Magical Girl City: Empire of Ice

Time continued to flow, the spars with Liu Lian picked up in pace. Her growth, prodigious. Watching her, seeing her adapt and change on the fly was inspiring… well, would have been if it didn’t just make me all the more frustrated. All it really did in the end was further prove just how untalented I was.

Within a few days I was already using my full power, barring my uniform, to keep up with her. After that, I was reduced to little more than a training dummy waiting to get beat on. She constantly adapted, and every time I got her measure, she’d change up the tune.

In a way, it felt like I was fighting Éclair again, though, Éclair was on a completely different plane comparatively. Éclair was, unreachable, or so it felt. I couldn’t even begin to understand where her limits lie, whereas with Liu Lian…

I could see her limits. I could also see her breaking through them, day by day. Which is why, it wasn’t too surprising when by the end of the week, I was more or less done sparring with her.

Now, today, I was supposed to be meeting with the clan leader. I’ve made preparations for this moment. Joan provided surprising insight, showing that she wasn’t as naïve as she appeared to be. As for Morrigan, her little crows were helpful information gatherers as well.

Which is why, I made sure to take stock of my weapons, weapons not of a physical variety, but of a verbal kind. After all, I knew exactly why he was calling me in. A messenger had arrived from the provincial capital.

Which meant, the meeting today wasn’t just important. It was imperative that it go well. Especially since we had started on the back foot. With him not only being aware of our existence, but also of our purpose.

Dressed up in my best, I presented myself before Liu Chou. After a short, brief exchange of pleasantries we were at it.

With only a table between us, laden with treats with cups of tea before us, we began.

It started subtle. A back and forth of how each of us were doing, how I was fitting in, so on so forth. I countered by asking how he was doing, using some of the information Morrigan and Joan had given me to showcase my knowledge. He in turn did much the same, talking about our activities over the period of time, including the books I had read from the archives.

It was almost like a verbal dance. A duel, only, not with rapiers, but with pointed words. Each seeking a point, or a touché. Neither of us lost or gained, showing our skills, though…

It was clear that the clan leader was just going easy on me. He likely had an arsenal ready to strike, something capable of ripping into my throat at a moment’s notice.

No matter how I tried to goad him into speaking up, the man was like a turtle. Impenetrable, only poking his head out as a show of weakness. When in reality, he hadn’t budged one bit.

Perhaps having Joan or Morrigan with me would have helped. Morrigan seemed like a wild card, and surely, with a look or gesture, I could expect something from her. Unfortunately, she seemed rather distracted today.

Perhaps it was caused by the sudden loss of a large number of her crows? Or the odd silence that seemed to pervade the surrounding jungles. Even Diana had mentioned how something had changed. That there was an oddness in the air that nobody could quite pinpoint.

As for Joan, she had prior commitments. All due to the man before me. A showcase of just how he could strip away my support system with a guided hand, or a soft word. Which felt like both a warning, and an aid. As the people Joan was meeting with were relatively well connected and wealthy individuals.

It was impressive and yet… Not that impressive when I thought back to the executive, or more appropriately, Him. He always knew what to do in these situations, knew the right question to ask, where to dig and needle to get the advantage. He had a knack for eviscerating a man verbally, only to have him worshipping the ground he walks on just minutes later…

Not that I was much different… No, I had thought I was, but… ultimately, at the core, we were of a similar sort. Perhaps that was why he trusted me so…

To hide my momentary distraction, the flicker of reminiscence, I went for a drink of tea. Taking a moment to complement the brew, even if it tasted like ash on my tongue.

It took far too long for my liking for us to get to the point, but I’m glad he didn’t decide to postpone it. To keep me on hold, to keep me on ice until he so chooses. All to get a better hand. Then again, perhaps leaving someone like me unattended was a poor choice altogether… Even if it was a show of goodwill.

Better to lock me down sooner than later.

With a shift, the man spoke, “I’m sure your aware, but we have received a messenger from the provincial capital.”

“That’s good.” I say, trying to sound disinterested. “And what of our mysterious liaison?” I asked, trying to play it cool.

“They should be on their way now. The exact timing is uncertain, but there have been… unsettling developments.”

It took all I had not to frown. “Is that so…” I say, the cold creeping into my tone. “How unsettling?”

“We’ve lost contact with the western region.” He said far too calmly. “We’re not sure what to make of it, but apparently the provincial army was mobilized to investigate. Which has also bumped up priority for our guest to meet with you.”

That was unsettling… Also, very worrying.

Could this be linked with the decay of the realm? Even if it was, we should have a lot more time going off the earliest estimates. Not unless something, or perhaps, someone was accelerating the realm’s decay. Could they be involved, the mysterious individual? Or was I just overthinking it?

