Chapter 118 - The Hoarfrost

The Yamagata Prefecture's city of Shinjo suffered from everlasting snowfall. The dark clouds hung for weeks, branding the streets in a thin sheet of snow and ice around the mountain basin. The further north one went, the harsher the elements became. It was an eternal winter, but villainous acts remained high as the sky blared with the sound of thunder and the rush of hot wind.

"Silver Slash!" Valstrax swept wide with both wings, sweeping the street of the Splicers before her, tossing them skyward for her wings to poise their vents forward, blasting them into pieces. "That's the third external patrol this day, they're keeping me away..." She tisked, landing on the snow-covered pathway where several bystanders looked at her with a mixture of sweet and sour scents to toss into her nose. "I'd suggest leaving the area, their may be more."

Some stared at her with visible looks of gratitude, what little was given to heroes these days, she was lucky that most still believed in her position. Being probably the fastest working hero in Japan now, Valstrax held a great deal of respect with people long before Kovik and the Paranormal Liberation Front screwed everything up. It was no secret her daughter was the girl who fought Kovik and lost, the connection between Yuki's quirk and Kovik's Splicers had been made many times, only now it was all finalized.

Valstrax had seen the flak sent her way, 'why would you harbour such a dangerous secret?', 'is your illegitimate daughter the same as Kovik?', the list went on and on. But some still held hope for the Sky Comet Hero, and she cherished it. But, they refused to say it, not when others in the crowd openly displayed their hatred and distrust from the silver-clad hero.

"They're here for you, so get lost!" "We don't need your help!" "All you heroes do is cause trouble!" "You protect that monster when she's the same as that villain Kovik!" "You're all frauds!"

Again, words went on and on, Valstrax had been more than numb to it before Yuki was even born she bet. With a soft smile, she spread her wings. "That's good, keep your wits about you," That wasn't the reaction the angry citizens expected as she took flight. "Now more than ever, you have to rely on each other, don't ever forsake your comrades." With her piece said, she took off to a nearby building to land and rest while scanning over her phone listed with notes dotted on a map of the city.

The winter breeze caught her hair as she took her helmet off to relax, holding her fingers to her ear while staring at her phone, marking off another area. "I'm going north today, you guys got the rest of the city covered?"

~You shouldn't~ Jin was the first to reply. ~If the Baron is as strong as reports say, you may have yourself a match beyond your strengths~

"Hey, I'm a dragon, he's a dragon... I think? This is like the best outcome," Valstrax downplayed, waving her hand.

Jin sighed. ~Be careful not to breath in his frost, if it works similarly to my pupil's and her Nightmare's ice, you...~ The Martial Arts Hero trailed off, not wanting to finish that sentence. Valstrax smiled softly.

"I promise not to get in over my head, but I'm the only hero in the area who stands a chance, you know this," She had to see this through to end the eternal winter. "Yarath is keeping most strong heroes and scouts from going up north, less we take him out, we're not stepping foot over this mountain."

~...very well, be safe and good luck~ Jin relented, and her transmission was silent, probably to scout without interruption, leaving Valstrax to quickly bite down an energy bar and stuff her silvery hair behind her helmet, her scales expanding around her neck and throat again.

Sucking in a lungful of air through her mouth and breastplate, her insides flared with heat as the oxygen mingled with her dragon element, unleashing from her vents like a red glare, sending her soaring near the roof of clouds.


When Valstrax arrived at the foot of the mountain, at an old hiking lodge now abandoned and ransacked, the first thing to greet her from the derelict buildings were the Fallen. Their rifles didn't so much as phase her metallic armour, not since she learned to use her body like a lightning rod, feeding the unwanted energy back into the earth, so long as she wasn't flying, but that was easy when she moved as fast as their rifles.

Taking the most direct trail up the forest, the world began to shift, the snow was heavier, the wind colder, and the trees were burnt or crushed, replaced by large archways of red wires and black pyramid clusters that clung to the world like a sickness, spreading its infection through the earth and trees. NARA twisted the land into a crimson and white hellscape. The trees served as posts for NARA to spread jagged wings of red with wires tied from branch to branch.

