Chương 125: CHAPTER 122 - Lead and Ice

Like rain, flakes of dirty, opaque ice soared through the air, creating a prism of light above the ruins of an old hangar. The impact struck the ground below, fracturing as if thousands of serpents were crawling across the surface. The rock screamed with a deafening screech as it slid and cracked the enormous block of ice above. A figure was kicked through the solid, emerging at intervals from the various cracks before stopping, harpooning the freezing and stained sleet with her nails.

The silhouette rose, silver hair moved by the storm. Her uniform had been completely lacerated, leaving only the tight black suit beneath, decorated with various violet studs. Her expression was grim and devoid of any facial contraction, adorned by the shadow manifested above her. She raised her head, seeing dozens of icy blades, some curved, others straight, plummeting toward her. She didn't move, being struck full-on.

"Oh dear, that's a really problematic ability, you know?" An elegant man appeared, emerging from the ice as he adjusted his dark top hat and bluish bow tie.

"Unfortunately, it makes the entire fight rather uninteresting… There's no disgust, no anger, no joy on your face." The woman emerged through the icy spikes, moving one aside with a mere effort of her fingers. Now they stared at each other. The smiles and the emptiness on their respective faces contrasted.

"Is that really how things stand, Monica Net?" From her feet emerged a colossal column of ice and grayish moss, sending her upward toward the floating buildings. David followed, taking flight among the debris and cold shards, aiming at her chest. With a snap of his fingers, a mass of water, ice, moss, and rock appeared in his palm.

"Are you perhaps incapable of speech?!" The weapon fractured as soon as it met her sternum. The fragments soared into the air, immediately becoming violet dust dispersed in the wind. Monica stared at him again with those vacant eyes, as if looking elsewhere, while her hair regained its golden tone.

"I will listen to you…" Monica grabbed his arm, lifted it above her head, and then hurled David like a boulder toward the glacier. Monica fell with him, a few steps from the crater. A portion of the glacier detached, plummeting into the void and carrying with it all the floating islands scattered below. A roar exploded through the singularity, mixing with the cacophony of conflicts. The man emerged from the ice, almost unharmed by the impact.

Strange fissures tore the surrounding air, covering it with a thin veil of snow and stone.

"I wouldn't have imagined that a woman like you would accept… Perhaps it's my lucky day?" David smiled, dusting off his collar and shoulders. Monica stared at him, now scowling, without moving a step.

"Your tone of voice is broken and all too similar to mine. I'd like to understand why." He stared at her, eyes wide. His noble, elegant face vanished, replaced by muscles twisted in laughter. He doubled over, holding his abdomen as he tried to breathe.

"Eifibes must have been pulling strings for my prayers!" David snapped his fingers, bending the air and completely engulfing the glacier in a storm of needle-like leaves, snow, and the vague, distant echo of a waterfall.

"Are these tricks necessary to talk?" Monica stamped the ground, sitting on the slab of stone and mud that had just sprouted. David nodded, pointing his index finger at his hairless chin.

"Come now, we need a scene. By now, grim noises of death irrigated and battered the entire singularity. Don't tell me you haven't noticed?" Monica stared at the sky, now vaguely grayish and thick with dancing clouds, all too real to be the product of a singularity.

"Is this a portion of Hel? It's not the first time I've entered one, but it really has a different appearance." The trees, the ground, and the sky seemed perfect, as if they were everyday life. She couldn't find a single flaw in that forest, almost painted.

"Precisely for that reason it's false, my dear. Nothing beautiful exists, only the illusion that it does." Monica tapped her foot nervously on the ground, bringing her luminous, furrowed eyes back to David, perched on a rock softened by grim, grayish lichens.

"I told you I would listen to you for a personal oversight. It won't take me long to regret it. What do you think you'll gain from this conflict? You don't really think you can stop that thing?" David stared at her with moderate calm, almost as if he were pondering the space between them.

"The Unnamed, am I right?" The air of Hel grew dark and heavy, so much so that for a second that idyllic vision lost its colors, returning gray and dark like the dimension to which it belonged. A grim chill took possession of her veins, leading her to shatter the rock she sat on. Small shards and clumps of dust slid from her palm, mixing with the mire.

