Chapter 43: Zero

The chain flying above the cursed spirit came crashing down, the hot metal melting the falling snow. The chain violently slammed into the snowy ground narrowly missing the dashing back cursed spirit. Mute stares at the cursed spirit until all around him suddenly flashes bright white. Mute squints at the light, until it fades and a black barrier forms around him and the cursed spirit. 

The cursed spirit grins wildly as a white crown forms, dangling from one of his antlers. The crown was pure white except for three gemstones. The gemstones were red, blue, and yellow. In the middle of the crown was an empty hole, like a gemstone was missing.

" You have put up a good fight for a mere sorcerer, but it's over. "

Said the spirit in a hoarse voice. The ground starts to tremble as the snow on the ground melts. Mute stares at his feet standing on dead grass until a shiver runs across his body. Mute looks forward and watches as majestic light blue ice towers form in a long rectangle, four ice walls with thousands of engravings connected to the tower, forming a beautiful ice palace that the cursed spirit stands on top of with his arms crossed. 

The cursed spirit stares at Mute with a grin on his face until he slowly unravels his arms and presses his thumbs and pinkies together. Goosebumps cover Mute's body as he tightly grips his chain before whipping it towards the cursed spirit. The chain inches closer to the palace until the blue gem on the crown slides into the empty hole in the crown becoming the main gem in the crown. 

Mute seeing that he is running out of time, starts to shrink the distance between the cursed spirit and chain before his eyes suddenly widen. Mute can't use his cursed technique near the ice palace. Sensing something is wrong, Mute quickly uses his technique on his body.

Mute eyes track the whip swinging through the air. The whip glows a hot orange until suddenly the chain cools, turning gray.

The whip's momentum slows until it freezes in the air becoming motionless. The atoms in the air have frozen. Mute's cursed energy starts to rapidly drain as his technique starts to constantly fend itself off from an invisible attack, 

Mute looks up at the cursed spirit holding his fingers together until he talks in a deep voice with a look of disappointment on his face. 

" Cursed technique: Absolute Zero "

The air has frozen making it impossible for Mute to move. The cursed spirit smacks his lips annoyed before he brings back his hands, letting his arms drop to his waist. The cursed spirit technique "Absolute Zero" is meant to kill the target in a flash, if the target manages to fend off the technique's coldness. It makes it so that the cursed spirit and the target are unable to move. 

The blue gemstone slides back to its original place. The cursed technique diminishes before a freezing breeze blows through Mute's hair. The frozen chain in the air falls to the ground.

The cursed spirit glares down at Mute with both of his hands twitching. He is clearly on the border of trying something. After a few seconds of pondering eventually, the spirit smacks his palms together, as the yellow gems slide into the front of the crown. 

Mute eyes widen before a sharp pain engulfs the right side of his neck. He raises his right arm and holds his neck feeling blood gushing out. All around Mute's body slashes cover his body. The yellow gemstone is a can't-miss attack. Several knife daggers appear right at Mute's skin cutting his skin and causing blood to spew out. Mute quickly raises his two hands out in front of him as his cursed energy swells, leaking off his body. 

Before the ice daggers could reach Mute's skin, Mute's cursed energy destroyed them. The technique Mute is using is "Falling Blossom Emotion" a technique taught to him by his sister. The ice daggers continue to shatter all around Mute until they cease. Mute glances up at the cursed spirit standing on the ice palace. He takes a deep breath before talking.

" Well, count me surprised. You're the second person to fend off two of my gemstones. Alright, I guess I should explain my domain to you. It's quite simple. The domain increases my speed and strength, but the main thing about my domain is the gemstones in my crown. When one of the gemstones becomes the main, I get to use a different powerful technique. I would explain the red gemstone to you but... "

As soon as the spirit is about to finish his sentence five massive ice sickles appear floating above him. They start to spin in the air slowly gaining more momentum.

" I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. "

The five ice sickles shoot forward causing five massive sonic booms to ripple out, Mute's eyes widen as the ice sickles shoot towards him, Mute twists his body as the chain lying on the dead grass turns orange, he whips the chain up and destroys the sickles. Ice fragments start to fall from the sky. Mute glares under one of the ice fragments and stares at the cursed spirit standing on the ice palace with his arms crossed. 

The ice fragments fall covering the cursed spirit, blocking Mute's vision. Mute stares at the ice fragments blocking his vision until his eyes widen seeing that the spirit has disappeared. Mute spins around but it's too late. A pale leg slams into his nose launching him into the air.

Mute bounces off the wet dead grass until he twirls in the air and whips his chain toward the spirit. The spirit stares at the chain coming at him before he taps his right foot on the ground creating a massive ice wall that blocks the attack. 

The ice wall starts to crack as the hot chain melts the ice until it crumbles, falling onto the ground. Mute comes charging leaping over the broken ice wall and wildly swinging his chain towards the spirit. The spirit leans his head back with a grin on his face as the chain grazes his chin burning his pale skin. 

Mute and spirit exchange blows until the spirit spins throwing a kick that slams into Mute's chin making him stumble back. While stumbling back the spirit's antlers start glowing bright blue. The antlers fire bright blue slashes towards Mute in an X shape. Mute stares at the slashes approaching him until he freezes them in the air using his technique. While the slashes are motionless, the sound of heavy footsteps ripples out as the cursed spirit runs under the slashes before headbutting Mute in the chest using his antlers.

