Ice and Fire, Apocalypse Rebirth

1.

In my previous life, my sister and I rescued two mysterious eggs.

Her egg hatched into a Frost Serpent, while mine birthed a Fire Phoenix.

My sister, Shyla, greedily snatched my Phoenix, never imagining we were about to face a global heat apocalypse.

She ended up burning to a crisp in the extreme temperatures.

Before she died, she manipulated my Frost Serpent husband to strangle me to death.

But the universe had other plans.

We both woke up on the very day the eggs were set to hatch.

This time, Shyla didn't hesitate.

She grabbed the Frost Serpent immediately.

She thought having a cold-blooded beast would allow her to live comfortably through the scorching apocalypse.

What she didn't know was that the Frost Serpent required a daily feast of fresh blood to maintain his cooling powers.

Opening my eyes, the first thing I noticed was the lack of suffocating heat.

The agonizing memory of being drained of my blood and strangled was still fresh in my mind.

I glanced at the Frost Serpent beside me and felt a cold shiver run down my spine.

According to the traditions of the Beastmen, they must marry the person who rescues and hatches them.

I was supposed to marry the Fire Phoenix.

However, Shyla had complained that the Frost Serpent looked terrifying and forced me to swap.

A month later, the world changed forever as global warming accelerated into a literal hell on earth.

The Frost Serpent, true to his name, could drop the temperature within a ten-foot radius.

The Phoenix was the exact opposite.

Shyla took my Phoenix and died screaming in the heat.

Meanwhile, I had survived the apocalypse unscathed because of the serpent's cooling aura.

Shyla blamed me for stealing her "cool husband" and made sure I died with her.

I was about to speak up and claim the Phoenix as mine.

But Shyla cut me off before I could say a word.

"The Frost Serpent is mine! I hatched him! You take the Phoenix!"

She lunged forward, desperately clinging to the serpent's arm.

I saw the hunger in her eyes and realized the truth.

Shyla had been reborn, too.

A small, secret smile touched my lips.

I was actually worried about how to trick her into taking the serpent.

She only focused on his cooling ability, ignorant of the dark price he demanded.

His powers weren't free; they required a daily sacrifice of human blood.

Not only that, but his fangs were laced with a potent neurotoxin.

Every time he fed, it was a session of pure, unadulterated torture.

The venom makes the victim feel like their veins are filled with liquid fire while they are powerless to move.

In my last life, by the time Shyla provoked him to kill me, I was already half-dead from blood loss.

In a way, I should have thanked her for giving me a quick end.

This time, it was Shyla's turn to enjoy the sensation of fangs in her neck every single day.

In the previous timeline, the Frost Serpent, Malakai, was reluctant to go with me.

He only accepted me as his wife because of the ancient laws of his tribe.

But this time, the moment Shyla claimed him, he didn't even wait for my reaction.

He slithered toward her, his flicking tongue tasting the air around her neck.

He looked at me with pure disgust.

"Wynter, since Shyla wants me, I belong to her now. Don't even think about clinging to me."

I narrowed my eyes.

It seemed I wasn't the only one who remembered the past; the serpent had been reborn as well.

Shyla looked at me with a triumphant, smug expression.

"Hear that, Wynter? This was Malakai's choice. Go home with that useless bird."

"Fine by me, Shyla. If you want him that badly, far be it from me to stand in the way of true love."

As Shyla brushed past me, she leaned in and whispered into my ear.

"Wynter, you have no idea what's coming. The heat apocalypse is almost here. If you crawl to me and beg on your knees, I might let you sit near Malakai for a few hours."

I fought the urge to laugh.

She had no clue why Malakai had chosen her so eagerly.

2.

I turned my attention to the Fire Phoenix, who was curled into a shivering ball.

The poor thing was shaking uncontrollably from the moment he cracked his shell.

He only seemed to calm down slightly when he heard Shyla claim the serpent.

I didn't want to waste another second with Shyla or her pet snake, so I took the Phoenix's hand and walked out.

"Wynter... do you really want me?"

I reached out to pat his head, but he flinched violently, pulling away from my touch.

His eyes were wide with terror as he looked at me.

"I didn't mean to, Wynter. Please, please don't hit me."

He was trembling so hard he could barely stand, yet he forced himself to lean his head toward my hand.

"Ember, what's wrong? Why would I ever hit you?"

The realization hit me like a freight train.

Ember had been reborn, too.

"Ember, did Shyla... did she do something to you?"

"Don't say her name! Please, don't mention her!"

The mere mention of my sister triggered a breakdown.

He collapsed into a heap, his eyes welling with tears of blood.

Looking at his broken state, I knew Shyla must have been a monster to him in the previous life.

I pulled him into a tight embrace, gently stroking his golden wings.

"It's okay. You're safe now. I've got you."

Under my touch, his frantic breathing eventually slowed down.

"Ember, let's go home. My place is pretty far out in the suburbs, and I don't have a car. We'll have to walk."

I felt a pang of guilt.

I was nowhere near as wealthy as Shyla.

She had manipulated our parents into giving her everything for a luxury condo and a sports car.

I lived in a small, rented house on the edge of town.

Ember blinked his large, soulful eyes at me.

"Wynter, if you don't mind... I can take you home."

He knelt down, gesturing for me to climb onto his back.

I hesitated, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"It's okay, Wynter. Hop on. I'll fly you there."

He was so earnest that I couldn't refuse.

"Okay, Ember. I'll tell you which way to go."

"No need, Wynter. I already know exactly where you live."

I was confused and was about to ask how he knew when he spoke again.