"There's no point in getting heated. After all, there's no one like that thing here. Our client simply knew how to lure you. A single fragment very dear to him… That's the trace you rushed toward." From the ground materialized a dense net of luminous bands, like a mass of earthworms and larvae. It began to scaffold onto the trees, slowly forming a rhomboidal shape suspended in the air by thin threads.

"The Demiurge?" Monica clenched her fingers, lingering with the corner of her eye on that monolith. David nodded, with that usual half-grin filling his lips.

"You see, we need a trace to open a wide portal toward the Hel. We expected you to rush over, since the only case in your history is the one that left you most shaken… Not that I know the details! After all, they're just words borrowed from her." A breeze arrived, carrying away the words and replacing them with silence.

"I like people who understand when to let conversations go, you know? These discussions are like mixed colors. When you don't like something, you bury it or scrape it away. It works well with everything." A violent stomp shattered the surrounding space, bending the trees and raising the rocks.

"David Casparis Richard…" Again, a smile took hold of that man's face, ignoring the mud on his hat.

"I have no interest in your philosophy or why you lead Changeant … You're a third-rate criminal, and I will kill you here and now." The very Frequency emitted by Monica thickened the air, making it an oppressive blanket. David applauded, transforming his hat into small butterflies of rock and cottony vapor.

"Good! Finally I can be sincere…" The world began to tremble as the forces of the two individuals collided with vehemence. The sizzling of invisible masses burned the needles scattered in the air, spreading ash.

"I envy your position, Monica Net." The air broke, and her knuckles impacted against the icy rock. The trees were swept away along with the flames, carrying the two toward the dark clouds. In Monica's trembling eyes was mirrored a laughing face. Dozens of ice columns closed around them as a dense condensation formed on their lips.

"Don't you dare…" Her hair grew brighter, as if burning glass were flowing over it. A lance of ice impacted her shoulder blades, fracturing as Monica grabbed the neck. The laughter was muffled, but not David's smile. His hair, damp from the mixture of ice and wind, stuck to his low forehead as he extended his arms toward her.

"You know… I don't know why I'm here, holding this ship." His body turned to rock, dragging Monica like an anchor toward the crater. With force, she grabbed his wrists, breaking them as she kicked the statue. She returned to soaring through the air, once again scanning the sky. David awaited her, holding a column of sharp rock.

"Why was someone like me chosen? I, who desired nothing but to continue my journey…" The rock and Monica impacted, exploding in the air. With a snap of his fingers, the fragments rotated, forming a ring. A rock saber tried to scythe her flank, shattering against the palm of her hand.

"The first time I obtained these powers, I was so full of joy. I thought I was finally free!" Faded, fleeting memories of blood and dust spread through his mind. A young David smiled, staring at a flaming sky while a hand, buried by dozens of columns, caressed his knee.

"Until I have that white canvas, I must impose on myself the stigma of society! This is my tribute to art!" In an insignificant instant, he found himself face to face with Monica, pointing his palm at her abdomen. The air crystallized, rippling and distorting until it condensed between his fingers in a dance of thin shards." Kleine Schleife …" A beam of snowflakes exploded from his hands, pushing her toward the soil. The bombardment continued incessantly, slowly covering everything with a thin web of bluish ice.

Incessantly, those stars rained down, spreading a freezing fog.

"Walking in the void, in solitude… This should be the destiny of an artist! Not this farce!" The rain intensified when suddenly he felt lighter on one side. With the corner of his eye, he noticed the rivers of blood freezing in the air before plummeting to the ground. He raised his neck, smiling. Above him, Monica held his right arm, returning David's gaze with her dull, opaque eyes.

"I envy you because you know how to be authentic even in lies." David exploded into a thousand pieces, pierced by Monica's fist. The woman impacted the ground again as a second David reappeared behind her, covered in rock.

"Shut up…" A single tear slid from her right eye. Monica turned sharply, striking David's mallet with her sole, hurling him through the forest. His body crossed wood and rock, impaling and lacerating itself as a smile freed itself from his lips. The space around Monica distorted, making her appear in the sky. Before she could realize it, a blade tried to pierce her from the back.

"Neither of us chose to be suppressed, yet you are so perfect…" The rock cracked, bouncing on her neck while her very skin seemed to move, as if covered by a grayish patina. She grabbed David, hidden in a layer of clouds, pulling him toward her.

