Frost's body collapsed to the ground as Neo and Emerald looked on from their position far down the hall. The moment he did, Emerald began to move though she was quickly stopped by a strong grip from Neo's hand on her shoulder.
"Wait, it's not safe yet."
Emerald looked back to the smaller girl with a confused look. "What do you mean, "not safe"? He's out cold!"
"Yes, but his body is still trying to let out the energy that was bottled up when his Semblance was held back. Can't you see it?"
Emerald's eyes turned to the body down the passage as it occasionally twitched, a few stray bolts of electricity ricocheting off towards the numerous metal surfaces surrounding it. Every now and then, a loud bang would echo out as a larger bolt slammed into one of the metal plates lining the walls and blackened that particular section.
"Yeah…maybe you're right. But how long will it be before it's safe to get closer?"
"…I don't know." Neo admitted with a frown. "His Semblance has rarely ever backfired like this, the most recent time being when Mercury kicked him. It happened once or twice when we were younger, but his powers were hardly anything to be too scared of then. The worst anyone ever got was a frizzy hairstyle or a tingly limb if they got too close. It could be a few moments or it could be a while before it's all out of his system. It depends on how much he was trying to hold back."
"So what do we do in the meantime?"
"…We wait. That's all we can do since the others are cut off and trying to get to them could get us horribly lost or worse."
"Damn. I hate waiting."
Frost felt a tingly sensation as his eyes cleared of the blinding light that had filled his vision moments ago. He blinked cautiously as he tried to regain his bearings. When his vision was finally clear however, he was not met with the sight of metal hallways like he had expected. Instead he was surrounded by a quiet village street devoid of any form of human life. Everywhere he turned there were buildings familiar to him, though he had never expected to see it in such pristine shape again.
It was his old home, before it had been shattered by the Grimm.
"Didn't have enough of reminiscing, huh?" Frost heard a distorted voice call out from behind him. His vision whirled to face the being that spoke, his eyes falling on his own body, though with a few key differences. Instead of the piercing blue eyes he was met with deep black and red as well as a considerably paler complexion mixed with black tendrils etched across its skin. Its form also appeared to be hunched over somewhat, though it was hard to tell if it was a pained stance or one ready to leap into action.
"What do you want? Here to gloat again?" Frost felt his brows furrow as the desire to charge in an punch the being clean in the face passed through his mind.
"If only." The being responded as it straightened itself to stretch its arms briefly before returning to its original stance. "No, I'm here to finish what I should have done days ago. It seems that letting you linger has proven to be an inconvenience that I'm sick of having around."
"And what about your feeding source? Not so afraid that you'll just wither away once I'm all gone, then" Frost inquired as he took a cautious step back even as the creature approached in the same manner.
"I'll find another way to sustain myself, after all your little friends are likely still nearby once we're done here. Once you're dead for good, the pain I'll steal away from the smaller one will keep me going for a while at least. The other one will make a nice appetizer given her frustration."
"Yeah, I don't think so." Frost responded as he planted one foot firmly in the ground behind him, bracing himself for the brawl that he knew was coming. "I managed to hold you off multiple times already. I'll do it again."
"Each one of those pathetic delays only stalled me for mere seconds. What makes you think that you can do anything now with how weak you truly are?"
"Why don't you look around and think about that, yourself? Our surroundings don't seem the least bit odd to you?" Frost smirked as he watched the Grimm gaze about.
"Hmm, maybe I was wrong about how much strength you have left. But it still pales next to mine." In an instant, the entire area that lay behind the Grimm shattered into darkness once more, buildings and foliage simply ceasing to exist as the Grimm called its power forward. "I can collapse this haven of yours in an instant. What makes you think that you stand a chance against me?"
"Because," Frost began as he felt his body surge with power, his arms and legs aglow with the light of his Semblance. "I'm not holding back this time. This is the end for one of us, I can promise you that."
"So be it. But I hope for your sake your friends have a high pain tolerance. Their deaths…will not be merciful."
"Like hell you'll get to them!" Frost roared as he kicked off from the ground and rocketed towards the Grimm at the same moment it pounced, the two colliding with each other in a flurry of limbs.
