At night, Cain was unable to sleep in the room he was given. Although this was supposed to be his family and home, he felt uncomfortable with their presence.

Lost in thought, he pondered the actions of his mother. A renowned figure, the Snow Witch Himea Weiss. She was one of the peak existences of their world, a being in the transcendent realm, but had suddenly decided to leave. After casting a spell of eternal snow on the Southern mountainous regions of the Tiandiyu continent for their clan, she had left their planet nearly a decade ago and had ascended to the Celestial realm, a dimension for divine beings. The unceasing falling snow had caused a disturbance on the immortal continent and the region was soon named the Weiss Highlands after the famed Snow Witch.

(Why did you leave?) Cain pondered over this question tirelessly, unable to come up with the answer.

…

Floating in the night sky of the Weiss Highlands were immortals that numbered in the fifties. Among them were individual, rogue immortals and groups of immortals that came from other powers in the continent.

They hovered in the air silently, peering at the mountain chain while secretly spreading out their immortal senses to cautiously check other’s movements. The immortals all had the same line of thought, none of them were willing to make the first move. The first ones to attack would undoubtedly receive the brunt of the Weiss Clan’s retaliation, and they all wanted to be the fisherman in the scramble for Aegis. They wanted others to fight and exhaust themselves over the legendary artifact first before swooping in and claiming it for themselves in the end. As such, it became a strange situation where they all eyed the mountain chain of the Weiss Clan while waiting for someone to be the first one to attack.

This situation continued for an indeterminate amount of time until a new immortal arrived at the scene to join those hovering in the air. The newcomer was an adorable little girl with wavy long blue hair, wearing a yellow sundress. She disrupted the silence with a loud voice, shouting, “Nyahaha! Sphinx has arrived!”

Confusion showed on the faces of the surrounding immortals with only a few understanding the meaning behind her words. The more knowledgeable of them instantly made the connection with the infamous Jaeger group and what it represented. The Artifact Hunter Gyro would be coming.

A few rogue immortals instantly made a decision on the spot. This was out of their league. Their lives were more important than vying for a legendary artifact that Gyro set his sights on. The few immortals quickly made to flee, but something unexpected happened before they could get very far.

The little girl who shouted transformed into a large blue serpent. She turned out to be an immortal beast. The serpent launched itself towards the mountain chain to be the first one to initiate the assault, prompting the immortals that decided to stay to go along with her momentum... and all hell broke loose.

The long serpent coiled itself around a large mountain of the mountain chain where the Weiss Clan resided, wringing and crushing it to pieces. She let out an ear-piercing roar, repeatedly going from mountain to mountain to wring apart.

“The clan is under attack!”

“They’re here for Aegis!”

“Wake the clan elders!”

The noise from the night assault quickly woke the members of the Weiss Clan, and they rushed to the defense of their home.

...

A few miles in the air at a distance were three other immortals. One of them sighed, “Haaah… Levia went ahead. Guess it can’t be helped, she has way too much energy for her own good.”

Another issued commands, “I’ll go retrieve Aegis. Roy will stay back as usual, Mary will go in and help keep the pests off my back.”

“Got it, boss,” the skinny, lazy-looking immortal named Roy replied.

At that, two of the three immortals disappeared, heading towards the mountain chain.

…

Using the ensuing chaos to his advantage, a figure covered in scars snuck into a small cave of the mountain chain. In the middle of the cave was a pedestal, on top of which was a crystal case holding a shield artifact, Aegis within.

Outside of the cave, a female immortal with clawed gauntlets was holding up an immortal by their neck in the air. The immortal being held seemed to have his blood drain from him, turning him into a mummified corpse. Appearing content, the female tossed the corpse aside to wait for Gyro.

Slowly walking up to the crystal case, Gyro raised his left hand and placed the tips of his fingers onto it, emitting a shockwave of mana. The crystal case instantly shattered and he quickly swiped Aegis, storing it into his interspatial ring. He prepared to stealthily depart when a voice boomed out from behind him.

“Do you truly believe that you can come and go to our territory as you wish?!” Jugo loudly shouted, his voice causing the small cave to collapse onto itself.

The two immortals flew and landed out of the cave, leaving a trail of snow that flew into the air, and stood across from one another.

“Elders! We reclaim Aegis!” Jugo shouted. Beams of light shot across the sky and five figures landed to stand behind Jugo.

Jugo’s shout attracted the attention of all the other immortals. They ceased fighting all at once, following Jugo’s line of sight to land on Gyro. Looks of greed filled their eyes as they flew towards him. The clawed-immortal and serpent were prepared to rush to his defense, but, “Those who step foot into our territory, none will leave alive! Worldbreaking technique: Snowfall!” Jugo’s shout shook the air.

A wild blizzard began to form, engulfing and surrounding the mountain chain. Immortals caught within it were flung about like ragdolls in every direction.

Gyro stood calmly within despite the raging snowstorm. A large silver halberd appeared in the grip of his right arm, and said emotionlessly, “You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”

Jugo could vaguely make out his figure inside the blizzard. He waved his arm, and the five elders standing behind him entered the blizzard and zoomed towards Gyro.

Three elders approached Gyro from the front, while the other two circled around him to attack him from the back.

The three elders coming from the front all launched themselves towards him at once. To Gyro, it was like they were lining themselves up to make it easier for him to kill them. He swung his halberd horizontally with one hand, slicing all three elders apart at the middle into two pieces each, instantly ending their lives.

