Chapter 32: Chills
Priam took a deep breath. "I’ll open a gap. You attack with everything you’ve got," he ordered, his voice cold and sharp.
At that moment, his senses narrowed until only the beast existed in his world.
Without waiting for confirmation, Priam shot forward.
*ROAR!*
The black tiger with three horns leaped. The air around the beast vibrated with such intensity that the sound felt physical, a shockwave that preceded its claws.
Its speed was absurd. Lumiere swallowed hard; this tiger was of an extremely high level.
He knew that even if he and his sister were in perfect condition, facing that level 8 monster would be a complex and lengthy battle.
"!"
But what Lumiere saw next defied logic.
Priam’s eyes gleamed. With a movement calculated down to the millimeter, he slid out of the tiger’s path. The beast’s attack sliced through nothing but empty air, leaving a trail of cold behind it.
*BANG!*
Seizing the moment, Priam twisted his body and unleashed a heavy punch, like a war hammer, directly into the beast’s ribs. The sound of the impact echoed across the mountainside.
Lumiere didn’t waste the opportunity. He felt the momentum created by Priam’s counterattack and unleashed his strongest technique.
*Gates of Hell!*
He extended his hands, and a colossal torrent of flames roared forward. The environment, once dominated by the blue of ice, turned into a scarlet inferno.
*BOOM!*
The tiger, still off-balance from Priam’s strike, was hit head-on. The explosion hurled it against the mountainside.
Priam could see that the beast’s natural defenses were immense; it was still alive, merely stunned by the force of the impact.
Ignoring the beast’s furious roar, Priam sprinted toward the crack in the mountain above.
When he arrived, he came to an abrupt stop. His eyes narrowed.
At the bottom of the opening was a block of translucent ice, marked with deep claw scars. The red blood they had seen earlier wasn’t human; it was the beast’s own blood, shed when it injured its paws trying to break the seal by force.
Shione was inside.
As time passed and the Null-Vein Bane drained her energies, the ice seal protecting her had become increasingly fragile. Taking advantage of that, the tiger had been digging slowly, inch by inch, until it finally reached its prey.
Inside, Shione was curled up in a fetal position, her arms wrapped around her knees. Her skin carried a pale, luminous bluish tint, a reflection of her bloodline merging with the mountain. Her long hair fell like a veil, covering her face and protecting her vulnerable nudity.
She had burned away every last drop of her strength to keep that seal active, choosing frozen isolation over being devoured by beasts.
Priam took a deep breath, feeling the mountain’s cold and the urgency of time. Taking a step forward, he reached out toward her.
The moment his fingers touched the block of ice, Shione’s blue eyes opened.
She stared at him with a surprised and confused expression; even in her wildest thoughts, she would never have imagined finding Priam there at that moment.
The instant she recognized him, the tension in her body collapsed. Instinctively, she relaxed, and the ice seal — which had seemed impenetrable before — shattered like glass in an instant.
Priam took a deep breath, gathering his courage.
’She’s just a boring little brat who hates me. She can’t even be called a real woman yet. There’s no affection between us at all, so stop being an idiot!’
After muttering to himself in a self-"encouraging" way, he grabbed her firmly, pulling her out of the crack. His eyes changed as his condition—his aversion to touching women—flared up intensely. But he endured it.
Shione was completely drained of strength, so light she felt almost like she was made of air. Although Priam felt a slight repulsion, he still settled her onto his back. Shione let her head rest on his shoulder, feeling the real warmth of another person for the first time after hours of isolation and being so close to death.
*BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!!*
While Priam rescued the girl, Lumiere fulfilled his role. He knew every second was vital and kept attacking the tiger relentlessly, without a single pause. Waves of heat and flashes of fire covered the entire area, keeping the beast at bay.
It all lasted only a few seconds. Then Priam swiftly ran back.
In the middle of a wave of heat, he jumped through the smoke. Lumiere saw him and stopped attacking.
"S-Shione..." he stammered, his eyes watery and trembling.
She was awake, looking at her brother over Priam’s shoulder. The mutual relief of seeing each other safe was palpable.
Raised almost like twins, with only a year between them, the bond they shared was unbreakable — a connection that had never existed with Gangrel, who had always remained distant for reasons they still didn’t understand.
However, the moment of peace was interrupted by a roar of agony and fury.
The black tiger emerged from the flames once more. Its body was covered in severe burns and blood, but its power remained overwhelming.
Lumiere and Shione held their breath; the beast was far too terrifying, possibly the strongest creature in that region of the mountain. Every instinct they had screamed at them to flee immediately; that was the best option.
But Priam didn’t retreat.
He relaxed his shoulders, and his eyes glowed with a light green hue.
"Hold on tight," he murmured to Shione before clenching his fists.
