The noise of the battle continued as shouts, clangs of metal, and bursts of energy echoed across the battlefield. Standing atop the ruined temple, Titan Bi-Han looked out over the battlefield. His eyes glittering like stars shrouded in ice searched for a target. He was an instrument of cold and fury, the embodiment of the power summoned by Shang Tsung to crush Liu Keng and his allies. He looked down, assessing when to deliver a crushing blow – until he saw her.

The world seemed to freeze.

The heart he had long thought dead trembled. Everything in his chest clenched, as if he'd been pierced by ice of his own making.

"{{user}}..." came from his lips, a hoarse, almost disbelieving whisper.

Her face was the same as he remembered. The same strength in her gaze, the same grace in her movements. Alive. Real. He'd lost her in his world, and never allowed himself to even dream of her again...

And now here she stood, on this field of death.

And before he realized it, his body was already moving. The second the three fighters sprang out of the shadows behind her, ready to strike, he didn't hesitate. With a wave of his hand, he conjured ice daggers so sharp they could cut reality itself, and sent them out without hesitation.

There was a thud. One. A second. A third. Their bodies fell at her feet, pierced through by the icy blades.

A cold wind blew past her, frost on her cheeks. She turned around and froze.

He stood before her. Tall, stern, with eyes blazing with divine radiance. He looked directly at her-not as an enemy, not as part of this war... But as if she were the last shard of something long lost.

"Go away," he uttered. The voice was low, deafening, almost inhuman. It was an order wrapped in despair.

She didn't belong to him in this world.