欧洲无人区天空码头IV

The carriage they were in was the more luxurious kind, while the other knights were riding in the typical carriages by the half-dozen.

The doors were located on the sides; the inside was filled with white cushions and a sweet lavender scent.

A small rectangular window was on the opposite side of Evie, through which she communicated with the driver.

On that side, however sat the second in command.

"We\'re not stopping," he said, before closing the small window.

"If you dislike riding in carriages so much, why don\'t you just sleep or something?" he asked.

Evie sighed loudly, making sure he heard it until it ended.

"You don\'t get it, Vroto. You never do."

Vroto rolled his eyes as his attention went back to the scrolling scenery through the window.

The small window behind him quickly opened again.

"Sir, there\'s someone in the middle of the road."

Vroto sighed. "Stop the carriage."

"GOOD. Finally," said Evie.

The whole caravan stopped, everyone using this opportunity to stretch their legs and walk around.

Evie was the first to step out, the daylight caressing her face. Her cold nature could not truly appreciate the warmth, however.

The further west they went, the less warmth they would encounter.

She barely noticed it, but her knights did.

Those who wore plates added layers of clothes underneath it, doing their best to not get in the way of their movements, while the mages who only wore robes were lucky to not worry about that.

Vroto got off behind her, walking forward on the road, the man was around 100 meters further.

The driver leaned to the side, "What should we do?" he asked.

"Nothing, just wait," said Vroto. "I\'ll make contact, Evie. Stay close, just in case."

"Sure."

They walked a couple of meters, the man standing on the road was slowly going toward them.

He dragged his feet, his head weirdly dangling around at every movement.

"What the hell?" said Vroto.

"Guys," said Evie, turning to the knights behind.

Quickly, the knights stopped talking, grabbed their weapons and, in about 20 seconds, encircled the man.

They all waited, unsure of what they were supposed to do.

"Should we kill him?" asked Vroto.

"Yeah. Most-"

Evie\'s sentence was cutoff by a knight walking forward, breaking the formation.

"Hey! Reaper! What are you doing here, man?!"

"Go back to your formation, knight. What the hell are you doing?" said Vroto.

"But it\'s Reaper! I recognize him, I think he needs help," he said, approaching him.

The knight put his hand on his shoulder, leaning forward to get a look at his face, which was falling forward.

It was as if he had seen a ghost, the knight quickly took a few steps back, a hand readily going to his sword handle.

"What is it?" asked Vroto.

"He\'s dead," answered the knight, taking another step back.

"He got caught by that \'Mori\'. He\'s sending us a message," said Evie. "Alright, mages, burn it."

Reaper\'s neck was behaving like a twisted rag, yet his head went straight up, his empty eyes staring at Evie.

Swiftly, he moved forward at a surprising speed.

Vroto quickly stepped in front of Evie, his warhammer ready.

Evie lifted her hand, "[Freeze]".

An icy trail went from Evie\'s feet, making a straight path to Reaper\'s feet.

Vroto quickly stepped aside as his feet started freezing as well.

Reaper\'s legs froze in place, a big chunk of ice covering everything up to his waist.

Something wasn\'t right.

"He looks weird, doesn\'t he?" she asked.

"Well, he\'s dead. Should we just go ahead and burn his body?" asked Vroto.

"Yeah, do it."

Vroto signaled the mages. They got their wands and staves ready as they started chanting.

Reaper\'s body was truly deformed, his right shoulder was bigger than it should\'ve been, and his left leg had a similar appearance.

His arms, torso and face all had small bumps.

They moved around under his skin.

"Wait, hold fire!" yelled Evie.

It was too late.

Fire came from all direction, directly hitting Reaper.

"[Ice Wall]"

An ice structure quickly rose in front of Vroto and and Evie, shielding them and the knights who were on their side of the circle.

The other knights looked at each-other, unsure of what was happening, as Reaper kept burning.

"Get away, you dumb fucks!" yelled Vroto.

A loud pop echoed, as fire was propelled in all directions, attached to bits of Reaper\'s flesh.

The closest knights patted themselves as those bits of flesh on fire stuck to their armor.

"What\'s this?! What\'s this?!" yelled a knight, grabbing Evie and Vroto\'s attention.

One of the bits that was sent flying with Reaper\'s body parts was pitch black, stuck to the man\'s armor.

It was crawling up, toward his face. The knight tried wiping it away, only for it to stick to his hand.

It crawled up his arm, its number of legs always changing with its overall features, like an eldritch creature that adapted to what they wanted to accomplish.

As it reached close to his face, the numerous legs extended outward from its center of mass.

"Fuck! Get it off me! Get it off me!"

As he yelled, the legs went into his mouth, keeping it open as it crawled inside.

The knight kept screaming, and yelling as it did.

"Fuck! What\'s this?!" another knight yelled.

"Fuck! Get this shit off me. Burn it! Burn it!" yelled another one.

Vroto turned to Evie. "What should we do?"

"Alright," she loudly said, "Stop moving everyone. I\'ll deal with it."

The knights all looked at Evie, smiling in relief as those small creatures kept crawling on them.

"[Ice Pillar]."

A circular pillar appeared under her feet, raising her above everyone and the previous wall she had created.

After roughly estimating, with her eyes, she cast her second spell. "[True Ice]."

Like a crescent moon, ice went through everyone who hadn\'t been behind her first wall, starting left.

Screams and cries could be heard as, one by one, everyone got covered in a thick layer of clear, transparent ice.

It only stopped as it reached her right, freezing the last person screaming.

"You overshot it," said Vroto.

Evie\'s crescent moon had started too close, and finished too close as well, freezing knights who had been shielded from the initial explosion.

"Those guy weren\'t hit with those black goo things," said Vroto.

Evie jumped down from her pillar, the remaining knights taking a few steps back, scared.

"A sacrifice we won\'t forget," she said.

She approached one of the frozen knights, on the left side.

She stayed still, staring through the ice.

It was still moving.

It was extremely slow, but that black mass was inching, millimeter by millimeter, toward the head of the frozen knight.