I regressed and became the Sword Ice King

With a silent nod from Sophie, Maxillan pulled the chains firmer.

Subduing himself in the cloak of darkness within the door. Anchoring himself on invisible steps. Known to him, and his allies, yet impervious to Mila.

She was drawn to the sudden door. Attention focused on the predicament that sullied her name.

Shovelling her deeper and deeper into a cage of imprisonment. She spread her wings – wide and Stoic.

Stopping her body from leering closer to the mysterious door. Forcing herself to struggle to hold what little was left of her.

To fight the control that was slipping out of her fingers.

Yet, her focus could not be split.

Sophie wrapped her chains around her neck in a blur. Her hands moved like invisible wires, untraceable with human eyes.

Then, with a final tug, the chains grew taut and clung to her neck.

The effect was immediate.

A sudden outburst of fluid. A cough of blood that nearly clogged her airway.

the enchanted chains tightened her neck. A primal force ensuing the chains as it wrapped tightly around her neck like a python to its prey.

Air was being pulled from her lungs, forcefully. And that subtle control was immediately ripped from her fingers – forcefully.

Her right arm grabbed onto it as Sophie jumped off her back at that instant.

Falling into the embrace of the sky, with the wind blasting past her body.

Mila shifted her head back in startlement, only to get a whiff of Sophie's smirk as a door appeared behind her.

Opening with a click as she was immersed into it, before it closed and vanished as it came.

Her crimson pools narrowed. Confusion. Startlement. Bewilderment.

It took root in her heart, and bared fangs that cut deep.

This wasn't just any ordinary girl.

Everything about her was mysterious as it was ominous.

From her fighting style, to her techniques and the abilities she showcased.

Everything tethered to the Occult. The Demonic.

Yet, she held every bit of humanity, she had given up to get half the power she wielded.

Just who was she?

The thought snapped in two as her body jerked from a sudden yank of the chains. She whipped towards the source.

Once again, meeting the gaze of the onyx– eyes Undead summon.

A champion, Sophie called it.

'But it doesn't matter.'

She fought back.

Muffled screams escaping her lips from the chains as she tugged at it with both her arms.

Yet, the more she pulled, the weaker she grew. And her confusion grew with it. Blossoming into something new.

An ichor to her never-ending fight for domination. A stain to her pride.

Primal in all its forms. Evident. Real. Impossible to ignore.

It was fear.

With the constant tugging came another yank of the chain.

This time from her neck.

Her eyes flared open from the shock and pain as her head was pulled backwards with ridiculous strength.

It felt like a caged guillotine, only she faced the blade and awaited its fall.

Unable to react immediately, she was pulled downwards, nearly losing ascent in the process.

But with her wings widened, she stopped it mid-way.

Her sudden retaliation forced Sophie to jump out an opened door.

A slight frown on her face as she glanced upwards.

"Minillan! Get those freaking wings, already!"

Mila's eyes bulged slightly as her head whipped from Sophie to the direction she glanced at. Upwards.

Her body froze at the sight.

A sudden shift in her expression as she opened her mouth.

"Not on my watch!" She cried out as miasma rushed out of her body as streaks of lightning.

Ravaging through her scales with a forced pull of adrenaline that surged through her.

She cried out in an outburst, filling her tightened lungs with air as a blast of energy charged. Flares of crimson and ambient growing with the ravaging energy in an outburst.

Sophie glanced at the door parallel to Mila. The one where Maxillan stood and with a single glare, the chains grew taut.

Something shimmered across the chains. A lilac, black that glowed like tattoos towards her body before enveloping her in thorns of doom.

The thorns pierced deep into her skin, an outflow of lilac encroaching her system and reaching for her heart.

Immediately, the miasma flow was cut off, replaced by a rush of pain that quaked through flesh and bones.

She screamed. Loud.

A sudden shrill that caused her eyes to shut down from the sudden influx of damage. Reaching her skull as her thoughts reeled in.

Her mouth was left agape from the pain.

A silent scream escaped her lips as blood dribbled down her lips.

Far above her, the female undead Champion hovered with her floating orbs.

A cloak of Darkness enriched her as two of those orbs stretched towards her target.

"Yes, My Liege."

The orbs sparked to life, a sound akin to the charge of a blaster piercing the air as the orbs glowed with an ominous hue.

