Short Drama | Full HD Series
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Short filmTranscript
00:00On the first day of school, the teachers handed out magical animals based on grades.
00:04Valedictorian and class president Victoria didn't even hesitate.
00:07She walked straight up and grabbed the SSS-tier white fox.
00:11I was dead last in the class rankings.
00:13I got assigned a single F-tier brown bear.
00:16Then the ice apocalypse hit.
00:17Because I'd bonded with the brown bear, I shared its innate ability.
00:20Cold resistance.
00:22Victoria's white fox never had the chance to grow.
00:24On day one of the apocalypse, it froze to death.
00:27That wasn't the worst part.
00:28Fueled by jealousy, Victoria rallied the others and jumped me.
00:31They killed my bear.
00:32Then they roasted steaks right in front of me, while they ate.
00:35I was so overwhelmed with grief and died.
00:38When I opened my eyes again, I was back.
00:40Back to the day they handed out magical animals.
00:43As the dead last student of the werewolf academy, I was always picked last.
00:46And sure enough, the only magical animal left was the brown bear.
00:50I was reaching for it when Victoria suddenly shouted from across the room.
00:54Wait!
00:54She sprinted over, clutching a small white fox kit.
00:57And shoved it into my arms without a word.
00:59Then she picked up the brown bear from its crate.
01:02You take the white fox.
01:04I want the brown bear.
01:05The entire classroom went silent.
01:08Even Mr. Harris, our homeroom teacher, frowned.
01:10Everyone knew the white fox had the purest bloodline of any familiar in this batch.
01:14Its ancient lineage concentration was 80%.
01:16The brown bear's was barely 20, and it was considered a low-tier species.
01:20Mr. Harris leaned forward.
01:23Victoria, choosing your bonded animal isn't something to joke about.
01:26This determines your ceiling for the rest of your life.
01:30Sir, Riley needs this white fox more than I do.
01:34My grades are strong.
01:35I can train fast no matter what magical animal I bond with.
01:39But Riley's talent for cultivation is average.
01:42If she's also stuck with a low-blood-blood brown bear, her future is basically over.
01:49The class erupted in applause.
01:51Mr. Harris nodded approvingly.
01:53You are kind.
01:55A pure and selfless heart will carry you further than any familiar ever could.
02:00Then he turned to me and frowned.
02:03Why are you just standing there, thank Victoria?
02:06I blinked.
02:07I held the white fox kit out toward her.
02:10It's fine.
02:11You don't have to swap.
02:12I actually kind of like the bear.
02:14Victoria pulled the brown bear closer to her chest.
02:17She looked at me the way someone looks when they've been wronged.
02:20You don't have to test me.
02:23I genuinely want to trade.
02:25I'm serious.
02:27Keep it.
02:29Before I could finish, something sharp bit down on the web of my right hand.
02:34I looked down.
02:35The white fox kit had bitten me.
02:38Then the fox pressed its tiny tongue against my skin and licked it clean.
02:42The fox had initiated a blood pact with me.
02:46So Riley wasn't being noble after all.
02:48She said she didn't want the white fox, but she went and blood-pasted it the second she got the
02:52chance.
02:52She was just scared Victoria would take it back.
02:54Never seen someone play both sides that hard before.
02:57After the blood pact locked in, the white fox went drowsy and fell asleep in my arms.
03:01I sat there, listening to the whispers and feeling my face go red.
03:05They didn't know the truth.
03:06I genuinely did not want this fox.
03:10Because I knew something none of them did.
03:11In two weeks, this beautiful, high-bloodline white fox was going to be completely useless.
03:19Well, almost none of them knew.
03:21Victoria knew too.
03:22The moment she gave up the white fox and fought me for the brown bear, I understood.
03:26She'd been reborn, just like me.
03:28I stared at the bear tucked against Victoria's chest.
03:31I'd been so close to it in my past life.
03:34We'd trusted each other completely.
03:36Now, Victoria had taken it.
03:38I could deal with losing the cold resistance.
03:40What I couldn't stand was thinking about whether the bear would be fed properly.
03:44Whether it would be treated well.
03:45I was staring at it when the bear slowly turned its head and met my eyes.
03:49Then it blinked.
03:51Once.
03:52Twice.
03:53Not once.
03:54Not three times.
03:55Twice.
03:56My chest lit up.
03:58Two blinks was a signal.
04:00A code we'd created together in our past life.
04:02The bear was using it now to tell me.
04:04It remembered.
04:06It had been reborn, too.
04:08I was still exchanging glances with the bear when something warm and soft wrapped around my fingertip.
04:13I looked down.
04:14My white fox had woken up.
04:16I'm not useless.
04:17The voice was haughty.
04:19Also, undeniably baby soft.
04:21And stop staring at that chunky little lowlife.
04:24I poked the fox gently.
04:26Are you talking?
04:27The white fox gave an imperious little sniff and rolled over in my arms.
04:31I thought about what to call it.
04:33White fox felt too generic.
04:35Little fox felt too soft.
04:36I was going to call it Your Highness.
04:39My name is Leo.
04:41It announced.
04:42You can call me Your Highnesses if you want.
04:44I flicked its forehead.
04:46Who taught you to be this dramatic?
04:49Up front, Mr. Harris was explaining how to draw binding circles on the board.
04:53Most bonds were initiated by humans, since magical animals were naturally proud creatures.
04:59Young kits were gentler than adults, but it was still extremely rare for a familiar to seek out a bond
05:05on its own.
05:05Everyone began attempting their bonds.
05:08Everyone, except me, since I'd already been forcibly claimed by a fox.
05:14Leo, I said quietly.
05:16Why did you bond with me?
05:17I didn't like that other girl.
05:20She smells.
05:21Smells?
05:23I kept my voice low.
05:25Victoria is literally the most popular girl in school.
05:28Half the guys here would say she smells amazing.
05:31Those guys are blind.
05:34Leo said flatly.
05:35Achoo!
05:36They can't see the rod underneath.
05:39And me?
05:40Leo buried its nose in my sleeve.
05:43Its voice came out slightly strangled.
05:45You're fine.
05:46You're kind of sweet.
05:48I started scratching under Leo's chin while the class droned on.
05:53White fox fur had a reputation, and it delivered.