More Fallen got in her way, using the trees as cover, but she was more than ready to ebb and flow with the wind, cutting down any opposition. They were tough in groups, but against a faster opponent, they were child's play. Huffing red smoke, Valstrax sped up her progress, following NARA back to its source, all the wires converging overhead to a massive black archway split into two black ribs jutting from the earth. This 'ribcage' extended several more sets between the mountain's pass, it was more of a den than a fortress. The Splicers... didn't pursue her?

She paused, glancing back to find that the Vandals hiding behind their cloaks didn't budge from the entrance, hissing and shuffling in the snow at her, sure, but not one foot stepped beyond the first archway. "Ominous much?" She cracked a grin. "Guess your boss is that scary huh? I'm shaking." Valstrax pretended to shiver, delving further into the lair of the Baron.

|Why... Do You Come Here... To This Place?|

The deep, synthetic voice snarled through the valley, surprising Valstrax momentarily before she took flight to glide her way through the winding passage that was widened not by NARA but by large claw marks and blue ice that had shredded through the rock. Something big had wedged its way through the pass.

"Out of all the Barons, you got stuck playing guard dog, care to share?" Valstrax replied loud enough for her voice to travel through the nano-infested mountain.

|I Will Uphold My Duty... To My Kell... That... Is... All I Am|

"Yuki talked about how SIVA used to work under the command 'Consume, Enhance, Replicate', it drove the last guy that used SIVA mad, he became more machine than Fallen," Valstrax pondered on this. "Could it be affecting Yarath? Is some ghost of SIVA's old command log still imprinted on NARA?" She wasn't a scientist and refused to act like one, all her knowledge extended only from what her daughter spoke of. And even Yuki didn't understand it like SIVA had.

"Come on-" She kept talking, hopping up a sharp incline to slide down an ice-covered slope soon after. "-you gotta have a reason for this? Why become a monster for some guy who, for all you know, is using yo-"

|Be Silent!|

That struck a nerve, she thought, as an icy wind shot through her whole body, the mountain trembled when she found an opening past a rock slide. There, the land was bathed in a sheet of blue ice, like a lake, NARA snaked up in pillars across the walls. The whole 'lair' expanded beyond the size of two tennis courts, a faint red glare under dark sunlight.

|Power... Is All... That Matters! That Is... Recognized!|

"Trust me," Valstrax briefly let her guard down, hand near her heart. "Power... is an illusion, there are so many forms power can take, but this..." She swung a wing at her surroundings. "This is anything but power, it's..."

|Pure|

"A sickness!" She countered, and the world went completely silent.

...

...

...

...

...

The ground rumbled, breaking apart from below as large shards of ice jutted up from the surface. Valstrax took to the sky slightly to avoid the earthquake, glaring down at the hole before her eyes behind her helmet expanded with disgust and horror. A large, scaly both shifted the ice plates around, rising up on two, mangled claws to wrench the upperhalf of its body free, pulling wires and cords with a snap, sparks flying as it adjusted its posture in the pool of crumbling ice and a facility hidden within an old missile silo, completely from view.

This... monster, had the upperbody of a dragon covered in scales of various whites, blues, and blacks. Red veins pulsed with NARA as wires and armour plating dug between the scales and jutted outward like spines, the claws were black and parts of the creature's bone and muscle were exposed between the metal plates, shifting with each jostle. The maw was lithe with a thin snout snapping wires that bound the muzzle, revealing twisted teeth and a cool, blue mist from the gums. Horns made from broken sheet metal and red wires hung from the crown, and a single, red eye zeroed in on the hero, the left covered by what remained of a mask now stretched and deformed by the scales.

Yarath Vel the Hoarfrost had awakened.

|Perish... FaLsE hErO!

The voice was drowned in a sea of code and static, becoming primal as Valstrax blasted a wave of ice with her wings, the red and white pigment exploding into burning shards of ice that quickly evaporated around her. Flying wide to avoid the beast's swiping claws. She doubled back, bringing her tail down across the snout vertically, slamming Yarath into the ice. Letting out a grunt, his claws dug into the ground, causing dozens of ice stalagmites to skewer the air, grazing across Valstrax's armour.

Twirling to dispel the frost, she sucked in a breath and lunged forward, slashing at the open right claw with her wings, burning through the ice and frost with her dragon element. Pivoting off the arm with her left, she dived into a helix spin, striking Yarath's face with a snap-kick, shattering the ice behind his head and cracking a few scales. The eye focused in on the silver dragon, biting down on her tail as she tried to flee, with a yelp, Valstrax was swung sharply into the nearest wall, tail covered in ice as another cold front washed over her.

