NOVEL WEB Chapter 546: He Stole Our Cold
****(POV)
How tiny must we look right now? Two small figures running in an endless expense of ice.
Our white robes are barely protecting us from the cold, but at least it shows others our affiliation. How many have given up on killing us after seeing the hand symbol made with swirling lines? A few, at least.
"Master, stop! Please reconsider! This is madness!"
In the back, I can hear the pleading voice of my disciple. She has always been a strong one, but she always acts like this whenever I am going on a dangerous mission. She thinks of me as her mother.
Well, it has been a long time since I have welcomed her in the Serene Plenitude Sect. Even now, as her feet are frozen and the wind mercilessly cut at her delicate skin, she still follows. She turned out to lack the gift of magic. Yet, she still decided to stay to do the best she can to help.
As usual, we will go through the same exchange.
"You know perfectly well that I must go. This is one of the highest threats the continent is facing. Forget the war. Everything will be destroyed by this ice elementals beast tide if this continues."
"Can't the more powerful sects do anything about it?"
"Can? Yes. Will they? No. You should know this too, right?"
"This is so unfair! Why do you have to be the one risking your life! Why?! This doesn't make sense!"
"Yes, it doesn't. The world makes no sense. Yet, we try to bring a little bit of serenity to it. It may be a waste of effort, but it is our way of life. I still think you should try and seek asylum in another sect. With my recommendation, they will accept you."
"I'm not leaving, master! No way!"
Of course, I know. She has way too much heart. We keep walking in complete silence. Well, besides the clattering of the teeth, the cold sneezes, and the grunts of effort. All until we finally reach our destination.
"Wait for me. I'll be right back."
The young girl reluctantly nods as she goes by the side to make a campfire to warm herself. Now begins my mission.
In front is a cloud of white. Well, a deadly one. This is but the effect of having tons of ice elementals all in one spot. They bring the snowstorm with them wherever they go. I slowly walk forward.
As I enter the fog, I can feel my entire being chilled to the bone. The mana shield around me does little to change that.
In fact, the spell I am using will allow me to preserve my life but will let me feel the entirety of the pain. It is a clever way to sacrifice comfort for survival. As I proceed, I can sense the creatures.
Numerous elementals are turning their heads, or where the head would be, toward me. This spell also makes it so they are less likely to attack me. However, less likely doesn't mean impossible.
Before that happens, I need to find the one in charge. Even a wild and primal bunch like these guys will have a few older elementals in charge. There is absolutely no structure of command, and they will look the same as all the others.
I can only rely on my luck. This is the only thing I can do. I can feel my life energy becoming flimsier. This is the effect of entering a land of death such as this one. Humans are not welcome here.
I keep going until I get blocked. In front are enemies eyeing me curiously. Escaping is impossible at this point, and so is fighting back. There is only one thing I can do. I…
WHAT?! I feel something raising me in the air. I feel the biting cold. I feel the breath in my lungs become ice. I feel myself dying. The creature is now in front of me. It moved so fast! It's choking me with its ethereal arm.
There is only one thing I can do…I activate the communion spell! Either I manage to make peace with it, or I will die. That is when I start seeing its memories.
****
Cold, so cold….perfect! Forever on this peak, forever cold.
This is our wish. As long as we are cold we will thrive. There is us and there are they. We are the pure ones for we are pure ice, they are the mixed ones. They look human but are cold ones too.
From time to time, humans are invading us. They climb our cold mountain and try making it hot. They are horrible. Their very bodies try to steal the cold away. It comes near them and returns less cold.
Then from time to time, they will do something extremely hateful. They will build something called a campfire. Campfires are evil. It will push the cold away and destroy it quickly.
That is why we need to kill humans as soon as we see one. They are evil. That is when we saw a human and tried to kill it.
The snow woman too tried, but she failed. We thought we could kill him, but he was too strong. No matter how many of us attacked him, he would reduce us to pieces.
We do not fear getting destroyed. We are ice. We are cold. We only fear warmth. But then we met him. We learned to fear his punches.
We do not know why but he can kill our brethren even if there is plenty of cold around. I have seen it. There is nothing special about him. But he can kill us.
We went into hiding, and we hoped he would leave. At first, we thought the strong evil human was gone. But then he came back. He wasn't alone.
We felt it. Some demonic presence. Something like us, not physical. But something that could corrupt our very being. A few tried to approach it, but they died, either killed by the man or by the demon with him.
We decided to hide and run. But it didn't work. Just with his presence, the demon would cause our demise. We heard it. He calls it The Law of Nakedness. We cannot wear clothes, so we cannot be naked. It denies our very existence.
They kept running in circles on our peak. They took possession of it. There is nothing we could do. We ran. We are still running.
We try and find another source of cold. We do not know where to go. We will keep going until we find it.
We will…
"What if I can help you regain the cold you lost?"
Human voice? This human does not want to steal my cold? We would love this.
"Alright, show me what he looks like, the man that started it all! I give you my word that we will hunt him and make this all cease!"
Alright….we make an ice statue of the man…a very ordinary-looking human…