Of Ice, Death & Monsters-Chapter 50 : And The Burning Embers

My body froze up as I began to glow. The same thing happened to Carey, Henry, Mollie, and even Derek and Topher, who were just about to reach the river. I had to comply; Rook was a Mage, and I signed that contract. Hell, it was doubly so since Robert also signed it.
I had no choice at all as I felt myself walk towards the ongoing battle in the distance, my right arm growing out into an arm blade as the order coursed through me.
‘Why?’
‘Why would killing her do anything?’
‘What happened to her?’
‘What is with all the flames?!’
‘What does she have to do with Koschei?’
Andrei, Bartholomew, quite literally every other voice except Robert was trying to push me somewhere else, but with me at the helm, I couldn't quite do that.
My mind was all over the place. I was so confused that I just allowed my body to move forward, trying to figure out what was going on as I continued to get even more confounded once I saw who she was fighting.
“M-Marian?” I took another step forward, this time of my own volition, as I was utterly confused by the sight of the wolf girl glowing with a green gold aura as she was jumping all over the place faster than I could even track.
One of the Magi of Ephitet. She was on the news when her husband, Adrian, was left in a vegetative state after a Choir attack. Was that the reason she was trying to kill Jane? I really wished that was my only problem right now, as Andrei was trying to steer me towards Koschei like a child pulling onto his father's sleeves while Robert and I were headed towards Jane.
“Burn! Burn you bitch!” Jane screamed out as she held out her hand, shooting out what I could only describe as a laser that actually began to carve into the field, actively destroying the ground with utter ease.
However, Marian kept on dodging through the laser, sliding under it before lunging at Jane, who readied up a flaming uppercut right into her chin, sending her flying back into the mountainside.
It was clear to see that Marian was outmatched and that she was going to lose. But would we actually make a difference? She was out there firing death lasers for some reason, and what do we have? Guns? Is that it? I haven’t seen a gun out here make any difference at all.
“J-Jane!” I called out.
“Wait… That voice…” Jane turned around and saw all of us approaching.
“P-Peter?! The fuck are you doing out here? And you’re alive too? Damn, didn’t think you would make it that far-”
Her eyes widened in confusion as she saw Henry, Mollie, Topher, and Derek all raise their pistols and aim at her. However, her real wonder was on two specific people whom I saw by the corner of my eye.
One of them was Charlie, who seemed to be the most shaken, raising up her pistol as she couldn’t make eye contact with Jane. The other one, well, I think I saw her every once in a while back in Ephitet’s base, but other than that, I’m not exactly sure.
However, she seemed much more active and yelled out. “Jay! We’re being controlled under contract to kill you! Rook’s right there!” She gestured towards the distance, and she raised her fists as if about to box against someone who could probably incinerate us all with a thought.
“Thanks, Samantha, ugh, that slimy little-” Before she could curse him out, Marian leapt once more towards her, grabbing Jane by the throat, pummeling her towards the ground.
Jane was about to counterattack, but vines erupted out of the ground, wrapping around her lower body as I turned and saw Carey using her spell to summon them.
I wanted to scream to stop it, but we’ve been ordered to kill, and so here we are. My duty was to follow orders, to ensure that my superior’s commands were met. So by their words, by right arm blade grew, sharpening with each second as I ran into the midsts, ready to strike.
But I was horrifically unprepared for what was about to happen next.
Even while Marian was reaching her claws into Jane, trying to rip the girl apart as she was tied down, Jane managed to counterattack, grabbing at the vines, incinerating them back to spiritual sludge before her leg caught on fire, kicking Marian off of her and into both Derek and Topher at the same time, knocking them away.
She turned to where Rook was, looking like she was about to attack, when I rushed in, thrusting my arm blade into her gut. Yet, she was able to catch it with both hands, shocked. “What the fuck? Where did you get this?! When did you get this?”
“Long story.” I tried to relieve the tension with a grin. “How about you? When did you get the fire powers?”
I grabbed the Teni from my chest, trying to slam it into her face, but she pushed me away and punched the shadowy blom out of my hand with her flames. Immediately, I felt an intense pain surge through my body, as if my very being was being liquified all at once. I recoiled in sheer agony, taking a knee and looking up at Jane in surprise.
“S-Sorry, are you okay-” But before I could answer, several clicking noises were heard. Charlie and Mollie were trying to fire at Jane, but nothing came out.
“Ugh! What the fuck? Is this thing jammed?” Mollie tried to cock it before firing again to no avail, but I shook my head.
“You can’t move anything here unless you yourself have the will to move it. So if you don’t want to kill her, you can’t at all.”
At that, Jane grinned. “Aww, I’m flattered, thanks ,girls-”
Bang
A gunshot was fired as Jane doubled over, clutching her stomach as her eyes went wide, wincing in pain.
Bang
Another one went off as Jane took a knee, looking around in confusion before her eyes met Henry, holding a pistol, staring back directly with a determined look upon his face.
