The first thing Iris noticed was the stillness of the scavenger; it didn't thrash or collapse like it should have. River's blade had struck true—right through the brain, a perfect kill. And yet, there was no spasm, no cry, not even the dull thud of a body hitting the ground.
It just stood there. Rigid and silent as River's armored figure stood, perched on its shoulders, with his sword piercing its head.
As if death hadn't reached it at all.
She stepped forward slowly, one hand drifting toward her dagger, her voice caught somewhere between concern and confusion. "River–"
The word barely left her lips before the scavenger's body jerked unnaturally, a shudder rolling down its limbs like a twitch from something far beneath the skin. Then, something ripped out of the wound like a beast finally freed from its chains.
The churning tide of black spilled upward in a rush, fast and hungry, latching onto River like it had been waiting for him. The mass of slick, glistening tendrils spiraled up the blade, across his arms, and over his chest with terrifying speed.
Iris froze. Her breath hitched in her throat as his figure was dragged down into the roiling dark, his silhouette smothered beneath the surging tide.
"River!" she shouted, lunging forward—
But it was already too late. The black mass twisted violently where he'd stood, slapping the ground like wet ropes. She couldn't even see his outline anymore. A sudden wave of fear and panic crashed through her, flooding her thoughts in a single, breathless instant. Her steps faltered, momentum draining from her limbs as she came to a shaky stop, heart pounding in her throat.
And though Iris didn't take another step forward, her body did.
***
Darkness swallowed River's vision as the black mass surged over him, a writhing tide of slugs that pressed down with suffocating weight. His armor groaned under the strain, the chitin creaking as hundreds of slick, pulsing bodies forced their way across every surface.
River's thoughts began to splinter, slowing under the weight of rising panic. It felt like being buried alive, entombed beneath a living skin of slime and pressure. No matter how much he tried, his limbs refused to move, unable to respond to his desperate pleas.
'Is this really how I go out? Smothered under a pile of brainless sludge?' He gritted his teeth, vision blurring. 'I haven't even had the chance to punch that smug bastard Tongue Ripper in the face yet.'
Then, cold and wet, something pressed against his cheek.
His eyes snapped wide just as he felt it—a single slug, thinner than the others, squirming through the narrow gap in his visor plate. It forced its way inside with a sickening slither, its body slick against his skin.
River bucked violently, a strangled noise tearing from his throat as panic detonated into raw instinct.
Cold erupted from his skin as frost exploded across his armor in thick sheets, racing over the mass and hardening the slugs in mid-motion. Some dropped away, frozen solid. Others twitched and cracked as the sudden cold shattered their cohesion.
But the one inside his armor, still writhing against his skin, didn't freeze. Driven by some desperate instinct, it began to squirm downward—searching for warmth, for shelter, for him.
River snarled, dragging in a sharp breath as icy air seared his lungs. 'Out. Get out.'
With no regard for his own body anymore, River let go. He opened the floodgates and released everything—every last drop of cold his body could summon. Ice poured from him in unrelenting waves, coating the ground, the armor, and the air itself in a white sheen that crackled and spread like wildfire. His eyes flared an unnatural, searing blue that poured over the edges of his visor like his very soul had frozen solid.
Frost crept up his fingers, blooming across his joints, biting into flesh beneath the armor. Numbness set in, but he didn't stop. The cold was all he had left—and if it meant freezing every last slug to death, even if it meant frostbite took hold, then so be it.
Inside his helmet, the slug writhed frantically, still alive. It dragged itself across his cheekbone, leaving a slimy smear that numbed instantly beneath the ice seeping into the lining. It slithered higher, blindly fumbling toward the shallow warmth of his breath, its slick body pressing up against his upper lip.
'Die. Die. Die. Just shrivel up and die, you slimy bastard.'
Then it found his nostril.
River jerked back instinctively, muscles seizing, but he couldn't stop it. It refused to stop as it began to wedge itself forward, forcing its way into the narrow space in a slow, pulsing crawl. He choked on a gasp, his vision tunneling from both panic and the frost slowly forming over his skin. He couldn't believe this was really how he was about to die. Not in a blaze of glory, not in some final stand—but pinned beneath a swarm of filth, helpless and forgotten. Just another nameless Sleeper buried under the weight of the Spell.
