Frost Bite

Aria sat on a mountain of dead terrorists. Their blood swirling across the ground, in puddles coating the floor. She looked at Luna, who held her new bloodied cleaver across her fingers.

"Anaklisi!" she chanted to herself.

Her cleaver fizzled out into diamond dust, disappearing from space.

"You just got rid of your cleaver?" asked Aria confused by Luna's switch op.

Luna looked at her hands, "I think I'm done fighting for now... All this pain... I don't want it anymore..."

Aria pulled out her phone. She looked at her texts.

"You are one confusing girl."

"I know..."

Aria red the message.

Message: [Congratulations on completing your first mission. You are now officially documented into the Hippoi Areioi. Meet at location xxx xxxx xx for orientation. No special requirements were met based on your perceived mission score.]

"It seems we completed our first mission. And now they want us to meet up for some orientation."

Luna pulled out her phone, "how did they know we killed them?"

Aria got up from the mountain of dead terrorists, "don't know, but it seems we somehow didn't meet a special requirement for the mission. And these enemies... They were tough."

"Aria, do you also feel like something fishy is going on here?"

"Yeah... I was thinking this before, but I think these tests aren't actually meant to thin out the crowds and find the chosen one. I think they're for something else, for an ulterior motive..."

"Will Damon be ok?" concerned Luna.

"Yeah yeah, he'll survive. There's no need to worry about him. Honestly, he's probably already made it to orientation. But what I'm more worried about is us."

---

Back in Dimitri's penthouse.

"Huh?"

Demitri looked across the room. He looked back at Damon.

"Don't huh me... I know you're an imposter... Of course your not Demophon. Why would Demophon come here, unless he would want me to kill him?"

Demitri sipped his martini while walking horizontal the elevator and Damon. He stopped and sat down on his white couch that stared straight at his flatscreen tv that hung up on an immaculate white wall.

Damon followed and stopped right in front of the couch, blocking the tv.

"I'm confused... How do you know about me?"

"What do you mean, me?" He acted like Damon wasn't even a threat to him, "listen here, buddy... I wanna know where you heard that name from..." He held out his hand, "I know it's not a big deal. Your probably just another recruit they're sending after me as fodder. Your probably just another weak guy from the Immortal Horses. Hungry on info, trying to kill me. Blah blah blah. They probably asked you to do it right? Well... Let me just fill you in, it's all a lie. They're just sending you off to die. But it's fine, it's fine, you know, I won't take that personally, but but but... Using that name... That's inexcusable."

He pointed at Damon.

Damon sat on the floor confused. His questions increasing with every word this man uttered. He needed to know more, he needed something concrete. But he also needed to kill this man, he needed to... Did he? Did he? Did he?

"Wait!"

Damon turned around, he looked at all the open space, at the kitchen, the windows, the doors leading to rooms, to bathrooms, to the elevator, he turned to the invisible Bryan.

"Bryan come on out."

Bryan leaned over whispering into his ear, "what are you saying? That's gonna blow our cover."

"Just do it."

"But...?"

"Just do it!"

Snap!

Dark Spell: [Cloak Release]

Bryan released his invisibility as Demitri smirked.

"So there's the second one," he said pointing.

Bryan jumped back stunned, "wait, old dude, you knew I was here the whole time?"

"I have cameras across this whole building. I saw you in the elevator."

"Shit! He saw me! I blame you, Damon!"

Damon sighed. He stood up cracking his neck.

"Uhhhgg... I hate having to do extra work... But you know something about me that I don't. And I know everything about me."

Demitri leaned back on his couch while taking another sip of his martini, "sorry bud, but I can't tell you about Demophon... But then again I am curious... Curious how you found that name to begin with."

Damon slowly turned to Bryan.

"Damon what should we-"

Smack!

Thump...

He hit Bryan on the back of the neck, knocking him out in an instant and sending him flying to the carpeted floor below.

Demitri smirked, "oh... Interesting? You wanna fight?"

Damon stepped forward, his hands pointed out into fists. He readied himself for-

Ice Spell: [Icicle Spear]

Slink!

Demitri pointed out his finger. A single long sliver of ice shot out from it, creating a long pointed cylinder piercing right through Damon's forehead. Blood flowing out along the cylindrical icicle.

Demitri stood up tossing his martini away. He broke the icicle from his fingertip and pushed Damon to the floor below.

Thump...

"Sorry, bud, but you didn't stand a chance. In the world of Witches whoever strikes first wins."

He walked across the room and felt a short sting in his fingertip. His fingernail was missing.

"Like always... A price to pay for power..."

He looked out over the city. The world before him. He thought about all the problems. The racism. The sexism. The hate. The bigotry. He thought about the way to solve them, but nothing came to mind. Nothing but one. The only way to get close to that goal, to save the world from its pitiful end.

