Taeral broke into a sprint toward the village, cloak snapping behind her as she vanished into the wall of white.
Cecilus remained where he was, still a moment longer than he should have been, watching the storm move. The blizzard had shifted — not drifting, not spreading, but turning with deliberate momentum.
It was coming his way.
A pressure hit his lungs like a fistful of snow shoved down his throat. Cecilus summoned his minions by instinct; spectral murmurs bloomed around him, forms materializing from the swirling flakes.
He vaulted onto Xena's back, the mare's hooves cracking against the frozen ground.
"It's time to run."
Instead of following Taeral, he tugged the reins and veered away — opposite direction, deeper into the dark edge of the forest. There was no strategy in fighting someone with no reward on the line. Survival always paid better.
He barely made it ten strides before ice erupted across the path.
A seamless wall of frozen glass grew up from the ground, frost and pale veins crawling outward like a spreading infection.
"Trying to run? You must really be afraid."
A sculpted demon head bulged through the ice — horns, fangs, a hollow mouth, empty sockets frosted white. Then cracks spidered across it. The sculpture shattered outward in jagged shards, and out stepped the entity hidden within: a blue-skinned demon, hair like frostbitten briars, steam curling off his body.
"A sword is here to be drawn," he said, voice buzzing like wind across the frozen land. "Stand on your feet and bring out your blade."
The ground answered him. Xena's hooves iced over instantly, locking stiff in place. Momentum threw Cecilus forward; he tumbled, rolled, and came up in a crouch, summoning his sword with a quiet snap of displaced air.
"Who are you? And why are you attacking me?" he asked.
Snow swirled around the demon in slow spirals.
The creature grinned, showing teeth like chipped porcelain."I'm just a demon on a mission. Nothing more. Your misery? Blame a man named Ramon. Take it up with him in the afterlife."
He slashed a hand through the air — a clean, sharp movement — and a flash of ice burst outward. Cecilus's blade met it with a metallic snap, splitting the frozen strike into crystalline shards.
His blood crow shrieked overhead, forming blood spikes mid-flight and hurling them downward like crimson hail.
Nerevrax raised a hand, and spikes of frozen pressure thrust upward to meet the blood spikes. He sprinted forward, sword raised, motion like a storm collapsing in on itself.
Cecilus sidestepped, using a sudden gust of wind from his dust elemental to propel himself sideways. His blade darted forward for a counter.
Snow fell unnaturally heavy — not drifting, but forced, dense like packed salt. It slowed Cecilus's arm just enough for the demon's sword to twist and rip the weapon from Cecilus's grip.
Before he could react, talons seized him. The blood crow swooped down, wrenching Cecilus up into the air, wings beating hard against the storm.
His sword reformed in his grip with a pulse of cold air.
Seconds later, a blur shot upward through the snow — Nerevrax. His hand had become a mass of jagged ice, condensing into a hammering, meteor-like strike.
Right before impact, something collided with him from the side, throwing him off course.
Taeral.
She burst back into the fight, wings unfurled — feathered but wrong, avian and raw, with elongated, hooked claws where hands used to be. She slammed into Nerevrax, sending him spinning through a cloud of snow.
"You!" Taeral yelled, wings beating hard enough to rattle the air. She pointed a clawed finger at Cecilus. "Good job finding the culprit. That demon is dangerous. He's an ice mage named Nerevrax. Also — villagers aren't in the area. They're probably still in the center!"
Cecilus blinked once, flat.
Wow. An ice mage. Never would've guessed.
He turned toward the center of the storm. Shapes moved in the white — roofs, furniture, broken fencing — swallowed by the rotating blizzard. Any remaining life inside… unlikely.
"Back me up," Taeral said. "I engage. You support. He's aiming to kill you anyway, so this alliance benefits you."
"Sure…" Cecilus exhaled, dropping from the crow's claws, his landing softened by a burst of wind.
He ran toward the storm's heart. Running wasn't an option anymore. Killing Nerevrax was survival.
Taeral swept in, claws flashing. Ice chunks lifted from the ground as if tugged by invisible strings, firing toward her in rapid succession. She spun midair, wings slicing through some pieces while smashing others with her claws. Ice exploded in glittering debris.
Cecilus tracked Nerevrax's trajectory — snow spiraled upward, revealing the demon floating, suspended in a private blizzard.
Cecilus launched himself upward, wind blasting from his elemental, sword arcing —
—but a floating mound of snow surged forward, thickening like wet stone, blocking his strike. It crumbled under impact, and Nerevrax used the opening to kick Cecilus downward.
The landing was softened by the elemental, but hot pain flared in his shoulder.
Taeral lunged in, arm transforming mid-strike — muscle and scaled texture rippling under skin — forming a serpentine shape. A conjured snake shot forward, fangs aimed at Nerevrax's leg.
The bite met freezing skin.
Crack.
The fangs shattered instantly, snow glittering like glass dust.
The blood crow continued firing spikes, maintaining relentless pressure. Nerevrax countered each one with shards of ice forming almost instinctively from the storm around him.
He slashed at Taeral, catching the edge of her wing. Feathers and flesh tore; she spiraled downward and hit the ground near Cecilus in a smashed heap of white and red.