The torrent of ice quickly covered the area, the red glare indicating Valstrax had evaded in time, chipping the ice off her tail to fly properly. From above, a bombardment of dragon element battered Yarath as he threshed his head, spraying frost across the lair, icicles formed in the air, shattering against anything in their way as a silver comet drew a gust of wind with her, slamming her outstretched legs against Yarath's chest, splitting the hardened skin. The breastplates shifted, and a vent of ice slammed into Valstrax, tossing her across the ground as she wheezed, her chestplate's vents clogged with brittle ice.

Bringing his claws into the earth, three waves of ice erupted from below, revealing more of the missile silo below. What remained of Yarath's lower body was now infused to the shaft by NARA, anything below the waist was twisted and split into various pipes connected to ventilation shafts. Coughing up some blood after that blunt force trauma, Valstrax realized it. "That's how this eternal winter's spread, he's the literal control core!" All notion pulled the tired hero to her feet again, shaking off the rime. "Guess now I'm motivated, okay..." Taking a deep breath, Valstrax closed her eyes, even as a wave of ice conjured a glacier toward her smaller frame.

The glacier ripped up the lair, flinging chunks of ice and metal with it.

Valstrax's wings lost their glow, if only for a flicker.

Then, an almighty Boom shook the earth. The ice that nearly impacted Valstrax was met with an impressive concussion of air pressure, throwing the debris back at Yarath.

|What... Did You... Do!?|

"Heh, thanks for the assist," Valstrax smirked with her eyes closed. Standing before her, the emerald hero took a strong stand. "Midoriya."

"Are you okay?" He asked immediately, noting how the ice that lingered on her armour chipped away at her defences.

"Now? Certainly," With a tremendous heat wave, the vents within her wing-blades and chestplate burned with a constant stream of dark red light, the same overflow of dragon element cascaded from her eyes and across her crown down to the middle of her back and the tip of her tail. Opening her eyes, she hissed. "Care to slay a dragon?"

"I'll aim for the core," Deku replied, leaping away in time to avoid another wide breath of ice, Valstrax brought both wings forward, a solid nova of corrupt wind pressure blasting the cold front away, red particles scattered around the two dragons.

Seeing the new state Valstrax had undergone, and now the arrival of Kovik's greatest threat made something snap in Yarath, an instinct like no other, a deep seething rage. But subtly... he was screaming in agony. Deku saw it, like something inside him could peer through the ugly carcass and see the man the dragon used to be.

|Die... Die... DIE... DIIIIIE!|

Tearing his lower half from the silo below, ice and NARA covered the holes, giving Yarath the ability to charge toward Deku, tearing across the lair with a frenzied roar. He aired out his area with smokescreen, evading the jaws of the dragon while striking its back with several Delaware Smash Air Forces. The peppering swung Yarath around to blast the boy with a torrent of ice, not before a crimson crescent shredded down his neck, twisting around to slash at the throat with both bladed wings. Valstrax saw the linger dragon element seep into the wounds, stalling the gradual regeneration.

"St. Louis Smash/Crimson Slash!" Wing and boot collided with another wave of frost breath, the heat pressure created by their attacks leaving a sizable cone of safety from the frigid elements. Yarath wailed, a long black gash splitting down his snout and across his missing ice, liquid nitrogen dripping from the wound. He didn't even bleed normally anymore. Not willing to let their enemy recover, the two flanked either side, evading the small frost blast and claws swinging wildly at the air. Deku clasped both hands, building up tension in his joints. Valstrax pressed her boots against one of the NARA archways above the lair, her wings covering her beak into an arrow-tip. "Wyoming Smash/Faux Ruby Star!"

The top of Yarath's head caved in, bringing the abomination down hard as it shakily dragged its body upward, vomiting a wave of ice to ward the heroes away. Despite the fact his body was crumbling, bone and muscle exposed, or what little remained of organic tissue, he still clawed his way toward Deku who floated the closest to the ground. Flying over the left claw, Deku grunted as his foot was snagged between Yarath's jaws. In seconds, a powerful blast struck the monster's throat, Valstrax doubling back in the air to avoid a similar predicament.

|Protect... Must Protect... I Must...|

"He's lost his mind..." Valstrax shuttered to think how anyone could endure such a horrible transformation, worst yet, how anyone stomached doing this to a living being. This ugly sight made her Crimson Glow form persist with her emotions, she hated it, seeing such a hell consume another. "Why would you side... with someone who does this, Doryu?"

