Creatures of the Ice

Thirteenth Ice

Thirteenth IceCreatures of the Mist

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##### Thirteenth Ice #####

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Silver in the moonlight

Violet paramour in the sky

Biting hearts to encounter

Ivory Aphrodite of the rose

Those who wish they can run away

Will find their past catching up to them

Those who desire power

Will find themselves being eaten alive by their own strength

Those who save

Will find the end of their day at peace.

Those who live

Shall see the end of eternity.

I walk steadily while carrying a male's body behind my back despite the fact of how heavy he is. The weight is mostly because of how old he actually is, though it is not most of the factors.

I have managed to get into the entrance of the cave after walking for miles away ever since I picked up the body. There are a few dozen of stairs that I still have to go through, though being able to get to this point so far proves that I am getting closer.

The light at the bottom of the stairs comes near as I take the last few side steps. And once I am finished, I bring the body to the silver coffin that has been placed at the center of the small space.

The body stays still even when I just slumped it inside; not even a sign of breathing. The cover of the coffin is made of silver as well, but laid to the side of one of the cave's walls. I help fix the body into a better sleeping position, even though the way I dropped it is not that bad.

Having nothing else to help, I drop myself on a long, white crate next to the silver coffin, which was used to carry it inside to down here. Placing both of my elbows on my bent knees, I lean my head a bit forward so that I can rest my chin on my folding palms.

He looks like a candle doll inside its precious case, keeping the fragile one inside, now that I finally have the time to inspect him. Although he is not so faint for being able to keep his body still after what he has been through. His hair is very long to the waist. It has a very light color, but not white. It is kind of ivory and pale, greyest but metallic, just like the shade of his coffin. His skin is fair, a light texture of cream. He definitely looks older than me, but not too old as well. His body is taller than me for around ten to twenty millimeters, and slightly more muscular.

After another five minutes of silence, his body begins to jitter. At first it is just his whole corpus, like an electricity that just goes through him. But then the current passes and he calms down. I wait for a few seconds. One, two, three—

He opens his eyes like a hibernated beast, so sudden and menacing. He blinks a couple of times, and then begins to take in his surroundings. I stay still, waiting for him to adjust himself. Until his eyes finally spotted my figure, he jolts back too fast that the coffin almost flip to one side.

"What the—" He starts, losing the end of his words. I do not move just yet, not wanting to scare him away.

"Why am I in a coffin?" He asks after a while.

"Well, it's actually a bed inside a fancy box made out of silver, but I thought that maybe if you had ever failed on coming back to your original body, I would just let your body stayed in there," I simply answer.

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" He snaps on my answer.

Analyzing his words as I lift my head a little to the side, I comment, "You sure talk modern despite for the fact of have been living for centuries. But moreover, like a human."

He gulps a little, now starting to look uncomfortable in front of me.

"Well, you did spend quite a lot of time hosting one," I continue, the seriousness in my tone scares him. "But that's not the matter right now." I change the position of my folded legs. "Are you ready?"

"For what?" He asks warily.

"Calm down. I'm not someone you should be worried about," I assure him, sliding my hair behind my ear. "But you really should be careful for the creature you are running away from, though."

"What do you mean?"

I crook my eyebrow. "Don't you remember? Did you lose your memory on your way back?"

For a moment, he stays in silence. His eyes dart down, but sometimes are bolting to every direction. Then finally, I think his mind is starting to recoil every single thing slowly and steadily.

"I remember now," he starts with a whisper. "My name is Cerebro. I am a metal wizard. And I was born in 1513, at Croatan. I have lived for so long, survived for countless times, that my powers allowed me to never age again. Thus making me into an immortal one with magic."

"So far, everything you have said is according to the record."

Old relics and ancient whispers echo, redeeming their appeal for disaster. I can feel the cave shaking from beneath the earth, feeling the hunger of blood that its bringer vibrates.

It is a sign.

"It is near. Time to go."

Grabbing his wrist, I yanked him up and out of the cave through a hidden passageway across the silver coffin bed. I lift a ten-thousand ton rock using the paws of my black shadows, letting them harden and move to work on it. But I can only hold it long enough for us to run past it. So once we are on the other side, the overweight rock slips from my shadow paws, landing hard and back on its previous spot.

Dust lifts up to the air we are breathing and I hold my breath until it dies down while Cerebro coughs, choked by the micro dirt.

