I regressed and became the Sword Ice King

After the storm comes the calm.

With the last masked figure left for dead, Ciara was finally given the moment to breathe.

Just a catch of her breath from the rush of events that had led her up to this place since she found it.

She sighed at the thought. Letting them reel in as she slowly walked towards the platform's edge.

'I don't even think the Headmaster knows this sub-space exists.'

She glanced up. Shifting her gaze about until it landed on the man.

He remained frozen in his position.

Trauma was taking shape in his sunken expression. He continued to remain on his knees, with his head tilted to the side.

Just enough to let her know of his condition.

She groaned slowly.

"Aren't you a man?" She muttered more to herself than to the unfazed man.

"Being scared because of a little death match….tsk, tsk."

She never really liked them anyways.

Males tend to be all talk and no show– Most times.

Some males had proven that fact to be mere stereotypes after all.

Rare, yes, but they existed.

And most times, closer than you may think.

With a silent grumble under her breath, she adjusted her posture and jumped upwards. Crashing into the wall of the platform and climbing upwards with relative motion.

The structure was coarse. Enough so that you could hold onto it and move around with the right experience and technical thinking, but not so much for those who try it without having the right mindset.

They would easily slip and fall if they're completely reckless and inexperienced.

Ciara was none of those.

She had focused training on her physical form, just enough to survive a confrontation that doesn't require mana or aura.

In times such as this, for example.

'Hah…' She thought to herself as she jolted from the wall, sprang a forward flip and landed on the edge of the upper platform with the skills of a tenured acrobat.

Right next to the masked male.

'Wait till mother hears about this. She'll finally agree that muscle training wasn't all for nought.'

Her gaze landed on the man. Then it narrowed as it drew across him, shifting to the puddle of liquid around him.

The familiar sight clicked a name in her head. Just as soon as the smell of ammonia assaulted her nose.

She grimaced from it.

Nearly turning around in the process.

'Perhaps I should have kept the girl and not this one…'

She stopped in her tracks.

There was a task at hand. One she didn't wish to back off. Especially after coming this far.

So, she let her thoughts reel in for a second. Turned her head back towards the man.

Watched him for a second.

Observing the little twitches and motions in his body.

It was evident that the will to retaliate was long gone from him.

Replaced only by the dread he felt at the moment his life flashed before his eyes.

When he assumed Ciara would kill him next.

She would have.

But she was someone who judged the moment and decided for herself if it was necessary.

'that asshole, Raph would have killed him and found his own way…'

She let the thoughts settle as she sighed. Giving in to the only option left before her.

'He had an ability that could see mana wavelengths…didn't he?'

The thought started a court case in her head.

A storm of voices either agreeing or rebuking the idea completely.

'Well, I may not be entirely sure of his ocular abilities, but I know he would have found a way…..though…'

She walked towards the man, stopping when a loud tap echoed.

Glancing down while raising her right foot. She watched as trails of liquid dripped from underneath her slippers.

'Hah….damn it, you filth.'

She wriggled it and walked around him. Grabbing him by the back of his neck.

"...this is more effective…."

She muttered as she tilted his head back and struck her arm across the man's face.

No response.

She let the moment linger.

Simply observing the weight of her act stretching out with time.

Her brows arched at that moment while her pupils darted slightly across the man's face– his mask.

'Now that I think about it. They all wore the same shape of mask….'

She lifted her other arm and placed it on the surface.

Tracing the lines and counters with subtle nudges and gestures of her fingers.

'Metallic. Bandomonium. A form of free mana metal. Found in the North.'

That was the nature of the mask, but it seemed like she wasn't satisfied with just the nature.

'Hollow eyes. Wide oval mouth. Flared side projections. Asymmetrical portions….'

Her eyes narrowed.

'The surface is smooth. Too smooth. Velvet, silky…almost like water…and on the forehead is a thin line….'

Her hands stopped. Then her brain recalibrated the words that slipped from her thoughts.

"Water?"

That didn't make sense. After all, bandomonium was different from water.

'It's a type of liquid mana metal, but still…this form of fluidity almost makes it….ancient?'

She let the thoughts sink in.

Then let her Brain pull and tug at it.

It felt like she had dived into a puzzle with too many missing pieces.

Pieces that weren't just missing, but void.

If she couldn't even put it together, then there was almost no point in trying to figure it out.

'What exactly am I even trying to figure out?'

She thought to herself.

At that time. She seemed to have left the world of her thinking process and walked back to the present.

Shifting her attention to the man, then the mask. She lowered her body and tilted her head. Nearly upside down to the mask.

There, she saw it. Not vividly. Not even in the way that mattered.

An image.

