Kyre reached her hands toward the tiara, lingered for a moment, then placed it on her own head. There were no special effects involved, but the tiara instantly became clean of bloodstains and started to glow brightly.
“And now, go forth, my child, my chosen one! A shard of ice shuddered, and an intricate film of ice started to grow from it, forming a dome over Kyre’s head.”
In a second, Kyre was entrapped in a ball of ice, beginning to look like a plastic installation inside those snow globes you find in dime shops; shake it, and the snow starts to fall... What the actual hell was happening? It was beginning to get cold.
A piece of ice turned around its axis softly and started to ascend toward the heavens slowly, me being left below, alone as I’d ever been.
Kyre, half-covered in a layer of ice, her back toward me, said it in a barely audible voice.
“Sorry, Ros... Let her kill you, and you’ll leave the location.”
“Kyre?”
“Ros, I am really sorry... Let yourself be killed, and you’ll be thrown right out of here.
“Kyre?”
“I’m sorry, Ros...”
“Kyre?!”
“Don’t turn around, my child. You have made the right choice.”
“Kyre!” I yelled. “You are letting me go? Right here, in the cold, rain, and snow? Next to a frozen corpse come to life? Kyre!”
“O god, o god... Kyre’s back shuddered. “Ros!”
The piece of ice rising up to the sky grew misty at once, and I saw a ghostly helicopter with its propeller rotating silently. I howled madly:
“Kyre!”
Kyre was too high up already. Instead of a scream, I got the message:
Sorry, Ros! I didn’t want to! It was Gosha’s idea...”
Bitch! You piece of shit! I didn’t even finish reading it as I closed the message with a hoarse cry of hatred, pressing the icon for ignoring the person having sent the original message.
“Snow again... Bloody snow again... And black water... And the corpse behind the glass. Damn, where’s the exit button?”
There was a peal of laughter full of Schadenfreude ascending to the very heavens. Myrthe turned her bloodied mask of a face toward me, and cackled,
“You won’t get out of here. You’ll die here, becoming a part of ash...”
“I won’t die here,” I yelled back, ripping my pack open and shaking out a transportation scroll.
I scratched the blank space with my fingernail, shouting,
“Algora!”
Nothing. No flash; no transportation. I was still standing out in the snow and the ice... And it was still cold.
“Algora!”
Nothing.
“Selene!”
Nada, zip, zilch, nil.
Transportation scrolls cannot be used in this location.
“No!”
“You will die here,” Myrthe repeated, and, bending her head sideways, added, “Take a look behind you. Take a look at how you will die.”
I turned around me to see an avalanche rushing over the snowy hill. The monsters made of ash and snow were encroaching on me. Hundreds and thousands approaching from every direction were encroaching upon me. Hundreds and thousands of them, coming from every side, me being completely surrounded... The snow, alive again, was coming toward me slowly... It would overwhelm me in a second.
Could I log out? And what would happen next; would I log in and find myself in the same place once again? No way! Not here! Definitely not here...
“This is me speaking; me and none other! I! Won’t! Die! Here!” my wrathful shout echoed from the ice.
The bag dropped to my feet while I raised my hand up to the heavens and yelled loudly, “Fire Torrent!”
A roaring wave of fire cut into the grayish-white monsters; a smoking path in their forest of animosity.
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!...
“I will not die here,” I said again, in a hoarse voice. “And I will not give up! Diamond Spikes!”
The snow bulged in an ugly shape; it scattered everywhere. Shining spikes emerged from the ground, impaling dozens of monsters.
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!...
I took another pair of scrolls out of the bag and raised them above me, roaring,
“Swamp Rot! Hail of Stone!”
I saw a hellish landscape around me. Enormous rocks plummeted to the ground, howling, sending the monsters into the murky swamp water.
“Blizzard! Poison mist! Black Tornado!"
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!...
The greenish twilight became thicker; combined with the roaring blizzard, making things almost impossible to see. I didn’t care. There were monsters everywhere; you couldn’t miss.
I had reached Level 51 in a number of seconds.
Another motion, and the steel Thunderer wand was in my hand again.
“Take that!”
A blinding thunderbolt bit into the enemy, piercing their bodies, making them writhe.
I raised my hand again and froze; there was a shrill howl of some beast I could hear from above. Then it happened again, but the sound coming from much closer.
The horde of ashen monsters that had almost devoured me froze and raised their blind eyes upward, toward the heavy heavens. I raised my face as well, only to see a bright speck of light crashing into the ground with a roar, raising a torrent of snowy dust.
The muffled howl repeated; an enormous smudged shadow manifested itself behind the wall of snow, moving to the open space sideways in a single leap. The frozen crust of snow creaked and became dented deep, unable to withstand the weight of horrendous clawed paws.
“Grym...” I exhaled, stepping away from the gigantic white wolf with a bright red inscription above its wide forehead and the eyes burning with hatred: “Grym the Werewolf.”
