The bubbles rose in the water. Ferinish's body lay there and, over her abdomen, the "mountain" of ice stood. She coughed, her lung and throat filling right after. She gripped the point that pierced her, screamed, her eyes shining, but her vision only darkened.
It was once again in that room, imprisoned in the capsule of green liquid. In the illusion, she swam without stopping, the sea vibrating with the beats of her heart. Once again, she was pulled down.
A shark had torn off her leg, and she was pushed toward the depths. Small lights shone around her. The pressure, consequently, drew the oxygen out. Flesh pressing against bone, ribs pressing against internal organs, blood pouring from her mouth.
And, with a wave of sand rising, only her head rolled. She saw the darkness, her eyes still able to move. And she found something approaching, with sharp teeth... no, not just one thing, there were several. In a single sway, they came in a scream that bled her ears.
!
Suddenly, she fell onto a cold floor, coughing up the green liquid. In front of her, a man with a mask covering from chin to nose slowly swung a syringe. She tries to stretch her hands toward her legs, veins pulsing, but she freezes and falls.
Kneeling before her, the man was clear: she would hunt down something unique for them today, a girl capable of transforming into a demon. If it helps, Shaphira is the name. But if, by chance, a man, Slady, should appear, do not hesitate to kill him.
Then, dragged by the hair, she was dressed by women who touched her without hesitation, lifting her arms, adjusting the heavy armor on her legs. In her mind, she only wished to move that arm once and destroy those people.
With a portal opening in front of her, she is pushed. Falling onto brown ground, smoke rises from her face. But she does not react, only tears up.
Getting up, she walked with distorted vision. She tried to think, but noises of voices kept, constantly, echoing, echoing, echoing...
Slady... Shaphira... kill... capture...
After a time she could not calculate, she caught sight of the brown-haired woman falling into a cliff covered in lava. From that instant on, she saved, tried to kill, fought, and... did not win.
Every day afterward that she saw that man, now imprisoned with her, she avoided his touch. On the day of that assault, the people who had sent her on that mission locked her in a room. Ferinish's eyes went wide as she realized, she ran to the door. She begged to be taken out of that place. She tried, she swears she tried! But he was strong, stronger than she could have imagined!
But, with those expressions that showed nothing beyond the dark circles under their eyes, they raised that lever. And the heat began to rise from her feet to her head. She tried to climb the walls of that room, but everything she touched resulted in a frying sound. Falling, she leapt. She landed on her feet, and only repeated the whole process, always in a different form, and all of them ended with her skin peeling, her flesh coming apart, and her eyes drying out.
When she returned, with darkened flesh, they laid her on a bed and dressed her with the same expression they had worn before. At most, they covered their noses. Soon after, they injected another syringe and sat down, patient. Over time, the skin returned, light again, and her eyes regained their color, but her body was only paralyzed, tears flowing.
Then, in that room, when Slady touched her shoulder. She only felt that same desire from before. This time, she did not see the man first, she only saw the opportunity to let everything go...
And she did.
Were the people in that kingdom right? All she had done was obey people as cruel as Fraizen. Everyone near her died...
All she had done was destroy, with the life of one man.
And that is why...
She killed Fraizen, still today...
She bid farewell to Slady.
And hopes he understands her reasons.
Opening her eyelids once more, she now grips that spike firmly. Her eyes wide, along with a breath that lets out a scream that makes the icy floor above her tremble, stained with blood.
And, with that same scream rising, a wave surges, tearing down all the ground, which fuses with the sea. The great stake rests in the ocean, waves running to the horizon. Falling onto it, Ferinish breathes slowly. Her hair on fire, but soon extinguished. With her thighs flexing, she leaps, making the stake sink and vanish within seconds. However, a roar makes her turn.
A shark with six thin, hairy legs stretching to the horizon rises toward her. Nearly vanishing into the dark sky, Ferinish brings her hand behind her back, wrapping it in flames. She aims it at the shark. A thick blast of fire sends it flying through the sea, which opens and stretches to the horizons, revealing, to her, an abyss.
And she increases the speed of her fall in that same instant.
