Page 74

Alexandra

Blaze

M y heart pounds erratically as Ignixis’s scraping footsteps fade into the distance, leaving me alone with these.

.. creatures and my horror. But I only have eyes for the dozens of revolting cyloillars writhing and skittering across the frozen ground with surprising speed.

My breath freezes in frantic fear as I flinch as far as the chain will allow.

Fuck, if I move too much, maybe they’ll notice me and attack?

I try to remain still until a yellow monster with its mouthparts twitching approaches. An involuntary scream tears through my throat as I leap away, desperately try to track all their movements. My head whips side to side, but it’s impossible to follow their skittering movements.

A group to my left seems preoccupied, scraping and burrowing at the icy wall, which gives me a flicker of hope.

“Ahh!” I shriek as something brushes my foot.

I look down to see a leathery red cyloillar skittering across my toes. Revulsion pulses through me. Without thinking, I kick, sending the thing flying like an empty hairspray can. It slaps against the crystalline wall with a wet thud.

Huh?

Panting, I hastily examine my foot, expecting blood streaming down and maybe some toes missing. But there’s nothing—just hardened leather wrapped around my toes, numb from the cold.

Wait, a goddamn second here.

I frown, studying the creatures through a new lens—one lacking Ignixis’s terrifying words.

They don’t seem interested in me in the slightest. In fact, most scurry toward the walls, their twitching mandibles frantically trying to break through the frozen surfaces to no avail.

Maybe they don’t think I’m tasty? No, that’s impossible. I would be delicious.

It’s like they’re more frightened of me than I am of them.

What the hell is going on here? Did Ignixis screw up? Not impossible considering the botched operation he and the giant bore have been running. Like he ordered flesh-eating monsters and ended up with cuddly pets? I feel my frantic heartbeat steadying, my breathing returning to normal.

But still the biting cold sinks deeper. Invading my lungs with tiny searing icicles, crawling along my body like creeping numbing fog.

Despite all my shivering and self-soothing hugs, I can’t shake off the bone-deep cold.

My hands are almost as blue as the crystalline walls, and even my gnomish leather clothes are forming a thin layer of frost that sparkles in the reflected light.

Almost pretty if I wasn’t the last turkey left in the freezer aisle at Thanksgiving.

Even the little cyloillars are suffering now, their once frantic movements growing sluggish.

Ice crystals form on their leathery bodies.

Wherever they came from, it seems they aren’t adapted to life inside an iceberg.

Just like me—they’ll die here. It’s funny if Sandra finds me.

I’ll look like a hungry hippo, and these bugs will be my pellets.

An absent smile tugs at my numb lips as my eyelids droop, overcome by sudden exhaustion. I slump to the freezing floor, feeling its savage chill through my clothes, but I don’t care; I just want to lie down for a minute.

My eyelids feel heavy, like the guilt my absent father never carried, and I struggle to keep them open. The lure of unconsciousness beckons, sweet and warm, like the richest mocha on a cold winter’s day.

Something brushes against my hand, like the bristles of a hundred tiny hairbrushes... but why would I be combing my hand? Strange. The sensation persists, growing annoying.

“Let me sleep, Mother!” I snap. God, she’s such a demanding bitch sometimes.

I squint through the haze, catching a blurry glimpse of something black and red through frost-caked lashes.

“Ignixis? Is that you?” I murmur groggily.

The thing that might be Ignixis squirms closer, nestling against my chest, burrowing into my leather.

Huh? That’s weird—I don’t remember Ignixis being so small. But I like it; it brings a precious morsel of warmth in this suffocating blanket of frost I can’t escape.

My trembling hands stoke its soft, rubbery skin, and an odd clacking sound reaches my ears.

Something feels... off. I peer down at the thing nestled in my arms, focusing as hard as I can to banish this icy haze clouding my senses. A single black eye gleams up at me, reflecting my pale, horrified face.

It’s one of those bugs! A cyloillar.

I should be repulsed. I should push it away, scream, run—do something. But moving requires too much effort now. It just stares up at me, big and alien, its mandibles twitching. Strange, it’s kind of cute. It reminds me of someone.

“Todd,” I whisper with a weak, bewildered smile.

My gaze drifts across the icy tomb, and I see the others—dozens of cyloillars, all dead.

They’re curled up along the walls, legs stiff like frozen spiders.