05:57Impossibly soft, dense like a cloud.
06:00I scratched its ears, squeezed its belly, and eventually couldn't help reaching for its tail.
06:06They say you should never touch a fox's tail.
06:09But Leo was basically a kid, so the usual rules didn't apply.
06:13The moment my hands settled on the tail, Leo went completely rigid.
06:18Through the white fur, I could see its skin flush faintly pink.
06:22Stop it!
06:23What is wrong with you?
06:25It sounded exactly like someone who'd just been caught off guard, and was deeply, mortifyingly flustered.
06:31I pulled my hand back, keeping my expression neutral.
06:35Calm down.
06:36You've got a very active imagination.
06:38Leo's eyes welled up immediately.
06:40It snapped its head away and refused to look at me.
06:43Across the room, Victoria successfully completed her binding circle.
06:47A flash of pleasure crossed her face.
06:50She directed it toward the bear.
06:52The circle activated, spinning fast around the bear.
06:55Inside the light, the bear quietly reached out and made two small adjustments to the formation.
07:00The standard equal bond shifted, without a sound, into a master-servant bond.
07:07The bear was the master.
07:09Victoria was the servant.
07:10It was a technique we'd discovered together in a ruin, years ago in another life.
07:15The bear was now using it to put a leash on Victoria.
07:19The bear caught my eye across the room, satisfied, proud of itself.
07:24Under the table, I gave it a thumbs up.
07:27You are so manipulative, Leo muttered into my ribs.
07:31I was pinching its soft, borderline boneless little cheek.
07:35Me?
07:36How?
07:37You touched my tail and then stared at that chunky lowlife for five whole minutes.
07:43You were making eyes at it.
07:45Leo's voice was escalating toward genuine grievance.
07:48I added another item to my mental description of it.
07:51Prone to completely unhinged jealousy.
07:54After class ended, Mr. Harris handed out cultivation supplies.
07:59One week's worth per student.
08:01I kept a single mana crystal for myself.
08:04I fed everything else to Leo.
08:07Nineteen crystals.
08:08Leo crunched through them like chips.
08:11We hadn't even left the classroom.
08:13The class watched in disbelief.
08:15Is she serious?
08:17That's a week's worth of cultivation resources, and she just fed all of it to the fox?
08:21Did she even listen in class?
08:22Magic animals have slow growth cycles.
08:25You're not supposed to rush them.
08:26The mana crystals are supposed to be for her own cultivation.
08:29The white fox bonded with her for nothing.
08:31Some students should note, mana crystal applications are limited.
08:37The school won't give you more if you waste them.
08:39He was clearly talking about me.
08:41I smiled pleasantly.
08:43Understood, sir.
08:43Honestly, in my past life, I'd always been generous with the bear.
08:47Most students kept a 4 to 1 ratio for themselves.
08:51I split everything 50-50.
08:52Equals deserved equal shares.
08:54But this?
08:55Nineteen for Leo.
08:57One for me.
08:58This was something else entirely.
09:00It wasn't generosity.
09:02It was self-preservation.
09:04Because Leo and I had a blood pact.
09:06A standard equal bond meant one partner's death didn't affect the other.
09:09A blood pact was different.
09:10If Leo froze to death on day one of the apocalypse, the same way the white fox died in my
09:14past life, I died too.
09:16Leo's survival wasn't kindness.
09:18It was my only chance to live.
09:20The mana crystals were an investment in not dying.
09:23After class, students scattered to train on their own.
09:26I carried Leo toward the exit, and Victoria stepped half in front of me.
09:30I know you've been reborn too, she said.
09:33This time, the cold resistance belongs to me.
09:37Then I hope you enjoy it.
09:39You and your useless little fox can look forward to freezing on day one.
09:43I gave you a chance to be useful to me.
09:45You threw it away.
09:46Leo peeled open one eye from inside my arms, completely unimpressed.
09:54Victoria's composure shattered instantly.
09:56She stumbled backward.
10:00What is wrong with you?
10:01Get that disgusting thing away from me!
10:03I turned and walked away, barely holding in a laugh.
10:06The mana crystal problem was serious, though.
10:08I needed a massive supply, and I needed it fast.
10:11I was thinking about it, absently pulling at Leo's fur, when I remembered.
10:15Before the ice apocalypse hit in my past life, a news outlet had exposed a small mana vein.
10:21Based on timing, nobody should have found it yet.
10:25When I reached the rough coordinates I'd memorized, Victoria was already there.
10:32She'd brought twenty-plus workers, and they were already mine in the vein.
10:36I stood at the outer edge and watched them haul out crystal after crystal.
10:41Leo pressed its nose to the window.
10:44I covered Leo's eyes.
10:45Low-quality crystals here.
10:47Let's go find something better.
10:49Then, from somewhere inside my head, a voice crackled to life.
10:53I stopped walking.
10:55Sis, is that you?
10:57You can do telepathy now.
10:59Well, Victoria spent serious resources on me.
11:02I can project thoughts directly.
11:05Sis, take Leo and find somewhere to rest.
11:08Once they're done mining and clear out, I'll call you back.
11:12I finished the mental exchange and came back to the present moment.
11:15A very large, very imperious fox face was approximately two inches from my nose.
11:22Leo had both front paws planted on my shoulders.
11:26What were you doing just now?
11:28You were mentally cheating on me.
11:30I grabbed it by the scruff and I squeezed one soft cheek by way of reprimand.
11:35Leo, watch your voculary.
11:37I'm not wrong.
11:39I can smother bear on your thorns.
11:41Was that the chunky low knife?
11:43I raised an eyebrow.
11:44Sharp nose.
11:45For your information, Leo continued voice climbing.
11:48When a white fox makes a blood pact with someone, that person is their bonded maid.
11:52For life.
11:53You can't have secret meetings with a brown bear.
11:57Yeah, you're a child.
11:59Do you even know what to partner means?
12:01Leo's eyes immediately filled with tears that refused to actually fall.
12:04It waved its tiny paws in what appeared to be an angry, thrashing, swimming motion.
12:08I leaned forward and stuck my tongue out at it.
12:11A small, damp nose pressed against my cheek.
12:14Before I could react, the culprit had already retreated.
12:17Voice very small.
12:19I kissed you.