Mute's feet start to slide across the ground as he drops his chain on the ground. Mute reaches out and grabs onto the spirit's right antler before he reaches towards the crown on the spirit's left antler. His middle finger taps the crown before his hand is shot back with a rippling pain in his arm. Mute stares at his middle finger being badly burned.

While Mute stared at his burnt finger until he felt his balance shift. Mute's left leg slips on the soaked dead grass. Mute slips onto one knee while holding onto the spirit's right antler. The spirit raises his head pulling Mute's hand off his antlers. The spirit laughs maniacally while throwing a knee, the knee approaches Mute until it freezes, Mute stares at the spirit's pale knee until something slams into the right side of his face.

Mute stares at fragments of bloody ice going flying past his face as his head is flung to the left. Mute almost falls to the ground before he catches himself with his left hand. Mute glances up before the spirit spins slamming his heel into Mute's bloody face. 

Mute is launched to the side, his body sliding across the ground. While sliding across the ground Mute notices that the yellow gemstone has appeared in the middle of the crown. Mute contorts his body making his back slide across the wet ground. Mute raises his hand in front of him making his cursed energy leak off his body. 

Several daggers appear next to Mute's skin before being destroyed by his cursed energy. Mute's back slides across the wet grass before violently slamming into a birch tree, making a loud bang. Mute takes a deep breath as sweat rolls down his face. The spirit stares at Mute lying against the tree before talking, while slowly walking forward. 

" Are you running out of tricks? Or d- "

While walking forward the tip of the spirit's right antler gets sliced off, catching him completely off guard. The spirit starts looking around before noticing hundreds of strings wrapped around birch trees surrounding him. The spirit will soon learn to never doubt an assassin's battle intelligence. The spirit stood shocked before talking.

" When did you put those- "

Before the spirit could finish his sentence, Mute shrunk the distance between him and the spirit and threw a powerful uppercut into his jaw launching him up into the air. Purple blood leaks out of the spirit's mouth as Mute spins throwing a kick into the spirit's side sending him flying towards a web of string.

The spirit's eyes widen seeing the web of strings. He creates an ice sword in his palm and slashes towards the web easily slicing through it. The spirit twirls and comes to a sliding stop with a grin on his face until the spirit feels his left arm get lighter. The spirit glances towards his left arm and watches it fall off, dropping onto the grass as purple blood pours out of his missing arm. 

The spirit looks forward at Mute who has an annoyed look on his face. The strings wrapped around the trees rapidly shrink and disappear. While battling the spirit, Mute has been slowly enlarging the strings setting up a sneak attack that would kill the spirit, but it has clearly failed. The strings wrap around Mute's forearm as he loudly exhales. 

The reason Mute is still using thin strings is quite simple. It's the cursed tool he has the most experience with. Mute is confident in his use of the strings, but he doesn't fully trust himself with other cursed tools such as the chain. Mute glares at the cursed spirit before his arm quickly regenerates 

Mute extends his hand to the left and shrinks the distance between his palm and the chain lying on the ground. The chain appears in his hand, and the spirit grins before the blue gem switches into the main gem slot. Mute uses his technique on his body as the air around him freezes. Mute and the spirit glare at each other until the spirit talks. 

" Looks like our first exchange has ended. I must congratulate you for lasting this long. "

As the spirit talked, Mute looked around before noticing pieces of ice surrounding him. Mute glanced at the pieces of ice before the spirit seized his cursed technique and several massive pillars of ice shot towards him from all directions. 

Mute takes a deep breath before stopping one of the pillars using his cursed technique. He then leaps onto the top of one of the pillars and starts to run up it. Mute ducks and leaps over the other pillars, dodging them before the spirit waves his hand and changes the direction of the pillars. The pillars turn around and hurl towards the Mute as he leaps into the air and the pillars come crashing towards him from all sides. 

Mute swings his chain destroying one of the pillars. The ice fragments spew out before Mute starts to leap from fragment to fragment narrowly dodging the pillars. Mute keeps jumping until he's over 50 feet in the air. An ice pillar comes crashing towards Mute before he rolls on top of the pillar as the spirit jumps onto the same pillar creating an ice blade and swinging it towards Mute.

Mute right-hand flickers as the chain and ice blade slam together. Sparks fly out before the ice blade snaps and the chain slams into the spirit's chest knocking him off the ice pillar. Mute twirls narrowly dodging another ice pillar. Before jumping onto an ice pillar.

The other pillars below him crash together destroying each other. Mute stares at the destroyed pillars below him slowly falling out of the sky until in the corner of his right eye, he sees a figure go flying past him. Mute looks up into the air and sees the spirit grinning wildly at him. 

The spirit is about to create an ice blade in his hand until the air around his body starts to warp and his body flickers reappearing next to Mute catching him off guard. Mute grabs the back of the spirit's head before slamming him through the pillar they're standing on. The spirit tightly grabs onto Mute's wrist as they fall through the air. 

Mute slams the spirit through the falling ice fragment until the spirit's body crashes into the ground creating a crater. Mute lets go of the spirit's head and towers over him before for the first time in 15 years, he talks. 

" I find it quite funny, that you love to congratulate someone, yet you can't even beat me in your domain, how truly pathetic. "...