Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Chapter 66 : And We Practice

ep within a tree.

“...” The silence was palpable as I turned to face the one who threw the dagger. That being a tall lady with dirty blonde hair, wearing the same strange battle maid outfit that Katya was wearing. She had a weary look in her eyes and a frown on her face.

“Hello there, Sai.” 

“Hey Kariya… How’s it been?” I asked awkwardly with a wave. Godwin stepped beside me to offer emotional support as I stared her down.

She twirled a second dagger by her fingertips. “We’ve been cleaning up the mess you made. So we’ve been better…” 

A man walked beside her as she talked. His reddish brown hair was matted down and made shorter than what I remembered, and this time he was wearing something I would have called a butler’s outfit.

“...It was a mess we all were a part of, not just him.” He said with his hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword.

“Oh… Hey Leonid, looks like you all are suited up?” I rubbed my head awkwardly, looking away as I felt them both stare right into me.

“It was Baba Yaga’s decision. Matthias, being her son, was exempted from most of the work, and he begged for you and Godwin to be under her care. He tried the same for us, but considering the circumstances you two were in…”

Leonid stared at both of us. While he didn’t carry the same rage as Kariya did, there was something else deep within him. There was regret, sorrow, and something else. It felt real, tangible, like I could reach out and grab it.

“Oh… Uh, so, have you three been holding up well? Where’s Katya? I thought she’d be here?”

I looked around, trying to spot her to no avail.

“Again, we've been better, much better than before… We’re not just here to hunt monsters that come close and bring their bodies to Baba Yaga, but also to warn her if anything too strong comes our way. Katya is just further up north.” Kariya sat down, rubbing her fingers over another one of her wooden knives.

‘How many does she have? It feels like she has an endless supply of those things…’

“Anything too strong?” I awkwardly sat away from them, lying on a fallen log as Godwin did the same.

Leonid on the other hand began to twirl his sword around, my entire body shivered as I saw it was essentially Koschei’s blade, black, carved with sacred runes, only this time it was longer and made into the shape of a long sword.

“Fae, any monsters who used Ascended Magick… She even said to look out for minor gods.” He scoffed to himself, staring down at his blade with a weary expression. 

Godwin then perked up. “At least we don’t have to go around and search for food anymore. And you all have a place to stay, too.”

Both Kariya and Leonid stared at each other for a bit, sighing as if they knew that fact and couldn't exactly refuse it.

“Yeah…” Kariya then turned her head to me, a curious glint in her eyes. “Are… Andrei and Rodion with you?”

I bit my lip, clenching my fist as I slowly shook my head to their disappointment. 

Leonid frowned, making a clicking noise with his tongue. “What? But, how? Rodion died when he fell into the river. And Andrei was…” He sighed. “He was already with you. How could you lose him?” I could feel him getting more and more accusatory, bearing down on me as if by the weight of the world.

If I bit my lip any further, it would have started to bleed. “I-I don’t know… I-I’m sorry again.”

“Gah.” Leonid waved his hand and sighed again. “Forget it… Tch, waste of time. Now that you’re awake, it’s going to get even worse around here.”

At that, I stared up at him with a small sneer. “I didn’t ask for this, okay? I want to help out. I’m sorry that they died, but it wasn’t…” I caught myself before I continued. Was it my fault? 

“Yeah, we know…” Kariya said with an air of bitterness. “We signed up for this, we took an oath and became the Keepers just for this.” She face-palmed herself and groaned.

“Now we’re here as servants for a witch.” 

“Well…” Godwin interjected. “She’s a good witch, and one of the best as well. If there’s anyone I feel safe with, it’s by her side.”

“Well, you’re not the one out here battling monsters every day and trying to do whatever tasks she thinks up on the spot,” Leonid muttered out loud as he sheathed his sword.

“Well, at least you’re getting cool stuff out of it. Did she give you guys that sword?” I pointed at the black blade.

Kariya brought hers out from the back. “Yeah, apparently Baba Yaga was the one who taught that bastard how to use and make these weapons.”

I leaned in, almost as if to study them. “What are they made out of?”

She then twirled it around, pointing the tip at me. “Souls, specifically, she said something about binding hungry spirits so that they could destroy things faster by consuming them… Whatever that means.”

“Huh…” I found it ironic in a way. The Keepers were supposed to be followers of a spirit against the Harbinger, yet these weapons were of the enemy. But I guess it’s hard to make blades of life be useful.

Also, weren't all things made of souls? That seemed redundant unless these were special souls.

“So with that, you’ve been just going around and hunting monsters every so often?” I turned towards the forest, trying to steer the conversation away from before. I felt horrible, but there was no use arguing.

Well… Not until Katya got back out here.

