1 Ice World

More than three hundred years ago, humans lived on the earth completely unprotected from the demons hunting them down for their flesh, blood and spirits. Guardians from the heavens above had been going missing, leaving the mortals defenseless and forcing them to find ways to protect themselves. Thousands of human souls were taken each year before the last season concluded to begin life anew. Only those of pure heart or those of pure devotion could protect the humans from an age of demon reign. One man named Unmei altered the history of the humans in his village of Heiwa for years to come.

On a war campaign through the southern regions of the capital, a great battle within the forests raged on for a year and, within that year, half of the foliage had been burned down as a result of wildfires and pillaging. Amongst that foliage, however, Unmei discovered that the demons in the region that normally feasted on the fallen warriors' flesh and bone were running from the battlefield. Burials and cremations of the fallen warriors were able to be conducted without interruption. There was something amongst the burnt remains of the forest that drew them away. Unmei sent a group of men to retrieve every variation of plant that was burned in the forest and to bring it to him, but the group was sent to their doom when the stronger demons came to devour them.

With great courage, Unmei marched into the forest himself and collected several plants. A smaller demon that seemed rather harmless followed Unmei into the forest as he was rummaging through the ashes, and Unmei discovered after picking up a branch still burning from a smoldering flame that the demon was weak against this single plant and ran from him. The samurai went to the emperor with his discovery and created the first demon-repelling incense. All throughout the kingdom and its borders, the incense was burned until waves of smoke filled the land. Many demons were drawn away from Heiwa and attacked the warring nation, decimating their numbers until they had to surrender.

The king of the warring nation was curious. Why were the demons running from Heiwa and into his kingdom? Why were only the stronger demons remaining in place? In a desperate attempt to save his people, the king met with Heiwa's emperor and asked what protected them from demons. The emperor called Unmei from his home and had him explain his discovery. Unmei's incense was distributed widely over the land to protect man from these demons, but the samurai was not satisfied with just the incense. The stronger demons still ravaged the land and needed to be stopped somehow. Thus, Unmei's search for stronger weapons and repellants began.

Finally, a messenger from the heavens gave Unmei the Kaishi Novum, a spear crafted from the tears of a deity and the hope of man. Unmei used this spear to battle the stronger demons and found new plants to make stronger incense. He decided to use this new weapon for good and protect the people of Heiwa from malicious forces. When his life was coming to an end, he passed this power down to his son who was worthy enough to continue finding ways to tame or repel the demons. Generations of warriors followed after Unmei and continued his fight to defend the mortals. This weapon now falls in the hands of my strongest warrior, Jigoku Meioshi...

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Barren, cutting, arctic. The frozen wastelands could be as beautiful as they were grotesque. Snow was not as soft in this world as it was in the mortal realm. It was as sharp as glass and blunt as soil and mulch. Snowflakes with fine edges smooth enough to taste blood and cut through skin drifted about in the unholy breeze of a land that only knew winter to be year-round and death to be eternal. There was no sun here. Clouds... were probably the purest things to float in the sky if it could be called that. The atmosphere was more encased like the inside of a box: quiet, dim, and cold. Standing atop a mountain, hazel, glowing eyes scanned the land for a lake. They found it. Surrounded by curved pine trees in the shape of a crooked spine and dead shrubbery molded like bent fingers was a frozen body of water. Above it was the only source of light in all of the icy plains of hell. Gray and glimmering, the light cast upon the terrain of tundra an ethereal glow to give the Land of Ice an authentic allure of a wintry day.

"Lady Meioshi!" a young male voice called.

A woman with dark hair styled into a topknot turned slightly to the creature approaching her. Her shoulders were covered in a thick fur shawl pinned closed by a broch as the snowy winds passed over her neck. Her hands were only half-gloved as she pulled down her scowl to reveal red-painted lips. She blew air onto her palms in an attempt to warm them, but it was impossible to find warmth in this part of hell. She only rubbed her fingers together and shook her head at the futile gesture. The creature hovered into her line of vision and blinked its large green eyes at her in curiosity. He hummed in response when the woman looked at him as he floated there.

"Yes, Caritas?" she asked.

"You can't go very far in Koridetudi," Caritas said, moving to Meioshi's left. His red and white robes fluttered about like a dream as he flew quietly. You couldn't even hear the wind behind him. He then continued, "Your mianyi isn't strong enough yet."

"Pity. I have a mission near that pond over there," she said, pointing at her target. "The master said something of importance was going to be there."

"I don't know..." Caritas responded apprehensively. "That sounds iffy in and of itself."

"Well, it can't be as iffy as the gateway being purified all of sudden," Meioshi said, smiling to reassure the sprite. "I don't remember that happening."

"It made coming here a lot easier," Caritas remarked, looking down at the lake. "Who do you suppose was strong enough to do that? Why would they want to purify any part of hell is probably the better question, huh?"

