Free Web NovelChapter 43: Awakening SS-Rank Absolute Zero
The silence within the underground cavern stretched endlessly. The glowing snowflake runes continued to illuminate the darkness with their soft blue light, while Chloe remained motionless and cold. The river flowed gently around her unconscious form.
Then, the runes brightened suddenly. A single snowflake rune detached itself from the cavern wall and floated through the air, followed by another, then another. Soon, countless glowing snowflakes drifted from every surface, transforming the cavern into a sea of floating blue lights.
The moment the first snowflake touched Chloe’s forehead, her consciousness was dragged elsewhere.
Chloe opened her eyes and found herself standing in a world of endless white. There was no sky, no ground, no horizon... nothing. Just white.
"Hello?" Her voice echoed, but there was no one to answer. She took a step forward, but the white world remained unchanged. A strange feeling began to grow inside her: loneliness, stillness, and silence. The longer she walked, the stronger the feeling became, until eventually she stopped, and the white world cracked.
A tiny line appeared before her, then thousands. The white space shattered like glass. What replaced it was breathtaking. It was an endless frozen kingdom: mountains made of crystal ice, frozen oceans stretching beyond sight, snowstorms dancing across the horizon, and gigantic glaciers floating through the skies. Everything was frozen, yet nothing seemed dead.
Instead, it felt eternal and timeless. Then she saw her. A woman. She sat upon a throne made from an entire mountain of ice. Her hair was white and long, flowing like moonlight. Her skin possessed an almost unreal beauty, pale and flawless. Her eyes glowed with a cold blue light that seemed capable of freezing stars. The woman slowly opened her eyes, and the entire frozen world stopped moving.
Chloe’s breathing caught. She didn’t know why, but she understood something instinctively. This existence was ice itself, not some ruler or queen. The woman looked directly at Chloe and spoke.
"The world believes ice is cold." Her voice was calm and gentle, yet terrifying. "They are wrong."
The frozen mountains trembled.
"Ice is not cold."
The oceans froze further.
"The absence of movement is cold."
The storms halted.
"The absence of energy is cold."
The world darkened.
"The absence of life is cold."
Everything became still as the woman’s gaze intensified.
"And when all things cease..." Darkness swallowed the frozen kingdom. "...Absolute Zero is born."
BOOM!
The vision exploded. Countless streams of information surged into Chloe’s mind: Ice, temperature, energy, molecular motion, freezing, preservation, stillness, control, and dominion. It was knowledge she had never learned, but somehow understood.
The world shattered, and Chloe opened her eyes. The cavern exploded with freezing energy while the river froze instantly. The cavern walls became covered in crystalline frost, while entire sections of stone transformed into glittering ice sculptures. A wave of freezing mist erupted outward, and at the center stood Chloe.
Slowly, she sat up. The first thing she noticed was the cold, or rather, the lack of it. The cavern was freezing, but she felt perfectly comfortable. She lowered her gaze, and her eyes widened slightly.
Her hands were different. They were paler, cleaner, and more refined. She immediately stood. A nearby frozen wall reflected her appearance. The girl staring back at her wasn’t the same Chloe Montreal. Her brown hair was gone, and in its place flowed long white hair resembling fresh snowfall. Her skin had become pale and flawless, beautiful, almost ethereal. Her previous appearance had already been attractive.
Now, she looked unreal. But then, she noticed something else. Her perspective felt different... higher.
She examined herself and realized...
"Taller..."
She could immediately tell. She had grown noticeably. The old Chloe stood at five foot five. This Chloe was roughly five foot eight. It was not a dramatic change, but it was enough to be obvious. She looked into the icy reflection again, specifically at her eyes. They glowed. Beautiful icy-blue irises stared back like frozen stars.
Chloe remained silent as she studied herself. The old Chloe would’ve panicked or screamed, but this Chloe calmly analyzed the situation. Information surfaced naturally as though it had always existed.
Absolute Zero, an SS-Rank Ability. It was a power capable of controlling temperature itself through the concept of freezing. This was a power that exceeded ordinary ice manipulation, one that represented stillness, finality, and silence.
Her expression remained calm and cold, almost emotionless. Even though she noticed it, a lot of things had changed in her. The shy girl who constantly stumbled over her words felt distant. Her thoughts moved differently now. They were clearer, sharper, and colder.
The cavern trembled as she was still coming to terms with the changes in her. A section of ice shattered nearby. Chloe glanced toward it and saw a large monster emerge from a tunnel. It was some kind of subterranean beast. The creature growled. frёewebnoѵēl.com
The old Chloe would’ve been terrified, but the new Chloe just looked at it. The monster charged. A freezing mist escaped her lips.
"Freeze."
The word wasn’t loud. The temperature inside the cavern vanished instantly. The charging monster froze solid mid-step, becoming the perfect ice sculpture. The cavern became silent again, while Chloe stared at the frozen creature and turned away, not even remotely impressed.
***
Chloe was walking deeper into the frozen tunnels. Each step she took left delicate snowflake patterns in the ice behind her. The shy girl was absolutely certain of where she was going, even if she didn’t yet know why. The rift had changed from yellow to blue for some unknown reason, and the rift personnel took it for danger.
Yes, it was dangerous. There were bound to be casualties. That was a certainty, not a speculation, but this also meant that the rewards would be higher and better, and Chloe was the perfect example of this. It hadn’t even been a full day, and she had already experienced her awakening, becoming an SS-Rank, or S-Rank awakened. She was unofficially the third S-Rank in Valecrest.
