Chapter 227 – The Monstrous Ice Soul Golem
Quinn:
I was hurled through walls of wood and stone, fragments scattering in every direction as I smashed through them. My body collided violently with the structures, breaking everything in my path until I was finally stopped by a solid wall that absorbed my momentum. The final impact left me dazed, my back pressed against the debris.
My breath came in ragged gasps, each one more painful than the last. Something sharp had pierced my back—probably a shard of wood or a jagged piece of stone. If not for the fragile remnants of my elemental armor, I would already be dead. But even with its protection, the damage was severe. My entire body throbbed, every muscle screaming for relief, but I knew I couldn't afford to stop.
A groan escaped me as I tried to move my arms, the weight of the rubble pinning me down. The acrid stench of dust and burnt wood invaded my senses, mingling with the metallic tang of blood dripping from my wounds. My vision was blurry, and each blink seemed to snuff out another flicker of consciousness.
"Damn it..." I muttered, spitting blood as the bitter taste filled my mouth. My mind drifted to the girl who had dared to face my flames, clutching my leg in a reckless, suicidal move, using my fire to survive. A bitter laugh slipped through my lips, despite the sharp pain it caused. "She's desperate, but she has no idea who she's up against."
Gathering what little strength I had left, I pressed my hands against the ground, attempting to rise. The weight of the debris doubled the already unbearable pain, but I refused to give in. With a superhuman effort, I shoved the stones and wood away, each motion tearing at my body. Finally, I freed myself.
Letting out a hoarse scream, I channeled mana to purge the pain and scatter the wreckage around me. A surge of wind and fire burst from my body, clearing the shattered remains of the destroyed structures. The energy I conjured burned with a desperate intensity, the flames around me reflecting the rage and hatred fueling my resolve.
On my feet, though staggering, I planted myself firmly, ignoring the searing pain coursing through me. Blood continued to stream from my open wounds, evaporating as it hit the heated ground. My gaze fixed on the path of destruction ahead, zeroing in on a singular goal.
"She thinks she can beat me..." I muttered, taking heavy steps forward, each movement echoing the promise that I would not stop. "But she'll pay for every second of this fight."
I will kill her. I will burn her body so Nathan Evenhart feels exactly what I felt when I saw Eliza in that state.
Using wind and fire, I propelled myself forward, sprinting through the ruined houses toward the epicenter of the battle. The scene was pure chaos: fire consumed the remnants of buildings, while other areas were frozen solid, blanketed in snow and water. The port was nearly unrecognizable, destroyed amidst the devastation. My footsteps echoed among the wreckage until a deafening roar silenced everything around me.
'ROOOOAAAR!'
The chilling, guttural sound reverberated through the air, and the temperature plummeted instantly. My steps faltered, and a shiver ran down my spine. "No way..." I whispered as a colossal silhouette began to take shape before me, shrouded in an icy mist.
"She has one of those?" My voice barely rose above a whisper, disbelief coloring every word.
'Thump.' 'Thump.'
The creature's heavy footsteps sounded like muted thunder as it advanced, the ground freezing solid beneath its immense weight. Each step left a trail of icy devastation. And then, like a hammer blow to my chest, the memory hit me: the reports. Documents Nikolaus Wolves had shared about the Evenhart family. But they mentioned nothing about this. Nothing about Chloe Evenhart being a summoner.
"She has a damn Soul Golem!" I exclaimed, my voice laced with equal parts shock and dread.
I laughed at the irony, even as the nervousness gnawed at me. "A summoner, just like Eliza! Perfect… the ideal payback for Nathan Evenhart."
Then I saw it up close. The gigantic creature stared at me, its presence both imposing and terrifying. In my life, I had only ever seen two Soul Golems: Eliza's, my sister's, and one other during an underground coliseum match. Knowing Chloe possessed one of these creatures was a blow to every bit of logic and predictability I relied on. The laws around unleashing one of these monsters were strict, and no one openly boasted about having one. Summoner mages were worth an obscene fortune.
A Soul Golem is born from the summoner's Gem, a physical manifestation of their life's experiences, a fragment of their soul… So this monstrosity came from someone raised to be a human weapon? A damn assassin girl with a beast like this.
The creature before me was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Towering at nearly 15 meters tall, it resembled a nightmare given form. A hulking, fur-covered quadruped, its black body oozed an otherworldly blue liquid from holes scattered across its flesh. Everything the liquid touched froze instantly, leaving a twisted, deadly landscape in its wake.
