113 Blizzard, part 6/6: Clearing

Tia stood, her platinum-blonde hair and raven coat fluttering softly in the wind, a stark contrast against the nightmarish visage of ice and shadows before her. Her heart thundered like church bells in a storm, yet her face remained an unmoving mask of calm.

Step by step, she drew nearer to the boy, his shivering form buried in the snow and girls, as she already expected the demon to attack as its furious words still resonated inside of her head.

A curse almost escaped her lips as she considered the boy's folly. 'To think, all this trouble was sparked by a single reckless act—venturing into a blizzard, into these barren plains, to provoke a demon.'

As Tia slowly advanced, almost reaching her target, the demon's raging form seemed to quiver, and its rageful and fierce aura began to ebb, like the receding tide after a vicious storm.

The swirling mass of ice and shadow that constituted its body started to lose its fierce, threatening edge, the sharpness of its movements softening.

"This time, mortal, you shall be spared, not out of mercy but because your pitiful existence is not worthy for us to fight over. Cross my path again, and I assure you, your soul will be mine." With the chilling words, the demon's roar crescendoed into a sinister symphony of fury and foreboding, vibrating through the air like a dark promise.

While it spoke, the demon's form began to unravel, disintegrating into a whirlwind of black snowflakes, swirling menacingly in the blizzard's wrath before disappearing in the wind.

'It is finally over—the demon is gone.'

Tia exhaled slowly, her breath turning into a ghostly mist in the cold air.

'Who would have thought that a demon could be so reasonable...'

The demon's oppressive presence receded, becoming as distant and insignificant as a star lost in the vastness of the night. Yet its words gnawed at her, unearthing truths buried deep within her.

'Whatever I am, the demon wasn't considering me to be a mortal, whatever that means.' She snickered at the irony of it, knowing she had already died before. However, her snicker froze, not from the cold wind bashing against her face but from the wave of insight that struck her: 'I died, yet I am standing here...alive.'

A new theory formed in her thoughts, but the only way to confirm it was for her to die, something she wasn't willing to try even if it proved to be true, as her death in the witch world cost her everything—her power and even her entire past life—a price she was unwilling to pay ever again.

The memory of her fall from grace, from the highest echelons of witchcraft to its utter depths, still burned like a fresh wound.

'There is no need to think about what will happen after I die. I should think about the present.'

"It's over. We wait here," Tia said abruptly, pulling herself from her thoughts to address the shivering youth.

'So, the demon might know my true nature,' she reflected with a sigh, yet not regretting that she hadn't broached the topic with the creature as she could feel that it almost lost its control.

Then an annoying, feminine voice belonging to one of the girls shattered her thoughts: "Uh, miss, space knight, could you make a fire? It's really cold here."

Tia grudgingly groaned, knowing that the remaining time in the frozen lands would be true torture.

POV Red:

Elyra, the black-haired woman, stormed down the black marble corridor of her ship with frenzied energy, her crimson eyes burning like wildfire. Each click of her heels sent shivers down the spines of her guards; they straightened up, rigid with fear, while others scurried away, disappearing into adjacent rooms as whispers of her tumultuous mood spread like wildfire.

She only snickered at their feeble attempts to escape her presence, her heightened senses tingling with the awareness of every soul aboard. But her eyes flickered with a frenetic, threatening intensity—she couldn't feel her. She was gone.

'Don't you dare think you can run away!' Elyra's mind screamed, her internal turmoil boiling over as she halted abruptly before her chamber—the last place she sensed her presence.

She wasn't angry about her disappearance, as she had already decided to give her a bit of freedom to explore the world, but the abruptness of it made her worried.

With a violent, crazed energy, she flung the doors open, almost ripping them from their hinges. Her blood-red gaze swept the room.

'Still not back. She's never been gone this long before.' Panic laced Elyra's thoughts. She was accustomed to her cat-like tendency to wander, but this time it screamed danger.

'Her body, not just her soul, is missing. And for hours already—not the usual seconds. Also, it feels different than usual. It doesn't fit her powers. What if someone stole her?!'

Closing her eyes, Elyra's mind twisted, warping into a vision of the curved plane of space dimensions. Her expression contorted into a relieved, twisted smile as she noticed scars in the spatial fabric.

'Space was warped here...' Though it had reverted to its original state, she knew she could unravel it again, like tracing the creases of a once-folded paper.

'With her body gone too, the disruption is stronger, the trail clearer.' Time seemed to crawl as her eyes blazed with a crimson light, her powers of spatiokinesis and telekinesis overlapping to grip the space itself. She pulled, her powers clawing at the very fabric of space, distorting and twisting it.

'I won't sit idle. I'm coming for you!'