Stained Snow
Chapter 06 [https://www.rellawings.com/superluminal/chapternum/chaphead_6.jpg]
“Mistral, you must put an end to this,” the words of the wolf-faced hero, Garou, were no threat or plea. They were a simple statement of what had to be.
Mistral shook her head with a sigh. “I can’t. My creed doesn’t—”
“I know. That softness is partially why I wouldn’t join a cheese ball club like the Society of Sentinels. I swear it, I’ll convince you to leave their ranks and walk the hunter’s path.”
“You won’t.” Mistral said seriously, “Unlike yourself and the Great Manitou, I have qualms about taking the life of an enemy. The Sentinels share my belief.”
“Your foe doesn’t have such scruples. She’d murder you in your sleep—just as soon as she loses interest. Why hold back? Every time you meet in combat, you draw closer. My instincts tell me you’re free falling in a tight spiral together. This can only end one way.”
“I respectfully disagree. I think I’m wearing her down.” Mistral snapped, shrugging. “There’s something deep inside her that doesn’t agree with her actions.”
“You’re the mystic between the two of us, so you may think you can save her from a life of crime—But it won’t go so well.” Garou clenched one of his clawed hands. “But this feeling you ‘get’ from her may be yet another manipulation. I know the mind of a predator. Mark my words, you’re foolish to think you can tame a carnivore that has the scent of your blood—and she hungers.”
“Hmmmpfff—” Mistral crossed her arms across her chest, scoffing. “Everything’s always so black and white for you. The Society of Sentinels don’t believe that anyone is truly irredeemable.”
If you asked most Canadians they would tell you Mistral’s most striking visual feature was her silver-almost-white hair. It had an aura that felt very much alive. It also helped to naturally broadcast the Weather Witch’s already high-profile powerset. This was especially true when compared to her more humble costume.
Said costume hadn’t seen much of an update since her debut so long ago and was, as such, less novel or exotic now that everyone had gotten used to it. The costume was clearly inspired by traditional tribeswoman garb and heavily featured leathers, feathers, beads and fetishes dedicated to the Great Manitou, Creator of All and Enforcer of Balance. The outfit’s most noteworthy accessory was the football-sized medicine satchel that hung down to her hip. This healing symbol emblazoned satchel magically contained a pharmacy’s worth of medical ingredients from grasses to totems to anything and everything else.
The whole ensemble spoke of youthful adventure, innocence and purity, while still showing off enough skin to indicate she was still a warm-blooded woman underneath.
Garou turned his back on Mistral. “You’re naïve. Too tender and young.” He heaved a heavy sigh and looked over his shoulder. “Still, you are my friend and ally. Know that I’ll be there for you if it doesn’t go as well as you hope.”
Going down on all four legs, Garou charged away through drifts of snow. Flakes of pure snow fell onto the mantle of Mistral’s cloak and hood.
“I’d lay my life on the line to prove that we can bring even a supervillain like Black Angel to serve a greater good.”
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“You have since improved your art, my nemesis,” Black Angel had her gaze intently fixed on her enemy. Mistral’s face hung open.
The villainess had her eyes glued onto her beautiful body, a foolish woman in possession of an exquisite, ripe, delicate soft body, but naïve in nature.
Magnificent ebony-feathered wings that sprouted from Black Angel’s shoulder blades were lazily flapping as the two hovered, facing off. Mistral merely hovered, buoyed by her command over the spirits of air itself, or some such foolishness.
With her arms crossed beneath her breasts over an elegant black dress that bared one leg to the elements that were snugly embraced by sexy stockings that further tinted her dark skin, Black Angel idly tapped a finger against her upper arm.
The material of her dress shaped the void itself to cling to her gorgeous body like luxurious fabric. Functional, yet amply expressing her superiority, even in its simplicity. She exuded an assurance that she was light years beyond the mere residents of this world, except perhaps for her current dancing partner.
Her dress rippled with eddies that suggested her great power, a construction alive, yet not.
As typical, she was unadorned, since a woman of her stature did not require superficial baubles or decorations to amplify what the void had given her. Greed itself was below her station, except for the sake of power.
Her face was stunning, her countenance breathtaking. Her sublime perfection enraptured man and animal alike, enthralled by her pristine presence at a simple glance.
