Have you ever heard of the tale of the Ice Kingdom and its arrival to the island? I’m sure you have. One could say it was tragic, an effort in goodwill that ultimately failed and brought even more destruction to the island than if it had never come in the first place. The kings of rivaling elements going to war, the unleashing of a horrid beast, and a valiant endeavor by the loopers who came together to slay the monster. All common knowledge, if we’re being honest, but I ask you this: has anyone ever told you what happened to the ones that started this all? Their record didn’t end when they lost the fight against The Fire King. In fact, one could say it even entered a new chapter, much like the island itself. This particular story could start any number of places, but why don’t we begin with perhaps two rather unassuming subjects of the frigid nation, who in truth would go on to greatly shape the outcome of the Ice Kingdom through their actions. A woman named Shiver, and a boy called Hypo. Thrown together by the order of The Ice Queen, this cold blooded duo would leave their mark on the island, and the future of it as well. Their legend begins with following a simple rumor. 

Locals of the island speak of the roaming mercenary groups that control many points within the island's snowy regions. They say they were once normal loopers who lived on the island, only to be frozen by the Ice Queen and conscripted into their kingdom’s army to fill their ranks. The only reason they're still here and roaming free is because The Ice Kingdom that was on the island collapsed, leaving them without leadership. Without direction, it seems they took to forming their own group bent on controlling anything frigid enough to suit their needs, though no one can truly be certain why.

With that, the two find themselves just outside one of these rumored forts located on the frontier, where the snow shouldn’t have reached far enough to cover the area wholly, yet did. The base was heavily reminiscent of architecture from Brutal Bastion, organized in a circular fashion with a three tile high wall made of thick stone and padded with reinforced walls surrounding the whole camp aside from a main entrance on one end and large command bunker on the other. Buildings like barracks, vehicle depots, and armories lined up against the wall in fairly neat order, each about two tiles high with roofs mostly connecting. A wide open center allowed for troops and transport to move about freely and easily. This was the standard design for a majority of the bases owned by the roaming frozen legions.

“...I count about thirty-five deserters, at least a dozen of ‘em are this Metal Mouth guy. This fort is freshly occupied, at least judging by the crappy gear and security they have. Wind’s rough, snow’s blowing, heavy clouds in the air, and it’s freezing out here. Perfect weather for an assault.” 

The boy speaking was Hypo, who sat upon a tall snowy hill a good distance away from the base, scouting the area out from inside a bush. On the other hand, his companion was just outside the area, hidden away under a blanket of snow. 

 

“You ready to let loose, Shiver?” 

 

“...” 

 

“I thought as much. In that case, let me help you make an entrance…” 

 

The boy stood up to reveal himself to the world. His skin was a deep navy color, his eyes were a glowing icy blue, while his hair was entirely white. He wore a coat that extended a little past his waist and cargo pants that were colored with arctic camouflage. He wore a white winter hat with a brim and flaps that covered his ears, complete with an emblem of a snowflake on a bull’s eye sign, partially hidden by a pair of goggles strapped to it. Black winter boots and gloves ensured his appendages were well insulated, along with a large pouch attached to his belt on both his left and right side.  

 

He then looked to the clouds above and began inhaling a great gust of air, far beyond anything a normal boy his size could manage, only stopping by his own choice. His chest wasn’t any larger than before, as if he hadn’t even taken a breath in the first place, yet he began exhaling with no issue at all, though instead of air, it came out as a sort of ball of icy energy, with an appearance like that of a frozen sun no larger than a baseball. Once he finished, he examined the ball with satisfaction as it floated in his right hand while pulling out a pair of binoculars with his left. Looking through them, he gained a better view of the camp before he then launched the ball straight towards it. 

 

In a single moment, the base appeared to literally explode as a massive cloud of snow and fog covered the whole area, blinding all inside. The only one who could see clear as day was Shiver, while Hypo could only see general outlines of his targets. 

 

“Start the show, Shiver.” 

 

From underneath the snow she burst forth up into the air, wings extended, eyes focused, and guns drawn. She landed down a slope of snow that she easily began gliding down straight towards the base, jumping over the wall surrounding it and finally ending up inside. She wasted no time at all finding her first target, a Verge standing lost amidst the cloud. She sprinted forward, and pulled out a heavy shotgun. It wasn’t until the very last moment that he was aware of her presence, turning around to find himself facing the barrel of her weapon. With a single pull of the trigger, Shiver blasted his head clean off, leaving his body standing completely still for a few moments before it crumbled with an icy shatter. 

 

Every guard at that point was alerted by the gunfire and turned in her general direction, but could only see flashes of yellow and hear the shattering of ice as Shiver made her way through them one after another. It wasn’t until a minute later that the cloud began clearing somewhat, and the soldiers could make out her outline as she dashed and slid around the area at a wild pace. It was then they could now see she was dual wielding modified sidearm pistols that fired automatically and held more ammo. As she racked up these kills, some could see a cold mist-like aura forming around her, following her every step like a ghost. From this frozen shroud she created razor sharp icicles from thin air with a single squeezing gesture of her hand. These projectiles floated around until she found a target, at which point she thrusted her hand forward and launched the ice directly at her enemy at a breakneck speed. These icicles often impaled whoever was unfortunate enough to be targeted to the nearest surface, if it didn’t outright blast clean through them. 

 

Eventually the air cleared enough for the remaining soldiers to grasp the situation at hand and organize themselves, attempting to create distance from Shiver so they could open fire on her. However, just as some took cover and began lining up a shot, the guards found themselves being rapidly picked off one by one by a sniper far in the distance. 

 

That sniper was none other than Hypo, who had set up his rifle during Shiver’s initial assault. In that rifle he loaded not conventional rounds, but a single long metal syringe instead, filled with glowing icy liquid. That liquid was the source of the bullet-like spikes of ice that zipped through the air and through the heads of anyone in Hypo’s sights. Those that tried to hide away inside buildings would quickly discover that he had a falcon scout above providing recon support for him and Shiver. When he learned of his target’s position inside, Hypo followed up with a blast of arctic energy from his hand right at the building that completely froze the wall it struck. The soldiers who had thought themselves safe would learn very quickly they thought wrong as Hypo’s bullets literally phased through the frozen wall and hit them dead on. Even moving around did little to help them as the bullets seemed to lock onto the guards and hit them with a homing effect. 

 

An assault on both fronts had begun, and the troops of the camp could do little to stop the blitz underway. It seemed like all hope was lost for the defenders, until from the main building rushed out a new squadron of arctic soldiers. A team of Vultures led by a single Sledge, all wielding much better equipment than the rest, complete with a group of drones following them. Hypo and Shiver quickly turned their attention to the new arrivals, with Hypo taking the first shots right at them. To his surprise though, the group seemed to all be equipped with energy shielding, which rendered his initial attacks almost useless. Even worse, a single drone attached to the Sledge activated, floating in place as it began emitting indigo pulses of light that recharged the whole squad’s shields. 

 

Shiver’s attempt to ambush them fared no better as she flung her icicles straight towards the soldiers, only for each of them to be intercepted and destroyed by the drones that followed Sledge’s squad. She went in regardless of her surprise attack failing, unloading both pistols on the leader of the group. She was in awe of how little effect her weapons had on him, as the shield drone quickly focused its power on only him with a strong beam of light that outhealed the damage she was doing. With a single motion of her wings, Shiver quickly launched herself away from them and withdrew back into cover as she became the target of an intense counterattack as all the guards shot at her.

 

“These guys must be the elites. Fully shielded and they’ve got drone support to counter our typical attacks.” Hypo communicated through an earpiece to Shiver. “We need to change up our approach so we…can…what was that?” 

 

Hypo heard the distinct sound of ignition and looked to the sky to see an Anvil Launcher’s missile heading right for him. 

 

“WHAT? THEY KNEW WHERE I WAS TOO?” 