12:20That means you're mine now.
12:22Nobody else is allowed to kiss you there.
12:24Leo had just made a move on me.
12:25A very small, very smug, very baby-toothed move.
12:29I pulled myself together and went to find somewhere to wait.
12:32I reclined in the car with the air conditioning running, watching a nature documentary on the
12:37center screen.
12:37The documentary put me to sleep almost immediately.
12:41When I woke up, it was dark.
12:45Right on cue, the bear's voice appeared in my head.
12:48Sis, come now.
12:50They're gone.
12:51Leo was staring up at me, suspicious and accusatory.
12:55My conscience flickered.
12:56This was exactly the energy of someone who'd just been caught.
13:00We were just talking.
13:01I'm not listening.
13:02I'm not talking to you for the rest of the day.
13:05Just as the bear had said, the area was empty.
13:08All that remained was a concealment formation to hide the vein's location.
13:12The bear deactivated it from inside and poked its head out.
13:16Sis, over here.
13:17It had grown enough to speak clearly.
13:19The white fox in my arms took one look at the bear and immediately bared its teeth.
13:24Leo's going through a phase.
13:27The bear took the lead.
13:28That thing is a fake, nice snake in the grass.
13:32Get your hand off me.
13:33I'm going to bite it.
13:34I am biting it today.
13:36Riley, don't hold me back.
13:38It went on like that for a while.
13:40I didn't address it.
13:42I looked at the bear.
13:43Its aura drifted quietly around it, steady and calm.
13:47I released Leo and let it jump to the ground.
13:50Leo hit the dirt, spun around, and stared at me.
13:52Its expression said it had not expected me to actually let go.
13:56It shuffled forward at approximately the speed of a very indignant caterpillar.
14:00Every few steps, it looked back at me.
14:03On its fourth look back, it hesitated.
14:06You're not stopping me?
14:08What if your little buddy gets actually hurt?
14:11I glanced at the bear's aura.
14:14After absorbing a solid hall of mana crystals, it was running at easily 50 times Leo's current output.
14:20Whether Leo would be the one doing the herding was very much an overpriced joke.
14:25It's fine.
14:26Show me what you've got.
14:28If you win, you'll have my full and undivided attention forever.
14:33Leo glanced at the bear, felt the weight of that aura, thought about it very carefully.
14:39Slowly, reluctantly, it walked back and sat down next to my feet.
14:43Fine.
14:44You showed good remorse this time.
14:46I'll let the secret meeting go.
14:49But don't let it happen again.
14:51Inside the vein, the bear had divided the crystal stockpile into three piles.
14:56One very small pile for itself, a medium small pile, and a pile roughly the size of a small hill.
15:03Leo's eyes went green, literally luminous.
15:06This is all I need, sis.
15:08A voice in my head.
15:09Okay, that chunky thing is definitely not in two.
15:13Sis, this one's for your cultivation.
15:16And that one's for my little sibling.
15:18The bear pointed to the medium pile and the mountain.
15:21Riley, it does not have feelings for you.
15:23I have been worried for nothing.
15:25Run everything through the romance filter, don't you?
15:28I do not.
15:29I flicked Leo on the forehead.
15:31I said simply, mana crystals.
15:33Leo went quiet and well-behaved immediately.
15:36If we take all of this, won't Victoria figure out it was you?
15:41She does everything I say right now.
15:44Full compliance.
15:46Victoria stared at the hollowed-out vein with all the color drained from her face.
15:50You used all of it?
15:52You used every single crystal?
15:54The bear sat on its haunches, eyes wide and guileless.
15:57Under the rules of its master-servant bond, it only had to give basic responses.
16:01The truth was not required.
16:03I don't know.
16:04I was asleep all night.
16:05Maybe the vein just ran dry on its own?
16:08Victoria shook with rage.
16:09She brought her entire crew back and tore the cave apart.
16:13Not a single crystal shard remained.
16:16She stared at the bear for a long time.
16:18Something felt wrong.
16:19She could tell.
16:20But the bond formation read completely normal.
16:22The bear's cultivation aura showed no irregularity.
16:25She had no choice but to swallow it.
16:27Useless, she snapped.
16:29I just left you for a moment, and you couldn't even hold off a bunch of stones.
16:33The bear let its ears droop.
16:35Internally, it was ecstatic.
16:37It sent a message to me.
16:38Sis, she tried to hit me just now.
16:41The bonds punished her for it.
16:43Hidden in the brush nearby, I pressed my face into Leo's fur to muffle my laughter.
16:49Good.
16:49She tried to steal from us.
16:50The traitor earned it.
16:51I tugged one of its ears.
16:53Don't call the bear that.
16:54It's our teammate.
16:56It looked away, but its tail quietly curled around my wrist, warm and soft and completely
17:02involuntary.
17:03Once Victoria and her crew were gone, we slipped into the cave.
17:06The bear had already bundled the crystal stockpile with vines.
17:09Multiple bundles.
17:11Organized and ready.
17:12Sis, these should keep the little one fed for a while.
17:16Leo's eyes locked on the pile and did not move, and started crunching.
17:20The sound echoed through the cave like someone eating gravel.
17:23We loaded the crystals into the car.
17:25They filled most of the trunk.
17:26The bear couldn't come with us.
17:28It had to stay and keep up the performance.
17:30Before we left, it said,
17:31Sis, the apocalypse is ten days out.
17:33Stock up on supplies.
17:35Be careful.
17:36Don't let her spot the cracks in your act.
17:40The bear grinned in its easy, unbothered way.
17:43She does whatever I tell her.
17:44We're fine.
17:45We drove back.
17:46Leo sat in the passenger seat with a crystal in both paws, crunching contented
17:50gently, like a squirrel that had found an entire winter's worth of food in one afternoon.
17:57Watching it, I thought about the bear in my past life, always saving the best of everything
18:02for me.
18:03The shape of that care was different now, but the feeling was the same.
18:07Back in the city, I skipped my apartment and went straight to the largest supermarket
18:11I've ever had.
18:11I loaded two carts with everything useful.
18:14Compressed ration bars, canned goods, bottled water, instant food.
18:21Leo wrote in the cart, pointing,
18:23More of those chocolate ones.
18:24And the meat jerky.
