The Mad Artist

The snow felt soft like a bed of clouds, but more importantly, it was cold.

So, so cold.

But I didn't want to get up, I was too lazy to get up. What's the point? I can't even use my art without going mad.

Still lying down on the snow, I looked around and spotted the same red handbook the officer gave me.

I picked it up and stood up to take a better look at my surroundings. The snow stretched, uninterrupted in all directions, except one. In the north, I could vividly see a forest with colossal trees.

I had no idea where I was, I realized.

I sat back on the cold snow and opened the handbook to look for any hint of where I was from. But to my absolute disappointment, the book only had information about abyssal creatures.

Suddenly, a roar came from behind me. Looking back, I couldn't help but curse.

"Shit!"

Behind me was a large, muscular cat with pale grey fur covered in dark grey spots. It had three long, thick tails. It had a pair of greyish eyes on each side of its face, a wide forehead, and small, rounded ears.

As soon as I spotted it, I got up and ran away as fast as I could, towards the forest I spotted in the north.

Not a second passed, and I felt a huge weight on my back and fell face-first on the cold snow. I tried to get up and do anything, but all I could do was turn around.

The leopard was standing above me, his maw wide open, ready to bite my head off. 

I was terrified. 

Just when the Leopard was closing its maw, I moved my hands and forcefully kept it from closing, and biting my head off in the process.

We struggled for a moment, but to be honest, it felt like an eternity. And finally, I managed to get that fucker off me.

As soon as that happened, I didn't waste any time and got on my feet and ran towards the forest in the north again. To be honest, I had no idea what I was going to do after reaching the forest, but I knew that it was going to be easier to hide there.

The cold was unbearable, but I kept running.

My feet hurt like shit, but I kept running.

With each step, I could see the forest getting closer and closer, and my hope burned brighter and brighter. But at the same time, my feet hurt more, and the cold got unbearable. 

Then, just as I was about to reach the forest, the flame of hope got extinguished, as a huge shadow passed above me, and the leopard landed between me and the forest. 

It lunged towards me, so fast that I couldn't even hope to dodge, and we returned to the same position, the leopard pinning me down and me trying to free myself.

This time, however, I couldn't get it off me. I could only prevent it from biting my head off or eating me alive, but I knew that I couldn't stop it forever; eventually, my hands would give out, and I wouldn't even be able to resist.

After some thought, I decided.

I was going to use my art.

I didn't know if the flaw would be active during the time of usage, or as soon as I would use it, it would be permanently active, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

What's more desperate than the moments before death?

Nothing.

Because I didn't go to the academy, I didn't know how to use the ether in my body.

So I let my instinct take over.

I could feel something in my body moving towards my shoulders and the set of runes on it.

As soon as the ether reached the runes, the leopard jumped back, and a blast of amethyst fire shot forward.

The leopard was staring at me, breathing out cold air.

This time, I took the initiative. Lunging towards the leopard, I punched it straight in the head, the flames of destruction augmenting my hand.

It let out a pained sound and took a step back; the flame was still eating at its fur. That seemed to anger it even more, and it shot forward. This time, however, I didn't know if it was because I was using my art, but I saw it coming. I dodged barley and got wounded on my face.

Grinning, I grabbed the leg that wounded me with my augmented hand, and I sent a burst of destruction towards the leopard. It roared… screamed? I didn't know, but it was blood boiling, the amethyst flames ran up the leopard's leg to its body, and finally its face, eagerly eating away at the fur, flesh, bones, blood, and everything else. Until the leopard was no more.

There was no proof that the leopard existed a second ago.

[You have slain an abyssal beast, snow leopard.]

[You have received a trophy.]

A voice whispered in my ear, but I gave it no mind.

The flames continued to burn, eating at the snow, moving to the trees, and eating away at everything in sight.

As I watched the flames, I couldn't help but laugh, a single mad laugh.

Why should I stop them? 

There was no reason at all; if they consumed everything, the world would be at peace. How could there not be peace if nothing even existed?

"Eat away."

I told the flame.

And they did, the flames ate everything they touched, the snow around me disappeared, the trees too. Every time the flames finished something, they moved on to the next.

But soon enough, I exhausted all of my ether, and the world was consumed by darkness.