"I too have thought about how I would save that person in that one moment when it became too difficult for them to go on", she had said one time, "I've tried but it never was up to me...is what I say but that's just an excuse I'm trying to give myself. If only I had been there, if only I'd listened, if only I'd known...those thoughts have come to me a thousand times. But then you realize that after all, heroes don't exist in the real world. You never think of saving someone when they are alive, it only comes to you when you can't do anything about it. I think even if I had been in the same room as him that night, I wouldn't have done anything. I wouldn't have been able to stop him. He couldn't have been saved. I would have watched him hang himself without saying a word."

Kiria had said that to me. She didn't say more than this about her life. I don't know who she was talking about but I knew she had failed to save someone. We had gone hunting that morning, and it was such a snowy morning, and I was cold. But I didn't show it.

*************************

Sight quickly deployed his barrier and pulled Grey away just as Silver attacked him.

"Eh? You brought friends? Hell, I didn't even notice", Silver sounded different.

"That sword...", I noticed Silver carrying it.

It looked rusty.

"I can fight too", Grey said as Sight released the barrier.

"You won't need to", I answered and then turned to Sight, "Cover me, Sight."

He nodded, just as I launched ahead to meet Silver. She swung the sword masterfully and faced me head on. I blocked the rusty sword with my bare hands. It wasn't enough to cut me.

"Eh? Interesting! No weapon, young one?", she jumped back and looked at me, amused.

I didn't need one. I was the weapon itself.

She dug the tip of her sword in the muddy ground and began walking towards me. Then she quickened her pace and came at me once again but the result was the same as before. I had no trouble stopping her. I was only testing the waters though, I didn't intend to go on the offensive just yet.

Seeing this garden that Silver had grown in a matter of hours, her powers weren't so negligible that I could measure them by a rusty sword. She was capable of much more.

"Ah, blood!", she had noticed my strategy too, "That's a neat power you've got there."

I had slashed my hand before fighting her. I only needed a few drops of blood to make my bare hand stronger than iron. I could control those drops of blood since they belonged to Nasty II. If I could inject even a single drop into her system, it would have been enough to wreak havoc. I could use Nasty's potential to a far greater length now, I knew how destructive it was.

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Seeing as the sword wasn't doing any good, Silver thrust it into the muddy ground and started towards me. I could see she intended to fight on equal grounds. Unfortunately for her, hand to hand combat was just the thing I was looking for. It was time to do Deli proud.

Our bout started with her flashing behind me and targeting me from my blind spot so that I couldn't touch her. She knew she didn't have a physical advantage on me, but indeed, she was quite fast. It was only a matter of time before I took control of the situation. We still had our fair share of play, messing up the place and sending each other flying here and there. The longer it dragged on, the stronger her blows got. She was firing up.

Sight and Grey had disappeared into the background so I could fully focus on Silver. It had gone on long enough before I grabbed her head and pummeled her into the ground. I felt something break in my hand, before I flung her into the darker portion of the garden. That caused quite the destruction. But no further sound came from her. So I stood there, to catch my breath. I spared Sight and Grey a glance. Actually, it took me a bit before I could find where they were.

But their expressions were strangely tense and their eyes peeled. I wondered at first if they hadn't realized that I already beat her. But then, knowing that unlike me, they could sense magical energy, I figured they were sensing Silver's magic. So I stared hard into the darkness where I'd plunged her. But I soon realized that she wasn't in there. Just then, my eyes went to the gravestone where she had thrust her sword. The sword wasn't there anymore.

Before I could react, something fell on my head. Something that was heavy, about as heavy as a planet. It did indeed feel like the world had fallen on my head. I was half hammered into the muddy ground, right up to my shins. And my senses were about as good as a man's who's had the entire world fall on his head. At least, I hadn't lost conscious. But I couldn't feel the warm fountain of blood that had popped over my head, although I could see the blood dripping into a pool at my feet.

Who knows what Sight was doing? He was supposed to have my back. I doubt he didn't sense this attack, even if it came out of the blue. In fact, I didn't even know what exactly it was that had hit my head. Sight probably thought it wouldn't kill me, so he didn't deem it necessary to interfere. Although true enough, I may have been out of sorts but I wasn't going to be killed with just a split head.

"You sure pack a punch, young one", Silver appeared from some corner, cracking her neck, "But we old ones couldn't warrant any respect if our years didn't do us no good."

Certainly not a comment I wanted to hear from a pretty girl like her, and especially not when my head was this open.

Silver swung the sword around.

"And here you have it, dear Grey! Your beloved killed once more at the hands of a ruffian!", Silver announced with a smirk.

And now the ruffian was going as dumb as a rock. Nothing really made sense, except that I saw Sight step up. He placed his hand on my head, perhaps trying to stop the fountain. I don't know if it stopped or not but Sight lost interest in it rather instantly. He went up to Silver.

"Eh, another one?", Silver was still smirking, "Pardon me, friend, but you're a different story. You aren't a young fool, after all."

Silver sounded like an old man. I hated it, of course.

Sight chuckled in his weird suspicious way. Silver just grinned.

"And so I won't be fighting you", Silver said before thrusting the sword back into the ground.

This time a flash passed from her hands into the hilt and all the way into the ground. And before we knew it, the ground was frozen. And our feet too. We were stuck in our place. I wasn't going anywhere anyway but it seemed like Grey and Sight were stuck too.

Sight tried to break the ice but he couldn't make a scratch.

"Ah, what a wonderful one this girl is!", Silver exclaimed to herself, "Did you know those Northerners are masters of mana? No one controls magic like they do. But they say the form their magic manifests in is a reflection of their hearts. And just look around you. Such cold, cold heart this girl had. Nothing but barren ice. Such emptiness and no fire, no warmth that can melt her ice."