No star could compare to her. The world was at her service, in awe of her beauty.
But beauty was not what Black Angel most valued. It was her strength that made the world wither under her gaze before supplicating.
The common man feared and avoided her at all costs, except for a handful of these super-powered gnats. The world would be hers when none were left to stand between her and her goals. She was very patient and, more than that, her curiosity about this world hadn’t yet been satiated. Until the day of Armageddon, certainly ushered in by herself, she would toy with Earth to her heart’s contentment.
If she had her way, this world would one day launch its whole consolidated nuclear arsenal in honor of her and not even the vaunted Vanguard would bar her way.
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Mistral rolled her eyes after a long pause. “Thank you, I suppose. But I don’t have any use for these patronizing comments.”
Black Angel smiled faintly. “Don’t be so cold. I’m becoming bored with your cautious nature.”
“Are you serious about your offer?” Mistral’s eyes narrowed.
“Very much so. I propose that this be our last battle. The victor takes the loser to do as they will with them. Should you win this time, I shall consider your words.” She thoughtfully rubbed her chin.
“How do I know that you’ll keep your word?” Mistral asked with pursed lips.
“You don’t. You well know that nothing in life is certain, much less the word of a ‘villain’.”
“Are you trying to convince or dissuade me? Your offer isn’t very sincere if you tell me in the next breath that you’re untrustworthy.”
“You wound me, Mistral. I mean everything I say.” She gave a darker smile. “Enough words. See whether I’m sincere by judging my actions… However… Note that I have no intention of losing to you today.” She spread her arms and arched her fingertips, spreading her wings.
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The two rocketed into the sky, Mistral via a powerful gust of wind generated by her powers, the other propelled by a zephyr created by her powerful wings.
When they flew high enough, the two knew it was time to strike.
Mistral raised a hand and flurries of snow arced down from the clouds above to swing in the direction she gestured. Black Angel similarly raised her hands and sent a wave of darkness and where the two attacks met, the flakes darkened, becoming colder than normal.
“I wouldn’t suggest going head on against me, power against power,” Black Angel said as the corner of her lips arched up and her eyes narrowed. Even as she spoke, the strength of the wave of darkness cresting over Mistral’s blizzard had increased.
“Don’t dismiss me so quickly, Black Angel.” Mistral moved her arms, whispering softly. The snowflakes re-channeled and increased in volume to fuse into solid ice, midair. Below, a tall spire took form, supporting the ice construction she was building, block by block, rising quickly to meet where they fought.
“Interesting. You haven’t shown me this cute ice sculpting technique of yours before. Did you devise it for the sake of showing me something pretty?”
Mistral blushed and glared, protesting, “The hell I would!”
Black Angel laughed as a lattice of ice like a cage formed around her. With contemptuous ease, she lifted a hand, and a singularity formed beneath her position, swinging its arms around it, spiraling outwards as it expanded.
“Let’s pit your pretty gilded birdcage against the force of a Black Hole. It’s fair to say at this point that you didn’t think out your strategy enough.” Even as she said that, the ice started pulling inward, rapidly devoured.
“Unlike you, I’ve seen your ‘little tricks’ far too many times to be impressed.” Mistral laughed softly, raising an eyebrow.
Having seen that arched eyebrow, Black Angel looked around her in alarm to discover that her catching on was almost too late.
Mistral’s beautiful lattice had broken apart as intended, at least whatever was near enough to it. Thus, Black Angel’s singularity chewed it to pieces and a disk of glittering ice spiraled around it. Everything near enough was absolutely pulled inward, including a circle of large glaciers that Mistral had cleverly hidden behind the distractingly stunning lattice by exactingly creating gaps in their bulky forms that matched the lattice, rendering them invisible from Black Angel’s point of view so that light would pass through.
Black Angel marveled at how Mistral had grown hidden branches off the nearby spire to support these massive chunks of ice to line them up one by one, around her with too much incoming ice to evade, and all quietly enough that she hadn’t expected this tactic.
