A storm of ice and snow encircled the city of Sineru, a storm I wrought to a kingdom that I once called home and every single citizen that day shut themselves behind their closed doors for they knew that their true heir was coming to return to claim her throne, and yet I had no interest in it at all. I shattered the many windows of the beloved city and drowned every single opening that I could find in snow. I would then emerge into the trophy room where I spent a lot of times with my father only to see that it was stripped of all of its belongings and precious possessions.
“She is no longer here, princess.”, said the voice of someone I only remember both hearing seeing in someone else’s memory, someone who would step in front of the doors of the room.
“She waits you through the hailfire you’ve left in your every waking step.”, she then pushed those doors open and beyond it I didn’t expect to see what I did; a bridge to literal hell with rising flames on both sides and so much heat that I could feel the dry hot air coming out of it.
“If you wish to confront the evil and wicked queen step-mother, you will have to go through me, little Snow White.”, Bloody Mary walked across the bridge and gazed upon the chamber doors of the throne room that I sought to open. “I will give you a head start, what do you say?”, she said to me before looking back towards me with a smile and spread her arms apart.
“You can take in as much snow with you that you could possibly want and I assure you the steaks have never been higher.”, she raised her hands to gesture towards soldiers dressed in snow white metal clad armor that were boiled alive from the inside with blood pouring from their eyes.
I did exactly as she suggested for me to do and gathered with me as much snow that I brought from the outside. I took a deep breath for I knew that once I step into the hellfire that was the bridge that lead to what I was here for that it would be a long road to hell itself. Naomi Pharon walked up behind me and I leaned my head down, looking behind to see her raise her hands.
“Relax, white snow.”, said Naomi. “This is a one on one. We are only here to ensure you don’t try to come back out once you enter for the final time. It’s either sink or swim for you now.”, she explained and I looked at her with focused eyes, doubting her words but she seemed to back off.
“It’s the dance of ice and fire, the song of hail and conflagration. It’s hailfire.”, Naomi explained with delight and I shook my arms before I chose to walk into the hallway with the doors being shut behind me by the soul that was inside of the android’s body.
She knew I was in one ‘hell’ of a fight, sort to speak, and Bloody Mary stood before the door as I could feel the water in my body boiling, and the water elemental that had merged with me began to regret what it had done once I walked in the lair of the Scarlet Sorceress.
“You know, those dwarfs truly loved you and they paid the price for it.”, she said with delight.
“Naomi did most of the killing.”, she pointed towards Naomi that stood on the inside of the room and just before the doors until suddenly all the fires ceased to be. “What?”, asked Bloody Mary.
“Do you really think I am like you?”, she said with a playful smile on her face. “No, no, my dear, unlike you I am fair.”, she implied while Naomi walked past me and walked across the bridge.
“There is no unfair advantage, no upper hand I possess. It’s not the way of the Garo'shan.”, I didn’t know what this Garo'shan meant but she did have me all ears. “The Garo'shan?”, I asked and she opened the palm of her hands from which flames erupted along with two chakras.
She then threw those chakras towards me and I leaped into the skies as one passed above me and the other below me before I would land on my feet. Both chakras then struck the wall and both of them ricocheted from the wall. I turned to avoid one while the other cut through my arm and left a mark of fire before they came back to her. She caught both chakras and Naomi entered into the throne room before she shut the doors behind her.
“Let battle be joined!”, she said to me before she threw both chakras yet again.
I leaped into the air and spun once more as they bypassed me. She then struck me with a fireball that caused a part of me to fall to the ground and boil away into nothing. I then landed onto my feet and forced myself down on my stomach as the chakra flew over me. I rolled over with the other striking the ground and looked around to see where she was only to see her leaping into the air with the chakras returning to her hands. I threw several icicles towards her and she threw her chakras at them that easily boiled them away before both would strike me down. She then landed on top off me with her hands and knees, pushing me down into the ground as I felt my body boiling due to the extreme heat she caused to me. She then set herself on fire and laughed out loud as she repeatedly landed blows onto my arms. I then punched her in the head and she didn’t even budge before she grabbed me with both of her hands.
“I’ve been the dominant one for a while now. What say you try to be on top for a change?”, it was then that she flew up into the air and laughed maniacally while I looked up with confusion before realizing that the gravity itself started to shift due to the arcane magic.
The world inside this room turned upside down and therefore I fell downwards towards the ceiling itself that was littered with spikes. I landed on one of them and she was standing on the tip of one of them laughing at me. She then tip toed on one after the other towards me like a playful and menacing psychopathic little child intent to strike me down. I got up to confront her and then suddenly I felt like I lost gravity once more as she fell back down towards the bridge, as did I, and yet I fell on the bridge while she landed on her feet.