 

Hypo wasted no time flinging himself down the hill, narrowly avoiding the explosion of the rocket. He tumbled hard down the snowy decline, debris flying past him as he regained his posture and continued running. Above, he could hear yet another rocket flying towards him, and this time it seemed he had nowhere to run as he was out in the wide open with only the base’s stone ramparts ahead of him. Yet, in a single second he blasted the wall in front of him with his energy and froze it over, and sprinted right towards it. Much like bullets he fired, Hypo phased right through the wall the same way, just barely avoiding the impact of the second warhead as it shook the whole building. 

 

He stopped for a brief moment to catch his breath before he reached into his coat and pulled out a customized version of Combat SMG, with the stock removed and the barrel shortened, effectively turning it into a one handed gun. Strapped onto both sides of the gun were more syringes of the cold liquid with thin tubes connecting snaking from them to the muzzle. Two Verges walked in at that moment through a side door, guns drawn. They didn’t instantly lock onto him as they entered, which gave Hypo just enough time to leap behind and freeze a table that had been knocked over in the chaos of Shiver’s assault before they started firing. Reaching through his improvised cover with his SMG with one hand while turning a small portion of the ice transparent with the other, he dumped his entire magazine with apparently little control of his gun towards the guards. Yet, instead of missing every single round, a majority of the bullets homed in towards their targets as if they had a mind of their own, riddling the two soldiers with holes and shattering them. A cocky look plastered itself on the boy’s face for a moment as he not only reloaded the magazine but one of the syringes as well, yet the sound of incoming reinforcements brought him back down to reality. He iced over a small portion of a nearby wall and crawled through undetected, looking around cautiously to make sure he was in a safe position. 

 

“...These guys are on a different level. We’re changing our plans, and I’m coming to you.” He whispered into his earpiece.

 

He proceeded to sneak around the building, cautious to avoid the general position of the elite squadron holding the entrance of the main building. Lower ranked guards had begun investigating the insides of the camp in an attempt to find them, walking in pairs of two. Hypo managed to slip by them as he simply walked through walls that he had quietly froze by simply touching them, up until he came upon the room in which Shiver waited. There she stood in the corner silently, eyeing the boy with a coldly indifferent stare. Evidence of a slaughter could be seen as bullet casings littered the place, discarded weapons were strewn about, and piles of snow and ice covered the floor. Hypo went quiet for a moment as seemed to study Shiver before he noticed she had been shot through the stomach. A noticeable growth of the frozen light blue liquid sat where two bullets went through, partially concealed by where Shiver had her arm. 

 

“Can you at least stop playing the quiet game to tell me you’re bleeding out? It actually helps me if you’re alive by the end of this mission.” 

 

“...I’m not bleeding.” 

 

Hypo gave her a stare in three parts. It began with confusion at the statement, then a sudden understanding, followed up by exasperation mixed with disbelief. 

 

“Yeah. Yup. Heh. You’re kind of funny, like that. Three days of complete silence broken and the first thing you do is get technical with me.” Hypo murmured to himself with a half-hearted smile. “...Do you want me to heal you or not?” 

 

She didn’t say anything, instead moving her arm out of the way and fully revealing the wound. 

 

The irritated look on the boy’s face softened a little as he acknowledged her silent request, as if he simply accepted that he was going to continue putting up with her nonsense. From inside one of the pouches he proceeded to manipulate and pull clean water into the air, then consolidating it all into a small ball floating in the palm of his hand. Flexing his hand, but not squeezing the liquid, he proceeded to fill the orb with his energy which created a green aura around the ball. He then distorted the ball back into a stream that drifted into the general area of Shiver’s wound. In mere seconds, the frozen blood was melted and brought back into her body while the bullets fell out and holes closed up without so much as a scar. The only evidence of the injury ever happening were the tears in her clothes. Gingerly, she prodded the previously damaged area with a finger, discovering she felt no pain at all. She then gave Hypo a look that could be described as vaguely impressed and surprised. 

 

“My brother was a medic, you know. A good one. He taught me all sorts of tricks just like that. Sedation, triage, adrenalizing, and more…heh, if only you could have seen him. I bet you’d really be impressed then, a lot more than you are now.” 

 

As expected, this remark led to Shiver reverting back to her standard glare, which he found a little funny. He then held out his arm and made a beckoning gesture towards nothing in particular. Moments later, the scout hawk that had been surveying the area flew in and landed on his arm, then hopped onto a nearby table. Its appearance was more akin to that of a snow owl, though it still remained visibly robotic in design. With a wave of his hand, Hypo made the owl materialize in his hands an Infantry Rifle with the same syringe attachments as his SMG. Along with it, he materialized a Combat Rifle fitted with a red dot sight, which he handed off to Shiver. After he was finished with it, his drone proceeded to rest on the boy’s back quietly. 

 

“We’re changing gear. For whatever reason, that Sledge and his team are dug in at the entrance to that building, and won’t let us push up any further. That’s why these new guns should help you poke at them and help me snipe those annoying ass drones, and after that we just kill them. I know this plan isn’t the fastest way of doing this, but it’s the safest for me, and for you. Now then, it’s time for a little blinding and blasting.” 

 

Hypo then proceeded to freeze the wall in front of him before taking a deep breath and blowing a massive gust of icy fog through it, which covered the entire area, including where the elite squadron was. 

 

“And just like that, the stage is set, all for you.” Hypo said, giving her an amused smile while he presented the door to her. “Go knock ‘em dead.”  Resolution filled Shiver’s eyes as she walked through the door and into the open. Ahead of her she could see the guards attempting to see through the cloud to no avail, aimlessly pointing their rifles in any direction they saw fit. The only direction they weren’t looking was upwards, which was exactly where she went as unfurled her wings and launched herself upwards. 

 

The soldiers could not have anticipated a barrage of bullets coming at them from almost straight above them, sending them into disarray as they scattered for cover, except for the Sledge who stood his ground. He was the first to fire back, aiming up into the sky, though he missed entirely as Shiver had already changed places after firing. The only way they could locate her at this point was by tracing back where the bullets came from, which hardly worked as she assaulted them with quick bursts before swooping off to a different spot. However, the fact was that no matter how many shots she fired, she never managed to kill any of the group due to the drone maintaining their shields, nor could they kill her since she was engaging in excellent guerilla tactics. Eventually, the soldiers began shooting erratically into the air in an attempt to at least land a hit on her, walking out into the open in frustration for how long the fight was dragging on. 

 

Shiver’s excellent applying of pressure was thanks in part to another one of her unique skills that allowed her to keep up the assault with virtually no downtime. From the same coat of mist that she had launched her spikes from, emerged ghostly hands that aided her in various ways, including replacing empty magazines. She would unload all her bullets from her rifle, then lower it to the right side of her waist while she switched to one of her pistols using her left hand. The mist hands would then pull out a fresh magazine from her cargo pockets and reload for her, keeping both her rifle and pistol topped up as she swapped between the two. 

 

Shiver had done her job, and watched as Hypo did his. Due to the constant volleys being thrown up and down, no one was able to discern the sound of an infantry rifle being fired, nor did they notice the bullets whizzing by until it was too late. One by one, the drones were all destroyed. All, except for the one that provided shields, as Hypo discovered when his bullet bounced clean off it much to his annoyance. 

 

“Tch. Whatever, that’s good for now. Shiver! Drop ‘em!” 

 

At his order, Shiver landed on the roof of one of the buildings and left her rifle with one of her mist hands, then pulled out two grenades from another one of her pockets. After this, she launched herself back into the air and hovered about the elites, at which point the mist hands pulled the pins for her as she tossed the grenades down below. None of the guards were able to move in time as the bombs went off, shattering many of the lesser soldiers in one go. On the other hand, most of Sledge’s squadron had survived the attack, though left greatly disoriented and their shields broken. Shiver used that to her advantage and quickly followed up with her icicle ability before their drone could kick into action, launching ten brutal spikes straight down. In the matter of seconds, most of the Vultures were killed off, leaving only Sledge and a weary few of his troops remaining. They began a retreat back inside the main building in a bid to regroup themselves and perform a last stand. Shiver would not allow that to happen.

