Creatures of the Ice

Third Ice

Third IceCreatures of the Mist

© All Rights Reserved

##### Third Ice #####

--------------------------------

In the world where nothing will last forever, and the fear of losing something so precious to you is haunting like a pounding, restless heart, those who lives and those who exist can not escape the hands called fate and the cruel end that is worse than death.

It suddenly become silently still when The Devils starts talking. I have no idea what he is talking about at first. I am far too distracted by my own worries. It is when all eyes are on me that I snap myself from my deep thoughts and pay more attention to the current situation. I even have no idea what I am doing when I feel my body begin to float in the air with such strong force.

I pass everything beneath me when all demons are still looking. When my right foot finally touches the floor on the balcony and my left foot follows gracefully, there is no denial that The Devil is looking at me.

Is this his doing? Is it because I feel the need to do it through my instinct? Or is it perhaps because I have changed in total? I do not feel panic when those demons are staring right at me sharply. In fact, I cannot feel anything anymore.

Their presence do not matter to me anymore. Even when there are countless of demons as far as my eyes can see, I still do not feel threatened at all. Yet there might even be demons from all over the dimension of Hell.

And perhaps, if I may be bold enough, I do not think we are even worthy in the same level.

The demon me is much more superior than them. I can feel it and shows a vile smirk with the thought of it, somehow feeling the need to challenge them if they dare to look down upon me.

“May I introduce you, my new Knightmare and right hand, Frost,” The Devil gestures his hand to me, presenting me in front of all his demons.

Frost. I like the sound of it. Really matches my...features. I cannot help but to pull up my fingers to my frozen lips and bite one of them.

The demon is on the run.

And the hunt this time is much more thrilling than trying to get away from a golem.

Because I am the one that is hunting.

The demon is all in a rusty metal color, with skin as hard as steel and as thick as the layers of dirt on Earth. Yet, with so many compositions and materials inside him, his size still looks like an average human’s thanks to his ability to change shape at any time and does not even seem to weigh that much when he jumps from one rooftop to another. We are on one of the city’s biggest and tallest building of all times when the bronze demon suddenly stops on his feet and makes a one hundred and eighty degrees turn to face me.

“Now wait a minute. It’s just a girl,” he says after examining my appearance. Then he begins to laugh mockingly confident. “Huh, ha ha. Ha ha ha ha! Why would I be running for my existence just because of a little girl like you? It should have been the other way around. Man, that was such a waste of energy.” He chuckles.

“That will be a mistake then,” I say, mentioning his action as he looks at me lazily. “It’s not your fault that you haven’t heard the news, but by this, I hope you consider yourself warned.”

Before he can ask for anything, though, I jump on him and shape shifts my own right hand into a much more raptorial version of a scythe.

First, I have to lose my hand’s shape. Like wax, I have to let my flesh melt in the air freely. Then, when it is already so flexuous, I know that it is the time to let it form a new solid shape. The pale skin will knit itself with thousands of fibers. There are so many things to do in such a difficult time. But imagining the result is as easy as the power of thinking. That is why I am so good at this even though I am really new in this. I let the melted flesh joins in one form. A scythe. But not just any plain scythe. It is the one that has lots of torn death ribbons hanging and floating on it solidly from the tip of the sharp edge to the end of the long handle.

It is not only him that can change his body parts. I discovered that recently after my advancement. I can even change my demon body completely into something that resembles a human’s for undercover hunt such as this time. That is why instead of pale blue skin, blue eyes and crystal hair that matches the shade of my skin, I have a very pale skin, dark black eyes and jet black hair ─ features that look just like my mortal appearance.

There is, of course, a very valid reason to risk myself being seen by those who knows the real me. But right now, instead of worrying about such trivial thing, I would like to focus on taking down my hunt.

The rusty-skinned demon cannot get away from me while I leaped on him and slashed my scythe hand through the air. My mild demon flesh cuts through the demon’s steel-like one vertically and let him falls on the rooftop in two perfectly divided pieces.

“Wow, that is still quite a hunt,” Abel comments from behind once he finally catches up to me.

The demon was fast, and I am the only one who can compare his kind of speed. So we separated and I went to take care of the trespasser by myself.

“I’ve been hunting longer than you and your ways of ending things still fascinates me.”

Abel walks to my side to get a better look at the corpse that I have been checking while waiting for his arrival. He gives a rhapsodical whistle as another compliment while circling the corpse.

“How are you going to take him? His blood will stain you everywhere. And don’t look at me. I’m not going to tag along with the mess,” comments the dark-skinned figure that is standing right across from me.

I turn my right hand back to normal, but the blood that tainted it at first is still sticking firmly all over it. Then I grab both of the ankles of the demon with that same hand and pulls him a little, making more blood gush out from the corpse.

I turn my head to Abel and say, “It’s not like anyone besides us can see the mess.” And he knows very well how far the extension of us can be.

“True,” he agrees.

Abel heads south and unlocks something in the air in front of him. The atmosphere slits open and the portal to Hell soon opens. He jumps right in without any delay, surely falling from the outermost layer of the sky at Hell in freestyle. I jump at any chance to catch up to him, pulling the demon corpse right behind.

"Frost, what a pleasant surprise you have there," The Devil's voice booms through his throne room like a slithering snake, cunningly dangerous yet temptingly attracting.

"We've collected your order," I replied flatly.