“A memory is nothing compared to the real thing, magian. To see it through someone’s eyes is one thing, to experience it with your own is another. I wish you could of have seen their faces in person when I incinerated one of them before their very eyes. I wish you could of seen the terror in their eyes when they watched him turn to ash before their very eyes and when they despaired in their last moments when they were betrayed by one whom they thought was you only to be another.”, the sorceress laughed as I pushed myself up to stand and gritted my teeth in anger.
“Yes, there is the one I was waiting for; no longer the innocent little Snow White we remember but that grown up monster that I have waited for.”, I then turned both of my arms to icy blades and ran forth towards her while she charged at me with her chakras.
We both attacked each other with mutual destructive magic as my water extinguished her flame while her flame in turn boiled my water away into nothing. The cold, dark sheen of the water tempered the exuberance of the fires while the bright dancing flames enlivened the quiet surface of water. The world then turned upside down and this time I did not lose focus like I did last time. I clashed with her chakras repeatedly in the air and our weapons even grinded against one another as she was so delighted with our battle. We landed on the tips of the spirals of stones in the ceiling and kept fighting as we stepped on one after the other. I swung my arm at her only for her to perform a barrel roll as the world turned once more. As I was falling down, I saw that I would miss the bridge and fall down into molten lava and I turned my hands into claws-like hooks that I used to impale to the side of the bridge as Bloody Mary laughed.
“You know, I enjoyed our little fight, magian, but you’re so boring!”, she threw both of her chakras and I lowered one hand down as the other struck my arm that cut it in two.
She then walked up to the side of the bridge and looked down in thought for she expected a more gruesome sound coming from my death. She almost looked disappointed by how it all ended.
“She’s under the bridge!”, my mother was angry as she watched the encounter through the eyes of the magic mirror and then I emerged from one side of the bridge as I leaped into the sky.
Bloody Mary turned and then I saw a sinister smile on her face before I kicked her off the bridge into the molten fiery pits below. I then stared down towards the molten lava as she emerged screaming and I saw her body deteriorate as the extreme heat seemed to rapidly decimate her molten-like bony structure. She started to change shape and form, seemingly melting in front of my eyes, and her body desperately tried to adapt to the heat of molten lava. I saw what appeared to be her body melting and then I saw her face melting into the lava itself in the terror she felt. It was then that for the first time I would feel very sorry for her as she literally turned herself inside out, vomiting forth her own face from within before dissolving into nothing. Her mission was a failure and her existence ended at that very moment. However, even I wondered why she smiled before I kicked her into the molten pits below. Was there something I did not know?
“She’s dead…”, my step-mother said and fell down to sit on her throne as she looked towards the throne chamber doors where I appeared to look to next. “This cannot be…”, she said to herself and then looked to Naomi Pharon. “All that I am left with now is you.”, she didn’t sound happy about that and the android rolled her eyes with disbelief, shaking her head.
I then walked over to the chamber doors and opened them only for Naomi Pharon to emerge out with her feet and legs first to kick me backwards. She then landed on her feet and on her knees as she raised her arms up that were shaped like hand cannons that fired two projectiles into me. I then raised my head up in horror as I realized what she truly did and my body exploded into vapor that spread throughout the air as the android stood up, she set her arms cannons to plasma mode this time rather than grenade launchers. The Golden Guard behind the doors closed it behind her as Naomi seemed to be waiting and my mother seemed to be overjoyed.
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“Do not celebrate yet, Rose Red, for Snow White’s essence still lingers in the air.”, the magic mirror stated and my wicked step-mother turned. “What do you mean?!”, she shouted. “You mean she isn’t dead?!”, she couldn’t believe it and yet the mirror was correct.
