Chương 16: I Got Frozen

POV: The Dark Lord, Milo Miles They came for me. Evelisse among them. I couldn't blame her. There was little she could have done. Staying behind had been my choice, and now that choice had left me facing three of the Church's finest in my own front yard. The instant I saw her closing on the frozen Luke, Mooncleaver raised to run her through, I knew I had to move. I had exactly one skill that could stop a strike without hurting her.

I thrust my hand toward Evelisse, fixed the skill's name in my mind, Sensory Distortion, and chose loss of balance. Her swing went wide. The Mooncleaver veered off course as though her own arm had betrayed her. I did not get to feel relieved about it. I never saw the silver-haired one close the distance. One breath he was across the clearing, the next he was there, and a wave of cold locked my whole body rigid. Everything but my face. Then the rapier came for my forehead. It did not scratch me, though.

The blade struck and rang off my skin like steel on stone, and he sprang back before I could exhale—a smart move, since I had been half a second from breathing Sleep Gas right into his face. Fast. Powerful. Spell-slinging. If someone had told me he was the Hero, I would have believed them. I flexed against the ice. I could not move freely, but the harder I pushed, the more it gave. It was level 9999 strength against a sheet of frost.

I twisted at the waist, threw everything into it, and the ice burst apart around me in a spray of white. Seconds later, Luke's roar threw Evelisse and the mage girl clear, but it did not take long for them to be back on their feet, weapons up. The whole board had reset. I raked my mind, fast. The only thing here that could actually kill me was the Mooncleaver. Avoid the sword, and I would live.

The silver-haired one, I would just call him Douche, since he had the exact face of the smug love-rival in every anime I had ever watched — clearly specialized in ice; restraint magic, freezing things in place. The mage girl hadn't done much yet. A buffer, most likely; she did attack me with a fireball before, but it did not deal any damage. Things would be much easier with Nyx around. There was no chance she had slept through this; the roars, the spellfire, the shattering ice. She had to be awake.

And she still had not come. Maybe she really did want me dead. I glanced at Luke. She was obviously holding back. She kept circling, growling, but not pressing the attack. Yesterday, I had told her not to attack the Hero. Now she did not know what she was allowed to do. I needed her on Douche so I could get to Evelisse. I could fly, but if I did, none of them might chase me. They might storm the hut instead, and as strong as Nyx was, I was not betting her life on three-against-one.

I had tried to reach her through the Mental Link while I was frozen. Nothing had gone through. I sighed. Guess I'm winging it. I broke into a run, straight at Douche. He felt it coming and threw out a hand, the ice already gathering, but I had thought ahead this time. Purgatory Shield. The blast met an orange, translucent barrier a hand's breadth from my chest. It held. But it didn't stop everything. The damage bled away against the shield but the cold did not.

My sprint dragged into a trudge as frost crept up the barrier, climbing, thickening, my own steps turning to lead beneath me. The shield was freezing solid with me behind it. This guy's power wasn't normal. I was supposed to be Level 9999, and he was burying me in ice anyway. The blast finally cut off. I swung my arm hard and the shield exploded outward, shards scattering across the grass. Douche was already gone. He had leapt clear and a fireball cracked against my head.

Same as before: no pain, just a mouthful of smoke and a cough I couldn't help. Then something swept my legs out from under me. I hit the ground flat on my back. Douche had ducked in low while the fireball from the suppor mage blinded me.

"Evelisse, now!" I rolled my head sideways. She was already running at me, fast, Mooncleaver in both hands, and for a sick half-second I thought it would be over for me. Then an energy beam tore across the clearing. Luke. Evelisse threw the blade up just in time to catch it, the light splitting against the runes. I scrambled up and Douche's fist caught me clean across the face. It… somewhat hurt. Not enough to leave me dazed, but enough that I felt the impact thud through my body. I was flat on the grass again.

It shouldn't have hurt. Nothing here was supposed to hurt except for the Mooncleaver. Above Luke, Douche conjured an icicle the size of a wagon and sent it plunging down. She broke off her beam, three heads snapping skyward, and shattered it with a roar, causing smaller shards to come raining down. Across the field, the mage girl pressed her palms together and cast something onto Douche. He blurred. Faster now.

Before I could get my feet under me he was on top of me, knee in my chest, pinning me to the dirt, so I did the only thing I could and exhaled Sleep Gas straight up at him. He caught the wrongness of the purple haze instantly and threw himself off me. Stolen novel; please report. I shoved myself upright and Evelisse was right there, blade already swinging. I used Purgatory Shield. The Mooncleaver met the barrier and she recoiled, the shield splintering apart the instant the holy steel touched it.

But the block had done its job. She was off balance, the sword wide. This is my chance. I moved before I could think better of it. I used a split second Telekinesis to break Mooncleaver free from her weakened grip, disarming her, then wrapped an arm around her and flew, straight at the hut, punching us both through the wall in a burst of splinters and dust. Nyx might be furious later, but she was already angry enough at me that she had not shown her face until now, so it probably would not matter.

The village woman was awake inside, pressed into the corner, hands over her head, shaking. I didn't have time to reassure her. I cast Smokescreen. If they came charging blind, I wanted them blind too. Smoke poured out from beneath my robe, more and more of it, until the whole living room dissolved into grey haze. It didn't even smell, strangely. With Evelisse in my arms, Douche wouldn't dare sling spells recklessly into the murk. I set her down and let go at once.

