In the course of his brief but intense life, Brando had learned many bitter truths. He'd understood that the world was cruel to those born different, that strength would determine a man's worth in Nea-Polis, and that promises could shatter like thin ice under the weight of reality. But he'd never imagined that one day he'd have to watch his friend die because of him.

  [3:32... 3:31... 3:30...]

  Brando stared at those red numbers with burning intensity. Every passing second was a step toward the abyss, a tick that marked the approach of Giordano's death. The azure crystalline veins had spread from his arm to reach his friend's shoulder, snaking beneath the skin like roots of a cursed tree.

  In that moment, his mind couldn't process anything but one terrifying truth: he was about to lose the only person who had ever believed in him when everyone else had abandoned him. Giordano, who had laughed at his mediocre jokes, who had shared his food even when there was little, who had told him "everything will be okay" even when they both knew it was a lie.

  "There has to be a way," Brando murmured, but his voice sounded hollow even to his own ears.

  Rusty trembled against his chest, sensing his master's agitation. Meanwhile, he'd returned to his base form, and the little Pseudo-Glacial emitted a plaintive sound, as if he too understood the gravity of the situation.

  "Brando..." Giordano's voice was too calm. "I don't think—"

  "No." Brando interrupted him, extending his hand toward the crystalline ring wrapping around his friend's arm. "Predator Ice can devour anything. It has to be able to absorb this shit."

  He concentrated all his will, feeling the Cold Veins respond to the call. The dark ice with its pulsing veins began to form around his fingers, extending toward the ring like hungry tentacles. But the moment Predator Ice made contact with the ring's cryogenic energy, it was like two magnets with the same polarity violently repelling each other. An electric shock shot through his arm, making him stagger back with a muffled cry. The ring then glowed more intensely, almost as if it were signaling that Brando, in this situation, could do nothing.

  "Incompatible," he whispered, staring at his trembling hands as if they'd become foreign to his body. "Fuck, it's incompatible."

  In that moment, Brando felt more useless than he'd ever felt during the worst years in Rione Sanità. At least then, when bullies beat him or when other kids mocked him, he could tell himself that one day he'd become stronger. But now? Now he had a unique and inimitable power, malleable enough to potentially solve any problem, yet still powerless.

  The azure veins had reached Giordano's chest, drawing geometric patterns on his skin like a map of conquered territory. His friend was breathing with difficulty, and his face was pale as snow.

  Alessio put a hand to his head, demonstrating that his usual composure was beginning to crack. "We should try—"

  "What can we try?" Eleonora replied forcefully. "Don't you remember we can't touch Cold Enhancers? We can't do anything, we have nothing! No tools, we don't know anything about Cold Enhancers!"

  Tommaso kept his fists clenched, his jaw contracted in an expression of helpless rage. "Twenty years in here and we can't do anything. It's so frustrating..."

  For Tommaso it was even worse, being the uncle. During all this chaos, Gaetano meanwhile hadn't said a word. He circled around Giordano with slow steps, studying the crystalline veins snaking along his arm. There was something different in his gaze. Before he always seemed a bit out of it, but now he seemed terribly focused. When he was close enough, he reached out and touched one of Giordano's azure veins.

  "Gaetano, what the hell are you doing?" Brando spat at him. This wasn't the time to do strange things.

  "I'm just... looking," Gaetano replied without turning around. He continued to gently touch the veins, moving his fingers along the crystalline patterns. "Nothing important."

  "Guys," Giordano said with a smile. "It's been an honor."

  "It's my fault," Brando whispered in a voice that reduced to a thread. "I'm the reason you're in this situation. I should have entered the CryoGame alone, I shouldn't have—"

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  "Shut up," Giordano said with the same smile as before. "It was my choice. I don't regret it."

  [1:53... 1:52... 1:51...]

  Tommaso cleared his throat in a sound rough as gravel. "We've seen other cadets use Cold Enhancers. They're incredibly powerful tools, but the price..." He stopped, swallowing hard. "The price always ended up being this. When you abuse them, the body can't handle it. The cryogenic system overloads and crystallizes everything."

  "So what?" Brando exploded. "We just let him die?"

  "We have no choice," Alessio said, but his voice trembled. "We can't do anything."

  "No, there's something we can do."

  It was then that Gaetano stopped in front of Giordano. He turned toward the group, and his face was completely transformed. Suddenly, it seemed like Gaetano had just reached Nirvana, as if he'd understood everything about life all at once. His eyes shone with a determination none of them had ever seen.

  Slowly, very slowly, he raised his arms.