"Beam of Depravity."

Quickly, a pair of beams of darkness erupted from the orbs.

Projecting fluidly through the air as it pierced both of her wings in a heartbeat.

— BOOOOMMM!!

An eruption of darkness occurred on contact.

Encroaching spheres of explosions that stretched into the air.

The outgrowth of darkness and air spread in concentric waves. Forming a rift that caused the air to swirl from the aftermath.

Sophie wasted no time as she tugged the chain taut.

Pulling it with her figure as she descended the skies with rushing speed.

A meteor of doom rushing for the destruction of the earth.

The area beneath her shimmered. A door appeared and opened as she descended into it.

Enveloped by sudden darkness that came as it went. Opening into another door that caused her to roll on the earth.

Light and earth returned to her vision.

She somersaulted over the earth, jumping back to her feet instantly.

Then with a look-up at the skies, she tugged the chains firmer.

A simple motion that took place as she walked down the basalt floor. It caused a rain of chains to fall from the skies to the earth.

Crashing on the basalt floor with a loud metallic ring. Crashing onto itself while it wrapped around like a sleeping serpent. Only a thousand times longer.

It was a near length of infinity that dangled in the air like a loose strand.

Holding more weight than it presumed to be.

Lava spilled from the crevice of the basalt floor it crashed on.

Flames encroaching what little of the land they stood on.

The rain had somehow pierced through the canopy. Reaching the earth finally in a symbolic hue of rebirth.

Cooling the flames that leaned to destruction. A brief moment of calm in all the chaos.

Sophie basked in the glory of the rain.

She let her nerves cool to a near drop, while her body tensed with the uproar of movements she had performed.

Fatigue had clawed its way to her eyes. Forming dark circles beneath it, but the will to hold on was much stronger.

Almost.

Just a bit more and she would have one more champion in the mix.

An undead summon of demonic nature.

They were the hardest to find. The rarest to tame, and the strongest to set loose.

Mila would make a nice addition to the mix. Especially with her present form, where she boasted power far stronger than a 10th tier.

Even the legendary 11th to 13th tier would have difficulty taming her.

And these were beings akin to Demi-gods.

Unfathomable presence with immersive power.

Mila had somehow cheated the System and reached that level. Not entirely, but enough to count for it.

And someone like that in her army? Hah, it made her lust blossom to its peak.

Shaking her head, she snapped herself from her thoughts.

Then, she turned around – glancing with a slow nod of approval.

Around her, and behind them. Her army stood.

Demons, Beasts, and Humans.

Reaching a number of at least a thousand, yet farther away. The sound of rushing bones still crept at night.

'All according to plan.'

She wasn't done yet. Not one bit.

She would continue to summon her undead until she had achieved what she wanted.

A champion of her own. Mila as an undead.

Her summons formed an encirclement around her. Snarling. Growling. Waiting. Building up tension for their Master's command.

Then, it finally happened.

The last bit of chain fell and Mila crashed with it. A deafening boom!

It was loud and thunderous. An explosion that easily split the earth and the basalt floor with it.

Lava splashing like a fountain into the air as a dome formed around her.

Sophie pulled on her chain and the lengthened weapon began to reel back. Sucking the leftover iron into itself.

Two doors formed beside her, and her champions stepped out.

The male pulled in the three chains. Tightening his hold on the demonic queen.

"She lives." Maxillan said.

"Of course she lives." Sophie replied with a curt glance at her right. Her voice dropped to a low volume, laced with a kind of venom that tasted sweet. "She wouldn't be worth the stress if she didn't."

The Undead Champion glanced at her. A low growl escaped the back of his bony throat as he looked away.

Their attention focused on the settling dust. The lines that stood out in the blurry mist. Forming the traces of Mila as she stepped out.

Fury was the lesser emotion at the moment as something firmer had taken root.

Primal and Raw in every form. A madness that shook her to the deepest of her being.

Everything else disappeared – a mere blur in her memory.

Burned alive by what little dignity she wished to uphold.

But even that was set ablaze to burn the raw emotion that bewildered her.

Her eyes opened with a glow. A sickening red one. Devoid of the spark of amusement it once had. Its humanity gone in the ashes of what was left of the fire within her.

It shimmered. It flared. It burned.

Then, a draconian scream….tore the skies.