"What are you planning?" Her shoulders had gone still. The question came out lower than her usual voice, almost careful.

"I'm sorry," I said. The words came out fast, low.

"There's something I need to do." I thought about putting her to sleep with the gas, but I just could not seem to do it.

"Just stay here. Please. If you want to hit me after, you can." She looked away and did not answer. I felt Douche step in through the hole I had made. Slower now, wary, the smoke buying me the seconds I needed. He could not see me clearly. My chance. I reached for him with Telekinesis, meaning to drag him close enough to gas him. The pull slipped off him like water off glass. Nothing. Maybe it was the skill being Level 1, though I had been able to lift Luke just fine. Then again, I had no idea what level Luke was.

Fine. The hard way, then. Without the Mooncleaver he could not hurt me. I would charge him and hit him with Sleep Gas point-blank. I lunged through the smoke. His reflexes were better than they had any right to be. He pivoted and brought his weapon up to block. His sword. I jerked back. That was wrong. He did not have a sword. He fought with a rapier. I had watched it bounce off my own forehead minutes ago. The smoke thinned where we had stirred it, and I got a proper look at what he was holding.

It was the Mooncleaver. Its runes burning a steady, furious blue. But that was not possible. I thought only the Hero could wield it.

"What's the matter, Dark Lord?" He let the Mooncleaver fall to his side in a slow, practiced arc. A grin crawled across his face. That same insufferable, anime-rival grin.

"See something you weren't expecting?" This was bad. If this powerful douche could wield the Mooncleaver, then my entire bet was in shambles. He would kill me without hesitation. And if I so much as brushed against that blade, it would burn me to nothing. He rushed at me, the Mooncleaver leveled at my chest. I timed Purgatory Shield right. The blade cracked against the translucent orange barrier and held. But Douche only smiled.

He leaned into it, both hands on the hilt, driving the sword forward inch by inch, and I heard the shield begin to splinter. I threw my arm up, knocking the Mooncleaver away with the dying shield. The blade bounced clear. The barrier shattered with it. He recovered instantly. The next swing came down at my head. I leapt sideways at the last instant, and the Mooncleaver bit clean through the wooden floor where I had just been.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the village woman and Evelisse pressed together along the wall. They had been shifting, slowly, while I was busy. They were on my right now. Edging toward the hole in the wall. They were going to run the moment they had the chance. Nothing was going right. Douche gathered another ice spell. I threw up another Purgatory Shield. The frost began to climb it almost at once. I felt the cold reach my arms through the barrier.

At the edge of my vision, Evelisse was whispering an incantation, her hand outstretched. Some kind of buff, I thought. Then she dashed forward, scooped the village woman up, and ran. Right. She ran. I had staked everything on her and she had run. Douche kept advancing. I kept giving ground. My back hit the wooden wall of the hut. The shield was useless now, more ice than barrier; the cold had crawled up my arms and was creeping toward my torso. Then he angled his palm down and fired at my legs.

I tried to leap sideways. The blast caught me mid-jump and I went down hard on the floorboards. Frozen from the knees down, half my torso encased, only one arm still free. Where is my team? Where is Nyx? Luke? Luke was probably still busy with the mage and Evelisse outside. I turned my head. Douche was walking toward me, the Mooncleaver dragging behind him along the floor. The blade scraped against the wood with a slow, ringing metal sound. I could have sworn he was doing it on purpose.

Drawing it out, the way a horror-game villain does when he knows he has already won. Three days into a new life, and I was about to die in it. I flexed my knees a few times. The ice cracked. But Douche only flicked his wrist and fired another blast, refreezing me before I could shake free. This time he kept spraying, layer over layer, until the only part of me that was not ice was my face. The really annoying thing was that he kept casting even after I was fully frozen, just to make sure I could not break out.

He could have killed me right then. He did not. He was enjoying this too much. He stopped at exactly the distance he needed. Close enough to swing the Mooncleaver. Far enough that I could not reach him with Sleep Gas. Then he smiled, like a man who had won. I suppose he had.

"I have waited a long time for this, Dark Lord. To end you. To bring peace back to Lycora." The monologue. So heroes did this too? I was not sure. I could not remember off the top of my head whether any Hero ever stood over a beaten villain and yapped before the killing blow, but apparently the answer was yes in this world.

"And after this, the whole of Lycora will know me as the Hero. I will finally get the respect I am owed." That did not sound very heroic.

"I will claim my destiny. The chosen one. With all the wealth a man could ever want. And all the women." Did Heroes get a lot of money for defeating Dark Lords? Evelisse had looked… ordinary. And getting all the women? The longer he talked, the less heroic any of this sounded.

"And Evelisse," His smile sharpened.

"Evelisse will be mine." Oh. So this guy was not a hero at all. He was a douche all the way down. Just as I had pegged him. Then again, I was not exactly a saint either. Sorry, Evelisse. It seemed like the ones approaching you were all scumbags. You really did not deserve any of this. He looked me in the eye.

"What?" I said.

"If you're going to kill me, just kill me." I did not know why I said it. Maybe I had finally given up. Maybe watching Evelisse, the one I had bet everything on, the one whose feelings I had half-convinced myself were real, run out the door and leave me here had made me bitter. Probably the second one. Though, it dawned on me that I could probably cast Sensory Distortion to buy myself a few seconds to run.

"Oh, don't worry. I'll end you in about ten seconds." His grin widened.

"Just giving you a few seconds of mercy. One fellow Isekai'd human to another." … …Come again?