NOVEL NEXT Chapter 148: Season of Storms
"Where the fuck are they…?!" Heloise stood in the freezing cold at the threshold of the icy forest, tapping her foot in the snow impatiently. The witch had spent a good hour searching around the base, but found nothing of import aside from old, broken furniture. She tried gazing through the abyss between the gargantuan trees only to be met with a foreboding darkness. Not one to be deterred, the witch equipped a set of pink snow goggles from her bag and finally took a step toward the mass of fallen trees still being battered by an inexplicable snowstorm wall, examining the splintered wood with a botanical eye.
"Gah! I still don't get this fucking biome! Gargantuan gruce trees growing in fucking permafrost this high up in the mountains?! Like, no hedge witch or science-bitch ever understood why! But mystery fucking solved, I guess?! It was some crazy, eldritch mountain man!" The witch produced a small vial from her pouch along with a long metal tool and picked at the frozen wood beneath her. She placed a small sample inside the glass vial and sealed it with a stopper before placing it back in her bag. "And like, going by these rings, these giants have been here a totally long time. As if that weren't fucking obvious. No one but Azotha should be able to manage a feat like this, and yet you expect me to believe this 'Derleth,' who has somehow been concealing himself up here for thousands of years, managed to keep them alive in the middle of this weird, circular blizzard?"
"The irony in your statement is quite perplexing," came a low voice, gravel and honey mixed with broken glass. Across from the witch was a man built like a wall, hair ashen white. The two curved, glacial antlers spouting from his skull glimmered strangely in a way her brain was finding it hard to process.
"Tch. And you must be Derleth." The witch turned, arms crossed over her chest. She had heard him land on the snow behind her, but had no idea where he possibly could have leaped from. Her lips curled into a haughty sneer, the chartreuse mix of green and yellow eyes narrowing as they watched him closely. "I thought you'd be like, more… ghoulish? Wasn't expecting the whole eldritch daddy thing. No wonder all the girls find their way to you. And what exactly was ironic about what I just said?"
"Hrm." He made a small groan under his breath. "I thought Azotha's gifted would be rewarded more insight into these types of matters. Was it not you I allowed to find me?"
"Hey! Azotha calls me when he wants to commune. And—excuse me… Allowed?!" Heloise's voice grew shrill. The vein on her forehead throbbed with every word out of his mouth. "You allowed me to find you? You really think you can bullshit a bullshitter?"
"Did you not find it odd that you were able to detect this place when no one in the thousands of years I've been here had before? But I'd needed you to send them here. Your presence, however, was unexpected."
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"You—! Connard !" Heloise unfurled her staff and held it at the ready. "I should've known you'd be some sort of creep since you're related to that woman. You're some sort of god, right? Like Azotha? What are you even doing wandering around my planet? That's like, super creepy."
Derleth glared at her for a moment before his gaze softened. "Yes, I can see why the Anguished Archmage chose you. You're very… fractured."
Fulmina Solis Concursus!
"I HATE assholes who act like they know more than me! So full of it! So goddamn smug! Well, eat shit!"
A barrage of brightly flaming fireballs shot toward the eldritch man at incredible speed. With a large huff of his nose, they all froze instantly, plunging to the ground as their momentum completely dried up.
"What…? No fucking way." The witch bit her glossy lip angrily. She braced her staff once more. "You can't just, like, freeze my magic, jackass!"
Impalement spell
The dead branches of the trees shook violently, stretching unnaturally before making a sudden beeline toward Derleth. Frozen wood scraped against itself as numerous branches crisscrossed at his position, only to strike at empty air. The eldritch man, despite his stocky build, leaped high into the air and landed directly behind Heloise with a loud thud as his boots struck down on the snow mere feet away.
"You think to fight me in my own domain? Quite the impulse, sorceress. Very much like the Daughter of Man."
"Daughter of who?! I didn't fucking ask!" The witch whirled around, only to be caught off-guard by the eldritch man's sudden proximity. Heloise tumbled backwards into the snow, her butt cratering into the cold softness. Her gaze faltered under his imposing stature. A sudden spark of defiance forced her to reach for her staff, when the deathly prick of ice poked unexpectedly at her throat. His hand was in front of him, as if he were reaching for her, except his nails had extended into thick, icy claws that were now threatening to pierce her flesh.
"That's enough. The Orphan of Macha has already attested as to the reason for your intrusion here."
"Macha, huh?" Heloise glared at the long spears of ice bearing down on her. She couldn't help but lick her lips. "You must mean Zula. She didn't seem too happy when I said your name to her. I couldn't see it behind her helmet, but her voice sounded pissed. I don't know what fucked up things you've done to her, but that ends here. I promised Alma I would bring her home safe, and I vowed never to let Alma down again."
The witch grabbed his claws with her bare hands, the glacial blue singing black under her touch. The eldritch ice crumbling under her touch as a sudden darkness encroached her fair skin and eyes, leaving her hands and face with a sickly pallid complexion. Black veins tightened and pumped along her body, appearing to singe even the ends of her lustrous blonde hair.
Derleth's silver eyes narrowed as he observed her wicked transformation. "Another monomyth. How curious. And a terribly dangerous one at that."
Heloise's face twitched, her smirk faltering at his words as a look of confusion spread across her. With a flick of her wrist, a massive, writhing root cracked through the ground from underneath her and carried her away from his looming presence. "W-What are you yapping about? You know what this curse is?!" Her trembling voice hummed with a dark, eldritch resonance.
"Indeed. I bear many countless revelations, each one a blade eager to cleave the weight of aeons."