"The horns..." I muttered, noticing the sharp, menacing points crowning its head.
If I weren't using my Infernal Armor, I would've been skewered...
The Golem was something between death and winter itself. Its grotesque, skeletal maw drooled the same freezing blue liquid, emitting a chilling aura that cut deep into the bones. Large, twisted antlers—like those of a monstrous elk—rose from its head, a macabre crown of destruction. Despite its massive size, the creature moved with an unsettling agility, each step freezing the ground beneath it.
It was like staring at the embodiment of a nightmare—a creature that had no place in the mortal world. Its glowing, sinister blue eyes locked onto me, as if I'd already been marked as its next prey. In that moment, I understood the countless restrictions surrounding these creatures. This wasn't merely a monster; it was a living weapon, something that should never be unleashed in battle.
"This girl..." I muttered again, as the creature took another step, the biting cold cutting through even the flames surrounding me. "She's far more dangerous than I thought."
Chloe appeared atop the creature, her gaze as icy and unyielding as the frost spreading around her.
"Sorry for holding back earlier," Chloe said, her voice cold and precise, each word laced with confidence. "I needed to focus to summon my 'little pet.'"
Instinctively, I intensified the flames of my armor. The heat surged, reaching a peak that briefly turned the fire a brilliant blue—the hottest flames I could muster. Yet she showed no hesitation. Her gaze was fixed, steady, as the Soul Golem roared once more, sending a wave of frost that made the air around us feel like shards of glass slicing through the skin.
"There's a legend in my duchy," Chloe began, her voice carrying the weight of a declaration. "It's told by the parents living in the snowy mountains to frighten their children. The legend speaks of a creature… an evil monster haunting the frozen peaks. An undead guardian of the shadowed forests. This creature is called the 'Wendigo.'"
'ROOOOAAAR!' The creature's roar echoed like an icy thunderclap, the sound reverberating through my bones.
"Ironically," Chloe continued with a small, defiant smile, "my Soul Golem took on the form of the Wendigo. It suits me, doesn't it? A wicked monster that haunts the forests to protect them. Just like my family does.
Before I could react, the creature began to move, its colossal paws pounding against the frozen ground as it charged toward me with a speed that defied its massive size. The ground trembled beneath its weight, and the icy wind of its approach cut like blades.
"Damn it!" I yelled, summoning a burst of fire to propel myself away from its devastating attack.
"Kill him!" Chloe commanded, her voice dripping with authority. The Wendigo obeyed instantly, opening its monstrous maw and unleashing a blast of frigid wind directly at me. I rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the lethal current.
"Fire Beam!" I roared, firing a powerful blast of blue flames toward the Wendigo's icy assault. The clash between the two powers was violent, creating a shockwave that obliterated the remaining surroundings.
Chloe didn't waste a moment. "Ice Beam!" she shouted, sending a second, sharper and more focused blast directly at me. The Wendigo followed her lead, intensifying the freezing gale. The combined assault created an impenetrable wall of destruction.
BOOM!
The ground quaked beneath the icy explosion. I barely managed to dodge in time, but a nearby house wasn't so lucky. It froze completely before shattering into jagged shards of ice.
I glanced at my hand and noticed something horrifying. Even with the protection of my Infernal Armor, part of my hand had been frozen solid. I tried to move it, but the ice was unyielding. Before I could process what had happened, three of my fingers snapped off, shattering like fragile glass against the frozen ground.
"Shit…" I muttered, feeling fear creep into me for the first time. I swallowed hard, my gaze locked on the demonic creature advancing slowly, like a predator savoring the chase.
The Wendigo opened its grotesque mouth again, sending another barrage of icy winds toward me. I dodged desperately, conjuring fire shields to block the attacks, but each shield was snuffed out the moment it touched the creature's freezing aura.
Damn it! This thing is lethal—if it touches me, I'm done for!
"Great Fire Beam!" I screamed, pouring everything I had into my hands. A fiery beam of red-hot energy shot forward with incredible force toward the monstrous creature.
"AAAAARRRGH!" the Wendigo roared, but to my disbelief, it continued its slow advance. Everything around it was transforming into pure ice, freezing over with terrifying intensity. The heat from my beam barely seemed to graze it. My flames hit the thick mist surrounding the creature and vanished as if swallowed by an endless abyss of cold.
