Frost levitated in the abyss that had become familiar to him as of late. When he first fell into the Void, he thought it was terrifying. When he was a slave, he longed for it. When he "died" after fighting the wyvern, he was ready to accept it at last. But now it terrified him. Those last moments of the gun leveled at his head flashed across his vision.
The legendary Gravedigger of the Void. A man that killed people for money, no questions asked and no discrimination on the matter. A man that few had ever survived. Considering the guy's reputation, Frost was impressed with himself for even getting as far as he did. Lana certainly didn't.
He closed his eyes and accepted death. Just like that he was lying on a bed of flowers in the middle of a green field. He opened his eyes, the sun burning high above. The space between life and death. Vera was standing over him wearing a vibrant sundress, looking quite confused.
"I didn't think you'd be back so soon," she said sadly. "Will you be leaving again this time?"
"Vera–" Frost rubbed his forehead in agitation, the phantom pain still radiating from the gunshot. At the corner of his vision, he saw a reminder in the white text of the Void Attribute Network.
[Attribute: Will of the people. Activation imminent. Confirm?]
This… It was the attribute that he won on Dragonsfold. This must have been what restored him to life at that time, which meant that he actually had died on that day. The attribute had a twenty-four hour cooldown. So… Frost essentially had an extra life every day if he so wished it.
Of course, he was presented with a choice once again. If he wanted to die and remain here, he could. If the attribute hadn't activated on its own the first time, he might have already been dead. None of this would have happened. He wouldn't have found out that Lana and Lex were Voidhunters and he wouldn't have gotten tangled up in this mess with the books. Now that he was presented with the choice…?
Frost climbed to his feet and loomed over the short Vera. "It's good to see you again," he said.
Vera just smiled. She still looked young, like she hadn't aged a day. Maybe that was a symptom of dying. It seemed like she was thinking something similar while analyzing Frost's appearance. "You really got tall, Frost."
Frost glanced down at his feet like he hadn't stopped to consider it. "Yeah," he said. "I guess so."
"You're different from the last time you were here," Vera said, studying him closely in a dramatic way. She even took a whiff of his clothes. "Sweaty," she said, then smiled devilishly. "I like it."
"Things have changed," Frost said, ignoring her obsessive remarks. Even as he stared her in the face, he wasn't overcome with the urge to die any longer. "There are people who need me," he said, sounding surprised as if he was learning this information as he said it.
"I know," Vera replied, closing her eyes and smiling in resignation. "You have a purpose now. It's what I've always wanted for you."
"I can't stay."
"You can't. And I don't want you to." Vera stepped forward until they were basically chest-to-chest. "They'll die if you don't go back."
Frost wrapped his arms around her and held her as tightly as he could, savouring the feeling. "I have to save them," he affirmed. Then he hesitated a long while before speaking his next words. "Confirm… Activation."
"Good luck," Vera whispered.
And Frost Direshard was restored to life. The bullet hole in his forehead and his broken bones mended themselves, the skin sewing over with tiny strands and eventually healing as if he'd never been shot at all.
[Will of the people. Cooldown: 23:59:59.]
One more chance.
[Checkpointer20: It's good to be back!]
[MasterOfTheFlute: You're a hard boy to kill. Perhaps your fate isn't beyond reincarnation.]
"Take these useless kids and go," Clay said. "I'll take it from here."
Frost hit a perfect kip-up and dashed low, enhancing his legs and just narrowly avoiding a claw from William that swept through his hair. The effects of the attribute regenerated his body essentially to a pre-battle state, which meant that he felt good-as-new, and certainly good enough for an easy task like running away.
"You're heavier than you look," he said as grabbed Lex and put the man on his back.
"Frost!?" Lex exploded with confusion. "How? You– I watched you–"
"I'll explain later." Frost ducked as a massive plume of black flame whooshed over his head. He grunted in exertion and then urgently asked, "where do I go to get out of here?"
"The front door should be safe. Fletcher doesn't… Usually bring friends," Lex spoke with significant difficulty.
Frost ran out of the courtyard into the entrance room, closing the doors behind him as if that would do anything to stop his opponent. The ground shook with the force of exchanging blows, and the sound of attributes and spells boomed in Frost's ears and made them ring. The doors shook intensely, but he held his body weight against them until it subsided.
