FROSTBORN: Rise of the dark legend

Ch. 002 You deserved to die

Anger and recrimination churned Ragnar's insides and he spat out blood, staining the snow covered grounds in a brilliant red. 

He looked up at Aria, disbelief and confusion warring inside of him. 

“What's going on here?” A voice asked, coming out of the house. 

Ragnar didn't need to look up. It was Mathilda…his step mom…also Kelvin's birth mom. Behind him stood Kenneth, their father, looking displeased. 

“Nothing much.” Kelvin drawled, his pitch lazy and playful. “My dear brother here found out our little secret, so we're sending him off. What better place to dispose of his corpse without suspicion?”

With all the strength he could muster, Ragnar forced himself to look at his father. To his shock, rather than stop the madness, he nodded nonchalantly. “Sure. He's no longer useful. We've successfully transferred all his assets, and Aria is about to join the Directorate. We really don't need him anymore.”

Mathilda’s lips curved up in satisfaction. “After thirty years of planning, everything is coming to an end. Get on with it, we still have the celebratory banquet to attend.”

Ragnar's lungs went numb, and his already weak heart stopped beating. He couldn't believe Kenneth would stand by and watch him get killed. 

“Dad, you knew too?”

Something cold settled behind Kenneth’s eyes, and he scrunched up his nose. “Who's your dad? You're just a stray dog I managed to tolerate.” 

Aria chuckled and squatted before him, gripping his jaws. “We've never considered you family. From beginning to end, I hated you so much. I only endured for Kelvin's future.”

Ragnar's vision turned blurry, everything going gray. His head couldn't wrap around it, all efforts to form coherent thoughts failed. 

“If you loved him so much, why did you marry me?” His pitch was cracky, radiating anguish. “Why have a child with me?”

The rest burst into laughter, and Kelvin slapped his thighs repeatedly, pointing at Ragnar, his fingers trembling with mirth. 

“Your child?” Aria shook her head with a sigh. “Zenith is my son with Kelvin. You never slept with me. I used hallucinogens to mess with your head.”

The confusion in his eyes gave way to rage, then despair. His throat worked, jaw tightened, like he was trying so hard to hold something back. 

“You're quite pitiful, aren't you?” Kelvin's mocking sneer felt like a bullet lodged in his head.

“You bastard!” Ragnar snarled, grabbing fistfuls of the snow, his veins throbbing visibly under his frost bitten skin. 

Despite the hatred inside of him, he couldn't get up no matter how he tried. His will was strong, but his body was shattered beyond repair. 

He could only endure the humiliation and bubbling resentment. 

Mathilda marched towards him and gave him a hard slap. “You're the bastard, your mother is the bastard!”

She suddenly began to laugh, her eyes glinting with hatred and vicious satisfaction. 

“Your mother thought she could waltz in and steal my man just because she's from a powerful background. I made sure she paid dearly for it.”

As she laughed, her slender fingers wrapped around his throat. 

“Even after I killed her, that bitch's shadow wouldn't stop haunting me. People accused me of stealing my mistress's man. Mistress my ass! That foolish bitch got her comeuppance. And you again…”

She scoffed, disdain and bitterness twisting her face into something nightmarish. 

“Celestial signs marked you for greatness, the spirit oracle your sister invited confirmed your rare ice dragon physique and talent, while my son was average. How could I let you grow and suppress my son like your mother did? They say we can't change destiny, but I personally swapped it.”

Mathilda let go of his throat and staggered back, shaking her head like she was witnessing the biggest joke. Her cackles took a more maniacal quality, her face reminiscent of a dark witch. 

Behind her Kelvin sneered down at Ragnar. 

“Haven't you wondered why your cultivation never moved an inch despite working the hardest? Yet I do nothing and remain at the top.”

He brought his lips closer to Ragnar's ears, letting his nails dig into his arms. 

“The Shaman’s exchange technique was quite efficient. Every bit of energy and every technique you gained fed straight to me. In this life, you were nothing but my pawn. Even your dragon bone now powers me, transferring all your special attributes to me. Isn’t Mom a genius?”

“You animal!” Ragnar's teeth gave off crunching sounds from being ground too hard, his eyes taking a red hue like a feral beast. 

His rage was like a drug, powering Kelvin's sadistic pleasure. 

