Creatures of the Ice

Fifteenth Ice

Fifteenth IceCreatures of the Mist

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##### Fifteenth Ice #####

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That spirit that you seek

That endless fire of energy

It is burning within the core of the world

It is burning inside all of us.

"I would have picked the lesser evil, if I were you."

He wants me to be his mistress? Like in why in the world would I do that? He knows perfectly well that I am married. How can he be so shameless, asking me to be his subordinate? And even if I were not married, I would never accept this forced offer. I might be stupid enough to do the one thousand demons hunting for him in the past so that he would free my parents, but this one is beyond the limit. I am not an i***t. And I certainly am not desperate. Even so, I can to somehow reach the light before he decides to plant his lips on my wedding tattoo and kill me. If I die, my soul will certainly be shipped to Hell, where The Devil may do anything he likes with me and make me his slave. Curse this situation! How can I begin from helping an ancient wizard into seconds before I am killed for good by The Devil? I have been through a lot to be able to be with Valline. I cannot lose our time together for less than a week! I want to see that sweet and serene smile for the rest of my life. I want his hugs and kisses. And I even want to see every single adorable expression he makes every day. I. Can. Not. Die. Like This!

Sadly, I cannot just get will power without the help of—

The earth that cages me suddenly crumbles down in an instant by a strong earthquake, like it is not two meters deep from the surface.

"Lucky~!"

I almost cannot believe my ears when that voice is suddenly hearable. Cerebro, the silver wizard, digs me out from above the ground I am buried in. His voice sounds too playful, with no hidden tone underneath. That and his young look, he can easily be mistaken as a teenage human if I had not known him to be the other way around.

"How do you know I am here?" I ask as I feel my muscles start working again.

"Detecting your location was easy." He holds out a hand to help me climb up. "It is convincing your familiar to let me help you that was hard." With a firm hand, he pulls me up and back to the surface like he is just lifting a doll. "But other than that, I guess you are familiar with silver magic, right, Miss Noirmelns?"

"Actually, it's Mrs." I correct him almost automatically. "How do you know that I am a Noirmelns, though?"

"It's not hard to guess," he says, looking at my attire from head to toe.

"You had a great timing back then. Any minute from then and I would never know what would have happened to me."

Actually, I do. But even the lesser evil would have been as worse as the other one.

"Why are you so human?" I cannot help but ask as we walk towards where Avin, my golden dragon familiar, is waiting for us, who is looking ready to take off once we get to his back. I give him a pat on one side of his face, my fingertips feeling the hard scale texture of his skin. After I climb on top, joining Cerebro, he only welcomes me with a smile.

"I guess once you have lived as one, you are bound to act like one," is his reply.

"To the point of no return?"

"Well, I do love being like this."

He loves acting like a human? Him, the most respectable, one of the oldest wizards that gained immortality just by how powerful he is? Do not tell me that.... he loves humans, too?

"I don't get it," I admit.

"Then you just have to give them a chanc—"

"I mean, they can't change that fast, can they?"

There is silence for a moment.

"What?" Cerebro sounds a little taken aback.

Turning to him, I begin my explanation. "You see, I was never fully in the supernatural business all the time. There was a period when I needed time off from everything otherworldly. When I was fifteen years old, I decided to flee from an organization named Sorcier with a younger member from my group. I thought it was for the best. And since we started a new life and had a lot of free time, I thought it would not be so bad to enter a human education organization. Besides, Minny wanted to go to a high school, anyway. So we enrolled in one. But who would have thought that even there, things would not go so easily."

Avin flaps his wings and the next second we are already thousands of feet above the ground. I stare down at the sea of forest, which is somehow hunting like a ghost from the past. Whispers of human hearts unite in an echoing manner, staining nature with evil....

Evil, like how The Devil desires his puppets to be. They all fell into his hands, became his most loyal subjects once they let go of their light in life. And after that, all they do is commit crimes. All kinds of crime in every kind of shades, until they either invited their victims to join their side or ended up killing them mercilessly.

"Humans could be so.... dangerously monstrous....” I mutter. It feels like long before I finally continue. “Minny and I quit before anything worse happened, though. And that is why we weren't even there for long."

“I’m sorry for what happened to you,” Cerebro says. “But I strongly believe that humans are now much more open to outsiders. Especially the ones I have made just before my host died.”