"We're here, Wynter."

"Wait, already?"

I was stunned by his sheer speed.

"That was faster than a private jet."

"Jets are nothing compared to a Phoenix."

He lifted his chin with a hint of newfound pride.

This was the first time I really looked at him.

He looked so innocent, with the curious face of a young man.

He was nothing like Malakai, whose dark eyes were always filled with malice.

"Wynter, aren't you going to praise me?"

He looked at me with a shimmer of expectation in his eyes.

I sighed softly, feeling a wave of sympathy.

"Ember, you're so sweet. How could she have been so cruel to you?"

The moment the words left my mouth, I knew I'd messed up.

The light in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a haunting darkness.

"I'm so sorry, Ember. I shouldn't have brought it up."

He gave a self-deprecating laugh.

"Ember... I like that name. Wynter, do you think I'm a useless Phoenix?"

Before I could answer, he continued.

"Shyla told me I was trash. She said I only made things hotter for her. She blamed me for everything that went wrong."

"She used to pluck my feathers one by one. She stabbed me with needles and used pliers to break my beak. In the end, she snapped my wings and threw me out to rot in the sun."

"Am I really that much worse than the Frost Serpent? Why did you bring me back, Wynter? I'm just a useless bird."

I knew she had mistreated him, but I never imagined such psychopathic cruelty.

She was the one who chose him, yet she blamed him for a global catastrophe no one could control.

"No, Ember. Listen to me. Everything she said was a lie. You are amazing. You are worth a thousand Malakais."

"You're just being nice, Wynter. But it's okay. I'm better now."

He forced a smile to stop me from worrying.

"I'm not just being nice. You really are better. And I'll tell you a secret... I'm reborn, too."

3.

Ember's eyes lit up instantly.

I told him everythingDhow Malakai had tortured me, drained my blood daily, and finally murdered me.

Ember seemed genuinely shocked by my story.

"How could he? According to the laws of our kind, we owe absolute loyalty to our rescuers. No matter how we are treated, we must endure. Breaking that ancient pact brings a terrifying punishment. How did he dare hurt you?"

I shook my head with a bitter smile.

"I don't know, Ember. What kind of punishment are we talking about?"

"I don't know the specifics. Only that it's something incredibly severe."

"Well, let's not dwell on the past."

I pulled him over to the sofa.

"The heatwave is coming any day now. We need to prepare."

We discussed our options.

Air conditioning would be useless once the power grid collapsed under the extreme heat.

Finally, I decided we should head to my family's old property in the countryside to dig a deep bunker.

An underground shelter would stay cool naturally without needing any technology.

Ember wasn't just fast; he was incredibly strong.

In less than a week, he had excavated a bunker over three hundred feet deep.

While digging, we even hit a clean underground spring.

In one stroke, our two biggest problemsDheat and waterDwere solved.

I rode on Ember's back as we descended into the depths of the bunker.

The air was wonderfully chilly, a stark contrast to the rising temperatures above ground.

Seeing me shiver, Ember immediately activated his power to bring the area to a perfect, cozy temperature.

"Ember, we have water and shelter. But what about food? What are we going to eat?"

"That's easy. I'll dig another chamber nearby. We can plant seeds underground. With my heat and the spring water, things will grow perfectly even while the world burns above. We just need a month's worth of supplies to tide us over until the first harvest."

We worked together like a well-oiled machine and finished everything just before the apocalypse hit.

Tomorrow was the day the world would begin to boil.

I curled up with Ember in the large bed we had placed in the bunker, waiting for the end of the world.

When I woke up the next morning, the bunker felt noticeably warmer.

The damp chill had been replaced by a comfortable warmth.

Ember stretched lazily on the bed.

"Finally, I don't have to force my energy out. Using my power every day has been exhausting. I felt like my blood was boiling away."

"Wait, using your power costs you blood?"

"Yeah. It's like a mana bar in those games you play. Using our abilities drains our life force."

I looked at him with a mix of guilt and heartache.

"Why didn't you tell me? I could have handled being cold for a few days."

After a month together, Ember had lost his timid edge.

He reached out and playfully pinched my cheek.

"Because I knew you'd say exactly that. I couldn't let you be uncomfortable."

Looking at him, my heart felt heavy with emotion.

Why was there such a massive difference between two beastmen?

In my last life, I never complained to Malakai about the heat, but he used his powers anyway because he couldn't stand it.

And he fueled those powers by draining me.

"I wonder how my sister is doing," I whispered.

If the timeline followed the past, today would be the first day Shyla tasted those fangs.

It was a shame I couldn't see her suffer.

Ember seemed to read my mind.

"Hey, Wynter. Want to see something cool?"

He pulled out an old bronze mirror with a mysterious air.

"What is it? Just a mirror?"

I turned it over in my hands but saw nothing special about it.

Ember blew a small puff of flame onto the surface, and the metal suddenly cleared like a high-definition screen.

Shyla and Malakai's faces appeared on the surface.

"This is a treasure from the Phoenix clan," Ember explained. "It's basically like one of your security cameras, but it doesn't need Wi-Fi or electricity."

I nodded, my eyes glued to the scene.

Shyla was leaning against Malakai, drenched in sweat.

"It's freaking hot! Malakai, you have cooling powers! Do something!" she screamed.

Malakai twitched his lipDa sign of his growing irritation that I knew all too well.

A predatory, twisted smile spread across his face as he stared at Shyla.

"You want me to use my power, baby? Fine. Just don't regret asking for it."

"Just do it! I'm dying here!"