Hey, Hows it going bros? My name is Pewdi-
Wait, wrong show.

Ahems.

Heya guys, Its me, Wings, with another update for IHIE.

A word of caution before we begin, this chapter is a bit more violent and darker than the last few chapters. I think we've all had enough of the whole "I'm the protagonist of this story, fuck you, I'm OP" deal on Alan, so I've decided to completely shatter that self-image of his and prove to everyone, including the characters in the story, that Alan is not invincible. He is still a mortal, he is still a human being, he can be defeated.

Also, Ashe is a Badass in this chapter, albeit colder than what you'd expect. But the girl just lost her husband and she's dealing with the faction who killed him, how do you expect her to react? Lissandra experiences her own emotional and mental conflicts in this chapter as well. Finally, we find out the price of being an asshole during important missions.

Enjoy

- Wings Senpai

In her Icy Embrace

Chapter 6: He's no hero.

5 minutes. 5 fucking minutes.

5 minutes is all it took for that asshole Glass to leave me behind to go jerk off or whatever the fuck he does with his whole 'lone wolf' thing. Alan was mentally cursing Glass as he roamed the dark streets of Rakkelstake. They had gotten through the wall easier than expected; they just threw ropes with a grappling hook on and climbed over. Then Glass decided to bolt, leaving Alan alone in the dark village.

He had already seen the Gate's inner side. There seemed to be a very large seal on it, requiring something large, pentagonal in shape, to be fitted into the slot to unlock the gates. And that was most likely within the castle.

While Alan tried snooping around the deserted village, slowly making progress towards the castle, he simply couldn't stop thinking about the blue markings on his hands and what Ashe had said. A part of him refused to believe that Lissandra was lying to him. Another part kept piling proof on proof of Lissandra's deceit. Nevertheless, she had saved his life and he had joined under her ranks. He had been given a task and he would complete it. Then, he would confront Lissandra.

The hardest part in getting to the castle was the large lake it was surrounded by. Or so they thought. Almost everyone who lived here was warm-blooded. They weren't immune to the cold like Alan was.
Still, he would have to be quick. Just because he didn't feel cold didn't mean ice wouldn't form on him and freeze him. He had no intention of being encased alive in ice or to gain weight from the ice forming on his clothes, which would drag him under and drown him.

Alan was happy he had opted for lighter armor than what he had worn during the battle. There wasn't much metal on his outfit; more leather with some dark ice reinforcement, but nothing that would weigh him down too much. So, at the edge of the lake, Alan steeled himself then jumped into the water.

The first thing Alan felt was the initial shock of the sub-zero lake. The coldness disappeared almost as fast as it had appeared as his immunity kicked in and Alan began swimming as fast as he could. Even as light as his armor was, it was weighing him down. A quarter of the way, his muscles began aching. Halfway through, they were sore and beginning to fail as Alan's lungs burned for the oxygen he couldn't provide sufficiently, even though he was nearly hyperventilating.

An idea hit Alan's head as he called upon his mana reserves. He froze the water around him in specific places, such as under his chest and along his arms and legs, before he began to propel the ice through the water. The ice acted like a transport, pulling him along at a good speed.

When He finally reached the shore at the base of Rakkelstake, he lied on the beach for a few minutes, gasping heavily, staring up at the night sky in exhaustion.

I swear, I'm gonna have sooo many things to say to Lissandra after this is over. He thought angrily as he finally picked himself up. He stood still, using a bit more mana to freeze all of the water absorbed by his clothes, before causing them to disintegrate into miniscule snow crystals, effectively drying him.

After making sure everything was still on him (Armor, check. Clothes, check. Frig Ascutis, check.), Alan ran up to the castle wall. He found it odd there were no guards in the village or around the castle, as there should have been. But his mind was too occupied with completing the mission, the things Ashe said to him and what he was going to say to Lissandra after he got back to dwell on that fact. He looked around for an easy entry point and found it in the form of a window 20 ft off the ground. Taking the rope and hook from his belt, he began spinning it before throwing it up to try and hook it inside the window.

It took him 4 tries, but he finally managed to hook it and climb into what seemed to be a storage room of sorts. He opened the door slowly and silently, cracking it open just an inch to see if anyone was outside. The coast was clear, so Alan exited the room into what was a long corridor. It was nothing like Lissandra's castle. This corridor was… Grand. Plush carpets, warm walls, loads of decorations and pictures all down the hallway.

Alan walked down the corridor, hoping to get some bearing as to where he was in the castle when he came upon a large pair of doors. There was two other doors nearby on both sides of the hallway, and a small attempt at both revealed them to be locked. So, with no option, he took silent steps to the large doors…. And slowly reached out for the handle.

The door was suddenly pulled open viciously from the inside as, simultaneously, the doors which had been locked behind him opened, guards rushing out and slamming Alan in the back with their shields, shoving him into the room.