All that heavy ice slammed into the dead center, driven inwards. The gaps disappeared, creating a solid sphere just before crumpling inwards. Mistral had successfully orchestrated an elaborate trap that her enemy hadn’t foreseen: many heavy chunks of ice that all together slammed inwards, leaving the angel little room to dodge and less than a second to react.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
In a blink, the villain snapped her fingers, and her singularity disappeared as more of her void energy spread around her in waves in every direction to meet the ice just as rapidly and pulverized the first layers, but seeing that this wouldn’t work, she changed the shape of her energy to form spikes like a virus, creating gaps, many too small to be of any use.
However, Mistral witnessed her enemy move seemingly faster than light as she broke through before the ice collided, forming a perfect sphere harder than most substances.
*CRACK*
The cacophony of the forming of the sphere of ice filled the air amid their fighting before falling to the ground.
Not waiting to retaliate, everything went black and deadly silent. Mistral waited as the whole local vicinity filled with the inky substance of her enemy’s shadowy power.
Already familiar with this ploy, Mistral knew how to deal with it and, as always, a sensation nibbled at her as it washed over her, suggesting that the void-sourced energy had begun to devour her.
But Mistral knew her enemy wouldn’t kill her, even though she’d taken apart others stuck in this technique. She was sure that Black Angel wouldn’t end things so abruptly. It would be far too simple or boring.
In their fights, at a critical moment, she would withdraw when taking it a step further might mean sure victory and her opponent’s death, and yet she wouldn’t. Garou said that this pattern was ‘too good to be true.’ And that wasn’t far from the truth, because Black Angel wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone she deemed useless. This continued pattern strongly implied that she had some convoluted plan.
What was the reason? Her goal? Whatever dark designs she invariably had, there was still that core of something alien lodged inside her enemy to consider. Mistral theorized she could somehow extract it or suppress it by willpower should Black Angel decide to cooperate and change, but of these things, she wasn’t certain.
This would be their last battle, she had said, but would her opponent unpredictably change her typical patterns? Had her words this time signaled a readiness that she was now ready to make the kill, or by some other means to put an end to their conflicts forever? Yet Mistral’s gut feelings told her it wasn’t yet time for their last conflict.
The Weather Witch waited in the darkness with a serene smile for her enemy to come at her, feigning complete confidence. She had a backup plan that justified her confidence, but she could never be sure things would pan out as hoped. It was basically a double-pump fake.
Mistral hoped her enemy would think her overwhelmed by the display of her sheer power and make her wait, blind with bated breath, to find out what she would next attempt. She marshaled her internal energies, whispering as she thought.
When Black Angel came at her from the shadows, her ploy was more straightforward than expected, considering the screen she’d put up. Instead of coming from the side or behind, she materialized upfront, face to face.
Mistral completed her chanting and, pressing her hands together, she unleashed the lightning bolt she’d been quietly storing up. The plasma struck straight through Black Angel’s form. The villain smiled and vanished upon contact. Mistral gaped for a moment, astonished at how fast her opponent truly was, but feeling another flickering of movement coming at her from another angle inside the same breath, Mistral slightly turned and unleashed another mass of energy. She again caught the villain’s expression for a split second and this time noticed that her smile was now mocking.
Black Angel’s seemingly straightforward tactic became clear, exposed as yet another of her cunning stratagems. Repeatedly, Mistral lashed out, bolt after bolt, feeling her mystical energies drain with each strike, and with every flailing attack, Black Angel laughed and the sound rose into a chorus echoing in the darkness around Mistral.
Moving with her inhuman speed, she sent shadow mirages one after another, like she was conjuring a ghostly horde to bury Mistral.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Mistral screamed in frustration as her nemesis’ taunting bore fruit. The normally cool-headed Sorceress called upon the clouds above, twisting their primal energies to summon lightning to canvas all the air around. It was a shotgun-type strategy in action. Deciding that if she couldn’t hit a moving target with a single shot, Mistral decided she had a higher chance to hit if she fired a large spread of projectiles.
Black Angel laughed musically from directly above Mistral as she teased again, “So charming—and yet so utterly blind. Yes——drain your reserves for me.”
With a hiss, Mistral balled up some lightning energy deep inside her, and in a blink sent a powerful plasma stream directly above in a cone-type attack, centering it on where her voice had come from. For good measure, she twisted to cover the space in a circle around where she’d been hiding.