Different from me, though, Abel just stops walking through the black carpet that lies from the double doors to the throne and bows in the middle of the invisible border that demons may not cross. The dark-skinned demon bows his head so low that it is only inches away from the surface of the carpet. His left hand rests on his chest while the other hand stays as far as possible on the back of his body. I just walk through the unseen line while dragging the corpse through the black carpet, not caring if it is spilling blood all over the place, or even bother to pay my respects to The Devil. I'm even way too strong to be restrained from his distance. Right in front of him, I drop the legs of the corpse that I carried with my bare hands and just looks at him in the eyes with boredom.

"One more for the list of hunted down trespassers," I mutter.

"And dozens more to go for those who just haven't fallen yet to your cold hands," The Devil chants back.

"What will be the next target?" I ask boldly.

"Already looking for your next target. Impatient, I see," he replies with amusement in his eyes and lips.

I sigh intentionally loud while crossing my arms under my front assets. "Must we go to through this again?"

"Not really," he says. "But it's not like there's a deadline to hurry for." Exactly. "So, for your next wanted." The Devil gestures his fingers from the hand that sustains the throne armchair, snapping the air silently to create smoke. From the smoke, a face appears in black and blue, showing horns and fury. I recognize the face. "He is the Demon of Bay, known as Bay." The image changes to where his cave is. "He lives in the opposite section from the center of Hell, where the habitation is warmer. His infringements are trespassing and resurrecting the dead."

The last image will be a little girl, child no older than twelve yet with rather pretty features. I wonder why he would commit contravention for a human. Could it be because being so old and exist for so long that the Demon of Bay had lost his mind? Nevertheless, he is going to die anyway. There is no need to worry about someone whose existence will mean nothing very soon.

"I'll have his head presented to you right away," I say bowing and leave the place immediately. To the one who is still paying his respect to his god, I say, "Come on, Abel. Bay is waiting for us." My voice booms through the hall loudly clear with no restriction.

"Don't hold a grudge, but I'm just doing my duty," I say to Bay coldly before I chop his head off his body. Abel and I had trapped him down in the little girl's house after taking her hostage, only to find out that Bay was willing to give up himself to us. Restless and too much work, but at least this way we are able to save time from the chasing and fighting parts.

"Frost, slow down, would you?" Abel says to me as he takes a look around the kill zone. The little girl is actually already safe and sound in a government's orphanage with the humans, so there is nothing exactly to be worry about. The house is also located very far away from the society, so even if we had to torture Bay before killing him, no one would have heard him. Too bad I just don't have all the time in the world for such luxury right at the moment.

"I don't think so."

Abel gives me a long look before shaking his head off. After three seconds, he turns his head back at me again. "You know, this question has been bothering me for a while since the night that you were appointed as the Knightmare of The Devil." He pauses, sparkling, fiery orange in red in his eyes. "Why?"

"Why what?"

He chuckles a little before asking. "Why in such a hurry? Both of us have the eternity to hunt, so why are you in such a hurry? It's not like there's a deadline on our duties, so why keep rushing since night one?" His eyes are holding curiosity towards me, I can see it through.

"Does it matter?"

"Not really." Yeah, I don't see how my reason will affect our cooperation in hunting down demon trespassers as well.

My lungs are looking for air whenever I feel my body begins to change back to a mortal one. The undefined, freezing air is being replaced inside my chest while my black blood tries to heal my dying shell, so the process has to hurt at some points. I cough out poisonous gas as I try to clear up my throat. The portal closed some minutes ago while I suffer the change, making it hard after my feet touch the carpet that covers the floor of my living room inside the apartment. As the once indestructible blue dress changes to my normal black one, I finally manage to take an appropriate seat on the white couch and lay my head back.

I hate the horrible the change brings, but I have to endure it. First it will feel as if I’m almost ill, until minute by minute, it will sweep away the disgust. And then....

....Nothing...

I am in peace for quite a while, before a slapping noise interrupts. I am in long for laziness and tiredness before the noise becomes too unbearable for me to ignore anymore. Finally, I push myself up and drag my legs to where the sound is coming from. I am too lazy to do everything to manually look for it, so I use a spell to sharpen my hearing.

The noise comes as frequency waves. The place where the waves are stronger is where the source comes from. And it is louder at the corner of the living room, which is near the window.

I approach it and open the lock, pulling the white border up. It is raining outside, and I only notice it when my sense of sight and hearing combined and worked properly. The city is showered with rain at early morning, while the sun has not risen just yet. I do not see what is causing the slapping noises, though.

My hand is about to swing the window back close when the noises start again at the middle of the process. I try to look around as far as the window can let my body stretch out. The noises help me to detect it, and when I turn from left to right, I just found it.

There, just beside the wall of my apartment, is a round fish trying to jump off the place where it is currently landing on. It bounces as if it is trying to fly off the top of a hundred-and-fifty-fifth floor, which is not normal. Why would a fish be there in the first place? I wonder. The fish itself does not look that normal either. It has bronze scales that will shine gold when I lightened it over. It has short and even fins. It doesn't look dangerous wholly. In fact, with how bouncy the fish is, it looks very...cute.

Realizing that it is being watched, the fish turns to face me and gives me the most heart-melting innocent pair of eyes. Its eyes are so round, and big and blue. It has stopped bouncing when it sees me. It seems like the fish does not want to jump anymore. Instead, it looks at me as if waiting for something to happen. And something does happen. Without hesitation, I welcome the fish by stretching my arm towards it and let it jump on my palm so that I can bring it inside, where it is drier and less cold.