It stared at me with hollow, furious eyes, and the air around me began to freeze to an unbearable degree. A dense, freezing mist enveloped me, consuming everything like a deadly domain. My flames flickered weakly, and even the air I inhaled felt like it was freezing my lungs. This cold wasn't just physical—it was alive, pressing against my very will to fight.
"I just need to raise the temperature!" I shouted, my heart pounding wildly. I channeled even more energy into my armor of wind and fire, forcing it to intensify the flames. The red of my flames flared into a bright yellow, fueled by the oxygen I manipulated with wind magic. The heat surged around me, my armor expanding like a fiery beast.
"AHHHHH!" A wave of heat exploded outward as I hurled myself toward the creature. But Chloe, perched atop her Wendigo, was already prepared.
"Ice Art: Glacial Era!" she cried, and from the creature's body, a dense, freezing mist erupted in all directions, snuffing out any trace of heat in the environment. The temperature plummeted alarmingly fast, and a fierce blizzard consumed the battlefield. It felt like standing in the eye of a merciless icy storm.
I pressed forward with every ounce of strength I had left. "Fire Beam!" I roared again, conjuring another intense blast of searing heat, now tinged with yellow. But the dense mist swallowed the flames, dissipating them before they could even reach the creature. The monster didn't seem fazed in the slightest.
I need to get closer, I thought, realizing that my flames were growing far too weak.
The world around me had transformed into a nightmare of ice and snow. Visibility was almost nonexistent, and the cold cut into my skin like invisible blades. The only thing I could make out was the hulking silhouette of the creature, moving like a phantom through the blizzard.
"Blue Blades!" Chloe shouted, and jagged ice spikes began raining down from the sky in my direction. I sprinted, dodging frantically as the frozen projectiles sliced through the air around me.
"Yellow Burst!" I yelled, summoning an explosion of wind and fire to propel myself toward the Wendigo. But before I could reach it, the creature roared again and charged, its antlers tearing through everything in its path.
I channeled my power into a direct strike against the monster. My fist connected with its massive form, unleashing an explosion that caused it to stagger momentarily. But the impact flung me backward with brutal force. My body smashed through the remains of a building, and I crashed to the ground with a dull thud, pain radiating through every fiber of my being.
Gasping for air, I forced myself to stand, glancing around at the carnage. The creature continued its relentless advance, its antlers ripping through carriages and market stalls as though they were made of paper. The environment around us was utterly devastated. Every second spent near the monstrous being weakened my flames and drained my strength.
With great effort, I focused the fire in my hands, readying myself for another attack.
I looked up and locked eyes with the skeletal monstrosity. Its hollow, menacing gaze bore down on me, and its overwhelming presence threatened to crush any courage I had left.
"This thing is terrifying," I muttered to myself as the merciless cold seeped into my very bones.
"ROOOOAR!" The creature's roar echoed, and it expelled a wave of icy mist from its maw. The chaos around me intensified. Everything became engulfed in white, as though I'd been swallowed by an infinite frozen wasteland. The city had completely vanished; no signs of life or warmth remained. Only this oppressive void.
Before I could react, a massive paw struck me with crushing force. I was thrown like a rag doll, hurtling through market stalls and carriages that crumbled like toys. Each impact against the frozen ground knocked more air out of my lungs until I finally skidded to a stop, sprawled out on the ice.
I staggered to my feet, coughing up blood as a searing pain radiated through my abdomen. Glancing down, I saw a deep gash running through my Infernal Armor, now weakened and fractured.
"His claws… they cut through my armor…" I muttered, my voice shaky as hot blood seeped through my fingers, which pressed desperately against the wound.
In the distance, the monster watched me, its gaze unyielding, as though it were measuring my resilience. Its claws glistened with deadly frost, and the viscous blue liquid dripping from its maw glowed with a ghostly light.
"Ice Art: Glacial Jet!" Chloe's voice rang out, echoing like a judgmental decree.
The creature moved instantly, spewing the thick, grotesque blue liquid in my direction. Each drop that hit the ground froze everything it touched with an audible crack, devouring the surrounding air with an absolute chill.
"Damn it!" I yelled, realizing that facing this head-on was suicidal. With a swift burst of wind, I dodged at the last second. Over my shoulder, I saw the liquid collide with a cart behind me. It was instantly encased in translucent ice before shattering into thousands of glittering fragments.
My breath came out in dense clouds, each exhale a fight against the cold. Every movement sent sharp pain radiating from the wound on my abdomen, but I couldn't stop. I couldn't falter. Chloe Evenhart had to die, no matter the cost.