'This mask….it's shaped like something…'

The mouth was actually an eye, a third one. And the thin line was the mouth.

She let the image sink in before she clicked her tongue and shook her head.

'The Red Peacemakers are devil worshippers. Of course, their mask is going to look like one…'

Still, the image lingered in her thoughts.

Almost to the point where she wanted to stop for a moment and ponder it.

There wasn't enough time, though. Not enough to pleasure herself with her hobbies in history.

'history….is that why it looks….familiar?'

She asked herself as she stood up straight. Lifting her hand in the air before sending it down with the force of a colonel.

It struck the man's skull in a beat and snapped him out of his trance at that moment.

He gasped. Greatly.

As if he had been drowning for so long and was only given a small, minuscule amount of time to breathe in air.

His body jerked violently as he shivered.

His throat ran dry as his head darted upwards to Ciara.

She smiled back. Gripped fist still raised in the air for another.

"Oh. You're awake."

The man's body flinched to a fault. A chunk of blood pumped forcefully out of his heart as motion returned to him, like he had been slammed by a train.

Whispered gasps came first, but it was quickly overtaken by a loud, trembling voice.

"No! No! No. No. No. No…" He darted to his feet and hands, only to fall back and crawl to the other side away from her. Away from the Hunter that laid waste to his comrades.

He folded his head under his arms.

Raising it up for just a second as if to confirm it wasn't some bizarre nightmare.

But no, she still stood.

Over the puddle of blood of her comrades. The bodies that piled in a matter of seconds.

It wasn't like she killed through an army to get to him, but the manner she did it.

The level of cunning to act as if she were never the one who led the storm of the confrontation.

As if they stood a chance. They didn't.

They absolutely didn't, and now, he paid for it dearly.

"Oh, stop with the overreacting." Ciara teased as she approached him.

"NO! Stay back! Stay back, you Monster!"

"monster? Weren't you guys the ones who came to attack us first?" She chuckled. "How am I the monster when you guys are currently capturing and killing us. Mere students. Teenagers in fact."

She shook her head sarcastically. She almost exaggerated with the clicking of her tongue.

"No to that."

The air filled with a sort of silence that felt suffocating.

Not to Ciara, but to the masked male.

He had seen many things in his life. Many battles in fact, but never one like this.

Not the type you couldn't predict.

Some people come with absolute strength that gives you a sort of ease when they kill you.

After all, the weak. Some at least.

Consider it a great blessing to be killed by those stronger than them.

It was a custom in the North. Far in the North.

Beyond the North.

But hers….hers was pure trickery.

Not even in the obvious sense. The kind you couldn't predict with the information given but with your instincts.

Still, it wasn't enough to save him. Or any of his comrades.

"Alright. Enough stalling." Ciara's voice cut through his thoughts.

A sudden yank back to reality.

"Wha– What is it? What do you want?" He exclaimed.

A sudden suck in his breath.

"Oh. I guess you're not as dumb as I thought." She chuckled.

"Well…why do you think I kept you alive? Guess wrong and you might suffer something worse than death."

The end of her words lingered at the back of her brain.

Enough that it left a deep impression.

After what he witnessed, he was sure as hell not going to play in any of her games.

"Yo– You want their location?"

"Hah…good. You're smart too." She nodded to herself as she picked up the gun from before.

She tapped it slightly.

Tinkering with a few settings that pulled the man's attention to it.

"I do have some questions concerning your masks but that can wait…"

The man tilted his head. "My mask?"

Ciara remained silent.

Keeping her image as poised as ever, with the relative coldness that exuded from her.

A few seconds passed before she rested the handgun on her shoulder.

Its metallic surface sends a cool shiver down her skin.

Its size was equivalent to the extended arm of a baby with a weight suitable for most people to handle.

But it was a force to be reckoned with.

Especially in the hands of someone like Ciara Merlin.

"Get up." She said, more of an order than a statement, though.

The man hesitated.

But she suddenly pulled the trigger while the gun rested on her shoulder.

Causing the air to ripple with the sound of a gunshot as it struck the Pipelines above.

A metallic ring echoed as a result, sending a wave of impulse through the air that sent the man scavenging for his feet.

"I-I'm up! I'm up."

He cried out as he reached for the end of the pipe.

"Good. Take me to where you took them to."

The man nodded silently. Turned to walk away as Ciara followed behind.

"Hah…" She said, stopping him in his tracks as he turned towards her.

"...you prove you were smart. So do the better thing and don't try to deceive me."

His body jerked.

"Though…" She rubbed the mouth of the gun on the back of his head.

Then pushed it into his occipital with a firm hand.

She brought her face closer to his ears as her voice came in slow, cold whispers.

"I would love it if you did."