❆ ❆ ❆ Chapter Twenty Four ❆ ❆ ❆
Fragility
[Snow]
Snow stumbled through the southern thick forest. Her heart, aching. Her mind, broken. She didn’t cry but she wanted to. She was incapable of crying at this point, she couldn’t cry anymore. She could do nothing but contemplate what she has done with her life. The life of trying to please her mother, always playing games and sneaking out. She was never really responsible, or had a personality of her own. She could describe her sisters and mother with great detail. But her? She was just a big blah, nothing. She didn’t feel like she had a voice. She didn’t see the point to living anymore, especially since she was stuck here. The Goddess said her soul was strong, but she couldn't make the decision. Everyone was right; she was too weak.
Snow fell to her knees, and drew icebreaker. Her mother’s sword that had protected her up to this point, would be the same thing that would end her life. Snow held the sword up in the air. She needed to strike her heart, or her frostblood would heal her.
She yelled and drove the blade into her chest. The blade didn't penetrate, instead, the blade shattered into pieces.
“Why! I don't want to live. You don't want to skin animals, you don't want to kill me. Arg, you're useless!” Snow flung the Icebreaker’s in rage. The handle bounced off some rocks just above a cave opening. Snow recognized the small cave opening. It was the cave she sheltered in on the first night.
That dreadful night, she remembered having to fight tooth and nail just to crawl a few inches. That alone was a great achievement for her, she escaped death with the strength of will.
Snow stood back up and hung her head.
“If I die without making a choice. I will truly be worthless.” She flexed her hand and Icebreaker flew to her, all the shattered shards reformed onto the blade. “Sorry, Icebreaker.” The sword pulsed blue in response.
Snow continued her walk through the forest, this time with a direction.
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The endless patch of ice rolled on ahead of her. Snow was standing on the border of the south forest, looking out in memory of her first day. She did not walk on the ice. Instead, her attention shifted to the various piles of snow that were on the border, specifically the pile that was destined for the next crystalline ice slam from the frost giant. Snow knelt down and dug through the pile in search and found a stone sphere. The near perfect sphere was smooth to the touch despite being out here the whole time. It was the key those assailants back home tried to use to destroy the seal. It would be her key now. She headed towards the centermost tornado of the area, near wolf gorge.
A ghostly woman appeared behind Snow. Watching her.
There was almost a sense of mesmerization from looking at the tornado seal. Icebreaker felt like it was responding the closer she got to it. As Snow stepped closer, the key in her hand began to vibrate. Once she destroyed this seal, she would be able to help the people trapped inside. Not like her world was worth anything anyways. Her people weren’t worth living at the expense of these angels suffering.
Just before she entered the tornado the ground exploded in front of her. The cloud of dust obscured the person in front of her momentarily.
“Aela, I'd figure you try and stop me.” Snow drew Icebreaker, the sword flashed rapidly and instantly transformed into an arming sword. Snow had never seen Icebreaker morph that quickly before. Even when she fought the golem and ice giant.
It was probably because Aela wasn’t the one in front of her. The dust settled, revealing a black knight.
The knight said nothing but held his broadsword up in response.
Snow took a stance against him. The knight’s armor rumbled before he jumped at her with inhuman speed. Snow put her sword up into a block and Icebreaker grew much thicker in anticipation and the knight’s blade made contact.
If you ever been hit by a moving carriage just multiply that feeling by 100 because that’s how much force the black knight's swing felt like. Snow had to make sure she was okay after blocking that attack. Something was off though. The ground wasn’t at her feet anymore. She got sent flying away. She crashed into the ground rolling about a dozen times before stumbling back up on her feet..
“That power is absurd.” Snow never would have imagined just how powerful these knights actually are. If she didn’t block that, she may well have been cut in half.
“She-will-not…be-freed.” The black knight said through an abominable wheeze before charging at her.
Snow prepared herself for the attack when the back of her neck burned, she could sense another one behind her. Snow quickly spun around and was face to face with another black knight. The knight rattled a demonic laugh as he readied his weapon to strike her. His unsettling laugh was silenced when an armored leg smashed against his helm, sending him ragdolling away at least one kilometer.
The clothing of a warden was unmistakable, the large white cloak bearing the lotus insignia blew with the wind. Light was shining off her gold shoulder plate and her hair had a golden crescent ornament.
