Chapter 16: The Voice of the Blizzard ~The Freezing Sky~

O Lord, grant me the strength and courage,

To look upon my flesh and my heart without disgust.

— Charles Baudelaire

"Guh...! Tch! I managed to avoid a direct hit...!"

Werner dragged his battered body out from the crevices of the sloping ice blocks, his heavy pants expelling into the freezing air that chilled him to his lungs.

He looked around and froze in shock. The entire landscape had been transformed, locked away beneath white frost and ice. Countless massive spears of ice jutted haphazardly from the earth, standing like silent gravestones for the dead.

"Ha!? Bell! Hey, are you safe?! Where are you?!"

Realizing the girl he had been fighting alongside was missing, he frantically searched the area.

From the shadows of the ice pillars, an Aragami emerged, its massive body shaking and howling. It was a Variant that had abnormally evolved from the standard Prithvi Mata species: the Balfa Mata.

The Balfa Mata tilted its cruel, goddess-like visage back to gaze at the top of an ice pillar. Drawn by its movement, Werner's eyes followed, fixing on a particularly dense cluster of jagged ice.

"!? BELL!!!"

At the tip of a sharp ice spear reaching toward the heavens... The battered, slumped girl was impaled through her limbs, skewered like a biological specimen.

Crimson blood trickled down the freezing ice block. Crucified like a sinner, the girl's gruesome state was laid bare, painting a picture that was both beautifully surreal and deeply agonizing.

"BELL!!! Answer me!!! Tch, are you unconscious?! Hold on, I'll save you right now!!!"

Werner screamed. But there was no reply from the girl. He tried to force himself up to rescue her, but his heavily damaged body screamed in agony, refusing to move properly. Even so, he dragged himself toward her.

Silently looking down at the futile struggles of these humans, the Balfa Mata parted the lips of its cold, Noh-mask-like face. Its throat vibrated with a grating, bestial cry as it sneered.

It's dark.

It's cold.

It's freezing.

A girl, with a form quite unlike a normal human, crouched imprisoned within a dim cell. Rusted iron bars. Dull, faded, and cracked gray stone walls and floors. It was a holding cell that felt completely isolated from the flow of time. A familiar, nostalgic, lonely, and unforgettable place. The detention facility where she had been confined as an AGE (Adaptive God Eater) in the past.

"...Good grief, you're pathetic." A voice called out from the other side of the iron bars.

"...Who?" Bell slightly lifted her sluggish face from where it was buried in her knees, peering at the figure through the grating.

"Hmph. You don't even recognize me? Well, it can't be helped. Your brain's all scrambled, after all." The figure on the other side approached.

Glossy, blue hair flowed behind her, and two horns sprouted from her head. Her supple, dusky, and voluptuous body was brimming with smooth elasticity. Blue-black crystals acted as an armored carapace, covering her abundant chest and privates like bikini armor.

She was the girl's spitting image, like a reflection in a mirror. The only difference was her left eye, which emitted an eerie, dim purplish-red glow.

"...?"

Seeing the crouching girl tilt her head in confusion, the figure threw her hands up in exasperation.

"Haaah... What the hell is with you? What was that fighting style? Trying to fight by mimicking a human..." The other girl sighed in disbelief. "And to top it off, you let that shitty Aragami beat you. It was unbearable to watch. Is this some kind of joke? It pisses me off so much I can't even stand it."

"Ugh... My fighting style... I'm a God Arc user, so..." Bell muttered in confusion from her crouched position. Fighting style or not, it should be obvious, considering she is a God Eater.

"You really don't get it at all, do you?" The identical girl spat out with a mocking glare. "That's not how it works, is it? Your fighting style? You're supposed to roar, go wild, and enjoy the hunt to your heart's content, right?"

"...Enjoy it? The fighting?" Bell frowned, showing clear discomfort.

What surfaced in her mind were the unreasonable battles against the Aragami forced upon her. The daily life of being tormented by human men. She hated it. She hated the pain. She didn't want to experience that again. It wasn't fun.

Seeing her expression, the look-alike girl curled the corners of her mouth into a grin.

"Hehehe. Back when those males had you pinned down, doing whatever they pleased while you looked pathetic, you were just a powerless pseudo-human. But we are different now. This time, it's our turn to hunt. We've gone from being the prey to the predators. I'm going to take over and hunt that thing down for you. You just rest quietly in there. Come on, it's about time for a substitution."

At the girl's words, Bell's eyelids immediately grew heavy, slowly shutting like a falling curtain. Soon, a deep, irresistible slumber overtook her. The last thing she saw before her eyes closed completely was the girl with her face wearing a vicious, evil smile.

