Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

A giant mushroom cloud erupted into the sky. The shockwave from the explosion obliterated the surrounding blizzard for kilometers. Anything under the Soul Transformation Realm was directly evaporated, leaving behind only bones. As for those in or above the Soul Transformation Realm, it depended on their distance from the point of impact.

However, nobody came out unscathed.

Even the massive amounts of snow that had built up was mostly obliterated.

At the center of the explosion, a massive crater formed not just in the snow but the earth as well. The dozens of monks who participated in the 'ritual' were scattered and sprawled out, hanging onto their last breath.

Most were missing limbs or were on the brink of death, surviving merely by their own force of will. The ones that didn't make it didn't leave any remains.

"Cough… Ugh… Damn…" A curse came from within a multi-layered barrier made up of all the elements, Mira's [Elemental Barrier].

After sensing it was fine to reveal herself, Mira spread out her [Paragon Wings], revealing her bloody body underneath. A deep scowl had formed on her face as the space around her trembled, a red mist slowly spilling out of her.

"I'm really being taken lightly, aren't I?" She muttered, her killing intent building.

She took a step toward the closest living monk. With every footfall, the ground and air around her froze. Her presence slowly intensified until she stood over a grumbling, dying monk.

The man shivered, feeling a cold, penetrating killing intent surrounding him. When he opened his eyes, all he saw was a titanic, bloody demon peering down into his very soul.

"You know…" The demon started. "Where I come from, people like you wouldn't dare act so presumptuously in front of me." It grabbed the monk's head and lifted him off the ground.

"Looks like I'll have to show you why."

"AHHHHHGH!"

A dense stream of destruction Qi swept through the monk's body, ripping his meridians apart, popping his core, and dissipating his cultivation. Then, his skin, starting from the crown of his head, started peeling off. Blood leaked out of his body as he was skinned alive, but all he could do was scream in agony.

Once he was nothing more than a mass of flesh, Mira clenched her fist, creating a giant ice spike that shot up and penetrated the monk's body all the way to the base of his skull.

Screams still left out of his body, as she didn't allow him to die just yet.

Ice crept over his skin until he was completely encased in it, forever preserving his agonizing expression and ruined body.

"...Not enough." Mira shook her head and walked over to the next person. "People like this won't know fear until it's etched into their very soul."

What followed next was a scene straight out of hell. Miserable, excruciating screams echoed as one giant ice spoke rose after another.

When Mira backed away, looking at her 'masterpiece', she shook her head. "Not enough. Still not enough."

She then sensed more people flying in this direction and looked off into the distance. Without hesitation, she killed her presence and dashed toward the next batch of monks.

"I won't be satisfied until you can see this graveyard on the map."

***

A few hours later, the crater where the [White Hole] exploded was now an icy tundra with hundreds of giant ice spikes. Mira made them so tall that even if the ground were covered in several meters of snow again, they would still stick far out of the ground.

Nobody would miss them as long as they passed through the area.

The wails of the tortured could still be heard as the blizzard's howl returned, sweeping everything up in its path.

Nodding slightly, the red haze around Mira had calmed down looking at the scene. "If those bastards attack me again, I'll bring their corpses back here."

The world should know their sins, after all.

'Heavenly Creation Order, huh?' She murmured to herself. 'I wasn't able to get any more information out of them other than that. Tsk.'

That was the problem with fanatics. They were so crazy that torture almost never worked on them. Although her torture skills had improved vastly compared to her past lives, she couldn't keep them alive long enough to extract information from them.

Thus, she only sought the name of their 'religion'. Everything else could be learned later.

'But, Heavenly Creation… What, or who exactly are they worshipping?'

Without fail, every single one of them shouted something akin to 'Praise the Lord! Praise the Heavens!'

However, it didn't feel like they were worshipping the Heavens she knew the one that regulated the Mortal Realm.

