Chapter 34
Jayden stared at the monster cloaked in the form of a human girl. She seemed around his age, yet the sheer pressure radiating from her surpassed him entirely. Instead of ending his life, she clutched her head, mumbling incoherently in a language that made no sense.
He cautiously waved his hand in front of her face. No response.
Then suddenly, she fell to her knees, whispering the same words again and again.
"It's my fault... it's my fault... it's all my fault..."
Jayden didn't care what was her fault — he wanted to get the hell out of here. He turned around, searching for another exit, but that's when everything changed.
The temperature plummeted even further.
So fast it felt like time froze.
Warning! Warning! WARNING!
The host is in a critically cold environment. Core temperature dropping rapidly. Immediate action required.
Jayden whipped around, his eyes narrowing. Frost curled over the walls like living tendrils. The girl remained still — mumbling, broken — but the ice surrounding her swirled violently, as if reflecting her unstable mind.
"Stop!" Jayden shouted, taking a step back.
At first, everything stilled. He almost sighed in relief — until her eyes glazed over.
"It's all my fault they're dead!!" she screamed, levitating into the air, and unleashed a new surge of frost that froze half the already frozen chamber in an instant.
Jayden clenched his jaw, using chakra control to resist the cold, but even that was rapidly failing. Ice formed on his arms, crawling up to his shoulders. His HP bar turned a ghostly white — frost damage.
"Shit! I gotta get outta here!"
But there was no safe zone. Not with her here.
He staggered forward, every step a gamble. The closer he got, the more intense the cold became. 8% red left on his HP bar — the rest was a frosty white.
"It's not your fault!" Jayden yelled, hoping... praying she'd listen.
No response.
He kept pushing forward.
7%.
6%.
5%.
The frost burned into his skin. His body began locking up. He imagined becoming an ice sculpture, a dumb elder pointing at him in shame.
"This was the One-Shotter, a prodigy. Killed by hypothermia. What a waste."
Jayden imagined Zon and Elder Damier laughing smugly.
No. Hell no.
4%.
3%.
2%.
He was almost frozen to the core. His body trembled. Her face was just inches away. Words weren't working.
"Just shut up already!!" Jayden shouted. In desperation, using the only unfrozen part left — his mouth — he leaned in and closed her mouth with his.
Yes. Kissed her.
He expected nothing. Maybe frostbite. Maybe death.
But then...
Stillness.
Warmth.
The air began to stabilize. The frost faded. Her white eyes turn blue then widened as she blinked, stunned, lips still pressed to his.
Jayden's brain barely kept up.
What kind of twisted world is this!?
He pulled away awkwardly. "S-Sorry. I didn't... know what else to do."
Silence. Then her voice, soft and awed:
"Did you just... propose to me?"
Jayden's eye twitched. "Propose what?"
---
A few minutes later…
Jayden sat on a warm bed, still stunned.
The girl—the frost monster that almost turn him to ice sculpture — now calm — smiled brightly, sitting beside him, explaining something absurd: In the Ice Tribe, a kiss from a male to a female was a proposal. If she kissed back, it meant acceptance. Then they'd wed.
Seriously!?
Her name was Glaciera, princess of the Ice Tribe. She lost control of her powers when her people were slaughtered — and she blamed herself. Her abilities, while beautiful, were deadly.
Now she looked at him dreamily, leaning in for another kiss.
Jayden slapped a hand over his mouth. "Nope. I got... important stuff to do."
Unbothered, Glaciera giggled and handed him a shimmering white lotus.
"This will boost your water and ice techniques. It may even increase your stage. Consider it... a gift, darling."
Jayden stared at the glowing item.
[Ice Lotus: Absorption increases water-based jutsu by 35%. Chance to gain a unique passive skill.]
He was tempted to not give it to Elder Damier, but before he could decide—
"If you don't want it, then I—"
Yoink!
"I'll take it. Thanks," Jayden said flatly.
With his HP restored, thanks to some healing pills and the deactivation of the ice golem, Jayden finally left the chamber.
But he didn't feel free.
Because up at the top of the chamber, Glaciera waved down at him, shouting with a blush:
"Wait for me, darling! I'll be joining you soon!!"
Jayden's eye twitched again. "...What did I get myself into?"
---
Back at the Scarlet Faction...
The moon loomed heavy in the sky as Jayden sprinted through the shadowed courtyard, his expression blank, all he wanted his to deliver the ice lotus, get his spirit gathering pills and get some good night sleep.
He reached Elder Damier's quarters — and stopped cold.
Blood.
Red streaks of it stained the wooden doorframe, still wet.
Knock. Silence.
A heartbeat passed. Then he activated his three tomoe Sharingan.
With a sharp breath, he stepped back—then kicked the door open with a bang that shattered the silence.
The smell hit first — iron, death.
Bodies.
Dozens of them.
Members littered the marble tiles like broken puppets, eyes frozen in horror, their throats slashed or bodies scorched beyond recognition.
"What the hell happened here...?" Jayden muttered, stepping into the carnage.
The moment he step into the courtyard
He saw them.
Two men.
One stood tall and wild, red mohawk crackling with heat, flames dancing over his body like living serpents. The other was silent — cloaked in obsidian armor, twin glowing blue scythes humming with icy malevolence, his face shadowed by a hood.
Branded into their chestplates was a crimson S — pulsing ominously.