Alan almost fell, but managed to get back to his feet, pulling out Frig Ascutis as he looked around in shock. He was in a large hall of sorts, and literally surrounded by guards. The door he had come through had multiple guards, who now closed the door. Looking around, he saw a woman standing across the room, her white hair shining in the low blue light. Ashe.

And infront of Ashe, lay a masked iceborn, unmoving, with multiple arrows sticking out of his body. "Glass." Alan muttered, looking up at Ashe in surprise and anger. "You did this?"

"Yes." Ashe said simply.

Alan's anger flared further as he summoned a dark ice blade on Frig Ascutis, making it assume his familiar 3-foot long sword shape. Ashe's eyebrows raised infinitesimally, impressed slightly. Alan charged her, roaring in anger as he came in with a diagonal rising slash, going left to right.

Ashe simply side stepped the slash, just outside the arc of the slash, surprising Alan with her speed. He continued with an overhead slash going left to right, which Ashe dodged again by side stepping to his left. Alan tried to get her by using the momentum of his slash to turn, aiming a reverse leg sweep to trip her, but Ashe jumped over it. Both of them spun, Alan turning around towards Ashe just in time to see Ashe's leg whip around to slam into his head.

Everything went white for a few seconds as Alan was thrown clear off his feet from the kick, flying a few feet before sliding even further on the smooth floor, dazed from the kick. As Alan struggled to rise up again, Ashe stared him down coldly.

"Do not mistake me for some common soldier. Tryndamere might have underestimated you. He underestimates everyone because he wants a good fight. Do not expect that from me." She said, taking her time to notch an arrow on her bow and to pull the string. Alan instantly brought his sword up to block the arrow, but as Ashe let it loose, the arrow exploded a feet infront of Alan, peppering him with icy mist that reduced his vision.

Alan looked around , alert, expecting an attack from another direction, when a glint above caught his eye. Alan jumped to the right just in time as an arrow flew through the air, right where he had been standing. He watched Ashe land, she must've jumped 15 feet into the air, as she smirked at him frigidly.

"You're fast. Not fast enough, but fast." She said as a thin crimson line opened up on Alan's left cheek, right below his eye.

"You should surrender now, Ashe. I don't want to hurt you." Alan said as Ashe's mouth twitched.

"I don't think you're in the position to be making threats like that, Alan." She said as Alan lunged forward suddenly, slashing his sword. Ashe jumped back, but Alan's eyes glowed an icy blue as a wave of ice formed on the arc of his slash, shooting outwards at Ashe.

Ashe was still quicker to react, spinning her bow infront of her to deflect the oncoming wave of ice before notching 3 arrows and firing them. Alan slashed down at the arrows, cutting them in mid-flight, but as his sword reached the end of its path, another arrow suddenly streaked towards him. Then another. Then another.

Four arrows consecutively hit him faster than he could bring his sword back up. The first hit his left shoulder, the impact pushing his upper body to the left. The second hit his right shoulder, which was now an easy target as he had been forced to turn from the last arrow. As Alan stumbled back, a third hit his right forearm, piercing through the leather, through his flesh, in between the two arm bones and out. The last hit him square in the chest, the armor taking most of the impact but the arrow still managing to penetrate. This all happened before Alan could even fully cry out in pain, and as the final arrow hit, he fell backwards, his sword falling out of his grasp onto the floor. He fell with a thud, gasping in pain, unable to scream as he could feel the arrow in his chest scraping against his sternum. He feared that a slight movement would cause it to slip into his heart only a few centimeters below…

Ashe walked over, looking down at his defeated form coldly as Alan recovered from the pain enough to reach up with his left hand and pull the arrow out of his chest. Ice instantly formed on his wound, stopping it from bleeding further. The arrow in his right arm was too bad, so he simply broke off both ends of it that were protruding out, most of the icy shaft left inside his arm. The other arrows, he simply pulled out, managing to get into a crouch position as Ashe looked down at him. Usurper or not, Ashe was truly a queen. The way she gave off an air of superiority and dominance, the icy cold aura that surrounded her, almost as deadly as Lissandra's yet lacking the malevolence…

"Get up." She spat angrily as Alan stared back at her, fire in his eyes, shrouded by the white locks of hair falling infront of his face. He stood up, lunging forward at her to try and punch her. But the ice covering his wounds and the wounds themselves made him slower, clumsier. Ashe leaned away from the punch, grabbing his right arm and bringing it down viciously while bringing her knee up. The knee slammed into the middle of his arm, right where the arrow shaft was. Alan screamed in pain as he felt the ice inside shatter into sharp pieces, slashing the inside of his arm up as Ashe brought her knee down, pulled him towards her with his arm and brought her knee up again, slamming it into Alan's stomach. The impact forced the wind out of Alan's mouth, as well as some blood as she released him, causing him to fall to his knees on the floor, doubling over.

