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Eric stood at the peak of a mountain, his breath making mist coil around his face as the howling wind whipped at his cheeks. He looked across the perfect hills and serene valley's of Midrard, a sight that he had never appreciated before. The pine trees mixed with the fur pines, making the few forested areas a miasma of green-blue and forest green. As Eric stood at the peak covered in snow, he looked out across the various other mountains with excitement. He was feeling excited, and not just because his vitality went up five points just from the exercise of climbing the mountain.
"How can you stand this," Lucia demanded through chattering teeth. Eric looked back at his group to see Lucia bundled up with the heaviest coat they had, Lilly behind her in a heavy coat while Draco was still in his regular shirt and pants. It had taken four days to climb this mountain, but Eric wasn't getting cold somehow. He was certainly chilled, the hair on his arms standing up from the frozen winds that howled across the top of the mountain, but underneath his skin was just fine.
"He's got the heart of an ox," said Lilly, "they can keep themselves warm in the coldest weather."
"Maybe he's part dragon like me," said Draco, insisting for the tenth time that he was part dragon. "We keep ourselves extremely warm."
"Just look at that," said Eric, looking out to the mountains beyond in awe. "I wish there were snowboards in the world."
"What's a snowboard?" asked Lilly.
"It's a length of metal that was used to fall down hills with style," explained Eric. "They were fun to use, once you got used to them."
"Do you see where this ice demon is supposed to be," Draco asked, annoyed that this was taking longer than necessary. Eric looked for looming clouds in the distance, and just between two mountains he noticed a dome of white that made the entire side of the mountain larger.
"I think so," said Eric, pointing it out to the rest of his group as they hiked the crest of the mountain.
"That's probably the ice demon down there."
"So how do you plan to fight it," Lilly asked, looking curiously at Eric.
"No idea," said Eric, looking down at the enormous cloud of white that appeared with no correlation to the sky. "Come on, we need to get down there."
"What happens if we defeat it?" Lucia asked, "do you think the Midrardians will return to their homes?"
"Hopefully," said Eric, looking down across the mountain range. "I wonder if they have a Divine Clock in this country."
"What's that?" Draco asked curiously.
"It's something I need if I want to keep levelling up my chains," explained Eric, opening the inventory and pointing to his profile in the top left. Everything was normal, except there was a little star next to his level. "I read that this is as far as I can level up, but if I find something called the Divine Clock, then I can increase my rank."
"What does increasing your rank do?" asked Lilly as they began hiking down the mountain.
"It unlocks variations in my divine weapon," said Eric, "and lets me increase two new skills of speed and dexterity."
Eric stood on one side of a pure white wall, looking at a strange dome of constantly moving snow. "This is suicide," claimed Draco, "even I wouldn't survive in that."
"I wonder," mused Eric, and he summoned his chains into his hands. "Winch," he commanded, and the chains shot out from his palm with new links constantly being made. The line went a little slack, so Eric commanded, "Retract." The chain links were slowly coming together, pulling whatever the chains had attached to until it was out of the swirling storm. The chain was firmly wrapped around a man's arm that had frozen, and was now as solid as a rock.
"That's horrible," said Lilly, reeling at the sight of a severed limb.
"Everybody stay here," commanded Eric, "I'm going to have a look inside. If I don't come out in a full day, then all of you are set free." With that harrowing command, Eric stepped into the swirling snowstorm and disappeared instantly. The three were silent as they stared at a wall of white, looking after their master as he went in alone.
"So we just have to stay here for one day and then we're free," summarized Draco.
"He'll be coming out," said Lucia, hugging the fur coat to her body as the air brushed coolly against her.
The team waited until nightfall, when they went through the process of gathering sticks and other things for a fire. They camped a short distance away as the swirling storm changed from moment to moment. Sometimes it would be light enough to see some fuzzy images inside, other times it would increase until the snow was almost packed completely. Lucia was sitting with her back towards the snow while Draco and Lilly were huddled together just opposite of her. They settled down for the night, following Eric's orders as they waited for his return.