"Well, whoever it was must have been of great strength," Meioshi replied, holding her hands up and out to collect some snow in her hands. She felt the prickling of sharp snowflake edges. Such a dreadful place! Not even the snow can be enjoyed! She smiled at this small yet sad fact and continued with a certain innocence in her voice, "That person killed the gatekeeper, Tetsuzan."

"Ew, that guy?" Caritas responded, bearing a visible frown and look of disgust on his face. "Can't say I feel sorry for him. He must've got on someone's nerves for the last time."

Meioshi lightly chuckled before saying, "Well, he may have been an overconfident fellow, but he controlled the bearers here. With him gone, new bearers will roam the mortal world freely and adapt to their environment quite rapidly. Whoever came here to kill them didn't take into account that bearers need to be controlled; else, they'll feed on a soul too early in life or worse. They could hunt their comrades' killer down."

"Who can even be chosen to replace Tetsuzan?" Caritas asked, turning to Meioshi.

"That has to be taken up with higher authorities," Meioshi replied, tossing her small bits of hell's snow from her hands to plunk onto the ground. "I can only hope that they choose soon. We'd best move along ourselves."

Caritas hummed in disapproval but shook his head lightly before twirling around and drawing a bright light from his chest. He placed the light in Meioshi's chest and led the way down the cliff. Closing her eyes, Meioshi ran off the cliff to follow Caritas and leapt down to feel the icy winds along her cheeks. The snowflakes were becoming sharper and more dangerous as she swooped down the cliff. The powers of hell were now becoming angrier. Fairly soon, the demons here would awaken and force her to remain in the world of ice. Seeing a large rock protruding from the cliff, Meioshi flipped her body around and landed on the stone only to awaken a trapped mortal from its tomb. It burst out of the stone and grabbed at Meioshi's ankle, but she flipped around quickly to run the rest of her way down. The vengeful spirit crawled on its hands to chase her down the cliff in response, waking other spirits from their tombs of ice. Meioshi grunted at this and removed a silver spear from its holster on her back.

She ran even faster down the cliff until she reached the bottom and sharply pivoted on one foot before leaping high into the air. Twirling the spear around to generate power, Meioshi dove down onto the spirits and unleashed a blast of power that took the form of several spears to destroy the spirits. Only a handful were left, and they had begun to cower, but Meioshi couldn't let them live. They could call on stronger demons, which would disrupt her mission, or group together to kill her. The latter seemed to be their choice as they were beginning to fuse together.

Caritas took this chance to appear next to her and said, "Don't let them join together!"

"Yes, Caritas, I can see them," Meioshi responded, getting into a fighting position.

"No, I mean don't let them join with the spirits still trapped in ice. They're stronger at the bottom!"

Meioshi gasped at this and began striking the demons with her spear. Only two spirits were able to fuse with a stone at the base of the cliff, and they used this power to strike Meioshi in her stomach and send her flying. Though the pain was great, the wound was small enough for her to keep going. She regained her footing quickly and struck back with equal ferocity. The battle went on like this for a while until Meioshi won. Her first wound was beginning to grow a bit in pain. She staggered back to feel it sending a burning sensation along the front of her body. Her arm was trembling a bit as she brought a hand up to hold herself together. Caritas floated next to her and used some of his power to heal her. He couldn't fully help her until she was out of this level of hell.

"We have to hurry," he said with some worry. "These wounds will continue to grow here. Your mianyi has weakened."

"Can you restore some of it?" Meioshi asked, turning to walk away from the cliff.

"Not right now. If I use more power, more demons will come to fight you and stronger ones at that," Caritas explained, flying faster.

Meioshi began to run lightly to keep up with Caritas. As they trekked their way through the icy plains, she could feel the snowflakes cutting her skin like small fragments of glass. She raised her scowl over her mouth to protect her face and ran at a faster pace to hurry the mission along. Even the trees in Koridetudi sprung to life and grabbed at her shoulders to make her one with the vengeful spirits. She detached the sticky branches from her shawl and body by twirling her spear about and continued running. A large demon emerged from the snow to her left and ran next to her in big, pounding footsteps, making the ground beneath her gyrate and lift her up to the point where she was close to galloping across the plains. This demon was far too strong for her to combat with just the spear.

She prepared herself for combat anyway and ran faster, only turning to get a good look at it. It was furry and skeletal like a malnourished dog, but it could easily disguise itself in the snow. Both its fur and bones were white enough. When she approached the pond, the demon leapt from her side and in front of her. The impact of its land, however, caused the earth to crumble and Meioshi fell through a hole.

"Lady Meioshi!" Caritas cried.