“Ahahahahaha—!” Laughter again came from far above Mistral, suggesting that her foe was invulnerable. That kind of intimidation wouldn’t work on Mistral.
Yet, her eyes widened as Black Angel still reached down and flooded her body with void energies, crossing the distance in a blink. “That was quite amusing to watch, your little tantrum, I mean. I must be cruelly honest with you, my nemesis. Your fighting skills have atrophied, even as your power level rose along with the practice of your art. How to put it—you’ve become indolent. But as much as I enjoy seeing you so off-balance, I think it’s time to end our little chase, once and for all.”
Feeling woozy after experiencing her body being flooded with void energy, Mistral nearly lost consciousness. Black Angel wrapped an arm around Mistral’s neck to hold her aloft. They looked into each other’s eyes and Mistral knew she had little in the way of motor skills left. It was now or never.
Mistral doubted herself as Black Angel pulled Mistral close and planted a firm kiss on her lips to lick her lips afterwards, but interrupting Black Angel’s victory a nearby loud rumbling startled them both and Mistral’s formerly slack lips spread in a confident smile after she came out of her stupor.
Unable to miss that smile, Black Angel hissed as she pulled Mistral’s face close again to frown. “You went out like a light—well, almost. Just like a winkling candle’s flame in a strong wind, but I see that you’ve gathered yourself and that the effect of my spell has broken, although you’re still shaky. And all this is thanks to a little thunder? Never minding that, your eyes shifted away from me, your enemy—in battle.” Black Angel waggled a finger and touched Mistral’s nose. “How clumsy of you… Never take your eyes off an enemy.”
Black Angel shrugged as Mistral said nothing while she forced her body to move normally. “Hmm—but having said all that—” Her expression focused inward for a moment as she considered. “That look in your eyes when you snapped awake was quite suspicious. I don’t like this at all.”
“That feeling is mutual.” Mistral finally spoke and slapped Black Angel’s hand away. Her movement was jerky, but she managed. “While we’re discussing things we don’t like—I don’t at all like how you look at me.”
Black Angel’s hand twitched after Mistral knocked it away, her face flush with her fury. To answer, she seized Mistral again, this time forcefully wrapping her fingers around Mistral’s neck and squeezed it. “Ah… I’m so very wounded by your rebuff, pretty. But, I don’t truly think you mean those words—” she said as she licked her lips.
With a loud snarling, Garou suddenly materialized there with them, a thousand feet off the ground. It wasn’t possible for him to fly. His teeth flashed as he seized Black Angel and sunk his teeth into the villain’s shoulder and blood brightly streamed down her dress’ bodice.
With a scream, Black Angel thrashed as Garou’s limbs locked around the villain like a vise. She gradually lost strength thanks to the blood loss. “H-how?!”
As she uttered that word, the inky shadows cloaking the area faded to reveal Mistral’s spire of ice, forgotten just as soon as the shadows had cloaked the area.
Clutching her chest, Mistral floated away as Black Angel’s wings furiously flapped to stay aloft, supporting Garou’s weight.
“A ploy, as you’d say,” Mistral chuckled, coughed, and then added, “A shining road spearing into the skies—with only one true purpose the whole time. Giving Garou a way to reach you.”
“D-Damn it!” Black Angel yelled with wild eyes, incredulous.
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Mistral threw a chunk of wood onto a nearby fire pit and then took up a stick to stir and bank the glowing coals.
A groan filled the air when Black Angel woke up. Their eyes met again. Once more, the angel was her captive.
“Hahahahahaha—! Off to the prison again, I suppose.” Black Angel chuckled. “Time to reset the cycle, isn’t it?” Her eyes narrowed and after a moment, she experimentally thrashed in her bonds. “That ice tower was an unexpected strategy, I admit. I didn’t think about that furball showing up a thousand feet in the air. Where’s he hiding now?”
Mistral tilted her head as she walked over to Black Angel. “To answer your first question, I suppose it may come to that again. I don’t expect that you would ever keep your word. As for Garou, he won’t be around to interrupt us again today.”
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Garou had built a fire to help his partner recover faster, while Mistral gingerly sipped an herbal tincture. He cast dark sideways glances at the unconscious Black Angel’s prone form, sometimes shaking his head.
“She’d have had your head by now if it wasn’t for our partnership.” Garou growled.
