NOVEL NEXT V1.26 Icy Death
The clicking sounds of shoes on the stone floor echoed and grew closer. Through the door walked the most terrifying and beautiful woman. On top of that, she was, without a doubt, a demon. She was tall with reflective onyx skin lined with jagged cracks that had a soft blue glow emanating from within.
Her ebony hair cascaded down her back. In stark contrast to the rest of her, her eyes glowed bright blue, illuminating the room like candles. The demoness’s features were a masterwork of beauty; her lips were full and dark, curled in a cruel smile as she laid eyes on me. Her horns, sharp and black, added another six inches to her already impressive height as they stretched from her forehead, nearly scraping the chamber’s low ceiling.
From her back sprouted large wings, reminiscent of a bat’s, but without the membrane between the ‘fingers.’ Instead of skin, a thin layer of flexible ice flapped between them. I could feel the cold radiating from them.
She wore a regal white gown. A thin layer of frost formed, shattered, and reformed on the dress with every step she took. The gown extended into a long train that pooled at her feet. How can she even walk in that thing? Her hands, slender and adorned with long, sharp talons, pointed at me.
“I’ve finally found you.” Her voice was colder than the room. I started shivering at how cold the room was getting. “You’ve made me chase you into this dark, life-forsaken hole. It’s time to break the tie with your death.”
“What?” I released Killa and involuntarily shivered. It’s just so cold. “What score are you talking about?”
She laughed. “I’m not surprised you don’t recognize me in this body. She wasn’t very thrilled when I took over. But I have to say..." She waved her hand, and a shower of flakes manifested. “This demonic power is intoxicating. I’m going to hang onto this demoness’s body as long as I can.”
Is he now her?
As the demoness stepped further into the chamber, the air seemed to grow colder, plummeting to an unbearable degree. “But first, I have a job to do.” The very ground beneath her feet frosted over like it was creeping towards us.
Yeah, he is now her. And he, she is still after me.
The demoness flicked her arm and threw a wave of ice towards us. I shoved Killa away as I dove the other way. The ice slammed into the stone, shaking the room.
Killa threw a pair of blue tentacles at the entity that had made its life purpose to hunt me down. She threw her other arm up, and a wall of ice intercepted the spell. The magic clashed, and the wall of ice shattered into a cloud of dust and ice shards. I ducked while covering my face with my arm. I heard more than felt the ice hit me.
The demoness wagged her finger at Killa. “Is that your best shot? How did that pitiful magic do me in last time?” She flapped her wings and glided back while sending another wave of ice towards Killa.
I took the chance to circle around to shoot at her back. The bullet fired off, but with a swift twist of her body, she deflected the bullet using a shield of ice she created. Her smile sent a chill down my spine.
“Oh, did you think I forgot about you, my sweet?” She raised a wall of ice between her and Killa. The wall blocked both her and Gary away from me. “Now that there are no more distractions, I’m going to enjoy hearing you scream. Then, after I kill you, I’ll make that slime suffer. As a just dessert for myself.”
A hard layer of ice covered her body like armor. What now? I fired the gun several times, and each bullet bounced off her icy armor harmlessly. The temperature dropped even further, and I felt the saliva in my mouth crystallizing. Killa’s tentacles lashed out, trying to break through the ice wall that the demoness had summoned. Her attempt barely cracked it.
With a swift flick of her hand, the demoness sent a hail of ice shards hurtling towards me. I threw myself to the ground, feeling the shards whizzing above me. A giant blade of ice manifested and attempted to cut me in half. By tucking my legs and rolling forward, I saved myself from a lot of damage. The blade bit into the stone and shattered from the impact.
I can feel my nanites healing my skin. It must be so cold that I’m developing frostbite. My movements felt sluggish, but I could still move fast enough. She’s relentless. Another blade swiped as the demoness laughed. I jumped over it and shot her again. The bullets ricocheted off her armor, but I could see cracks developing over all of it, not just where I hit it.
Killa fired several small red tentacles from her hands at the wall, melting a foot-wide hole. It was wide enough for her to slip through and come out the other side, shooting more red tentacles at the demon. Steam and smoke billowed off her tentacle magic. The demon used her ice-covered wing as a shield. The impact released more steam, turning the room hazy. But there was the sound of shattering glass.
The demoness’s icy armor cracked and fell to the ground in a million shards. She glared at Killa, furious. A giant clawed ice hand grabbed her magic red tentacles and crushed them. The hand then reached for her. I fired at the hand until I emptied my gun. Several large cracks had formed on it, and Killa threw up another barrier. Before summoning yellow tentacles to grab the icy construct and pin it to the ground. Killa’s tentacles pulled the hand apart, but then a swirl of ice shards started whipping through the air.