"Don't give me that bullshit…" For an instant, the Frequency became so heavy that it discolored the entire dimension.

"It's only a partial manifestation, yet…"

"You'd be envious of me? Don't make me laugh!" That single tear broke her voice, caressing her cheek incessantly. Color returned to her eyes, now rich with blood.

"I wear a garment that isn't mine. I carry a power that didn't save what I loved. I'm here risking my life for something I didn't choose!" All her muscles tensed, almost tearing the Lambdite gloves she proudly wore on her knuckles. The air became motionless, along with the rest of David's world.

"How can you think that you and I are similar, when I have even lost the key to my chains!" The impact crossed the air before she finished the sentence, shattering the sky and the earth. David flew among Icarus's glaciers, shattering the entire island where it rested in its flight. As wood and moss vanished like violet crystals, Monica set her feet back on the ground, bleeding copiously from the limb. Bone shards pierced her flesh, at least what remained of it.

"Strengthen your will!" The regeneration was instantaneous, parallel to the lightening of her hair. As soon as she took her first step, gigantic serpents of fog, rock, and ice sprouted from the horizon, screaming into space. Monica bent her back, positioning herself almost parallel to the ground, before darting toward them. She surrounded herself with a whitish halo before vanishing from sight, shattering what remained of the island behind her. Did you know this text is from a different site?

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"Protect the world and the real…" A white light freed itself from the chain she wore at her neck, illuminating her chest. She kicked the air, slicing it as she continued her run on the stone ridge.

"Manifest with a wail and give thanks to life…" The surrounding light became solid, dividing into six circular columns of burning white. They began to orbit her, drawing ever closer to her arm.

"Come… Cloto!" A beam of white light crossed the serpent, opening numerous holes along its path. Rock and ice began to decompose as a vague white halo accompanied Monica's gaze. She accelerated, darting among David's creations, piercing them all with the creation anchored to her arm: a concentric series of columns, bound by solid light of a pure white but not blinding. With a slash of her arm, the white lacerated the entire island where David laughed.

"Monica… You know too that you must go on."

"So that's the twin of the boy's relic?! Incredible!" David seemed almost to grasp the air, dragging it with his fingers until he tore it. The fissure absorbed the beams of light, replaced by hundreds of dark wooden spines. The shards crossed space, impacting against the serpents and Monica in a complete bombardment. In a short time, they balled up, forming a gigantic sphere of rock and wood in Icarus's sky.

"We must be careful… After all, it's little more fragile than a drop!" With a snap, another colossal portal opened, generating a dozen beams of moss, grass, and mud to entangle the sphere. With equal diligence, David made as if to pull it, beginning to bring the wooden meteor toward the islands, shattering them one by one as it approached the boundary.

"Come on… I expect some critique, Kapitän!" A series of white flashes crossed the shadow projected by Icarus, tearing the ground at his feet. He moved on the ice, sliding on the earth as the flashes pursued him.

"NOT BAD!" The sphere exploded, and in a mere instant, Monica covered the entire space, finding herself a few meters from David. The man had perched on a column of ice, smiling as he contemplated a thin brush with a black handle and worn, encrusted bristles.

"Are you vain, as well as disgusting?" Monica stared at him, tilting her head on her shoulder, illuminated by Cloto's beams. Suddenly a brush bumped her feet, stopping right next to her heel.

"Nothing is more lustful than the will to make art." The brush dissolved, and David appeared a few steps from her, both hands hidden in his pockets. The smile disappeared, replaced by a furrowed, shadowed expression. The air grew tense, and even the relic's light seemed to dim for a brief instant. Monica raised her guard again, finding David already beneath her.

"What differs flesh from brush if both desire to propagate?" His hand brushed her chest as the air seemed to writhe.

"When did he manage to…" Monica tried to react, yet the Frequency already started to heat up. David's world expanded with immense ferocity, manifesting as a gigantic clod of rock and ice amalgamated with branches and unnatural flows of water. Its appearance lasted an instant, vanishing as rapidly as it had arrived.

"Form is the only differentiator between the two…" David panted as various black tendrils spread across his body, forming a vague tattoo in the shape of a hat.

