Isher Notra

Yuki-onna:

Deep into the spell's core, something was stirring.

No, that was too much of an euphemism. The orb was growling, losing its form as a lightning storm tore it apart, sending jolts all the way up through the Yūrei's fingertips. Rather than focusing on this irrelevant nuisance, her attention was solely concentrated on the frozen turquoise sea, gradually drowned by a blinding whiteness with violent golden wisps produced by the guards' Saniya, pushing the sphere to send out stronger shockwaves that rippled through the cold atmosphere.

She shivered while the overwhelming power slithered over her every atom. Her rudimentary Saniya radar urged her to ascend even higher, her subconscious knowing even she would be no match against whatever abnormal power the Dragon's Guard had concocted under a month.

Higher than the redwood barrier, the sorceress glimpsed the end of her trump card - a flash of divine power, sending shockwaves so far she could still feel them over her pale, thin skin and brittle bones. She hoped the civilians had reached their senses and evacuated at this point...

When the winds grew stale and the city came into view, unscathed from the light show, Yuki-onna's heart gradually raced with anticipation. The deafening calm assaulted her mind with a pool of paranoid possibilities, all pointing to Captain Tash and her posse ambushing from behind.

Her entire body darted at every possible angle thrice. No pouncing Wolves or nature-defying Basan in sight.

She has truly done it. The spell fulfilled its role, hopefully depleting everyone's Saniya while hers were left almost intact.

This silence... So peaceful. At last, a minute to breathe.

Even with her Saniya still abundant, finally coursing harmoniously throughout her veins after absorbing an entire ocean from the grid, that monstrous orb took a physical toll in conjuring and wielding it, even for only a few seconds. Her fingers numbed, and her arms stiffened, accompanied by the occasional spasm. For the first time in ages, a frigid sensation coiled around her gut, threatening to spread and transform her into a victim of her own recklessness, no different from the ones her carefully crafted golems captured.

Yes... She should've been taking this opportunity to access her creations' memories, shouldn't she? Hopefully, they had tracked Hari or that smaller Human by now...

Mmmm... Three-fourths of her army was dismantled, and the ones left were almost all protecting the frozen guards at the edges of Chikukei's province. How fortunate was the Yūrei to construct a memory-archiving feature residing deep below the rune grid's core? Of course, when that wretched canine almost disrupted her entire operation for good, all the information stored up until that point was scattered to the winds, mostly the fault of the lacking structure the sorceress hastily put together under such a constraining time frame and lacking resources. It was a miracle she produced a functional grid of such magnitude, really.

Enough focusing on what she could've done better. What mattered was that the rune library had rebooted, recording everything since she restored the core.

Yuki-onna closed her eyes and tranquilized her heart, her limbs resynchronizing with her will as her mind reached for the invisible bond between her and the grid, strained and spread thin due to the distance, but inside resided a pulse, weak and unremarkable like someone on the verge of crossing the threshold between life and death. And yet, it was her only guide.

Forged by the stern teachings of her biological parents and the extended, gruesome Human-Monoke war, her mind was ruthless like a sovereign, fortified and unflinching like their castle, yet still flexible and adaptable, qualities of the very element she so masterfully wielded. Her consciousness flew kilometers away from her physical shell, clinging to the thread that seemed to grow resilient as she drew closer to the source.

A few more seconds passed. Finally, the Yūrei could grasp the core of the rune grid and start to tread beyond it. The turbulent Saniya stored inside, although acting as an inconvenient barrier, especially from this distance, was significantly weakened after she borrowed a significant piece before raiding the city.

Eventually, the energy wall was pierced through. From it, thin "roots" descended further, forming a path Yuki's conscience safely followed until she found herself surrounded by a swarm of nearly identical Saniya, assembling the entire layout she neatly put together.

One by one, her mind drifted towards each storage rune, their symbols invisible within this plane. Her brain jolted with recollections that shouldn't have belonged to her. Most constructs haven't obtained much usable information, only that the smaller Human and her pet Wolf fought in the city hours before Hibagon's defeat and Hari-onagu's-

...Interesting. Her friend was seen being dragged by that Amikiri. She hadn't noticed the absence of that flying crustacean once, something she realized upon recent reflection.

After the reboot, Yuki reprogrammed the army so that at least a single golem would abandon its primary objective to keep an eye on and record her allies' movements. Now, to find the correct one amidst the rows of runes on display...

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Tens of memories were accessed. No sign of Hari-onagu.

Her mind grew heavier, forcing her to purge the redundant memories of all these constructs. Where was her friend? Was she safe? That loud simpleton couldn't have handled her on his own.

Unless... it wasn't a coincidence that the Human and Tash's pup disappeared around the same period.

No, impossible. Hari was far too skilled to have a hard time against an amateurish delinquent and a couple of girls who were barely touched by puberty. In fact, if this theory were correct, it meant one Human was untethered from mortal existence.

That quiet optimism kept her going until finally - FINALLY - she glimpsed an all too familiar black cocoon wrapped by the Amikiri's serpentine body. As suspected, the younger Human and Wolf sat before them, awaiting their demise like the naive fools they proved themselves to be.

