Creatures of the Ice

Second Ice

Second IceCreatures of the Mist

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##### Second Ice #####

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Can you hear the sound of the pleading wind? How many sacrifices will it take to wake you up from the crumbling castle?

I reach out away from nothing to be welcomed by the sun, and that is when I noticed that I am wearing a white glove. Strange. I have wore other colors than black before, but never white. Why of all days? My eyes look down automatically and notice that I am wearing a white dress. The dress is simply gorgeous and royalty-like, but just too pure for my liking. Gray would have suit me better.

While examining my outfit, the green garden which surrounds me suddenly turns darker. I look up and see that the sky has turned dark. The sun is still there, burning with so much intensity. But instead of yellow and blinding, the sun has become black and clandestine. I do not know how this even happen, but the sign is never good.

Suddenly, gloomy clouds replace the sun and the sky with their numbers. And soon, rain starts to fall. But not like any normal rain that humans know, the rain is in form of black, viscous when the drops land on the green garden, and consuming when the plants start to die out of dehydration. The rain effect spread like a virus, strong and unstoppable, until some starts to fall on me.

For some reason, I feel fear that I do not understand. Surely it is not the black rain that I am afraid of, since the same phenomenon also happen in the castle. But this rain is different. It will consume every living form, just like how it did to the plants. One drop falls on my glove-covered hands and the white glove turns to black. That is when I begin to panic. Another one lands on the hem of my dress, splatting black ink. In no time, my outfit turns to black, and I know that I have turned as well. Have turned into something...deadly.

A loud gasp is about to make its way through my throat when my eyes blink open and finds the familiar pattern from the aesthetics of my bedroom. The pattern is still there when I wake up, just like when it used to with my old room inside Noirmelns Castle. My pale, slim hands pull away the thin blanket that covers me, revealing my black nightgown. With a sigh, I walk myself out to the balcony of my chamber and stare down the piled up snow underneath.

These nightmares are nothing like when Lane tried to kill me ─ it has a perfect strong urge to make me scared out of my life with no ending. And if I don’t do something about it, I am afraid that I am going to let this happen every night until the day that the deal has finished. The Devil gave me no choice when I was in the moment of dilemma. He took the right chance and left me to do all the tasks.

This leaves me with no choice but to complete it as soon as possible. And when I am done, things should be even with my parents.

The next morning, I summon both of my personal guards to come into my room. I believe that they never predict anything that I say, but I have to give them a heads up before leaving things in the matter of my most trusted cousins.

“What? You’re leaving?” Link asks in shock when I told him the news.

Yes, I need to leave in able to concentrate perfectly on my task. This won’t take long, and they are capable enough to be trusted with the job. Since they are also my right hands, it is their duty to take care of things as my representatives while I’m away.

“But why?” Artro fixes his glasses while asking me with a worried expression.

“It’s personal. Nothing to be concerned off. I just need time to fully finish this matter. I’ll be back around next month. For the meantime, I’ll disconnect the family connection again. But the emergency alarm is still active to contact me if there’s something really bad going on.”

“When will you leave?”

“Pretty soon. Right after I pack my things.”

They know that they cannot disobey and question my decision. That is why I move to an apartment uptown, where humans densely populate the place. There might not be the most perfect escape than a five-star class apartment in New York, but I think I deserve somewhere classier if I have to face my first-day mission. My place is at the top of the Nuiew Tower. The modern-styled place might cost a lot for commoners, but it still doesn’t concern me too much.

I do not bring many things to my new apartment. Only clothes that I need. The furniture and daily needs are already gladly provided by the one who sold the place to me.

After I place my bag on the deep blue bedcover, I walk to the center of my living room and between its twin white-long sofas. With the mini-scale skull on my palms, I feel the instinct to kiss it. So, I let the instinct guide me and plant a kiss on its black forehead.

“Jé zam sprémàn postàti rehmonth (I am willing to become a demon),” I say in Noirmelns ancient language.

The skull reacts to my words and the holes in its eyes shine a rather bright red. The laser-like intensity almost blinds me and make it fall again, but I regain myself. A dark portal soon stretch on the middle of my apartment’s living room, its deadly lips kisses the air and leaves poisonous gas to living beings.

I step away from the portal in an attempt to get away from it. But it’s too late.

My position is too close and already inhales the poisonous black gas.

I thought I am going to cough out blood at least, even though I cannot die. But surprising enough, it doesn’t even have any effect on me when I breathe the gas unintentionally. I look down at myself and found out that the skin on my hands has already become paler than ever. It is so pale that it actually turns kind of blue, too. Not like The Devil’s whose blue skin cannot be mistakenly seen, but just a little bit lighter than his.

My feet rush to the mirror near the sink inside the bathroom. It has a three-meter square mirror that stands just above the transparent washbowl. At there, standing in front of the mirror, is something that startled me like never before.

I have changed.

My entire body has turned pale blue and it even twinkles a little like a star in the night sky as a reaction from the lamp’s light. My black fighting suit, the same style that I wore when I was still apart of Sorcier, has transformed as well. It turns into a completely different outfit as a dress that only covers my important parts yet shows too many upper skin and legs. The dress still wipes the floor, though. And the color adjusts with my new skin tone. How am I going to fight with this?

