ACTS OF KINDNESS

The Clan Harmonia mission board glowed with new requests. Manager Valerius, a balding and perpetually stressed man, addressed them with an unfolded map. — Team, I have a mission for you. The village of Serene Grove, to the east. They've reported an increase in ogre activity, and they're more aggressive than usual. It's usually a task for a full team, but things have been... shaken up lately. Sacres was sent with another group to investigate an anomaly in the northern mountains, so the three of you will be going. —

— We don't need sacres!— cried Ikel, beating his chest. — With me it's more than enough to smash a few ogre heads! —

Noelia sighed, her gaze analyzing the map. — Great, without our main tank. This is going to be a bummer. Concentrate on not demolishing the village while crushing heads, Ikel. —

They reached Serene Grove and found it in the midst of a siege. Smoke billowed from a pair of thatched roofs and the screams of the villagers mingled with the guttural roars of ogres. They were huge, brutish creatures, armed with stone mallets the size of barrels.

They reached Serene Grove and found it in the midst of a siege. Smoke billowed from a pair of thatched roofs and the screams of the villagers mingled with the guttural roars of ogres. They were huge, brutish creatures, armed with stone mallets the size of barrels.

The battle began immediately. Ikel was a whirlwind of fire and fury, intercepting the main pack of ogres and becoming a wall of muscle and flame. Noelia, with incredible agility, leapt to the rooftops. From there, her vision was strategic; she cast ice spells that froze the ground to slow the reinforcements and erected barriers to protect the villagers fleeing towards the main hall.

Asimil, for his part, was taking care of the smaller ogres sneaking in from the flanks. His confidence had grown. He was no longer paralyzed. His green flames were precise, his movements, though not graceful, were effective.

That's when he saw it. In the midst of the chaos, a little boy, no more than five years old, had stood frozen in terror behind an overturned hay wagon. He was crying silently, his little shoulders shaking. An ogre, turned away from the main fight, saw him and began to walk heavily toward him, raising his mallet.

It wasn't a memory that drove Asimil. It was an instinct. A voice inside him, one that came not from his forgotten past but from deep within his new self, screamed at him to move. The mission objective, the strategy, all vanished. Only the child remained.

— Asimil, get back to your position! — shouted Noelia from the roof. 

But he didn't hear her. He ran, dodging the debris, and slipped in front of the hay wagon, interposing himself between the boy and the ogre.

— Run! — He shouted at the boy, without taking his eyes off the monster.

The boy, shaken out of his stupor, started to run. Asimil braced himself for the ogre's impact. But to protect the child, he had been completely exposed. Another ogre, whom he had not seen, emerged from his blind spot, his mace already descending in a deadly arc.

Asimil only had time to turn around. The blunt blow of the sledgehammer struck him squarely in the side. A dull, nauseating sound of his leather armor creaking echoed, and the world tilted violently. He was blasted through the air, his life bar plummeting to a flickering, critical red. He crashed into the wall of a hut and fell to the ground, a broken dummy.

— ASIMIL!!! — Ikel's scream was a roar of pure fury.

Seeing his friend fall unleashed the beast in Ikel. With speed and strength renewed by rage, he tore through the remaining ogres. From the rooftop, Noelia, her face pale and her eyes wild with shock, launched a single, massive spear of ice that pierced the ogre that had struck Asimil, freezing him on the spot.

The battle was over. The villagers poured out of their shelters, cheering their saviors. But Asimil, who was trying to get up with blurred vision and all-consuming pain, finally succumbed. Everything went black.

Darkness enveloped him... but it was not a void. It was warm. He found himself back in that bed, sick, feverish. A soft, cool hand rested on his forehead, an instant relief. He couldn't see a face, only a silhouette veiled by the light, sitting beside him, a presence that radiated absolute calm. And then, he heard her. A female voice, incredibly tender, singing a lullaby without words. The lyrics had been lost in time, but the melody was a balm, a promise that all would be well, an anchor of unconditional love and absolute security in the midst of his delirium.

The world came back as a whisper.

He was warm. It was comfortable. The pain had subsided to a dull echo. He felt something soft under his head and heard a melody. A lullaby, incredibly familiar. The same one from his dream. He opened his eyes slowly.

His vision, blurry at first, became clearer. The ceiling was not the ceiling of his room. It was the night sky of the Altverse, full of digital stars. He looked down. His head was not on a pillow, it was resting on Noelia's lap.

She was sitting with her back to a tree, looking at the horizon. It was she who was softly humming the lullaby. Her face, illuminated by the moon, had lost all its hardness. She looked young, vulnerable and deeply troubled.

Asimil let out a slight groan.

She startled and looked down, meeting his wide eyes. She stopped humming instantly, and a deep blush tinged her cheeks.

— Did you wake up? - he said, his voice falsely harsh again. — Don't move, you idiot. You're still hurt. You drank three high-level health potions. —

— The music... — he whispered, confused. — I heard it... Was it you... or was it the dream? —

But she did not push him away. They stood like that, in intimate silence, with the truth floating between them. He knew it had been her. And she knew he knew.

The moment, fragile and precious, was shattered.

— Hey, the sleepyhead finally wakes up! — Ikel appeared out of nowhere, with his usual overwhelming energy, carrying some medicinal herbs. — I thought we'd lost you, my friend! You gave us a big scare! —

Noelia, as if she had been caught in a crime, pushed Asimil's head out of her lap with a jerky motion and jumped to her feet, dusting off her skirt. Her mask of cool indifference was firmly back in place, though she could not prevent her ears from still being tinged with a telltale red.

— It's about time. We have wasted too much time here. We must return to the clan. —

He turned around and began to walk. Asimil, still on the ground, touched her sore side and smiled faintly. Perhaps, after all, the Ice Queen had a warm heart hidden under all those layers of frost.