“That isn’t good. Not at all. And how long would this take for him to arrive?”

“Could happen any minute, or it could days, or even weeks.” He said with a unbothered shrug. Which bothered me.

“Weeks?” I asked, “You can’t expect us to continue sitting about for weeks more, not with the rapid degradation of our surroundings. The city is quickly becoming overpopulated, the roads far more dangerous. It’s only a matter of time until tensions spill over and we find ourselves with a knife at our throat.

“There is little I can do, but you are not wrong...” He sighs, “I can’t promise anything. But I will say this, I will do everything in my power to kill any such schemes in the cradle.”

I tried not to glare, but the ice seeping into my veins made that difficult. “Surely, this isn’t the only reason you called me here? Just to tell me to continue sitting and waiting?”

“You are correct.” He says with a knowing smile. “I’d like your cooperation in assisting with recruitment and training of soldiers. I intend to institute a draft, and having another able soldier under my command would be helpful.”

I almost hissed at his audacity.

“Ah, but of course, I do plan to pay you.” He said, almost offhandedly. Which, really, was just all the more insulting.

He’d basically marooned me on a sinking ship with himself and got rid of all the rafts. I wasn’t sure if we could even leave at this juncture, not with how frenzied the beasts had become in the last few weeks, and he knew that.

He hummed. The smile not really fading. Knowing full well what it was he was asking.

So, we began to negotiate. At first, he was at ease. Calm. But as the negotiation continued, that ease, that calm faded as I pulled more out of him. Using every bit of information both Joan and Morrigan had collected over this period of time, each bit like a bullet in a revolver. Each shot, perfectly on point, forcing more concessions from him.

He needed me, no, he needed us all. I wasn’t blind to Joan’s contributions, what her value was. And even if I wasn’t sure how Morrigan could help, I knew she could fill in as a combatant for clearing out packs of beasts if need be. Hell, she’d probably enjoy it.

The three of us were about as strong as his two top generals. One of which we’d already met and that was without our uniform. Not that he knew that, but seeing our ease, and knowing what we were, it was possible he understood on some level that this wasn’t our everything.

As the sun hit its peak, we paused briefly to eat, and the negotiations continued as we sipped tea and spoke. Conditions were expanded. And all too quickly the clan leader found himself sweating and at a loss.

And as it came closer to the final decisive strike, before I could hammer that final nail in…

The door burst open. Panting, with wide eyes, there was Morrigan. Just behind her, a guard came in, flustered, clearly concerned.

“My apologies clan leader, I couldn’t-“ He never got to finish as Morrigan caught her breath.

“PRIMA!” Morrigan shouted, something in her voice raw, frightened. “We have incoming!”

I didn’t question her as I jolted up and stood before her, “What happened?” I asked. Completely ignoring the clan leader.

Her expression shifted, from fear, to surprise, to what I could only call gratitude. “Remember how my crows went missing? I finally figured what caused it, we have a huge wave of beasts coming for us, and… something about them isn’t right. They’ll be on us in any minute.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but… “Even if a beast wave was coming, we have soldiers on the walls, and the walls themselves are large enough that they wouldn’t even be able to scale it. Not in a short period of time anyway.” The clan leader said, calm, but I could sense the tension.

As if in response to his words, the sound of a horn rang out from the far wall. “See?” He said, whatever tension he had melted away, as the horn rang.

Only to redouble when the horn rang once, twice, and even thrice more. His face paled. The soldier that had followed Morrigan in, shook, literally quaking in his boots.

I opened my mouth to question what was happening, but Morrigan gripped my hand and pulled me along. “We don’t have long, they’ll be here any second!”

After a step or two, I finally fell in, leaving behind a confused clan leader in our wake. Before long, I heard him following just behind, cursing up a storm. I continued to follow her through the halls to the front steps. It was chaos. The guards looked about, confused concerned. A team was gathered in response to Morrigan’s intrusion.

There was uncertainty, fear, concern. But we didn’t have time to figure out was going on. A shout broke through the chaos.

“Help!” A voice, a servant cried from afar. Heads turned to face the servant coming in, clutching their side. Their pristine robes covered in blood.

They opened their mouth to speak again, but before any of us could react, it appeared. Claws dug into the stone pathway with ease, giving it the necessary grip to launch itself forward. It’s bulk tore through the servant, leaving nothing whole behind as the servant’s upper body vanished into its gullet and claws shredded the servant’s lower body and left a streak of bloody on the otherwise pristine stone.

