Days passed for Riorno…
Heavy days, during which he tried to understand what was happening to him.
He felt that something was wrong, but he didn't know what.
It wasn't just that he was losing his strength…
It was much more serious than that.
His memories were slowly being erased.
Without pain.
Without him noticing.
As if someone was erasing his life, line by line.
The only name that remained etched in his mind… a name that wouldn't disappear no matter how hard oblivion tried to swallow it:
Lloyd Eriker.
One day, Riorno was home alone with the girl.
Her mother had gone out to buy food despite the bitter cold.
He asked her, sitting by the window,
"Where did your mother go?"
She answered simply,
"To buy food."
He stood up suddenly and went to the window. He opened it slightly… and his eyes widened.
He wasn't in a deserted place as he had thought.
Before him lay a large village,
teeming with life despite the snow.
People moving about, children running, smoke rising from houses,
and the sounds of life filling the air.
He breathed a sigh of relief for the first time since waking up.
At least… this world wasn't dead.
Then he began to talk to the girl more,
trying to get to know this place… and himself again.
He learned that her name was:
Luna.
As for her… she recognized him in her own way,
and chose to call him by a softer, more familiar name:
"Rio."
A new name… like the beginning of a new life.
But inside Rio,
there was a vague feeling telling him that this tranquility… wouldn't last long.
[Scene Transition]
The image of the village fades…
And a heavy silence takes its place.
A figure appears, completely frozen, standing in the middle of the icy landscape.
His eyes are wide open,
And his features reflect terror… fear… and astonishment,
As if he has seen something the mind cannot comprehend.
He doesn't move.
He doesn't even breathe.
A mysterious figure approaches him, his steps quiet on the snow,
Saying in a cold tone tinged with mild sarcasm:
"Well… well… We're back to square one."
A small phone rings in his hand.
He glances at it, then answers:
"Yes… He's scared. Frozen in place, just as we expected."
He pauses, listening…
Then he smiles faintly, his features not fully visible.
"Should I intervene now?"
The reply comes from the other end,
And he laughs briefly.
"Hehe… I see. No need to rush."
He raises his gaze to the distant storm and says,
"All right… we're on our way, sir."
The signal cuts out.
The camera slowly moves away from the scene,
while the frozen figure remains standing… like a statue left behind by a disaster we don't yet know about.
And somewhere in this world,
invisible threads were beginning to approach Rio… and Lloyd.
Elsewhere in the world of predatory snow, Lloyd was suffering, just like Rio. His strength was no longer what it once was. He could feel it fading, like embers cooling beneath the snow.
He walked over treacherous heights, the wind whipping around him, still searching for shelter—anything to protect him from the harshness of this world.
[A cold night]
He sat inside a deserted cabin that barely shielded him from the storm.
Silence hung heavy.
Then—
A sharp, heavy scratching sound.
He opened his eyes immediately.
He rushed out of the cabin, only to find a gigantic beast before him.
It was a colossal wolf, with fangs as long as swords, and eyes that gleamed with a deadly hunger.
The beast suddenly lunged with its claws!
Lloyd leaped high to dodge the blow, but the claws blazed with a strange black and red light, scratching his face before he could move away.
He falls to the ground, touching the wound…
But the wound wasn't ordinary.
It began to react… as if waking up.
Lloyd screamed in agony,
and felt something move inside his body.
His left hand…
began to transform.
The bones expanded,
the skin darkened,
and long, black claws appeared, resembling the monster's own.
He was no longer in complete control…
but he didn't back down.
He charged at the monster with a fierce attack,
and struck it directly in the stomach with the transformed claws.
A knockout blow.
The monster froze for a moment…
then its body vanished as if it had never existed.
Lloyd stood in the middle of the storm…
Breathing heavily.
He looked down at his hand, now swollen into black claws,
and the wound on his face throbbed like a living thing.
Suddenly—
He began to hear a strange heartbeat inside his head.
Not his own…
But the beat of something else.
His eyes widened, and his voice changed:
"What is this…? Stop…!"
But the force didn't stop.
His body began to heat up despite the snow,
and his veins glowed with that black mixed with red.
Fragmented memories… Voices… Roars…
Then silence fell.
Lloyd lost consciousness.
What remained… was not Lloyd.
His body curled up like a beast preparing to hunt,
and his gaze became that of a pure predator.
He no longer sought shelter.
He no longer thought of survival.
Only the instinct to hunt.
He raised his head toward the vast, snowy wilderness…
And let out a roar that shook the mountains.
Then he plunged into the storm,
With unnatural speed,
As if this world had become his true home.
At that moment…
A new being was born in the "World of Predatory Snow."
Not human.
Not a complete monster.
But something in between… Something more dangerous.
The days passed…
And with each passing day, Lloyd changed more.
The transformation wasn't sudden,
but gradual… slow… cruel.
His senses sharpened,
his movements quickened,
and his human reason receded before a merciless instinct.
The snowy mountains where he had once wandered,
were now his territory.
One day, hunters came to those heights in search of rare game.
They thought the place was empty… just rugged terrain untrodden by many feet.
But they sensed something watching them.
An unnatural silence.
No birds.
No wind.
Then it appeared…
That creature.
Red eyes in the fog,
and a body moving with a speed they couldn't follow.
They tried to catch it,
but realized too late that they weren't the hunters…
They were the prey.
After that incident, no one dared enter the mountainous region.
Everyone who tried to venture there… never returned.
And whispers began to circulate among the neighboring villages:
"Something lives in the mountains…"
"Not a wolf… and not a human…"
"It watches you before you even notice it."
And from that moment on, it was called:
The Predator.
But the truth that no one knew…
That this "Predator"
still had within it the remnants of a human resisting… the remnants of Lloyd… trying not to disappear completely.
Under a sky where storms never ceased…
The threads of destiny, hidden, were being woven slowly.
Rio was in the village, trying to cling to what remained of his memory,
And only one name refused to be erased… Lloyd.
And in the distant mountains, where no one dared approach,
An unknown being roamed among the snow,
Haunted by rumors… and preceded by awe.
The villagers no longer remembered his real name.
They no longer knew that he had been human.
Only one name remained, whispered and fearful:
"The Predator."
But…
Between the oblivion that consumed Rio,
And the instinct that consumed Lloyd,
Something greater stirred in the shadows…
Something that brought them back to this world for a reason yet to be revealed.
Continued in Chapter 3… ❄️🔥