-Prelude-
A faint hum crept through the serene crystalline cavern, bouncing and echoing off translucent, silently sparkling walls. It emanated from the cavern's sole inhabitant, panting gently in the centre of the space, bathed in faint blue light. A film of sweat was beginning to freeze on his pinkish skin, but he paid it no attention, vigilant for some unseen threat. He swept the tranquil cave with wary eyes from his floating vantage point, fear pulsating through his veins. The attack he had been anticipating hadn't come, and the drain on his energy from constantly maintaining his mental defenses was crippling. His body protested against the effort, and slowly he began to withdraw, landing onto the ground painfully vulnerable.
His vision was interrupted by a burst of static, accompanied by acute, freezing pain in his mind. Frantically attempting to raise his defenses, he was constantly shut down. Another burst. The pain mounted as a sub-zero lance penetrated deep into his consciousness. Delirious with agony, he collided with the cavern ceiling and floor nearly simultaneously. Finishing the attack, a barely perceptible sphere of shadow careened towards him, scrambling his thoughts and memory and sending him directly into unconsciousness.
The attack's originator landed nimbly beside the fallen psychic, allowing himself a thin smile of satisfaction at the lifeless form of his progenitor. With immense satisfaction, he raised a lavender fist, and drove it directly into the chest of his prey. As the unconscious esper took his final breaths, his murderer reached through his feeble ribs and crushed his heart. Blood splattered the formerly immaculate crystal of the cavern, as the psychic was utterly destroyed. His murderer looked at his bloodied hand with some degree of satisfaction, and turned away from his victim, walking out into the blizzard.