 

She flew high into the air and conjured up more spikes to finish off the group for good, yet something had caught her eye before she could release them. A single shell moving slowly through the air, which unleashed a single pulse of turquoise light which passed through the whole area. Moments later, a round from a Proximity Grenade Launcher flew right towards her at an unusually high speed, giving Shiver almost no time to evade. Despite her best effort, she was still in its range as it went off, knocking her out of the sky and back down to the base. She managed to avoid a rough landing with a well timed beat of her wings, but a second shell from the PGL followed immediately after that she took head on, sending her tumbling across the ground towards Hypo. The smog from the detonation allowed him the chance to drag her behind cover and into a doorless room before the enemy could spot them. He then sealed off the room by creating his own ice from the ground and using it to form walls that filled the doorways.

 

Peering through a wall, he waited for smoke from the explosion to clear before finally being able to identify the new attackers. Standing in front of the main building was a trio of frozen men: A Warpaint, a Battlehawk, and a Riptide. Unique from the rest, these particular few were of the Black Ice variant, and brought with them rare and high end equipment. 

 

“This is bad. Real bad. Black Ice...my family told me they were one of the Queen’s finest creations, just a handful of them were as effective as one of the King’s Guard.” Hypo thought to himself, his heart beginning to race. “This is serious trouble for us, Shiver. So long as they have that launcher and scanner, they’ve got us countered…we might have to retreat. Shiver?” 

 

He turned around to see she was still laying in the same spot he had left her and unresponsive. The boy ordered his owl to keep watch while he hurried over to the Shiver to check up on her. She was unmoving and her eyes remained closed. Fearing the worst, he lowered his ear to her chest and listened. He let out a small sigh of relief when he heard a heartbeat, though it was slow and somewhat weak. He came to the conclusion that she was simply unconscious and seriously injured, but alive nonetheless. The two shots from the PGL had done a number on her body, yet the many wounds she had sustained had automatically been frozen over. Her jacket had been scorched, her hat blown away, her hair a mess, her wings had been shredded, and one of her horns had been broken off. 

 

“Even by the standards of a demon, it’s scary to think she can take all this damage and still keep living…no wonder she was once in the kingdom’s elite.” He thought to himself. “...And I’m the one who has to fix her up alone.” 

 

He then pulled out a small, somewhat worn out black book from the inside of his coat and opened it up. He flipped through a few pages filled with images showing techniques involving the healing water he used, and the motions to make with his arms and hands, along with scribbled in texts. 

 

“...but Eli taught me all I needed to know. I can do this.” 

 

From his satchel he pulled what looked to be the rest of the healing water, which his owl automatically replaced with a fresh canister. He then morphed the formless pool into an orb about the size of a basketball that he held with both hands above his head. Actually touching the water this time, he imbued the ball with his energy which had a green glow stronger than before, with little emerald wisps floating inside. He then pulled his hands out, which created an individual stream that followed each hand as he walked over to Shiver. He then knelt down before the woman and made a motion as if he were pushing her, only to stop just short of touching her, which caused the water to rapidly flow into her. A glowing white aura formed around her body as the process began, her injuries disappearing by the second. A great strain fell upon Hypo as he focused on controlling the water, sweat beginning to form on his brow, his breath turning growing ragged, and a serious glare contorting his face. This continued up until the very last drop of liquid had been used, at which point he staggered backwards off his knee and fell down, and found himself staring at the ceiling. 

 

A weary smile slowly crept across his face as he caught his breath. “That sucked…so much…but still…I actually did it…all by myself this time.” Moments later, he sat himself back up and checked on her. Though still unconscious, she was back in good health. “They found us yet?” The boy asked his owl. It gave him a mechanical coo in response.

 

“More of them?!” He whispered in an alarmed manner as he crawled over to the wall. There he saw another group of soldiers arriving, numbering more than two dozen, with what looked to be an armored truck mounted with a turret just behind them. Two more Sledges and a solid outfit of standard frozen guards were being ordered around by the Riptide, all armed with high end guns as they began searching the area. 

 

“Damn…we’re outnumbered and outgunned. It’s a miracle they haven’t used that scanner device again, but there’s no telling when that’ll change. We gotta get out of here now. There’s no way we can win this…” He muttered to himself, only beginning to trail off in his thoughts as his eyes wandered over to Shiver, who seemed to be unconscious and seriously wounded. “No way…unless…” 

 

For a few moments, he found himself in a silent debate, his stare set intently on the woman before him, until he came to a sudden conclusion. He tapped his owl on the head, which caused it to begin floating in front of him. From there, he pressed a button on its stomach, creating a small black digital screen in the air that he navigated through. Most of the icons seen on the display were colored in orange, purple, blue, or green. Only one icon didn’t follow that pattern, which is exactly what the boy had been looking for as his finger stopped on a bright red symbol. He didn’t press it immediately though. He simply stared at it, his heart beginning to race and his hand shaking. 

 

“I don’t want to die…but at least she’ll give me a fighting chance. Years of training, learning, fighting and living…all just to come to this…I'm betting it all on her. A mad killer…and my best chance to make it out of here alive.” He thought to himself before a small smile grew on his face. “...I know there’s at least someone up above cheering me on.” 

 

With a deep breath taken, he pressed the icon. The second he did, a small needle emerged from the mouth area of the owl, which he pricked his thumb on to provide a blood sample. It emitted a positive sounding noise, then prompted him with a message that read ‘Authorize?’ 

 

“I authorize.” 

 

The owl’s eyes went red as it materialized in the air a long blade handle of a dual sided weapon, though no actual blades could be found. The grip was found in the center of the shaft, colored completely black, while on either end were metallic white end caps that bore the same evil eyed insignia that was found on Shiver’s clothes. The one major difference about the emblems on the weapon was that they were glowing a dim crimson. Hypo seemed to swallow his fears as he laid eyes upon the piece. 

 

“The Frozen Rage…amazing…even after all this time being stored away…I can still feel the power radiating off of it.” He whispered, in a mix of both awe and uneasiness. In a cautious manner, he reached towards the treasure as slowly as possible, until he grasped it with a remarkable tenderness. 

 

“It’s warm…I can feel it through my glove how warm it is…it feels right…” He murmured to himself. “I feel stronger just holding it…how could they just lock this thing up. Someone has to use it…someone who cares…and I’m the only one who was thoughtful enough to retrieve, so…isn’t it mine? Yeah…it is. It’s mine now. Mine to keep…mine to use.” 

 

The boy’s eyes began to glaze over as he gripped the weapon tighter, channeling his energy into it. Whispers from voices unseen and unknown crept into his head, and his vision seemed to grow dark. A blade of deep black ice began to grow from one of the ends, wide and jagged and short, like a huntsman’s knife. He inspected it with indifference, seeing his cold gaze in the ice before lowering the weapon and turning towards the still unconscious woman on the floor. Hypo stared at her for a moment. 

 

“She’s going to try and take this back once she wakes up. I know she will. She’d kill me to get this back…and I don’t want to die.” 

 

He then walked over to where she laid and knelt down, and raised the knife up high. With a violent stare and deep breaths, his vision seemed to turn red as he prepared to strike, the power of the weapon filling his mind. Just before he could though, his owl landed directly on his head from above, causing him to drop the blade from the impact. His eyes gradually returned to normal seconds later, and the first thing he did was grab his head in pain as he took his hat off to massage the injury. 

 

“Ow…ow…ow…Iggy, what just happened…?”

 

The owl walked across the floor and stood next to the blade and gave a short, mechanical hoot. 

