That was no lie. Claudia needed no husband to secure her reign. It was true that the royal line would die out without an heir, and she had some ideas on that score, but she was not inclined to share them with the man before her. For now, the future could wait.
She regarded Null anew. The hulking yaldabaoth was reddening with anger at what he perceived as a slight. He could not have been further from her preferences if he had tried.
“A shame.”
With inhuman strength, Null brought his colossal axe crashing down. Claudia spun elegantly out of its path without so much as twitching an eyebrow. Denied its target, the greataxe struck the ground, which buckled under the force. As a plume of dust flew skyward, Null’s enormous hand plunged through the haze, seeking Claudia.
“Then I’ll pluck off your limbs and take you in pieces!” Null’s arrogance took on a sadistic edge. Once his quarry had caught his eye, he would not let them escape.
“Forgive me,” Claudia said, “but I’m rather known for breaking hearts.”
Null’s hand was larger than her head, but her slender arms cut it down with ease. A grisly noise echoed across the battlefield, a clear and undeniable rejection.
Null’s eyes burned with rage as he realized he had been spurned in full view of the battlefield. “Very well. Enough of this. I’ll kill you and be done with it!”
He swung his axe with all his might. Claudia slipped behind a monster, marveling at the breeze on her skin, but her fragile shield did not last long before its skull shattered. She swept an archon’s legs and sent it tumbling toward the yaldabaoth, but it, too, was quickly smashed to pulp. The greataxe killed without regard for allegiance. Finally, as it bore down on her once more, she grasped a yaldabaoth’s head and pulled herself up into a handstand, letting the axe cleave the unfortunate monster apart in her place. As its pieces struck the ground, she landed and cast her eyes around, but there were no more shields to be found.
“I really must thank you,” she said, dipping into a noblewoman’s bow. “It was ever so kind of you to let my soldiers advance unimpeded.”
She brought a hand to her lips and laughed, as tasteful as a court lady and as arrogant as a spoiled princess. The sight was so baffling that even Null forgot his rage and looked around.
They stood amid carnage. The ground was littered with corpses as far as the eye could see. That much was common in war—every battlefield left its share of bodies—but it did not escape Null’s notice that the dead were almost exclusively archons, yaldabaoth, and other monsters.
“What in the world...?”
“Why, you had such eyes for me, you never spared a thought for your surroundings.” Claudia looked up at the bewildered yaldabaoth with a glacial smile. Her voice was smooth honey dripping into his ears.
Null gazed down, lost for words, at this woman less than half his size. Only now did he see her for what she truly was: a femme fatale whose seductive wiles led men to ruin.
“Doesn’t time just fly by in my company?”
A heated breath spilled from her throat, sickly sweet. Her lips curved into a lascivious smile that would set anyone’s blood aflame. She carried herself with the serenity of a goddess, but her eyes burned with the darkness of a deity of death.
“But I fear you have served your purpose now.” All emotion slid from her face. There was nothing there anymore—no desires, no expectations, only raw disgust. “And frankly, I find you quite repulsive.”
“How dare you—”
Null’s feet lifted off the ground. A kick from this woman less than half his size knocked him onto his back in the dirt.
“Now you shall entertain me awhile.”
That was an order, imbued with a queen’s authority—a queen without peer who looked down on him haughtily, asserting her own superiority. Her cheeks flushed with naked delight to have him at her mercy.
“Now, run. Run for your life. And I shall chase you to the ends of Soleil.”
Null gazed, slack-jawed, at the transformation that had come over her. The blood drained from his face. Claudia’s blade lashed out again, and a sudden impact snapped him from his stupor. One colossal arm sailed through the air. It tumbled end over end, streaming blood as it fell to earth.
That seemed to return Null to his senses. He rose to his feet, grimacing in pain. “You would mock me?”
Vengeance burned in his eyes, but it was quickly extinguished. Claudia’s eyes pierced him through at absolute zero.
“As I promised, you will not escape me.”
You have no right to disobey me, she said without saying. You are my plaything. Fuel for my rise.
“Raaagh!”
Null pushed back his fear of death to swing his greataxe down at Claudia’s head. Her contemptuous snort dissipated in the wind, laden with disappointment that he would defy his queen.
“How did you...? What power is this?!”
Null’s eyes widened in disbelief. He had brought his weapon down with all his might, but Claudia had stopped it dead—not with Hauteclaire, which was in her left hand, but with her bare fingers.
“I tire of this.”
Snow fell from a sky as frozen as her heart. The flakes spiraled on the wind, falling to earth and melting into the soil. Null shuddered as she fixed him with a frigid gaze.
“Now, die for me.”
She offered no mercy. She showed no compassion. He was a broken plaything for her to scorn as she pleased. The callousness she displayed was something few could imagine, but such was the nature of the zlosta, the birthright of the fiendkin who had once plunged Soleil into terror. Let others plead forgiveness. Let the weak beg for clemency. Let all creation bow before its rightful ruler, for she was Claudia van Lebering, the Queen of Snow, the tyrant who reigned at the apex of the zlosta.
“Curse you!” Null spat.
The yaldabaoth turned to run, only to fall flat on his face. He looked down in confusion. The ground beneath him was sheathed in ice. Claudia’s footsteps approached softly, and he raised his head again, compelled by the magnitude of the presence before him.
“I believe this is yours.” Claudia picked up his fallen greataxe and hurled it at him.
“No!”
The axe ignored his protestations as it spun through the air, landing on his legs. Flesh tore asunder. Null howled, but he could do nothing but roll about impotently. As he thrashed in agony, Claudia drove Hauteclaire through his arm, pinning him in place.
“How undignified.” Her voice took on a provocative edge. “You are a yaldabaoth, are you not? Show me your vaunted fortitude.”
Only then did Null notice what he had so far overlooked: His regeneration had ceased to function. He did not have to look far to see why. Ice lined his wounds, preventing them from closing.
“I... I cannot.”
Claudia giggled. “Do excuse me. I only wanted to stem your bleeding, but it seems I’ve done more harm than good.” She ground her heel gleefully into his torso, then kicked his right arm clean from his body. “How clumsy of me. But not to worry. See? I’ve staunched the wound for you.”
Her face grew more ecstatic with every mocking word. Her eyes were frosty as they regarded Null’s terror, but her body trembled as if resisting the urge to shout out with glee.
“Mercy! Mercy!” the yaldabaoth cried. “What did I do to you?!”
“Why, you looked at me with lecherous eyes, of course. That alone is worth a thousand deaths.”
She drove Hauteclaire into him over and over, each time stopping just short of a fatal wound. His blood froze as quickly as it spilled. Ragged holes opened up all over his body.