"A champion? A Hero?" She scoffed. "You're nothing more than a mere boy, deluded into the fact that he's someone important just because he drew a magical sword." She glanced at Frig Ascutis, laying a good distance away. Alan looked up, his face strained with pain but he still raised his left hand in an attempt to use cryomancy. Ashe thwarted it instantly by backhanding his face with her right hand, more blood splattering out of his mouth as his head was forced to look to the side.

She grabbed him by the hair before he fell, holding him up on his knees while bringing him close. "I told you what I needed to tell you. You didn't listen. Now you will suffer the consequences for invading my lands, endangering my people and killing my husband." She said, viciously pulling his head down to the floor.

Alan groaned as he felt his nose break, blood erupting out like a faucet had been released. Still, he fought. He didn't want to die. He wasn't going to die here. He reached for his sword, and it skidded across the floor to his hand. Grasping it, Alan turned around, aiming a slash for Ashe. But his slash was met by Ashe's bow blocking it, an arrow aimed down at him. Alan's eyes widened moments before Ashe released the arrow. The point-blank arrow penetrated through his right shoulder as Alan finally screamed in pain, feeling all the strength in his right arm leaving him.

"I should kill you right now." Ashe said as Alan was nearly hyperventilating, occasionally spitting out the blood that entered his mouth from his broken, bleeding nose.
"But that would make me no better than Lissandra." She said as she cleaned her bloodied hands on the hem of her cape. Turning around, she said, "Guards. Remove both of these intruders from my city and return the security to Level 5."

Alan's vision swam as he watched Ashe leave, wondering why she hadn't killed him and how she had said that doing so would 'make her no better than Lissandra.' Why did she speak of Lissandra as if Lissandra was something evil? Alan could not think of it much before the movement from the guards pulling him up non-too-gently caused him to lose consciousness.

…

Lissandra was satisfied. Any minute now, Alan and Glass would be returning from the castle with news of their success and Lissandra's army, which stood ready at her call, would pour into the Avarosan city in the dark and take over.

Her tent flap opened as a messenger stepped in, Lissandra almost smiling with anticipation. "Well?"

"Alan Frost and Glass have returned." He said hesitantly.
"Yes? So begin the preparations then. Tell Reinhart to lead the army into the c-"

"No, milady. I mean… Alan and Glass have been returned." He said as Lissandra's words died in her throat.

"What?" She managed to say after a few seconds, cold spreading through her as the messenger explained how the two had been dropped off at the edge of their camp by a few Avarosan guards, covered in blood and unmoving.

Everything passed in a blur, and soon, Lissandra was standing in front of the two prone bodies, Reinhart next to her, looking down somberly. Glass's armor was shattered, arrows protruding from his body in numerous locations. He was obviously dead. Alan was in just as bad a shape, with multiple arrow wounds. And the blood… Oh god, the blood. Never before had the sight of blood affected Lissandra. But looking down at Alan, his white hair strewn across the ground, dyed red in places, the bangs pasted to his forehead with cold sweat and blood, his eyes closed, his breathing labored and crimson coloring most of his white skin… It made Lissandra's legs feel weak.

Already, a number of medics had gotten to work on Alan, having stripped him down to his trousers to work on the wounds, but Lissandra was completely numb at seeing Alan like this… Defeated. Broken. She was even more confused as to why his situation was affecting her this much. He was just another pawn to be used, the pawn that would lead her to victory… So why did seeing him like this cause an unidentifiable clenching in her chest? Why did it make her throat close up?

"Queen Lissandra… We should call off the army and set up defensive perimeters." Reinhart said in a low voice, obviously detecting how Lissandra was on the precipice, though thoroughly confused by it. She had never been so affected by something before.

"…Yes… Do that…" She muttered as Reinhart nodded, leaving her as she stared down at Alan, who seemed to be in great pain as the medics worked on him.
She fell to her knees next to him, the medics not paying her much heed as she slowly reached for his face, unable to say or think of anything. She just wanted to touch him, to know he was there, for some inexplicable reason. She wasn't wearing her gloves, but that didn't stop her as she gingerly touched his forehead with her hand. His skin was warm. Very warm, almost feverish. But it didn't burn her with the excruciating pain that human contact normally caused. It didn't seem to burn him either. Rather, his face seemed to soften a bit.

Lissandra stayed her, her mind a complete mess. But the only thing that was clear to her was that she wanted to stay with him right now. And stay with him, she did.

So, now that the chapter is done, please leave a review if you want, expressing your thoughts on this chapter, on the characters and what you think is going to happen.

Now a personal update, I'm happy to say that I am going to be giving my IELTS by next month and perhaps by the end of this year, I'll be going abroad to study at an university where I can follow my passion of graphic designing and animation! If all goes well, expect Visual Novels for my stories or even full animations after 7 years.

See you guys next time. And remember; Anything on your mind, just leave behind a review or PM me!

- Wings Senpai