Chapter 4 : Ice

Cold…

A biting, brutal cold struck Vain, sending a violent shiver through his body the moment he pulled open the door to that cursed room.

Upon hearing Zeel’s incomprehensible response, Vain decided to ask him directly, squeezing his eye shut against the blinding light. "What do you mean by 'seal myself again'? Stop joking around!"

Zeel didn't utter a single word, as if deciding that Vain needed to see the outside for himself.

Vain lowered his hand to peer beyond the threshold. As his vision slowly adjusted to the glare, he replied to the entity's silence, "Whatever it is, it can't be worse than staying inside this room."

The sting of the light gradually faded, revealing the outside world in its entirety. Vain’s eye widened to its absolute limit. He didn't speak.

In that very moment, he seriously considered Zeel's suggestion to seal himself back in.

Ice.

A vast, desolate expanse of solid blue ice stretched out toward infinity. There was nothing but the pale blue reflection of the sky above, and a freezing, murderous wind that would claim the life of any living creature.

Amidst this desolate landscape, Vain finally understood what Zeel meant by them being in a tight spot. Every cell in Vain’s body screamed that it was impossible to advance in this lethal atmosphere.

He tried to shift his focus to his left eye—the one inhabited by Zeel—to ask about their situation, which made him look slightly cross-eyed since Zeel had full control over it. Before Vain could even speak, Zeel interrupted.

"It's useless, boy. Don't even think about crossing this ice."

Vain stammered. The entity had answered his question before it even left his lips.

Utter despair washed over his face as all his rosy illusions of the outside world vanished.

He had truly believed that no matter how strange the outside was, it would be infinitely better than the empty room reeking of blood.

Vain stepped slowly toward the doorway to check his periphery, as he could only see what lay directly ahead.

The entity possessing his eye stopped him. "Boy, what do you think you're doing?"

Confused, Vain shifted his eye toward Zeel again. "What is it this time?"

Zeel replied with an edge of hostility. "Do you want to die? And stop looking at me. If anyone saw you, they’d think you were insane."

Vain sighed, ignoring the jab since Zeel hadn't answered him. "I just want to check the area outside.

There has to be a way out of here."

Gripping both sides of the doorframe, Vain stepped forward.

"Damn it," Zeel whispered.

The second Vain’s fingers left the doorframe to lean against the outer wall, he fell flat on his face. His nose bled, and his forehead was cut. As he struggled to push himself up, he cursed, "Damn—"

"Boy," Zeel cut him off. "Didn't I tell you to stay still?"

Vain wondered why Zeel was so agitated over a simple trip and fall. As he stood up, he noticed the ice beneath him was incredibly thick and impossibly pristine, as if he were standing atop an endless, gigantic mirror.

Just as he tried to examine his own reflection for the first time, Zeel's stern voice commanded, "Turn around, boy."

Holding his freezing sides, Vain let out an involuntary, confused sound. "Huh?!"

As he turned around to see what Zeel meant, his heart stopped for a fraction of a second. Shock paralyzed him, and his eye began to tremble at the horror of what lay before him.

Nothing.

There was absolutely nothing but ice. The room had vanished as if it never existed, leaving Vain and Zeel stranded in the middle of a frozen, endless void.

Vain froze in his tracks. The soles of his feet began to throb from the biting cold as he struggled to process what had just happened.

Unconsciously, he walked back to where the room had been, raising his hands to feel for the invisible wall, desperately hoping it was just an illusion.

"It's useless, boy. This is no illusion," Zeel interrupted.

Furious, Vain snapped at Zeel, screaming, "Is pessimism all you're good for?! Find a solution! Aren't you some ancient spirit or something?"

Zeel remained silent for a moment. Vain almost regretted making a pact with him, until a chilling voice pierced his thoughts. "Boy, if you ever speak to me in that tone again, I will kill you before this ice does."

Vain swallowed hard. He knew he needed Zeel’s knowledge to survive this deadly predicament. Losing his composure wouldn't help. "I-I'm sorry."

Zeel let out a heavy sigh. "Ah... Pull yourself together, boy. Anyway, it seems we are in the Kingdom of Lyth, the Kingdom of Ice."

"The Kingdom of Lyth?" Vain asked.

"Yes. And we are likely in the extreme north of it, where everything freezes over. I don't know of any other place that fits this description."