Blows were evenly met as one of them would swing out with a fist only for it to be deflected by a sudden snap of the arm by the other. A leg would swing out only to be deflected by a slap of the hand or a twist of the knee. The two seemed evenly matched for a time before both of them kicked back from the other and landed back in their relative starting positions.
"I guess your little stunt with holding back your energy affected me more than I would like to admit. I would have killed you by now were I at full strength, but I suppose that means I'll have to burn some of my reserve essence to end this." The Grimm stated before the darkness behind him seemed to surge before flowing into him, his body silhouetted in a sort of shroud as the shadows passed over him for an instant. As the shadows passed, Frost's eyes widened as he bore witness to a portion of the Grimm's true form. Before him stood a being that still looked somewhat like himself, but the apparent Grimm traits were impossible to miss. The tail that seemed to flow cleanly from its back as well as the piercing eyes that seemed to stare right into him. But nothing was more noticeable than the fangs that lined its mouth as it hissed at him. He now knew what kind of Grimm had been inside of him all this time.
A King Taijitu.
"I remember…when I first felt my presence in your body." The serpent hissed as it smirked evilly at him. "I recall sifting through your memories to see what I could use as a foothold to keep myself from burning under your Semblance as it tried to flush me out. Imagine my surprise when I find a day where you had to fight numerous Grimm on your own and the one Grimm you couldn't defeat…was my own species. I nearly thought that precise moment would be enough to hide inside of, but then your power kept coming. It wasn't until I found a passage that seemed almost ignored, with memories lying about and unattended. And then I found the pain and sorrow from losing your parents and your home. I knew from that moment that no matter how hard your power tried to erase me, I would always have a source to feed on that would never go away. Why do you think you would occasionally snap, or lash out at someone more than was necessary?"
"…It was you." Frost stated with shock etched across his face. "Everytime."
"To an extent." The creature shrugged its shoulders casually. "Most of the frustration and anger was still you, but I had to test how much influence I held in those key instances. And I knew each time that it wasn't enough yet to fully come out of hiding. But then you overtaxed yourself that night back in Vale, and the path was open for me to implant more of myself across your mind. Fragments that would fester and grow as your Semblance attempted to spread itself thin trying to get all of it at once. I was even able to corrupt a portion of it and make it my own," the Grimm paused as a crackle of electricity flickered across its hand before fading away, "even more strongly infecting your very being with my existence. With all of that revealed and all of that to think about, how could you think you stand a chance against me any longer?"
"…This is still MY body." Frost snapped as he raised a hand out in front of him as though reaching for something. "You may have had time to make space for yourself, but I'm still the one with the final say as to what happens here. Your just an unwanted guest." As he spoke, the light lining his arms seemed to coalesce into unique shapes, his eyes glaring daggers at the beast standing before him. "And it's about time I finished kicking you out." The moment he finished speaking, the light silhouettes shattered, revealing a set of weaponry he had long since discarded.
The sword and bracer he had held back when everything has first began to occur.
"Can't defeat me on your own, so you resort to using old relics that proved ineffective in the past? You only prove that you don't learn from your mistakes." The Grimm chuckled as it leapt towards him, its tail lashing out towards Frost's body with flickers of electricity lining its surface. As it approached, Frost released a burst of energy through the bracer, a thick cloud of mist rapidly forming to fill the vicinity.
"I can still sense you, you know." The snake hissed out as it turned around inside of the fog. "Your anger, your frustration. It's far too predictable to see where you're coming from. Just save yourself the trouble and surrender rather than wasting both of our time."
"Not a chance." Frost's voice echoed from beyond he creatures vision.
"Fine, then I'll just prove to you how fruitless your plan is."
The creature lashed out with its tail in the direction it felt Frost's presence…only to be met with air and mist as it struck nothing. The creature snarled in frustration as it ashed out again in a completely different direction, missing once more as its limb crashed through the wall of a building, few pieces of mortar and wood bouncing off of its torso as chunks were scattered by the impact. This went on a few times more before the creature screeched its displeasure into the air.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING?!"
The air was suddenly filled with a roar of pain as the end of the creatures tail was cleanly severed off from the slash of a sword that broke through the fog, it's body leaping away to safety from the direction the attack had come from.
