Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Chapter 9: For Flames Lick The Bottom Of The Sky

Jane grumbled as she was pushed towards one of the monitors in a room on the bottom deck. “Couldn’t you all at least be more gentle?”

“That doesn’t matter, get to work, we have to defend the ship as much as possible.” Rook spat out as he walked to one of the other monitors. Quickly, he started to use one of the turrets to fire into the elementals.

He groaned internally as he wished that Epithet could have given out more Names so that the common folk could have been more useful, but alas, without proper training, they wouldn’t even know how to use them.

There was always something that bothered him about that. Names were literally intricate manifestations of the world that people connected to on a deeper level; it both made sense and didn’t make sense: how one still wouldn’t know how to do it properly.

One couldn’t truly grasp limitless information after all.

Whilst Rook grappled with his dilemma, Jane was shooting down elementals with a sigh hanging on her lips, imagining them destroying the entire armada they were bringing along as she did so.

Sadly, she couldn’t resist, not while that Contract was in place. Her whole life was in those hands of those bastards, and there was nothing she could do except just accept everything handed to her.

But, there was one thing she began to notice the more she continued her endless attacks on the barrage of elementals: they were getting closer.

More and more of them started to spawn closer and closer to the ship, but it didn’t look like there were more spirits than before.

“So why… why is…” Then, it hit her, as a small smile started to grow on her face.

She started to laugh, cackling even, giggling like a madwoman as everyone around her started to frown and look at her as if she had a disease.

Even the guards around her, like Charlie, were disturbed, but Mollie chuckled along as if it were funny too, until Henry gently elbowed her to stop.

“Quiet! We’re trying to concentrate here! What is it that you find so hilarious?” Rook turned towards Jane, looking as if he had popped a vein.

“You idiots… we’re all screwed! You’re only stopping their physical forms. It’s in the Name! They’re spirits. They don’t need matter to exist. They’re still making their way towards us!”

I nearly froze in my own realization. They were coming towards us no matter what, and we needed to find a way to stop them more permanently.

“John… we need to get out of here right now!” I whispered, shaking his shoulder.

“Woah, what’s going on? You can’t be getting cold feet in now? Plus, we got a kill streak-“

“We’re screwed dude! They're not going to stop, we’re only delaying them, but unlike the paradox of the dragon and the pegasus, the spirits will reach us, and just like the dragon, we’re going to be flamed alive!”

John blinked for a few moments before realizing what I meant. “Oh damn! W-we need to tell the others right now, as fast as possible before-”

“H-Help! Save me! Help!” Smoke and screams filled the air as I and everyone else in the console room witnessed one of the volunteers burst into flames, their whole body being cooked alive as they flailed on the floor.

It was at that moment that everyone began to run to the door.

Matthias ran around the deck of the ship as he saw left and right people being burned alive. They dropped to the floor, sometimes screaming, sometimes quiet; he didn’t really know which was worse, but he also didn’t know what to do.

The sky was red, and the sea was jagged with glaciers crashing into the ships. The barrier has been compromised from the inside out as all the spirits swarmed the armada, filling it with smoke.

Everything was falling apart, and it was all his fault. They were all dying because of him. He should have prepared more, or maybe…

“You~ we’ve seen you before~”

Matthias yelped out loud as he stumbled over one of the burning bodies of the crew, rolling over to the railing of the ship. The voices, he heard them again. He gripped his head and groaned in pain as flickers of far-off faces appeared in front of him.

“Welcome home brother~ back into Galfania once more~ Did you miss us?”

“No!” Matthias screamed out as he covered his face. “I-I don’t even know who you are! G-Get out!” He swiped the air, and his hand only swished through the fiery forms of the phantoms around him.

“You deny your lineage? Your birthright? How foolish. We are here for you, always, and soon all those you have brought with you shall become one with us! Join and bear witness!”

The fiery spirits all wrapped themselves around Matthias, who kicked and screamed to no avail as he was hoisted up into the air, forced to watch as all the ships, all of the people, were burned to nothing more than ash.

He cried, closing his eyes as if to pretend he didn’t know what he was seeing, but the spirits laughed and ensured he saw it all.

“Soon you will join us, soon you will be one with us. Soon you will be free like us, but for now we must ensure all those you brought along enjoy the ride~”

And they cackled, laughter that never ceased, drowning the air with shrieks of joy as all burned down around them.

Jane laughed, all around her, the bodies fell down, burning alive as she grinned in glee. Finally, these bastards got what they all deserved. Even if she had to go down with them, it would be all worth it in the end.

