I had nothing to do, except stew in my emotions and think on my discoveries.

At the conscious realization that I had met my mother, I was ecstatic. But depression set in and I couldn't help but to cry as I stared at her dead body. Then I was disgusted with myself for feeling happy when her body lies in front of me, dead. Those feelings were small echos in comparison to the anger, the seething feeling in my gut. Everything was confusing, I couldn't think properly, my emotions were jacked up to eleven, and my body was exhausted to the point I couldn't move.

'Where am I? Why am I here? Who am I? What am I?'

All these questions and emotions floating in my head. Some new and some old.

'Calm down Artemis, nothing comes of anger,' I said to myself over and over. It became my personal mission to visualize and mentalize these words in every way.

'Calm down Artemis, nothing comes of anger'

'Calm down Artemis, nothing comes of anger'

'Calm down Artemis, nothing comes of anger'

'Calm down Artemis, nothing comes of anger!'

'Calm down Artemis...'

My inner voice repeated over and over. Without realizing it, I was yelling. I couldn't control my emotions. Nothing could. Nothing stopped. The fury inside me was bubbling like hot magma ready to burst.

Then something changed. The Cold that I've consumed since birth emerged. I expected a violent explosion between the two, but nothing happened.

'No, that's wrong.'

The Cold was consuming my emotions like sweets. The smallest ones first. Happiness, then disgust, then depression. The only emotion left undestroyed was anger. The Cold battled with my anger, but it was no match. The Cold was all-consuming and all-enveloping. Before long, my mind was clear. I understood why I was happy, why I was sad, why I was disgusted, and why I was angry. I knew questioning everything right now wouldn't help my situation. I could rationalize all my chain of thoughts. Except one.

'Why let go of my anger?'

My anger is justified. My emotions are justified. So why would I let go of them? I'm clear-headed. Does being smart also mean I let go of what drives me?

'What about my mother? What about the people who did this to her?'

My mind was so clear, yet I couldn't let go of the hate I felt. I hated the world for giving me a mother to only take her away. I hated myself for my powerlessness. But most of all,

'I hate the ones who killed her!'

The Cold exploded from the inside. It couldn't tame my rage, but neither could my hatred escape. I knew this was dangerous. Such hate was deadly to me. And such cold emptiness would kill my emotions forever, I wouldn't be me anymore. But, the most dangerous thing was letting this continue. I had to do something.

I tried to help the Cold suppress my rage. I tried to let my rage overflow. Nothing helped. My body felt like it was going to explode, the pressure was too much.

Suddenly, my body started to itch. From my teeth to my fur, my eyes to my nails, everything was on fire.

But what caught my attention more than anything was that the Cold, and my anger were fusing. Part of the Cold became one with my anger.

My hatred and rage turned into cold and calculating fury. it wasn't straight forward like before. Now it is the frost that creeps up on you, and once it latches on, it doesn't let go. It travels through the body, freezing and killing whatever is in its path.

Now that my anger and the Cold weren't fighting each other, they seeped out of me.

'Calm down Artemis, everything comes of patience'

I could now see my breath in front of me. The ground around me was covered in ice and the cave became colder and colder. The bodies around me slowly turned to ice and shattered. The frost crept up on my mother's body itching to freeze and destroy all, but a single thought stopped it before it laid a hand on my mother.

'No one touches mother.'

Skill Creation initialized.

Analyzing.

Biting Frost recovered.

Requirements met.

Implementation approved.

Updating Status.

Name: Artemis

Age: 0 (Sixty-one bi-helios rotations)

Race: Primordial Wolf

Lv: 0 Experience: 0/ 100

Stats: Locked.

Skills:

Layer Zero Skills:

Lv. 0 Internal Mana Sense: Detect the mana flowing within you.

Lv. 0 External Mana Sense: Detect the mana flowing within objects around you.

Lv. 1 Snow Stomach: Consume snow attuned mana for nutrients.

Lv. 1 Perseverance: Use Mana to increase Stamina.

Lv. 1 Sound Recognition: Perceive sound as images.

Layer One Skills: None.

Layer Two Skills:

Lv. 0 Biting Frost: Fueled with raw hatred and cold attuned mana, a violent frost emanates from you and consumes all in its path. Those targeted live in an icy hell, unable to move; They're burned alive while frozen to death. Created from hatred and emptiness nearly two millennia ago, this Skill is steeped in the hatred and mana of generations of primordial wolves. Call upon this ancient hatred and let it consume your enemy.

Layer Two Skill creation Exp gain: 300 exp

Level locked, Exp deferred.

'What is this?'