Meioshi only screamed as she descended. Her heart felt like it was leaving her body as she fell into darkness, but the light of Caritas in her chest lit her voyage down. She collapsed onto a bridge made of slippery ice and looked up. The gray light from before was much brighter than she thought. It lit the surface of the icy pond and was able to provide some illumination in the helical cavern. Water was dripping down in places under the pond. The demon that was chasing her before looked down into the ice, sensing the light, and pounced on the pond's layer of thick ice to get to her until the pond's surface broke into chunks. Meioshi tried to run away but her feet kept slipping and a few chunks of ice managed to hit her in the neck and elbow. Her spear was lost from the impact of the strike as it fell to the bottom, and Meioshi was soon sliding down the spiral of ice. Shielding herself from ice and the beast now leaping down to bite her, she recovered quickly and repositioned herself to skate down the spiral until she grabbed onto a protruding spike from the layered bottom and readied herself for another attack. The demon above wall-jumped until the entire structure of ice cracked from impact and began its descent to the darkened pits. An open hole to the surface was now accessible... or at the very least viewable.

The demon lurched at Meioshi as she was hanging onto the spike, but she acrobatically flipped off the spike and broad-jumped at the outer wall of the waterless pond. All she could do was hope that something was there - that a wall or anything with a hard surface would stop her descent to the bottom of the pond. Luckily, there seemed to be a small hole within her sights. Just as the beast collided with the ice spike and broke it into smaller chunks, Meioshi was able to cling to the rocky walls of the pond and climb into the hole. The wolfish creature shook its head rapidly before recovering and spotting Meioshi climbing into a small cave. It growled before leaping out and digging its blunt nails into the wall.

Flinching, Meioshi crawled back until she felt something cut her arm and freeze it. Feeling the beast trying to dig her out desperately, she quickly turned around to a silvery blade poking out of a rock. Looking back at the beast now biting at the hole, she took a deep breath and dug the blade out of its rocky prison. The hilt of a sword was jammed into something, but Meioshi gave it one good pull and unjammed the sword from its hearth. Letting out a scream, she ran at the beast and a burst of power shot out and knocked the wolfish creature off the wall. She allowed herself to finally catch her breath and stepped back to hide in the shadows as the ice and monster fell all the way down to the bottom.

When all was silent, she breathed in relief and took a look at the sword. A large warm orange gemstone was embedded in the blade, and its hilt was covered in fine leather. A soft noise disturbed her as she admired the weapon and she quickly positioned herself to fight. When she saw it was only Caritas flying rapidly towards her, she sighed in relief and then held an arm out to capture the creature in a brief hug.

"Lady Meioshi!" Caritas cried. "I thought you were dead!"

"So did I," she said, walking to the cave's opening. At least, she thought it was something resembling a cave. She continued, "Can't say the same for my Kaishi Novum. It is at the bottom."

"You just have to call for it, silly goose," Caritas said, smiling gently at the woman.

"Hm?"

"Call it," Caritas suggested with a bright smile.

"Kaishi Novum, return to me!" With that, a strong light began to appear in Meioshi's hand and the silver spear returned to her side. She then looked at both weapons and then to the creature next to her. She asked, "Caritas, what is this sword?"

"Looks like Baohu qi Voluptitas," he said, flipping his white hair to the right to see the sword's full length. "The sword wielded by the protector of paradise and forged from the fires of heaven above. That's very strange for it to be here."

"It has a single stone embedded in it," Meioshi informed, holding the sword up. "Maybe that means it can help me travel through the first level of hell easier."

"Well, stones are purposely chosen when incorporated into a weapon's design. I think it's more like a convenience that this stone shares a similarity to our location. I think that's enough excitement for one day, though. Let's go home and see," Caritas said, embracing Meioshi and engulfing her in light.

Beneath the ice in Koridetudi, a menacing pulse bubbled from the depths below. Icicles were growing upwards like cave rocks as broken bodies rapidly crawled along the walls of the deep hole. A large roar emerged from the prison below and resonated throughout the surrounding walls before an acidic mist rose from the darkness and travelled to the top. An orange eye with a widened pupil formed from the mist and looked to the left of the wintry forest and then to the right at the mounds of snow. At the edge of the pond, the eye caught a small herb that seemed to just sprout from the icy plains. It was pure and green.

The mist crept up to it and seemed to sniff it before reeling its essence back in repulsion. It was a purifying herb! Similar in scent to the woman that trespassed on its territory. The beast left behind sought vengeance on the thief of Baohu qi Voluptatis and it wanted immediate gratification. With this herb as its only clue, it opened an angry, fanged mouth and shot a blast of power upwards. Undulating from the frozen pond, the mist ascended until it reached a portal in the smoldering sky. The portal opened into the living realm and closed silently, leaving behind the small herb as it warmed its surroundings and took root where it was lain. Bits of light were sparkling on its leaves and the surrounding earth was sprouting bits of grass...