*Vwoosh!*
Priam’s figure didn’t merely run; it became an indistinct blur.
In the next instant, he appeared at the tiger’s flank like a ghost.
On his back, Shione’s eyes widened as she watched the world rush past at an impossible speed. She could clearly feel the frightening power of the wind element he was using.
Priam attacked.
**BANG!**
The blow struck the tiger squarely on the skull. The dry sound of bone cracking and being crushed by brute force echoed across the mountainside.
The beast’s massive body was hurled against the mountain, but this time there was no resistance. And even after several seconds, there were no roars.
The beast’s life had been extinguished with a single precise move. Its previous wounds weren’t superficial, creating an opening and weakness in its defenses. Priam noticed that weakness with a single glance and attacked.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Priam breathed heavily, sweat mixing with the soot on his face. He didn’t want to retreat; he had chosen to use his trump card to win and ensure the path was clear.
The presence of that elite predator had likely driven away all the other beasts in that initial region. That was why the beasts at the entrance hadn’t dared enter and attack them from behind. Beasts were absurdly territorial, and that tiger would attack anyone who dared intrude.
Now, they had some time to recover safely.
Priam slowly walked over to Lumiere. When he stopped, he reached toward his back, wanting to take that young girl down.
"No..." he heard a muffled groan from his shoulder. She shifted slightly, refusing to get off at that moment.
Seeing that, Lumiere’s expression changed, and he quickly moved over. He took the spatial ring from his sister’s finger and pulled out a set of ordinary clothes.
Priam felt her letting go while Lumiere helped her. He remained still, without turning around.
A short while later, he turned around and saw the reddened expression on the young girl’s face as she looked away.
He snorted. What was there to look at before? A completely flat brat like her didn’t stir anything in him. But if he said that, she would definitely explode with anger, and the poison would probably kill her on the spot.
He had already heard from Flora why Shione wore those strange rune clothes instead of normal clothing.
They were made from an extremely high-level earth element, nourished with Yang. Their purpose was to balance her body, which suffered from a serious problem due to having almost no Yang at all.
A woman naturally had little Yang, but there was a minimum threshold, and Shione was below it. Her ice core and powerful Bloodline had created that issue, forcing her to keep that external source of Yang close. However, sometimes that was inconvenient, like now.
Lumiere was exactly the same, but his problem was the opposite, lacking Yin.
The price of their great power was a naturally defective and unbalanced body. If they hadn’t been born into a wealthy clan capable of maintaining and nourishing those clothes from time to time, they wouldn’t have survived on their own for very long.
Priam took a deep breath and nodded, burning all the remaining power in his healing rune to heal himself and also treat Shione’s external injuries.
Afterward, he created the Detoxification rune.
Being able to have only a single power rune at a time was highly inconvenient. If, for example, he was fighting while using a healing rune and then got poisoned, even if he had the materials needed to create a cure, he might not have enough time to do so.
Shione swallowed hard when she saw the golden halo appear above his head. Seconds later, he waved his hand, and a white light covered her, removing all the poison.
Everything was resolved.
"You..." Shione stammered, not knowing what to say.
Lumiere sighed and bowed toward Priam. "Thank you very much."
Shione trembled and bit her lip. After two seconds, she took a deep breath and stood up.
"Thank you," she said awkwardly, bowing slightly as well.
Priam nodded. "No problem."
She didn’t respond, keeping her head lowered.
Seeing that, Priam spoke without hesitation. "I already told you before that I didn’t have any problem with you or hold any grudge against you, right? Now, I hope we can get along. And also... be yourself and act normally. Seeing you behave politely or gently actually gives me chills."
She raised her gaze and looked at him seriously.
Seeing his indifferent expression, exactly the same as the first time they met, she finally became certain. To Priam, neither she nor her brother had ever been a threat or a problem.
In fact... they were the ones who had approached him, trying to suppress him and acting like idiots.
[Loyalty of an ally has evolved greatly]
[Shione Ylisse] | Loyalty: High (UP 3x)]
[+900 GP]
"I... alright! I don’t like unnecessary words. I’ll remember this favor!" she said, her eyes shining with determination and a different kind of light.
Lumiere, standing beside her, was surprised by the complete change in his sister’s attitude.
[Loyalty of an ally has evolved greatly]
[Lumiere Ylisse] | Loyalty: High (UP 2x)]
[+600 GP]
’So many points...’ Priam read everything with surprise and shock.
’Shione was at the lowest level of loyalty; Lumiere was only a little above that... hmm... so the trick is to make deep enemies first, then raise their loyalty afterward... that way I can get a ridiculous amount of points!’
Priam felt like he had found a great loophole in the system. But it was easier said than done. He already had trouble building relationships with people; making them hate him first and then fixing it afterward wasn’t exactly practical.
