Everfrost Wasteland, Sakend Universe Plane.

A biting chill stirred Lilith awake.

The first thing she heard were faint, furry whispers nearby.

"Ch-Chief, is this… is this the ancient being summoned by the ritual? Why does it look… human?"

"Yeah, Chief! You said the ancestral formation could connect to the Astral Realm and call forth a mighty guardian to protect our snow cat tribe through the crisis—but this…"

Another voice sounded, full of disappointment.

"The runes did light up though! The star coordinates were right…"

"Maybe… maybe they got damp after all these centuries?"

Lilith jolted upright, blinking.

The sight before her froze her mid-thought.

She wasn't surrounded by starfields or void turbulence—but by an endless expanse of snow and ice.

And the creatures encircling her were not demons or Zerg horrors, but—a group of large, white, fluffy cats, with soft fur and bright blue eyes.

For a long moment, she just stared.

Then instinct kicked in. Her consciousness swept inward—

Fiona's immense dragon form was curled up within her storage space, deeply unconscious.

She'd burned all her strength shielding Lilith from that last, deadly void fissure.

The memory hit like a stone in her chest.

"Chief! Look, she's awake!" one of the snow cats yelped.

In an instant, they all crowded closer, eyes gleaming with curiosity and half-hidden caution.

Lilith's body tensed. "W-who are you? What do you want?"

She stepped back, gathering faint starlight mana in her palm.

The cold didn't bother her much—but the aura from these cats was anything but harmless.

Then one of them padded forward—taller than the rest, with a regal mane and frost-tipped whiskers.

Unlike the others, it didn't bounce or flail; it moved with steady, deliberate steps—the bearing of a true leader.

It sniffed her lightly, and then its furry face tightened into a strangely humanlike seriousness.

It produced a short staff carved of ice crystal and ancient wood, topped with a murky gem, and began chanting in an old, guttural tongue. The staff trembled, pointing straight at Lilith.

She frowned. What now?

Suddenly—

BOOM!

The crystal at the tip exploded in blinding light!

The Everfrost Wasteland turned radiant as glass; the snow cats yowled, shielding their eyes with fluffy paws.

Then—crack!

The light faded.

The staff's crystal shattered into glittering dust, drifting to the ground.

Lilith: Wait… what? Are they… trying to scam me?

Snow cats: "??!!"

"The ancestral staff! Great ancestors above!!"

The chieftain's round body quivered as he held the broken relic, voice trembling.

"C-Chief, what just happened?" one of them stammered.

The chief wiped his teary eyes, then looked back at Lilith with an unreadable, almost reverent expression.

"She… she truly bears immense fortune. Her luck is off the charts."

"How high are we talking, Chief?" a younger cat pressed, tail twitching.

The chief's tone became solemn."Her luck… is higher than three or four entire snow mountains combined!"

Every cat froze.

Mouths dropped. They all stared at Lilith like she was some sacred miracle.

A few bold ones even crept forward and poked her dress gingerly with soft paws.

"Look! She's glaring at us! Her eyes are sparkling like stars!"

Lilith's forehead twitched. "Enough! All of you—back off!"

This was getting absurd.

Dragged to some frozen world, surrounded by talking cats babbling nonsense about "great fortune"?

What fortune?! The only thing she had was a godlike father—and a dragon partner lying half-dead in her storage.

"Step back," ordered the chief.

The tribe obeyed instantly, though their blue eyes stayed locked on her.

Then he turned to Lilith and announced gravely:

"By the authority of the snow cat chieftain, I hereby declare that you are now one of our tribe. You shall share our honor and our suffering."

Lilith: "!!!?"

"Hey—wait! Who agreed to that?!" she shouted.

But the snow cats were already cheering, swept up in the frenzy of imagined tribal glory.

"Meow! The snow cat tribe will rise again!"

"Long live the Chief!"

"Long live our destiny!"

Later, inside an ice-and-stone hut.

Lilith slumped over a fur-draped table, face twisted in despair.

These ridiculous cats!

If she weren't wounded—and if that chieftain's power didn't feel so deep—she'd have bathed them all in starlight and turned their fur into constellations!

Let them dance as twinkling stars beside Olivia's harp!

The door creaked.

The snow cat chieftain padded in.

Lilith snorted and turned her back.

He didn't mind. He sat down opposite her, his massive frame making the chair groan.

"You were summoned through my tribe's ancestral ritual. You bear the fate to lead us back to glory. From this day, our future rests upon your shoulders."

Lilith's temple throbbed. Breathe. Endure.

Dad will come. Elarielle will find me. Just don't kill the cat.

Then the chieftain mused aloud, eyeing her silver hair and light-blue robes.

"Hmm. Since you're part of our tribe now, you'll need a proper name—one that suits our style."

He tapped his chin, deep in thought. "Let's see… how about… Snowball?"

…

That was the last straw.

She snapped.

"Snowball?! You're the one who's a Snowball! Your whole family's a bunch of Snowballs, you stupid cat!"

Lilith lunged at him, fists flailing.

Her blows rained down like a meteor shower—harmless, but full of fury.

The humiliation was real.

"Let go! Ow—my whiskers! Stop pulling my whiskers!!"

After a few minutes, both collapsed in exhaustion.

Lilith sat panting, scowling.

The chieftain mournfully smoothed his tangled beard, glaring back with wounded dignity.

"I am the chieftain! You must obey my orders!" he huffed.

Lilith spat. "I only listen to my father!"

"You—you have a father?!" the chieftain gasped, as if that were some cosmic impossibility.

"Argh! That's it!" Lilith raged. "I'll turn your stupid beard into butterfly bows!"

Just then, a thunderous rumble shook the ground.

Alarms and sharp whistles echoed outside.

The chieftain's fur bristled.

"Chief! Bad news!" a panicked snow cat burst in.

"The damn foxfolk are attacking again!"

The chieftain yanked Lilith up and dashed toward the edge of the tribe's encampment.

What met their eyes made her pupils shrink.

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