10:40 AT, Day Thirty Six | Outside Cinder Keep
A loud commotion occurs a ways off as a group of soldiers comes into view. In the lead is Itvak. Itavak, along with several dozen soldiers carrying supplies enter into the area. “Ahoy there, milords. Quite interesting weather we are having. In order to avoid the cold, we moved the convoy into a nearby cave.”
After a few seconds of Ray and I staying silent Itvak takes a glance around. No doubt noting the several craters and signs of a fight. “What the klack happened here?” he says, realizing the situation.
“A pink haired chick showed up and threw me and my darling around! Then she just left without letting us kill her!” Ray shouts, “The audacity! We need some explosives right now, ima march right into their castle and turn it into a smoking pile of rubble.”
I pat Ray on the head a few times, “In time we shall do just that. Though, I think we have a few more pressing concerns. Like this snow, or reorganizing our forces around the new changes to the arena.”
“Aww, stop that logic and reasonable thinking. Let's blow stuff up!”
“All in due time, darling. If we prepare a bit, we can make an even bigger explosion, right?”
Ray seems to calm down and grabs my hand, placing it on her head. Always a greedy one, I can never seem to satiate her desires for headpats and headrubs. I pay the cost of many head pats, and she acquiesces to my logical thinking.
We meet back up with our party and Itvak takes us to the cave that has been turned into a makeshift fort it seems. They have even installed some nice plasma shields over the entrance to keep the cold out.
Ray practically drags me into the cave and immediately sighs at the nice warmth. Of course, it's really just an illusion of comfort since we aren't actually affected by the cold. But it still feels nice.
We make our way to the impromptu command room and learn what has happened.
Sometime about eighteen hours ago – not long after we entered the keep. A massive blizzard covered not just this zone, but every zone. The entire arena is now coated in a layer of snow and ice.
Sensors show that the snowstorm originated from around Luna’s castle, and quickly made its way through the entire arena in just eight hours. Wind speeds reached as high as 500km/h, uprooting trees and any lighter vehicles.
Temperatures across the entire arena have sunk to anywhere from -40 to -10 degrees celsius. Water froze in its piping, stalling production facilities temporarily – thankfully they were quickly brought online again. Our operations have returned to about 80% of normal, still a bit hindered by all the snow and ice until we can properly retrofit our vehicles for heavy snow.
The most obvious theory is that Luna somehow created a machine to induce the snowstorm. But none of us have any idea how, even our top engineers are completely stumped.
Aside from that, we also have picked up several large energy blips near the edges of Luna’s territory. Only for them to disappear moments later, as if something is lurking just outside of sensor range.
The news of the situation crushed any celebratory mood that was remaining. Unfortunately, the situation is just a bit too serious to throw a party. It is war after all.
Next, I relay the details of my fight with Luna. I mention the fact that she is actually my sister, which stirs up a bunch of discussion. One of the commanders brings up the fact that she is tied to my father, and is likely to have very powerful allies in the arena.
I wonder what kind of monsters she was able to bring as core members. We were limited to a maximum of three per faction, so I can only imagine the horrors she has alongside her.
There is one last thing though.
I place the sphere that Luna gave me on the table and the room goes silent. Apparently this sphere contains a message from my true father.
Ray pokes the sphere, “So, what’re we gonna do about this dohickey?”
I gather myself and answer, “Open it up of course.” I reach out and touch the sphere.
Immediately I feel a sharp jolt of inae leave my body. The sphere must've been specifically coded to respond to me alone.
A projection appears above the sphere.
‘29:19:59:59’
A countdown, with thirty (IST) days on it. The room becomes silent, everyone just starting at the countdown.
“Well this is lame.” Ray says, after a few minutes. “Who wants some booze?”
With that, we descend into a celebration. Though not as major as you would have expected. People are still a bit shaken by the blizzard, and the ominous countdown.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It seems the general consensus is that there is nothing we can do about the countdown, or whatever should happen afterwards. We need to at least get out of this arena before worrying about it.
It doesn't take Ray long to grab me from my discussions with the commanders. She just walks up, throws me over her shoulder and leaves the cave. “Enough of that boooring talk. Isn't this snow really pretty?” she says after setting me down.
“It is quite pretty, but not nearly as pretty as you are, darling.”
“Really? Five seconds? That's as long as you can last?”
“I think it was closer to 4 seconds. I'm honestly surprised I made it that long. Your cuteness is simply that overwhelming. Not complimenting you would be like not breathing.” I say completely honestly. In fact, it's a bit of an understatement. I couldn't imagine living without being able to complement Ray frequently. That blush of hers is just so cute. I think I might have an addiction to it.