"My mind, remember?" Frost stated plainly as he tapped the side of his head with his armored hand. "Just because you can sense the negative emotions inside me doesn't mean they'll be as easy to read when your constantly surrounded by them. It's a little different being inside someone's head rather than going after an actual person, I imagine." Frost's grin fell into a look of disgust as the runes lining his bracer shone with an intense light.
"Now do me a favour and get the fuck out of my life."
The entire area shook as a barrage of ice mixed with crackling electricity lanced out from Frost's arm, the bracer shattering into motes of light as it deteriorated atop Frost's arm. The energy continued to surge forwards as Frost slowly walked towards the creature, it's body writhing in agony as it tried to back away from the onslaught, only to be stopped as it bumped roughly into an oddly shaped surface. Amidst its pain, the creature looked back to stare at the shape of Frost's childhood home, its body seething with pain as it felt its own essence being torn apart.
"You think you've won?! You think this is truly the end of me?!" The creature struggled to stand as it used the door of the house as a support. "I am a part of you now! Nothing you do will ever truly get rid of me!"
"I know." Frost said with a calm voice as he continued to slowly approach the beast. With one fluid movement, the sword he held in his other hand lanced out and pierced the monster's abdomen, pinning it cleanly to the door of his old home as he finally stopped pushing his power into the monster that stood before him.
"But now that I know where you've been hiding, this is where you'll stay. You won't gain anymore hold over me. We're done."
"You'll slip! You won't be able to hold me back forever! This pathetic stopper won't last forever!" The creature's hands gripped tightly onto the sword that lay impaled inside of it, struggling to remove it's bonds.
"You're probably right. But neither of us is going to have to worry about that much longer." Frost turned and began to walk off even as the roars of pain and rage filled the air behind him, his entire surroundings slowly fading as he felt his consciousness start to return.
"I just have to take care of one last thing. Then this will all be over."
Frost's body jolted upright as his eyes blinked open. Both Neo and Emerald jerked back in surprise as they had approached his body once it had appeared to calm down and stop giving off energy. Without even realizing it, both of them reached for their weapons as they pointed them at Frost's sitting form.
"…Well this is awkward." Frost commented after the three of them stared at each other for a few moments. "Is something on my face?"
"…Frost?" Neo asked after a few seconds pause, her weapon lowering a fraction. "Is it really you?"
"Umm…I think so? Let me try something real quick." Frost quickly got to his feet before walking over to a nearby wall and staring at it for a moment. In the next second both girls jumped in surprise as the boy slammed his head into the wall with a bang. He then leaned back with a pained look as he placed both hands on the sides of his skull to stop the ringing in his ears. "Yep, that hurt. I'm back, it's official." A grunt of air rushed out of him as he felt his abdomen suddenly engulfed in a tight hug from Neo, her weapon discarded on the floor back where Emerald stood with a still surprised look.
"…You big idiot…" Neo grumbled into his chest as she continued to hold tight, one of Frost's hand gently coming to rest on her head as he rubbed her hair gently.
"I'm sorry for what I put you through. But we can't just stop and get reacquainted just yet. We still have to shut this place down." A gentle smile filled Frost's face as he felt Neo slowly back out of the one-sided hug.
"What about the others, though?" Emerald asked as she walked over, her weapons already sheathed as she passed Neo her parasol.
"They'll be fine." Frost replied. "This place may have a bunch of Grimm in it, but they're split up and scattered throughout to keep them from being too strong a force individually. There's still a bunch of them that were let out, but the most they'll prove is a slog for the others to wade through rather than anything of actual risk." Frost paused for a moment as he seemed t space out for a second. "...man being a passenger inside my own head let me get a lot of info about this place I wouldn't have otherwise."
"Well in that case," Neo began as she waited patiently next to Emerald. "Where to now?"
Frost's expression hardened as he spoke his next words. "The main reactor powering this whole place. We're going to blow it up."
Sorry, the weekend slipped past me due to trying to make some progress on some recent content added to some games I play. Kept forgetting to post this update despite my usual approach. Regardless, here's the next snippet in the story. Obviously they're not out of the woods yet, but they ARE allowed their small victories here and there.
