Awakening: Chronicles of Astra Prime

Leo's fingers dug into the cold steel arms of the chair, his knuckles turning white under the pressure. It felt like the world around him was collapsing, and the room itself seemed to pulse with the glow of the symbols carved into its dark walls. Every tiny flicker of light emanating from those marks felt alive, almost as if they were watching him, feeding on his unease. No amount of bravado could prepare a person for Ms. Frost's interrogation methods, least of all Leo, whose usual charm had been stripped away piece by piece.

The sleek woman stood over ,watching him with her predator's gaze, her hands clasped neatly behind her back, head tilted slightly in a mix of disdain and cold curiosity. Her platinum blonde hair fell in an unbroken waterfall, sharp enough in its shine to reflect the pale crimson glow of the room's seals. Normally, someone as beautiful as Ms. Frost might inspire awe or admiration—but in this moment, her piercing blue eyes made Leo feel like an insect pinned under her scrutiny. There was no empathy in her gaze—only the cold determination of a predator deciding how and when to strike.

Behind her stood Ruddy, arms folded tightly across his chest as if trying to project some kind of middle ground between calm and indifference. Yet, despite his calming assurances earlier, Leo couldn't ignore the tension in Ruddy's stance or the faint flicker of guilt in his eyes when their gazes met.

"Let's start from the beginning, Mr. Leo," Ms. Frost said, her voice as crisp and sharp as frost forming on a blade. She made no effort to soften it—it was coldly deliberate, each syllable precise, like she was dissecting him with her words alone. "How. Did. You. Get. The. Core?" She paused, letting the question hang in the charged air between them, the weight of her intention unmistakable. "No dancing around the facts. No clever evasions. Just the truth."

She tilted her head slightly, her icy blue eyes locking onto his like a predator watching its prey struggle. "I'm sure you're capable of that. Aren't you?"

Leo flinched ever so slightly under her gaze, but she betrayed no reaction, her lips curving into the faintest ghost of a smile—a smile that carried no warmth whatsoever. Instead, it promised consequences, should he fail to comply.

Leo flinched, the slight movement betraying the crack in his facade, but he quickly unclenched his jaw, forcing himself to appear resistant despite the suffocating weight of her presence. Her aura wasn't just oppressive—it was calculated, precise, a predator's snare designed to strip away any semblance of autonomy. The room pulsed with its dark energy, twisting the very air around him as though it were alive, pressing against his chest and reducing each breath to a shallow gasp.

This wasn't the chaotic, volatile power others wielded. No, Ms. Frost's power operated like a cold, surgical blade—designed to slice through resistance with quiet, unyielding precision. It slithered into his mind and body, sharp and mechanical, like thousands of invisible hooks, pulling and unraveling him piece by fragile piece. He projected defiance outwardly, clinging to what little bravado he could muster, but deep within, he felt himself cracking. Every passing second left the tension between them tightening, like a noose drawing inexorably closer to snapping shut.

Mike, seated next to him, wasn't faring any better. Despite his reputation for bravado, Leo could see the lines of stress forming on his friend's face, his trembling hands clenched over his knees as veins bulged in his neck. The pressure was suffocating, and Ms. Frost hadn't even *started* using her full power yet. Leo knew all too well: this was merely the beginning.

"What is it you don't understand about our conversation, Leo?" Ms. Frost's words snapped him out of his spiraling panic. Her tone had dipped lower, weighted with icier malice. "I've told you—stop wasting my time. I've been very patient with you." She let the word *patient* linger in the room, as if daring him to question the depths of her humanity.

"What do you want from me?" Leo snapped back impulsively, though his voice didn't hold the fire he intended. It was fear-induced deflection more than anything, and he hated how weak it sounded. Of course, Ms. Frost caught onto it immediately. She raised a single thin eyebrow—a subtle but scathingly judgmental gesture. Her aura thickened.

"What I *want*," she said slowly, circling behind his chair, the cold drag of her fingertip touching the metal edge of the frame as she passed. "Is the truth, Leo. And if it's not from your lips willingly…" she paused, now leaning mere inches away from his left ear, her breath sharp against his skin, "...I'll take it from you. Piece by piece… whether your mind survives in one piece, however, is a secondary concern."

Ruddy cleared his throat in protest. "Ms. Frost…" he began.

She turned sharply, silencing him with the kind of glance that would freeze a charging beast in its tracks. "He's wasting my time, Ruddy." She turned back to Leo, her vision locking onto him like a steel trap. "And if we can't mend this trust problem, someone in this room will bleed. I wonder who it'll be?"

Her icy words were dripping with venom, and Leo knew the threat wasn't an empty one. 