From above, Blackwhip fanned out, catching Yarath around his arms and throat, the rest attempting to clamp his mouth shut as it continuously spewed ice, freezing across Deku's whips. "Valstrax! His chest, the core it where his heart is!" Deku declared, flying to push his feet against a support beam running across the hole in the lair's ceiling, his feet shuffling close to the edge in an attempt to reel the mindless beast upright, his footing starting to break. "Hurry! His thrashing is making it harder to hold him!"

With the last ounce of strength in her form, Valstrax dove to the entrance to the lair, the snow melting instantly, her hands touched the ground, feeling the vibrations from her wings reach the earth. Her vents stalled, just for a split second only to rev up tenfold, her dragon element burning blue briefly before she took off, leaving a deep impression in the valley behind her, ripping up a blizzard in her wake.

Deku held on with Blackwhip as best he could, his fingers felt like they were bleeding, and his footing was going to collapse any moment now. He fought the urge to let go, even when his Mid-Gauntlet flailed from abuse, maintaining a steady hold. Yarath continued to roar and challenge Deku's strength, agony foregone as it dug its own claws into where the whips were anchored, stripping metal and artificial flesh, peeling back his mutated hide for the husk beneath, wires and coolant fluid gushing out from the wounds.

|Weak... So Weak... GeT oFf Of Me!

"GRAAAAAAAAAH!" Yarath howled in pain, tearing away Blackwhip much to Deku's surprise, but that shock replaced with the instinct to move, leaping away as the whole lair was struck with a powerful red blast that tore out the floor, burying the silo in rubble as a single, crimson arrow cut through the storm and silenced the cries and screams in the wind.

With a single, puncture of metal and wind, Valstrax held her hand forward, clutching a small cluster between her claws as her dragon mutation
receded, the last of her strength giving out. Behind her, Yarath crumbled to the earth with a dying grunt, kicking up the snow as Valstrax held her hand close, inspecting the device with the intent to crush it. "Wait," Deku interjected, holding out his hand. "I'll take it, to use later."

She gave a questioning brow beneath her helmet, but tossed the cluster to him as he silently thanked her, approaching Yarath in a wide turn. Both watched his body begin to crumble from the mangled lower half. Yarath couldn't move, his joints were beyond repair. "Of all the Barons, he was the weakest," His words caught Valstrax by surprise.

"What?" She certainly felt the opposite, but Deku wasn't one to gloat.

Deku approached Yarath's head, the eye following him as Deku placed a hand on the top of the fallen beast's snout. "His constant mutation was hindering NARA recovery, that's why he was falling apart, so instead, he was made to shroud the city in an eternal winter until it eventually spread to the rest of Japan."

Yarath's eye widened at the soft, warm touch of the hero's hand, behind that mask there was no malice, nor pride, just relief. Relief that Yarath had been stopped. Yar... no, Geten, that's what his name was, he could see it, how strong the brat was despite how beaten up he looked. Relaxing his last nerves, Yarath's eye lost its colour, the eyelid closing.

Holding the cluster up, Deku added, "His memories were too muddled with desire and that primal urge from his mutation, so I couldn't use One For All to see his heart," He replied, patting the snout that crumbled in his palm. A single tear rolled down the dragon's face before it too dissolved into scrap and dead nanites. "But... I could tell, he's grateful to us."

Valstrax huffed a laugh, hand on her bruised hip. "Guess that's good then, look at us, we make a pretty good team, Midoriya - ah, right, Deku's your codename," She mused but got nothing but silence as the boy stored the NARA core in his bag. "Hey, so, wanna grab something to eat? Bet you skipped out on a meal like I did, man Jin's gonna kill me-"

"No thanks, I should keep moving," Deku refused, turning the other way. "But thank you for helping me, I don't think I could've taken Yarath down without you, the fact it was you made this the best possible outcome." He bowed his head, again, not once looking her in the face.

