"I thought you for a strong fool. I was wrong. Young boy, what is your name?" Alone asked as his hand shacked, and his eyes shuffled between Mercy and the book he held.
"I don't prefer to have a name, give me a name if you want, but I live nameless and free from all restrictions in this world," Mercy replied. He threw the ball in his hands down on the ground.
「Rain of Ice」 The Priest shouted in a loud voice while his spectre came up once again.
"Seriously this?" Mercy was disappointed when the ice crystals formed in the sky and rained down on him. He put his hands in his pockets and let them come.
The crystals were white snow camouflaging in the snow, but the star's energy gave them away. Mercy could differentiate them from day and night, and the crystals began to rain.
"Easy, peasy." Mercy jumped from his position and moved from the crystal, like a fly through human hands.
"one, two…one, two, three… four…" He jumped them on a rhythm, crystals fell from all sides, and he jumped from side to side. Mercy saw his reflection in the crystals.
The reflections were different in some he looked handsome, some fat, and downright silly and goofy in some. The crystal rain kept coming and Mercy kept dodging.
"You bloody demon! Why can't you stay still?" Alone was panting. He was old, maintaining a realm, while casting spells for a while, the toll was showing its effect.
"Save your breath, Old man. You need to read our incantation and speak the spell name, too. I wouldn't be screaming my lungs out if I were you. Maybe you should have eaten healthy instead of getting fat like you are?" Mercy berated him.
"Oh! Really?" Alone smiled.
"You-" Mercy turned for a moment, and a tsunami of snow crystals flooded and surrounded his entire body, the wave of crystals was mixed with snowballs.
"Ach.." the snowballs froze Mercy's body the moment they touched.
"He is taking my feet. So, I can't move. I let my guard down." Then the hail storm became faster and sharper. The snowballs froze him more and the crystals slowly made more cuts on his body.
Then the storm consumed him whole.
------
The tsunami kept up for a while, and Alone Riaz witnessed the storm from a distance. He read his book carefully with one hand, and the second was on his heart.
It was the time for prayer, so he prayed like a priest should.
"Oh god, forgive me for each time I punish a sinner instead of you. I try my best to prevent these actions, but the blasphemous disciples of the other gods don't let me be free. I sacrificed three knights for this purpose. May their souls live freely in heaven."
The blur left by the tsunami of hail and crystals vanished slowly as Alone finished his prayers. The prayer was finished and Alone closed his book.
"A wonderful sight to see, indeed." A frozen crystal lay ahead of him, and inside it was the body of one who had dared challenge him and fallen into a trap.
Alone began, walking towards the crystal, his gaze tight to the crystals.
He summoned his spectre and was ready to intercept any traps left by his enemy before freezing to death.
Soon, he reached close enough. The face of surprise was buried on the boy's face. His eyes were open, arms covering his chest.
The boy's body was bleeding from all fronts, cuts everywhere; some of it had leaked into the ice, turning it blood red at part.
He raised his spectre in the air and began charging his spell to finish away the blasphemous yet poor soul.
Alone his eyes, "Your pride end with you at this moment, and you are reborn a better man in your next life, Praise be to the gods." The spectre began shining and the spell was ready.
"Praise me, Old Fart."
"What?"
Alone took a step back, the voice was coming from the ice. He looked closely at the boy's face, he saw it moving.
The neck was turning towards him, skin peeling off his face, the skull was visible on his upper face and the face was still turning and the eyes were looking at him.
"Die, hell spawn!!!" Alone yelled as he stepped back.
「Power: Spirit of the Forest.」
"I summon the forest itself." As Alone spoke, thousands of bugs and white bugs came from the sides of the trees and the ground itself.
The bugs were like beetles, leeches and mantis, wasps all in white, they came crawling towards the crystals.
The spider wove threads, beetles and leeches began moving inside the ice. They crawled their way creating holes, and entering the crystal.
"Let us see how long can you hold your smile now?"
The leeches, worms and beetles began crawling inside the crystal and then inside the body. Tearing away ice and flesh alike, opening new wounds and eating the flesh inside.
The smile was still there, even more twisted this time.
"Gods help me vanish this dark spirit. How can one enjoy such pain?"
Then the blood began to flow out of the crystal and it was coloured red, the bugs drank the blood and coloured red.
The body parts began inflating in size. Alone could see the insects moving inside the boy's body. A centipede popped right out of his eyes and a worm cut off his tongue. Flees were flying in his ears.
Yet, the smile was still there until the fleas flying around the crystal-covered it whole, and the red crystal became covered in white. The blue back of the crystal bugs covered the swarm of fleas in another layer.
"God's grace, I wish to never see that site again."
Alone was feeling cold in his own realm. His hands were shaky and he couldn't smile at the thought of winning. He didn't call back the bugs either and let them eat the crystal, drink all the blood or chew the last bite of flesh on the body and armour.
Even his hand with the prayer book shook, and his spectre was nearly out of his finger.
"What is this feeling?! Why can't I see this? The Priest has delivered God's justice to countless men, women, dwarves and their children. My hand did not shake then. I shake like a lamb with no fur, why?" He grabbed his pounding heart with his hand as his keepsakes vanished.
"Why am I feeling so alone?!" The shivers were sending through his spine, then he knew something was off.
"Huh...." When Alone faced the ground, his shadow was not alone there; something else was also there—a thing that smelled like blood, rotten flesh, and, most importantly, insects.
Alone froze in this place his head didn't move, and his body refused to.
"I am under divine protection!! I am under divine protection!! I am under divine protection!!" He screamed to himself in his head but as the shadow grew larger behind his muscles got tighter and tighter.
Thud… Thud…thud...
The boots' noises and the insects' noises came. The shadow of another being towered over Alone's shadow.
But Alone did not move to look at what it was, he didn't need to because he knew what was behind him, It was an innocent smile, a pleasant smile, a heart-warming smile, a gut-eating insect-filled smile.
The smile slowly reached Alone's face, and Alone began slowly turning back.
The face of the voice came close to Alone's ears and said,
"Boo!"
"Ahhhhhh..Ahh!!!!" Alone well from his feet and ran a distance.
His legs felt as warm water ran down his tunic, and screams escaped his lungs.
"Help me! Help me!!" Alone fell to the ground, and crawled without looking back once, his God's teaching didn't come to his mind, it was the teaching of his father, who told him to run from what he feared.
He turned back, summoned his spectre and book, and aimed his spells.
"Ahhaahaa." Alone saw the boy he had trapped and given to the insects to eat, laughing his face out at him.
"Wha-How are you still alive? My realm should have rendered me immune to all illusions after two times they are cast?!" Alone gained his composure back, ignoring that he had pissed himself.
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