“I know. I still have some growing to do. It’s fortunate then that I have you to watch my back, my friend.”
Garou harrumphed, nodding. “What are you going to do next?”
Mistral paused before finally responding while staring into the flames dancing above burning wood that had turned partially black, with embers glowing in the cracks forming. “I’m not sure. Once again, she held back. She taunted me until I felt I couldn’t bear it anymore. I was very much off-balance, but not so much that I didn’t have a mind to prepare that backup plan. She could have created the singularity right on top of me, but she didn’t. I’ve seen her crush people that way a few times, but she’s chosen to never use that technique’s full abilities on me.”
“Hmph—this supposed mote of goodness inside her again?” Garou sneered.
Mistral clenched a fist. “Yes. I believe in it. She’s totally steeped in evil—and yet—there is something deep down inside her. If only I could get my fingers on it.”
“Are you going to try to sweet talk her before shipping her off to face justice again?”
“Yes—but for the last time.” She took a heavy breath and walked over to Garou’s proud frame. She turned to him and clasped his fuzzy arms with both hands.
“Please believe in me. After this attempt, assuming I fail, I’ll simply accept that it’s impossible. Please leave her for me to handle. As I’ve told you, I’ve learned a spell to probe other’s minds from Dragonmage. If it works, perhaps I’ll better understand what I’ve sensed inside her.”
Garou’s tongue wetted his lips. “I don’t think that wise, sinking yourself into her rotten brains. I’ll hunker down nearby.”
“No.” Mistral said firmly. “I forbid it. She’ll sense your presence.”
“Like she sensed me climbing your spire of ice?” Garou rolled his eyes.
“She had her eyes on her goal. Her ego distracted her. But she’ll be cautious now. Please do as I’ve bid you.”
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Mistral laid her hands over each ear on Black Angel’s head, tightly clasping both sides.
The villain hissed the moment she felt Mistral’s mind encroach on hers. “Don’t you dare! What you find inside won’t please you.”
Mistral went into a trance as she sunk her essence and mind into that of the villain.
“NOOOOOOOOO!!!!”
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When Mistral finally got her bearings, what lay before her was a large shard of void energy, as expected, that was erected on a sort of platform, exuding a pure sense of evil.
This is what’s inside her? Powering her? NOOOO!!!
Suddenly, the shard exploded in a burst of pure light. But the flash could only live for but a moment before it vanished once again within the deep darkness.
It took a second for Mistral to realize the true effect of the explosion was to vaporize the shard in a blink, leaving no remnants behind. Isn’t this the core of darkness I theorized inside her? Or is this just a vision? A memory?
All that remained of that false core of darkness that existed was an ominous sensation hovering all around Mistral. The surrounding darkness fumed with the same evil intent of that shard. It didn’t vanish! It’s everywhere inside her!
Where once the void energy was a concentrated mass in one place, Mistral perceived that it now had dispersed to fill the entire space around her, growing only stronger.
Overwhelmed by this crushing darkness that now enveloped Mistral, she folded in on herself to raise a desperate defense.
She could swear that there was a very faint hint of something else floating in the darkness, out of sight. A signature that differed from the oppressive energies that were crushing her ego. And yet, both energies felt like they belonged to Black Angel. Was there truly no light to be found within her?
While Mistral desperately fought to protect her mind, the scene repeated, the shard taking form again, and even after re-coalescing, the pressure on her mind hadn’t lessened an iota. The darkness hammering at her consciousness over and over, breaking through her barrier to shred her mind into tatters.
“Where are you in all this?! WHERE?!”
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When Mistral woke, their positions had been reversed as she found herself tied hand and foot. Her eyes were bleary and her head pounded.
Taking a halting, panting breath, Mistral looked around to take in her surroundings.
The floor was hand laid stone along with the matching walls of the same material. Black Angel had placed a small lamp nearby to give Mistral just enough light so that she would clearly understand her position when she came to.
Mistral swallowed, trying to wet her parched mouth. Her enemy must have somehow freed herself and whisked her away while she was unconscious.
But what had happened? What was her current situation?
As she tried to work out what had happened, Mistral’s eyes widened when she slowly recalled the horrors she’d seen inside Black Angel’s mind.
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