“Gry-y-y-y-y-m! Myrthe’s voice became shrill; an eardrum-piercing howl of insanity, while her body was convulsing inside her icy prison. “Gry-y-y-y-y-m!”
A dark crack, widening rapidly, ran over the icy peak. Monsters kept turning away from me slowly, their ugly snouts directed to the invading monster.
“Shit!” I whispered, stepping back, my eyes fixed on the werewolf. Just the name; not even a mention of the level.
“Gry-y-y-y-y-m!” raging, Myrthe tore one of her friends from her icy prison, setting part of her shoulder free. “Ar-r-r-r-r-r-gh!”
The monstrous wolf, who’d turned toward me for a second, twitched his snout toward Myrthe, still trying to free herself, and... took a step back, his belly pressed to the snow, making a strange roar, looking more like a half-stifled weep or the muffled cry of a human as performed by a beast.
When I took another step back, I was thrown back against an obstacle. Having taken a quick glance aside, I became stupefied — there was the paw of a Level 79 Devourer of Hopes right next to my back... The next second, he was Level 80.
The body of the beast formed from whatever materials had been available had snow, ash, and icy sludge, pouring into it, feeding it. A lightning bolt from the wand made the hideous thing take a step back. Empty eye sockets had crimson fires lit inside them... Level 83. The devourer wasn’t even paying me any attention, likewise other ashen creatures next to it. There were fewer now. Dozens, not hundreds. But their levels were much higher, too, already in their hundreds.
My head cleared gradually; I could barely get through what I’d just experienced — a shock would be a mild way of putting it — unable to stop shuddering. Kyre. My partner. How the fuck.
Chill, Ros, none of this is real. Another icy nightmare is all...
There was a soft chime. A message from an unknown user...
“Ros? This is me here. Why the fuck have you placed Kyre in your ignore list?! The girl’s weeping like a baby! Shit! We didn’t know there’d be snow at the end! We really didn’t! We didn’t know you’d get all screwed up in your head like that; w
e didn’t know there’d be snow at the end! But you signed up to this, brother! We couldn’t have told you anything before, do you get me? The system reads all your stats; all your emotions! It wouldn’t have been possible to stage it. It all had to go according to the...
Ignore list. Damn. It seemed like it would start right then.
The werewolf twitched from the jolt of electricity, me being hardly able to hold the hand with the wand from going upward. Still too early... Grym made a motion with his hand, scratching the ice with his claws, leaving chaotic traces on it, similar to the wounds on the face of Myrthe whom he’d mutilated. The werewolf was confused — in a stupor of some sort, unable to realize what he really had to do. The burning eyes kept shifting between me and Myrthe, who’d been howling and weeping hysterically. A Spaniard in the works...
A peal of thunder was heard from the blackened clouds, and several lightning bolts hit the earth at once. The first one burned an enormous hole in the ice where the werewolf had just stood; three more hit the peak of ice, splitting its top. Icy shards were flying in every direction. One of them hit me in the shoulder, throwing me back and all but killing me. A few of the beasts gathered around were thrown back; a few others got pierced, and they fell apart into formless piles of ash mixed with snow.
“Healing,” I mumbled, holding on tight to the parchment of the scroll.
“Gry-y-y-y-y-y-m!” Myrthe roared, fountains of blood trickling from her mutilated month. There was another desperate cry; the ice peak shook, shuddered, cracked, and fell apart into a thousand pieces. I ducked to find cover beneath the Devourer’s carcass — just in time, too; icy spikes hit the place where I’d been standing a split second before.
Most of the peak just crashed down, burying Myrthe underneath, but not for long — boulders of ice covered in blood shuddered and started to move apart, unable to withstand the pressure. The ashen monsters remained immobile, waiting for an order from their owner. They hadn’t gotten their orders yet, perhaps...
I saw a flickering shadow in the corner of my eye, rolling aside, and diving underneath the werewolf’s claws, seeking a safe shelter underneath the Devourer’s belly. Having lost Myrthe, who had been “confusing” him, Grym started on his main target again — namely, yours truly.
There was a dull roar, and the Devourer standing above me was torn in two, the pieces of him thrown sideways. The werewolf’s snarling snout got near me, but backed away with a howl of pain instantly, after receiving a jolt of lightning from the wand. Without letting him come to his senses, I gave him an extra charge; however, Grym managed to evade the hissing lightning, turning toward me once again.
The mound of ice shuddered, and a bloodied hand emerged from underneath — Myrthe had almost reached all the way up. But I needed to pay attention to something else at this point.
The werewolf’s paws flexed, and he all but flew into the air in a huge leap, his paws and crooked fangs reaching out for me. Fast... Too fast... I met the attack with a lightning jolt, realizing I wouldn’t be able to step aside.
