In complete darkness, there was a body laying on the ice floor and a puttle of blood under the body. He had white fox ears with mix of blue in it. Same colours were his nine tails. His clothes were also blood and he didn't have any seeable weapons on his body.

After hours, he slowly opened his eyes and immediatly was greeted with a shat pain on the left side of his stomach. He presses his teeth together because of the pain and through great pain and effort, he lifts his head a little, to see a long icycle going through his body and covered with his red blood.

"I have to remove it."he mutters and makes his nails long and sharp, before cutting off half of the icycle, leaving only leaving left the part inside of his body.

So, slowly, he turns onto his right and looks at it, pulls up the coat, before grabbing the tip of it and staring to pull it out.

"Haa!"he lets out a small scream from pain, as he pulls it out of his body with almost unbearable pain. Slowly, he starts to see more and more of the blood covered ice, until it is completly out of his body. He then quickly touches the wound and freezes it together with ice magic quickly on both sides.

It hurts like a bitch, but it's better then bleeding out here, which he somehow hasn't done yet. He stays on his side for a few minutes, before starting to slowly get up onto his feet.

He pushes his body up with hands, then gets into his knees and the starts to get onto his feet. All of this proved to be hard, because of the ice, but he managed to do it in a minute.

Now that he is on his feet, he could look around more in this dark place with his eyes, that can see in dark. As he turns his head around, he notices that there is only ice here. He then looks up and Even with his eyes, he doesn't see the top of it.

"How the hell did I get here?"he asks himself, as he doesn't remember it.

'I was fighting with that bird and it thres me into the tree....after that I remember only anger and thats it. I can't remember what happened after that.'

He tries to remember, but can't do it no matter how hard he tries.

'I'm in a cave, with a lot of many, which I can collect. I have mana for about five days and only thing here is ice, which I probably can use as a water source If needed. I have no weapons on me too....just great."

He shakes his head and just starts to walk through the ice 'corridors' here. But because of his wound, his speed is pretty slow and he needs to support his body with the wall. As the weakend Nevada walks there, he notices something from the distance. So he starts moving towards it, while leaning against the wall.

As he gets closer by walking, he sees, that it's his sword, seemingly stuck in the ice. In these kinds of situations, the person would probably fasten his pace, but Nevada doesn't see a pointi of doing that and so continues to walk towards it with the same speed.

When near the sword, he pushes himself off the wall and stumbles to his sword, which he grabs. He tries to pull the sword with its sheath, but without effort. It is too stuck in the ice. So he decided to leave the sheath and just grabs the hilt of the sword and pulls it, only to say"Great. Just fucking great."

He says it, because when he pulled it out, he only bulled out some of the blade, because the blade had been broken and now, he had a weapon with a longsword hilt and a thirty centimeter grip.

He lets out a sigh and feels a little sad for breaking the sword, that his parents gave him. Because this is the end of the corridor, he turns around, while spinning the blade into a reverse grip and continues to walk, while leaning on the wall.

As he walks, he starts to remember bits and pieces of the fight after his overhelming anger. He remembers biting the bird and then... flying.... falling and it divebombing.....then he remembers, how both of them fell down here, to this ice hell.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

And for the first time in his life, he actually felt, that he was freezing. Even when he was left to the forest when he was born, he didn't feel this cold. The tempeture in this place was at least -50° If not more.

Suddenly, his fox ears stood up, as he heard some kind of noise, belonging to a person. So this time, he fastens his pace and he almost jogs there.

When he gets nearer, he sees a woman about twenty meters away. Her skin is pale, almost white. Her eyes are beautiful big and black. Her hair is long and mix between white and blue. She herself is wearing a dress with white feathers as decoration.

'I fell down with the bird, but I don't see it here. She has the same colours as the bird and her dress is decorated with feathers. If the bird had a human form, then it would look like her. And I seriously doubt, that she just happened to be here.'