She was about to fire off a blast of fire at him, but Samantha ran up and tackled her down. She couldn’t kill her, but she was forced to help kill her.
Vines wrapped their way around the both of them as Carey turned to Mollie, lunging at her for her gun, while I found myself growing giant, pushing my finger on her body to hold her down.
Amidst all the chaos, Marian finally rose back up, fury in her eyes as she looked around, confused. “What are you all doing here?! It’s between me and her! I order you all to stand down!”
Without question, every single one of us stopped moving. I sighed in relief momentarily, but knew this was just the calm before the oncoming storm, as when we all stood down, Jane pushed us all away, burning the vines as she laughed at Marian.
“Aww, thanks bitch. Glad to know you like to settle things personally, too!”
Marian got on all fours, grinning ear to ear. “I want to make sure the only one that gets to kill you is me!”
“Glad we see eye to eye on-”
“Stop! Are you absolutely insane?!”
We all turned to find Rook, Mathias, and Godwin walking towards us. The former of them was shaking with rage.
“This isn’t the time for us to satisfy some personal vendetta! If we kill her, the Caretaker has promised to send us back home! That was the deal. Now that the crazy man has said that if this continues, she will win. I am not going to risk it all on some idiotic revenge fantasy-”
A massive flaming blast came forth Rook's way. It was not one he was able to react in time, but one that Godwin was able to as he tackled him to the ground before he was evaporated.
“Kill her! Kill her now!” Rook shouted out as he flailed below Godwin.
“No! Stand down!”
“Kill her!”
“Stand down!”
My body kept on pivoting around. I felt like I was being forced to dance on stage as the conflicting orders started to take a toll on my body, unable to know what to do, what not to do, and so on and so forth.
The River Smorodina began to gurgle a little bit as flames started to shoot off from Jane’s body. I heard a deluge of voices that bombarded my mind; they started to whisper angrily.
'Kill the beast...'
'Save us all...'
'Where's my mommy...'
'I want to go home...'
"We need to find a way out...'
They were like the voices in my own head, only more distant. They were filled with the dead and the damned, those lost in the Thousand Night War, or those lost in the expeditions that came their way here only to be swallowed up by the frost, flame, or monsters. Jane's powers were enflaming them hard.
A sneer grew on her face as she yelled out in frustration. “I cannot take it anymore! Your contracts have been the death of so many! I refuse it to be the deaths of those I care for here as well!”
She raised her hand into the sky, pointing to the heavens themselves.
“I am the Chosen of the Harbinger of Freedom! And that is what I shall grant all of you!”
With blazing speed, Jane twirled around, slapping Samantha right on the chest, engulfing her in flames. Yet she didn’t scream; in fact, she sighed in relief as she fell on her knees, her whole body glowing as we all saw a golden chain around her body burn away. “The Contract… It’s gone…”
Marian looked on in wonder and confusion as she stared, gobsmacked at what was in front of her. But her reaction is surpassed by Rook, who pointed a finger at Jane, making incomprehensible noises at her as if he were some kind of parrot.
Even I couldn’t really believe it myself. What just happened here? How did Jane manage to pull that off? Contracts were made binding to your existence, to who you were as a person, and could only be annulled if both parties agreed to annul it or if the binding contract itself was destroyed.
But I remembered that searing pain when she nearly fried my hand off. Her flames literally caused my soul to feel like it was falling apart. Her fire could
literally
attack my existence. She burned away the Contract that bound Samanth.
“Hehe, let me show you what a light show looks like!”
Jane spread out her hands as she let out a massive plume of flames, spinning around like a turbine. Marian managed to duck and roll out of the way, but we weren’t so lucky; the fire completely slammed into all of us as we were once more bathed in flames.
Yet, instead of the searing pain I felt beforehand, I only felt relief as if a chain around my neck had fallen away, releasing me from its grasp. I fell to my knees as Robert’s and my own Contract fizzled away. I looked around and saw the same happening to each one that were hit with the flames.
“You are free now! All of you! The chains have been loosened, and the cage has fallen!” Jane’s voice doubled, as if she were speaking through a faulty microphone. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there was just something so off.
‘Finally. Let’s go deal with that bastard.’
Andrei's voice echoed in my head once more. Now that the Contract situation was over, I had to deal with another metaphorical chain around my body. At least it’s against someone who wasn’t held hostage by a super arcanocracy.
But could he really leave Jane here alone? Or rather, could he leave the others here alone? Carey seemed determined, and Henry, well, he had enough will to shoot Jane and injure her; some of these guys needed to get to safety as soon as possible.
I turned towards the others, but I must have zoned out a lot because it was a complete shit show:
While Marian and Jane were duking it out, I saw Charlie and Henry stare down at each other while Samantha and Carey were wrestling on the ground for some reason. Derek and Topher were scrambling to the river, and I began to overhear Godwin, Matthias, and Rook argue with each other.
The voices in my mind echoed against the cavern of my head, a cacophony that never seemed to end, and yet one I'm forced to endure for now.
“What the fuck am I supposed to do…”