Her fall is marked by a rise of sand that covers all lives. The spider-shark lets out a roar, sharp claws emerging from its upper gum as it advances. Ferinish closes her eyes, the blade pointed at it as she holds it with her right hand, her left hand bracing the hilt.
Water falls in light drops. The waves still pull back, revealing mixtures of insects, marine animals, and even fusions of five creatures. All advance, legs, crawling, and flight combining in Ferinish's ears.
In one breath, her heart stopped. Mana leaves her legs and arms and directs itself to her heart, concentrating in the organ... and it exploded!
Spinning, lines of flame emerge from her sword. Around her, everything turns to ash or evaporates. The "rain" rises back into the dark sky. The white sands darken, mixing with gray, and the air distorts, stretching, expanding. In a single full turn, everything goes out. The flames themselves go out. Everything within an area of hundreds of meters vanishes instantly.
When the white light stops blinding her eyes, there is only dark ground. Beneath her feet, a tiny platform sways. Looking around, Ferinish sees water descending and disappearing into the darkness. The horizon above the sea is visible: solid land. So that was what she would have found if she'd swum a little further?
Looking up, she flexes her legs once more and leaps toward the portal above. And the single platform collapses.
Snow rises to the sky. Ferinish lands on her feet, flakes striking her hair. Raising her head, her breath catches.
The kingdom, once covered in snow, now overrun by ice. The people in the streets stood frozen in cubes of ice that enveloped them completely. Ferinish ran at once to Carolina's house, noticing the holes from the roof down to the cellar.
Slady...
Entering through there, she finds him intact in bed. Around him, everything that had been dark wood, ice had replaced. Around his body, a light shone in his chest. She reaches out her hand, and an invisible wall pushes her back. Is it Truth? No answer comes. On the floor, the footsteps of high heels sank into the frozen ground. Her fists clenched, veins bulging and teeth grinding.
Going up to the rooms, Carolina is not there, nor the boy. She screams their names, the echo only repeating her own words back to her. Going out through the windows, the view of the castle is hidden by clouds. The streets full of frozen bodies made her heartbeats grow faster and faster.
With quick steps toward the structure, memories of walks, of visits, of shopping trips invade her mind. She shakes her head. She should not think of this!... until she reaches that clothing shop. Behind those display windows, the old woman and that girl were there, embraced, unmoving. Why?... she could not have done this.
And, in that bar, where she had slept beneath the roof for so long, she opened it and saw shattered bodies on the floor. Recognizing them, there was the owner, a woman, and a child, like puzzle pieces that could never be put back together. Leaving there with backward steps, she struck her back against a soldier dressed in armor. Trying to hold him up, he slips from her hands and shatters.
Falling to her knees, the tears rise once more, gripping the snow. Why had she done this, to her own people?... turning her head toward the castle, Ferinish gets up and walks there, her hair glowing.
Arriving there, in the throne room, only one figure moves. She had been waiting for Ferinish, aware that her blow would not kill her. Ferinish looks around, on the right side, there is Carolina, chained to the wall. And on the other, the boy, in the same position.
It was time to end all of this, and she decided Ferinish would witness everything. If she wins, she will spare Carolina and Gyne from the end. But, if she loses, she will make sure the soldier watches her own brother be consumed before merging with the queen herself, becoming, quite literally, her right hand.
Ferinish said nothing, only drew the blade from her waist and tore through the air with her steps.
Fraizen gave one last laugh, before moving both hands, closing them. And the entire room shrinks, crushing Ferinish. But, within seconds, they open again, with Ferinish pushing them to their extremities and already launching her attack.
At that same instant, the queen creates a sword of ice. If she wants to fight with swords, so be it! And the contact of the blades creates cracks throughout the castle, spreading through every room and collapsing it.
With her fall, Ferinish braces herself on the debris in the air. Fraizen flies, her sharp hands extending, and countless ice stakes guided toward her. The warrior dodges, and with each collision, the debris fragments. Until she rises to the queen with a kick. Fraizen closes her hand, which grows abnormally, and deflects it.
The arm shatters.