"Lana!" he yelled. "Get up. We have to move–" Turning around, he shuffled over to Lana's bloodied body that was still lying against the pillar riddled with bullet holes. He had to stop for a moment to take in the sight of the girl looking so scuffed up. It felt like a forbidden sort of visual for someone usually so perfect.
"Ugh…" Lana groaned. "I can't."
Frost had sensed her usage of a healing card earlier. It saved her life, no doubt, but it seemed to have only healed the wounds on the surface to prevent blood from leaving the body. Any internal damage probably still existed, leaving her in his complicated state.
"Take mine," Frost said begrudgingly. He summoned a healing card into his hand and pressed it into Lana's palm.
"Alright." Lana grasped the card greedily and infused it, pressing her back to the pillar and shimmying up it to her feet. "Let's go," she said.
A firefly blinked past Frost's nose.
His eyes widened and he saw into the world beyond this one. Vera's face smiled back at him. He was left in that field to lament his mistakes for eternity.
One more chance.
Frost's heart pumped at breakneck speed. Blood shot through his body, adrenaline producing itself faster than ever before. This mixed with his new Void reflexes, empowering his muscles and reaction time. He willed his sword into existence, felt it touch his palm, and swung it faster than before. His arm crackled with lightning as he surpassed the speed of sound.
William's strike was slightly faster. The mark of three razor-sharp claws appeared across Frost's face, but William was ultimately held back by Frost's timely reaction speed and the unexpected power of his sword. Frost shoved the man back with a mighty roar.
"Your fight's with me! Bastard!" Clay boomed. His movement sent the doors flying off of the hinge, the swing of his axe creating a whirlwind that blew Frost's hair wildly. William's claw collided with Clay's axe, and the resulting force completely demolished the wall behind William as well as sending the floor tiles spinning in different directions.
Frost grabbed Lana's wrist and ran, guiding her through the chaos and to the door where the dead body of Jones served as a guardian to the threshold. As they ran through the door, Clay was slammed through it and into the wall with a loud grunt. He braced his axe with both hands, just barely holding William's claw away from his face.
"Go!" He bellowed again, the wall caving in under the force.
Frost ran, the long hallway caving in slowly around him. Dust fell from the ceiling, and eventually the ceiling started to collapse entirely as the structural integrity lowered. A feeling of despair rose in Frost's chest as he broke out into the bar area with a panicked Lana trailing behind.
"Are you alright?" He asked her.
She nodded. "I have Void energy left. I can kill the pain for now."
Clay threw William through the back wall and into the bar. The shelf of bottles and glasses crashed down on top of them both. Clay pushed the haft of his axe down into William's neck, overpowering the man and holding it there for as long as he could manage. They were both riddled with cuts from the glass now.
Frost moved for the door.
"No!" William roared. "Not again!"
But his yells were drowned out as Frost exited the building. The ground beneath his feet started to shake and immense Void energy could be felt radiating from the doors. The red-light district was in a panic, the streets basically vacated with patrons hiding in the doorways. They looked at Frost curiously like he was the villain in question. Frost did not stand their scrutiny for long, and went off running down the street.
Realmguard officers were coming his way, a group of about ten men. They looked a little like the airforce from back on Earth, wearing blue formal suits and blue berets. They each carried a rifle except for the man at the front, the lone Voidhunter who summoned a sword into his hand.
Frost did his best to look afraid as he ran. He'd feigned this emotion enough times at the orphanage that he was basically an expert. It was undoubtedly a mix of his expertise combined with the urgency of the situation that ultimately caused the officers to ignore him entirely. He let out a sigh of relief that quickly transitioned into a smile.
He reached the top of the hill at the end of the street, and two massive pillars marked the end of the red light district. Feeling safe and far enough away, he turned around to survey the predicament.
A gigantic beam of light shot out of the building's top, obliterating the roof as two men flew into the sky and exchanged a flurry of blows so quick that they looked like streaks of light. The exchange ultimately ended with Clay swinging his foot around and driving it into William's chest. William shot into the ground below, the shockwave of the impact reaching Frost and causing his feet to shift a little under the pressure of the massive whirlwind.
Lex chuckled a little, vibrating through Frost's back. "Well I'll be damned, white-hair. You really are one lucky bastard, you know that?"