CHAPTER 120: FIGHTING WITH A GODDESS

The bowstring creaked as Skadi drew it back further, the air splitting with icy pressure. Her glacier-tipped arrow glowed with killing intent.

"Scatter!" Hermes shouted.

The wolf-dragon had already fled far into the storm. It was just them now. The three of them against the goddess of winter herself.

Skadi released the arrow.

It was like an ice missile whizzing through the air. Magni roared and slammed his fists together, flames bursting outward in a fiery shield.

The arrow pierced it clean through, exploding into shards that froze the fire mid-burn. The shockwave sent Magni tumbling backward, half-buried in snow.

Hermes darted forward, Sirentone ringing out in a sharp command. "Stop!"

The sound hit like a shockwave, snow blasting off the ground. For a moment, Skadi’s stride faltered. But then she smirked, utterly unfazed, her aura crashing over them again.

"You believe mortal tricks will bind me?" Her voice was soft, mocking.

She summoned another arrow with a flick of her hand. "Amusing."

"Damn it," Hermes hissed.

"Come, brothers!" Magni leapt back into the fray, red hair whipping in the wind, flames coating his arms. "We burn as one!"

Together, they charged.

Magni hurled firestorms, forcing Skadi to raise walls of frost. Hermes slipped through openings, using Rewind to undo collapsing ice spikes before they could impale them.

Ymir conjured massive glaciers, slamming them into Skadi like battering rams. The ground split and shook as ice clashed against ice, frost against fire.

For a moment, it looked like they were holding their own.

Hermes shouted over the chaos. "Ymir! Pin her arm!"

Ymir clenched his jaw, chains of ice shooting up and binding Skadi’s bow hand. Magni struck immediately, flames blasting into her chest, sending shards of frost scattering. Hermes sprinted in and slashed at her legs with a blade of condensed Sirentone.

The blade connected.

A shallow cut, but a cut nonetheless.

Blood, pale blue like liquid crystal, slipped down her skin.

Magni barked out a laugh. "Ha! A goddess can bleed!"

Skadi glanced at the wound. Her expression did not shift. She exhaled once, and the wound froze over, vanishing as if it had never been.

"Tis nothing but a scratch, son of Sutr." She whispered.

Her bow dissolved into mist, reforming into a massive Frost Sword. With a single swing, she shattered Ymir’s chains like twigs. Another swing, and the entire glacier field split in half.

The shockwave sent Hermes flying into the ice, the impact breaking his knees. Magni was knocked clear across the battlefield, crashing into jagged shards.

And Ymir stood alone.

The goddess towered before him, her presence suffocating. His chest tightened. His breath came out ragged, not from exhaustion... but from memory.

Her voice echoed exactly as it had years ago.

"You think you can defeat the one who gave you power? The progenitor of all ice powers... The Goddess of Winter herself..."

And suddenly he was no longer here. He was back then.

Back in that first mission.

***

Ymir had been younger then. Brighter. His costume was still simple and not too flashy, his eyes still sharp with hope. People had called him arrogant, but it wasn’t arrogance—it was belief.

He wanted to be a good hero... No, a great one.

And people who have both ambition and skill were often the subject of people’s darkest intents.

"Just some ice beasts. Perfect for your first solo mission." His teammates had told him. "You’ll handle it better than anyone. The cold doesn’t bother you anyway, right?"

They laughed. He believed them.

But it hadn’t been beasts waiting for him. It had been her.

The goddess of winter.

Skadi.

Her Frost Sword had cut skyscrapers like paper. Entire buildings collapsed around him. He had fought with everything he had, summoning spears, walls, storms of ice... but she was ice itself.

Every strike he made, she crushed. Every wall he raised, she cut through.

He remembered the sound of her laugh as her blade tore apart the city.

"You are mine, child."

Debris had pinned him. His legs crushed under steel and concrete. His screams echoed, raw and desperate.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Skadi had loomed over him, her presence suffocating, her words colder than death itself.

"Nobody will help you now. Because nobody wants to touch a heart made of ice. That is a curse I and all my descendants will carry for eternity."

He had been helpless. Worthless. And then she whispered the truth into his ear. That he was hers. Her blood. Her spawn.

That was the day something broke in him.

He had survived only because she chose to let him.

When he crawled out from that wreckage, he was no longer the boy who believed in heroes. He became cruel. He worked alone. He outdid, outperformed, and crushed the very people who had betrayed him. If they had wanted him broken, they had succeeded.

And now... here he was again. Facing her.

Frozen. Trembling.

***

"Ymir!"

Hermes’ voice cut through like lightning.

Ymir blinked, breath hitching. The flashback shattered.

Hermes stood across the battlefield, bruised, bloodied, but alive. His hand was outstretched. Mindbloom pulsed faintly at his temple, glowing with pale light.

"I saw it," Hermes said, voice hoarse but firm. "All of it. That day. What she did to you. What they did to you."

Ymir’s chest clenched.

Hermes’ voice rose. "But listen to me! That was then. You are not alone this time. You don’t have to carry this curse by yourself. We’re here. Me. Magni. We’re here, fighting with you!"

Ymir’s fists shook, nails digging into his palms.

Skadi’s cold laugh echoed across the battlefield. "Pathetic."

She raised her bow once more, an arrow already formed. But this time it wasn’t an arrow of ice meant to pierce flesh. This one was translucent, sharp and cruel, thrumming with something darker.

Hermes froze. His instincts screamed.

"This arrow will not tear your body," Skadi said, her voice almost gentle. "It will pierce your heart. It will freeze it from within until all warmth, all compassion, all weakness dies. You will become mine, little mortal. Cold and cruel. As you were meant to be."

WOOSH!

Hermes barely had time to think. The arrow streaked toward him, faster than thought. He couldn’t dodge. His body refused to move.

His heart thudded once, hard—

And then Ymir was there.

A blur of frost and desperation.

"NO!"

The arrow sank into his chest with a sickening crunch. His body jerked, ice veins spiderwebbing across his skin instantly. His breath hitched as the frost spread from his heart outward, crawling up his neck, his arms, his jaw.

Hermes called out, but it was too late and he couldn’t do anything.

"YMIR!"