They started cutting me, and I ran for Killa’s wall as she shaped it to deflect them. She held out a hand to pull me in as I felt hundreds of tiny cuts all over my body. I let my nanites go to work, but I ached everywhere. My clothes were torn and soaked in blood.
I swallowed hard as I barely saw the demoness throwing her arms around through the deadly blizzard. “How is she so much more powerful than us? What level is she?”
Killa gave me a worried look. “She might not be that much higher than us, but instead put all her points into her arcane. That means all of her other stats are likely lower. We just need to exploit that.”
“How?” I reloaded my gun. “This thing isn’t doing much to her.”
Killa gave me a wink. “Then you’ll need a stronger weapon.” She held out her hand, and a large yellow crystal appeared.
Something about the crystal felt familiar, but I couldn’t remember why. “What’s that for?”
“I have faith you’ll figure it out.” She shoved the crystal into my chest. There was a slight pressure on my chest, and then I watched as my shard total skyrocketed. She gave me sixty-five thousand five hundred and four shards. “Let’s call it an investment.”
She just gave me all her money. There’s no other reason why it’s such a random number. She wants me to use my system to find a way to augment myself. Well, Orange, I need a weapon. Something strong and something I can afford.
Clawed hands upgrade available:
Cost: 75,000 shards.
Purchase?
Yes No
Arm blade upgrade available:
Cost: 85,000 shards.
Purchase?
Yes No
Spiked epidermal plating upgrade available:
Cost: 66,000 shards.
Purchase?
Yes No
Clawed feet upgrade available:
Cost: 68,800 shards.
Purchase?
Yes No
Power fists upgrade available:
Cost: 91,300 shards.
Purchase?
Yes No
Garotte bay upgrade available:
Cost: 92,250 shards.
Purchase?
Yes No
Claws? Uh, no way. I need a weapon. I don’t even want to know what power fists will do to me. What does garotte even mean? Whatever, I need to just keep it simple. Arm blade, I’ll take that. I don’t have time to be picky.
The bones in my right forearm cracked and started shifting under my skin. I let out a grunt of pain as I grabbed my wrist, as the pain was only beginning. Why do these things always have to hurt so much?
Killa’s barrier was full of cracks, and some ice shards were even getting in. Thankfully, they missed us, but Killa’s defense wasn’t going to hold, and we both knew it. But my upgrades take time to complete—time I didn’t have.
Killa brushed my disheveled hair behind my ears. “Don’t worry, kiddo. I’ll distract her. Just don’t disappoint me.”
I nodded. I wanted to say “be careful,” but it was taking everything I had to not scream. She created another, smaller barrier around me just before her barrier shattered. An uncountable number of ice shards sliced through Killa’s body, each one taking a tiny piece of her with it. Killa’s hand glowed blue as one massive tentacle stretched out. She sprinted out as she spun around.
I heard the impact of the demon being slammed into a wall.
The blizzard subsided, revealing Killa’s figure. Her body was barely holding itself together. No! Hurry up. My bones had mostly reformed, but there was something new. I could feel something cutting through the muscle of my arm and pushing against the inside of the metal plates covering it. Everything seemed to slow down as my forearm grew a blade that slid out of the space between the plates on my arm.
A long metallic blade started from the middle of my forearm and extended out two and a half feet past my hand. I could feel the nanites slowing down and eventually stopping. I pulled up my status and analyzed the new upgrade. I also quickly put my stat points into my quickness, since that was going to be my advantage over the demon.
Name:
Rina Lone
Augments:
Level:
16
Cellular Regeneration
Agility:
175
Synthetic eyes: lvl 1
Arcane:
105
HUD
Power:
63
Epidermal plating (arms): lvl 1
Quickness:
260
Epidermal plating (hands): lvl 1
Resilience:
105
Arm blade (right)
Toughness:
130
Unassigned Points:
0
Shards:
7612
Arm blade (right):
The host’s right forearm bones have been fused with the addition of another bone grown out to act as a natural weapon. Since the host has the epidermal plating (arms) level 1 augment, the bone is coated in the same metal as their arm. This alters the blade’s offensive capabilities and causes it to scale with epidermal plating’s toughness rather than the host’s power.
Stat bonus: +7 Power.
That’s good, right? But is it going to be better than my gun?
The demoness stumbled from a crater in the wall. Her wings were bending at angles and places they hadn’t before. Even one of her horns was chipped at the tip. Killa was right. She probably has low defense. Her mission is to kill me. So everything she does is about how to kill me. She doesn’t care about her body.