"Those Immortal Horses... When will they learn...? For every treaty, for every word of peace they make. It's all a lie. A facade for a greater goal. Using the young. Killing them, sacrificing them for power. The Immortal Horses will feel what they sew. The pain and misery. The death and destruction-"

Thump...

Dimitri turned around.

"Keep going. I want to hear more about the Immortal Horses," said Damon, the small hole in his forehead healed.

"Wha- But... I get it... You're not some rookie, not a weakling. Your from the Immortal Army, an Immortal." Dimitri held out his two hands, all his fingers pointed toward Damon, "but I don't understand your plan... Comming in here. Asking these questions. But I guess that doesn't matter. You're an Immortal and all Immortals must die. And the fact you know of Demophon means you are a higher rank in the Immortal Horses."

Damon looked down at the unconscious Bryan, he looked back at the angry Dimitri. He sighed.

"Just get it over with."

Ice Spell: [Icicle Burst]

Slink-slink-slink-slink!

Four ice pillars shot across the sky, each one piercing one of Damon's limbs, immobilizing him.

Dimitri snapped them from his fingertips.

Four fingernails missing.

He walked up angrily.

"This is for all the innocents you killed!"

Ice Spell: [Ice Blade]

He held out his hand, an ice blade forming from his elbow to his fingertips. He swung with all his force.

Slice!

Damon's head went flying.

"Huf Huf Huf... God... You Immortals... You take so much to kill. It just exhausts me."

He walked over to pick up Damon's head-

Sloooosh!

"Come on man, just get it over with," said Damon, his whole naked body regenerated in a matter of seconds.

"You! But... No Immortal can regenerate that fast! You have to be... Your!"

"What? I'm a what? My name is Demophon. I've lived for seven hundred years.. But, but... I'm not all that special. I'm just... It's just... All pain."

Damon looked at his palm, his naked body, the blood rushing down his kneck, his new skin, his immortal body.

"Uhhhggg," He looked up at Dimitri with a sad exhale, "can you just do it already. Use all your anger on me... All of it! I don't want to interrogate some adrenaline high old guy."

"Interrogate... You... You... You! Fucking Immortals!"

Dimitri held out his whole right arm. He closed his eyes. It slowly started to disintegrate, his skin pealing, his hair burning, his body fizzling to dust.

"I'll kill you motherfucker!" he screamed.

Ice Spell: [Freeze Burst]

---

Suddenly the world went to black. All Damon could feel was the freezing cold. But at the same time, all he could feel was his warm body heat never-ending. The ice never-ending, never stopping, melting, regrowing. He felt Dimitri's power overflowing, trying to overpower his regeneration. But it never ended. Never stopped. His immortality never stopped.

Ice Spell: [Snow Scape]

Ice Spell: [Freeze Burst]

Ice Spell: [Cold Storm]

Ice Spell: [Chilled Freeze]

The ice stopped.

Thump!

Dimitri fell forward. Both his arms and legs missing. His whole body bleeding from skin to bone, nothing was left. His red leathered muscles protruding in pain, as he agonizingly tried to use up his ice powers, but with every sacrifice, with every push, with everything he had, nothing was enough.

Minutes would pass and Damon would come back from ice, his body would come back from a single limb, a single flap of skin, a single drop of blood, a single strand of hair. He could never die.

"Why..." Dimitri tried to speak, but his body was too far gone, too destroyed.

Damon cracked his neck, his naked chilled body standing, surrounded by layers of frostbite.

The whole room was covered in ice. Bryan was frozen like a popsicle. The couch, the tv, the walls, the doors, the windows, it was a winter wonderland. Icicles on the ceiling, pillars of spikes, blood on every single one, all pointed at Damon, all destroyed. All destroyed but Damon, all but Damon. All the blood. Pouring from the muscle fibers and torn skin of Dimitri, his soul not able to compensate for the ice he was producing. All his organs were missing. All his life was missing...

"That's so sad..."

Damon squatted down, his crotch in Dimitri's face, he picked him up by his bloodied head. he tapped him on the face.

"Hey? Can you still hear me?"

Dimitri started to cry, his life flashing before his eyes, and all he could hear was the soft ringing of his paradise.

"I guess you can't."

Damon tossed him across the room, his nubby body sliding across the ice and snow, smacking right into the hard concrete wall.

---

Half an hour later.

On the park bench. Damon sat in a new fancy grey suit that he stole from Dimitri. And next to him sat the chilled Bryan, his whole body purple and covered in icicles.

"Di-di-did... W-w-we! Ki-ki-kill. Hi-him?" he asked while looking at his new dripped-out partner.

"Ah... Yeah... I got the sneak attack on him, and you... You took a hit for me," lied Damon.

Bryan tried to recollect his memories, but everything was frozen shut, like a forever brain freeze.