ROSES HAVE THORNS-Chapter 76 - Absolute Zero

"... Hey look. Something’s happening with the princess."

"... Her hair. It changed."

"... Is it just me or has it gotten a bit chilly."

"Hey Austin, this isn’t looking good. Should we bail? We got what we came for, you now know what Kurt looks like."

"Why should we bail? Emelie’s here. She’ll do something about this." Austin told Gary while keeping his gaze focused on the arena.

"What could she possibly do–! Oh. That."

Suddenly, an invisible barrier had surrounded all the people that were in the park except for the space in which Kurt and Kiana are about to fight.

"... Hey! The cold stopped!"

"... Look up at the sky! It’s Emelie! She’s protecting us!"

"""Yeeeaaah!!!"""

"Hahaha, they really do love her." Kurt smiled when he looked at the crowd who were losing their minds from the fact that she was protecting them.

"Eyes on me, criminal." Kiana raised her staff and shot another ferocious ice spike at his head. Due to the sudden power of the blast, however, she recoiled slightly and winced in pain.

Kurt did not even look nor panic when he quickly swung his blade up and sliced the spike in half, causing it to split cleanly in two and crash behind him.

"This power... Heh, I’m really starting to dig magic." He flexed his hand around the hilt of the sword and turned to face the princess. "Alright, you’ve got my attention, not that you lost it. So how are we going to do this?"

"W-Why you..." Kiana started to shiver.

But not from fear of the sudden display in power that Kurt brought out. Every drop in the surrounding temperature demanded a toll from her own mana veins. Slowly but surely, she was losing the feeling of control in her magic.

"Talk less," She whispered just enough for him to hear her. "Fight more."

"How direct of you. I like it." Kurt grinned.

He forward once, causing the icy ground beneath him to crack, and ran full burst at her.

Kurt’s speed was unnatural even for him. He let out a kinetic explosion that closed the thirty feet between them in a fraction of a second. He appeared on her right, which was his blind side considering it’s the place where his eyepatch rests. Kiana tried at first to block it with her staff but then she saw the subtle raise of his lips.

’Shit, It’s a trap!’ She tried switching directions to cover her left side in time but,

"It’s too late!" He yelled as his blade arched in a vicious, horizontal sweep aimed at her collarbone.

Kiana, thanks to her quick wittedness and overpowered state, snapped her fingers causing a compressed permafrost wall to erupt from the ground with a thunderous crack.

Kurt slammed the blunt side of his blade into the wall, causing a shockwave to ripple through the air. He used the momentum of the blocked strike to pivot, launching himself backward in a flawless backflip.

"Not bad, Princess. But defensive magic only delays the inevitable. You can stay behind that wall forever."

"Shut up! I don’t intend to!" She screamed, her voice dropping an octave as she let out a strange, resonant resonance.

She dropped her staff and slammed both her palms into the icy ground. The magic was visceral, tearing out of her in a blinding flash of azure light.

"What’s she doing now?" Kurt gripped his sword tightly and prepared himself for what’s coming next.

A wave of absolute zero rolled outward in a perfectly concentric sphere.

"OH SHIT!" Kurt jumped and blitzed behind a tree.

Wherever the wave hit, the world died. The remaining grass became completely covered in a thick layer of ice, the stones cracked and the moisture in the air flash-froze into microscopic daggers.

"Fuck!" Emelie groaned as she fought off the freeze with her own magic while doubly intensifying the barrier that protected the people.

"What the hell are you doing, Kurt! Hurry this up already! I only have so much mana before I run out." She tried calling out to him but the wave of absolute zero blocked out any sound it came across.

"Screw it. Hey you!" She called the announcer who was nearby. "Tell the people that the show’s over and to go home!"

"But Ms. Herst, what about the bet! People want to see the result of this outcome. They paid good money to watch you!"

"Bet?! Are you fucking kidding me?! You’re going to die if you stay here! Despite what you might think, I can’t stay here protecting you all forever! I’m not invincible! And I’m already exhausted from fighting Junior! So please, tell the people to leave!"

The announcer saw the desperate and resolute gaze in Emelie. He looked once at the battlefield and realised that they were only alive right now thanks to her.

"I-I’m sorry. You’re right." He nodded and lifted his microphone to make the call.

[LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! DUE TO UNPRECEDENTED CIRCUMSTANCES, THINGS HAVE TAKEN A TURN FOR THE WORST AND WE HAVE BEEN TOLD TO IMMEDIATELY EVACUATE THE PARK!]

"Aw What!?" 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"But we’re just fine! I want to see the result of the match!"

"Yeah! Emelie will protect us! Besides, I’ve spent a lot of coins on this!"