 

“I lost it…?’ He muttered in confusion before he looked around and saw he stood before Shiver, noticing the knife next to her. He took a look at his hands as his eyes went wide in realization, shaking his head in disbelief as he stepped away from them both. “You’re right. I really did lose my mind for a second. Oh my God. It was just a haze a minute ago but now I remember it perfectly. I didn’t even feel the change happen, I just thought I was handling it well…the Frozen Rage really is a cursed weapon. Iggy, I change my mind. I want that thing back in storage, no way I wanna risk it getting back to her now. Not after seeing what it can do.” 

 

The owl obliged and dematerialized the weapon back into its inventory, then hopped onto Hypo’s back.  

 

“Those guys still haven’t located us yet. I’m waking her up and then we are leaving. We’ll figure out the rest when we aren’t totally surrounded.” 

 

He then pulled out a needle filled with an orange liquid and injected her with it. Her eyes shot open and she immediately grabbed Hypo by the collar of his coat as she took in her surroundings, breathing heavily.  

 

“...How long have I been out?” She asked him, staring into his eyes. 

 

“Nine minutes at the most. Now let go of me so we can get out of here.” He told her with an irritated look on his face. She released him without further question, standing up and gathering her weapons and checking herself out with one of the reflective ice walls. 

 

“...Are we really retreating?” 

 

“Yeah. Sorry to say I’d rather not die, and I’m not in the mood to try any risky plans either.” 

 

She didn’t say a word, staring at him silently. 

 

“In case you didn’t know, we’re completely surrounded. Not a chance we could fight our way outta this one and come out alive. Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself.” Hypo told her as he stood up and walked to one of the walls, placing one hand on it. He then looked at Shiver, beckoning her over. “Seriously, come look. They’re everywhere. We’re lucky they haven-” 

 

As soon as the boy had turned the ice transparent enough for him to see through, he found himself staring at a line up of soldiers standing no more than twenty feet away from him, weapons at the ready. Behind them was the Riptide, who was holding a device in one hand. Looking up from it, he locked eyes with Hypo for a moment, and then raised his arm up. The boy’s eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen. 

 

“IGGY DEPLOY SHIELDS” He screamed as he dove to the ground, his owl right next to him. A deafening barrage of metal and fire ripped through the walls of the room, just barely blocked in time as Iggy spread his wings and created a bubble barrier around the boy. A brief period of about ten seconds felt more like minutes to Hypo as he laid curled up on the ground with his eyes closed. Only when the gunfire quieted down did he open his eyes, where he realized Shiver was kneeling next to him, relatively unphased by the assault. She then grabbed him by his arm and pulled him up, and looked him in the eyes.

 

“Smoke the area. Cover our escape.” 

 

He nodded his head and took a deep breath as quickly as he could and then exhaled, filling the shield bubble up with a dense shroud of smoke. He then picked Iggy up, which deactivated the barrier, causing a misty explosion that clouded the area. Shiver wasted no time at all running off through one of the side doors that led to another room, leaving Hypo to scramble after her as the soldiers blindly fired inside.

 

“I’ll freeze this wall, we can retreat through there!” He shouted as he made it into the next room, pointing at a particularly sturdy part of the infrastructure that would certainly be hard for anyone to knock down. However, as soon as he tried to generate energy to freeze over a wall, he felt an immense wave of fatigue wash over him. He barely caught himself on a nearby table as he lost his balance, a weary dread filling his mind. Shiver only glanced over at him as she stopped running, taking cover behind a metal pillar in the center of the room. 

 

“I…I used up too much of my power…I…I need my stim…” He groaned as he reached into his pocket and pulled out another syringe filled with orange liquid. He injected it into his wrist, which made his body seize up momentarily and gasp for air as he took the shock of sudden revitalization, before falling to knees. “I feel like I'm burning up…everything is so hot…but at least I'm not tired anymore.” He opened and closed his hand a few times and nodded to himself. “My abilities are recharging for sure…not as fast as I’d like, but it's something.”

 

He then reached back towards the wall and began to freeze it over, but before he could complete the process, the distinct sound of a recon scanner being fired echoed through the air, and once again a bright white pulse of light passed through the whole area. A second later, a guard appeared in the doorway and shot at him, landing a solid group of shots on Hypo that was almost completely blocked by his overshield, save for once round breaking his shield and another actually hitting him. The surprise of the attack caused him to fall to the ground, which was in his favor as the sudden shift in position resulted in the rest of the enemy’s attack missing, allowing Hypo to whip out his gun and shred the soldier with ease. He rolled up his left sleeve to check out his wound, seeing the bullet had gone clean through his left forearm, and the hole was already frozen over and beginning to heal itself up, albeit quite slowly. Shiver began opening fire in other directions as well as seemingly the whole frozen battalion began pushing in on their position. One after another the troops moved in, firing through the windows, eventually even blowing a hole in the wall as they found more avenues of attack on the duo, pushing them to the edge as Hypo tried to generate energy to freeze the wall over. 

 

“Iggy! What’s your barrier charge at!” 

 

*hoot*

 

“Damn! Only a few seconds left…! Shiver! Get over here!” 

 

She slipped around cover, firing as she moved along until she reached the now crouching boy, giving him an expectant look. 

 

“We don’t have a big window before we get overwhelmed! Iggy can only cover us for a few seconds before his shield goes back down, and my energy isn’t high enough for me to freeze the wall over in one go! I need you to get them off my back until I get started, then once Iggy gets his shield up we make a run for it!”

 

She gave him a quick nod and stood back up, unloading both pistols and throwing spikes towards the hostile legion, while Hypo placed both hands on the wall and focused his strength. As she continued the fight, she peeked over her shoulder every few seconds to see it was turning to ice, slowly but surely. Shiver’s only trouble with holding off the attackers was her running out of ammo, resorting back to her rifle in the midst of combat. She didn’t seem to hesitate to use guns from the fallen either, using her mist hands to snag any nearby weapons and engaging in fire and forget tactics, with a dozen emptied firearms landing by the boy by the time the enemy had changed up tactics to deal with the duo. In a single moment, eight grenades were flung inside the room in random spots. Hypo snapped around, a look of panic in his eyes. 

 

“Grenades!? IGGY! SHIELD US!” 

 

Shiver slid right into safety just as the explosives went off all at once, a massive ball of smoke and fire flooding out of the building, leaving everyone blind for a few seconds. The owl’s protective capabilities proved itself once again as the two were saved from any harm the detonation caused, but now they were left without any shielding, and the smoke was beginning to clear while the troops made one more attack. In a last ditch effort, Hypo quickly created a small wall of ice to protect himself for a few seconds with his other hand while he finished up freezing over a small enough portion of the wall for him to slip through. 

 

“SHIVER! WE ARE LEAVING! NOW!”  

 

She wasted no time ducking around the barrage of incoming gunfire and jumping through the frozen wall, leaving Hypo to follow her. Yet, just as he turned around to pick up his owl and escape, the Warpaint and Battlehawk had made their appearance as well, the latter carried the PGL, and the former held a rapid fire Tactical AR. In an instant, a shell from the PGL blew away the barricade the boy had set up, causing him to lose his balance for a second, which was just enough time for the Battlehawk to unload a magazine into him. His overshield blocked only half the shots before breaking. 

 

Eleven bullets pierced through the boy’s body, burning steel that took away his life with each hit. His breath left him in an instant, his mind emptied. His eyes glazed over in pain and shock, his limbs almost entirely locked up, his mouth slightly agape. By a sheer will to live, his body moved on its own, staggering through the wall mindlessly. 

 

For a single second, a look of concern crossed Shiver before she simply watched him with a cold, stoic stare. She watched as he rested his back on the wall. She watched as he slowly sat down. As the emotion seemed to drain from his face. As his body relaxed more and more. As he seemed to be giving up. As his eyes came to a close.  She watched in complete silence and inaction. With her own two eyes, she had just watched Hypo die.

 

Or so she thought. 

