Hol stood silently for several long seconds.
The wind moved through the plaza, carrying loose snow across the frozen ground while dozens of rifles remained aimed directly at Shuan.
The old man’s expression did not change at first.
He simply stared at the kneeling boy before him.
Watching.
Measuring.
Thinking.
Then suddenly— his calm shattered.
Hol slammed the bottom of his staff violently against the frozen ground.
CRACK.
The sound exploded across the plaza.
The ice beneath the nearby soldiers trembled slightly from the impact.
Several people in the crowd flinched instinctively.
Even the whispers stopped immediately.
“You do not understand what is standing before you!” Hol’s voice thundered through the entire settlement.
For the first time, the old man truly looked angry.
Not ordinary anger.
Something older.
Deeper.
Like hatred buried beneath years of silence.
Children instantly hid behind their parents.
Some adults unconsciously stepped backward.
Hol pointed his staff directly toward Shuan.
“These are not normal humans!” His breathing had become heavier now.
Faster.
The veins near his neck tightened beneath the cold air while his eyes burned with something frighteningly close to obsession.
“The Eyes of Ice are the reason this world collapsed!” His voice echoed from the old speakers surrounding the plaza, making his words feel even larger beneath the gray sky.
“They are the ones who brought the endless winter!” The crowd began whispering again.
Fear spread visibly through the people now.
Like a sickness moving from face to face.
Hol continued shouting.
“They burned the earth first…” Snow shifted violently around his boots as he stepped forward again.
“…and then buried it beneath eternal ice!” A woman in the crowd covered her mouth.
One of the older men lowered his head slowly as if remembering something terrible.
Others stared directly at Shuan now.
Not with uncertainty anymore.
But fear.
Real fear.
As though the stories they had heard all their lives had suddenly taken human form before them.
Hol’s voice grew harsher.
“They appeared among humanity like ghosts!” His staff pointed sharply toward the crowd around him.
“They entered cities… villages… settlements… and left nothing alive behind them!” His breathing became ragged with emotion.
“They froze blood inside living bodies!” The crowd visibly recoiled at those words.
“Entire military divisions vanished trying to stop them!” He struck the ground again with his staff.
Another violent crack echoed outward.
“The old world fell because of them!” Silence followed.
A terrible silence.
Snow drifted slowly through the air while the people stared between Hol and the crying boy kneeling at the center of the plaza.
Some faces showed horror.
Others hatred.
Others only fear of what might happen next.
And in the middle of it all— Shuan slowly raised his head.
Tears still streamed down his face.
But now the fear inside his eyes had changed.
He looked shocked.
Lost.
As though part of him desperately wanted to believe Hol was lying.
That this was madness.
That none of it could possibly be true.
But another part of him— the part feeling the unbearable heat beneath his skin… the strange changes inside his body… the thing awakening somewhere deep within him— could not deny it completely anymore.
And that was what terrified him most.
Not Hol’s words.
Not the weapons.
But the possibility… that some part of this nightmare might actually be real.