He took a long, shaky breath, realizing he had no choice but to speak. But giving her everything wasn't the plan… not yet. "It wasn't like you think," he started reluctantly. His voice trembled just enough to sell his hesitation. "It—It's not like I knew what the core was. We didn't even know it was in *Sector 12*." 

Ms. Frost said nothing, her frigid eyes narrowing. He couldn't tell if she believed him or not, but for now, she let him keep talking. Around them, her power was like magic pulsed faintly, sending ripples of pressure surging through the sealed room as if daring him to test her patience again.

---

Flashback ...

Sector 12 was a wasteland, the air void of life except for the bloodstained remains of a demonic battleground. This was a place nature had long abandoned. Once home to a thriving nest of demonic beasts, Sector 12 had fallen silent just weeks before Leo and Mike arrived. Every scavenger, rogue mage, and adventurer knew why: a group of highly skilled college students, under orders from an unnamed benefactor, had cleared the area, slaughtering the beasts in droves.

No one quite knew why; the official story claimed it was a "training exercise" for the elite students. But rumors had spread across the black market that Sector 12 contained more than dead beasts—underneath the ruins of an abandoned lab was something worth far more than anyone could fully comprehend. Treasure hunters, smugglers, and rogue Awakeners alike descended upon the ruins almost immediately, hoping to clean out anything of value before the elite teams returned.

Leo and Mike had been late to the chaos, arriving just as factions started to clash over scraps of territory. The corpses of beasts were everywhere, their bodies mutilated and drained. It didn't take long to realize why the demonic creatures had fallen so easily—it wasn't normal superpower that had killed them.

"The beasts weren't just *killed*," Mike murmured as they surveyed the outer wreckage. "They were… *drained*. Their mana cores are ripped out."

The air carried traces of outrageously advanced sealing power. Whoever had come through here wasn't just powerful—they were precise, scientific. None of this had been a rampage; it was calculated, efficient, and deeply unsettling. 

"Whatever they were after, it's gone now, Mike," Leo said, kicking over a scorched bone fragment. "Let's not get greedy and end up dead. Maybe we grab what we can off the crazy people fighting up front and leave." 

But something deeper called to Leo, pulling him into the ruins. The more they explored the crumbled hallways, past heavy storage containers and flickering mana lights, the more restless he became. There was something beneath the surface—something the rumors hadn't reached yet.

As they entered one of the side rooms, the walls around them trembled with distant vibrations. Explosions and spells echoed from the outer battlefield as stray groups fought for dominance, but that wasn't what got Leo's attention. 

It was the container. 

A thick, metallic storage box, about the size of a small chest, half-buried under a pile of fallen rubble in the room's corner. Unlike the other things in the ruins, it had no scorch damage, no clear sign of tampering. Its dull metallic surface reflected a faint purplish hue as if imbued with energy. 

Leo approached it carefully, his footsteps echoing. "You see that?" 

Mike frowned, standing closer to the door. "Do I *see* you getting yourself killed messing with a container you don't know anything about? Yeah. Yeah, I do. Let's not." 

Before Leo could answer, debris exploded behind them. A guttural scream filled the hallway as a rogue mage came flying through the door, crashing into the wall and leaving a smear of blood on the cracked surface. 

"They found us!" Mike shouted, drawing his weapon. Before they could react, two more scavengers rushed into the room, clearly ready for a fight. Bodies slammed into one another as chaos enveloped the tight space.

Amidst the struggle, something—or someone—hurled the box. It clattered to the ground and slid toward Leo. Instinctively, and admittedly without thinking, he lunged for it, pulling it close. His fingers brushed a glyph on the container's surface, and suddenly the room was flooded with light.

The last thing Leo remembered was the symphony of screams, his vision filled with unnatural purple energy, and that unshakable sense of being watched. 

---

Present :-

Leo's voice trailed off, his gaze fixed on the table. Small details of the story had been omitted, primarily anything about the eerie pull he'd felt toward the box itself or the tell-tale flash of light that followed. He wasn't sure if Ms. Frost could tell he was holding something back. 

For a horrifying moment, Ms. Frost said nothing. Her measured silence bore into him like an invisible dagger. And then she smiled. 

"What you're telling me, Leo," she said coolly, "is that you stumbled upon something extraordinary by pure accident?"

"Y-Yeah," he lied. "A stupid mistake. Just dumb luck, really." 

Her smile widened, but it wasn't reassuring—it was ice wrapped in mockery. "How convenient," she said softly, almost to herself. Then, louder, she added, "But tell me something... if it was such dumb luck, *why do I feel like you're still hiding something?*" 

Leo's heart stopped as her aura suddenly bloomed, and the seals in the room flared violently.