The formless blizzard moved with power far greater than any natural disaster. In the permanent night the dreadful howls of its wind were deafening. The mountains froze over, grass turned to ice turned to dust.
The Corrupted Titan, Winter Beast, was unmatched in the Antarctic Center. In fact, even the Saints in the East didn't have the ability to stop its rampage.
And yet, something was heading toward it.
Deep in the center of the blizzard, a creature akin to a grandiose abstract ice sculpture floated, its power oppressive. And for the first time since that storm wielding pest had been taken down, the creature took notice of a presence.
It was an unfamiliar anomaly that the Winter Beast found hard to quantify. 7 Soul Cores and an aura similar to itself, and yet, it was of the Flame.
The origin of so-called "noble creatures" such as humans, was that spark of Desire from which those all powerful gods were born.
…It was that Flame that the Winter Beast – and all Nightmare Creatures – yearned to consume with all its being.
And it was now soaring into the sky.
If the Winter Beast could express confusion, it would be doing so at that moment. Only when the opposing Titan reached far into the sky did it understand what it was doing.
A foolish ploy that even a mere beast could think of.
Outside the blizzard, the winds started to heat and break as a truly enormous entity dropped from above the clouds.
A small mountain, held barley together by a thin layer of Awakened Beasts blood that had been gathered from a nearby Gate, was dropped from a truly astonishing height.
If dropped from higher, it may have even wiped all of the Antarctic Center off the map, but this alone was enough to still decimate even the largest of siege capitals.
And yet, as soon as it touched the outer edges of the Winter Beast's storm it froze. Layers of rock and dirt shattered into the smallest motes of dust, and even then even smaller into non-existence.
The deeper it went, the colder it got, and soon, half of it had disintegrated.
At that moment, the outer reaches of the Winter Beast's blizzard stuttered and halted.
From within the center of the mountain, a blaze ignited. It grew hotter and hotter, surrounding a small form.
The Noble Titan released torrents of heat so great that it melted the ice that was tearing apart the falling mountain.
But the Winter Beast was not concerned. The flames would need to be thousands of degrees hotter if they ever hoped to reach its being.
…but then, they did get hotter.
And like a true meteor, as the falling mountain turned to shards of ice behind it, the challenger shot forward, a streak of red and fire burning through the veil of the King of the Antarctic Nightmare Creatures.
…
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
Gehrman cursed in his mind as the cold went from chilly to extremely painful.
The initial plan of dropping the meteor had worked as planned, he managed to conserve Essence by hiding within it. By the time it broke, he had already made it about a 10th of the way into the storm.
At least, he thought so.
The Winter Beast was even more of a monster than he had given it credit for.
The nature of the Nightmare Creature's power went beyond just ice and cold. Somehow, it seemed to even limit his [Sixth Sense], as if freezing the concepts of Gehrman's enhanced senses themselves.
Attacks on the conceptual level…this was the first time he had faced such a foe.
The odds of him actually killing this thing were looking incredibly slim.
But Gehrman wasn't about to give up.
Pushed by gravity, he was able to keep up consistent momentum, drawing closer and closer to the Nightmare Creatures center.
All he had to do was hold out until he reached the center of the storm.
With a grim face Gehrman summoned the [Burial Blade], letting the dreadful scythe trail behind him.
It wasn't likely that every part of the blizzard was a part of the Winter Beast's body, but if it was, then even having this blade out in the storm would start slowly damaging its soul.
Shit, how much longer!?
Gehrman was getting to the end of his rope, the fire around him had held because of his molecular manipulation and the burning of Vermin.
In fact, if he wasn't using the technique of the Vilebloods, he was certain he would be dead by now.
The combined flames were seriously impressive though. Together they reached an astonishing temperature roughly equal to the surface of the sun.
Naturally, this was far less than the lightning Saint Tyris had thrown at this thing, and that had frozen. One would assume that Gehrman's flames would quickly freeze up then, but even nearing the center they remained.
This was the power of the [Greedy Bloodstone Tailsman]. The powerful Charm doubled its usefulness by making his own blood burn longer due to its heat resistance and a resistance to the cold that constantly assaulted him.
Both of these things helped close the gap.
At least, they were supposed to.
…fuck.
Gehrman felt his fingers break first. Impossibly severe frostbite combined with the pressure of falling made the brittle extremities shatter under the pressure.
His legs went next. His toes, feet, then lower legs shattering.
The pain seemed amplified, though maybe it was just this unique was of having his limbs removed caught him off guard.
The flames started to wane.
Gehrman's eyes turned glassy and he felt the shadow of death loom over him.
And then he broke through.
There were almost no flames on him at this point, but in the center of the Blizzard the winds ceased…but that did not apply to the cold.
The freezing aura of the Winter Beast, which looked more like a piece of art than a Nightmare Creature, was terrifying.
Gehrman could not conjure up any more flames.
But he could summon Memories.
Several pools of pale purple sparks coalesced into multiple tools. The [Blunderbuss] [Wrathful Shaman Bone Blade], the [Slothful Evelyn], the [Envious Executioners Gloves], and the [Gluttonous Reiterplasch].
No need to be conservative. If i'm gonna die, I'm gonna fuck this thing up first!
Limbs of blood formed to make up for his lost flesh and bone. They were quickly getting destroyed, but he just pulled more blood from himself. His brain would soon stop releasing oxygen, but that was fine.
The first thing he did was fire the [Blunderbuss]. Admittedly, it was surprising to see the weak points in this thing being just as one would expect.
Where one would fire to shatter a glass sculpture, so too did Gehrman fire send ghastly deep red skulls emerged from the [Envious Executioner's Gloves].
The Transcendent [Blunderbuss] was not able to pierce the Winter Beast, the scatter shot freezing before touching its form.
The ghostly apparitions would also break apart into ice, but their mere presence carried the damnable effect of the agony of those victims of the Cainhurst slaughter. No matter how great the Winter Beast was, it would have been a long time since it had felt pain, so even a fraction of the Executioner's gloves power would surely be enough to give it a half a seconds pause.
As Gehrman crashed into the floor, his body shattered, all of his ribs and spine broke, but he used his Aspect to hold himself together into a loose approximation of a human.
Now that he was grounded, he could be planted firmly, the enchantments of the [Slothful Evelyn] increased its power. This weapon was incredibly powerful when used right, but for the first time, it did not shatter it's foe.
…but it did crack it.
For the first time, an actual hit was scored on the Winter Beast.
"So you can break, vile bastard!" Gehrman screeched.
He fired two more shots at different weak spots, quickly draining his reserves.
But he still had 3 Soul Cores left.
Circling an absurd amount of Essence he flung his body forward, letting both his guns disappear back into his Soul Sea, he flung himself at the thing.
As he flew closer and closer to the thing, he felt his skin break and muscles tear, by the time reached the thing his body was basically destroyed. The only thing left was an amalgamation of blood and the condensed bloodstone that kept it together for a single second in the face of a Corrupted Titan.
Those tendrils of blood then slammed the three Remaining Memories into the creature. The [Burial Blade] deepened the crack from the [Slothful Evelyn], the [Gluttonous Reitersplach] injected a great amount of foul poison, and finally the [Wrathful Shaman Bone Blade] sunk deep into the sublime body of the Winter Beast.
And with that, the last of the floating blood's Will expired. The remaining Memories quickly disappeared into its Soul Sea, before it froze over and shattered.
[You have died].
…
[Welcome Brave Challenger, to the 3rd Nightmare! Prepare for your trial.]