As far as she knew, the Heavens of the Mortal Realm established a set of "rules", and if ever one of those rules was breached, it'd interfere. There were all kinds of other beliefs about the Heavens like they granted people physiques, talent, controlled fate, and more, but none of those could be confirmed and were merely the conjectures of the ignorant.

But these monks didn't just worship the Heavens, but a separate Lord–not the Heavens as their Lord.

'Does that mean they're worshipping someone on par with the Heavens? Also, why are they searching for these 'Holy Relics'? To the point that they don't care about their lives.'

It seemed there were many mysteries regarding this new power that had entered the scene.

Mira wanted nothing more than to just mind her own business. She wanted nothing to do with a religion of psycho, fanatic monks. However, she knew better than anyone else that once she was involved, it was as if she was forced to see it through to the end.

'...Tsk. I just wanted to gather treasures peacefully. Why'd it turn out like this?' She kicked up a plume of snow before glancing at the graveyard she created.

"...At least there's nothing a trail of corpses can't solve."

Hana shivered, returning her hands to her eyes and ears, covering them as hard as she could. The screams, the wails, the sounds of flesh being ripped apart and bones being extracted were something she couldn't handle.

Blood and death were something she had grown accustomed to, living with Mira. However, this was different. It was no longer killing but mutilation. And though she never raised her head throughout the entire process, the sounds gave her more than enough information to imagine what was going on.

She wanted to throw up but forced it down. The aura Mira emanated made her feel like if she did something like that, Mira might just replace her with a monk. She trembled at the thought.

"Well, kid, what do you want to do next?" Mira suddenly asked, taking a few steps away from the massacre.

"E-Eep!"

Mira chuckled at her little squeak. "What? It was just a little torture. Why are you so scared? You didn't even open your eyes the entire time!"

"..."

"Anyways, enough about that. Where do you want to go? We can either continue looking for the braindead monk religion, which I'm starting to think is the one we're looking for. Or we can search for the Frozen Halls."

'Frozen Halls!' Hana wanted to shout but couldn't. She didn't want to have anything to do with those monks. Not because she was scared of them but because she was scared of what Mira would become when she found them. Part of her felt like Mira didn't enjoy being around them either.

However, if she said something like that, there was a good chance Mira wouldn't care about her reasoning and continue doing whatever she wanted.

'So, I need to give her a good reason.' Her brain started working overtime, formulating a plan to get her out of here. 'Think, Hana, think!'

Mira waited in silence, allowing Hana to come up with an answer. Right now, she wasn't in the right state of mind to make logical decisions. She felt a nagging itch in the back of her mind telling her to kill the annoyances and root out this religion. Her thirst for blood had only been temporarily sated.

However, she understood doing so might end up being a huge waste of time.

"U-Umm… I-I think we should leave these monks alone and search for the Frozen Halls first." Hana finally replied.

"Why?"

"Err… W-Well, weren't those guys pretty strong? You struggled to break through their barrier, and although you can kill them easily in a one-on-one situation, their power exponentially increases when they're in groups. What are you going to do if there are stronger people back at their church? Not to mention, you'll be on their turf. Isn't it too risky?

We should try and gather more information, maybe a few allies as well, before recklessly marching into enemy territory. Not to mention, we don't even know where they come from. If we accidentally stumble upon their home, I don't even dare to imagine the consequences."

"..." Mira fell into thought for a moment, her mind cooling down a bit. What Hana said made a lot of sense. These guys were just the dregs. None were in the Mortal Shedding Realm. All of them were at the Peak of the Soul Transformation Realm.

If these monks had stronger members, even if they lacked a Divine Sea Realm master, it'd still be troublesome for her if she was caught in some formation. Ever since she left the resort, she was beginning to understand how strong the true powerhouses of the world were.

Not kids under a hundred years old, but people who have been practicing and refining their techniques for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

It also seemed that, on average, the Northern Continent's forces were stronger than those on the Western Continent.

"Alright! We'll put this religion on hold." Mira nodded slowly. She then started walking, only to stop right after and look around incredulously as if she just remembered something. "There's just a slight problem. I have no idea where I am."

"..."