The queen lets out a groan, her body regenerating instantly, but with roots climbing up to envelop her own eyes, being consumed by ice. Ferinish, bracing herself on the white ground, raises her head. The two siblings remain against the walls, unharmed, propped against a pillar. And she watches the transformation with wide eyes.
Red smoke spreads for meters. The queen kneels, coughing blood, but, inside herself, wood emerges, piercing her. The shattered bodies of the population begin to fly toward Fraizen, who grows larger and larger.
What had been in that poison?
When the mutation finishes, what is revealed is a blend of a living tree with something "human." White flakes fell from her hair, in branches stretching out like horns. Her legs consumed by roots, and her nakedness covered by frozen wood and the remains of her clothing. She is the kingdom, she is everything that moves the continent, she is IceStorm.
With her "branches" formed from those deformed hands, they attack Ferinish. The impact brings down countless buildings. More frozen bodies shatter, merging into the Glacial Destroyer, and the few that do not shatter, are lost in the snow.
Roots invade Ferinish's body, piercing her internal passages and injecting amounts of Renkai Energy that thicken her veins until they burst, emptying from every orifice. If Ferinish's death is not possible, she will become part of this organism's heart!
Ferinish sees nothing but red, her body no longer moving, her brain vibrating inside her skull. More blood pours out, she keeps her eyes wide open. She will not allow herself to die! Images of every moment she spent in that kingdom pass like a film on a cassette tape.
Her heart, once taken by mana, is now invaded by Renkai Energy, which tries to take over, but the blue energy pushes back violently. But, as the seconds pass, they begin to mix.
Fraizen pushes the branches aside with a creak, opening her eyes at the heat invading the wood.
Blue flames climb up Ferinish's entire body, her scream echoing through everything around. Raising her hand once more, she declares she will not allow Ferinish to become a Destroyer.
And, once again, the shockwave of the impact brought down every structure in the kingdom, including the walls. But, with those flames climbing up to her "shoulders," Fraizen is overtaken by fire, her form collapsing and the poison growing more aggressive. She will not die, Fraizen will live!
Now, the ice begins to take shapes that settle into her bloodstream and expel the poison. The roots trace across her entire body. The wings expand, being consumed by the roots. She will not allow herself to be controlled again! And the roots form extra layers over the wings. The legs, now made of pure ice, sharpen, and the roots descend, wrapping the tip, bringing the poison to its point.
On the other side, Ferinish, naked beneath the flames, feels armor fit itself to her body like a second skin being born from her shoulders down to her legs. The red of her hair disappears, black taking over, and in the strands, blue. Her nails grow, sharpening, also turning blue.
After long seconds of moans and screams, silence fell, breaths filling lungs.
Ferinish rises slowly, her hair falling over her face. Turning, her eyes with pupils shaped like flames open. And, from her hand, with a single grip, the blade, once crimson, becomes like lapis lazuli, lit by a blue fire.
Fraizen too, her sword wrapped in sharp roots. In her eyes, the pale blue tone mixed with a green and yellow. Her wings open, dripping green. Their clothes formed a fusion, wood replacing what was missing and roots wrapping around it completely.
One adapted, the other transformed.
The poison that condemns becomes weapon.
And
The Flame Destroyer was born.
In one second, Ferinish Lawhell and Fraizen Rosenmary advance.
But a portal forms between them.
Even so, the clash of their blades tore the portal in half, and consequently, it opened, swallowed them, and the scenery of a Glacial Inferius was revealed. The shockwave undid any creatures nearby, and both draw apart.
She had never seen such a beautiful transformation. Did Ferinish feel the same as her? The sensation of being burned, or frozen, from within? Yes, but she would not be like the queen. If this pain was the price to free everyone from this kingdom... and the one she wishes to apologize to, will accept it with open arms.
So, both advance. Ferinish cuts horizontally, the queen dodges, leaning back, watching the mountains being consumed by fire. The wings move, colliding with the warrior, sending her flying hundreds of meters.
Gaining momentum, she flies and grabs her by the throat. Then she will feel plenty of pain before dying! With that, she rises into the dark sky and throws her to the ground. Falling freely, Fraizen wraps herself in her own wing, the roots gripping Ferinish, the thorns heading toward her neck, but disintegrating before they touch her.