One of the elders from his rear kept his distance and fired off icicles at him from behind. The icicles hit Gyro’s back, bouncing off of his body harmlessly. The other elder approached his back, wielding a blade of ice and prepared to make a thrust.

Gyro turned around and swung his halberd once more. Learning from the fates of his companions, the elder quickly erected a wall of ice to block against the swing. The halberd ripped through the wall of ice along with the body behind it, slicing both in half.

“That’s four,” Gyro said while he looked around for the remaining elder within the snowstorm. He sensed a figure coming from above him and quickly made a small hop backwards.

Just as he hopped, the remaining elder came plummeting downwards, piercing into the ground where he stood moments before with a blade of ice.

Gyro used the small opening created when the elder landed to make two quick swings of his halberd. For the first swing, he decapitated the elder. For the second swing, he twisted his wrist to turn the head of his halberd to its flat side, and swung the halberd a half circle around his body. The second swing of his halberd launched the decapitated head of the elder out of the blizzard.

The bloodied head flew out of the snowstorm and towards Jugo, landing at his feet. The expression on the decapitated head of the elder was filled with fear and despair.

Seeing the decapitated head, anger rose up within Jugo, and he entered the blizzard to deal with Gyro himself.

The speed of Jugo couldn’t be compared to the previous elders, he arrived in front of Gyro within an instant, and sent an uppercut towards Gyro’s jaw with his left hand. Jugo’s fist connected with Gyro’s lower jaw, and the sounds of breaking bones could be heard.

Jugo quickly pulled backwards to open up distance between him and Gyro. He looked at his left hand. Surprisingly, it was broken. He felt like he had punched an unbreakable metal.

“I’m done playing with you,” Gyro said with a mysterious smile.

…

Miles away, a lazy-looking figure was whistling a tune. A bright, white glow coming from his eyes left trails in the sky.

“Looks like the boss is in trouble,” he gave a carefree smile, and lifted up both of his arms. Within his left hand was a green crossbow.

Roy adjusted his aim, as if the snowstorm didn’t hinder his vision at all. Mana gathered in his right hand, forming a blinding white bolt. He meticulously placed the bolt into the crossbow.

“Worldbreaking technique: True Storm Piercer,” he said, and fired.

The bolt was like it was fired from a railgun, creating several sonic booms and spiraling across the sky.

…

“I’m done playing with you,’ Gyro said while slightly tilting his head.

A crossbow bolt whizzed past where Gyro’s head was moments before, shooting towards Jugo who stood across from him.

Before Jugo even realized what happened, he felt a foreign object enter his chest before quickly exiting it within moments. He looked down to see a large, gaping hole in his chest. It happened so fast that he was still unable to feel any pain from it yet. Without him noticing, Gyro suddenly appeared in front of him, and kicked him in the chest.

Jugo was flung out of the blizzard, and crashed into a mountain while bleeding profusely from his chest.

The snowstorm slowly began to fade, while Jugo struggled to get up while coughing mouthfuls of blood. He placed a hand in front of where the hole in his chest was and emitted mana. The hole was quickly sealed up with ice, blocking the wound.

“Clan head!”

“Father!”

Clansmen, elders, and his daughter Seria gathered around him worriedly.

The blizzard cleared, revealing the countless immortals who were caught up within it. The immortals quickly scanned the area, all of them searching for Gyro.

“I’m fine!” Jugo said while unsteadily getting up.

Gyro briefly smirked, floated up into the air, and said, “We’re leaving,” before flying off.

The large serpent turned back into a little girl, and flew after him along with the clawed-immortal.

“After him!” a rogue immortal shouted, and waves of immortals chased after the three immortals at the lead.

For some reason, Gyro felt compelled to look back at the mountain chain. He turned to face it one last time while flying away.

…

Zieg wasn’t sleeping. The reason wasn’t because he wasn’t tired, but because his instincts honed from his past life was warning him not to sleep.

The logical side of him told him that this was because of either one of two reasons. The first being that the Weiss Clan couldn’t be trusted, they could be planning to ambush them in the middle of the night while they were most vulnerable and defenseless. The second was that their reaction to the legendary artifact Aegis was too exaggerated. Although Zieg wasn’t aware of the value of legendary artifacts since he had lived in a mortal continent all his life up until this point, he clearly noticed the Weiss Clan’s reaction upon seeing Aegis. If other immortals valued legendary artifacts as much as they did, and if for some reason the information of it was leaked out, then it was very possible for them to be raided at a moment’s notice.

Like this, Zieg stayed up while spreading out his immortal senses to its limits. He quickly understood that the second reason he came up with was right when he sensed several immortals gather around in the sky.

Since this was none of his business, and the risk of acting for now was too big, he chose to wait it out until the whole thing settled down.

“After him!” he heard someone shout.

(Looks like it’s about over) he thought to himself as he exited the cave he was assigned to.

Directing his sight to the horde of immortals rapidly flying away, his sights gradually settled upon the one leading in the front.

It was at this moment that Gyro glanced back at the mountain chain.

Zieg looked into the fleeing figure’s eyes. For a brief moment, it almost seemed like the two of them crossed sights with each other.

(It can’t be!) waves of disbelief came crashing down on Zieg.

The figure of the one flying at the front overlapped with a figure of an immortal within Zieg’s memories. Their appearances were nearly identical and matched perfectly. The only differences the figure had with the person in Zieg’s memories were that the one now had a cold and cruel expression on his face, and that his left arm was now metallic. Zieg was able to easily determine that the metallic arm was some sort of high-grade artifact, possibly even a legendary artifact.

“Gyro!” Zieg uncontrollably exclaimed.