Panic quickly took over. Memories of the tragedy three years ago and the death of his mother came back as fragmented images.

As he was about to tell everyone to leave the area, Kyrai’s father stood up from his chair and said for everyone to go to the basement. All of them followed, including Jay, since he didn’t have much choice.

Poul, who had been assigned to patrol around the wall with a partner, also felt that pressure. Poul turned toward where it was coming from.

'This pressure… it’s coming from the east!' He looked to the east. His partner collapsed to the ground, terrified, his body trembling. The man turned his head toward Poul.

"We’re going to die."

Poul watched as a mountain of earth formed, made of several giant bodies. At the top of that mound stood a giant, gazing down at everyone below as if they were inferior beings.

The mountain charged toward the wall, aiming to destroy it. Poul looked toward the artillery soldiers—they looked at him, then at their guns.

"Come on! Fire, you idiots!" They loaded the artillery and aimed at the mountain, which was already close to the wall.

Poul covered his ears. When the shots were fired, a giant mouth suddenly appeared on the mountain and swallowed all the projectiles.

Poul took a deep breath, stretched out his arm, and released a strong blast of ice that froze the mountain. But because of that, his arm burned in pain; when he looked, it was completely covered in ice.

He knelt, panting, the burning in his nearly frozen arm growing.

'Did I do it? Did I save the city?' He looked toward the city, relieved at the thought of saving many lives—until he heard something cracking. He looked up and saw a giant, around seven meters tall, jumping down from the frozen mountain.

Poul rolled to the side on the ground. Still gasping for air, he tried to create another ice blast. But as the giant landed, walls of stone rose on both sides of him.

Poul released a weak burst of ice that didn’t even freeze the walls properly. The rest of his arm iced over. Breathless, he fell to the ground.

The giant shattered both walls. Seeing no threat from Poul, he simply ignored him and leapt into the city.

"No… no…" Poul gasped. "Jay… I need to… go save… my… son."

The giant entered the city, looking around to avoid being taken by surprise. He destroyed some houses but found no living beings—the evacuation had already begun when the pressure first hit.

He heard something approaching and swung his sword toward the sound. Then something pierced through his leg, sending him crashing to the ground, dragged across several houses and injuring some civilians.

He stood up through gritted teeth. The hole in his leg healed rapidly. A spear formed in his hand. By then, the artillery was ready to fire again. The division captain glared at his men with a cold expression and shouted:

"Fire!"

At that moment, the giant threw his spear, colliding with the incoming shots and creating smoke.

This terrified the citizens, who were slowly losing their homes.

In the basement, Jay and Kyrai were trembling with fear. Jay looked at Kyrai’s father, who wore a serious expression, alert to any sound.

Then an explosion shook the house. Moments later, the door upstairs was kicked open. They heard invaders shouting:

"Search the entire house! Find the residents!"

Everyone agreed and began searching.

It was easy to tell it was a large group by the number of footsteps. Kyrai’s father stayed close to the basement door in case they found it—it was well hidden, but not perfect.

A new loud noise echoed from the center of the city.

Jay worried about his father. He wanted to get out immediately and see him, but he couldn’t. The house was being invaded, and a giant might be outside. His only option was to help Kyrai’s father in any way he could. He approached him to ask what he could do.

Meanwhile, Poul had been catching his breath the entire time. His arm still burned—worse than before—but at least he could stand. He looked at the chaos in the city he tried to protect and felt the bitter taste of failure again. He clenched his teeth in anger at himself.

"Poul, use that power. It can do more than blasts." A man’s voice echoed—mysterious, but familiar.

Hearing that hint, Poul imagined wings. Ice wings formed on his back. He ran and jumped off the wall, flying toward the giant. While in the air, he imagined a sword of ice, and it formed in his hand.

The artillery was nearly out of ammunition. The giant had destroyed some units and had only been injured once—from the surprise attack. He charged at the remaining artillery as they fired. He dodged all the shots. He didn’t want to use his full power to destroy the rest, but he had no choice. He raised a single finger. The soldiers didn’t understand—until the ground trembled. Several sharp towers of earth erupted, impaling the artillery and soldiers.

The captain stared at the giant, horrified.

'This is absurd. With a single finger, he destroyed almost my entire squad. This thing is a monster.' he thought.

He drew his sword, facing the giant.

'Even if I can’t win, I can stall him until reinforcements arrive and civilians escape.'

As he faced the giant, he noticed something flying closer—a human figure. As it got clearer, he recognized him: soldier Hyou Poul. Poul was descending beside the giant.

Poul focused on the giant’s arm, gripping his ice sword. The captain understood it was a distraction. The giant sensed Poul and swung a fist covered in earth toward him.

Poul didn’t care. He dodged mid-air and drove his ice blade into the side of the giant’s arm, sliding downward and slicing through the limb.

Near the shoulder, he let go. The moment he released, he saw the giant’s hand coming toward him. In his condition, he had no way to dodge.

He took the full hit.

Poul flew into the wall. Pain shot through his whole body. He couldn’t feel his left arm. He couldn’t feel his legs anymore.