Crossroads

At the crossroads. Between highway one-forty and one-forty-nine, a man in long black pants, a long black trench coat, and a red gas mask, stood, staring deeply. His eye's hidden behind the dark midnight sky, as he pulled out a flashlight.

Click!

The entire crossroads was lit up, a flashlight beaming from one end to the other. He took off one of his red gloves and pointed at the center of the two colliding roads.

A small cut opened up on his fingertip.

Goop...

Slooosh...

Blood started pouring out and soaking into the asphalt road.

As the blood drained from his hand, the air around the puddle started to get musty. A cloud started to form.

Step...

Step...

From the cloud, a black figure appeared. Its body cracked and riddled with holes like a dead man walking. It stepped forward, red horns sticking out from its head, long red fingernails, a black cloak covering its body. Black on black, red on red, blood-soaked, deathly hollowed eyes, a devilish grin.

The Demon pointed at the man in the red gas mask and started speaking in a raspy smoked-out voice, "you... You are... You summoned me. You must be the human they talk about below. The only summoner of the devil's pact. The only Summoner Witch capable of reaching hell and bringing back the damned. The Demon Summoner Jango."

Jango held up a picture of Damon, "find this man."

"Getting right to the point I see. Very well then. Your blood sacrifice was succulent enough. I will tell you where this so-called Damon is." The Demon pointed to the south, "he is in Antarctica. Heading toward the South Pole."

Jango snapped his fingers, "Anaklisi."

The Demon disappeared into a puff of smoke.

---

The next morning. In the Antarctic South Pole.

Five hundred feet up, a cargo plane flew across the empty sea of snow and ice. Inside sat a metal box and two figures in white. They watched the box steadily and sternly, waiting to reach their destination.

"Olezka? Is following this guy's directions a good idea? We could be tricked. He is an Immortal."

"Don't worry sister. No Immortal going through that much pain would lie. If what he says is true, then there should be a weapon strong enough to defeat the Burn Witches and even the Immortal Horses."

Creeeeeek...

The back of the cargo plains slowly opened up.

A cold breeze entered the aircraft as it opened up to the ceiling ice frontier. Lada pulled up a feathered jacket. Olezka just sat stiff, his body not cold in the slightest, not fazed my a single drop-in temperature.

"Brother, aren't you cold?" asked Lada, handing him a second jacket.

"No, I'm good. The cold doesn't affect me anymore. And it shouldn't affect you either Lada."

"Well, I'm not a crazy psychopath that takes cold showers every morning. I'm a normal person."

"You mean a normal person with the ability to create ice from thin air."

"True. But unlike you, I'm a long-range user, so my magic isn't coming straight from my body."

Olezka pulled leaned forward worried.

"You should train more though. I worry for you. One day you'll get killed. The world is dangerous out there. Witches fighting Witches. Demons, devils, monsters. It's a dangerous world."

Lada tapped him on the chest, smiling, "I don't have to worry, because I have you."

---

Five minutes later. They reached the center of Antarctica, the South Pole.

"We're almost over the US base. It's time to drop brother."

Olezka got up and walked over to Damon's metal box.

Tap-tap.

He tapped on it waking Damon up.

"You alive in there?" he asked.

Damon sat up, his flames raging against his skin, "yes..."

"Good, cause we're gonna drop you out of the plane. You think you'll be able to survive a fall from ten thousand feet?"

"I've fallen further..."

"Good-good."

Olezka pressed a button connected to two tight ropes connected to the metal box.

"Well good luck."

The box was pulled across the plane, scratching across the metal floor.

Screeeeaaach...

It stopped at the edge.

Fwoop.

The metal box flipped out the plane. It spun in circles across the open air. The cold pressing against it, freezing it, Damon heating back up, heating his metal cage. Back and forth, flipping. Damon was propelled up and down, broken bones, limps, bruises. He was smashed into every corner, into every frame, every wall.

At about the one hundred feet mark.

Pop!

The box exploded outward. Its six walled frames propelling outward in every direction across the sky. Damon was freed into the open air. But he was still falling.

Fifty, forty, thirty, twenty, ten-

Poooooof...

He landed in a pile of snow and ice. His body cut up, sliced apart, broken bones, mushed skin.