"Already manifesting? And I, who didn't want to resort to Sensucht so soon." David sighed, watching his skin slowly become scaly. In the distance, among the collapsing rubble, Monica freed herself from the ice. She tore the crystallized flesh from the frost, rising almost unharmed. She stared at the island where David now was, by then so small in her eyes. She felt the need to vomit blood, yet her body prevented it.

"It hurts everywhere, damn it… It hurts…" Her expression didn't change, fossilized in that apathy that always distinguished her.

"My body is nothing but a molt… A suit I wear." Monica lowered her gaze, observing the entire cavity being illuminated by Cloto's reflection. The relic seemed almost to vibrate at the touch as the pale sun joined her ascent.

"I really can't be like her, eh?" Before her, replacing the clouds, were dozens of small ice islands with sharp, sinuous peaks. She raised her gaze beyond those artificial constructions, observing the opaque light of the ancient singularity. Fragments of memory, like shards in an icy lake, surfaced inside her brain.

"Monica, if you ever feel bad... don't hesitate to talk to me about it!"

"You can call me s-sister if you like!"

"I love you... Monica." A smile formed on her face, despite still overflowing with that suffering, despite not being able to scream that she was tired.

"Having such flashbacks now ain't my thing..." David appeared above her, holding a lance of ice and rock, held together by greenish, glossy tendrils. Their gazes met as a freezing breeze caressed the dirty glacier. Seconds stretched into minutes, marked by a pleasant, anthropocentric silence. The ice wall collapsed, invading that peace with a thundering roar.

"The human being…" David broke the stillness, mirroring himself in the candid ice of his weapon.

"Finds peace only in something greater than himself, in something that can terrify him. This is the curse of modern man, who has abandoned his roots in favor of the comfort of the few." David scrutinized that woman, immobilized as if enchanted in that smile. Her hair had become opaque, her skin paler, and she seemed by now deprived of any halo of strength, except for the relic, which shone with renewed intensity.

"From how you appear… I'd say someone has already instilled in you the idea that your nightmares can be conquered." His lips moved to form a grin, revealing part of his slightly sharp teeth.

"Too bad, your desire is already dead…" With a snap of his fingers, all the rocks plunged onto her in a constant, precise bombardment. Each time they seemed to end, a rift in the air manifested, continuing to vomit that cascade of rock. In a short time, the entire region was reduced to an expanse of shreds of nature, floating in the air contaminated by black dust. David remained impassive, gripping the lance with renewed vigor.

He contracted all his muscles to hurl it, feeling as if a thread were guiding him, when a flash of light emerged from the dense blanket of debris, grazing his face.

"You're right, perhaps you and I really are similar…" As the dirty haze dissolved, Monica's features became more evident: pale skin, diaphanous whitish hair, and eyes illuminated by a glow mixed with blue and green. On her face, taking the place of the smile, a new resoluteness moved her lips into a smirk.

"But… even if my heart should crack, I will keep it standing. Even when despair tears the strength from my limbs, I will continue to rise." She raised her arm, projecting the relic's beams as if they were whips. The shreds of light began to coil and tighten on Monica's arms and legs, as if they were bandages.

"I am weak, a plaster maiden weeping on the tomb of a traitor…" The air began to tremble throughout Icarus as whirlwinds of dust writhed around her. David raised the lance, bringing it slightly behind his flank. His expression had regained its usual smile.

"Perhaps this time you will become a proper muse." Monica vanished, shattering the lance and David's torso with a single impact. The atmosphere of the singularity was shaken as the rock itself vibrated under the influence of that blow.

"... But all this doesn't make me any less worthy of fighting with them and for them!" Monica kicked the air, chasing David's figure, and plummeted into what remained of the labyrinth of floating islands. She landed violently, immediately raising Cloto's beams to repel a storm of ice darts. From the flank, a rock lance emerged, shattering against her body.

"Stoikos… As long as I can maintain concentration, I will be invincible. In that instant, I must project all the Frequency into that single blow and decapitate him!" Monica rotated her body, tearing apart the rocks that had begun to surround her. From above her, a rapid series of rock and ice arrows fell. As she navigated, she noticed a small distortion appear just above her left eye. It was the size of a marble, oily in appearance and incredibly cold.