Alright. Enough playing that memory in real time. Yuki pulled the recollection to its entirety and-

...

......

.........

"Why?"

"Why would she...? And now..."

............

Yuki-onna couldn't begin to describe the feeling when the memory entered her mind as if it were naturally hers. Her best friend- No, her SISTER, her closest, most trusted companion over thousands of years, not only held back against the demon but abandoned their cause like it all meant NOTHING to her! And to top it all off, she had the GALL to expose the rune grid's weakness to them!

Her construct quickly silenced her once it processed the situation, reducing her to a catatonic statue with a Saniya-imbued blade. To think that feature would be used on Hari, of all Monoke. Yuki suspected this treachery from Hibagon or the Kamaitachi to a lesser extent.

But her? The hairy maiden's perpetual expression of solemn acceptance, smoothed by the white layer of frost, haunted the walls of the sorceress's mindscape, trying to soften the impact by rationalizing this event as some illusion.

But Yuki knew better than that. A golem didn't have a conscience of its own to be affected by mind magic. What she saw was the unfiltered truth...

Deep in her core, something stirred. Far stronger than any disappointment she felt from Capt. Tash's idiocy or the hatred from the taller Human's insistence on playing the hero act. She would've preferred being struck by a storm of a thousand needles rather than this guttural feeling, pulling her conscience right back to her body like a ripcord in a matter of seconds.

Her regained senses only heightened her boiling emotions, which coalesced and took shape as a dangerous beast. Was the Icy Sorceress fated to be alone? If Hari-onagu abandoned her, who else could she trust? Only the very reflections of herself, perfectly chiseled to be perfect drones, ready to ensure her orders were accomplished, unlike the ones who claimed to want what was best for her...

"Hari-onagu..."

For the first time since the end of the war, the Yūrei reawakened her vocal cords. Her voice was raspy and heavy with the metaphorical boiling pot that turned out to be her mind. The name of the one she considered family scraped on her tongue like a blade, filling her mouth with the repugnant taste of blood.

"How dare you...?" Her cheeks warmed with tears. "I... trusted... you..."

Yuki clutched her head with both hands, desperately pressing her temples as if her cranium was about to split. Holding her composure was impossible, her own Saniya pressuring her entire body until her defenses crumbled.

And so, she inevitably caved.

Her mouth snapped open, liberating an ear-splitting screech much louder than her atrophied vocal cords should've produced! All sense of grace or poise was flung by the blizzard, replaced by a thirst for violent catharsis, bringing a twisted sense of pleasure coursing through her spasming limbs. Tourquoise wholly shrouded the sorceress's already blurred vision, numbing her conscience to indulge her bestial tantrum!

Eventually, after who knew how long, Yuki-onna's voice broke, snapping her back to cruel reality. Her Saniya receded, her eyes refocused, her limbs still quivered but quieted down, and her tears...

...

Her tears... dripped relentlessly on her shaky palms. As much as she fought to silence them, resistance only brought her sobs to grow louder, her chest expanding and retreating in short bursts.

With wrath quelled, for now, sadness entered center stage. Still, there was one particular feeling slowly creeping its way in.

Soon enough, hopelessness would-

"AH!"

An unknown force pressed against her back, sending her flying with no end to her momentum. She could barely believe all those centuries of conditioning herself to not utter a sound, even in pain, were utterly annihilated.

Before her swirling mess of a mind could conjure a list of suspects, a hasty blur darted before her, ending her trajectory with a firm grasp on her collar!

Her limp form barely obeyed her order to lift her head and stare at the face of her next assailant. She wouldn't mind bashing Capt. Tash's face on the pavement a couple of times...

"You?" Her jaw opened once they lay on the scythe-wielding Weasel, whose eyes were both uncovered, glaring at her with rage, and the weapon carried in his mouth, strangely cut short by half its length. His breath, shaky and erratic, puffed on her face.

Of course. Yuki-onna was so laser-focused on Hari's betrayal that the rest of the memory flew over her head. Striking her former friend down would never be seen kindly by a single member of the White Steel clan.

"Hari-onagu..." the assassin growled, the air circling around them strengthening. "魔女は自らの傲慢さの血に溺れてしまった！"

Two Saniya signatures blared on her radar. With her senses at full alert again, Yuki-onna's energy expelled outward in all directions, repelling the cursed mustelid and his siblings before she became a living pincushion!

The pure drive to survive granted life back to her scrawny flesh and bone. She hovered in place, surrounded by white-furred traitors. Who would be next? Hibagon? It wasn't like the bard's loyalty was directed at her...

The Kamaitachi had quickly regained their footing, of course. Interestingly, they haven't tried to pounce on her once afterward. Once Yuki-onna took the time to analyze them, the answer was all too clear.

Whoever they clashed against made a noticeable impact on their Saniya pools, judging by their visible breathing and lack of offense, a tactic to spare as much energy as possible.

The Icy Sorceress took a deep breath, her limbs regaining their fluidity as she took on her fighting stance - tranquil, reserved, yet ready to capitalize on any moment of vulnerability.

What was one more roadblock, anyway? Three wouldn't make much of a difference here.