18:25The spiced kind.
18:27I loaded both.
18:28The store staff watched me with visible unease.
18:30I didn't slow down.
18:32In ten days, none of this would matter to them anyway.
18:34Beyond food and water, I grabbed thermal underlayers, sleeping bags, flashlights, batteries,
18:40lighters, a few sharp kitchen knives, a hand axe.
18:43Anything with practical value in sustained sub-zero conditions.
18:47Two full cart.
18:48I drove home to my apartment and spent an hour hauling everything upstairs.
18:51The living room, the bedroom, the balcony.
18:54All of it stacked floor to ceiling.
18:56Leo sprawled across a pile of chocolate bars.
18:58Its tail swayed slowly.
18:59I collapsed onto the couch, completely winded.
19:05Not bad.
19:06You actually know how to shop.
19:09These are retinif only.
19:11Our survival supplies.
19:13The next several days, I took Leo to different locations every day and kept stocking up.
19:18The pharmacy.
19:19Cold medicine.
19:20Fever reducers.
19:21Antibiotics.
19:22Bandages.
19:23Antiseptic.
19:23The outdoor supply store.
19:25A tent.
19:26Climbing rope.
19:27Anti-slip boots.
19:28A hardware store for gas canisters and basic tools.
19:31My apartment ran out of space.
19:33I rented the unit next door and the one upstairs.
19:37Both became storage.
19:38Victoria texted a few times, cheerful and fake, asking how I was doing.
19:43Casually mentioning that her brown bear had broken through to tier two.
19:47I sent her three-word replies.
19:49I already knew.
19:51I already knew.
19:51Everything the bear showed her was deliberate.
19:54Every breakthrough was calculated theater, designed to keep her compliant.
19:58Leo's growth was outpacing everything I'd projected.
20:02It ate crystals, slept, and woke up noticeably larger each time.
20:06It had started out the size of a kitten.
20:09Now it was halfway to the size of a medium dog.
20:12Its fur had deepened to a white so pure it was almost blinding.
20:16And its eyes had shifted from pale to a vivid, saturated crimson.
20:21The kind of beauty that made it hard to look away.
20:24Its cultivation aura was also deepening fast.
20:27Something close to tier three was stirring at the edges.
20:30I was combing through Leo's fur when it went still.
20:34Something's happening.
20:37In my bloodline.
20:38There's pressure building.
20:40My pulse jumped.
20:42The white fox in my past life had never awakened any ability at all.
20:47It died before it had the chance.
20:49Was this what happened when you gave a white fox proper resources and a blood pact?
20:53An early awakening?
20:55Don't force it, I said quietly.
20:58Let it come on its own.
21:00Leo closed its eyes.
21:01A soft, white light kindled across its fur.
21:04The mana crystals around it began losing their glow.
21:07All that energy pouring steadily into Leo's body.
21:11A small spiral of concentrated mana formed around it, rotating slowly.
21:17Its fur stood up along its spine.
21:19Its tail filled out further.
21:21The individual hairs catching the light like fiber optic threads.
21:25An hour passed.
21:26The light faded.
21:28Leo opened its eyes, and there was something new in them.
21:31I awakened.
21:33What did you get?
21:34Leo tilted its chin up, tail flicking with casual superiority.
21:38A small, perfectly formed spike of ice materialized from empty air and dropped to the floor with a clean, crystalline
21:46tap.
21:47Ice manipulation and void storage.
21:50I stared.
21:51Ice manipulation.
21:53Ice manipulation.
21:54In an ice apocalypse, an ice affinity ability wasn't just useful.
21:58It was like being native to the environment everyone else was trying to survive.
22:02And void storage.
22:04One of the rarest abilities in existence.
22:06In my past life, people with spatial abilities could name their price at any base.
22:12Every faction wanted them.
22:15Leo, I said, and pulled it into a hug.
22:18I kissed the top of its head without thinking.
22:20Leo's ears went crimson.
22:22Its entire body locked up for half a second.
22:25Then it twisted away, deeply offended.
22:28Stop doing that.
22:31Its tail, however, had already wrapped around my wrist again.
22:34The same involuntary habit.
22:37I smiled and squeezed its cheek.
22:39My little highness is absolutely terrifying.
22:43We're going to be fine out there.
22:45Leo made a dismissive sound and climbed back into my lap to resume eating crystals.
22:50Three days out from the apocalypse, the temperature had already started dropping.
22:54Daytime lows were hitting negative 15.
22:58People on the street moved fast, buried in their puffer coats.
23:02News coverage was starting to pick up on the anomalous cold snaps.
23:06Experts offered competing theories.
23:09Extreme weather pattern.
23:10Greenhouse rebound effect.
23:12Nobody said what was actually happening.
23:15Nobody saw what was coming.
23:17Victoria called.
23:19She sounded casual and then deliberately didn't.
23:22Riley.
23:22My bear just hit tier 3 peak.
23:25Almost to tier 4.
23:26I'll be able to take care of myself once things get rough.
23:29A pause.
23:30Pointed.
23:31How about you?
23:32Has your little fox even hit tier 1 yet?
23:36It's fine.
23:37Tier 3.
23:38Roughly.
23:40Silence on the other end.
23:42Then a short, dismissive laugh.
23:44Riley.
23:44You don't have to make things up.
23:46White fox maturation timelines are long.
23:49There's no world where it's already tier 3.
23:51Another pause.
23:53Look.
23:54If things get too hard, you can come to me.
23:56You can work for me.
23:58I'll keep you alive.
23:59I hung up.
24:00Leo was lying next to me.
24:02Expression flat.
24:04She thinks tier 3 peak is impressive.
24:07It said.
24:07When I hit tier 4, I could end her or one.
24:11I scratched behind its ear.
24:13Don't get careless.
24:15Victoria is reckless, but her family has real reach.
24:17When the apocalypse hits, she'll have numbers.
24:20We play it smart.
24:22Leo pressed its nose down onto its paws, still eating crystals.
24:26Those last 3 days, I didn't go out.
24:29I stayed home with Leo, and we trained together.
24:31Leo had already gotten a solid handle on his void storage.
24:34The space inside wasn't enormous, roughly the size of a basketball court, but more than
24:40sufficient for supplies.
