Pressing on, Eika and L continued through the canyon. Eika's ears flicked involuntary as she led L further north. L called for Eika to halt for a moment. Her foot had struck something in the snow as she was trudging. Eika bounded back toward her and, at L's prompting, helped her shift the snow around. Underneath a foot of snow, they discovered the frozen corpses of several unnaturally large rats. "What?" Eika said simply as she struggled to understand the meaning of what she was seeing. L looked around for a few moments before responding. "Have you not noticed how, despite the snowfall increasing the further we head north, the depth of the snow and difficulty of traversal has not increased?" Eika nodded "Eika had noticed that! It’s very strange, but I’m not sure that helps us figure out what this is..." She gestured at the pile of rat bodies that they had uncovered. L gestured around her. "This place clearly does not care for nature's rules. Perhaps the snow is somehow... devouring anything that lays upon it. Or perhaps something else is going on that we simply do not have enough information to figure out. Either way, I would say we are closing in on the worse half of our investigation in this canyon." Eika nodded, and after a few moments of silent contemplation from both of them, they resumed course.
As they continued, they found more frozen vermin in varying states. Some were frozen whole; others had been crushed or stabbed. "W...what if Luna is frozen under here somewhere?" Eika stuttered, more from fear then cold. L shrugged "Then we shall not find her. We do not have the ability to uncover every frozen body. The snow returns to its normal depth far too quickly for us to even attempt a methodical search even if I thought it, was a good idea. We will simply have to hope that the girl’s luck has not yet run its course." Eika hesitated, but could find no counter argument. Eika slowly continued, but suddenly yelped and jumped back. L quickly readied her sword. "It's so cold!!" Eika exclaimed. L furrowed her brow and drew close to Eika's position. Eika stretched her hand outward and quickly withdrew it. "Uh... like a foot in front of me becomes absolutely frigid. L sighed, and tested Eika's words, striding forward. Rather than simply suddenly being cold however, L suddenly fell to her knees, overwhelmed. Eika began to panic "Eh! What’s going on!" However, L did not even process her words. Her demonic instincts had kicked her in the gut, so to speak. The moment she entered the region Eika labeled as "cold" she suddenly knew she was in the territory of the Ice Orcs. She also could suddenly sense exactly where this prison she was searching for lay. The center of the Ice Orc territory. It took all of her willpower to calm herself, as she also suddenly understood, the Ice Orcs were the demon's jailers. Created to keep the north from ever being explored by the natives of this world, and... created to stop demon kind from ever reaching their imprisoned brother.
Eika ran back and forth along the area the bitter cold started, unsure of what to do. "Are you ok! What's going on!!" Eika heard a small sound, one she recognized. "Uh!! Stop!?" Blue fire flickered at the ends of L's fingers as she struggled to fight her instinctual hate of the Ice Orcs down. Her fingers burned with frozen fire, causing her considerable pain. However, even through the raging hate, L forced herself to focus, her self-discipline forcing back even a demon’s anger. She slowly struggled back to her feet, her teeth gritted due to the pain in her hands, and the concentration she was using. "I’m... fine." L struggled out as she regained her composure. "I can’t... stop my fingers however." Frozen flame flickered occasionally at each of her fingertips, causing small, but painful frostbite patches. Luckily, it appeared as if her regeneration was able to halt the damage at "painful," rather than anything that would cause her to lose function in her hands. Now that she was doing marginally better, she also noticed that the temperature had in fact become wildly low. She believed she would be able to tolerate it, but Eika, in her current strength, level, and clothing, would succumb to the cold quickly. "I... have to scout the area. I don't think Luna and the vermin champion would have come this way, but I... need to know more about the orcs, this is their territory..." L was telling the truth, but left out the part about how she thought she might lose her mind if she did not find and kill one of them soon. "Go back and report to V, and then just wait for me at the entrance to the pathway back up, I can use you as a sort of mental signpost to find my way back to it." Eika hesitated, confused and worried about Luna, and now L, but she also knew she could not survive long inside the area L now stood. She nodded slowly. "I'll... search for Luna as I go back!" Eika was unsure what she was even saying, the look in L's eyes had frightened her on some deep level, and she simply felt like she had to flee.
