Chapter 48 Arctic.

Chapter 48: 48 Arctic.

I continued walking. Most of the remaining henchmen were either too badly hurt to put up a fight or had witnessed what I could do and wisely decided to keep their distance.

I pressed onward, forcing my way through doors as the enormous hotel became more and more confusing. By now, I had absolutely no idea where I was going.

I found myself in what appeared to be a lounge. It was warm and dimly lit, with leather couches gathered around a stone fireplace where flames crackled softly. Gentle amber light flickered over the walls, giving the room a strangely peaceful, almost homely atmosphere.

A stark contrast to the freezing structure I’d entered.

Sitting in one of the chairs was what appeared to be a teenage girl, her legs tucked beneath her as she read a book.

Brown hair, but thankfully no resemblance to Glacia, so I was safe. She flinched the instant she noticed me and immediately got to her feet, letting the book fall onto the table.

Fucking Twilight.

It was Bookworm. I approached her at an unhurried pace, and with every step I took, she retreated another inch until eventually her back met the wall.

I stopped long enough to pick up the book and came face-to-face with her. The fear in her expression looked completely genuine.

Oh God! I wasn’t an animal. So I parted her on the shoulder and turned away, just as her shoulders dropped and whipped back and smacked her with the book across the jaw.

She crumpled unconscious onto the floor with a heavy thud. "Can’t kill you, but knocking you out is fair game."

After taking a long breath to mourn the questionable decisions that had brought me here, I found myself standing in the ballroom. Its floor had become a sheet of slick ice, while the towering windows were sealed shut beneath layers of frost.

High above, a solitary chandelier glittered like some heavenly crown, with icicles hanging from it like suspended blades.

Standing in the centre of the room was a huge bastard, that much was obvious.

He stood twice my height and was half again as broad, his body covered in dense white fur. His face was thoroughly bestial and, well— bear-like.

His hands were enormous, somehow managing to combine the shape of paws with something resembling fingers. He wore a butler’s waistcoat and stood with rigid, almost formal posture, his expression fixed in a look of utterly incongruous disdain.

Strange, but I’d encountered stranger things than a polar bear dressed as a butler.

Arctic wasn’t the only one of his species. Apparently, an entire society of sentient polar bears lived somewhere in the North.

But after Zero effectively colonized the region, he reduced them to villagers, slaughtered their king, wore his pelt as a coat, and made his son, Arctic, his second-in-command.

Apparently, despite his mannerisms, Arctic remained loyal to him until he became strong enough to ’free’ the North himself.

And that wasn’t speculation, either. Arctic had publicly attempted to overthrow the Captain umpteen times, only to fall short every single time.

"Do you have an appointment?" the bear said, his voice a distinguished growl.

"No," I said as I searched the monster for anything metallic, finding only a few buttons and a pocket watch. Typical. "Can you fit me in? I was really hoping to see the Captain."

The bear’s eyes narrowed, and he exposed his razor sharp teeth at me. "Hrm. The King of the North has no time for you. I will remove you!"

"You can try your best but something tells me this isn’t gonna end well for you, furry," I said, my plates underneath the suit humming. "But regardless let’s see you try."

The bear smiled once more, though the expression quickly twisted into a sneer.

He exploded forward with enough speed that anyone else would’ve been gutted by a single sweep of those massive paws. Fortunately, I’d fought speedsters before, and I never allowed my guard to drop.

I shoved against the floor with my armour, sending myself skidding beyond his reach.

He refused to give me any breathing room, pushing off his hind legs and meeting me midair with claws extended and jaws snapping.

I twisted through the air, using his own momentum against him before spinning until his grip broke and he was hurled back toward the centre of the room.

Arctic snarled, planting his paws against the ice and ripping enormous grooves through it as he launched himself toward me like an ape.

I immediately kicked away, lifting myself into the air.

Arctic compressed his legs and launched himself at me again, but I avoided him with a push from my plates and a sudden drift to the right.

The beast sailed past me and slammed into the distant wall, his claws biting into the wood as he caught himself before turning toward me and launching another assault.

Once again, I slipped aside, dropping beyond his reach as he tore through the air.

He came down atop the chandelier, gripping its rim and swinging from it like some oversized monkey.

Crystal tinkled while icicles broke loose and crashed onto the floor below, sounding like shattering glass. The beast turned toward me, muscles tightening as he prepared to jump again.

I didn’t give him the chance.

Extending my magnetic powers, I seized the chandelier and yanked downward. Its bolts tore free with a groan, ripping a section of the ceiling loose along with the anchor.

Arctic glanced upward, briefly confused as the chandelier suddenly lost its support.

Then he rode it down until it hit the ground with a tremendous crash, cracking the ice beneath him. The bear’s howl of pain and surprise was nearly drowned out as the entire structure punched through the floor, descending like a silver-and-gold ship struck by a torpedo.

I hovered beside the opening and peered down, but the beast lay motionless at the bottom, pinned beneath the chandelier. Dead or alive, he was no longer in my way.

As I stared into the hole, I felt the temperature in the room drop.

I lifted my head as the cold intensified around me. I heard the air snap. Crackle.

A fresh layer of frost spread across the ice, crackling as it drew moisture from the air. The bone-deep chill penetrated even my jacket, making me shiver.

Another set of doors lined the upper gallery overlooking the ballroom, and I watched frost crawl across them, spreading in a frozen web that glittered beneath the remaining light like scattered stars as they slowly opened.

And through them stepped Glacia.