The fall is marked by the collapse of all the snow and of the curved points of ice that had stretched out. The heart, in the distance, is struck by one of these points. The entire dimension shuddered.
Fraizen pulls away, opening her wings, and finds nothing there. Behind her, with a cut on her temple that regenerates with fire, resulting in a short groan, the warrior presses her sword against her from behind. The wings defend, damn her! The queen sinks into the ground, the stones shattering under the pressure. Digging her fingers into the very ground, from the soil itself, thin ridges of ice rise and lash at Ferinish.
Thrown toward the heart, she tears it in half. The Renkai Creatures are shattered as well. Covered in blood, leaning against a rock, Ferinish extends her hands, closing her eyes. Within seconds, Fraizen has already flown toward her, but is caught by the warrior, who smiles.
A single contact with the ground was enough to distort the "barriers" of the Inferius. Even so, several ice spines emerge from her chest. Fraizen, rising as the ice reforms her head, raises her sword. She is impressive, but there is still much to learn.
But the warrior grabs her by her clothes, pulling her, their skulls colliding with such force that their bodies, once more, were thrown apart. Standing, the Flame Destroyer says she has little patience left for this fight. Then, positioning her blade, the fire grows, her fingers peeling.
There is also little will left, it is better to kill her in the most perfect way there is. And so, the blade is absorbed into her hand, and a crystalline symbol forms.
One touch and her body will freeze entirely. And one cut will reduce her to nothing but ashes fused into the air.
With a step and a flight that stir up waves of snow, Ferinish closes her eyes. If she is not able to survive this fight, then at least, may he live on for her. And, also closing her eyes, Fraizen murmurs: even if she dies, may her act create the family she always wanted.
And, with the contact, a flash of light blinded everything.
...
The white leaves of the trees sway, far from the kingdom. Foxes open their eyes, watching the sun rise among the clouds.
The barriers had vanished. Standing skin to skin against one another, Fraizen leans on her shoulder, her eyes losing their color. How could she have stolen so dirty a victory? And the other's voice answers that there is nothing wrong with having a strategy. Pressed against each other's chests, Fraizen feels her hair vanishing little by little, the blade piercing straight through her heart. But Ferinish was not holding the blade, rather, she was pressing the left side of her chest, held by Fraizen's hand on her arm, which soon falls to the ground, but, this time, the flames do not regenerate.
At least, she left a mark. Indeed, she did. Fraizen laughed one last time, falling beside Ferinish, who remains still. The seconds do not take long, and the last thing to be consumed of the queen was her own lifeless heart.
Ferinish, raising the stump of her arm, watching the pale skin beneath the armor, falls to the ground.
The sun illuminates the destroyed kingdom. The platforms come apart and the siblings fall onto the soft snow. Beneath the snow, some people rise, others embrace each other the instant they see one another. But the unlucky ones, shattered, do not return.
Carolina opened her eyes, and caught sight of all the chaos. What happened here? Soon, she screamed her brother's name, who emerged from the snow, coughing. In tears, she hugs him, how was he? Hurt? Injured? He was not fine... but where was Carlos?
And when she went looking, she only saw, in the middle of the air, ashes swaying toward the horizon and footprints of blood that lasted only a dozen steps and disappeared. Her breath catching in her lungs, she told her brother she would be right back and ran to her house.
In the cellar, there was no one left.
***
On a day when the clouds darkened, an entire people stood before countless graves. The boy cried against Carolina's skirt, he could not apologize to him. She strokes his head, she also had not been able to say goodbye. Whole families embraced in unstoppable weeping. Adjusting her hat, Carolina knelt before the grave. One day, he had said she would make a wonderful queen, if Fraizen ever stopped ruling.
That day had come, and she hopes that, from the heavens, he can be proud of her, as she is also proud of him.
And that those who came to that kingdom may live in peace, wherever they may be. And her last sight before returning to the boy was the horizon, now free of barriers.
— End of volume two: The Frozen Hell. —