24:41We loaded the majority of what I'd stockpiled into the void.
24:44My own cultivation was moving faster than I'd expected.
24:48The blood pack shared mana flow between us, and with the crystals on top of that, I'd
24:52pushed to tier 2 mid-level.
24:54Not close to Leo or the bear, but solidly mid-range for a human practitioner.
24:59The night before the apocalypse, the temperature had already dropped to negative 30.
25:04Outside, the snow came in heavy, diagonal sheets, and the wind sounded like something screaming.
25:10I stood at the window and looked at the city disappearing under white.
25:13In my past life, I had been so afraid, so completely alone.
25:18This time, I had the bear, and I had Leo.
25:21That was enough.
25:23Leo came and pressed against my leg.
25:25Its head reached my hip now.
25:27Stop stressing.
25:28It said.
25:29I'm here.
25:31Nobody touches you.
25:32I crouched down and pulled it close.
25:34I know.
25:35We're going to make it.
25:36The bear checked in through telepathy.
25:38Sis, Victoria, and her people have retreated to her family's underground facility.
25:43Good supplies.
25:44Good infrastructure.
25:45I've already made some adjustments down there.
25:48We'll figure out what that means once the apocalypse hits.
25:51Good work.
25:52Stay safe.
25:53I didn't sleep.
25:54When morning came, the world outside had ended.
25:57Negative 50 degrees.
25:59The window panes had cracked from the cold.
26:01Ice flowers blooming across the glass.
26:03Outside, cars had frozen into sculptures.
26:06People who had been caught in the streets were down and still.
26:09The power grid was gone.
26:10Communication networks were gone.
26:12The city was silent.
26:13The ice apocalypse had arrived.
26:15I layered on everything I had, pulled on my hat and gloves, held Leo against my chest,
26:20and walked out of the apartment.
26:21The wind hit my face like something solid.
26:23A burning cold that cut through even the layers.
26:26But Leo and I both had cultivation auras as a buffer.
26:29Leo's ice manipulation shaved off another layer of the cold on top of that.
26:33We could bear it.
26:34The streets were a wreck.
26:35Abandoned vehicles everywhere.
26:37Frozen bodies half buried in the drifts.
26:39Mutant beasts prowled the snow between the cars, eyes sharp and predatory, tracking us as we passed.
26:45The apocalypse had done something to the wildlife.
26:48The extreme cold triggered genetic shifts, and what came out the other side was faster, meaner, and far more adapted
26:55to the temperature than anything that had existed before.
26:57Leo dropped out of my arms.
26:59Its body expanded in one smooth motion, doubling in size.
27:03The white fur settled, dense and wind-resistant.
27:06Its eyes locked onto the nearest creature with the calm of something that had already decided the outcome.
27:11You're looking at my person.
27:13Bad call.
27:14Its tail swept sideways.
27:16Six ice spikes launched simultaneously.
27:19They punched through the throats of the closest mutants before any of them could react.
27:23The bodies dropped and were still.
27:24Completely ridiculous, completely dramatic, completely reliable.
27:28We moved toward the city center.
27:29That was where the survivor base was.
27:31In my past life, the government had organized several large-scale shelters in the weeks after the apocalypse hit.
27:37The central base was the biggest and the safest.
27:40Two hours on foot.
27:41Then the base appeared through the blizzard.
27:43A ring of steel walls rising over ten meters.
27:47Soldiers posted on the upper walkways with rifles, scanning the perimeter.
27:51A crowd of survivors was already queued at the gate.
27:54We joined the line.
27:55The couple ahead of us had a baby pressed to the woman's chest.
27:58The baby was crying.
28:00The woman's face was hollow.
28:01The man looked like he hadn't slept in days.
28:04The woman said to the soldier at the checkpoint,
28:06She hasn't eaten in three days.
28:08The soldier's expression didn't move.
28:10Entry requires a resource payment.
28:12Ten pounds of food, five bottles of water, or one warm garment.
28:17No exceptions.
28:18The man's voice cracked.
28:20Everything we had was taken by a mutant pack.
28:23We have nothing left.
28:26Please.
28:27Policy is policy.
28:29The woman started crying.
28:30The baby was laughing.
28:32I'd been there before.
28:33I knew what it felt like when every door was shut and there was nothing left to bargain with.
28:38I reached into my pack and pulled out two cans and a water bottle.
28:42I held them out to the couple.
28:43Use these for your entry fee.
28:46They turned around.
28:47The woman looked at me.
28:48You're a good person.
28:50You're a good...
28:51I smiled and didn't say anything.
28:53Leo made an irritated noise beside me.
28:55You're going to keep doing this, aren't you?
28:58Helping complete strangers.
29:00We might need a stranger's help someday too.
29:02Leo said nothing more.
29:04But it didn't argue.
29:06When we reached the checkpoint, the soldier looked at Leo and went wary.
29:10Handed over five pounds of rations.
29:13Is that enough?
29:14The soldier checked it.
29:15Nodded.
29:16You can go in.
29:17We were almost through the gate when a familiar voice called from behind us.
29:22Riley!
29:23I turned.
29:24Victoria was pushing through the crowd, surrounded by a cluster of people, with the brown bear
29:29walking calmly at her side.
29:30She was wearing an expensive puffer coat, her face perfectly composed and confident.
29:35Her group had weapons.
29:36I didn't expect you to make it this far.
29:38She looked me over with a slow, deliberate appraisal.
29:41I guess that fox of yours isn't completely decorative.
29:44Leo's fur went alexig.
29:46Its body expanded, hackles lifting, lips pulling back.
29:49Say that again.
29:50Victoria took a step back without meaning to, then collected herself and shifted behind
29:55the bear.
29:55The bear stepped forward and positioned itself between them.
29:58It glanced at me.
29:59Its expression said, I know.
30:01I tried to stop her.
30:03She wouldn't listen.
30:04I looked back at it and gave a small signal.
30:06Not now.
30:07Too many people.
30:08What happens to us in there has nothing to do with you.
30:10I said, and pulled Leo toward the gate.
30:13Hold on.
30:14Victoria's voice sharpened.
30:15Riley, you think a tier 3 fox is enough to hold any ground in there?
30:19This base runs on strength.
30:21My bear is tier 4.