That was when everything froze. Absolutely everything. Like a freeze frame trapped in a photograph.
The werewolf froze in mid-air, the lightning being some feet away from his snout; Myrthe’s hand, clinging to a piece of ice, froze, too, likewise the snowflakes in the air, likewise the clouds’ slow motion across the skies, likewise myself. My body became wooden, coming to a standstill in an unimaginable pose, almost parallel to the land, a wand with the flash of nascent lightning on its tip in the hand pointing at Grym, the other one gripping a Fire Torrent scroll. I could barely move my eyes; it took an effort to look around me to realize the entire location had become dead with nothing moving whatsoever.
I heard excited voices behind my back. “Yeah, I had to freeze up the entire location! Well, what was I to do? It was all beginning to go haywire! Myrthe’s out! What the devil is actually happening?”
Was that an NPC, I wondered?
“Grym! Damn! This is Grym! But he isn’t supposed to be here!”
“Well, there you have your reason, said the second voice in a singsong cadence. That’s some bug! But how did he...”
“Shush!”
“Hey, what's the matter with you?!”
“Shut up! There’s a player here!”
A shadow fell over my face; I raised my eyes morosely to see an Immortal kneeling over me. Although... Was he one, really? There was a white robe, but nothing in the way of gold and crimson, and the sandals under my very nose weren’t gilded, either; very simple, in fact. At any rate, an Immortal was someone who worked for Waldyra’s administration or tech support.”
“A player... But...”
My frozen lips barely moved, and it was a torture to make them do so. I still managed, exhaling,
“Y-y-you... are interfering with my gaming process.”
“Say what? No worries,” the man standing above me put on a wide grin. “This is a minor bug; we’ll take care to get you out of here in just a second!”
“N-no! You are interfering with my gaming process!”
“Get away from him!” I couldn’t see the owner of the worried voice, who still remained behind my back.
“Hey, what's the matter with you?!”
“Get away! Don’t talk to him! Look at his stats! It’s the Navigator! I’ll have to call the manager...”
The Immortal One disappeared as if carried away by a gust of wind. There were muffled whispers behind my back, and then, a small flash and the sound of snow being trodden by someone’s confident feet.
The instant I saw the luxurious golden sandals and the edge of the purple-hemmed robe, I realized it was an actual immortal. I squinted, and started again plaintively,
“You are interfering...”
“Oh, yes, I know, we’re most terribly sorry,” the Immo gave me his widest grin. “This is an unpardonable mistake, and those responsible will be punished. We shall remove ourselves at once, and you will continue the game. I would also like to give you material compensation for another month; your current Diamond class, of course.”
“W-works for me,” I said in a hoarse voice, blinking my eyes in acquiescence since I couldn’t nod.
“Have a nice game, Rosgard,” the Immortal nodded curtly, stepping aside. “The location will be unfrozen in five seconds. Get ready. Five... Four...” The voice faded; I squinted at the figure of the werewolf flying toward me, and kept on counting on my own:
“Three... Two... One...”
The world became animated once again.
There was a crack as the lightning spread itself all over the werewolf’s snout, still unable to stop its leap. I paid no attention to the flash of crimson, yelling “Torrent of Fire!” while I was still in mid-air. Grym missed. A blow of his paw should have killed me, but I was only thrown aside, with three quarters of my HP taken off. Paying no attention to the flash of crimson, I yelled “Fire Torrent!” while still in mid-air, discharging my wand at the same time and adding some lightning damage to electric damage.
The werewolf managed to escape the faster lightning bolt, evading it in an impossible way, the electric discharge passing right underneath his belly, only to find himself soaked in a torrent of fire. The horrendous roar made me shiver. The monster tore through the fire and billowing smoke; I could see him again.
“Healing! Black Tornado!”
Grym was burning, having just escaped the flames. His white fur had darkened, smoldering with black smoke, with the flickers of embers running across him, each of which took off some of the monster’s HP. The howling black vortex only managed to get the werewolf with its very edge, but he didn’t get pulled into the spell. The beast stumbled away, leaping a few feet to the side, and lay on the ground with a muffled roar, rolling around in the snow to extinguish the flames. His charred skin was healing and growing tufts of white fur. Damn that werewolf and his insane regeneration skills!
Snowballs flew into the air as Grym raced toward me again, his head close
to the ground, as if he’d been planning to head-butt me with his massive forehead. Another step... and the wolf, plowing the ground with his nose, rolled sideways, suddenly stopped by a green bush that had popped up underneath the snow, with a bunch of pretty little flowers upon it.
“Fireball!”
Another scroll turned to dust, and a huge sphere of fire filled with billowing flames erupted from my hands. I still had some time... I still do... The werewolf hadn’t gotten back to his feet yet, and then there was a block of ice whooshing through the air which hit Grym, throwing him sideways. The fireball erupted in an empty space, splashing flecks of fire all around it.
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