Chapter 164: 164:His First Crush

The ground was covered in fire. Smoke rose into the sky, and screams echoed all around.

The Flame Demon stood tall, its body burning like a living furnace. With every swing of its fiery arms, humans were thrown like broken dolls. Their swords and arrows did nothing. They shouted, fought, and cursed—but it was useless.

One armored swordsman rushed forward, shouting, "Fall, you cursed monster!"

He slashed with all his strength—but the demon barely flinched.

With a cruel laugh, the demon raised one hand and crushed him under a blast of flame.

"Nooo!" someone screamed.

The battlefield was chaotic.

Kael was there too not as a hero, but as someone trying to survive. He was just a nobody, a small soldier with no great power. He ducked behind burning wreckage with his heart pounding in fear and face covered in soot.

But fate didn’t care.

A fireball—huge and bright—came flying straight at him. Before he could even react, it hit the spot behind.

BOOOOM.

The blast of explosions smashed into his back and sent him flying. He landed hard on the ground, flames licking at his skin.

"Ahh!"

He screamed, loud and painful. The pain was like nothing he had felt before.His body shook. He rolled on the burning earth, trying to escape the fire that was already on him.

"It hurts...It hurts...ARGH!" he roared, choking, eyes filled with tears.

"Goddess, save me! Please! I don’t want to die!"

He begged. He called out to the sky, to anyone, anything. The pain was too much. It was killing him slowly, and he felt his strength fading. His eyes blurred. His body felt heavy.

Then, suddenly—

BOOOOOM!

A sound like thunder exploded near him. But it wasn’t of flame rather it was a blast of coldness

A wave of icy wind burst out and froze the flames. The fire turned into ice—beautiful, glowing ice that cracked and sparkled. The air chilled in seconds. Kael gasped as the pain faded. The burning stopped.

The cold air wrapped around him like a blanket. He could breathe again.

He slowly opened his eyes.

And then he saw someone.

His heart almost jumped out of his chest.

A woman stood before him, her armor shining like silver frost. Her hair was long, crystal white with a soft bluish hue. Her skin was smooth like snow, and her lips soft and pale. Her blue eyes glowed like moonlight on ice.

She looked like a warrior and an angel at the same time. A sword was in her hand, glowing faintly, and on her head—two pointed ears peeked out from her hair.

Kael’s mouth fell open as his bewildered eyes locked onto hers.

She looked at him with worry and asked gently while trying to support him."Hu... Human, are you alright?"

Kael couldn’t speak for a second. His heart was pounding. His face felt warm despite the cold.

His lips moved on their own.

"Gorgeous..."

She blinked. "Huh? What did you say, human?"

"I... I said you are gorgeous... I... I have never seen someone as beautiful as you, Miss Fairy..."

The woman’s eyes widened in shock. She screamed in surprise, shoving him aside.

"WHAAATT!"

Kael blinked, still lying on the ground, completely dazed. His heart was still thudding like a drum, not from fear anymore—but from something new. Something he didn’t understand.

But he knew one thing for sure.

She had saved him.

Kael didn’t know how to put it into words.

That moment... It was the turning point of his life.

He met her when the world was burning—when his body was broken, and his spirit was on the verge of shattering. Until then, though he was a noble of the highest status, groomed with manners and raised in luxury, he had barely spoken to women. Yet he had seen the most beautiful ladies of the empire—daughters of dukes, princesses, even the empress herself.

But none of them had pierced his heart the way she did.

It was one glance.

One single look from her... and something inside him changed forever.

His heart had never beaten so fast. It felt like music—wild, clumsy, awkward, yet beautiful.

Butterflies filled his chest, wings fluttering like crazy. He was covered in wounds, pain screaming in every nerve, yet he remembered only her—her face, her eyes, the cold air around her like a sacred aura.

It was his first crush.

The first time he knew what it felt like to fall—not in battle, but in love.

In that nightmarish battlefield, surrounded by howls and flames, she rose like a goddess of winter—blistering, silent, and breathtaking. A crystal of snow amidst the fire. She moved with elegance, every slash of her blade freezing demons solid, shattering them like glass.

The Ice Elves hated humans. But they hated demons more than anything.

So they saved what remained of them... and took Kael, along with the survivors, back to their hidden tribe in the north.

After that night when flames turned to frost and death turned to survival, the world shifted.

Humans and Ice Elves, despite centuries of distrust and silent animosity, found themselves with a common enemy—demons who burned forests, corrupted lands, and devoured both men and elves alike. In desperation, they joined hands, forming a fragile alliance, forged in blood and necessity.

The Human Alliance sent a squad to fight alongside Ice Elves to take care of the troublesome Demons who used flames.

While surviving troops were called back, Kael pleaded with his seniors to stay there and fight alongside the Ice Elves.

The senior didn’t put him in the eyes cause he was weak while the squad dispatched for support had humans who could use Ice Element or fire element that would prove helpful unlike the useless him.

In the end, Kael only managed to stay by bribing the superior with leftover money he had taken while running away from the Duke.

Later, during the alliance, he was chosen as a messenger to communicate with Ice Elves as he had stayed with them more compared to others.

One day, a certain someone asked him.

"Why did I choose to stay here and struggle?"

Hearing the question, all Kael did was smile heartily.

Kael, who once lay broken on the battlefield, barely clinging to life, chose to stay. Not just because of duty or honor... but because of her.

Asana.