[House El'Vertigo — Red Marble Hall]
Kavo raised the Viora rod once more—then stopped.
A cold, mechanical chime rang through the hall, followed by the jagged screech of a high-priority broadcast.
"All units—emergency recall. Multiple casualties reported in Lower Sector Nine. Visual ID: ICE KILLER CONFIRMED."
"Repeat—ICE KILLER active. Standing orders: evacuate streets, engage only with anti-cryonic armor. All guard divisions report immediately."
Kavo's eyes sharpened.
"...That lunatic is still alive."
He dropped the Viora rod. Its echo bounced across the blood-slick marble.
Pablo exhaled, legs nearly buckling.
"You will return to your chamber. Do not leave the estate," Kavo said, already turning toward the exit.
"But I—"
"Now."
With that, Kavo vanished in a flash of blue Viora, his body trailing crackling heat as he blinked through the Keep's inner gates.
[El'Vertigo Keep — Upper Spire Pathways]
Kiro watched from a support beam as the guards flooded from every door.
Viora engines screamed in the air. Hover transports descended like hornets. He'd heard the broadcast through a stolen comms chip—ICE KILLER—a rogue anomaly who'd been plaguing Velmora's underbelly for months.
The path forward was clear.
He dropped silently from the beam and moved deeper into the now-unlocked archive sectors, bypassing the restricted floors. System markers pointed to the corridor used by family heirs.
If he was going to find the truth about the El'Vertigo plans—and maybe this Pablo—he needed to push higher.
But then he saw it.
A body.
Half-frozen.
[Keep Perimeter Sector — Hall of Breath]
The corpse was suspended midair, legs fused to the wall with jagged blue frost. The face was contorted in a silent scream, frostbite threading the veins like crystal.
The wall behind was scorched with writing made from frozen blood.
"COLD IS MERCY."
Another body lay just behind it—an imperial scientist, throat pierced by a single icicle.
[System Alert: Unknown Energy Detected — Origin: Cryo-Viora / Mutation?]
Kiro moved cautiously.
The air was getting colder.
Each breath he took scraped like broken glass.
And then he heard the whisper—too soft for human ears.
A voice made of shivering steel.
"Your blood is warm. That makes you mine..."