"Great Iruhi…" the giant whispered, horrified and reverent at once. "The trials were not… merely the loop."

Victor's brows pulled together. "Huh?"

But before the being could elaborate, Victor sighed heavily.

"Look, prophecy or no prophecy, I'm only here because I need to get back to the surface. That's it. That's all. No saving, no chosen-one-ing, no prophesying."

The giant placed a hand to his chest.

"I, Rhozan, will personally aid you in all things. Allow me to attend to you."

Victor looked up at the giant's glowing, reverent eyes.

"…I never said you could attend to me."

"It is an honor."

"I don't want the honor."

"It is yours."

Victor groaned loudly.

Resigning himself to his new entourage, Victor rose from the overly dramatic chair and walked toward the exit of the palace.

Immediately, the beings aligned themselves on either side, bowing as he passed.

Rhozan and three others followed behind him like oversized ducklings.

Victor scratched his head, muttering, "…This must be what celebrities feel like. Horrible. Absolutely horrible."

He walked through the city again, this time on his own feet. Everywhere he went, the inhabitants froze, knelt, bowed, or pressed their hands reverently to the ground.

At one point, Victor sneezed.

Three Kahr'uun fainted.

"Seriously, stop doing that!" Victor yelled while waving wildly. "It was just a sneeze!"

Rhozan leaned forward solemnly.

"Even your breath shakes the fates, Great Iruhi."

Victor slapped a hand over his face. "Oh my god, please stop saying things like that."

The others simply followed him with glowing eyes, whispering among themselves.

He walked by strange crystal trees, pools that defied gravity, and icy structures shaped like spirals, towers, and shells. Every detail suggested ancient craftsmanship.

Victor stopped and turned to Rhozan.

"So, this prophecy thing. Explain again why you think it's me."

Rhozan bowed slightly.

"We shall speak of it in time. For now, explore freely. Everything you set eyes upon is yours."

Victor stopped walking.

"Look, I'm not here to rule you. I'm not your savior. I just want—"

"You shall have whatever you desire."

"I desire to leave!"

Rhozan nodded solemnly.

"Then we shall escort you to the surface—once the rites are complete."

"WHAT rites?!"

"The rites," Rhozan said reverently, "to acknowledge you as the one destined to bring salvation to our people."

Victor crashed both hands onto his face.

"…This is going to be a long day."

...

...

The underground ice city stretched endlessly beneath Victor's boots. The Kahr'uun moved quietly around him with their pale-blue skin shimmering with faint frost-like patterns and their eyes reflecting the calm glow of the icy caverns.

For the last hour, Rhozan, their leader, had guided Victor through their sanctuaries, healing chambers, training pillars, mana wells, and their frozen agricultural rings.

The Kahr'uun lived with surprising harmony, almost monk-like, though every single one of them radiated power comparable to Mid level Drakenars warriors.

But the tour only deepened Victor's confusion.

These people were nothing like humans, nothing like Drakenars, Sylrith, or Umbryx.

And now that he'd seen enough, the question that had been gnawing at him finally pushed its way out.

Victor stopped on a frost bridge overlooking the vast lower cavern where thousands of Kahr'uun went about their daily routine.

"Alright, Rhozan," Victor voiced while folding his arms. "I've been patient. But I need to ask something before my head starts spinning. How did your people end up this deep underground? And you guys obviously possess mana… your bodies… not human... not of any species that originated from earth... at least, none that I remember..."

Rhozan exhaled, and a cold mist left his lips.

"It is time we speak of our origins," Rhozan said solemnly. "I expected this question. Follow me."

He led Victor toward a tall, spiraling structure resembling a frozen monolith. As they approached, the frost walls shifted and opened like petals welcoming them inside.

The chamber was quiet, circular, filled with softly glowing runes. Rhozan placed his hand on the center pedestal. A gentle pulse of mana spread through the chamber, activating floating crystal projections.

Scenes began forming above them, turning to visual echoes of memories preserved by spell.

"This," Rhozan began, "is the story of my people. One that dates back to around four decades… to when the sky of your world split open above the great ocean you call the Pacific."

Victor stiffened.

He knew this story. Everyone born under the domes did. The event that changed human history forever. The arrival of the three species: Drakenar, Sylrith, Umbryx.

But the images forming in front of him weren't focused on those three.