I turn my gaze at him. Cerebro’s soul was transferred into a human before for quite some time. But when his human host died, he had no other choice but to get back into his original wizard body. Though I know his secret into gaining human’s trust. After all, he was there with them inside a human. Most of that factor will support his presence among the same species. But I keep this one theory to myself.

“Anyway, I think it is better if we─”

I do not pay much attention to what Cerebro is about to say next before my eyes just catch something out of the ordinary from Avin’s golden dragon scales. It is not because there is something wrong with his scales, but it is just that the way it shines by the reflection effect of the afternoon sun that is bothering me. On them, there should be two shadows covering the back of his scales. But instead, there are three of them─

Gasping, I reach to where Cerebro is, who is sitting behind me. In a quick move, I positioned myself in front of his and raise one of my hands to the sky. Above, Abel, who still in The Devil’s full control, jumps up so high that his demon powers allow him to reach up to just overhead us. He swings his back backwards and lets gravity takes him down to Avin’s back, where me and Cerebro is riding on. But before his big fists can make an impact and crush Cerebro to pieces, I use my shadow to shield us for three hundred and sixty degrees around and cover use from his sudden attack.

Missing his target, Abel falls down and back to the green forest below us. Though I will not be worrying too much about him, since he will not die by just falling from this height. It will take much, much more to kill a demon that freshly powerful than just in height matter. And it will not be long before he jumps up and attack us again.

“Avin, speed up!” I order urgently. He snorts with a ‘yes’ and starts flutter his big wings so fast, I almost slip from where I am sitting. Good thing I get a grip on him quickly.

“That was close,” Cerebro comments, gasping for breath even though he is not the one that is using a lot of energy to fly.

But I think he is just having a panic attack, being too close to a demon and all. Wizards and demons do not get along well. And when they do meet, the ones who are mostly to get ripped to pieces are the wizards. Still, Cerebro is acting way too excessive for a five hundred years old.

“Hang on tight. He’s coming!” I warn him as I try to stand, two coils of shadows start coming to keep me from falling by the strong impact.

I cannot let this keep going. I can delay Abel, but I cannot stop him completely. One the other hand, The Devil will have the most advantage when I cross him again next time. Therefore, I have to make a preparation.

I have to wait until a few more minutes before Abel shows up again. He is back to jumping up high in the air, is eyes obviously targeting Cerebro hungrily.

This will be it.

Right at the exact moment, I let the two coils that keep my feet still on Avin to evaporate and soon disappear, blending with the air into unseen shapes. I hear Cerebro says something from behind me, but I do not have time to stop and hear and just run quickly to the back of Avin’s tail before jumping up and meet Abel, hitting him with a rather strong force with the help of my shadow boost.

We fall in free style to the ground, and I must admit that I am having a hard time trying to keep him still. It does not long before I resummon all of my dark shadows for help. They come in random pieces that are hard to track. One by one but keep pushing each and another. Some covers his eyes. Some binds his arms and legs. Some just wrap themselves around his body until they completely immobilize him.

This is it.

My left arm grabs him so that I can get close enough to him while my right hand is shifting back so hard, this time’s attack will be ready to finish him off for real. He will not be able to see him through the darkness of my shadows, but I cannot help myself from saying my goodbye.

“....I’m sorry.” Because I really do.

Abel is a good demon. He was a great companion of mine when I was still disguising myself as a demon. He even sacrificed himself to be turned into a newly born demon, who in its head will think of nothing but to kill. In the end, he might never know who I really am because of my contract. But at least, let this be a better end for him. Neither of us wants to lose anything, and I doubt he is happy to be a killer as well.

“Just this once, I am going to take your heart away again.” But this time, for literally....

I dig my hand ─ which is already burning with black fire so intense, it bursts back for a few meters ─ into his hard chest and deep. Inside his body, I can feel the cold and unbeaten heart of his. My fingers are already lingering with his dark blue blood, which is staining up to the right sleeve of my jacket. His blood leaks out until so much have poured out, yet it does not look like it is about to stop.... until I pull his heart out.

His corrupted heart, which The Devil has damaged. I hold it in my hand still, but not because I care about how much evil it can transmit.

For a moment, before Abel’s body has completely given up, I see a small smile spreading from his lips. Not a predacious smile of a demon, but one that is truly from the him I know.

It shows so much relief, that I know myself that I am doing the right thing for him.

If I did not stop him, he would never be able to stop himself.

As we fall to the ground, I take a moment to myself, before letting my shadow consume the impact of our weight and land safely.