As Deku silently took his leave, he found a hand grasped to his shoulder. He didn't turn but felt her worried look on the back of his head. "Midoriya, you can stop, you know? Even for a day."

"I can't," He was curt, pulling away from her hand. "Drevis and Halimaka are the last of the Barons, they'll know where Kovik and Shigaraki are-"

"And you'll fight them alone?" She frowned, crossing her arms tightly. "Look at you, Midoriya, you haven't slept right for days, you barely eat from what I heard, and with how hard you're pushing yourself you'll collapse before long," The reports she's received, of Deku traveling the country with All Might, defeating villains left and right, and now four of the Barons that held a firm grip over Japan were dead. But Deku was withering, his armour was worn and beyond repair, he looked like a dead man walking.

"I'll be fine, you don't need to worry about me," Deku kept moving but with a hot wind, Valstrax landed in his way with a scowl. "Please move."

"Why won't you look at me?" She asked, seeing his eyes wander down at his feet.

"I don't have any right to look you in the eye," He stated coldly, body shaking slightly, "I failed, I destroyed the transmission and nothing's changed, so that means there's more to Detainment than what Kovik let on, I have to fix this, I will fix this."

"If it was Yuki asking you, would you still keep running yourself ragged?" Her tone and the mention of her daughter brought Deku to a standstill, a cold wind brushing through them. Valstrax's eyes softened beneath her helmet. "It wasn't your fault-"

Deku kept walking, he didn't want to raise his voice, to scream how wrong Akame was, instead, he just trudged through the snow, he had time for a short break but there were a few villains in the area that he needed to look into. He couldn't stop, his body would crumble if he did. "Izuku...!" Her voice carried over the wind but he didn't turn back, clenching his fists.

"I'm sorry, Akame," She flinched, a plume of black smoke making her nose numb. "But I just can't stop anymore." With a rush of wind, Deku vanished as the smoke cleared, Valstrax turned around but saw no sign of the emerald hero. He slipped away, leaving her to bring her hand that remained outstretched close to her heart.

"...All Might, please, you're the only one that he'll listen to," She prayed, flexing out her wings to take flight. "You need to save him before Izuku destroys himself."


Staring at the various monitors that displayed recordings of the battle between the fearsome Valstrax and the rouge Deku against the Baron Yarath Vel entranced Kovik, his claws pinching at edge of his pyramid while wires and tubing sprung from his back like puppet strings. "I see, his spirit is... wavering," His previous encounter with Mr. Compress and Selas was as he expected. "Compress, Selas, you two have done your parts, the others will prevail in your place."

~Kovikkel~ To break the buzz of computers, Drevis' voice chimed in. ~Shall I send my Silent Fang to subdue the target?~

"Hm, not yet, I have one last piece on the board, you understand? Patience for the hunt?" Kovik mused earning a grunt in response. "Then, when all is said and done, you may proceed, detain or exterminate the last ember of the Thief at your discretion."

~As you wish~ Her link cut out soon after, leaving Kovik to marvel at his creation.

"Izuku Midoriya... he's getting closer to us..." Shigaraki rasped, suspended from his own cables, his skin shredded and blackened with constant abuse, but he seemed numb to that pain, like he enjoyed it.

"Yes, I do believe he's paved quite the way for the heroes, what little that remain," Kovik agreed, not once taking his eyes off the monitors, and of the boy who looked ragged and determined to hunt them down. "Let them think they're winning, what little bumps they've made will only delay the inevitable, and give us time to finalize NARA."

"Right, Compress was captured, wasn't he?" Shigaraki asked.

"Unfortunately, I do believe he survived," Kovik was impressed by the escape artist's ability to hold on to life. When all is said and done, Kovik would have to repair him for his troubles. "For now, let us see how this ends, for One For All's last failure."

To Be Continued...


With each passing day, Izuku is getting more lost in his indomitable drive, but for how long? If Valstrax can't reach him, then who will? Geten was my example of what happens to those infected with NARA that do survive the process of being converted but their quirk suffers constant mutation. The result? Steel-Ice dragon... thing. I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; seeya in the next chapter, Heroes!

P.S. No fancy preview this time, sorry!

Next Chapter Intermission - Old Scars

Drevis sets her Silent Fang's newest member upon Deku. How will he fare against an assassin as deadly as Drevis herself...?