Avatar of the Frozen Behemoth: Volume 1

Chapter 41: White Death Apporaches

The survivors paused, looking around uneasily. Calista's heart skipped a beat as her eyes darted back to the orange light. "What is that?" she whispered, her voice tight with concern.

Yukio glanced at the others; confusion spread across their faces. The distant rumbling didn't make sense-the Janoan soldiers had already pulled back. They couldn't be attacking again, could they?

Yukio's chest tightened with a rising sense of dread. The orange light seemed... closer.

Brighter. And then, through the smoke, he saw it. Just for a moment, he caught a glimpse-a flash of orange reflecting off snow near a mountain in the distance. But this wasn't just a trick of the light. Something about it was wrong, unnatural.

Yukio's heart dropped.

"No... No, no, no..." he whispered. His body went cold as he stared at the light in horror, realization hitting him like a physical blow. "That's... that's not the sunset."

The orange light. It wasn't just a glow-it was a bomb. And it was heading straight for the mountain.

His eyes widened, confusion and terror flooding his body. "A bomb..." he whispered, his voice shaking. The people around him stared in shock as he tried to process what he was seeing. The Janoans had retreated. This didn't make any sense.

Calista, sensing the dread in her son's voice, looked up at him. "Yukio... what's happening?"

He turned to her, his voice tight with fear. "A bomb. It's... it's going to hit the mountain."

Her eyes widened in shock. A bomb? But the Janoans... they've left, haven't they?

The people helping them grew frantic, urging Yukio to focus. "We need to get this debris off her! Now!" one of them shouted. Yukio nodded, trying to push down the panic rising in his chest. His hands shook as they continued to work, each piece of debris they lifted off his mother a small victory.

But that victory was fleeting.

Suddenly, the distant screams of terror reached them, filling the air. Yukio snapped his head up, his heart pounding in his ears. The orange light had begun to flicker, growing faster with each second, its ominous glow casting eerie shadows across the ruins. He looked back at the symbols scattered across Spadia, his mind racing. Then it hit him.

The orange glow-it wasn't from the sunset. It wasn't from a fire.

It was the bomb from the Janoa empire.

His stomach dropped. Dread washed over him, cold and suffocating.

"The bomb..." he muttered, more to himself than anyone else. "It's from the Janoans."

A wave of shock rippled through the group. Faces paled. Eyes widened in disbelief and horror. "But... they retreated," someone whispered, their voice shaking. "Why would they...?"

Yukio wanted to scream, to run, to do something-anything-but his feet felt rooted to the ground as the rumbling grew louder. The bomb hurtled toward the mountain, an orange light now flickering rapidly like a heartbeat. The others scrambled to keep working, desperately trying to get Calista free, but their hands trembled with fear.

Suddenly, there was a deafening boom. Yukio whipped around just in time to see the bomb impact the mountain.

A brilliant, disorienting flash of light exploded in the distance. It was both beautiful and terrifying, a kaleidoscope of orange and white as ice shards shot into the sky like deadly stars. The mountain seemed to shudder and distort, chaos magic twisting its form. Yukio's breath caught in his throat as the shards reflected the light, scattering it across the sky, making it seem as though the entire world was breaking apart.