The infestation spread like a living shadow — twisting, writhing, multiplying.
Glacius, still frozen in his own fury, felt the bugs crawling over his skin, their venom burning cold streaks into his body. His once-imposing figure was now a corrupted blend of ice and infestation — his frostbitten armor coated with black, slimy trails.
His jaw tightened, his breaths ragged but steady.
And then, in a voice weaker than his usual cold confidence, he muttered:
"You… defy the ice-demon."
There was no mistaking the simmering fury in his tone, but for the first time, a crack of vulnerability slipped through.
Peggy, standing not far from him, saw it — and something inside her twisted.
Her golden armor shimmered under the thin rays of light breaking through the frozen landscape. Her wings, though still bearing the damage from their forced separation, gleamed defiantly — like a single ray of warmth fighting against an unrelenting winter.
She gritted her teeth.
"Neutrals — run!" she shouted, waving an arm toward the terrified villagers.
The aquatic neutrals, still frozen with fear, finally scrambled to flee, darting past the encroaching bugs as Peggy sliced through the air — unleashing bright beams of light from her fingertips.
Golden streaks lashed out, cutting through the swarm. Each strike caused a burst of light and left behind the charred remains of bugs — but for every one she destroyed, dozens more replaced them.
Glacius, still half-buried in the mass of infestation, stared at her through the writhing swarm.
"Why are you helping me?" His voice was hoarse, but his usual icy smugness still lingered. "A… fairy helping a demon?"
He chuckled weakly, even with the bugs gnawing at his shoulder. "You'll regret it."
Peggy didn't even glance at him — her focus was purely on keeping the bugs at bay, slashing at them with precise beams of fairy magic, shielding both herself and Glacius from further attack.
"I'm not helping you," she snapped back. "I'm helping myself."
Another streak of light carved through a wall of bugs. "I need you alive to keep freezing these things so I can kill them faster."
Glacius' lips curved into a faint, tired smirk. "Is that so…?"
But despite their efforts — the bugs kept coming.
Their numbers never stopped.
Every time Glacius tried to freeze the infestation off his body, more bugs took their place. It was like fighting an unending flood. His ice — sharp, deadly, relentless — couldn't outpace the sheer volume of the Bug Tribe's forces.
Peggy, too, was beginning to struggle. Even with her radiant attacks, she was getting overwhelmed — bright golden beams of light slicing through the air, yet failing to create a dent in the enemy's forces.
And then — a cold, cruel voice echoed through the battlefield.
It was Venox watching from a distance with a twisted smile.
"What's wrong, Ice Prince?" Venox hissed. "Did you think your strength alone could outmatch us?"
Glacius' gaze, though dimmed by exhaustion, snapped toward him.
Venox's mandibles twitched into a smirk. "Our tribe doesn't rely on brute strength… We have numbers."
The buzzing grew louder — more bugs creeping from the trees, from the ground, from the water.
"A single bug gives birth to hundreds — every time we fall, more are born."
The mass of writhing soldiers seemed endless. They spilled like a wave over the battlefield, their sheer numbers a weapon in itself.
"We never die, Ice Prince." Venox chuckled darkly. "We multiply."
Glacius' fingers curled into a fist — the frost creeping along his arm flickering, unstable.
Peggy's expression hardened.
For all their power — Glacius' unrelenting frost and her radiant fairy light — they were slowly being drowned in the Bug Tribe's swarm.
The battlefield was chaos — an endless tide of buzzing wings, gnashing mandibles, and the sickening sound of infestation. Ice clashed against the unrelenting swarm, shattering bugs into frozen shards, yet more always seemed to rise in their place.
Glacius stood there — his blue hair now streaked with black trails of bug residue, his once-pristine icy aura flickering with frustration. His back still bore the painful marks from the forced separation from Peggy, faintly bleeding, though the cold numbed the pain.
The infestation clung to him — crawling along his legs and arms, threatening to consume him whole again. His frost spread in jagged bursts, freezing layers of bugs at a time — but it was never enough.
And then — a flash of gold.
Peggy darted in front of him, her golden armor glowing brighter as her wings fluttered furiously, slicing through the air with a soft hum. A barrier of light erupted between Glacius and the incoming horde, shielding him as more bugs lunged, only to disintegrate upon contact with her radiant magic.
Her body trembled — the weight of protecting both herself and him taking a toll — yet she didn't back down.
"What are you doing?" Glacius growled, his voice sharp as the ice he wielded. "I don't need a fairy playing hero for me. Move aside."
His words were cold, but his usually impassive gaze flickered — just for a second — with something dangerously close to concern.
Peggy didn't flinch. "I'm not doing this for you."
Her voice was steady, but the tremor in her glowing wings said otherwise. "You can fight them back, at least a little and I need that. If you fall here, it's over. For both of us."
Glacius' lips curled into a humorless smirk. "Naive." His icy breath misted in the cold air. "You're twenty, still just a child?"
Peggy's jaw tightened.
"And you're twenty four, acting like you know everything about the World."
Glacius' smirk faltered — a flicker of annoyance in his pale blue eyes — but Peggy didn't stop.
"I may be young, but I know one thing." Her voice softened, a hint of something more than just defiance slipping through. "If I let you fall, there's no hope for this fight."
The words hit harder than Glacius cared to admit.
He wasn't sure what irritated him more — the fact that she was right… or the fact that she was willingly throwing herself between him and danger.
"You think I need saving?" His voice was lower now — more controlled, though the bite of pride still lingered. "I'm not some helpless fool. Get out of the way."
He stepped forward, his ice flaring — shattering the layer of frozen bugs at his feet and sending a chilling shockwave through the swarm.
But Peggy didn't move — instead, her wings flared even brighter, her light forming a shield to block a wave of incoming bugs from his left flank.
"I'm not moving."
Glacius' hands trembled — not from weakness, but from something unfamiliar clawing at his chest.
The bugs kept coming, a never-ending army but all he could focus on for that moment was her.
Her golden wings.
The soft glow of her armor.
The fierce, unwavering look in her eyes — standing between him and certain death.
"Why?" he muttered, his voice barely audible.
Peggy didn't answer — she simply gritted her teeth and kept fighting.
Glacius clenched his jaw — his annoyance bubbling to the surface again. He wasn't used to this, wasn't used to someone standing up for him.
It was always him — the cold, untouchable ice-demon — who others feared and respected.
And now… this foolish, stubborn fairy was shielding him like he was the fragile one.