I regressed and became the Sword Ice King

'What?'

'When?'

'How?!'

Sophie's thoughts spiraled in a loop. Her body tensed as blood flowed in a slow rush.

Adrenaline surging in while her heart thumped alive.

Her pupils dilated and tension grew like a coiled viper in her guts.

Tightening. Awaiting release at any given moment.

For a few seconds. She blinked.

Trying to reclaim herself in the sudden intrusion. She turned her head away, slowly shaking it.

Then glanced back. As if trying to confirm, she was seeing right.

She blinked again. Once. Twice. Then thrice.

"Thalia?"

The words left her lips faster than her body accepted the situation.

Glancing over just to be right.

Thalia was fine. Better yet, she looked great.

Besides the scars, burn marks, and dried blood from the battle.

She appeared like she could run the fight all over again.

But that didn't make sense.

Thalia was drained.

She saw it. Sophie was aware of it.

She confirmed it, right before using her trump cards.

So how could she be standing here, like this? As if she weren't unconscious a moment ago?

Maxillan and Minillan stood in silence. Their attention turned away from them, but their focus was anything but.

Thalia, as their Master had called her, wasn't supposed to be awake.

Not now. Not soon.

A sigh escaped Thalia's lips as she took a step forward.

A mask of indifference clothed her like armor. Unbothered by the surrounding situation.

Thalia's thoughts were a complete mystery to the others. Sophie, especially as she watched her walk away.

In the process of trying to figure out what occurred, her inner voice lined in order.

'How long has she been awake?'

Those were the first set of questions that popped out first.

She turned around, her gaze peering past the exiting army of undead.

A lot of them had gone through the Portal by now, but a few more lingered.

Out of those, which did, was the flying wyvern she had secured the others with. Thalia included.

It floated in the air. Over the others with a subtle brush of its bony wings.

Its primal features and dull, dark frame cast a deep impression on the earth.

Just as many of its kind which departed.

Sophie narrowed her gaze. Increasing her visual acuity in the process.

Soon, she saw them.

Unconscious bodies of Felicia Dreau and Monica Lorientt.

Safe and sound.

Her head tilted slightly before she turned back towards Thalia.

She clenched her grips before taking a step forward. A slow groan escaping her breath.

'Situations like this are uncalled-for. God-damn it!'

Thalia whipped her a gaze and she froze on the spot.

Immediately, her Bony Champions stood in her presence. Charged and ready.

Arms held firmly in place to thwart off any danger if it were to come.

With a subtle nudge of her face. Thalia looked up at the two Undead.

Her eyes narrowed to a slit.

Then, just as she observed them, she turned away. Completely unbothered by their presence.

Instead, she continued forward.

Towards the blazing furnace. Mila.

Her scales turned fiery red at this point. A soldering amount of power and energy being showcased in the raw form of flames.

The surrounding wind whipped about in complete disharmony. Haggard from the Miasma that shot out from her body.

Growing with rapid speed and intensity.

Her eyes were blazing red. So much so that it turned white, but the color only camouflaged the heat that burned within them.

Her last stance was a burst of fiery passion.

A form of taking control over what had been taken from her.

The chains still bound her.

They still ate. Gluttonous and Bottomless.

It sucked every bit of her clean. Gnawing at her from the inside–out. Tugging at what little it was given.

It was greedy. It was gluttonous.

Seeking for more. Searching for more.

Reaching for something deeper. Tastier.

Mila felt it.

And she burned it.

With the last bit of Miasma. She set herself ablaze. Literally.

Her heart thumped with rapid intensity. A surge of hot blood and adrenaline. It boiled. It burned. It rushed.

The power, transient in every form.

It ate her from within. Breaking down cell by cell. Tissue by tissue. Organ by organ.

She was okay with that. Because nothing was worse than being captured and used for something you would never be aware of. Consent to.

Mila would rather die.

Her eyes flared with brilliance as it looked up from the ground.

Pulsing waves of Miasma flourishing out in concentric circles as her gaze struck Thalia's.

A flicker. Hesitation.

A subtle shift from radiant anger to simple surprise.

"Thalia Jun."

The words came out smooth and silky.

Yet, the weight of her voice held something more.

Thalia lips curled into a smirk.

"Hah….this is amusing. You've been reduced to this…" She said slowly. A smug etched at the end of her statements.

It was mocking as it was curious.

"I thought the 3rd transformation was a lot stronger than that."

Mila's lips stayed thin.

Silence hanging in the air like a thin thread.

It was filled with the crackling of the flames. The hollow wind that hummed like a crying ghoul. Mourning for the loss of its soul.

The earth was no longer what it once was.