The crowd was starting to get rowdy and not in a good way.

[THIS IS A DIRECT REQUEST FROM EMELIE HERST HERSELF! KINDLY LEAVE. THE. PARK! I’M SURE YOU HAVE ALL WITNESSED THE SPECTACLE THAT SHE GAVE US WHEN SHE FOUGHT THE PRINCE, BUT THAT FIGHT HAD TIRED HER OUT!

AND RIGHT NOW, SHE IS BUSY BRAINING HERSELF OF MANA WHILE TRYING TO SHIELD US FROM DISASTER! LET US NOT BURDEN HER ANY MORE THAN WE ALREADY HAVE AND CORDIALLY MAKE OUR WAY TO THE EXIT–]

[EVERYBODY, THIS IS AMBER STRONGWILL! THE SHOW IS OVER! KINDLY MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE FRONT GATE OF THE PARK WHERE YOU WILL ALL BE REFUNDED BASED ON THE AMOUNT YOU’VE SPENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH YOUR BETTING TAGS!]

Amber took the microphone away from the announcer and made her own call to show them just how serious the situation is.

"... Aw darn it! I really wanted that money!"

"... Well at least we’re getting our money back."

"... Oh well. It was fun while it lasted."

Although many were dissatisfied with the end results, they finally started moving away towards the exit.

"Thank you, Amber." Emelie smiled in relief.

"Anything for my cute junior." She winked. "Hopefully once they’re all out, you can ease up on the barrier and steady yourself."

Back inside the ice-covered arena, the spherical ice wave of absolute zero had finally died down and stopped causing chaos. The aftermath of this, however, was that the entire arena, other than outside the barrier that which Emelie created, was shrouded in fog and mist.

Kurt peeked out from the now cracked and frozen tree to check on the princess, but.

’I can’t see shit.’

He looked down at his arms and hands and saw that his skin was now completely pale due to his skill. Even his veins were practically visible at this point yet, strangely enough, he doesn’t feel the least bit of coldness.

"Kurt." Emelie landed beside him. "Whoa. You look like a vampire."

"Emy? Why are you here? What about the people? And my God, do you look awful."

"Yeah, well, I’m tired...The people are safely evacuated. I’m still covering this arena with a barrier, but the strain is not as bad. The student council president of our academy also safely took Junior away."

"Good. I could use a little help with this fog."

"Leave it to me." She waved her hand to the side and effortlessly cleared the obscurations.

"E-Eme... Emelie..." Kiana was crouched down on the ground and holding her arms together tightly to hug herself.

"What’s happening to her?" Kurt asked.

"She used a technique that she wasn’t ready for and is slowly killing herself..."

"Killing herself? Dammit, what do we do? I just got off the king’s naughty list."

"Argh, this is why I wanted to deal with her myself *tsk!* Don’t worry. I’ll do the same thing to her as I did to the principal. I’ll disrupt her magic while simultaneously healing her mana veins."

"That’s right. I nearly forgot that you can heal."

"It’s not my specialty but I can heal minor cuts and bruises. C’mon. It’ll be easier once she’s knocked out. Can I leave that to you?"

"Sure." Kurt sheathed his sword and followed behind her. "So how can we tell once it’s game over for her because based on what you said, things could’ve gone south really fast with her using that technique without even mastering it."

"Normally, once she’s nearing her limit, an ice crown starts to form on her head."

"A crown? Like that?" He pointed at Kiana with his scabbard.

"Hm?" Emelie squinted closely and saw that the base of the crown was already starting to take shape. "Oh no! We need to hurry!" She jumped and flew towards her.

"Hey! What about me!? Dammit, she probably doesn’t even have enough mana to carry me seeing as how drained she looked."

"Pity ain’t it. Cause you’re going to die here."

"Wha–" Kurt tried to move but his whole body stood in place. When he looked down, he saw the same hooded figure that appeared from Tobias’ shadow, pop out of his.

"Goodbye. Kurt Rossana."

STAB!

A black dagger had been stabbed into his stomach.

Thud!

Kurt fell to his knees as blood leaked out of his mouth.

"And now," The figure held Kurt’s head with both of their hands in a way that would twist it. "And now my dear friend will finally be worry free..."

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Emelie flew back and shot the figure away with a telekinetic blast, but there was no impact. Just black smoke as they disappeared.

"Kurt! Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit! D-Don’t die on me! *sob!* Do...hear me! D... nt... urt!... alive!"

Emelie’s voice was slowly fading away as Kurt began to close his eye.

"N-No! *sob!* Ku...Kurt! Wak... with me....."

The blood loss eventually took hold of him, causing him to black out.