SSS Frost Sovereign: Rewinding The Apocalypse!-Chapter 58: A Great, Looming Threat...

It was dusk when Katar sat atop the roof.

From there, he looked out over the settlement below.

The once-sparse grounds were steadily filling in. More shelters, more people, movements here and there.

The place was slowly swelling into something larger than it had been days ago.

"Tch." He clicked his tongue in quiet annoyance.

It irked him. The noise, the crowding and the inevitability of it.

Yet the sight stirred an old memory.

Once, long ago, he had watched a vicinity grow just like this.

Back then, it had become one of the greatest vicinities on that planet.

Incarnations of the highest tiers grew there there. Fighters strong enough to hold back hordes. Defenders who had turned the settlement into something like a fortified kingdom.

Walls layered with runes and steel. Watchtowers crowned with sentinels who never slept. Trade routes carved through ruin zones. Training grounds filled with the clash of blades and the roar of abilities.

Even in the middle of the apocalypse, people had found a way to live, and thrive.

And then, one day, a gate no one ever wished to see appeared.

A black gate - and what followed was not a battle. It was annihilation.

Katar huffed quietly, the breath misting faintly in the cooling air. He was tired of that memory. Tired of carrying it.

"Where are you going?! Come clean your part!"

"Handle it yourself! I’m tired!"

"Alia!"

Muffled shouting drifted up from below ss Matt and Reya bickering with Alia as usual.

Katar flicked an ear, barely reacting.

’I can already see this vicinity growing to great heights,’ he thought. ’I just hope they have the potential to become strong enough to withstand what will come. Strong enough not to suffer the same fate.’

His ears twitched.

Soft scraping sounds came from behind him as tiles shifted.

"Ohhh, I knew you’d be here!" Alia’s voice chimed excitedly.

She struggled up the slanted roof, palms slipping on the rough surface.

She grunted under her breath, legs kicking awkwardly as she tried to find balance, nearly sliding back down twice before finally hauling herself up and sprawling onto the rooftop.

She pushed herself up, brushing dust off her clothes. "You’re here again? Do you love it up here or something?"

Katar glanced back at her over his shoulder, pale eyes half-lidded. His expression was quietly annoyed.

"What are you doing?"

Alia’s face lit up at the question. Katar usually only spoke when he was scolding them.

"I wanted to enjoy the view too," she said, crawling closer but stopping at a respectful distance. She sat down, legs tucked beneath her.

"So, what’s on your mind?"

"It’s none of your business," Katar replied flatly.

Alia paused.

Silence settled between them. The kind that felt heavier the longer it stretched. The distant noise of the settlement drifted up to them, muted by the height.

After a while, she spoke again.

"Before all this, I had a cat named Mr Chunks," she said quietly.

Her voice softened, and a small, sad smile tugged at her lips. Her eyes lost their usual brightness as she stared at the rooftops ahead of them. "He was a really good boy."

Katar did not turn back this time.

"But that day, when they came, our house collapsed. Mr Chunks was trapped inside." Her fingers curled slightly in her lap.

"The first spawn I ever saw was the same one that ate him."

Her voice wavered, just a little.

"My dad got us out. All of us. He died first. Then my mom. Then Dylan and Ali, my brothers."

She swallowed and lifted her gaze to Katar.

Her eyes were wet, but not with fresh tears. They carried something older. Grief that had hardened into a dull, aching weight.

"Everyone here lost someone," she said softly. "I can tell it’s the same for you, Kat. We’re all like that."

Katar exhaled, a low, almost tired huff. He rose to his feet, tail swaying behind him, a faint, crooked smirk tugging at the edge of his muzzle.

"We are not the same, Alia."

With a light push of his hind legs, he leapt down from the roof. His paws landed soundlessly on the ground below, body flowing forward in a smooth, predatory stride.

"Make sure Eric recovers," he added without looking back. "Do not leave this place."

"W... where are you going?" Alia asked, scrambling to the edge of the roof.

Katar did not answer.

His white form moved through the fading light, tail swishing once before disappearing between the structures.

Alia remained on the roof, watching the direction he had gone, her expression softening with worry as dusk settled fully over the growing vicinity.

Katar slipped away into the maze of broken blocks, moving low and silent through the alleys, straight toward the mayor’s settlement. Straight toward Ixie.

Inside the meeting hall, perched upside down from one of the dark rafters, was the dragon-owl Erwald.

Her feathers were a clean, pale white, almost luminous in the gloom.

Black, curved horns rose from her head like polished obsidian, giving her an unsettling, regal silhouette.

She rested there leisurely, wings tucked close, talons hooked into the beam, looking more like she was napping than keeping watch.

Only the slow, steady sway of her tail and the half-lidded eyes suggested she was fully aware of everything around her.

Then she shifted slightly.

"You’ve come again, huh."

Katar dropped from the ceiling opening and landed on the stone floor with a soft thud.

The hall was quiet and dim, lit only by a few weak lanterns along the walls. It was spacious, built to hold gatherings.

The long table at the center was empty, chairs pushed back at odd angles, the air carrying the stale echo of the last meeting the mayor had held here.

Katar scoffed quietly.

"I have something to ask you, Ixie."

She narrowed her gaze, her head tilting just a little.

"The last time I saw you, we were in the thickest part of the nebula," he said, taking a step forward.

"There was a particular vicinity on a certain planet called Rxar. A popular one. What became of it before you left?"

"The Great Zaitar," Ixie said.

Katar stiffened at the name.

Ixie let out a slow sigh. "It was indeed wiped out by a certain black gate as you must have heard, Katar."

’Damn it.’ Katar’s jaw tightened. It was exactly what he had feared. Another great vicinity, gone to that thing.

"And Imlon of Zaitar," Katar murmured, staring at the floor. "I heard he was the strongest incarnation in that region. So he was defeated as well..."

His claws scraped faintly against the stone as he clenched his paws.

"Ixie, that black gate... I fear it was the same one," Katar said. "Wraith, the queen of the Xalaxul. It is said she is to be among the ranks of fully matured Maires."

Ixie huffed, a short, dry sound.

"Are you worried? This vicinity is still on the outskirts of Vokus’s nebula. They are young and most likely would not attract a black gate at this time."

Katar exhaled slowly, forcing the tension out of his chest.

"Yeah... you’re right, I guess," he said. Even so, the thought still gnawed at him. Hearing it confirmed did not make it easier to accept.

He turned and walked toward one of the tall, cracked windows, hopping up onto the sill.

"I have to train them hard," Katar muttered. "Make them strong as soon as possible."

"Do they really have the potential, Katar?" Ixie asked suddenly. "The potential to surpass Imlon?"

Katar paused, then smiled faintly. He glanced back at her over his shoulder, eyes calm and certain, before slipping out through the window and vanishing into the settlement.

As he moved back into the open, into the noise and movement of people rebuilding and surviving, a thought lingered in his mind.

’The next celestial event will not be far from us. And the heralds would not give them a gate beyond their capacity.’

His tail flicked once.

’Especially if it is not Aksalep.’