“It was thrilling beyond compare, watching you grovel for my woman, being servile before me. Do you know how pathetic you seemed each time you professed your love to Aria? I've never seen someone as dense as you are. You deserve everything that happened to you.”

“The weather is getting colder, hurry up.” Kenneth said impatiently, like he was watching a boring drama. 

Aria pulled out a dagger, and stepped forward. She smiled at Kelvin, her eyes shining with adoration. 

“Sweetheart, didn't I promise you that once we no longer need him, I will peel off his skin?” 

Kelvin nodded and stepped back, giving her the stage. 

Ragnar looked at her, his head was contracting and expanding like something in his head was about to burst out. Perhaps, his brain couldn't carry the weight of this betrayal. 

“Do you know how your sister died?” Aria asked with a dazzling smile, stabbing a knife into his belly. 

He groaned, unable to defend himself in the slightest. He overdrew his energy trying to get her the herbs. Now, he couldn't even muster the energy to move his fingers. 

His breath came in shallow agonizing pants, each inhale tearing through him like tiny needles, more painful than the dagger stabbing into his gut. 

Aria's grin widened. “You killed her yourself.” 

Ragnar forced his eyes open. He loved his sister more than life, it was absolutely impossible for him to hurt her. 

“That bitch was quite vigilant, and suspicious, always guarding against us. Unfortunately, she had to drag a burden like you along. How could I not cash in on such a huge opportunity?”

She chuckled, and stabbed in the dagger again, severing his fingers off. 

“Unexpectedly, she became so wealthy despite auntie’s efforts to hold her down. And she actually left a will naming you as her heir. Of course I couldn't let her get married and start a family. So I devised a means.”

Ragnar's blood pressure spiked, memories tearing at him. 

“Each night you carried calming tea to help with her insomnia, you were actually giving her the special poison I bought. You helped me kill your sister.”

She licked her lips and closed her eyes, savoring the taste of victory. 

“Do you know how satisfying it was, watching you cry yourself half blind when she died? Do you know how much I laughed when you gave me all her assets after Zenith’s birth? She must have tossed and turned in her grave for having a brother such as yourself.”

Ragnar’s teeth clamped down on her arm, digging into her milky arms with all the ferocity he could muster. 

Aria gave out a startled yelp, stabbing into his chest while Kelvin pried her away. 

She gasped, and grunted, anger twisting her features. The more she looked at the wound his teeth left, the more angry she felt. 

“You're so vicious. How could people like you exist?” Ragnar cried, agony, regret, sorrow, and self loathing swallowed him, turning him into a mess. 

His heart suddenly gave out and his eyes rolled back in his head. Just then, the angry Aria kicked his chest hard, her kick landing on the locket in his chest. 

“Accept it. This is your fate, destined to be stepped on and squashed ruthlessly beneath my feet.”

Her vicious kick shattered the locket, revealing the jade beneath. Another strike from Kelvin’s mace sent him soaring into the air, straight to the bottomless abyss. 

“My regards to Hades, make sure you watch from yonder as I dominate the earth.” Kelvin's victorious shout followed, echoing in the deserted peak. 

The blizzard in the abyss got worse the deeper one went, the gale swallowing his words the deeper Ragnar fell. 

Above, the snow around his previous spot was soaked with dark red blood. His blood. As for the devious family, they returned to the building, ready for departure. Their grand aim had finally been achieved. 

Ragnar fell for ten minutes before his back hit a damp surface. It was a frozen underground lake that now looked like normal ground to human eyes. 

He lay there limply, the last sign of life seeping out of him. 

The jade pendant exposed after the locket was shattered slipped into the area around his bleeding heart where Aria's dagger had stabbed in. 

The jade began to transform the moment it made contact with Ragnar's heart blood. 

Beneath Ragnar, strange plants were growing. The most prominent being the ice lichen. The moment his bloodied form came in contact with the lichen, it began to grow at an amazing speed, till it totally wrapped him up. 

The moment he breathed his last, the jade pendant shattered, and bright golden light exploded in the deep dark abyss, lighting everywhere in a burst of golden light. 

The blizzard around him multiplied, forming a snow vortex that swallowed him. Icicles began to sprout around him, in his body, his white hair turning to lumps of snow. 

The shattered jade formed a golden clock symbol that embedded into Ragnar's heart. At that moment, something illogical happened. Time and space began to rewind.