It was Aela. Her usual garb was replaced with the warden armor.
“Aela.”
Aela shifted to be in front of her, looking at the oncoming knight. The knight lunged at them. His blade poised to pierce Aela. Aela responded by raising her metal boot up, the blade grinded against her heel before she parried it away and stabbed the black knight through the chest with a new weapon. This new sword was green and had a crescent insignia. The knight roared as a plethora of vines began flailing out of the sword, viciously wrapping and snapping into him. Aela kicked him straight into the tornado wall, the knight hit the wall like it was solid, shards of ice shredded into him before he fell back to the ground.
“Get your act together, I am not going to lose another partner again. Even if she is emotional and reckless.” Aela spoke with conviction.
Snow smirked.
“I’ll take a formal apology later. For now, let's get rid of these knights.”
“There are more coming. Finish that one off, behead him. I got the rest.” As Aela said that, Snow could feel the fire of more black knights approaching.
Snow focused on the black knight shambling towards her, the pulsating vine sword was severely hindering him. The knight tried several times to remove the sword, but his efforts were futile. Snow could see the hot mist that he exerted through his helmet. He was breathing like a bull, and was going to fight her with the sword still in him.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Snow, watch his dash!” Aela yelled from far away while she was in the middle of fighting three black knights.
Snow yelled as she charged at the knight. This was her moment, all the training she’s been through. It mattered here and now. She had to atleast take one down while Aela handled the rest. While she was charging her heart rate increased faster and faster, a tingling sensation spread across her spine. Then, in almost a blink of an eye, she stopped and sidestepped as hard as she could. The black knight shot past her, he had moved so fast he was nearly a blur, even from this distance.
The knight grew confused, as if he didnt expect to hit nothing. She was didnt blame him, she was surprised too. The vine-coated knight extended his sword arm out to the side as he prepared for yet another attack..
Snow started feeling that same tingling force again and lifted her sword up, before she realized it, the knight was mid strike. His blade slammed into hers, trying to push her back, but she held her ground. Snow didn't know what was more shocking, his speed with Aela’s sword still in him or the fact that she somehow blocked it.
That strange force was felt again, her blood was moving inside her body, even the muscles in her sword arm and legs felt like they were hardening. She moved her sword three times deflecting three different strikes with unbelievable precision.
“Woah am I really doing this?!” Snow was awestruck.
The knight threw another burst of deflected attacks. At the end of his sequence, Snow slid around him, the ends of her hair getting sliced before she returned her own strikes. Her body attacked on its own. With grace she turned her wrist as she slipped Icebreaker across his back. Snow didn't realize how much force she was using until the rest of his backplate came right off. She wasn't done yet, she pushed forward, twirling before dashing past him and stabbing him through the side of the neck. Black tar gushed out and she hopped back.
Snow looked towards Aela to see how Aela was handling herself. Aela’s arm was directed in their direction while she was struggling to deal with the knights. That's when Snow knew what the unknown force was. It was Aela. Aela was actually puppeteering her this whole time, Aela was fighting two battles at once.
Then, Aela got hit, and hard. Two of the knights struck her at the same time and she got sent flying. There was an explosion, and Aela was in a crater on the ground. The strange force that had been controlling Snow disappeared.
Snow refocused on the knight she was battling, half of his neck was gone. The black wound started to steam and heal, but vines grew over it, ripping the wound back open whenever it attempted to close. Snow had to finish this thing off without Aela’s help. Its speed was deadly, and its strength too. She had to be able to predict its attacks or she would perish on one hit.
Snow looked closely. A slight rattle came from his right elbow.
“There!”
Snow turned to the left as his broadsword swiped upwards to her right. After the sword whiffed, Snow swung up with a counter attack. Icebreaker sliced through the knight’s slimy armpit like butter. The knight’s arm dropped to the ground, still grasping onto the sword.
The knight threw his left arm forward, in an attempt to grab her by the throat. Snow ducked under his grasp before shoving Icebreaker into the remains of his throat. Snow twisted and pulled, but the knight's blood rapidly tried to fight back against Icebreaker. The knight grabbed her forearm with his one remaining arm in a desperate attempt to stop the decapitation. Snow’s flesh immediately began sizzling underneath his grip. Then, she could see her blood being pulled towards his grip. As her blood fed into him, his neck began rapidly regenerating.