But then, without another second to spare, the cold caught it. The slug twitched violently, its body spasming just beneath his nose, then slowed. Finally submitting to the cold, the slug began to shrivel up as its body completely froze, a brittle crack echoed faintly beneath the plates as its body shattered. It was finally dead.
River didn't move at first.
His whole body trembled from the cold as pain pulsed from every limb, dull and distant beneath layers of numbness. His fingers didn't feel like his own. His legs refused to answer. But he was still conscious. Still alive.
'Like hell I'd die to you wriggling sack of shits.'
With a growl born less of strength and more of defiance, River pressed his frozen palms to the ground. The slugs clinging to his arms had begun to drop off, their hive-mind sluggish under the spreading frost. His muscles screamed in protest, joints creaking beneath the layers of ice now fused to his armor. Still, he forced himself up, inch by inch, until he was no longer lying in the mass–but crouched within it.
Although the swarm writhed slower now. It hadn't stopped. It hadn't died.
But neither had he.
A sharp gasp tore from his throat as he finally stood upright, the swarm still clinging to him like tar. But unlike before, they no longer possessed the same ferocity and strength. The frost had broken their momentum, dulling their movement.
River bared his teeth, breath coming in uneven bursts. His vision swam, every inch of him screaming in pain beneath the numbness, but he couldn't stop now. "Didn't kill you all, huh…" his voice was hoarse, nearly lost to the wind. "Come at me then, you maggot-brained shitworms."
But before they could respond to his provocation, a blur cut through the slugs, scattering them like insects. Iris… or well, Nyx dropped into the swarm with practiced fury, her dagger cleaving through the nearest knot of writhing black, her phantom mimicking her movements from another angle.
River coughed, a half-laugh scraped raw from his throat. "Took you long enough."
Nyx didn't say a word. She swept past in a blur, her dagger flashing through another cluster of slugs. Not only that, but her phantom a mere heartbeat behind, cutting through the stragglers with eerie precision. Every movement was seamless, a fluid extension of herself, ensuring that no slug could escape their relentless onslaught.
In a matter of moments, the swarm was reduced to a puddle of shattered black bodies, the remaining slugs squirming in vain against their frozen fate. And before long, the Spell announced their death in his ears.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Corpse Stalker]
The words rang hollow in River's ears, barely audible over the thunder of his own heartbeat. He staggered once, then again, his armor crunching through frozen remains as he tried to stay upright. His mind was reeling from his exhaustion, and his body no longer listened to his commands. But, in the moment, that didn't matter to him. He had survived.
And with that thought, River's knees finally gave out.
The ground met him hard, the crack of ice beneath his weight echoing louder than it should have. He stared at his gauntlets—frostbitten metal etched with thin fractures. No matter how long he stared, his fingers still wouldn't move. They remained firmly frozen in place, as if molded by the cold into useless shapes.
Footsteps crunched beside him.
Nyx didn't say a word. Just crouched near him, not close, but within reach. She remained silent as she reached forward and seized his wrist. She tugged at his gauntlet, staring at the lingering frost before looking him in the eyes. "Dismiss your armor."
River blinked at her, the words slow to register through the ringing in his ears. But after a moment, his mind caught up. He let out a rough breath, grimacing as the pain flared through his frozen limbs.
"At least take me to dinner first," he muttered, voice rough with cold and barely clinging to humor.
Truth was, he'd give anything to shed the armor now—every inch of it felt like a prison of ice grinding into his skin. The only problem? If he dismissed it, he'd be completely naked beneath.
Nyx didn't so much as blink. Her eyes flicked down, then back to his face, utterly unimpressed. "Dismiss it."
River, unable to bear the pain anymore, reluctantly dismissed Shell-Woven Guard. The armor vanished in fragments of fading light, and the full extent of Glacial Veil's toll revealed itself. His skin—dark and warm with life—had gone pale with frostbite, limbs mottled with shades of gray-blue that shouldn't have been there. Thin veins of frost still crawled across his chest and arms, like the cold hadn't fully let go of him yet.