As Eika bounded through the snow, L faced forward again. She hoped killing one of the orcs would temporarily calm her bloodlust, and if they were going to be traveling deep into Ice Orc territory, gathering information now would help them in the future. Although, she wondered if V and Eika would even be able to follow her, due to the cold, which she seemed immune to for the most part. She moved forward alone, deeper into the canyon. The first thing she found was another orc body, covered in frozen vermin. She silently apologized to Eika in her head, apparently the champion had come this far north. Was he running from them? Did that even make any sense? This location clearly would also place him at a disadvantage, his vermin clearly could not survive the environment for long. She supposed this also answered the question of if he was creating vermin or just gathering them. The answer at this point was obviously he had some ability to create or summon them. As she continued, the environment grew harsher. The wind, the cold, the snow. Luckily, whatever magic was in use over the Ice Orc's territory, still maintained the snow at a stable depth. She stopped as something with color blew in front of her, over the otherwise white environment. It was tuft of bloody fur, the same color as Luna's tail and ears. L apologized again to Eika in her mind, Luna had somehow come this way as well. Perhaps simply being carried as a snack for the Champion of Vermin. Although, for a tuft of fur to not have been buried or caught in a snow drift, it had to be both recent, and fairly close...
L scanned the area in front of her, she was not the best at wilderness tracking, even when she was not surrounded by driving snow. She also was contending with an overwhelming desire to just sprint around screaming challenges in the hopes an orc might find her. Luckily, she did in-fact notice an unusual shape a few yards to her left, upon inspection, she found that it was another Ice Orc. Its legs were gone, but it was otherwise whole. It sounded as if it was speaking, although if it was, the "translation" that the God's provided them was not working. It tried to drag itself with its arms, away from L. Unable to control herself any longer, she leapt on the orc's body like a wild animal, grabbing its face with her hands, attempting to gouge its eyes out with her thumbs, her hands and arms burst into fire, quickly traveling to the orc, filling his mouth and eyes. The wretched being grunted pathetically and fell dead, before blowing away into the snow like so much dust. L's chest heaved as she recovered her senses. Her arms were in a staggering amount of pain, she was also angry at herself for being unable to control her instincts. She did not even unsheathe her sword, which she supposed was a small mercy, because at the moment there was no way she could sheath it again. A sound drew her attention, another legless orc was wildly flailing about a few yards away. She was able to fight down and control herself this time as she drew closer to it. She realized why it was flailing wildly, bugs had burrowed into most of its face, and then froze to death, leaving its face a mangled mess of frozen bugs and holes. L quickly continued on, following an increasing trail of legless, and sometimes faceless orcs, all still alive. She was only able to keep control due to the pain in her arms, and the self-hatred over losing control a short time ago.
She continued following the trail of bodies, although at this point she started to wonder why, clearly the Champion of Vermin had been incapacitating these things easily enough, and she was not even sure her arms would be healed by the time she caught up with him. Although, she figured if worst came to worst, she could throw herself at him and burn them both to frozen ashes. Her power was constantly about to burst forth ever since she crossed into the orc's territory. Although, she wondered why her fire was effective against the orcs, if they had been created to stop the demons from freeing their trapped brother, why did they seem vulnerable to her demonic attacks? Although, on the other hand, her attacks were also destroying her body every time, and she had to assume that was not how demons normally worked. As she pondered her nature, she was suddenly taken by surprise as something crashed directly into her face, knocking her backwards into the snow. L tried to grab the thing and throw it off, but her hands had yet to recover enough for a firm grip. "Oh. It's you." Confusion hit L as hard as... the thing that just threw itself at her. As the being jumped off of her face, she did indeed recognize her. "Luna?
In front of her stood the small fox girl. She was standing on top of the snow, L was fairly certain she was not light enough to do that, but that was not really the biggest concern right now. Her face, especially her mouth, was covered in blood. Her tail had clearly been assaulted by numerous vermin, lacking fur and even skin in many places, and one of her arms hung useless at her side. L was unsure if it was simply out of its socket, or if it was broken somewhere. She also was bleeding heavily out of her left pant leg, and her chest had a claw wound that matched the Ice Orc's claws. "Luna?" L said again, somewhat stupefied that the girl was alive, despite obvious signs she had seen quite a lot of combat since falling into the canyon. Also, she wondered what mechanism was allowing her to survive the cold. "I'm not sure I can take much more damage. We need to get out of here soon or you are going to die to a horde of these monster things. They never die as far as I can tell. If they find us before we leave, I'll sacrifice myself to distract them." As L reeled from Luna's sudden declarations, Luna started walking south. "Oh, and as for the other matter, I killed the Champion of Vermin. I have his letter."