Instead, Victor saw a chilling world with dark purple skies, glaciers towering like mountains, beasts covered in crystalline fur, and froststorms that could shred steel.

"Our home," Rhozan said quietly.

Victor watched as hundreds of thousands of blue-skinned Kahr'uun walked through blizzards with ease.

Then the vision changed.

Huge cracks tore through the sky of their world. Mana storms ravaged the land. Creatures screamed as reality bent and collapsed.

"We were dying," Rhozan continued. "However, the Sylrith fled first. The Drakenar broke through next. Then the Umbryx carved their escape."

Victor blinked.

This much matched the history he knew.

Only the next words shattered it.

"But they were not the only ones," Rhozan said. "We also attempted to cross."

Victor's head snapped toward him.

His heartbeat quickened.

In the visions, thousands of Kahr'uun stood in a massive ritual circle carved into ice.

Their robes of their mages fluttered violently as they channeled a colossal forbidden spell. Their bodies glowed with unbearable strain as frost cracked their skin.

"What are they doing?" Victor questioned.

"Performing a ritual... to help us cross," Rhozan responded with a solemn tone.

"You… you used a ritual to cross?" Victor asked.

Rhozan nodded with grief-shadowed eyes.

"Because… this world isn't cold," he stated. "Nowhere here is cold enough for my people."

"And that was the problem," Rhozan added. "There was no environment on your planet where we could survive. Even the coldest peaks would have killed us within days. So we had to create a sanctuary before we crossed."

Victor had an expression of realization as his vision shifted again.

Tens of thousands of Kahr'uun mages stepped forward… and began pouring their life force into the spell.

"Don't tell me…"

"Yes," Rhozan said. "Ten thousand of our people sacrificed their lives to activate the ritual."

Victor shook his head slowly.

"You're telling me… they burned their lives to make this place? This whole frozen world beneath Earth?"

Rhozan looked at him.

"No. They created the climate above as well."

Victor's breath caught.

"What?"

Rhozan looked sorrowful.

"That massive cold region above the ground—the unnatural frost wasteland you encountered on your way here? That was our doing. The aftermath of the spell. A result of ten thousand lives willingly spent to freeze the land above and create a sanctuary deep below."

Victor's mind spun.

He knew that region was unnaturally cold, far beyond anything caused by Earth's weather patterns. Humans had assumed it was fallout from mana storms during the portal event.

But this…

This changed everything.

"So all this time," Victor muttered to himself, "people thought only three species made it through. But there were more."

He suddenly paused upon realizing that he seemed to have heard a similar story before.

The events that transpired between him and the Dreamweavers suddenly drifted into his mind.

"Once you give me enough dream energy, I can break free from here and free the rest of my people... we shall walk this new world and rise to the top of the food chain like the Drakenars, Sylrith and Umbryx…"

The Dreamweavers had tried to cross over too and just like the Kahr'uun people, they also had to use a forbidden spell but got trapped in statues.

'Since I got displaced far from the domed cities… everything I've met out here from the Dreamweaver to the Kahr'uun… There's a chance other species slipped through without humans knowing.'

Victor felt that perhaps their information about only three species infiltrating earth was outdated. Who knew just how many more threats were out there?

However, one silver lining to all this was that, unlike the Dreamweavers, the Kahr'uun people weren't hostile. They only wanted to survive... they didn't wish to harm anyone.

Although, Victor couldn't tell if this hospitality was because they thought he was some saviour...

If they had to harm others to protect their people, would they be any different from the extraterrestrial magical species that already plague the earth?

Victor glanced at Rhozan sideways.

"…this prophecy thing... how does it come into play?"

Rhozan's expression morphed into something between reverence and hesitation.

"This whole 'Iruhun' business. You all keep looking at me like I'm supposed to save you from something. What does it actually mean? And save you from what, exactly?"

Rhozan stepped toward the pedestal. The crystal projections changed again and this time showing a much darker, more ominous set of images.

The icy cavern trembled as the visions twisted into shapes Victor didn't recognize.

A swirling mass of shadows.

A colossal frozen beast with glowing eyes.

A dimensional fracture seeping mana.

And finally… a silhouette—humanoid, cloaked in darkness, descending like a falling star.

Rhozan's voice dropped to a near whisper.

"The prophecy of the Iruhun speaks of our people facing extinction a second time. Something ancient, something that followed us through the rift… something we did not realize survived the collapse of our world..."