It didn’t even bother to chew. A single gulp was all it took to swallow the servant’s upper body whole. Granting us a chance to properly take it in. It looked like a wolf, only, one that had been dunked into oil. Its fur and body shimmered under the evening light. The hair on its body seemed to sway and move as if alive. Its eyes, of which it had a number of, far more than just two twitched and moved as if trying to take in everything at once. Its maw was too big for its head, a yawning abyss filled with teeth and a long lolling tongue that nearly touched the ground.

It looked wrong. Felt wrong. Moreso, its very presence seemed to make the world dim. As if its very presence made the surrounding world dull, color fading into black and white.

Nobody moved as we tried to comprehend what this thing was. And all at once, its eyes shuddered and focused on us, me, Morrigan, and what lay behind. Its skin shivered and a horrid howl left its maw. A screeching, wailing thing that carried on the wind, echoed in our skulls.

In the void that followed, we heard it. Scrabbling claws, harsh breathing and warped yips as more of them clambered over the inner wall, separating the central building from the rest of the city.

The guards moved, but the wolves were upon them in an instant. Their sleek skin easily turning aside mundane spears with ease. Their maws chewing through metal and flesh as if they were equals.

The first to move was Morrigan. Already clad in her uniform, weapon in hand, she clashed with a lunging wolf. Her axe bit deep, ripping away a solid chunk of flesh that sloughed off the wolf’s form like unwanted sludge.

The damage? Negligible. Before Morrigan could even react, it lunged forward, maw seeking to tear into her, but a shrill cry sang out, punching into the wolf’s head and drilling through, redirecting it enough to allow Morrigan to escape.

With a pull of the bolt, I ejected a spent casing. The tinkle of an empty casing hitting the stone steps rang out in the chaos. Before either of us could act, another wolf broke through the gathered soldiers, most of their number already devastated. Only to be cut off by one of my stone soldiers I had brought with me as an escort, as for the final one, Liu Chou, the clan leader leapt forward, brandishing a glimmering blade and with a single sweeping blow cleaved the thing in half.

Even then, even halved, the thing wriggled and writhed, both halves moved of their own volition, seemingly trying to reconvene.

“I’ll handle this one.” The clan leader said, eyes furrowed as he looked over the carnage.

We didn’t question, we acted. I loaded more rounds into my rifle, manifesting them a round at a time. Morrigan set herself up as my stone soldiers kept the other at bay.

Together we coordinated, her axe cleaved through the beast with ease, my bullets followed, striking at weak points as needed. Even then, it died slowly. Every strike tearing away more of its form, reducing its bulk until it finally fell dead.

On the other side, the clan leader was clearly struggling. With beautiful arcs of his blade, he carved and cut through the beast. Slicing off chunks of flesh, but none of them resulted in a decisive blow. Each strike was clinical, perfectly timed as if part of a greater plan.

And all at once, his eyes narrowed, his posture tightened. I felt it. Saw it as his foot moved, as his sword lashed out. In a mere breath, it dazzled my eyes, slicing through the wolf in a blur, completely eviscerating it, into hundreds of smaller chunks. Amidst them, I saw it, and so too did he.

With a final flourish, his sword was thrust through the chunks still floating inn the air and pierced through what looked like a small marble of pulsing energy. With a small ting, a crackle, of shattered glass, the marble broke, the wolf lost all form and cohesion and died.

He gasped like a fish, his shoulders slumped. His pale face gained a sickly hue as he held a sleeve up, his shoulders wracked. I felt a twinge in my being, seeing his shudder. Seeing as he tried to hide the blood staining his sleeve.

“They have a core.” I said, answering for the clan leader. My eyes met Morrigan and immediately her eyes shined. Without further ado, she charged the last wolf contending with my stone soldiers and went at it in a frenzy of swings and slashes of her axe, my soldiers moved to support and all at once, her body went rigid, her smile grew far too wide, a laugh left her lips. Her axe scraped into the ground as she revved up a single powerful swing starting from the ground and unleashed a powerful arcing blow that cleaved the wolf in half, starting from the front. At the center of it, was a similar marble, and with its destruction, the wolf collapsed into what could be considered a pool of sludge.

We all regarded one another, took a moment to take it in, but the sound of cries, screams, of more distorted howls reached our ears from beyond the inner gate. We steeled ourselves and shot forward, the clan leader moved to follow, my soldiers fell in line.

We were ready to go, eager to end this…

Only to go quiet when we stepped out and saw the street filled with those horrific creatures.

The clan leader froze, a half-spoken curse died in his throat only to be replaced with a sharp bark that sent the scattered guards into motion. I had no idea what was going on, but I already knew what needed to be done, I placed my hand on my chest, I focused on that presence deep within, as the ice cracked away with every thump of my heart.

Without hesitation, I transformed.