Gojo opened his eyes, finding himself lying on ice. All of his body hurt like hell; it was cold, too cold for him to even feel his fingers. The last thing he could rember was feeling Blue Ice’s power exploding several folds.
He looked up and saw her.
Blue Ice sat on a throne of ice, wearing a one-piece white dress of compacted snow. She was as beautiful as he rembered, but sothing about her was different. Her legs and arms were covered in pale silver chitin, two fuzzy antennae sprouted from her head, and a large pair of moth wings extended out of her back.
"You’re finally awake, my sweeting." She spoke, causing the ice beneath Gojo to rise and lift him. "I’ve been waiting."
Before the ice could set, Gojo started heating his body with a torrent of unexhaustible fire.
"Blue Ice! What did you do?"
She looked at him with a smile and giggled, her voice ringing across the empty throne room like bells.
"This is my ho. I brought you with , alongside your brother." She looked around.
"I am not a Nymph of the Arctic Sea; the Arctic Sea was a part of my great body." She lifted her hand, shifting it back to a humanoid hand.
"One finger nail, it wasn’t much more than that."
Gojo didn’t need her to tell him where they were. He could already figure it out on his own. The oppressive cold pushing back against his fire, the cursed air, the stench of death.
They were in the eighth layer of hell, Cania, the endless and frigid hellscape of the eternal ice and snowstorms.
Blue Ice looked at Gojo with a passive, emotionless face. "I’m Cania, the Mother Moth of Stillness. I want to remain frozen here for all of eternity, so go out and put the lamps out."
"Where is Arad?" Gojo growled, and she remained silent for a second.
"Frozen and at rest."
Arad was several thousands of kiloters beneath the frozen ground, surrounded by layer upon layers of ancient ice dating before ti was a thing.
"I wish to remain undisturbed, so go." Before Gojo could do anything, he was already far away from Blue Ice’s castle, alone in the middle of the frozen wasteland of Cania.
Far above his head, he could see a hole in the frozen ceiling of this layer where light poured out, promising warmth and comfort.
It was clear. Anything that could teleport him and Arad like this, seal them, and show this much power wasn’t a being that they could defeat. If he wants to see Arad again, he must put the lamps out -whatever that ans.
He looked at the light. Blue Ice looked like a moth, so she was probably talking about that light. He transford back to his draconic form and flew up, ready to burn everything down until he got Arad back.
Back at Blue Ice’s throne room, Kali was standing in her demonic form, looking at the ancient moth with a smile.
"Stillness, what’s the aning of this?" Kali took a step forward, and the ice shattered beneath her feet. "I thought you hated moving."
"This rotten universe is forcing my hand, all thanks to AO. I told him that the best universe is one where nothing moves, where stillness holds the perfect shape. But he chose to make it move, and thus destined it to crumble."
Kali sighed.
"Cania. Give AO back; the universe needs him. I won’t ask again." Golden radiance shone behind her, rumbling faintly with power.
"Make ." As Cania spoke, her words spread across the lair with a strange will.
"Stop it, you two fools." Isabelle walked from behind Kali and stood between them.
"What do you think would happen if Destruction and Stillness fought? One of you can freeze the universe, and the other can make it explode. Nothing good."
Kali glared at her. "Creation, back away."
Cania’s expression never changed. "I, too, would rather if we don’t fight. I don’t want to move, I don’t want to speak, I don’t want to breathe or be alive. I only seek absolute stillness."
"Give AO and I’ll leave. Otherwise, get ready to move a lot." Kali took a step forward, and the ice around her evaporated, then burst into flas.
"I said, stop it! Both of you!" Isabelle scread her lungs out.
"Kali, calm down! She is the one who froze him; he’ll be fine. She is Stillness; nothing ever changes between her fingers." She panted, then glared back at Cania.
"And you damned moth. What in AO’s na is out there to get you? Is it Entropy?" Since Kali’s flas faded away, Isabelle walked toward Cania, who was still ready to fight.
"Last I saw you two together, I could swear you’d lick each other’s toes. What’s gotten into you now?"
Cania frowned. "Entropy has nothing to do with this. Those devils outside; they got a strange light. I can hear it calling ; it never stops, and it is driving mad."
Kali’s rage seed to start boiling again. "Then just freeze them. Don’t tell so devils got you scared, no, you’re the bitch who fought AO when he decided to make the universe move. Nothing in this universe would be able to stop you."
"That light, it is strange. Whenever I look at it, or try to get close, the voices grow louder, they beckon to approach, to jump into the flas." She glared at Kali, "I can’t approach them without losing what makes myself. Do you want the world to burn?"
"Then where are they? I’ll turn them inside out." Kali turned around, her six blue arms engulfed with dark golden demonic magic.
"Don’t. It is dangerous. Whatever can affect , it’ll affect you." Cania’s power finally seed to fade a bit, and Isabelle relaxed.
"Kali, Arad is fine, so relax. Let’s talk this over in a more civilized manner." She waved her hand and conjured a massive round table with chairs and drinks. "Take a seat. We have the ti to talk."
"Arad is going to be pissed off if Gojo was hurt." Kali could already sense Gojo flying toward the blinding light at the ceiling of the layer.
Everyone sat around the table, and Kali was the first to speak.
"Release Arad at once."
Cania replied in a calm and aloof voice. "Snuff the light first."
"Why am I the only one reasonable here? Cania, release Arad, and he’ll help us deal with the light. Won’t that be better?" She tried to calm them both, but instead, got sharp glares.
"Creation, it seems the corruption had caused your brain to rot. Do you want to throw AO to whatever created that light?" Cania lifted her hand and pointed at Kali.
"Destruction, you should’ve destroyed this one, so another could be born."
Kali frowned. "I too think Arad would help, he is AO after all. But... you might also be right about it being dangerous." She scratched the back of her head.
"Entropy isn’t here. Do you know where she is? I’m sure she would be of so help."
Cania shook her head. "I don’t know. Haven’t seen her in several thousand years."
****
Outside, Gojo reached the layer’s ceiling and gazed upon the light.
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