As he thinks, he notices, that she noticed him and so, Nevada immediatly rushed towards her, ignoring the pain. Before she could react, she was slammed into the wall and a balde was presses against the throat.

"So you stupid bird fell down here too."he says and presses the blade more clsoer to her neck.

"Let me go you damn fox."she says and with great strength, pushes him away from her. He flies into the wall and slides down onto the floor. Immediatly, he vomits out some blood and follows it with a few bloody coughs.

He seriously can't take a hit right now with his current condition. So, Nevada looks at the bird, who looks at him, while leaning against the wall, and he throws the blade in his hands, towards her head, which she managed to dodge the last moment. The blade gets stuck in the ice and the two look at each other.

"You damn kitsunes are always so violent."she says and starts to walk closer to him.

"Shut up bird."he says and creates ice spike, which he shoots towards her, only tl have then destroyed by a blue flame.

"I, Eleanor the Great Phoenix Queen, will now kill you."she declares and before she could strike him down, he says"Phoenix Queen? Don't joke here. Phoenixes have been extind for five thousand years. There are none left."

"Huh."she says with a stupifid voice"What do you mean?"

She grabs him by a collar, pulls him up and presses him against the wall.

"Like you heard. Phoenix race is extinct."Nevada tells her and puts his hand near her neck, with his sharp nails out.

'He can't kill her yet, as she might be useful for getting out of here. And If needed, she will be his mana source.'

"You are telling the truth..."she says in a saddened voice and lets go of him. She takes a few steps back and drops onto the ground, while leaning against the fall. She covers her face with her hands and a small crying could be heard soon after that.

As for Nevada, he slowly slides down onto the ground and looks at the phoenix, while lying against the wall.

'By her reaction, she has probably been in some kind of deep slumber or something like that and only recently, has she woken up. And now, she is crying, because she just found out, that she is the only surviving member of her race.... speaking of race, I haven't seen any kitsunes anywhere. I really would like to meet another one of my kind, as it feels slightly lonely, being the only kitsune in the Ice Fort. I have Maria to ease my lonliness, but still. I want to meet other kitsunes.'

Nevada lets out a sighs and leans his head back, staring at the darkness above him.

At the Ice Fort, Maria has woken up and lying on her bed, while looking at the ceiling. She lets out a long sigh and thinks about yesterday.

'I actually had to release my true form...But why did I left Despond alive. I could have killed him and Nevada would have been free. We could have finally started thinking about expanding the family, but now, it won't happen so soon. He refuses to talk about it and says, that only then, when he has gotten rid of the mark, will he talk about it with me. But seriously, what kept me ending all of it. Yesterday, he was telling only truth, so does that mean, that Nevada had made some kind of deal with Despond, to take down a common enemy. And he didn't tell me or did it recently and hasn't told me, because he hasn't gotten back here yet. And the part about being friends was also true...'

"Huuuuuh."she groans loudly and turns around onto her stomach. She looks to her side and streches out her right arm. She stares at her arm and suddenly, dozen white pieces with blue lines on it appear hovering over her hand.

Each piece is part of her old mask, which she starts to reform, using her magic and once the mask is fixed, she lets it drop onto her hand to catch it.

She looks at the mask, with five horizontal lines in a 30° angle go up her mask. And this is on both sides. Her mask has ten blue lines. This means, she is the second tenth rank assassin in Ice Fort and the strongest one here.

"I really have gone soft."she says to herself and puts the mask on the table. She won't start to work again, as she promised to herself after her brothers death. But she will start to fight again.

She then gets up from the bed and goes to the bathroom to wash her body.

After the bath, she looks at herself in the mirror and with her magic, she changes her look to how she used to be. Her normal body build turns into a more muscular one with six pack and defined muzzles. But it isn't that musclular body. It's more very well trained one, with almost no fat one.

"I kinda missed this look."she mutters to herself and leave the bathroom.