30:22That makes me the top of the food chain here.
30:24You have two options.
30:25Fall in line and work under me, or I make sure you can't move in this base without running
30:29into a wall.
30:30The crowd around the gate had started paying attention.
30:32Tier 4 was rare in the early apocalypse.
30:34People recognized what that meant.
30:36I let the moment sit for exactly one breath.
30:39Then, I looked at Leo.
30:41Leo understood without being told.
30:43Its cultivation aura detonated outward.
30:45Tier 4 pressure rolled across the gate plaza like a physical force.
30:49The snowflake still drifting in the air simply stopped moving.
30:53The cold deepened noticeably.
30:55Several people stumbled back.
30:57Victoria's face lost its color.
30:59That's...
31:00That's not possible.
31:01How is your fox already tier 4?
31:03Leo tilted its chin up to a frankly insufferable angle.
31:07You assumed your bear was the ceiling, embarrassing the stake.
31:11The bear chose that moment to release its own tier 4 aura alongside Leo's.
31:16Two tier 4 signatures layered together.
31:18The crowd scattered back from the gate, half of them barely staying upright.
31:22Victoria stood there, mouth open, staring between Leo and the bear.
31:27The bear, which was supposed to be hers, aligned with the girl she'd been trying to humiliate.
31:32She tried to form words, couldn't find them.
31:35I walked through the gate with Leo and the bear on either side of me,
31:38and left Victoria and her group at the entrance with whatever was left of the impression she'd tried to make.
31:43Inside, we were brought to a registration desk.
31:46Name, cultivation tier, magical animal.
31:48The soldier processing our forms looked at Leo's tier 4 listing,
31:52then at the bear's, and spent a long moment saying nothing.
31:55Then the professionalism kicked back in, somewhat overcorrected.
31:59Ms. Riley, with two tier 4 familities, you qualify for our highest tier accommodations.
32:03We'd like to offer you a room in the VIP wing.
32:05Independent room, heating system, full resource allocation.
32:08That works. Can I get an additional room for my companion?
32:11Of course. Absolutely. Right away.
32:13The soldier escorted us to the VIP wing.
32:16It was its own building, near the center of the base.
32:18Inside, functioning radiators, hot water, a private bathroom, a small kitchen, a sitting area.
32:24The soldier handed me a keycard and stepped back with the careful deference usually reserved for people who could level
32:30buildings.
32:30I opened my room and started pulling supplies out of Leo's void storage.
32:34Organized the space, stacked what we needed.
32:36Leo jumped onto the couch and stretched its full length, tail hanging off the edge.
32:41Finally, that walk was miserable.
32:44The bear appeared in the doorway, eyes warm.
32:46The Toya and her group got assigned to general housing.
32:50Leave her alone. Let's rest and get our bearings.
32:52Over the following days, we mapped the base.
32:55Around 5,000 survivors.
32:57The majority were civilians with no cultivation ability and no magical animal.
33:01A small fraction had some level of training and bonded mates.
33:04The base ran a strict allocation system.
33:07Resources distributed by contribution level and cultivation tier.
33:10Victoria established herself quickly.
33:12The tier 4 bear was enough to pull in followers.
33:15And she assembled a decent sized crew within the first week.
33:18She used them to push people around.
33:19The kind of entitlement that survives context changes because it was never really about context.
33:25One afternoon in the base cafeteria, she walked in with her group and found us eating.
33:29You have some nerve.
33:31These rations are for people who actually contribute.
33:33Not passengers who coast on the strength of their magic animal.
33:36Leo set down its jerky strip.
33:37Its eyes went flat.
33:39Repeat that.
33:39Victoria was visibly unnerved, but committed.
33:42I called you a passenger.
33:44Your fox got lucky hitting tier 4.
33:45That doesn't make you anything special.
33:47I set my chopsticks down, stood up, and said,
33:49Then let's settle it.
33:50If you win, I don't set foot in this cafeteria again.
33:53If I win, you leave the base and stop terrorizing everyone in it.
33:58Victoria's expression lit up.
34:00She'd wanted this for days.
34:02Deal!
34:03Don't cry when you lose.
34:04People crowded in from three directions.
34:07We moved to the training yard.
34:08Victoria summoned the bear in front of me.
34:10Your arms crossed, smiling.
34:12You go first.
34:13I'll be generous.
34:14I looked at Leo.
34:16Show her, little highness.
34:17Leo expanded to full size.
34:19The tier 4 aura hit the yard and dropped weight.
34:23It launched itself at the jaw of the bear.
34:25The bear, rawr, and met it head on.
34:28Ice spikes against bear claws.
34:30The impact sounds concussive.
34:33The training yard floor, spider webbing, cracks from the force.
34:37But Victoria's bear had no real combat death.
34:40Leo did.
34:41And beyond experience, Leo's ice affinity directly countered the bear's early fight.
34:47Crossed against terror.
34:49Leo controlled the pace of the entire fight from the first exchange.
34:53Victoria screamed from the sidelines.
34:56Hit harder!
34:57Kill it!
34:58The bear tried.
34:59It was already falling back.
35:02Leo moved faster than it could track.
35:04The ice in the air responding to Leo like an extension of its own body.
35:08One massive tail strike caught the bear square and launched it across the wall.
35:13It landed hot.
35:14With blood in the snow, it didn't get back up.
35:18Leo landed, turned, and looked at Victoria with no expression.
35:22Anything else?
35:23Victoria stared at the bear on the ground.
35:26Her composure had completely disintegrated.
35:29It's possible!
35:30My bear can't lose!
35:32I walked up to her.
35:34You made a bet.
35:35Honor it.
35:36Take your people and go.
35:38Victoria looked at the crowd around her, at every face watching, at every person she'd pushed around for the past
35:45week.
35:46Her expression went through several colors.
35:49Then, she grabbed the injured bear and walked.
35:52The base watched her leave.
35:53That night, the bear came back on its own.
35:56It stopped at the edge of our shelter and looked at me.
35:59Victoria hadn't wanted it.
36:01She'd only ever wanted to win.
36:03I let it.
36:04With Victoria gone, things settled quickly.
36:06Our position in the base became something people organized around instead of something they resented.
36:11Survivors approached us.
36:13A lot of them.