“Correct, although the frequency of the attacks has been increasing more and more as the days go by.” Leonid gave a quick glance at me as he said that, as if I controlled the rate at which the monsters attacked.

“Well, I guess it’s my turn to fight back against.” I stared at my right forearm, closing my eyes as I tried to summon back that antler sword, yet, sadly, nothing emerged.

“What are you doing?” I opened my eyes as Kariya asked, pointing at my held-out arm.

“I’m uh, trying to get back the weird antler claw… Thing, you know the one I used against Koschei, against the giant? I got it after I killed the Bes, but for some reason, all my stuff kind of disappeared.”

I looked down at my chest, finding that the Teni had disappeared. Then I realized something else entirely. “Wait, where are your Teni?” I pointed at their chests, which were completely devoid of the strange shadow-like stuff that used to wrap around them so easily.

Leonid raised his hand and stepped forward. Suddenly, his shadow morphed under him into the form of several chains and blades. 

“W-Woah! That’s so cool!” I knelt down on the ground, examining them properly. They were tangible, the color of tar and ink. I reached out to them and they receded back. “Are they sentient?”

“No, I made sure they wouldn’t cut you.” Leonid raised his hand as the blades suddenly surrounded me, almost as if they were gonna strike. I felt something... In them, almost like a pain, a sorrow.

“So, you control them with your mind? Like, you just think and suddenly they move?”

He frowned yet thought about it for a while before nodding. “I guess that’s one way of thinking about it. Yes, they follow my every command and desire.”

“Did Baba Yaga upgrade them for you?” I looked up at both Kariya and Leonid, who both nodded.

“She said that if we wanted something close to Ascended Magick, we would have to pledge ourselves to her.” She rubbed her wrists and looked back at the house. “But, we declined. We still needed to be her servants, however, so she essentially made the Innate Magick she gave us into something more versatile.” 

“Ascended Magick…” I turned to Godwin, who already looked like he had the same idea as I did.

“It must be their version of Fated Magick, how marvelous indeed.” The Professor said with a bright grin as if he were examining a piece at the museum.

The two Keepers just stared at each other awkwardly before looking back at me. “Do you know what Awakened Magick is?”

I stood back up, and Leonid’s shadow receded. “Well, if the Professor and I are correct, it’s essentially just as the Name implies, a higher form of Magick. I’m not sure what the qualifications of it are, but from the Scales of Nahas, the best way I could describe it would be that it carves the root of reality better than regular Magick. It overrides the world and is absolute… Until you get to True Magick, but honestly, that’s a whole other can of worms, and while it is interesting, I don’t understand it at all. Like, even fewer people have it than Fated Magick, and its whole thing seems so overpowered. The only time it ever got mentioned is when talking about gods and-”

Godwin raised his hand up to my shoulder. “Perhaps we can save the rambling for another day.”

I awkwardly laughed and turned towards Leonid and Kariya, who were both staring at me, confused, before I gave a fake cough. “Basically, it’s just better Magick, way better Magick. If I had to compare it… Just uh, if you saw the fight between myself and Zmey, that’s what it looks like to have Ascended Magick.”

Leonid’s eyes widened as he looked on in surprise and what I believed was awe. “So… You have it now?”

“Uh… I…” 

Both of them narrowed their eyes, and I had to look down. “I don’t know.”

Kariya scoffed. “You don’t know? How could you not know?”

I raised my arms up in confusion. “I just don’t know, like, I don’t know if I do or don’t have it. I can’t really test myself… Well actually… I did kinda try to test myself a while ago, but like, it’s really finicky, so I guess maybe?”

Leonid sighed in disbelief. “Alright then. So if Andrei is gone from you, and your Magick isn’t working as it should, what good can you bring?”

Ouch, I frowned at that, standing up. “What do you mean? I still have my Magick, I just don’t know how to-”

“If you don’t know how to use it, then don’t bother stepping out at all. All you’ll do is attract more attention and get us more killed than you already have!”

I nearly stumbled backwards while Godwin stood up, raising his hands as the tensions grew. “Hang on now, let’s not be rash-”

“I did all that I could to protect you all!" I gritted my teeth as I felt my insides bubble. "What good did you bring against the fight with Koschei, huh? I watched all of you flounder around, not even able to touch him when he got serious. Guess who could?”

I pointed my thumb at myself. “That’s right, me, not any of you!”

Leonid unsheathed his sword, and Kariya readied her dagger. Me on the other hand, I felt something grow in my arm, as I tried to manifest the familiar connection I had to the Bes.

But suddenly, my body moved fast as a spear was thrown. It struck the tree behind me, completely splitting it in half as it landed behind the now bisected trunk, making a crater.

We all turned instinctively in the distance, where we saw Katya stand, her eyebrows furrowed and her face filled with disgust.