Chapter 21: A Mutually Beneficial Deal
Iradace and Bai were partners, but their relationship was built on a foundation of mutual suspicion and self-interest. Her respect for Bai was born from fear, not loyalty.
Although Bai wasn’t concerned with the intricacies of their arrangement, she understood the dynamics of power.
She hadn’t revealed her true face to Iradace, not even once, always maintaining her disguise.
And Iradace, after realizing Bai’s true nature, had also begun to question her own assumptions.
A game of cat and mouse, of deception and manipulation.
Although Bai despised it, she knew it was a necessary evil.
In the North Empire, and now in the Abyss, it was all the same.
As Bai approached the Snow Maiden, the Snow Maiden’s path also changed, a slow, yet relentless, advance towards her.
The other factions, seeing this, knew the chase was almost over, a brutal, protracted battle about to begin.
A dozen elite demon squads moved to intercept, to claim the prize.
And Yin Hui, with his “Soul Slayers,” was already in position, waiting for the opportune moment.
“To think she would be connected to the mysterious girl from the Abyss… Iradace, Iradace, as expected of you.”
…
“Who am I…?”
“And who… is she…?”
In the heart of the arctic calamity, the Snow Maiden looked at the phantom silver-white figure before her, her pale blue eyes slowly focusing.
Fragments of memory, a torrent of pain and despair, washed over her.
“Listen, Ice Lily. Leave this place. Never come back…”
“This is the fate of the Ice Demons, an unavoidable end. But we all want you to live…”
“As our ember, our future.”
The faces of her kin, familiar and foreign, faded away, and she reached out, trying to hold on, but they were gone.
“Don’t… don’t leave me…”
And then, only a single, blinding white light, and then, darkness.
“No…”
She remembered. She was Ice Lily, the last of the Ice Demons.
And the silver-white figure before her was the Abyssal Lord, the “god” who had destroyed her world.
The one who had taken everything from her, who had condemned her to a life of suffering and despair.
In a haze of memory, a small hand reached out to her, and a sweet, melodious voice said,
“Come on, Little Ice Lily. Let’s make a deal.”
She looked up to see a familiar, childish face. “You’re… Nisha…”
The phantom Nisha smiled, a pair of dimples appearing on her cheeks. “You’re so cute, Little Ice Lily.”
But then, the image shifted, and Nisha was older, her face a mask of sorrow. “Let’s make a deal, Ice Lily.”
A deal that had spanned centuries, an obsession that would not die.
“Yes… Nisha. You have your incurable obsession, and I have my unforgettable past…”
Tears streamed down her face, freezing into pure frost as they fell.
She looked up at the sky. “We’re all the same. We can never go back…”
The phantom Nisha faded away. Ice Lily knew she was dead.
When she had used her last ounce of strength to send her back to her homeland, she had known she wouldn’t survive.
As her memories returned, the arctic storm around her subsided, her steps slowing.
The fragments of pure frost fell to the ground, buried in the snow.
But the silver-white figure remained, walking slowly, as if guiding her.
“…”
Ice Lily stopped, watching her.
She knew this figure wasn’t the Abyssal Lord, but her own fear, a fear that had haunted her for centuries.
The Ice Demons had sacrificed themselves to protect her, to preserve their last ember, infusing her with a portion of the power of destruction, allowing her to survive the great calamity.
But that power was a constant reminder of her loss, of her hatred.
She had never used it, not until the Battle of Vikarn, and then she had burned it all away.
But even then, the fear of “God” remained.
As she stopped, the silver-white figure also stopped.
The only sound was the whistling of the wind. The phantom figure solidified.
“She” turned, and a pair of terrifying, dark-gold vertical slits for eyes appeared.
The silver-white figure was now a silver-haired girl, her expression cold, indifferent.
“I seem to remember you, but I also remember nothing,” Ice Lily said, her memories of Bai also erased by the sealing ritual.
But she had been a vessel for the power of destruction, and a fragment of that memory remained.
The silver-haired girl didn’t speak, simply walking towards her.
Ice Lily instinctively activated her [Frost Calamity] domain, but the other girl also activated an identical domain.
…A familiar scene, a memory from the past.
The North Empire’s capital, the Battle of Vikarn.
“Ah, it’s you… you’ve come too?” Ice Lily said, her gaze falling.
She dispersed her [Frost Calamity] domain, standing still.
The silver-haired girl, a phantom of memory, didn’t answer, simply watching her.
“How ridiculous…”
Ice Lily shook her head, but as she was about to walk away, a cold, clear voice echoed in her ear.
“Yes. I’ve come for you.”
She looked up, but the silver-haired girl was gone, only the swirling snow remaining.
“Bai—”
Ice Lily’s pupils constricted, her vision blurring.
She stumbled, her consciousness fading, and she fell into a deep slumber.
And in that instant, the arctic calamity that had surrounded her, a storm of ice and snow, suddenly subsided.
“The Snow Maiden… has stopped!”