36:14I didn't take everyone.
36:15I looked for people with usable skills and genuine character.
36:19Eventually, we had a small, functional team.
36:21We ran daily operations.
36:23Resource runs outside the walls.
36:25Mutant beast hunts.
36:26Leo's ice control and void storage were decisive in both.
36:29The bear handled direct engagement.
36:31I coordinated and covered flanks.
36:33The team filled in around us and learned fast.
36:36Mutant beasts had energy cores in their bodies.
36:39Dense, crystallized power.
36:41Both the cultivation resource and the base's functional currency.
36:44We found supply caches that others missed.
36:47Brought back more cores than any other team.
36:50Leo's tier kept climbing.
36:51Tier 5 came quickly.
36:53Its ice domain expanded.
36:54Able to suppress an entire zone.
36:57Slowing enemy movement to attack ships inside the base.
37:00The void storage grew larger.
37:02The bear made tier 5 too.
37:04My own cultivation reached tier 4 mid-level.
37:07Then, the temperature dropped again.
37:09Negative 8.
37:10More levels.
37:11Stronger levels.
37:12Reports from other bases.
37:13Some had been overrun.
37:14Others had collapsed from starvation.
37:16The pressure on our base was building.
37:19The mutant waves at the wall were being harder.
37:21And the other pieces.
37:22Our team became the base's first line of defense.
37:25During one of the large-scale defense operations, something came out of the storm that stopped everyone.
37:30A tier 6 mutant snowboard.
37:34Massive.
37:34White fur and yellow eyes.
37:37Perfectly casted the storm.
37:39In a way that suggested the cold is no longer its environment.
37:42It's element.
37:43It hit the outer wall at speed.
37:45And punched straight through the defense line.
37:48Soldiers scattered.
37:49The walkway section nearest the bridge was cleared in seconds.
37:53This is bad.
37:54My stomach dropped.
37:56A tier 6 in the wall of the mask was something we hadn't planned for.
38:00Leo and the bear exchanged one look.
38:02Both moved at the same time.
38:04Leo drove ice spikes into the wolf's path and froze its legs to the ground.
38:08The bear closed the gap and brought both forefights down hard.
38:12The wolf broke the ice restraints faster than either of them had anticipated.
38:16Lunged sideways and locked his jaws on the bear's shoulder.
38:20The bear's blood hit the snow.
38:23Bear!
38:23My voice came out louder than I meant it to.
38:25Leo saw the blood and something shifted.
38:28The temperature around it dropped independently of the ambient cold.
38:32It called up a full ice sword.
38:34The biggest construct I'd seen it produce.
38:36It brought it down directly after the wolf.
38:39The wolf released the bear and came up to move the sword head away.
38:42A defensive blood flaring white around its body.
38:45The collision detonated.
38:47The shockwave threw every soldier within 20 meters off their feet.
38:51The wolf had taken a serious wound.
38:54Deep enough that blood was running steadily into the snow.
38:57But it was still moving.
38:58And now, it was furious.
39:00It wheeled and drove at Leo.
39:03I made the call.
39:04Letting this drag on wasn't an option.
39:06Every additional exchange cost us.
39:08I reached into my pack.
39:10Pulled out the hand axe.
39:11I ran my cultivation through my arms until I could feel it pushing at my joint.
39:15And I threw the axe directly at the wolf's left eye.
39:19It hadn't expected a human to engage at that point.
39:22It turned too late.
39:23The axe connected.
39:24The wolf screamed.
39:25A sound that rolled across the base walls and thrashed its head violently.
39:30Leo took the opening.
39:32Ice sword straight down and clean.
39:34The wolf's body settled into the snow and went still.
39:37We stood there for a moment, breathing.
39:39The bear's shoulder wound was deep.
39:41I had the antiseptic and bandages out before anyone else moved.
39:45Leo was on the ground.
39:46Sides heaving.
39:47Cultivation reserves nearly empty.
39:50Sists?
39:50Leo said, lifting its head toward the wolf's remains.
39:53That core is going to be something.
39:56I extracted it.
39:57It was the size of a closed fist.
39:59Tier 6.
40:00Enough concentrated energy inside to push Leo's cultivation to a level we hadn't projected for months.
40:06Back at the base gate, the facility director was waiting to receive us personally.
40:11Without us, the wolf would have been through the walls and into the civilian sectors.
40:14Leo spent the next several days absorbing the tier 6 core.
40:17Tier 6 came steadily, and with it, Leo's isomane became something else entirely.
40:22Inside the field, it could now project.
40:24Every enemy was running at a fraction of normal capacity.
40:27Movement slowed.
40:29Attack force dropped sharply.
40:30The cold inside the field was a different kind of cold from the ambient apocalypse temperature.
40:35It had intent behind it.
40:37The bear's wound closed, and its cultivation pushed to tier 6 as well.
40:41Its defensive strength reached a point where smaller mutants couldn't break through even without active effort.
40:45My own cultivation crossed into tier 4 peak during that same stretch.
40:49Not comparable to either of them, but functional enough to contribute real value in a fight.
40:54We were the strongest team in the base.
40:56People came looking for us constantly.
40:58I kept filtering.
40:59The ones I added were worth adding.
41:01The mutant incursions kept escalating.
41:04Tier 6 became the new baseline outside the walls instead of the exception.
41:07Other survivor bases sent messages when they still could, and those messages grew more desperate.
41:12Some stopped coming altogether.
41:14We started ranging further out on our supply runs, into the deeper city where higher tier mutants had settled,
41:18and where the ruins held things worth finding.
41:21That was how we found the ancient ruin.
41:23The structure shouldn't have been there.
41:25It predated everything around it by what felt like centuries.
41:28The architecture didn't match anything currently in use.
41:31The interior was layered with old formation arrays, pressure-sensitive trap zones,
41:35and guardian beasts that hadn't been active in a long time, but had woken up when we came in.
41:40We moved carefully.
41:42Some of the traps caught us anyway.
41:44The guardians were tough.
41:45A different kind of tough from the mutants outside.
41:47Older, more deliberate.
41:49Less wild.
41:50We took losses in terms of supplies and time, and a few team members needed serious recovery afterward.
41:56But we came out the other side.
41:57Deep in the ruin, past the densest section of guardian formations, we found two things.