Cold claimed them all—except this one. Todd always was smart, despite being a complete toad.

A total nerd in truth who’d help me with my homework if I asked him nicely.

.. well, manipulated, really. Strung him along, like so many others.

Maybe I deserve this? My karmic debt crashing down upon me—a giant freezer I can’t escape.

At least I have Todd... well, the new Todd.

His soft rubbery skin and fragile heat oddly comforting as I gently pet him, my fingers trembling.

The world grows hazy again, the weight of consequences pressing down upon me, urging me to just let go and sleep.

I know if I close my eyes now, I may never open them again.

And that’s okay. The peace is inviting, the cold lullaby soothing me into nothingness.

Soft scuffing reaches my ears, echoing through my mind as distant as my mother’s love. I would frown if I possessed the strength. Why won’t they just leave me alone? Every time I try to nap, I’m woken up. But the sound only grows louder, persistent.

“Keep it down, Todd,” I mutter, though my voice is weaker than the ice creaking around me.

“It seems you aren’t the bonded female after all,” Ignixis says suddenly, startling me with his closeness.

His voice echoes like a ghost in my mind.

“I was certain it was you...” His heavy sigh hangs in the frigid air as he wraps a thick fur around my curled-up body, which I hardly feel, so encased in my prison of ice.

“Forgive me, child, for what I put you—”

But his words trail off just like my hazy vision. Darkness consumes everything as I sense my faint breathing cease, the cold penetrating every facet of my being, dragging me into the awaiting oblivion.

I drift through a void—endless, suffocating black, just like the nightmares after Kazumi’s death.

My heart stumbles into icy terror. Somewhere in this cold nothingness, I expect to find her frozen form waiting for me.

But there’s nothing. Only silence. Endless, freezing silence. Somehow, that’s worse.

The fear of being trapped here forever widens my eyes. I try to scream, to move, but it’s as if I’m submerged in thick glue. Everything is muted—the sound, the air, my very existence.

I hate it! It terrifies me. I’d give anything to escape, to be saved. My mind reaches, clawing through the void, like I’m drowning, desperately clinging to something—anything—but there’s only emptiness. I’m all alone. Like I’ve always been. I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m used to it now.

So, I let go. Resigned to sink into the darkness, to disappear.

Until a warmth, faint at first, blossoms deep in my chest. It spreads like a wildfire, pushing back the icy void, igniting a flicker of hope I thought long extinguished.

It’s so sudden, so alien in this void of nothingness, it tears a gasp from my frozen lips and I shudder, feeling the heat cascade from my heart coursing through my stiff veins.

Before me, a brilliant blaze erupts—intense, overwhelming, brighter than anything I’ve ever known. The void shudders, writhing in agony as the heat devours it.

A smile twists my lips, savoring the heat, loving how it tears through the hated darkness, seeing it suffer for what it’s done to me.

There’s a presence in the flames. Somehow, I know it’s him—Dracoth. So aggressive, powerful, and all-consuming. I can almost see his towering form within the blaze, almost smell his scent, feel his raw intensity.

A surge of pride and adoration floods my heart, as I feel a closeness I’ve never felt before, like we’re connected at a deeper level, that a part of him resides within my soul.

I could open myself to him, because even here in this realm of nothingness, he refuses to abandon me.

He pulls me back from the brink. The only one in my life strong enough to care.

But then, a shadow looms behind Dracoth’s fiery silhouette.

Arawnoth. The molten god, titanic and wreathed in lava, radiating the heat of a thousand suns.

His eyes burn with the fires of creation itself, two endless pools of molten gold and fire.

His presence dwarfs everything, overwhelming in its sheer power.

They step toward me, their combined presence overpowering. The suffocating cold retreats before them as if terrified, the darkness dissolving under their mighty presence. The flames surrounding don’t scorch the air—they purify it, turning my icy prison into a blistering furnace.

“Rise, and complete the cycle!” Arawnoth’s titanic voice thunders, echoing through my bones, shaking me to the core.

I gasp as the flames coil around me, wrapping my body in a blazen embrace. The heat is overwhelming at first, burning through the numbness, and igniting my nerves like fireworks. I try to scream, but no sound escapes. My frozen lungs are now filled with roaring fire.

I love it! I could burst with a renewed lust for life, wishing the blaze would fill me utterly, consuming me entirely.