A cold sweat broke out over Vain’s body as he realized the sheer magnitude of their danger. Instinctively, he began walking forward with no particular destination in mind.

"Where are you heading, boy?" the entity asked.

"I don't know," Vain replied.

"I just have to move before I freeze in place."

Vain trudged forward blindly, clinging to a false hope that a miracle would pull him out of this ordeal. Zeel sighed, knowing full well that this march was pointless. He kept his thoughts to himself, aware that Vain felt the exact same way.

Vain walked for hours without uttering a single word. He surveyed the horizon—no mountains, no hills. Just endless ice.

Despair seeped deeply into his heart. He began to talk to himself as he stumbled forward. Ice coated his eyebrows and eyelashes.

His lips turned a sickly shade of black, and his legs went completely numb.

Clutching his sides, he mumbled, "Why is this happening? What did I do to deserve this? Did I hurt someone? If I did... I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."

Vain was slowly losing his mind to the fatal cold. He completely forgot that he had locked himself inside that room to begin with.

The delusion that he was being punished for some forgotten sin took root in his crumbling psyche. He kept repeating in a faint, trembling whisper as he dragged his feet.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

He kept apologizing, praying for forgiveness for a crime he didn't even know he committed. He chanted it over and over. Seeing him at the edge of a mental breakdown, Zeel shouted, "Damn it, boy, pull yourself together!"

But it was futile. Vain had already hit rock bottom.

Despite Zeel's attempts to snap him out of it, Vain’s energy finally gave out. He collapsed without warning.

His face slammed against the icy ground, jarring him slightly back to reality. Turning his head, he inspected his legs. Their color had darkened ominously, snapping him out of his delirium.

He sat back to touch his feet, only to realize he couldn't feel a thing. He pressed harder, but the numbness was absolute. He learned the hard way that he had lost the ability to walk in this blue hell.

Vain sat there, touching his feet, desperately hoping they would work again. He touched them, pressed them, until his despair boiled over into a rabid fury.

He began pounding his legs with all his might, screaming curses into the void. "Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!"

He stopped abruptly, knowing his efforts were pointless. He burst into agonizing tears, wailing so loudly that his cries echoed across the barren wasteland, consuming whatever little energy he had left.

As he wept, holding his face in sheer despair, he noticed something else that shattered his heart even further. His hands... he couldn't feel his hands anymore either.

The frostbite was turning them a dark, purplish-black. Vain realized his body was actively betraying him.

The true terror of death gripped his soul. Refusing to succumb, he began to crawl on his elbows and knees, continuing in the same direction despite the absolute lack of hope.

His subconscious screamed at him not to stop, even though he knew there was no escaping death in this wasteland.

For a brief moment, he wished he could return to the room. He realized the room was, at the very least, less cold than the outside.

For a moment, he missed the smell of blood.

For a moment, he just wanted to go back.

Suddenly, he stopped crawling.

He began to laugh. A loud, hysterical laugh erupted from his lungs as his mind slowly unraveled once more.

The absurdity of it all hit him—he was actually yearning for that room.

He laughed while sobbing, finding the situation incredibly bizarre. He had never imagined, not even for a second, that he would ever crave returning to the very cell that caused him such unforgettable torment. But given the choice, the room was warmer.

Vain collapsed onto his face again. This time, half of his face was numb. His arms and legs were completely paralyzed. He surrendered to his fate.

Lying flat, he looked into the flawless ice touching his cheek. For the first time, he saw his own reflection: jet-black hair, pale skin, dark bags beneath a single blue eye, a face sunken from starvation, and a shattered nose.

A profound wave of self-pity washed over him. Tears rolled down his despairing face. He couldn't move.

Death was inevitable.

He began to scream on the inside, terrified of the end creeping up on him.

He whispered into the cold, "I don't want to die."

"I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die..."

Vain chanted the phrase mindlessly as his limbs shut down one by one. The biting cold devoured him from the inside out, keeping him cruelly awake to feel every ounce of agony in his body.

His vision began to fade with each passing second, his consciousness slipping away into the dark.

Then, Vain accepted his fate.

For a fraction of a second, he felt relief. All this torment was finally going to end, even if it meant dying in this vast wasteland without ever recovering his memories.

He just wanted the slow, agonizing pain to stop.

And so, leaving a faint, tragic smile on his face, with one eye open, staring blankly into the frozen void…

Vain died.