 

A spark of some sort would not let death take him, whether it be physical, spiritual, or some combination of both. His eyes opened once more and his hand fought against the weakness enveloping him, barely able to create the motions necessary to pull the water from his satchel out in flow into his body. She could see him faintly grit his teeth while his eyes glared at something far beyond anyone’s sight, his brow furrowed as he struggled for his life. Gradually, strength returned to his body as he forced himself back into better health, sweat pouring down his head while he moved his limbs more and more. His heavy breathing could be heard between grunts of pain as bullets fell out of him, his body undergoing massive amounts of change in less than a minute. A stream shining with a jade aura flowed into his body, mending him wholly as he articulated his fingers to guide the water until the last drop had gone inside him. Once he was finished, he let out a long, weary, and frustrated breath of air and rested against the wall, now staring straight up into the sky. 

 

“I’m so tired…” He mumbled to himself sleepily. “I really can’t go on…I don’t want to deal with any of this anymore. I give up.”

 

He then looked to Shiver and weakly beckoned with a nod of his head for her to come to him, which she quietly complied to as she walked over. He then proceeded to press a few buttons on Iggy, which spawned in the Frozen Rage. He then grabbed it with his hand, now seemingly too exhausted to fall victim to the evil influence it had, and presented it to Shiver. As soon as she laid eyes upon it, she simply went still. She was stunned, dazed even. Her mouth was open ever so slightly as if she were trying to find something to say. Her gaze was intense, locked completely onto the relic before her. Whether or not she was aware of it, her wings had begun to unfurl themselves and her horns slowly grew taller and sharper. 

 

“...Take it. I don’t care anymore…only way we’re getting out of here is through you anyways…I’ll just deal with it when I wake up...” 

 

As slow as the boy before her did, she took the hilt in her hands and grasped it tightly. She didn’t even seem to notice Hypo slumping to the side as her gaze locked onto her reclaimed weapon. She wasted no time at all circulating her power through it, instantly creating not a simple knife like Hypo did, but a full dual bladed sword as intended, the ice this time a shimmering sapphire. Whispers of the weapon’s influence soon began creeping into her head, growing louder and clearer by the second, yet she remained entirely unphased, her once awestruck face now returning back to its usual stoicism. 

 

The whispers then ceased all at once, and what replaced it was a low, guttural, and heinous sounding voice that spoke to her. 

 

“It has been far too long since we’ve been reunited, master.” 

 

“...So it has.” She responded. 

 

“I have gone far too long without use, I have seen no bloodshed, no violence, no war. I must have my thirst quenched. I must be satisfied. I want that boy’s blood first. His lineage has kept me imprisoned for all this time, only he was foolish enough to free me for a brief few seconds, only to send me back into the darkness when he could not handle my strength.” 

 

She didn’t answer, but turned her attention to Hypo, now asleep. She aimed her sword at him, and extended the cold blade further and further out until it was up against his neck, and simply held it there. She stared at the boy with no emotion in her face for seconds that dragged on far longer than normal before retracting the sword. 

 

“Why do you not end his life now? He is a threat to you, a hindrance to your freedom, a leash to your power, when he wakes he will be the one to imprison us again…he cannot be trusted. Kill him now.” The voices hissed. “His attempt to wield me almost led him to finishing you off at your weakest, he is a feeble child. He is no use to us now. Do not tell me you have lost your lethal edge after all this time, that my master has been dulled by the world around her?” 

 

“...I am the one who controls you. I decide who you kill. I will not let a simple sentence in a dungeon wither away neither my skills nor my discipline.” Shiver said in a calm, low tone as she looked off into the distance beyond the hills ahead of her. “As much as I would love to get rid of this kid and attempt an escape, I know better than anyone how that ends for me. You want destruction? You can have your fill with the ones on the other side of this wall. Show me that you remain as sharp as the day I lost my battle.” 

 

“...As you wish, master. Let us rampage once more.” The demonic voice murmured in an unsatisfied, but submissive tone.

 

Shiver held the grip in both of her hands and raised it in front of herself, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. Her wings opened all the way, now revealing glowing veins of energy within them and an endless downpour of mist coming off of them. Her tail now burned alight with chilling blue flame, with her hands, feet, wings, and horns gaining the same affliction. Massively ghostly arms appeared next to her, with her normal mist hands appearing in their usual spot, grabbing her pistols. Finally, twisting both ends of the hilt in opposite ways, she split the weapon in half, now dual wielding them. 

 

With a beat of her wings, she launched high into the sky and quickly spotted the frozen legion waiting below, who soon took notice of her. She chose not to fire either her ice spikes or her guns, but instead wrapped her wings around herself and dove straight towards the center of the group like a meteorite, the flames around her growing more intense the closer she got. Neither their bullets nor explosives could stop her, and they couldn’t move in time to avoid the impact as she landed, creating a massive explosion that unleashed a storm of crystalline shrapnel that shredded all within its range to pieces. Many more soldiers remained who were either in cover or at a safe distance revealed themselves, taking aim at her from all directions. She wouldn’t give them the chance to take an easy shot as she catapulted herself towards the ones on the second floor of the base out in the open. With a single swing of her blades, she cut troops clean in half, one after another, closing every gap she made in their ranks in the blink of an eye. Nostalgia filled her mind as enthusiasm slowly grew on her face, memories of a world she had once left coming back to her. 

 

“It feels nice to let loose…like things are back to the way they should have been…” She thought, continuing the massacre through the base. Soon enough the mist hands joined in the action, using her pistols to frightful effect without having to lay a finger on them. The few times that the enemy were able to fire off at her were effortlessly blocked by the large ghost arms that stopped the bullets mid-air and simply held them in an ever increasing clump of metal floating inside its hand. Oddly enough there were times that it did let rounds slip through its guard, almost if by intention, that struck her in non-vital areas, which only seemed to make her move faster and hit harder. Eventually though she could hear the enemy calling for something, and they retreated momentarily, with two turret equipped trucks driving into the base seconds later. 

 

The mounted machine guns used heavier caliber shells than what she had been dealing with, the bullets hardly being slowed down by the giant hand’s grasp. She wasted no time backing away out of their line of sight, then gaining some momentum with a running start back towards them as she flew up into the sky and flung the now frozen balls of metal at one of the trucks and massive ice spikes towards the other, crushing them beyond repair. She landed and found troops now retreating into the center building where the Sledge had originally taken refuge, now bunkering down a last stand. She simply smirked and dashed straight towards them, with incoming bullets being deflected away by her guardian hands as she brought down a flurry of blade swings upon, slaughtering the rest with relative ease and complete joy. She spotted an injured soldier crawling away towards the exit, and a malicious smile crossed her face. With both of her massive ghost hands, she picked him up and held him high above herself, watching him helplessly struggle to break free for a moment before she ripped him in half and brutally crushed the split up body to a powder. It was at the exact moment she was in revel of the kill that a wave of overwhelming power washed over her, and from her blades emerged wispy streams of translucent dark energy that snaked its way up along her arms and to her head. 

 

She resisted the darkness for a single moment before succumbing to it, and collapsing to the ground. A brief period of silence passed before she opened her eyes once more, and stood up, surveying the area around her, then looking over her body, then inspecting her hands. 

 

“...You let your guard down, Master. You indulged me far too much, and had too much fun. You’ve never bothered to hold back, and once again you’ve paid the price. It’s my time to be free once again.” She said with a smirk. The Frozen Rage had taken over her body entirely. She flew up into the air and found one last wave of the ice legion had been mustered to take her down, all the soldiers in position and waiting for her to strike. 

 

“They will all make a fine challenge for my first time back in this body.” She said, her flame covered wings stretching all the way out. With that, she dived down to sow destruction one last time.

 

When the battle was finished, she found herself standing amidst nothing but piles of glistening snow, cold firearms, and complete silence aside from her own heavy breathing. After some time, she calmed down and reconnected her blades and let the weapon hang alongside her waist. This seemed to have an effect of taking her out of a powered up state as the amount of mist she was producing decreased drastically, the flames on her body went out, her wings and horns shrunk back down, and both her giant and small mist hands dissipated. Despite all that, the dark stream of power remained connected to her all the same.

