1 Chapter 1: Cold

00:01:45 December 21st, 2019

The girl crouched down, huddled against the stone wall. She had been in this form for all of 1.5 minutes, and she already regretted making the bet that had trapped her in it. In order to win her bet, she needed to survive for an entire "normal" human lifespan. She would start at 14, but the bet would officially begin on her 18th birthday. If she was for some reason already dead by then, she would automatically forfeit.

That 4 year differential meant that even if Darknesse had stacked the deck against her to start, she could still work on her own body to make it more fit for survival as the date grew nearer. She actually only had 2 years before she was no longer allowed to rely on her principal allies for support.

None of that mattered though, because caught at the beginning of a suspiciously timed Oklahoma blizzard, she wasn't entirely convinced that she would last another 5 minutes, let alone 2 years. She thought about calling out for help, but somehow her throat felt like it was glued shut from thirst. When she tried to regain her feet, she felt her already weak muscles further weakened from hunger.

3 debuffs in the first 2 minutes, all of which she hadn't considered. She had never eaten in this form, so of course she was absurdly hungry. She had never drank, either, so of course she was consumed with thirst. Worst of all, she had never tried to walk or do any sort of exercise, so her muscles were almost completely undeveloped.

If one of her enemies were to come across her right now, even the weakest among them could finish her off before she could blink. Partially because those muscles were also nascent and unused.

She focused instead on her power. It should still exist, even if her form had changed. She was able to find it rather easily, in the same way a beach goer might find the ocean. However, if before her nervous system had been well calibrated superconduit, it was now more akin to the electrical system in 1920's New York City. The amount of power she could actually utilize without doing herself permanent damage was ludicrously small, like trying to scoop up that same ocean in a thimble.

The Weapon tried to call upon the power of flame, to keep herself warm and perhaps to melt some snow so she could drink, but all that she could summon forth was the tiniest of flames, almost like a candle. Astonishingly, maintaining this sad creation was actually eating away at her mental reserves, as if she was consuming a relevant amount of mana to maintain it. Her frustration at this situation grew, and she was pleasantly surprised to see the flame intensify with the feeling, even as the consumption dropped slightly. The benefit was short lived, because her relief at the situation's improvement washed away even her weak rage in a matter of a few heartbeats.

The warmth from her flame did almost nothing against the blowing snow or cutting winds, even when she tried to shield it with her own body. Recognizing the futility of these actions, she scooped up a handful of snow and then tried to use her flames to melt it. The resulting water was barely enough to touch her thirst, especially because most of it slipped out of her palm before she could drink it.

She felt that her mental reserves were already about half gone, so she tried calling out for help. Tried being the operative word. It came out as more of a whispered croak, and it tore her throat to even produce that. She couldn't bring herself to attempt to make any more water, because her hand already was aching from cold from the first attempt.

Dimly, in the distance, she actually saw individuals walking between buildings. None of them even twitched at the noise she had produced, or even glanced her way to see her flame. Her nakedness was also on display, unfortunately, but there was little she could do about that. Furthermore, if it caused some people to actually look in her direction, it might even save her life in this case.

On the other hand, she was absolutely sure she would be able to endure far more if she had been incarnated into this form while well clothed.

She remembered now that the people she was looking at were all fledgling nyxborn vampyres. They certainly had enhanced senses and resistance to the elements, especially in comparison to her, but they would struggle to hear her pitiful cries over the howling winds and the falling snow.

In a desperate bid to gain their attention, she called upon the power of the wind and attempted to blast through the near white out conditions separating her from the figures that were only 400 meters away. This was really epic in her head, parting the blizzard like Moses parting the red sea.

In reality, however, she managed to create a short arctic blast that caused some of them to glance over in her direction but most of them to turn away. The snow was briefly disturbed but in no way was there any effect like the snow parting or the air becoming still for even a moment. As an added bonus, the shift in concentration combined with the harsh movement of air caused her flame to extinguish itself.

It took a concerning amount of effort to reignite that flame, and at this point she was filled with exhaustion. She knew that soon she would lose consciousness due to a lack of mana, but she had no idea what else to do. Already, in that brief window that the flame had been extinguished, her skin had changed from looking slightly inflamed to concerningly pale. It did not recover upon the reintroduction of heat.

Speaking of which, her skin was far darker than she was used to. If she had made this bet in the middle of a desert, that might have presented an actual advantage. Instead, it seemed to do very little for her in the current situation.

Soon, her mana pool was extinguished along with her flame, and she passed out.