"Not bad… Really…" David licked the blood from his lip, extending his fingers toward the island, now wrapped in a storm of ice and rock. A new distortion manifested shortly after his nails, swirling and luminous. The sky grew dark; dense drops weighted with black began to fall around him. The wind intensified, forcing the air to flow in the opposite direction, returning to its origin. The entire thundering storm channeled into his fingers, pointing toward where Monica fought.

"Here, this is the hand I wish to extend to you." The storm ceased for an instant before exploding with extreme violence in a torrent of squall and lightning of dark color. From that same island, a beam of white light freed itself, clashing against the stormy mass. Beams of light and azure and violet lightning devoured the rock, oscillating in the air like serpents. The ice melted, dividing into numerous waterfalls, and vanished into the void.

The storm concluded with a blaze of white light that devoured David completely.

"Incredible how tenacious you are…" Monica violently trampled the withered flora, almost buried under the dust. Before her, panting and leaning against a column greased with red, David stood, still with the same smile stamped on his sharp face.

"In the end, you surpassed what united us." He stood up again, coughing a gush of dark blood rich in rock shards. From the mutilated shoulder, a new limb of rock and ice began to form. Cloto reacted, again restoring its brilliance.

"Now… I have only to annihilate what you represent." A distorted veil extended from his new limb, wrapping them both in a sea of variegated sensations: the sea breeze, the dampness of fog, the torpor of the sun, the smell of rain, and the vague prickle of pines on the nape. Monica didn't even take a step, merely letting herself be engulfed in that mass of Frequency.

"Isn't that an Einflussbereich? Is he manifesting a singularity?" She found herself in the dark, with even David gone. Only the piercing pain remained, constantly intent on besieging her flesh.

"I wish I could cry, but I can't… I must…"

"Hey, Monica!" A sudden voice, almost forgotten, called her from behind. She was unable to turn, feeling her face tremble and her cheeks grow burning.

"I hope you still remember what I told you… You will despair, and that is why you must go on!" Monica nodded, swallowing down her doubts, the mucus, and the salt of the minute tears. She moved her head, managing to watch the voice's owner in their eyes. A tall woman, wrapped in a cloak of black fur, vaguely matching the cobalt-white mane like a rough sea. Her dark eyes were half-closed in a tender, almost maternal expression.

"Because the sun will rise even after the darkest night!" They said it together, making the mixture of their voices echo in that transitional void. They burst out laughing with such clamor that they doubled over.

"I will never surpass you, dear Bluette, and that's fine…" Monica turned as the old commander vanished into nothing, becoming ever more opaque. The smile remained, but her gaze had become vacant. A last tear slid down her smile, irrigated with warm red.

"I don't have much time left; I must finish this here and now! For them…" Monica opened her eyes, finding herself in David's dimension. She regained touch, feeling the soft carpet of grass extending on the mount. Behind her she heard the violent crashing of water, and before her a green sea extended to the horizon, separated to her right by an expanse of irregular, fragmented glaciers, emerged from a cracked, white lake. A cold and unnatural breeze flowed through her hair.

"In the end, I agree with you. We were similar..." She met David's gaze, suspended on a rock with his new arm of rock, moss, and ice. Perfectly sculpted in volumes and form. She tilted her head on her shoulder, furrowing her brows.

"I never knew Bluette Oudin or her sister. I knew Monica Net!" Those words that echoed in Monica's mind gave her the strength to raise her arm, without ever taking her eyes off her rival.

"... But you have no idea what that weight means! How much their smiles and their tears matter!" She pointed her thumb at her heart as the relic shone as never before, drinking the same Frequency that stitched that infinite dimension. A new smile appeared on David, different in form and extension. A glow in his eyes accompanied it, as if satisfied.

"Whether I want it or not, I am the commander of NOIR, and I will not allow you to harm any of my Allies!" Thus the wind rose, and the two vertices of the factions clashed in flight, with the clamor of weapons and nature.

"Good, Monica Net! Magnificent, this is the true fear of subjugation! The one you have driven away!" The limb and Cloto impacted, shaking the trees and shattering the glaciers as their lips twisted into a smile.

"Yes… I am Monica Net, and I will win. Here and now!"