Naomi Pharon stood where she was and looked around with her cybernetic eyes to scan the room as it appeared she was searching for something, a sign of life that was the soul of mine. My soul was behind the android and I felt like I could barely breathe as I gasped for air. Naomi was about to turn until she heard the sound of clashing steel and metal in front of the doors that lead to the trophy room. Although there was a soul within the android’s body, her expression was subtle with extreme sadism and she looked around with in depth focus on what mattered. She was a taker of life, an extinguisher of souls, and the one word that could best describe her is being a terminator that would stop at nothing to kill those she hunted. I crawled over the ground behind her and I was invisible for only the essence of my soul lingered. Naomi then turned her head and I crawled over on the side as whatever of the water elemental remained in the air began to disappear rapidly. Naomi appeared to smile for she was convinced I was either dead or that I was on the other side of that door before she heard metal smack against the doors. It was then that both of her arms reverted back to their ordinary forms and she stepped towards the doors that she forced open by pulling on them. It was then, to her surprise, that she saw many of the Red Guards and Black Guards lying on the ground as they seemed to be severely beaten. She looked around and I then saw what appeared to be a gnome of sorts standing below her. She then looked down and saw Mojo, the Puss in Boots, staring at her and her eyes scanned him only to learn that he was not any ordinary cat but an android. It was then that she raised her right arm that began to transform back into her arm cannon and I threw myself forth as I opened my mouth screaming. Mojo threw a bucket of water towards her that sprayed her and then she froze in a millisecond for I had frozen her. I used whatever water I could spare and quickly started to reform my body as I merged with whatever snow was coming through the window. In my desperation, I tried to desperately maintain the ice and made it colder so that the android’s body literally became black ice. The android’s eyes stared towards the form that began to appear in the window and her eyes were focused, the ice over her arm began to crack before Mojo suddenly whistled. The android then looked down and saw what appeared to be loose cannon in his little claws.
“Say hello to my little friend, bitch.”, said Mojo and the android’s eyes widened before he fired the cannon that shattered her body into many fragments that fell all over the floor.
My soul was both happy and horrified for what I had seen, and I immediately allowed my spirit to fall through the window, down the mountain and into the snow itself that began to reform my entire body that erupted upwards into a snowstorm. I thrust myself into the room and my body reformed, reaching for Mojo who I held in my arms and whose cheeks I felt with my hands.
“Mojo…”, I said to him and he looked up to me, his head began to shake for he was clearly damaged due to the severe blow he made towards the android and himself.
“Little Robin Redbreast…”, Mojo could barely muster up a sentence. “Yeah, he was our little pride and joy.”, I nodded as I said to the android cat. “He told me… He told me…”, the android was on repeat, trying to tell me something and I wondered what it was before he said.
“To protect Snow White for she is family…”, his right claw then reached for my cheek and felt it one last time. “And family always sticks together…”, it was then that his green eyes shut down and became lifeless, his body ceased to function and in that moment of losing him was the last straw that broke the camel’s back or in this case broke me.
I heard the footsteps of Cyberpunks belonging to the Red Guard, Black Guard, Golden Guard, and even those of the Bloodstone Tribe that emerged into my room. My mother watched with a smile on her face before she saw the rage forming in my eyes and a massive snow storm entering the trophy room that spun like a cyclone all around. Those that had entered the trophy room soon found themselves levitating and being raised into the air by the massive snowstorm that spun them around before I shouted in anger, spreading my arms into the air and my legs before I yelled out in anger that sent out shards of black ice in all directions that penetrated through the armored guard. I then screamed in so much anger and frustration as I waved my arms around as the snow storm carried the golden guard around in circles. My wicked step-mother and the evil queen knew it was over, her every means and chance to win was exhausted. The Snow Queen’s army made its way towards the city the Bloodstone Tribe seemed to be retreating. It was a dark day for the Red Army and many of the Black Guard began to surrender their weapons while the Golden Guard was the only last line of defense that would forever keep on fighting. She reached for one last golden chest that weighed heavy and placed it on a small table fashioned out of the same throne seat where my father once sat. She opened the chest in which there was an apple, a thick golden windproof lighter and a cigar beside it. My step-mother was nearing the end of her tale and she knew it well, and this time she knew there was no happy ending for Rose Red. She heard me scream and hurl the Golden Guard from all across the other side of the bridge.
“Magic mirror on the wall…”, the Queen of Thorns called for her servant one last time that was situated just above the table where she kept her stone chest on. “What fate awaits us now?”, she asked the mirror and then looked to the apple she held in the palm of her hand.
The mirror was about to answer before a few androids of the Golden Guard were thrust through the chamber doors and my evil wicked step-mother leaned her head forth to take cover from the shards of broken glass and ice that blew into the throne room. There were sounds of broken glass and shards of ice hitting the walls, the floor and anything else that it came across upon. My step-mother then reached for the handle of her throne as the snow storm pulled out all the Golden Guards within the throne room. The snow storm gathered over the bridge before it hurled all of them into the depths of the molten lava below and I walked over the bridge in anger and rage.
“Death then.”, the Queen of Thorns stated for now she now knew the outcome of her own fate after seeing the fate of the magic mirror, which got shattered and broke, in front of her very eyes.