Another detail that I find out is how white my nails have become. Before, they are still rather grayish. But now, they have turned into complete white. Same applies from both my fingers and toes. I look back to the mirror again and spot my other new features. My hair, for example, has turned from its former black color as well to a blue crystal blonde. That is the only way I can describe it. My eyes are different as well. They have became a complete pitch black, like when I tried to get into one’s memory. Just one catch, though. There are blue rings that circles in the center of my eyeballs, appearing as replacements for my irises.

Shocked, I step back from the mirror carefully while still keeping my eyes on the reflection on the mirror. The real me would have been sweating in cold by now. Not too much, but perhaps a little. But the real me would have showed something, anything from my facial expression. The problem is, the form that I examine from the mirror still remains calm. Very collected even.

After a while of observing myself, I finally sigh in defeat and then a cold fog breeze out from my icy lips. I want to gasp from that movement, but it seems that even the new me is too cool for that. I watch my reflection some more from the mirror before stepping out of the bathroom. When I do, though, it seems like both of my feet has disappeared from the surface of the carpet and sink inside the coldness of the fog that comes from the hem of my blue dress.

The dark portal is still there when I get back to the living room. It stays still, obediently calm, as if it’s waiting for my instruction like a good dog monster. I smoothly place both of my hands on the sides of the portal, stretch it open and jump.

Once I have entered the dimension of Hell, I let go of my hold from the portal. It closes itself and vanish from thin air like how a television being switched off, and that is how the screen turns black. I fall from the atmosphere of crazy, cold Hell without any hold back. Like a torpedo being launched, my body pierces through the air and layers of layers I passed like it’s even nothing compare it the Earth’s. There’s really a new feeling using this form. The transformation has adjusted my needs in Hell. Good thing is I keep the black skull inside the pocket of my dress.

The surface is getting closer because I can see it. The area here is rather different from where I had visited before. Instead of heat, it’s freezing with no mercy. I can imagine just exactly how chilly it would have been if I was here as a mortal. The coldness would have already consumed me until I die even before I had land.

My bare feet touch the ground lightly just before I make a crash-landing that will never come. With such falling speed, I could have destroyed a quarter of the Earth. But in here, everything is so much stronger. The creatures, the objects, and even the place itself. And so have I. After landing smoothly, I cannot help but to feel a small flutter beneath my breasts.

I have never been to Hell like this before.

To stir myself away from any suspicion, I take out a black cloak and put it on. That way, I will not be gaining attention from unwanted demons. I have never been to this section of Hell before, so I have no idea what to expect. But there is nothing to lose from preparing, in case something bad happens.

Following the crowd of demons that I find soon after, I eventually find myself walking to the direction of The Devil’s castle. I wonder why everyone is heading there, though. Is there something going on at there? Or is it something that usually happens?

I try to listen to their conversation to understand what’s going on, but I gain nothing. The cloak hides half top of my face and the rest of my body, so only my lips are shown faintly. That is why I have to keep my head low once in a while to have them unseen as well.

“Going as well, are you?” An adult male voice asks from my side.

I turn my head to him carefully and spot a man-like demon with a very dark skin. Well, he looks normal. Like an African human, even. He’s definitely tall and muscular, built as a military or a fighter type. His hair is short and black. He has a small smile offering on his lips. Actually, I do not think this demon will give any threatening aura at all, except for his eyes, of course. His eyes are like the flame, burning, fiery orange red.

“What occasion?”

“Oh, right. You’re new here, aren’t you? Even though most ice demons are overpopulating this place....” He traces. “Anyway, he said that he would introduce his new knightmare to the public.”

There’s no need to question who ‘he’ is.

“Knightmare?”

“His right hand. Knightmare is the new term for it,” he explains.

I throw my head to look at the castle. For some unknown reasons, staring at him make me feel like I’m revealing my entire secrets. It is because he talks as if he knew me well, and that is strange coming from a demon. I never have any civil conversation with a demon before. Everything is strictly business. And here he is, approaching me and talking to me first.

At least I know what’s going on right now.

After a minute or so, the demon talks to me again when I thought that he already left. “Oh, right, sorry, where are my manners. I’m Abel. What’s yours?” I can’t believe a demon also says ‘sorry’ to me.

I turn to him. “I’m─”

A loud cheering suddenly interrupts me. That cheering makes both of us to snap out heads to the direction of the castle. We already arrive at what seems to be the front part of the castle’s territory. The castle is rather beautiful from close. The icy walls twinkle like my current form. It was crafted in elegant yet wild details, a combination that I can only find from The Devil himself. This castle really describes him, and I really wonder how the inside will look like.

From a massive balcony at the center of the most front tower, I can see a dark figure standing on top of it. The balcony is so high, yet I find my eyes able to reach up to where he stands even without using my sightseeing ability. It’s amazing how a demon can see so far away. It’s probably around ten miles from where I am standing and where he is.

He looks further away from his demons before his eyes finally find me and gives me a smirk. One that holds a devilish plan in it.