Once a flourishing green scenery was now a burnt, lava eroded, basalt floor of heat and death.

Every form of it boiled.

Eruptions of lava projected into the air. Sulphur escaped into the skies. Steam gushed out in large amounts from the continuous fall of rain.

Peace, somehow restored.

"What can I say?" Mila said with a hushed tone. "The Strong wins. The weak die."

Her gaze shifted back. Turning her attention towards the Lilac haired.

"I've met my match today, but that doesn't mean you've won."

Thalia raised a brow, curiosity growing within her chest. "Wha– What do you mean?"

Mila tilted her head, shifting her attention back to Thalia.

"You think the Red Peacemakers won't have someone to replace me? An executive?"

A shrill laugher left her lips.

"Oh, please. They'll be many. And it will be endless."

Thalia's gaze grew stern.

Her brows furrowed. A crease forming on her forehead in a scowl.

"Endless?" She asked.

Mila's lips cracked into a smile.

"Yes, Endless. Demonic Contractors… Devil Incarnates… Demons and Devils…. Demonic Worshipers….you name it."

The flames blazed stronger. A subtle nudge in her outburst.

"The Red Peacemakers are in control, and they will bring this world to its ruins and welcome the Devil Lord, with or without the bodies."

'Bodies?' Thalia's eyes flared slightly.

Realization striking her like a lightning bolt.

'They wanted to capture or kill Non-system Users….to awaken…the Devil Lord?'

She shook her head.

Now wasn't the time.

"It doesn't matter what you say. We killed you, didn't we?"

Mila stood silent.

Burning in the aftermath of her glory.

The ashes of a dream lost in a flame of gold.

She had basked in it. Enjoyed every bit of it.

And regretted nothing.

"…. I am the weakest out of the Eleven."

Silence.

Not because Thalia had nothing else to say.

No, she had plenty.

Plenty, from standing at the side lines while watching. Observing. Waiting.

Biding her time for her arrival.

For how long? Only the gods would know.

Her thoughts lingered to the second who arrived with her. The man. Nicho.

He was missing too. Has been for a while, and they had nothing to as much as a clue on where to find him.

This was bad.

Time was running, and with it were the lives of many within the Academy.

She needed to think of something. A plan.

A proper one.

To secure the lives of the students.

A heavy sigh escaped her lips.

'What a mess.' She thought. 'Seriously, what a fucking mess.'

Then, something snapped.

A footstep broke through the silence and their attention drew to it.

Sophie walked towards them. Standing next to Thalia.

Her undead, gone. Her champions, gone. Wyvern, gone. Alone.

She folded her arms. Twirling her sickle with a playful glee.

"And we will kill them too."

Thalia's gaze held on her longer.

For a few more seconds. Mere seconds that could be counted with the fingers, but for them. It was an eternity.

Sophie looked up and Thalia suddenly glanced away.

A sigh escaping her lips.

"you heard, Sophie." She said, pulling down her glasses.

A lens had been damaged. Broken beyond repair, and the other. Cracked.

"Humans who chose the side of the Devils over their kind deserve the stake."

She broke it and threw it in a lava pit. Her eyes watched as it melted under its liquid glaze.

"So we will kill them too."

At this point, Mila had nothing else to say.

She was burnt out.

Metaphorically and Realistically.

The flames had burnt for too long.

The miasma had contaminated her to her very cells, far longer than she could have lasted.

These were the last hours. Minutes. Seconds.

And she was done with it.

"In that case." She said, letting her frown turn to a wide grin. "GO TO HELL!!!"

WHIRLLL! BOOOM!!!!

The atmosphere cracked. A sudden, thundering force blazing to life as a concentric glow of flames ignited from the depths of her body.

Blasting her form and everything with and around her.

It grew! Exponentially.

Spirals of scarlet and ambient dancing in the blast of rage as it spread through the ground.

Rushing towards the girls in mere seconds.

Sophie cursed under her breath, grabbed her weapon and expelled her Dark Mana around her.

She bit down on her lips. Hard.

Anticipation for the brunt of it, but Thalia had other plans.

She waved her hand in the air, a bizarre flow of mana rushing within her body.

So much so that it ignited out and spread like wildfire throughout her body.

A bask of blue energy warping around her like the tongues of a flame.

Sophie snapped her head towards her.

Confusion evident.

Thalia ignored.

She let her mana ravage her, and then – she let it loose.

Not the energy.

But the skill she stole.

A gust of red ink flicked in her eyes.

Then, out of thin air, right in the middle of the path of the explosion, the mass of crimson and onyx appeared. Once again.

Burning with the same intensity.

Stretching in the same frantic erraticness.

It burned. It glowed. Bright and Red.