Eric was caught in blinding snow, unable to tell the difference from the darkness and the white. His entire body stung from the cold, his breath coming in difficult heaves as he inhaled the snow. He couldn't get a sense of direction, or even his elevation. As he walked further into the snow, his body slowly became numb as he trugded on, wishing for the first time that he had brought a coat. He had slept on the streets before wearing nothing but a trash bag, but this was walking through a blizzard dressed for the beach. As he walked further, the howling winds and snow clogged his ears, and he thought it was a delusion that he heard.
Through the snow and the ice, Eric thought he heard the familiar sound of crying. He could hear the sobs, the sniffling, and the heavy breathing that came with prolonged sadness. It was an oddly familair sound, one that he had made more than enough times himself. Even though it might be caused be delerium, he followed the sound of crying, wading through the snow as thick as water to reach the tears he couldn't see.
Eric suddenly stumbled into a very dark area where the air around him seemed frozen. He breathed heavily, his lungs cold as ice while the crying abruptly stopped. "W-who's there?" said a small voice that quavered from the fear and sadness caught in the throat.
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"My name's... Eric," said Eric as he breathed in and out slowly. "Who... are you?"
"My name's Elas," said the small voice, sniffling once more.
"Where are... you," Eric asked, taking a step forward. "I can't... see anything." Eric felt something
press against his skin, something that felt frozen. Eric reached out to touch something that felt like an arm, but
his fingers went numb at the first contact.
"Don't get near me," warned the voice fearfully, "I can't control myself!"
"What does... that mean?"
"People freeze when they're around me," said the small voice with great sadness in it. "I can't stop it, I don't know what to do! It's out of control!"
"So you... are the ice demon," said Eric, summoning his chains and his hammer. In that breif flash of light that comes with summoning his divine weapons, Eric saw more than he had ever intended. A girl stood in front of him at just a little below his height, her hair and skin the same pale white. She had a face filled with fear and self-loathing, her eyes a noticable red from constant crying. She stood within herself, keeping her arms close so she didn't touch anything unnecessarily. Once the flash ended, the darkness returned and Eric was holding his divine weapons, but he no longer felt that he needed to use them.
"Are you here to kill me?" the girl asked hopefully.
"Maybe," answered Eric, "but I need to know... if you're a bad... person." Eric's breathing was getting slower, which wasn't a good sign as he got colder.
"I've killed so many people," said the girl, frightening herself even more.
"Did you mean... to kill them?"
"No, but that doesn't change the fact that I killed them! I'm dangerous, and I deserve to die!" Eric could hear the desperation in her voice, but he chuckled to himself.
"If you didn't mean... to do it, then it was... an accident," said Eric calmly.
"An accident that killed a lot of people," clarified the girl.
"I know an accident... is always someone's fault..., but that doesn't mean... they're responsible... for the... outcome." Eric's breathing was getting slower as his body slowly started to seize up.
"You don't get it," shouted the girl, "I'm a monster!" Eric released his weapons, letting the bright flash illuminate the girl once again to see that she was crying. Eric stepped forward in that instant and put his arm around her back, his fingers painfully placed against his own shoulder as he clutched this emotionally wounded girl.
"You are... what you chose to be.... There is no one... who can tell you... what you are.... That is your... decision." As Eric hugged this girl, he felt her body freezing his own, her extreme cold slowly draining his heat. "Hero..., Monster..., All that matters... is what you... decide." A small message appeared in front of
Eric, informing him that he had successfully ranked up, and that he had unlocked a new set of chains. With a hand that violently shook, he pressed the okay, then scrolled through a long list of chains with various names. Then he saw something that might help the situation, so he chuckled and hissed with numb vocal chords, "Chains of Hellfire."
The air suddenly swirled as a long line of chains clutched in Eric's hand seemed to be made from fire itself. The heat was like a furnace suddenly introduced into the snow, burning with purple light as Eric hugged Elas. The white all around them was illuminated by the purple flames, like a swirling vortex of purple light as
the heat clashed with the freezing snow. Eric's skin felt like a hundred pins and needles had been inserted under his hairs, spiking him awake as the cold sleep that was slowly approaching became a hellfire blaze. The girl felt the warmth, but to her it was a bed of embers rather than a roaring bonfire. It was a very comfortable heat that felt like it was coming from Eric, the large man still having his arm around her.
