White Gorge

As Brando headed toward Spiral Hall, an exhausted Knight Order was making its way through the Ice Forest, where crystalline light flickered. The forest lay silent beneath its coat of silver snow. Every branch growing from the snow-white trunks was as clear and fragile as glass; a light touch would make it crumble into powder with a crack.

Heavy footsteps approached from afar, their uneven rhythm betraying their owner's anxiety.

Then came the rustling sounds following close behind, like insects crawling beneath the grass. In truth, they were the soft footsteps of some four-legged beast.

"Those damn things!" The young knights of the Broken Sword Knight Order cursed through clenched teeth as they turned and drew their longswords.

The next moment, demons with white fur emerged from the darkness. They were snow-white wolves, their entire bodies covered in white fur save for a pair of icy eyes that glowed yellow-brown. The wolves crossed the thorny thicket and launched their attack from the bushes, from beneath the snow, and from every direction, growling low.

For an instant, time seemed to freeze: the winter wolves snarled on one side, and the knights roared on the other.

"Fifteen."

"Seven on this side."

The winter wolves' pouncing movements froze in the cold air. Then a long, bright blade pierced one through the throat and flashed back out. The white beast tumbled down beside the bushes.

The knights retreated one step in perfect unison, leaving a long row of corpses quietly leaking filthy black blood. Black smoke rose from the monsters' bodies before vanishing without a trace.

The pack rolled over the corpses of its own kind like a wall of snow. They stood shoulder to shoulder, their silver fur moving despite the windlessness. Along with their low growls, the Dark Magic in the forest