It was massive—easily twelve feet tall, its body a grotesque amalgamation of shadow and crystallized dark energy. Class A at minimum, possibly higher. Its eyeless face split open to reveal rows of teeth like obsidian shards, and its roar shook the very air.
The force of its charge slammed into the ice cave wall.
CRACK
The sound was deafening. Zayne's carefully constructed seal—layers upon layers of reinforced ice—splintered like glass. Chunks of frozen wall exploded outward, and both Nana and Zayne were thrown backward by the shockwave.
Nana hit the ground hard, her healing shoulder screaming in protest. Stars burst across her vision.
"Nana!"
Zayne's voice cut through the chaos. He was already on his feet, ice blooming from both hands in defensive spirals. He positioned himself between her and the Wanderer, walls of crystalline barriers rising to shield her as the creature lunged again.
"Get up!" Zayne commanded, his usual calm cracking into urgency. "Get behind me!"
Nana scrambled to her feet, drawing her gun even as her head spun. Her aether core flickered to life, blue energy wrapping around her arms. "I can fight!"
"You're injured—"
"So what?!" She fired three shots at the Wanderer's center mass. The creature shrieked, its form flickering but not dissipating. "We fight together or we die together! Your choice, Doc!"
For a split second, Zayne's eyes met hers. Then he nodded once, sharp and decisive.
They moved in sync.Zayne's ice erupted in controlled bursts—spears and barriers that herded the Wanderer, limited its movements, created openings.
Nana exploited every gap, her shots precise and devastating, her aether core enhancing each bullet with raw energy.
The Wanderer roared in fury, its massive claws swiping at them. Zayne's ice shields took the brunt of the attack, but the force still sent him sliding backward.
"Left side!" Nana shouted, already moving. She slid under the creature's guard, her aether core flaring as she delivered a powered kick to its leg joint.
"Stop kicking Wanderers with your bare legs!"
Zayne snapped, even as he launched a barrage of ice spears into the creature's exposed back.
"It's working, isn't it?!"
The Wanderer collapsed, its form beginning to destabilize. Black mist poured from its wounds, the telltale sign of imminent dissipation.
Nana and Zayne stood back-to-back, breathing hard, weapons ready.
"Is it over?" Nana asked.
The Wanderer dissolved into nothing, its roar fading to silence.
"Yes," Zayne said, finally lowering his hands. The ice around them began to melt.
"It's—"
The second Wanderer hit them from behind like a freight train.Neither of them saw it coming. This one was faster, smaller, but infinitely more vicious.
Its body slammed into them with enough force to shatter bone, and suddenly they were flying—not away from the cave, but toward it, through the broken seal, into the darkness beyond.
"Nana!" Zayne's hand found hers mid-flight, gripping tight.
They crashed through the remaining ice wall inside the cave, tumbling across frozen ground. Nana felt something in her ribs crack, tasted blood. Zayne's grip on her hand never loosened.
The world spun. Pain exploded everywhere.
And then the temperature dropped so far, so fast, that even breathing hurt.Nana forced her eyes open.
They were deep inside the cave now, past Zayne's seals, past any point of return.
The walls here weren't just ice—they were something else. Something alive. The frozen surfaces pulsed with ethereal blue light, and ancient symbols carved into the ice began to glow.
"No," Zayne whispered, and Nana had never heard such devastation in his voice.
"No, no, not again—"
He tried to pull her toward the cave entrance, but his injuries slowed him. Blood dripped from a gash on his temple. His breathing was labored.
The symbols grew brighter.
The air began to bend.In the center of the cave, a portal materialized—not made of light or shadow, but of pure, swirling ice. It spun like a frozen vortex, pulling at them with inexorable force.
"Zayne!"
Nana grabbed onto a frozen outcropping, her fingers already going numb.
"What is that?!"
"A portal," he gasped, using his ice evol to anchor himself. But his power was depleted from the fight, his ice constructs weak and crumbling. "To a place between worlds. Nana, hold on—"
The second Wanderer appeared at the cave entrance, blocking their escape. It lunged forward, and its massive body shattered Zayne's anchor.
They were ripped toward the portal.Zayne pulled Nana against him, shielding her with his body as they were sucked into the vortex. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice barely audible over the roar of the portal.
"I'm so sorry—"
The ice portal swallowed them whole.
Everything became sensation without form—falling without direction, cold without temperature, sound without meaning.
Nana felt like she was being pulled apart and put back together simultaneously, every atom of her being stretched across impossible distances.
She tried to scream. No sound came out.
She tried to hold onto Zayne. Her fingers found only emptiness.
Zayne!
Darkness.
Weightlessness.
The sensation of falling from a great height, but there was no up or down, no sky or ground.
Just falling.
Falling.
Falling—
Nana hit solid ground with devastating force.
Every bone in her body screamed. Her aether core flickered weakly, trying to heal her even as consciousness slipped away. She tried to move, to call for Zayne, to understand where she was.
But the darkness was too heavy.Through blurring vision, she saw a sky that wasn't quite a sky. Buildings that weren't quite buildings.
A city that pulsed with wrongness, where the shadows moved independent of light and the air tasted of ash and ice.
Where... am I?
Her eyes closed.
And the world between life and death
welcomed another lost soul to Avalon City.
.
.
.
.
.
.
To be continued.