  His skin began to change. It became translucent, like thin glass pierced by light. Beneath the surface, an intricate network of luminous fibers pulsed with a hypnotic rhythm. They weren't normal veins. They were something completely different, as if his circulatory system had been replaced by circuits of pure energy.

  "When I was little," Gaetano said in a clear, firm voice, "I dreamed of becoming a Criomedic."

  Brando stared at him open-mouthed. It was like seeing Gaetano for the first time.

  "In my family, almost everyone was a Criomedic," he continued, while the fibers under his skin pulsed more and more intensely. "I loved the way they saved lives. How people looked at them afterward, with that joy mixed with gratitude. With love."

  He approached Giordano with evident confidence. "When I died in here, I thought it was over. That my dreams had been shattered forever."

  He gently touched one of the crystalline veins on Giordano's arm. The azure surface responded to his touch with a glow that gradually intensified, as if it were recognizing something familiar.

  "But now I understand," Gaetano said, smiling. "Maybe it's a futile suggestion, but maybe the system put me here for a reason. It gave me exactly what I needed to realize my dream, even if not in the way I'd imagined."

  The fibers under his skin exploded with light, illuminating his body from within like a living lantern. "They're not strings I control," he explained, his voice resonating with new authority. "They're neural conductors of the Immersion itself. I can feel every flow of cryogenic energy, every fluctuation in the system."

  He moved his hand along Giordano's veins, and they began to glow less intensely, as if the energy was being drained away. "I can absorb this crystallization into my filaments. I can channel it through my body and disperse it into the simulation's larger system."

  He turned toward his companions, toward the family he'd found in the darkest moment of his existence, and the smile illuminating his face was something none of them had ever seen before. It was radiant. It was full of a peace that transcended the fear of death.

  "For twenty years I've felt useless," he said in a voice that trembled slightly with finally released emotion. "The weak link in the group. But today, finally, I can do what I've always wanted: save a life that matters."

  "NO!" Alessio stepped forward while desperation colored his voice. "There has to be another way! You can't sacrifice yourself!"

  Eleonora threw herself toward him, tears streaming down her face like rivers of pain that could no longer be contained. "Gaetano, please! Don't leave us! We're a family!"

  Tommaso, his rocky voice trembling for the first time since they'd known him, took an uncertain step. "You're the silent heart of our group. Who will hold us together without you?"

  But Gaetano shook his head, his smile unwavering. "There's no other way. You all know it, and that's okay."

  [0:59... 0:58... 0:57]

  Brando noticed that Rusty was trembling against his chest. The little Pseudo-Glacial seemed to sense something in the air, a change in the simulation's energy itself. He too knew they were about to lose someone.

  The timer continued its inexorable countdown. The azure veins on Giordano's body had slowed their expansion, but hadn't stopped completely.

  "Listen," Gaetano said, calling everyone's attention. His voice was calm, full of a serenity that contrasted dramatically with the panic around him. "My friends. For twenty years you've made me feel important even when I doubted myself," he continued, moving slowly toward Giordano. "You gave me a family when I'd lost everything. And now I want to return the favor."

  The fibers under his skin pulsed in sync with Giordano's veins, as if the two systems were beginning to resonate together.

  [0:45... 0:44... 0:43...]

  Gaetano stopped in front of Giordano, who looked at him with wide eyes. His friend's face was a mask of conflicting emotions: gratitude, terror, love, desperation.

  "Are you sure?" Giordano asked in a thread of voice.

  Gaetano smiled. "Yes."

  He took a deep breath, as if inhaling courage from the icy air around them. "Doing this means becoming an orange crystal statue," he explained with a calm that broke hearts. "But you know what? Twenty years ago I entered here as a boy who dreamed of saving lives."

  His hands began to glow more intensely, light making its way through the translucent skin like dawn through ice.

  "And today, finally, I can really do it."

  [0:27... 0:26... 0:25...]

  "Giordano," Gaetano continued, his voice becoming softer, more intimate. "Live. Keep living for me too. Promise me."

  And Giordano nodded.

  Before anyone could stop him, before Brando could scream, before Alessio could intervene, Gaetano wrapped his translucent arms around Giordano's crystallized arm.

  The filaments under his skin exploded with light.

  Energy circuits lit up along his entire body, creating geometric patterns that danced beneath the translucent surface. The light was so intense that Brando had to close his eyes, but he could still feel the energy flowing in the air, like silent lightning changing the very nature of reality around them.

  [0:03... 0:02... 0:01...]

  The timer stopped.