"Hah, hah... Hold on, Bell. I'll free you from there right now..."

Desperate to save the pitiful girl crucified on the pillar of ice, Werner stubbornly dragged his battered, unresponsive body forward.

Sneering at the human's pathetic struggle, the Balfa Mata stretched open its maw, revealing rows of jagged teeth. Its merciless Noh-mask face was aimed straight at the poor, crucified girl. It lunged forward with terrifying jaws, intent on devouring her.

"S-STOOOOOOPPPP!!!"

Despite Werner's agonizing scream, the Balfa Mata's sharp fangs closed in to pierce the captive girl, when—

A fist buried itself into the Balfa Mata's face.

The massive beast was sent flying in a tailspin, shattering the clusters of ice pillars as it flew.

Creak. The crucified girl's newly freed arm, soaked in her own blood, formed a fist and swung loosely from side to side.

"That hurts... You really did a number on me... Plus, that thing is tough. Well, it's more rewarding that way. I'll be able to enjoy this plenty. Anyway—HAAAAAHHH!!!"

With a spirit-infused shout, cracks ran through the ice spears that impaled and restrained her limbs, shattering them into fine powder like pulverized glass. Freed from her icy cross, the girl flipped and spun gracefully through the air, landing perfectly on the pure white, frosted earth.

"Whew! The air on the outside after so long is something else! Mmmmmm!"

She raised her arms, arching her smooth, dusky, beautiful body in a deep stretch. She went through her warm-up routines as briskly as a track-and-field athlete about to start a competition.

Her magnificent breasts, developed well beyond her years, bounced vigorously in time with her movements. She bent her unbelievably slender, delicate waist backward. Thrusting out her shapely buttocks with a jiggle, she boldly spread her long, glossy, gazelle-like legs wide to stretch her Achilles tendons.

"...Bell?" Werner, who had been watching the whole spectacle in dumbfounded shock from the ground, called out, unable to hide his confusion.

"The fragile city is crying out~~~♪ Your cruel profile~~~♪ Automation~~~♪"

The girl called Bell, who had her back turned, hummed in a sweet, lovely voice as she continued to loosen up, even going so far as to start Radio Calisthenics No. 2.

"How long until that unpromised beyond~~~♪ Let's break out, gotta keep on running~~~♪ Even if nothing changes, I won't give up~~~♪"

What was this? He couldn't shake a terrible premonition. The girl in front of him was safe. He should be overjoyed. Yet, the sense of wrongness was overwhelming. Just who in the world was the girl standing here right now?

"...Who... are you...?"

As Werner forced his trembling body up and called out to her, the girl stopped her stretches dead in her tracks. Then, bending over backward into a perfect bridge, she looked at him upside down.

"Who do you think I am, old man?"

She smirked, her innocence hiding a destructive danger. No. She was completely different. There was no mistaking it. This presence. This girl was the one who had appeared that time────

"...What happened to Bell? Where did you send her?"

"Hm? Bell? Ye~s, right here~♡ I'm your beloved Bell-chan~♡ Uri-uri~♡"

The girl with the exact same figure as Bell smirked, grinding her waist seductively, swirling her tail around, and blowing him a kiss.

"...I'll ask you one more time. What did you do to Bell... to that girl?" A dangerous edge crept into Werner's voice as he questioned the girl performing the mocking, ridiculous dance.

"Hmph, you're no fun. You're so obsessed, quite the hot-blooded guy... She's sleeping. Right in here." Stopping her hip-swaying tail dance, the girl pointed a finger at her own abundant cleavage.

"Sleeping, you say? Is she safe?"

"Obviously! It's as plain as day. She and I are the exact same existence. We share this body. If she gets hurt, I get hurt, and if she dies, I bite the dust too. Which is why yours truly has made a magnificent entrance right in the nick of time!"

She sharply flashed a V-sign over her right eye, playfully stuck out her tongue, and struck a cute, bashful pose.

"...The same existence? What do you mean—"

Just then, the Balfa Mata burst through the distant rubble, violently scattering debris. Its cracked Noh-mask face bore a deep, caved-in crater from the punch. It roared fiercely, an enraged bellow. The atmosphere thickened with its wrath, and the frosted earth trembled violently.

"Whoops, looks like lover boy over there is fully motivated. It's dangerous, old man, so stand back. You'll just get caught in the crossfire."

The girl who looked exactly like Bell shifted her gaze to the enraged Balfa Mata.

"Now then... It's been a while since I've had such a c'est bon dinner. Let's use its blood as an aperitif and treat ourselves to a lavish banquet, heheheh."

Licking the fangs peeking from her lips with the red tip of her tongue, she let out a sinister, malevolent laugh.