Luckily, there is no shortage of things to compliment Ray on. She is just so perfect and cute and awesome and wonderful, I could compliment her every second of every day for the rest of eternity. Then I would've scratched only a small fraction of all the possible compliments.
Ray’s face is beet red. Though I am unsure whether or not it is because of the cold air or a blush. Oh well, it is super cute either way.
“Jerk.” she mumbles, then loops her arm around mine. “Mr. Hero, might you have time to escort a pretty damsel through this rough terrain? There is this vista that I have been dying to see in this weather.” She says. Her eyes show that I have no choice in the matter.
We walked through the snowy terrain for a while. Every once in a while, one of us remarks at a particularly cool view. It is quite strange seeing the previously super hot biome absolutely covered in ice and snow. Though the rivers of mercury still flow, since mercury has a relatively low freezing point compared to water.
We are standing near one of the rivers and Ray gets a bad idea. “Hey darling, wanna go for a swim?”
“That’s a bad idea, mercury is toxic, you know. Our kits are powerful, but I don't think they can survive us bathing in literal poison. Just part of a drop of that stuff could kill a normal human, I bet a river would still do some major harm, despite our kits. I prefer my cute girlfriends alive, so perhaps we can go swimming in a hot spring or something later.”
“Nerd.” Is all Ray says, we proceed upon our date through the snowy landscape.
A while later, we came upon an open clearing. Perhaps it used to be some old nesting ground or something. I walk around and surely enough, there are signs of dragons recently being present.
I bend down to look at some of the footprints in the snow. Maybe we can determine how long ago they were here and track them down. A little bit of dragon slaying could be a good way to end our date. Plus, it would be cool to assert our dominance as dragon lords.
Suddenly a hard and cold object impacts me in the back. It hurts, at least mentally it does, not like it could actually damage me.
I quickly turn around to see Ray, looking around at the environment weirdly, twirling her thumbs. Her hair looks really cute. All of the light is reflecting off it and it looks like she is a small moon. Though, on her gloves I can see a few snowflakes.
“Hey darling, did you see what that was?”
“Nope, definitely not.” She has a large smile on her face, it screams ‘guilty.’
In a fraction of a second, I bend down and scoop some snow into my hand. Then, having never thrown a snowball before, I aimed right for her.
Crunch. It lands about thirty meters to the side, nowhere even close to Ray.
“Ha, you suck, darling. Lemme show you how it’s done!” she says, then grabs some snow of her own and chucks it at me.
It lands squarely in my chest, and she bursts out laughing.
“Alright then, you’re on, darling.” I say confidently.
I grab some more snow and then I dash right next to her, and throw it right in her face at point blank range.
She doesn't laugh this time, instead she quickly fires back ten shots in rapid succession. With some fancy footwork, I manage to dodge all but one that lands square on my chest again.
I make a few snowballs and cradle them gently in my arms, dodging Ray’s relentless barrage.
At last, I get an opening and I dash in and release my payload, covering her in it. She practically gets buried and frees herself, shaking off and creating a flurry of white.
“Darling, that's unfair! You are too nimble and quick. I can't even keep up.” She groans in protest.
“Well then darling, simply get faster.”
She does just that. Somehow her assault intensifies, and rather than being stationary she moves around like the wind itself.
I get absolutely pelted with snowballs, even as I try to dodge and return fire. Maybe I shouldn't have antagonized her, I kinda forgot how competitive she can be.
There was this one time back in middle school where an artsy kid challenged her to a drawing competition. Having never drawn before, she studied and practiced for a solid week and showed up with a masterpiece. The poor kid lost all motivation to do art after seeing that and ended up going into construction management I think.
I crumple under Ray’s assault. Within mere minutes I am lying on the ground. Bruised, battered and buried in a pile of snow.
Ray finishes her assault and comes to lay next to me. She snuggles up into my side and her warmth seems to heal my broken body. Despite the fact that no heat could actually be transmitted, it is still really nice.
“Hey Ko, are you okay?” Ray asks, a bit of concern in her voice.
I wrap my arm around her and pull her in even closer. “As long as you are next to me, I will be perfectly fine. Even if it turns out that my family singlehandedly redefines the definition of absurdity.”
“Well, I'm not going anywhere. So dontcha worry, darling.” She says, intertwining her fingers with my own.
I am sure that lots of things are in store for us in the future. But as I lay here with Ray at my side, I am certain that no matter what happens, we will overcome it. After all, we are the Moonlight Duo. No way anything is gonna stop us from headrubs.
So, bring it on.
End of Chapter 128
Next: Chapter 129 | Ice Sculptures
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