Snow felt a rapid vibration in her pocket. The vibration was so strong she couldn't ignore it. She reached in her pocket and pulled out the seal key orb.
It's powered by souls.
Snow shoved the orb key into the knight’s chest. The key flashed red and began absorbing the knight. The knight emitted a monstrous scream while the key sucked him inside, the key dropped to the ground along with Aela’s vine sword.
“Bastard!” Aela yelled barbarically before crashing into the ground once again.
Aela had taken one of the knight’s heads and was now facing just two of them. She was tiring though.
“Aela here catch!” Snow threw the vine sword at her. Aela caught it and was dual wielding now.
The knights took pause upon the vine sword. Then, they looked to her. Snow held the key up as well as Icebreaker. The action deterred them from advancing, instead they backed up and disengaged into the forest.
The battle was over.
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They went back to the Aela’s shack. It was a mess again. Aela was sitting on the bedside and Snow was sitting on a chair.
“Listen, uh, I was a little harsh back then. I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t look at you like a burden, nor does it have to do with your mom. I was just annoyed.” Aela scratched her head trying to put into words what to say.
“It's okay. Apology accepted.” Snow smiled.
“Thanks.” Aela looked to be a little relieved.
“Aela, you mentioned during the fight you wouldn’t lose another partner again. Did you have a partner before me?”
Aela flinched at the mention of her partner as if she knew this was coming.
“Yes. I had a partner, her name was Laura.” Aela sighed.
“I never knew you had a partner. What happened?”
It was the first time Aela showed any sad emotion. Snow didn't know Aela’s hard expression was capable of concaving past anger. Aela looked pained, a mix of anger and sadness battled in her demeanor.
“I don't know how to cook because I was never the one who did. Same with Mina’s pups, I never handled them before.” She squeezed her fists, “ I had a partner, her name was Laura.” Aela smiled but then anger flared again. “She was the smart one. I was the strong one. She did all the seal research and I basically did whatever she said. She also did all the small stuff like cooking, cleaning, and scouting. The stuff that you do. She was a real pansy though. I had to protect her on several occasions, even though her sword is ridiculously overpowered.” Snow swore she saw a tear forming from Aela’s eye. “That idiot was just like you in fact, she refused to leave me alone, and then took care of me when I pushed myself too much. She was also obnoxiously cocky whenever she got good at something.”
“I'm sorry, did she.. pass?”
“Worse, she pushed her frostblood too hard to save one of the southern seals, the one nearest the area you emerged from. Just before it happened she was saying similar things like you; about seeing suffering angels and breaking the seals to free them. She broke the seal causing that entire area to be iced over. She then realized her mistake and used all her power to permanently seal it back.”
Laura pushed her frostblood? But she was not dead? Snow’s eyes widened in realization.
“Aela, don't tell me. That frost giant?”
“It's her. That monstrosity is my partner, my god damned friend.” A tear did roll down her eye.
“That's why you didn't kill her before.”
“What am I supposed to do? Just kill my best friend? You'd think that's the right thing to do. ‘Mercy killing’, I told myself. But, I can't bring myself to do it. What's worse is the agonizing screaming she lets out every day. And I know shes screaming my name, she screams nothing but my fucking name and I cant stand it!” Aela gritted her teeth followed by the full release of tears, “I'm so useless. I'm so weak.” She hung her head in complete defeat.
Snow got up and sat next to Aela.
“I'm so sorry, Aela. That’s something I couldn't imagine going through.” When She arrived, Aela had just lost her friend. That explained Aela’s anger when they first met.
“When you destroyed my golem, I was infuriated, my best friend who just gave her life for a seal was now being undermined by Dea’s own daughter. I hated you. Sorry if I seemed harsh because of that.”
“I understand, Aela. You are not a bad person, you are very caring.”
“I’m no saint, I've killed hundreds in the great war. But, after spending ten years with someone, only to have them turn. I can still hear her screams. It makes me shiver, and then it makes me angry. I just want to eradicate those damned knights down to the last man!-”
Snow hugged Aela. Aela’s rageful rant was interrupted. Her anger settled into sadness, then grief.
“We will get through this.” Snow softly said.
“Thanks Snow, I really needed to hear that.” Aela tearfully said.