42:03A cultivation manual.
42:04Ice system.
42:05High grade.
42:06Title?
42:07Frost God Codex.
42:08And a sword.
42:10Ice forged.
42:11Single-edged.
42:11The blade holding a sustained cold that made the air around it visible.
42:15Bound to an ice practitioner.
42:16Both were meant for Leo.
42:18After Leo absorbed the Frost God Codex and bonded the ice sword, its cultivation moved faster than I could track.
42:25Tier 7 came within days.
42:27Its ice manipulation had crossed from skilled into something that felt more like fluency with a fundamental force.
42:33It could project a full glacier construct now.
42:36Hold it.
42:36Shape it.
42:37Move it.
42:38In combat, it summoned a faint reflection of something vast and cold above itself.
42:42A presence that made enemies hesitate before they understood why.
42:46The bear found a high-grade Earth system manual in the same chamber.
42:49Earth Warden Codex.
42:51Tier 7 followed shortly after.
42:53Its defensive capability became nearly absolute at close range.
42:57The ground responded to it in ways that were useful in ways we were still discovering.
43:01My own cultivation, drawing on the dense ambient energy inside the ruin, broke through to Tier 5 mid-level.
43:07We left the ruin carrying more than we'd expected to find, and returned to the base to prepare for the
43:12next phase.
43:13Because we had decided.
43:15We were done staying in one place.
43:17Before we left, we distributed the base's stored supplies to the civilians.
43:21The ones who couldn't fight, who had no familiar, who had survived this far by nothing except luck and stubbornness.
43:27We left them what we could.
43:29Then, we loaded our team into a convoy of modified SUVs.
43:32Every vehicle packed with supplies and equipment and drove out.
43:36The road was what the apocalypse had made of it.
43:38Stripped vehicles, frozen terrain, weather that shifted from brutal to catastrophic and back without warning.
43:45Mutants on every major route.
43:46Survivors, in varying states of desperation, allowed them to go.
43:50We didn't run from any of them.
43:51Leo's ice domain covered a wide enough radius to make a convoy defensible on the moon.
43:56The bear took point in the lead vehicle's cargo bed.
43:58Our team had developed into something cohesive.
44:01People knew their roles, executed them, adjusted without needing to be managed.
44:05The enemies that came at us found out quickly that the cost wasn't worth it.
44:09We drove through city after city.
44:11In each one, we looked for survivors.
44:13We pulled out the ones who could be helped, assessed the ones who wanted to join us,
44:17turned away the ones who were dangerous.
44:19The convoy grew.
44:20Dozens became hundreds.
44:22We found our location in a valley that sat inside a mountain ring.
44:25Flat ground in the center, multiple resource nodes within range,
44:29defensible perimeter with natural geographic support on three sides.
44:32We built steel and stone for the outer wall,
44:36formation arrays adapted from techniques we found across our travels,
44:39running along every section.
44:41Armories, a cultivation training area,
44:43a medical facility,
44:45storage warehouses with rotation schedules,
44:47a residential district laid out for actual human habitation,
44:51not just survival stacking.
44:53The system we ran.
44:54You contributed, you received.
44:56Roles were assigned based on skill and inclination.
44:59Resources were distributed based on what you did with your time.
45:03The ratio was transparent and applied to everyone equally, including us.
45:07We formed a dedicated hunting team and a dedicated exploration team.
45:11The hunters ran operations against the mutant populations in our range,
45:15bringing back cores and raw materials.
45:17The explorers ranged out to ruins, dead city blocks, and resource points,
45:21returning with supplies and occasionally something significant.
45:25As the base grew, so did its reach.
45:27The name spread outward through whatever communication network still existed in the apocalypse.
45:32Survivor channels, word of mouth, other bases making contact.
45:36People arrived in groups, sometimes in large groups.
45:40We took the ones worth taking and built the capacity to house and integrate them.
45:44The base became something that people talked about in terms of whether it was real.
45:48A place in the ice apocalypse where the structure didn't collapse under pressure.
45:53Where you ate if you contributed.
45:55Where the walls held.
45:56Victoria dropped off the map entirely after leaving our first place.
46:00Some accounts said she hadn't survived the weeks that followed.
46:03Others said she'd found another faction to attach herself to and was someone else's problem.
46:09Neither version concerned us particularly.
46:11Whatever happened to her, happened somewhere that wasn't our business anymore.
46:15I stood on the wall one evening, looking down over the base.
46:18The light was wrong for the apocalypse.
46:21Too warm.
46:22Coming from the fires and the lanterns and the lit windows of the residential block.
46:26People were moving in the streets, talking, working.
46:30A few were laughing, which still felt strange every time I heard it out here.
46:35Leo pressed its flank against my leg.
46:37It had grown into something that came up past my waist now.
46:41And its fur in the firelight looked less white than lube's.
46:45The way fresh snow looks in the dark.
46:47The bear stood a few meters down the wall, watching the same scene.
46:51Ears relaxed, posture easy.
46:53In my past life, I had lost everything.
46:56I had survived the early apocalypse alone, holding onto a bear I loved.
47:01And even that had been taken from me before the end.
47:04This time, I had come back with the memory of all of it.
47:07Every mistake.
47:09Every moment I had been too slow or too trusting or too unprepared.
47:13I had used all of it.
47:14And what I had now, I had built from it.
47:17There was Leo, who had crashed into my life by biting my hand and never really let go.
47:21There was Leo, who was absurd and dramatic and thin-skinned about everything and completely,
47:27unflinchingly there when it mattered.
47:28There was the bear, who had recognized me across a classroom in another life and blinked
47:33twice to tell me it remembered.
47:34And had then spent the next months doing what it always did, watching my back without being
47:39asked.
47:40There was a base full of people who were alive because we had gotten to them in time,
47:44or because we'd built something worth surviving inside.
47:47The ice apocalypse was still out there.
47:49The cold hadn't broken.
47:51The mutants kept evolving.
47:53There were still ruins we hadn't opened, and threats we hadn't identified, and territory
47:57we hadn't mapped.
47:59But I had stopped counting the days until things got better, and started measuring what we
48:03were building.
48:04The world was still frozen.
48:05We were still standing in it, and we were going to keep standing.
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