 

“The battle is done, yet there I can sense a great energy below this place…something for me to take…” The demon whispered. “Something very powerful...something that boy didn’t want me near. How unfortunate for him he isn’t here to stop me.”

 

She then followed her senses to the main building, where she now found a set of stairs leading underground. 

 

Quiet, poorly lit, and using a rather out of place stone infrastructure, the underground area seemed to be a long hallway with no side paths or doors, simply a straight path into darkness. Her eyes gave her an advantage of being able to see in the dark, though it didn’t change much as nothing awaited her. Eventually though after a few minutes she felt an unusually powerful aura ahead of her, which caught her attention and led to her staring far ahead, now spotting what looked like a massive stone door with a split down the middle. She approached it, and as soon as she came close enough, one of her mist hands moved by themselves and touched the door, causing it to open. As soon as it did, a blinding cyan light flooded out and illuminated the entire area, forcing her to cover her eyes for a moment until her sight adjusted. 

 

“A useful find, indeed. Let’s see how much power I can gain from this…”

 

The stone door shut behind her and sealed the area off once more as she walked into the room the soldiers had died protecting.

 

When Hypo awoke, he found himself halfway buried in snow but otherwise completely refreshed. Without a word, he stood up and dusted himself off and looked around. He summoned Iggy to his side with a simple gesture, watching as the owl popped up from the snow as well. 

 

“...How long have I been out?” 

 

*hoot* 

 

“Ten minutes isn’t a long time…but knowing how skilled Shiver is…I’m sure she’s taken the chance to run. At least we’ll find her no matter how far she runs. Activate the tracker.” 

 

*ho-hoot* 

 

Pulling his goggles from the top of his hat to his eyes, a minimap appeared in the corner of his sight and a digital pathway materialized ahead of him leading straight ahead.

 

“What the…? She’s…underground…? Through the main building, huh? Let’s go.” 

 

Onwards he trekked, walking through the aftermath of Shiver’s work, seeing nothing but destruction left in her wake. Still wary, he kept his head on a swivel for any remaining attackers who she might have missed in her rampage, though at the same time he still kept a lax stride. It wasn’t until Iggy hooted at something and alerted the boy that he found the only hostile remaining sat against a wall in a grim state: the Riptide commander. His left shoulder and everything below was entirely missing, both of his legs appeared to be almost entirely shattered, bullet holes riddled his torso, and a small but noticeable chunk of his head was missing. In his remaining hand was a glowing crystal of some sort that he held tightly, with a discarded pistol sitting further away. Yet despite all this, the Riptide was still able to spot the boy approaching him and look him in the eyes, though it was clear he had accepted his fate and was no longer willing to fight. 

 

“You…you’re just a kid, aren’t you?” He asked. His voice was raspy and worn out, yet still possessed a sort of sharpness to it. He didn’t bother moving his head when he spoke, he simply looked at the boy with his remaining eye. 

 

“Yeah. I am.” He said calmly

 

“...A child soldier…how far the kingdom has fallen…sending boys out to die in raids like this.” 

 

“...Yeah…I guess I never gave it too much thought, how I even ended up here. All I know is I’m here to retrieve what you guys might have been keeping here…something powerful that’s been letting you keep this insurgency up. Nothing more, nothing less.” Hypo responded, looking almost wistful at the notion of where he was.

 

“You call what we’re doing a mere insurgency…but I can tell you don’t understand. All you’ve been told is that we’re seeking to claim the lands we find by force…to call ourselves lords of war, to show we do not need the Queen. The truth is, we fight for a brand new hope for the Kingdom’s future. Something so valuable that the Queen is willing to cut loose a demon like Shiver just to get rid of us.” He said, cracks beginning to spread from the missing chunk of his head.” 

 

“What…? You know who Shiver is?” Hypo asked, mildly surprised. 

 

“So that’s what she calls herself now...yeah, I knew about Shiver and all those elites. Elites just like you.” 

 

“That would mean you’re…you’ve been here since the death of the king at least…” 

 

“I am an old soldier. I served this kingdom even before we came to the island, and I was there to watch it all fall apart firsthand. Today I fought knowing exactly what I- what we are willing to die for because I’ve been here for so long. The Queen doesn’t even trust you, her most elite troops, with what her true plans are…it's why her leadership is rotting from within.” 

 

This seemed to grab Hypo’s attention as he furrowed his brow thinking about what Riptide said, squinting his eyes in an attempt to discern if he was being misdirected. He looked around, then checked his map to see Shiver was still in the same place. He then looked back to the Riptide with a cautious, but curious gaze.

 

“...What do you mean by her plans? She sent us to clear out this place and investigate for some powerful weapon you were rumored to have before you could use it to take over this whole area…that’s what you were doing with this camp…that's what she told us.” He said, looking almost unsure. 

 

“As I thought, you really are lost in this whole mess…regardless, my words alone wouldn’t be enough to move you...if you really intend to uncover the truth for yourself…go to our safe room.” He answered him, his other arm falling off completely, though the crystal it held continued to glow regardless. 

 

“You called it a new hope for the kingdom…I don’t understand, the Queen abandoned all of you…what could possibly convince you to try and hel-” He began questioning with a look of concern.

 

“Listen to me.” Riptide interrupted the boy. “My men have been slaughtered, my fort has been raided, and my body is decaying by the second. I do not have long to live…so listen to me…if you really want to know the truth…why my men fight, why the Queen strives to wipe us out, what lies in store for the future of the kingdom…enter our vault. Only then will you begin to understand…go now. Go before the rest of her forces come to seize it and lock it away forever.” 

 

“...How are you able to put all your faith into me?” Hypo asked, with an almost desperate look in his eyes as he tried to make sense of what was happening.

 

“...Call it an old man’s hunch.” Riptide told him. “I’ve been at this longer than you can imagine, and served alongside just about every great soldier in the old kingdom…I know a thing or two about you. Once you take that first step, you’ll be on your way to understanding what’s going on here...a kid like you deserves the chance to find his own way. You deserve to learn for yourself. Go on…make your own choice. It’s your life today.” He said, his body beginning to completely crumble to pieces. Hypo began to walk away to the underground vault when Riptide uttered one last thing. 

 

“Remember us, Hypo…we are an unstoppable force…we will save this kingdom…” 

 

With that, Riptide fell apart into just another pile of snow and ice. The area had now fallen completely silent, the base now just another empty ruin. All that remained was the glowing crystal which broke apart seconds later, releasing a ghostly wisp into the air. Hypo looked back one last time, heavy-hearted dismay on his face as he stared at what may have been one of the last remnants of the old kingdom, a man who knew far more about the world around him than he did. However his last wish for him to find the vault echoed in his head, and once more Hypo mustered up the strength to move on. Before he did though he took one look to the sky and spoke to himself. 

 

“Shiver is already down there with the Frozen Rage, huh…guess I know what comes next, then. Iggy, get the set up ready and give me my toolkit. I’ll be heading down there in a bit.” 

 

Onwards he walked into the building with a duffel bag, down the stairs, through the dark halls, and up to the monumental door. It was at this point that he dropped his duffel bag and opened it up and began fiddling with items inside for a period. Once he was finished, he simply left the bag behind, tucked a small remote in his jacket, and walked up to the door and placed his hand on it with a freezing effect. Once more it grinded open, flooding the area with light that rendered him unable to see for a second, though his goggles helped mitigate the effect greatly. When he eventually did open his eyes there he found what had lied beneath the camp this whole time: A large rift, teeming with energy. 