“Your efforts are futile,” the demoness growled. She glared at Killa as she regained her composure.
Killa responded with a flurry of magical tentacles. But the demoness ignored them and, with a massive effort, sent a lance of ice hurtling towards Killa. Killa raised a transparent wall of tentacles, but the lance struck the wall, pierced through, and impaled her.
“No!” I held out my hand as she flew through the air as the icy lance pinned her to a wall.
Ice started coating Killa’s body, spreading from the spear. She screamed as she reached for me. I ran to her and slashed at the lance with my new weapon. It cut through the ice effortlessly, but it didn’t stop the progression of the ice. Crystals covered most of her torso and all of her legs.
I grabbed her hand as she reached for me. But she felt cold—so cold that the bones in my hands hurt. Reflexively, I let her hand go. The ice encased her completely, freezing the pain on her face and her hand reaching for me. Tears started falling and freezing as they touched my cheeks.
“This game has gone on long enough.” The demon sounded winded. I turned and saw that she was, in fact, looking exhausted. “I was hired to kill you. You aren’t allowed to exist and need to die.”
“Why? Why do I have to die?” I held out my arms as I took a step towards her. “What have I done to deserve this? I haven’t caused any trouble. You could just leave me alone, and everything would have been fine.”
She sighed. “I told you, it’s not my call to make, and neither is it yours.”
“Then at least tell me who hired you to kill me?” I tensed my muscles to get ready to sprint towards her. I’ve got one chance. This will have to work, or I’m dead. For good this time. “What do you get out of this?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’s not like it will matter in a few minutes.” She straightened up and took a deep breath. “I don’t know who hired me. I’m not allowed to know. Apparently, secrecy was my client’s main concern. And I respect that. But once someone sees an artificial soul, then they might believe the ban on artificial souls has been lifted. There’s a reason there’s a ban. The last time someone created several artificial souls, they caused so much chaos. Several universes needed to be annihilated because there were more artificial souls than natural souls.”
I carefully inched closer, trying not to draw attention to myself as the demoness monologued.
“And you can thank that old man for trapping me here with you. The sooner I finish this, the sooner I can go enjoying this new body.” Old man?
“Who?” I asked.
She waved her hand. “The one who helped you. He seems to think you can defeat me. I’m supposed to be some challenge for you. But no, we’re done. You were never going to win. I’ll just keep coming back in a new body every time you kill me. So it is simply a war of attrition with you.” She paused, then pointed at my arm blade. “But that’s new. You didn’t have that earlier. You’re not completely human anymore, are you?”
She’s onto me. It’s now or never.
I bolted. My muscles snapped faster than they ever had before. Everything blurred as I charged her. I raised my arm blade and prepared to stab her in the chest. She jumped at my movement, but she seemed to be moving through molasses. Her body moved so slowly compared to mine. She summoned an ice shield just before my arm blade reached her. My sword slid through the shield like a hot knife through butter.
It was almost surreal how easily I stabbed through the shield and into her. I slammed into the shield, and my blade punctured her chest. As we tumbled to the ground, the shield shattered.
The demoness looked down with horror and shock.
“You killed my friend. I’m going to kill you.” I pulled out and stabbed her again. This time, I think I got closer to her heart and stabbed all the way through until the stone stopped me.
She grabbed my head. I could feel the cold biting into me as it got harder to think, but I could see fine until the frost started coating my eyes. My blade was stuck when I tried to pull it out, so I punched her face. There was a crack as something gave. Her hands released my head, and my nanites rushed to repair the damage.
Her jaw hung loose as light blue blood started flowing from the corners of her mouth. She reached for my head again, so I punched her a second time. I broke her nose, and blood sprayed out. But she was still moving, so I punched again, and again, and again.
Again, again, again, again, again, again.
I lost sight of what I was doing as I kept punching her face. Over and over, I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. Even when in the corner of my vision, I received ten stats and forty-two thousand seven hundred and seven shards. Killa was gone, and it was her fault. I took my pain out on her until her face was nothing more than a disfigured mess of broken bones, blood, and mangled flesh.
I started feeling tired and struggled to remove my blade from her chest. But after I did, I cried as I sat next to her. The only time I stopped crying was when a shadow crawled from what was left of her mouth. The shadow reached for me, only to be pulled into a hole in the wall as it vanished with a pop.
It’ll be back. It’ll keep coming back. And each time it does, it can kill the friends I make. This thing is my problem. I can’t let anyone suffer and die by its hands. It’s right. This needs to end, and I’ll be the one ending it.
Somehow.