Jayden's Sharingan flared.
System Alert:
...Quest Unavailable...
...Analyzing Threat Level..
...Analysis Terminated.
Outcome: Certain Death.
Final Recommendation: Prepare for Termination.
It was an honor serving you host, Host.
Jayden stared at the glowing message hovering in front of him like a digital tombstone.
His hands trembled. His knees buckled slightly. A single leaf floated down from the heavens and landed softly beside him.
"Even my system's writing my obituary…" he muttered.
The music in his mind crescendoed — tragic, orchestral, with a slow pan to his deadpan face.
"What kind of cursed protagonist luck is this...?" he whispered, the sky now dramatically overcast.
He raised one hand to the heavens as if calling to the anime gods themselves.
"Is this my arc?! Is this where I'm supposed to die dramatically just to give someone else character development. But he couldn't sulk for long.
The mohawk one turned slowly, a devilish grin stretching across his face. His eyes gleamed like molten lava.
"Scythe, mind if I toast this brat real slow?" he snarled, his voice almost playful.
The other spoke coldly, without emotion. "Just don't waste my time."
Jayden moved first. He isn't ready to give up on life, not yet.
"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!" he roared, flinging the spiraling mass of wind chakra with pinpoint precision.
The red-haired one didn't even flinch.
He caught the jutsu — with his bare hand — and crushed it, wind chakra dispersing like a popped balloon.
Jayden's heart plummeted.
That attack wasn't just high-level. It was S-rank.
It shouldn't have been erased like that.
"You've got some bite, kid. But now…" The red-haired man grinned darkly, forming a blazing red orb in his palm — small, but vibrating with insane destructive energy. "...It's my turn."
System Warning:
Danger Level: CATASTROPHIC.
Jayden's mind raced.
He layered every defense he had in seconds —
Earth Style: Stone Wall.
Summon: Triple Rashomon Gates.
Chakra Armor: Max Reinforcement....
A fortress of raw power surrounded him.
"Futile," the red-haired man — Bon — whispered, hurling the orb like a divine execution.
The explosion shattered the air like thunder.
The gates were erased. The earth become nonexistent. Jayden was sent flying, crashing into the courtyard walls, tumbling like a ragdoll. Pain ripped through every nerve.
-130 HP
[70/200 HP Remaining]
If not for those defenses... he'd be dead. No he would've been erased.
Bon stalked forward slowly. "Still breathing? He ask clearly surprised, even someone at the purple plane would have been incinerated not to talk of someone at the blue plane.
Jayden gritted his teeth, blood seeping from his lips. "Who... are you?"
Bon smirked, pointing at Damier's corpse. "Sin Organization. He was one of us. Traitor tried switching sides. We don't tolerate betrayal."
Jayden didn't flinch at the revelation — Damier being a traitor didn't shock him.
What did bother him... was the fact his spirit gathering pills was now very, very dead.
Damn it. I really need those pills...
The situation was absurd. Death loomed — and he was worried about some resources.
Then again... maybe it wasn't absurd.
Maybe he'd already accepted that he wouldn't live past tonight. Not after the system itself confirmed it.
Not when the sound barrier seals around the Elder's quarters ensured no one outside could hear a thing.
Bon raised another orb, red energy crackling. "Time to finish this."
Jayden's limbs refused to move. Chakra reserves couldn't help his extremely damaged body.
So this is it... huh.
Then—
SPLASH.
A violent spray of blood painted the moonlight.
Bon's head — gone.
His body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
Jayden blinked.
A figure stood where Bon had once been, calm and upright, holding the severed head like it weighed nothing.
White hair. Grey eyes like icebergs in winter.
He turned to the other assassin, grey eyes blazing.
"Tell me..." he ask calmly.
"Where is your organization?"
Jake.
The youngest Grand Elder of the Scarlet Faction.
But that's not what chilled Scythe to his core.
His eyes widened in terror.
"Y-You're the... White Reaper…"
Jake looked mildly annoyed. "That's not what I asked you."
His tone was ice.
Scythe gritted his teeth, and with mechanical precision, his scythes sliced forward in a deadly blur — both plunged clean through Jake's chest.
"I got him," Scythe whispered, ready to sigh in relief.
Then Jake flickered.
Afterimage.
Too late, Scythe realized the real threat was now behind him.
"You knew that name... and still attacked?" Jake's voice whispered like a blade against skin. "That's either bravery… or stupidity."
Blood erupted in all directions — thin, precise cuts,yet Jake doesn't lift a finger.
Scythe dropped to his knees, his entire body dismembered internally before he even fell.
Before dying, he rasped:
"It doesn't matter who you are... or how strong your faction is...
The Sin Organization... is unlike anything you've faced."
Jake stepped over him, calm as ever. "Then I'll kill them too."
Scythe's head dropped. Dead.
Jayden hadn't blinked once. He couldn't.
This wasn't the same Jake who give advice with a smile and walked halls like a harmless elder.
This was something else. A monster in human form.
Jake turned slowly and began walking toward him.
Step by step.
Jayden tensed.
He expected a threat. A warning. A command to keep everything that happens a secret.
Instead, Jake crouched slightly, tilting his head. Then he smiled,
"Alright, student…" he said coolly, brushing blood from his sleeves.
"…Get ready for your first lesson."
To be continued.