They stood there like that for a while, Eric taking in the pain silently while Elas felt his warmth comforting her. The tears seemed to melt away, replaced by a calmness that she had almost forgotten was possible.
Elas had spent day to day living with the guilt and shame of her power killing the people around her, but this warmth felt like a baptism by fire. Elas breathed easy, caught up in the warmth and wise words that Eric had offered. As they stood there, Elas slowly reached around Eric with her long arms and returned the hug she was getting. To her, it was like the warm bedsheets one feels after having an icy nightmare.
"How are you feeling?" Eric asked, his breathing returning to normal as the purple blaze continued to drag away the cold sensations.
"Better," said Elas, looking at Eric for the third time. In the brief flashes of light before, she had been unexpectedly blinded by the light and didn't trust what she saw. Now she saw Eric's massive size, his huge face and strong features which seemed leathered by a rough past. "You're big," said Elas, resting her chin on Eric's chest to look up at his face. He had scraggily hair that went down to the bridge of his nose, his green eyes peeking out from underneath.
"That's good," said Eric with a smile, revealing his pearly whites under his plump lips. "It looks like the snow is starting to fall," said Eric, and he was right. The powerful snow that had once been swirling all around in a maelstrom of frozen flakes were now falling with such slow grace, it felt as though time itself had
almost frozen. To Eric this was a pretty moment, but for Elas it was her first christmas to remember. The barrier around her was starting to fall, freeing her from a prison of her own creation. For the first time she could remember, Elas cried tears of joy that fell in rivulets down her cheeks.
"Oh, hey," said Eric, raising one of his hands to wipe the tears away. Elas smiled, her own teeth shining like the pure white diamond flakes that fell around them.
"You don't need to cry anymore," said Eric, looking at Elas in the purple light of the hellfire, "you have it under control." Elas looked around, realizing that Eric was right. The snow was falling around them, gentle and peaceful a little at a time that quickly melted in the impressive heat of the hellfire chains.
There were no words to express how thankful Elas was, but she tried anyway. "Thank you," she cried, putting her forehead against Eric's chest as she continued to cry tears of joy and sadness. The hellfire chains burned with a purple light that warmed the entire snowglobe Eric found himself inside, and as the snow dissolved, the light from the outside became clearer to him. He began to see the red light of the falling sun that played on the clouds, and he wondered how long he had been inside of the swirling snowstorm. He looked around to see a large group of people frozen into popsicles, stuck in the stance they had done last. Men and women in heavy armor clutching swords and large axes placed around like life-sized toy soldiers.
Eric hugged Elas closely, then slowly started moving with his chains dragging behind him. The hellfire scorched the snow and ground behind him, turning the ground black as it followed Eric though the town. Elas found it difficult to walk with Eric dragging her around, but she kept up with him enough to not fall.
"Lucia, Lilly, Draco," Eric called out, hearing his voice echo off the mountains, "come here!" Three figures rose from a patch of pine trees and started walking towards Eric. Lilly and Lucia were still wearing heavy coats that they tugged to themselves, and Draco was calmly wearing his shorts and t-shirt. Lucia was delighted to see Eric, Lilly and Draco were less excited.
"Everyone, I'd like to introduce Elas," said Eric happily, putting his arm around Elas. "She helped me to stop the 'ice demon', so be nice to her."
"What happened inside of there?" said Lucia, clearly suffering from excessive stress.
"I was walking through the storm," began Eric, "when I heard Elas. She was stuck in there too, so we met up and talked about it. I don't know how, but my rank went up, so we were able to stop the ice demon together."
Elas looked at Eric, but Eric didn't return her gaze. "Check this out, I've got different chains!" Eric showed the group his hellfire chains, the purple glow and fiery heat making Lucia squeal with delight at the beautiful warmth. As Eric and his group began experimenting, Elas's feet seemed frozen to the ground as she watched Eric mess around with his divine weapon, seemingly unaware that he was close to death mere moments ago.
Elas watched the amused faces of the three demi-humans, all of whom were companions of Eric's. She felt nothing towards demi-humans, neither hatred nor concern, but seeing Eric interact with them in such a comfortable way made her feel left out. It was as if Eric had just forgotten about her the instant he had returned to his friends.
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