Nyx's eyes swept over River's battered form—taking in the frostbitten limbs, the sluggish pulse beneath his skin, the spider webbing veins of residual cold that still clung like scars carved from ice. Her expression didn't falter as a shimmer of light rippled in the air beside her as she summoned a Memory. It looked like a seedpod, smooth and rounded, with delicate filaments trailing from its surface. The strands pulsed with light as they drifted in the air, as if suspended in water.
Nyx held it in one hand, then pressed it against River's chest. The Memory responded, its fibers unfurling, curling slowly around his torso like gentle vines. And in the matter of seconds, warmth seeped into his body with quiet persistence like a warm mother's embrace.
As if stirred by the warmth, the frost began to pull back in slow, uneven waves. The color of his skin returned with it, and his limbs twitched in pain as the numbness disappeared.
"What is this?" River rasped, his voice still distorted by the cold.
She didn't respond. Just sat there in silence as the Memory's glow began to fade, its filaments dimming before she pulled it free and let it dissolve into scattered motes of light. The warmth from the Memory had done its job, leaving River with just enough life to keep moving.
'So much for a conversation…' River sarcastically thought, but couldn't complain all too much since she was healing him. 'I guess I'll just ask Iris later.'
Finally satisfied with the state of his body, she rose to her feet and spoke. "Get up."
With the frost finally relinquishing its grip, River pushed himself to his feet, his body aching with every movement. He rose slowly, a groan slipping from his throat as his muscles protested the effort.
"Thanks… I guess." he muttered, uneasy as the words slipped out of his mouth. While he was grateful for the help, something about thanking Iris's flaw for help felt wrong to him.
But he didn't have to dwell on it long as Nyx stilled, her eyes closing for a few brief moments before opening again. Iris blinked, her brow furrowed, like waking from a dream she didn't remember falling into. She looked down at her hands, then at River, before speaking. "You're… alive?"
River blinked, momentarily thrown. He opened his mouth, then closed it again before settling on, "I hope so?"
Her eyes narrowed a little—not in suspicion, just clarity sharpening as she took in the full sight of him. Her gaze dropped, trailing from his face to his shoulders, and then lower.
She tilted her head, her expression flattening into something between surprise and mild horror. "And… naked?"
River stiffened. His eyes dropped in sync with hers. His armor was still gone. Nothing left to cover him up. Just him. Completely exposed to her and the wind.
"…Shit," he muttered.
Iris didn't laugh. Not quite. But her voice dipped toward something that sounded like it might've wanted to be a laugh if the moment weren't so messed up. "Well," she said, flicking her eyes back to his face without quite making full eye contact, "It's good to see that you're still alive."
"Great," River groaned, as the faint flicker of lights sprang around him. "Survive a deadly slug pit just to die of embarrassment."
"If it makes you feel any better, it's nice to see you without all that armor." Iris teased as she tried to suppress a laugh with her hand.
With the armor finally reformed around him, River stared at the ground in defeat. "You're never gonna let this go, are you?"
"Nope." Iris said with a bright smile on her face.
Letting out a sigh, River stared at the sun getting close to setting below the horizon before trying to change the subject. "We should get going, we only have about an hour or so time left to get to the next cliff."
Iris followed his gaze. "Yeah, I don't want to be out of here for another second." She paused, then glanced sideways at him, a grin creeping back in. "Especially not with you flashing every passing Nightmare Creature."
River let out another, deeper sigh. "Let's just go…"
After retrieving the soul shard nestled in a tangle of half-frozen slugs, they turned northward without another word. The path was far from quiet—twice they were forced to put down roaming scavengers, and once against a strange centipede-like creature. Thankfully, they didn't run into another scavenger inhabited by slugs. And hopefully they never would again…
An hour passed like that, the light growing thinner with every step, until at last, they reached the edge of the cliff. And just as the sea began setting in, they made it to the top.
River came to an abrupt halt, eyes narrowing as his gaze caught on something ahead.
"... a house?"