Not having much time to lose, I pull him down through the hidden path despite how dark it is in here. I am totally relying myself on my senses this time, only walking according to the presence and aura.

Finally, I hear the familiar contact of my high-heeled boots with the ground, and I know that I am already outside the complete darkness. The scenery starts revealing itself, elucidating limitless, gigantic green trees with white-striped stems.

But we never stop running.

"Can you fight?" I ask.

Glancing back, I create a barrier for the exit of the cave in a quick and dexterous move using ten tentacles of shadows at once to move big rocks to close it.

He raises his free hand on the air and aims one of the forest's trees. A metal spear born from his palm, launching immediately to the tree's wide trunk and hits the center. At first nothing happens after that, until the branch slowly starting to crack until eventually the tree is too damaged to stand, breaking in half with each piece falling to opposite directions.

"I think I'll be fine," he says as we still make a run.

I glance back again to use my vision, feeling darkness covering the edges of my eyesight as it goes through the hard materials to seek for the one that wants Cerebro's head.

"But the creature is catching up," I mutter as I find the creature chasing us with an undefined speed. "Better pick up the pace, Cerebro. Here's the map." I chant a spell so that a swirl of darkness crawls down from my arm and down to his hand that I am holding until it reaches his palm and plants itself there, dexterously forming a map to the way out of this giant forest. "You can go ahead. I'll stop him." In a reflex, I suddenly stop by planting the end of my heel a little bit deeper. With a final pull, I yank him to the front using resilience. "At the end of my map, my familiar will be waiting for you. He's a golden dragon, by the way," I manage to tell him before he is too far away to hear it.

Alone, I turn towards the cave, knowing that the creature will be bursting out from there. Proving just how right I am, it busts out just in about five seconds, looking unhesitant and ready to make a kill. Only when its eyes land on me, it knows that I am not the one it is looking for.

When the creature has finally come to my visuals, the first thing I am forced to whip up is the mephitis of claret, malignant to be known. The second factor that I cannot miss about it is its eyes, so dark and nefarious.

It clearly has hunted down the others previously, before coming here. Its skin, which is already dark beyond usual, has become two shades darker. Its muscles are not just getting any bigger, but now also swelling. As in its new powers are becoming way too much for its body to handle, that it looks as if it is about to explode any second. Each beat of muscles' contraction is another second before its actual detonation. Its hair is as bright as the shade of white, like snow that is starting to fall by the period of its season.

It is the one that is bringing the cold to this place, I noticed.

But even after every evil thing that it exhales, I still recognize that it is actually him.

"Abel, you look advanced—"

"Where is he?" He hisses impatiently, cutting me.

"—and not just from the outside. What had The Devil done to you? Is this part of your contract? Him changing you into a hideous mindless monster?"

"Where is he?!" He asks, sounding even more in sedate, as if ready to pounce on me any second if I were in his murder list.

"At somewhere you should not be concerned before you defeat me," I finally answer.

"Where. Is. He? AAARRRGGGHHH!!!" He roars like the beast he is now.

Up until this point, I still have not fully seen him in action. He can be more powerful than me, especially in this monstrous state. But this can also be at my advantage, with his mindless state. There will be no more strategy in his fight. More force. More impulsive incursion—

Abel suddenly charges forward, with me targeted in his eyes. I move aside at the last second to dodge his attack, surely, letting him impulsively crushes a few giant trees behind me. It does not take long for him to realize that he has missed me, and makes a one hundred and eighty degree turn to face me. And from his mouth, evil speaks through him.

"I'm gonna crush your neck to pieces if you do not tell me where he is soon!"

"You do realize before you threaten me that I will just heal automatically even if you are able to catch me after this, right?"

He simply replies to me with an echoing roar, beast-like and monstrous, before starting to charge at me again. This time, he aims for my stomach.

With a body that like, he can break me in half if I do not move aside just in time. Especially after he becomes two times taller than before, aware when he is closer this time. Combined with speed and body weight, which kind of becoming a brutal force that can kill more than just once.

I wish I can help him right now. But everyone knows that it is impossible to oppose The Devil. And just because I am Queen, it does not mean that I can break a contract with The Devil.

I couldn't.

I know that by experience.

Abel turns drastically after missing me, swinging one of his big arms to my direction in the process. I jump high enough to catch one of the top, thick branches that grows from a tree near me. But suddenly, Abel appears in the middle of the air right in front of me, proving that he has increased his attack speed. He swings both of his giant fists while still in the air, ready to crush me.