Red Water

"I'll fight you all here... but on one condition. You let them pass. You let them escape this dangerous landscape, and I will fight you all. If you win, I will kill myself so you don't have to corrupt your damn system. Please, let them go." I told them.

I didn't have any intention of doing either of those things, but getting them off of this ice sheet when I know one of them can drop the ice is the most important thing to me right now.

"We cannot contribute to a death inflicted by another White Stone. It's our rules... however, you know what I've been thinking, Corrupt Stone? You aren't really one of us. You're an outsider... but you know who's even further apart than you from us? It's your friends. It would be a damn shame if the ice collapsed underneath your friends and they drowned..." Demos teased.

"Take this as a blessing. I'll end your suffering. You won't have to suffer through this life anymore, losing your friends, losing your Stone, it will be over in an instant- GAH! UGH!" Demos tried to threaten us again, but I took action.

I slid my sword out of his chest and flicked the blood onto the ice. Killing Raven felt nothing like this… the sword simply slipped out of his chest with no struggle once I passed his ribcage. The blood spurted out on the floor, and he collapsed.

"YOU MURDERER!" Zeal yelled out, running over to me. He unsheathed his strange whip made of blades and readied to hit me with it. My own blood has been leaking out onto the ice for a while now, enough to make me light-headed. It felt like I needed to sleep.

"I wouldn't hit me again… you might corrupt your precious system, Zeal." I couldn't help but smile, realizing this might actually be it. I might genuinely die here from this blood loss.

Zeal quickly ran over and slid into Demos, picking him up and running away with him in the opposite direction.

"You'll be okay. We have Ruby back on Earth, I'll take you there." Zeal told Demos. Demos held his chest and nodded, running off of the ice sheet on Zeal's shoulder.

"Well well! I see things have gotten interesting without me… how are you, Zeal? Orion?" Another voice said. Finally, the final White Stone I've yet to meet came from the forest off to the right. Now, everybody was here. Then this was it, where everybody came to kill me?

"You can't give the kid a break, Zeal? I'm sure stabbing somebody in the chest must've been traumatizing for him." The Final Stone said.

"He's corrupted his system; he's killed somebody before!" Zeal shouted out. He threw his hand to the side, getting physical in his argument.

"I wonder how hard it is to think about what lengths he was pushed to. You know, I heard from my friend that he was hunted based on their master's orders…" I turned to the Final Stone, confused about what he meant by 'friend'

Could it be...?

"Hey! Do you mean Dante?! Lia?! TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!!!" I yelled at him, but he only raised his hand up to silence me nonchalantly.

"That's enough Sky, it's time you learn to forgive. I could come there and kill you if I wanted to, I'm the only stone here permitted to kill you with my own hands, actually." He told me. I paused, silencing myself.

"We're leaving, I don't have time for this… damn you Corrupt Stone… you won't survive our next encounter, I'll get special permission from the Deity to kill you myself!" Zeal told me.

Deity?

Zeal ran off with Demos in the opposite direction, leaving with me Elo on the edge of the ice sheet.

"Well, Sky, what will you do? Will you kill Orion, standing over there, will you hunt Lia?" The final White Stone asked me.

I didn't know what to do. My mind was teetering between wanting to kill and wanting to escape from here. Like an itch in my head, it forced me to stand in place.

"So, you're going to kill me next, I take it?" I stood with my head facing the ice. I couldn't raise it from this position. The crystal clear ice reformed in the holes Demos opened up was the only thing I could see, fish swimming slightly around the edge of the circle, staying hidden from the eyes above.

The world around me was blurred, I couldn't lift my head from the ice. Then, from the left, I could hear screaming from my group.

"SKY!"

Dani's prominent voice shook me out of my stunned state. I analyzed the situation, and it seemed like there was a tiny circle of ice that opened up around one of my best friends.

Red fell into the ice-cold water, using her oxygen to beg for help in the form of bubbles raising to the surface. I turned to Demos before doing anything else, and as he held his chest being carried by Zeal, he smiled.

He... smiled...

I broke gazes and ran over to Red as fast as possible, looking down deep into the hole. My lack of depth perception caused me to misjudge her depth in the water. I instinctively jumped in the hole and reached for Red. Above all else, I will not let her die!

I swam deeper and deeper, ignoring the freezing cold temperatures claiming my body's heat. She was opening her mouth as if she was talking, but I couldn't hear any words. Not until the bubbles rose up next to me. Small fragments of the words leaving her mouth made certain, distinct sounds.

See-See-Li-A

Lia? What about her? Was she telling me to forgive that girl too?! I reached out to her arm, and just as we were about to connect, I saw the same old animal, with the scar on his snout, slowly crawl up towards Red.

My vision went Red, fear enveloped my entire body and my arm shot back out of instinct. But it was far too late. In the process of swallowing Red whole, the animal took a swift bite of my right arm, up to my elbow. Blood poured from my new wound and my eyes were stuck open.

"GET UP HERE! BOSSMAN!" Ullr shouted out. He grabbed my collar from above the ice and threw me out of the water, five feet in the air, landing me on my stomach.

"Sky!" Dani ran over to me, but before she could make it, ice collapsed underneath her.