"This scoundrel is resilient!" She pushed herself upright, breath visible. "You — help the villagers. I'll keep him busy!"
Cecilus hesitated long enough to think, quickly, efficiently:
If she distracts him, I could run… but he's fast. I won't get far enough. Save villagers… hope both are exhausted when I return. Then kill both.
He summoned Xena again, mounting her and galloping toward the storm wall.
Behind him, Taeral's shredded wing stitched itself back together unnaturally fast.
Nerevrax gathered ice around one fist — not individual shards this time, but a slow, monumental growth, freezing layer upon layer until the limb resembled a giant slab of glacial stone.
He thrust forward. The mass swung down like a falling mountain.
Taeral caught it.
Her arms transformed again — thick ropes of muscle swelling beneath pale skin — and she braced the impact. Snow exploded outward on contact, and instead of Taeral being flung back, the demon himself pivoted downward, intending to crush her under the weight.
She dropped into a squat, holding the icy arm like someone holding a collapsing ceiling. Frost crawled up her fingers, skin turning pale and brittle. The blood crow's barrage was the only thing preventing Nerevrax from freezing her entire body solid.
Cecilus reached the storm's center.
Inside was silence. A terrible white quiet. Frozen bodies littered the ground — twisted postures, mouths open, eyes filmed white. Not dead from temperature. From impact. Ice was flying around here fast enough to tear flesh and freeze it in seconds.
"White devil…" Cecilus muttered, breath shaking. "Why summon a storm this big just to devour a village?"
The white devil materialized beside him, voice low and steady:
"I don't think it was purposeful. When mages reach mastery in one element, their power cracks boundaries. Growth continues, but control doesn't. The strength becomes side-effects. Chaotic. My guess — once he unleashed full power, the blizzard was an inevitability."
"So this mess… was unintentional?"
"Yeah. Sadly."
Movement flickered through a broken window.
Cecilus recognized the house.
Darrin and Finnan's home.
He approached. The door was frozen shut, wood swollen with ice. He stepped back and kicked — splinters cracking outward. Cold air rushed out.
"Anyone here?" he shouted.
A shuffle. Footsteps. A boy stepped forward, eyes red and wet — Finnan. Behind him, broad-shouldered Darrin emerged like a stone pillar of grief.
"Elf! You're alive! Do you know what happened?"
"A demon came for me. Taeral's fighting it."
"My wife—" Darrin's voice cracked. "She isn't home yet."
Cecilus held Finnan's gaze for a moment.
He had heard her soul earlier. He had known.
"Your mother is dead," he said, flat, matter-of-fact. "I confirmed it."
Finnan froze. The words dropped into him like stones into deep water.
Darrin seized Cecilus's collar, voice trembling. "Are you sure?"
Cecilus nodded once.
Darrin let go gradually, breath shaking in the cold.
"I— sorry. That was— I shouldn't have grabbed you." Then, quieter: "The demon's outside?"
"Yes. I'll help Taeral once I get you out."
Darrin squeezed Finnan's hand tightly. Finnan looked up through tears.
"Thank you, Mr. Elf."
Cecilus forced the smallest polite smile.
At least I can use you as hostages against Taeral later if necessary.
They moved back through the blizzard. Visibility opened as they neared the fight — snow thinning — and Cecilus saw what was left.
Taeral lay twisted, limbs bent at angles, blood staining the snow like spilled ink. The blood crow lay broken, unmoving; Cecilus returned it to his soul world without a word.
Nerevrax stood over Taeral, chest heaving, frost steaming from his mouth and wounds. He turned, eyes glowing dangerous blue at Cecilus's approach.
Devil.Why hasn't he attacked yet?
"Taeral isn't dead," the white devil murmured. "She has very strong regenerative capabilities. He seems to have used something big — look. He's recharging mana."
So this is the time to strike then?
"Yes. You should engage immediately."
Something rumbled beneath Cecilus's boots.
A drill of ice burst up from the ground — a spiraling, corkscrew spike ripping forward with horrifying accuracy.
Too fast. No counter. No time.
Cecilus's eyes cut sideways, and he reached.
He grabbed Darrin.
The ice drill punched through Darrin's torso. A wet sound, sudden and final. Warm blood sprayed across Cecilus's hands, then the cold hit — nauseating, metallic.
Darrin's eyes widened — shocked, betrayed — then faded as life fled instantly.
The drill slowed as it crossed into Cecilus, cutting his abdomen, slicing skin and muscle. Hot pain. A wet rip. Then — stillness.
Finnan screamed.
He dropped beside his father, hands pawing helplessly at blood and ice.
"Why!?"
Cecilus didn't answer. Couldn't. Wouldn't.
He bolted forward, ignoring Finnan's sobbing shape in the snow. Ice slicked beneath him — slippery, frictionless — and a thought sparked.
Perfect.
He summoned the wind elemental, the burst hitting his back like a shove. Cecilus skated across the frozen surface, momentum turning him into a living projectile.
Sword drawn.
Nerevrax spat blood, stance shifting into a brutal guard."I don't need mana," he snarled. "To slaughter you."
He raised his blade overhead —
—and everything froze for a heartbeat, white and red, cold and breath, steel and silence.