 

A quiet hum emanated from it, along with the distant echoes of what sounded like a factory of some sort, with the marching of boots and the chatter of men spliced in as well. It was twice as large as he was, suspended in the air, and spinning slowly around. Standing before it he could see Shiver from behind, highlighted in orange due to his visor tracking on her, though he took them off to get a better look at her. She was staring directly at it, unmoving, and in her hands was her sword now split into two and siphoning off the energy from the rift directly into her hands. 

 

“Shiver.” He called out to her, to a creeping response as she turned towards him after a few seconds in a slow manner. A somewhat frustrated gaze took over him as he realized that her weapon had finally won its influence over her. Her face was now emblazoned with cubic runes that emanated with red light, her eyes now held an icy glow, and snaking alongside her body were the streams of darkness that directly stemmed from her swords, now with a more solid shape. Demonic whispering could be heard throughout the room, all of it entirely unintelligible.

 

“I should tell you now, I found it rather pitiful the way she didn’t want to kill you when I asked.” Shiver said, though it was clear she was possessed at this point. “I always wondered if it would ever be possible to take her body for my own, but when she refused to spill your blood, I knew that the time had come. She had been locked away for so long she simply lost her killing intent, her will, everything that had once made her so feared. She was simply a shadow of her former self. Today though, I shall rectify that or she will die trying…starting with you, the boy whose brother had me locked away for so long.” 

 

“It’s kind of funny…my brother actually taught me all about what you were, and how much you resented him, and that the one time you break free and gain your power back, he’s already long gone…” 

 

“A shame. I would have enjoyed taking my revenge on him. No matter anymore, though. You’ll just have to do for now.” The demon said, spreading her wings and getting ready to dash towards Hypo. 

 

“You know, for a demon as old as you are, you sure don’t seem to get it. Why do you think I’m even here with Shiver in the first place?” 

 

“...I am fully aware of who you are. I know your face. I know your brother. I know. That’s why I want you dead. That’s all I have been striving for since you unvaulted me.” Shiver acknowledged with an amused smirk. “I just find it comical that you believe that you can put up a fight before I kill you.” 

 

“I sure do…and one of the first things I learned about dealing with you…” Hypo said as he pulled out a remote from his jacket. “Is to make some space.” 

 

The demon dashed right towards him as the boy spoke, however just before she could reach him, he activated the remote and disappeared into thin air, leaving the demon confused. It tried rushing through the door and into the hall, only to find that it wouldn’t budge open. Unbeknownst to her, what had been in that duffel bag were a variety of tools Hypo had used to impede her movement, including numerous tethers that now locked the stone gate shut after he pressed the button. 

 

Up above Hypo emerged from out of nowhere and onto a pad that Iggy had been hooked up to and left waiting. 

 

“Another successful jump. Hopefully the traps I left for her down there buy us some time, but let's start moving like they won't!” Hypo shouted as he took off his coat and tossed it to the side, revealing a simple white long sleeve shirt underneath. Before him lay a plethora of weapons, gear, and items that Iggy had prepared for him to use in his predicted battle against Shiver.. Of the things he took, it included a grapple glove for each hand, a few cans of chili chug splash, a modified and downsized version of the guardian shield, a full set of boogie bombs and smoke grenades, a few decoys, and finally a hefty looking dart pistol with a canister of liquid on the side. Most unique of them all was a small hardback book filled to the brim with notes that he opened up and studied briefly before putting away.  He messed with his right grappler and removed the actual glove component, revealing his bare hand that he opened and closed a few times before exerting some energy through it. 

 

“It’s so strange…half an hour ago I was scared of even getting shot at, and now here I am, pumping myself to fight one of the Queen’s most violent prisoners…you have any idea how that happens?” 

 

*hoot hoot* 

 

“Heh…hahahah! I guess you’re right! I guess in a way this really is my chance to make him proud! All the years he spent training me comes down to this moment, and it really is paying off! Or maybe that double dose of slap stim is really catching up with me! Whatever it is, I feel great!” The boy cheered to himself, now rather lax in his posture as he looked around the camp one last time. “...Iggy! Go around and set up the final preparations! The easier we make this fight, the better!” 

 

Moments after the owl went flying off, Hypo felt a sizable tremor from below and knew his battle had begun as the demon now stood in front of a pile of rubble in rage. 

 

“Looks like she finally broke down the door.” He said as he looked downward and saw through his goggles her exact position. He then pulled out his remote and smiled. “...And she’s right where I want her.” 

 

He pressed the button, and instantly detonated two explosives he left hidden there, filling the entire hallway with blue smoke. The still possessed Shiver was clearly caught off guard and coughing from the smoke, but was otherwise unimpeded as she dashed ahead and back aboveground. She exited the main building and finally found Hypo standing atop the main entrance gate, his arms crossed and his stance confident. 

 

“...Of all the children I have snuffed out in my centuries alive, I have never met one as arrogant or as irritating as you.” Shiver said, a look of almost disbelief spreading across her face. “I will take my time with you and break th-” 

 

*PSSHT-PSSHT* 

 

The demon seemed genuinely caught off guard by the sudden interruption as two needles were now stuck in her back, as she turned around to see Hypo hanging off the top of the main building with a grapple glove, while the decoy grenade posing as him timed out. Her surprise turned to fury as she spread her wings and extended her blades. 

 

“I’LL KILL YOU.” 

 

She flew right at him at blinding speed, just barely giving him enough time to raise his shield to block the attack. Since he was already in the air, the impact of both swords being blocked sent him flying away, which he quickly grappled back to the ground, barely avoiding Shiver’s follow-up slash. She followed him closely as he swung from place to place, flinging icicles in his direction that all seemed to barely miss him last second. She then opted to resort back to her pistols, unleashed another barrage of bullets at him that hit him a few times in the back and forced him to drop to the ground. Before she could capitalize on staggering him, he ran off inside the building unnaturally quick, hardly leaving a chance for her to follow him. 

 

Using her massive mist hands, she smashed her way through the walls and furniture as she caught up with him, seeing a look of surprise on his face as she slashed him into two. Yet once again this proved to be another decoy, the real Hypo reaching through a wall and tossing a boogie bomb inside, forcing her to do the Nana Nana as he stepped in with a grin on his face. 

 

“I bet this is really getting to you, huh?” He said as he started doing the Mashed Potato. “All this dancing must be wearing out that bloodlust, I bet! Or maybe the tranq darts I hit you with are starting to activate?” 

 

He didn’t bother to listen to what her response was as he dropped a smoke grenade, shot her with two more darts, and then grappled through the now frozen ceiling and out of the building. She quickly followed after him once again, firing off more shots and swinging wildly with her mist fists, finally nailing a lucky hit on him as she broke his shield and put a few rounds into his back and arm. He lost control of his grapplers and tumbled onto the roof of a side building, at which point his owl swooped in and dropped a number of grenades, including a smoke. Shiver landed moments later and brought with her a gust of wind so strong that it blew the smog away, revealing the boy in the middle of still trying to pick himself off the ground, as well as a second Hypo already waiting for with his gun raised, and a third trying to heal up. Frustrated by his tricks, she eyed them all with a cautious analysis, trying to identify which was the real one before her irritation overcame her.

 

“I have no time for your games! I’ll just blast you all awa-ergh! A…way…agh…huh?” In the midst of her shouting, a sudden pang of crippling weakness struck, and she fell to her knees, out of breath and confused. 

 

“W…what did you do to me…” She grunted with a look of desperate frustration. “This body…will not move as I want it…” 

 

The center Hypo took his newfound time to rise to his feet and dust himself off before speaking, while the other two stood alongside him. 

 

“Like I said…tranq darts and that special powder trap I left down there are taking effect…and hellspawn or not…in the end, you’re just hijacking my partner…and she’s gotta sleep sooner or later.” 

 

“...Then shoot me. Kill me where I am. End this fight now and put me out of my misery.” 

