Prologue (2/2)

The youth is already standing at the mouth of the cave

The turbulent snow has lost its sound here

All sound seee cave In the silence of the cavern, there leaves only occasional piercing shrieks as if cutting ht, his expression see,ones back feel cold, his eyes treold paint

The youth opens his eyes wide, his a the bottomless darkness of the cave

In the oppressive silence, a sound is heard suddenly; dull yet light, akin to the sound of blood rushi+ng through veins

The youth lowers his head, on the pure whiteness of the ice surface, a streas twists fro his feet, as if a s itself forward under the ice He crouches, lowers his head, there see his whole person towards the veins of black blood He buries his face lower, as if wanting to see that streas clearly, inch by inch his face presses closer to the surface of the ice, his s itself in a twisted posture Yet, what he doesn’t know is that, on his exquisite and fair skin, bit by bit densely packed veins are starting to appear on his face like earthworms, more and more, denser and denser, clearer and clearly, in the process of getting nearer to the ice surface, his a a oldfishes with black tails are swi in his pupils

“Gu gu—“

Suddenly, the sound of pulse beating sounded, in a flash the thin vein-like thing under the ice’s surface started swelling from the depths of the cave to the surface under the youth’s feet, it became a black tube-like substance as thick as an arm A bundle of darkness flashed before the youth’s eyes, before he had the tient strea him away from the cave The youth can only hear the sound of hurried wind filling his ear dru before his eyes at all, only countless streah the air as if a pair of scissors cutting cloth

“Are you aware that you almost died just now?”

In the turbulence, a person’s voice sounded Unable to hear any ee, as clean as clear water and air, is a gentle boy’s voice, but there is also an untouchable coldness to it, which makes him sound very old

The youth clad in blue lifted his unsettled face, his pupils gradually turning into a golden aes to focus his vision again, he realises that in the turbulence that is fading away, a boy close to his age with short silver hair is staring at hi in front of his forehead, the wind e, a black diadem with a scatter of black diamonds can faintly be seen on his forehead One look and you’ll know that it is priceless and that the person has a respectable identity In the bitter-cold heavy snow, the silver-haired youth is only wearing a long robe weaved hite yarn, as if unafraid of the cold, the white cape on hihtly around him, unaffected by the storm around him

The silver-haired youth turns his back against the blue-robed youth, the blue-robed youth follows his silhouette and gazes towards theat before, right now, there is a dark and burnt hand, breaking out fro itself in a way as if it is a wronged soul for in the wind and snow If he hadn’t been saved by the youth just now, then at this moment, that charred hand, would have broken his neck

If you look closer at it, the hand doesn’t seeers, on each finger are sharp black nails, twisted and sharp, on the charred skin, there are multiple pus-like red blotches, on them a sticky substance like thick blood

“Unless ‘that plan’ already began?……Why would it be pushed forward so much……” The silver-haired youth looks at the di it clear if he is speaking to himself, or to a person that hasn’t appeared yet Frouess his expression, but froentle voice, it dimly reveals surprise and worry

The silver-haired youth turns and squats down before the blue-robed youth, looking into his fair and delicate appearance and his ahtly The smile on a face like the silver-haired youthas a crystal, the sun beats down on the black diadehis dreamlike eyes, in his eyes there seems to be a scatter of diamonds of different sizes His hair as silver and white as snow, he looks just like a pure angel

The blue-robed youth asks: “Who are you?”

The silver-haired youth reaches out and tugs hi: “My name is Boyce”

The wind in the surrounds see from the silver-haired youth is like a mixture of spices from Ahlusi Port, faint and respectable This type of spice must be invaluable

“And who are you? Why did you co Boyce stands atop the pure white surface of the ice, seeel As if his whole being is born for this world of ice and snow, clean and pure, his whole body shi+ht of diamonds

“My naentle breeze blows fro filled with the smell of expensive spices from Boyce’s body

The air is a rand and sacred light of the sun bathing down on therand fate

Alcaeus looks at the silver-haired youth standing before hi as if a beast from under the earth is ready to s him whole His smile is warm and beautiful, yet it seems to contain a faint sorrow that can be seen only because of his gentleness — just like the s from his body

Many years later, every time Alcaeus remembers this scene, he always feels like it is a dark prophecy, shi+ning through and revealing what is pitch-black