---

Three minutes later.

"You ok there Damon?"

Olezka landed with a parachute. He stood ten feet away from Damon's naked, blue-flaming, body.

Lada landed behind Olezka while pulling out a map. Damon sat up, he looked at his bloody ashy remains, the large puddle where he sat.

"So even after falling this far you still cling to life?" asked Olezka.

Damon looked at his flaming hand, "this curse won't let me die. But these flames. They won't give up either."

Lada looked up from the map, "you know they say when Icarus flew too close to the sun, God cast him down with the eternal flame."

Damon corrected her story, "but Icarus drowned after falling from the sky."

"In our library, we have a book that talks about it. The Burn Witches probably have one more in detail. But it says that when he flew too close to the sun. God became so enraged by Icarus's cockiness that he cast the eternal flames on him as a punishment. But when he cast the flames Icarus's wings burned up and he fell. He fell with his body burning. A blue flame cast across his skin. He then fell into the ocean. And burned for all of eternity down at the bottom of the sea. Why do you think the ocean is blue?"

"But science proves that wrong?"

Lada turned away, "it's just a story, Damon. Not everything in the Bible is true."

---

They walked for an hour, across the empty white landscape. Lada and Olezka led the way as Damon dragged behind, creating a wave of melted ice with every step.

"We're here. The South Pole."

They looked at a small pole sticking out from the ice. Damon sat back with his naked flaming body melting the ice around him. He looked across the horizons, the empty neverending landscape of ice and snow. He looked at the building across from him, he looked in the windows, the staring faces.

"This is the US Base?" asked Damon as he stood up.

"Olezka it seems we got company," pointed Lada.

Three scientists slowly marched outside their facility, each one dressed in heavy coats and wearing large goggled masks.

"Who are you?!" screamed one of them as they pointed a gun at Damon's flaming head.

Olezka walked up, his hands held out.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion, but my name is Olezka Morozov. You have probably heard my name before?"

"Morozov...? The Morozov Family?"

"Yes. I have come here looking for something. Do you know about any witch hut's nearby?"

"A witch hut...? Ummm... No..."

They all turned to each other, puzzled not only by this odd question but also by the burning man in front of them.

"It isn't a hut... But, more of an anomaly. But first, who is this... Flaming man?"

Olezka turned around, "oh him. That's a friend of mine. He's... Well I won't get into the detail, but his body has been cursed with an eternal flame and he needs to get it treated."

"An eternal flame?"

"Yes. He is dangerous. I wouldn't get close to him if I were you. One piece of ash and you'll be toast."

"Ahh... I see..."

The three scientists slowly stepped back in fear of Damon.

"Now tell me about the anomaly," pursued Olezka.

"The... The Anomoly. We uncovered it about fifty years ago. It's got a hut-like shape, but it isn't a hut or a house. It's... It's cast in a thick layer of unbreakable and unmeltable ice. We can take you there..." He looked at the burning Damon, "but you can walk."

"Lada you up for some more walking?"

"Yeah."

---

Lada led the way. She followed the directions the scientists gave her.

And after two hours, they eventually reached their destination.

A mountain of clear ice. It was in the shape of a hut, but it wasn't a hut. It was like a diamond, a clear cut, unmelting, unchanging, building of ice.

"That's the hut?" questioned Damon as he walked up to the ice.

It was immaculate to the touch. And in the center of it was a sword. A sword made of ice.

Olezka touched its glossy edge. He felt the cold. It's freezing edges. Colder than anything he had ever touched before.

"The hut's materials must have decomposed of the hundreds of years. And all that was left was this ice in the shape of it."

"Brother... This ice..."

"I know..."

"Is this really it?"

"Yes, it's perfect in every way. Every single line, every single freeze. Like a thousand snowflakes that all look the same. It's impossible to exist." He turned to Damon, "But so is he."

"What is this ice?" asked Damon as he stuck out his blue flaming hand.

"Back in my family, it was just a myth. Only able to be used by those determined. We called it the perfect ice."

Damon touched the perfect ice. The eternal flames fought against the freezing cold. One against the other.

Olezka smirked, "and just like I thought. Two of the most powerful magics going at it. The Perfect Ice vs the Eternal Flame. Who will win?"