She might as well savor these last few moments of joy before she meets her fate. To that end, she got up from her seat, dancing like a ballerina. There was a time, a long time ago, when she wanted to be one, before she got roped up in Epithet, in the Choir, in all of that.

It was so long ago, and yet she could remember, she could recall. She stepped on Rook’s burning corpse, digging her heels into his neck as she sneered.

“If only the others could see it now… hah, I bet they would have enjoyed this.”

Jane hummed to herself for a bit as she walked past Charlie, who was shaking violently, watching it all unfurl as she just stood there like a statue.

“Heh... looks like it's the end of the road Charlie... " She gave Charlie a grin as the Watchtower guard couldn't even speak, convulsing in fear as if she'd been in here before.

"Thanks for everything..." Jane leaned in and patted her on the head before she walked out of the monitor room, but it wasn’t even a few steps later when a scream emanated from the room, and Charlie’s charred body fell to the ground.

“...If... only- gah” Jane clutched her abdomen, her whole body felt like it was being seared away. She looked at her hands, finding that her palm had already been charred with third-degree burns as if she had placed her hands into a furnace.

“Guess… this is how it ends.” She took a deep breath and smiled one last time, slumping against the wall.

“Miranda…. Kyle… Jason… Mikey.” Memories of fallen friends and those she failed to save filled her head as her flesh started to sear.

”I’ll be seeing you all soon.”

And thus, her body erupted into flames like all the rest.

John and I ran around the ship, trying to find anything to help, but all it led to was more burnt bodies or dead ends. The screams all around were palpable, and they never seemed to end, only becoming louder as time passed. Everything was a blur, cascading downwards in a never-ending spiral like the staircases we kept on using.

“Come on, come on! Don’t you guys have like some special hidden feature? Like anything at all that can repel them from us? Or help us?”

I looked back at John, out of breath and exasperated, pleading almost for this to be a dream or that there’s some big red button to fix this.

“N-no! I-I don’t know dude! We’ve never had to deal with anything like this before! It’s not fair!” He leaned against the wall as his eyes widened.

Over the horizon, where all the other ships were, the exact same thing was happening to them as well: smoke rose from the decks as their ships began to sink downwards into the depths of the ocean.

“We’re gonna die here… it doesn’t matter what we do… we’re so screwed.” John hit his hand against his face, a mixture of shock, laughter, and so much more.

“Oh… if we’re gonna die here dude… there’s something I gotta tell you before we go.”

I was frantically still running around, still searching, still hanging onto every bit of hope that I could muster. I could barely hear my own thoughts, much less John’s.

“When they were looking for Magis back after we graduated, I got your resume and sent it as my own. Yours never just disappeared… it was me…”

I stopped in my tracks. Everything was falling apart around me, but something just… cracked, something snapped when he said that.

“…Y-You?” I turned around, my eyes already twitching.

“L-look, I needed the money. I was already in some bad places, I owed some people, and if they weren’t going-“

“You!-You ruined my life!” I tackled him on the deck, gritting my teeth as my mind flashed with memories of what could have been if only John had never sabotaged.

“I could have had everything! I could have had anything! Why?!”

I wrapped my hands around John’s throat. I didn’t really want an answer; I just wanted revenge.

He reached up, tapping my shoulders as he gagged whilst being choked. “I-I needed the money… the c-connections… I-It’s why I let you stay in that apartment… I’m sorry I-I tried everything to let you in as well b-but there were some oversights and-“

“A-and?! That’s it?! That’s all you could say? I was in the Abyss looking into Heaven! You took everything from me! You motherf-! I trusted you! I thought you were my friend!”

“I-I am… I was… still trying to help you out.”

I couldn’t forgive him. I could never accept such an apology. He only said it because he knew we’d both be dead. But I would make sure to kill him first. I didn’t care, it didn’t matter. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t the spirits who did it, but it was me.

Tears streamed down both of our eyes as he looked up at me. “P-Peter… please…” He choked out before his head slumped over, dead.

I looked down at myself, crying for a bit as I stood up. This was it, this was the end. Everything was going up in flames while I realized that my recent life was nothing more than a lie.

I was used over and over again. I was given the choice… and yet nothing changed…

Maybe Jane was right, maybe I did have a chance out there. Maybe if I just tried harder, I would have succeeded, I would have been able to get a job and not die out here like the rest.

I fell to my knees, crying as I wiped away my tears. “It’s… It’s just not fair… It’s just not fair.”

My body ached as the flames caught up with me, burning my skin, my muscles. I felt it all well up and burning. There was nothing I could do but cry in pain and scream in agony.

Then, everything went dark. I could feel nothing more than the cold embrace of death.