She took a bite of the red apple, stepped aside and reached for her windproof lighter along with her cigar. She walked up to her throne and took her seat, crossing her legs and took another bite off the apple as she waited for me to step into the throne room. She could feel the icy chill of the cold winter’s ascension at my back that followed in after me and I glared into her eyes as she appeared to be unafraid, unmoved and carefree for my arrival. I looked around in the throne room and saw that none of the items of the trophy room were present. I happened to wonder if she had back up plans for her current situation she happened to find herself in.
“Hello, Snow White, I’ve been waiting for you.”, said the queen and I smiled, I couldn’t help but to chuckle at her comment. “I’m surprised you haven’t tried to escape.”, I replied and then the evil queen chuckled herself that came as a surprise to me before she would step up.
“Escape?”, she said before she would chuckle and after that drop the apple to the ground that rolled down the stairs before the very seat of her throne. “My dear Snow White…”, she added before raising the cigar to her mouth. “I’m afraid you got it all wrong.”, she then opened the cover of the windproof lighter and suddenly the center of her floor opened from which emerged a large triangular column of sorts that seemed to grow with enchanted blue runes.
It emanated with electricity that channeled energy from within itself and then it let loose all that energy into my body once she had pressed the trigger off the lighter. I could feel my entire body being paralyzed as my entire body served as a literal conduit for the electricity that fried my entire body. I began to evaporate in front of her as she held the button on the trigger for a while before letting go off it just so that she could watch as the electricity still coursed through me.
“It’s amazing what can happen when electricity comes in contact with water, isn’t it, especially in high doses like these.”, she then pressed on the trigger as the strange mechanical object began to electrocute me even more and began to evaporate most of my being in front of me.
“A magian like you is practically a conduit of electrical energy for your whole entire consists entirely of… water, is it?”, she then pressed the trigger again and my body began to deteriorate, disintegrate, evaporate and even boil due to the extreme heat temperatures the machine applied.
For the first time, after a long time, I felt fear unlike any other that I had at the mere thought of my mother. I did not have this fear ever since I had abandoned my home so many years ago. She had power over me, power I did not expect, and all it took was a simple engineered mechanical device installed into her throne room. I thought she would try to use some form of other magical objects and enchantments against me, but instead she just enjoyed watching me suffer. She then let loose of the trigger after she sat on her throne and laid her arm on the gold handle of her seat.
“You honestly thought that I wouldn’t give you a proper good-bye, my beloved Snow White, after all you’ve put me through?”, she questioned me while I looked into her eyes with a look of hatred, anger, fury and rage she could clearly notice resonating in my eyes.
“You…”, I barely managed to say one word but I was so angry, so filled with hatred, that I could not stop myself. “You took away my kingdom!”, I shouted at her and she smirked at me.
“You killed my father!”, I shouted towards her while reaching for the red apple that I absorbed of any liquid it had within it. “You tried to have me killed when I was a child, when I was only seven years old!”, I shouted towards her and then threw the apple as she pressed the trigger.
The apple then struck the lighter and knocked it out of her hand as it landed upon the ground. She then began to panic and got up from her seat, looking around and searching for it as I barely got up to stand, to breathe, to catch my breath and muster up the energy to move forward.
“You killed the only friends and family I had in this world, seven little dwarfs who did not deserve the fate you brought upon them, you wicked and evil bitch!”, I took out all my anger and all my frustrations out on her through words, and I made sure she heard my every thought.
It was then that she found the lighter and turned only to see me being a few steps away from her. She pressed the trigger and the mechanical construct unleashed its energy that it distributed into my body that began to course through me, evaporating and boiling me once more.
“And to top it all off…!”, I fell down on my knees after I shouted those words and then thought about everything that she had caused; every memory of my childhood she had ruined and each memory of the seven dwarfs taken from me due to her evil and wicked ways.
I then screamed, stood up and reached for her with my own two hands as I pushed her back against the throne’s seat. The energy that was moving through my body like a conduit then distributed over into hers and began to electrocute her so much that her thumb squeezed even harder over the button of the windproof lighter whose mechanical gadgets began to fry from within. In my last moments with her, I inherited the memories of what she had done to my father and all the years that went by throughout the kingdom, but then there were gaps that occurred due to her body becoming dry and fried along with mine that prevented the memories to transfer. I kept holding her until her red robe turned black and pale, her skin burnt and her body dried up like a corpse, and until her hand dropped the lighter that fell to the ground. My entire body fell apart and disintegrated into a singular puddle of water before the doors came crashing down. The Snow Queen’s soldiers then emerged into the throne room and laid their eyes upon the wicked and evil queen step-mother, lying and sitting on her throne where she died as the queen she was.