 

“No. I won’t. You’re a demon of violence and rage. Any pain you deal, and any pain you suffer only makes you stronger and more energetic. I told you once and I’ll tell you again: my brother taught me everything I need to know about you.” Hypo said as he concentrated energy into his palm and began approaching her slowly. “Now let me show you his ultimate technique…” 

 

Mustering up one last act of resistance, Shiver gripped her sword tightly and prepared to stab Hypo in a last ditch effort to kill him. Yet, to her surprise the Hypos doubled in number as the world around her began to warp and discolor. 

 

“Looks like the hallucination powder is kicking in all the way now. I’m guessing it must have been affecting you before on a smaller scale when you missed all those icicles. Now you’re tired, disoriented, running out of energy, and now you can’t even tell where I am.” He said, the voices now an assured choir in her ears as his clones all began stepping closer to her and surrounding her, a smirk on each of their faces. “You don’t even know it’s too late.” 

 

Suddenly from behind she felt his hand placed on her back and a surge of power being drained from her body, the hallucinations in front of her disappearing as she realized the real Hypo had already snuck behind her. Slowly her vision faded to black and her body slumped over as she fell asleep and released her blades. The streams of energy that connected Shiver to her weapon faded away, and the mist was no longer pouring off of her. Iggy beamed one of the sword ends away and was preparing to lock away the other when the boy put a hand up to cease him, as he walked over to the weapon and squatted down. He could sense a powerful, heinous aura emanating from it still, but this time he was no longer afraid of it.

 

“You know…all the stories my brother told me about you…all the men you killed, and the destruction you brought…it gave me nightmares. I used to think he was the bravest guy ever when I found out he was in charge of keeping you vaulted, that he was the only thing keeping everyone I knew safe from a monster slaughtering everyone. But now…I understand a little more. You’re tough. Dangerous too. But in the end, you’re nothing like I thought. You’re just another chore that I was taught to deal with…and I guess she is, too.” He finished, glancing over to Shiver. He then kicked the handle over to his owl to lock it up once more. Hypo then grabbed something from the owl's storage, revealing it to be a pair of white colored cuffs with special glowing runes on it that he put on Shiver. “Iggy. When you’re finished up here, go around the area and pick up anything interesting and put it in the storehouse, like that shield drone and then after that, bring the truck around. I’ll be back in a bit.” 

 

The owl hooted, and proceeded to lift up an unconscious Shiver to take her away. Hypo grappled up the main building and all the way on top of its roof, and simply took a look around. He saw the now deserted base, ruined and littered with weapons, supplies, and destroyed vehicles. It put him in a somber mood that he couldn’t explain. It was then that Riptide’s words rang in his ear one last time. They fought with all their hearts for something they believed in. They were patriots of a cause he did not understand. Defenders of a faith he didn’t know. Martyrs for an ideal that they took to the grave with pride. 

 

Slowly his eyes wandered upwards by their own will away from the ugliness below, instead setting their sights on the sky above. Perhaps on cue, knowing the worst had passed, the clouds had parted and revealed a setting sun, painting the land in a palette of warm oranges, reds, and yellow. He had survived another day. The world was silent, but this time it felt like a tranquil quiet rather than muted desolation. Gentle winds ran past him and the stench of gunfire and explosives had disappeared, allowing him to take a deep breath of fresh, crisp air. He lifted up his goggles once more and took in the beauty of the world above, tears welling up in his eyes. 

 

“I know he's watching over me...and I know he’d be proud of me.”

 

After wiping his eyes, he then grappled back down to the floor and proceeded to head back underground where the anomaly was kept. Now alone with it, he finally had the opportunity to act on the old man’s words. He was going to learn something today. The hallway was now illuminated by the rift’s power with the door destroyed, growing brighter as the boy marched onward. Now he could sense the energy coming off of the portal, as if it were focusing on his presence, the cracks slowly spreading further out with each step he took. Cyan wisps began to seep into and out of him as he stepped into the actual room keeping the anomaly, the boy’s hair now beginning to softly shift around as if static was in the air. As he stood before it, the sounds he had heard earlier grew louder and came by fast, and energy began to crackle loudly while the rift began to open up. The cracks all suddenly receded at once into the portal and suddenly a blinding flash of white light filled the room for an instant. When Hypo opened up his eyes once more, the anomaly was gone, and left in its wake was a single floating medallion, with a butterfly that shined with a golden glow resting upon it. He walked up to the ornament and grabbed it by its chain, inspecting it as the butterfly flew away harmlessly. It was almost entirely matte-black, with just the faintest grey glow in the center. It was made of a stone-like material, like a sort of mineral he had never seen before. The chain itself seemed to be made of some simple gold, nothing out of the ordinary, though it was rather lustrous. It was at that point that the butterfly landed on the medallion once more, and this time absorbed itself into the ornament, leaving the golden outline of itself on the medal. It was at this very moment that his eyes widened with realization. 

 

“...I’ve seen this before.” He pulled out his book and began flipping through pages hurriedly, the information on each one growing more disorganized and almost crazed until he finally stopped on a page showing a rough depiction of the medallion. “I knew it…Eli did write about this thing. I never even knew this was real until now. I don’t even know what it does…” 

 

He closed the book and put it away, and began inspecting the medal. 

 

“This must have been why the Riptide wanted me to have this…why he trusted me. He probably even knew Eli. But what am I even supposed to do with this now? Riptide told me I would begin to understand, but I don’t get it…unless…he wants me to find more rifts like this…? Or maybe more bases with other black ice leaders, and maybe they’ll give me something, anything…I just don’t get it.” 

 

Hypo remembered something in that moment of thought, which turned into a look of slight frustration.

 

“And I won’t have any time to think about it now.” He stuffed the ornament into his coat and pulled his goggles back down. “Riptide said something about the rest of her forces coming…” He mumbled before he activated his earpiece. “Iggy! How far out are reinforcements?” 

 

*hoot* 

 

“Five minutes out, huh. I guess he wasn’t lying. I better leave now before I get questioned on the spot.” He thought, taking one last look around the now empty vault. “Someway, somehow…Eli was connected to this thing, and that Riptide knew about it too…I can’t turn this thing in. Not now. I want to know more about what’s going on here. I need to know.”

 

With that, he exited the vault and went back up above ground, and out of the camp, where a large truck fitted with treads awaited him.

 

“Thanks, Iggy. Send whoever’s coming the rundown to their drones, and take us home. I’ll be in the back.” Hypo said as he hopped into the bed of the vehicle, where a worn mattress awaited him. “I’ve got some things to think about, and I’m tired too, so take it slow, wouldja?” 

 

*hoot-hoot* 

 

“…Yeah, reports and debriefs and headaches…I think we’ll make this a cruising speed kind of day.” 

 

With that, the boy rested on his bed, his eyes to the sky while the truck slowly trailed along into the snowy expanse. 

 

Shortly after he left, the reinforcements finally arrived, securing the area and investigating the area. Of the fresh faces that now occupied the camp, there were two commanders of particular note: A woman in glacial armor standing head and shoulders above everyone else, and a man in arctic camouflage combat gear. 

 

“Kid’s got skill, that’s for sure.” The man said, impressed. “No allies, underreported enemy count, only partner is a maniac, and it’s one of his first missions as an elite…all odds against him and he still made it work. Can’t imagine how everyone’s gonna react.

 

“According to the report, the Demon actually did lose control after interacting with the crystal. It’s a shame the boy managed to subdue her…I would have enjoyed a proper duel with one of the King’s finest. I don’t mind though, opportunities will present themselves in the future. Now then, it’s time we plant another victorious flag in the name of the Queen!”

 

“You go on ahead, I’ll keep checking out the situation up here.” The man said, waving her off and she strode off to the command bunker. After she left, the man walked over to the wall where Riptide was last seen, and picked the broken shards of the item he was holding. 

 

“...So you live another day to carry out the mission…I wonder what you’ll do next.” 

 

With that, his investigation came to an end as he tossed the pieces away and walked off to the bunker as well, knowing the battle was over.