"Antonio, get out the way!" Thousands of little shards of ice came flying at them, all of them as sharp as razors. The two men jumped to one side. The wall that they had been hiding behind crumbled and fell to the floor into a pile of rubble.
"Good at running, aren't you? Little rats!" Helga, the woman whom they used to know as Countess Anhalt, mocked them. To her, this was disgraceful, shameful behavior. She waved her wand above her head and circled it in the air. "I am the woman who targeted Maxwell's Magic Staff and lived. You should give up now."
The end of her small wand glowed. She was solidifying the moisture in the air into ice flakes. Each flake had razor sharp edges. The thousands of little shards danced around her wand before she threw them at the two men who were hiding behind the sofa.
"Refrigeration? Where the hell did that come from?!" Abel exclaimed.
Abel pulled on his trigger. He covered Antonio and jumped under a mahogany table. He didn't know how he managed it, but he had shot the shards out of the air.
Even so, he wasn't in the clear. He had only so many bullets. There would be more New Vatican cronies rushing to their location right now. He had to do something before they got there... but what? Abel hesitated.
"This isn't good, Abel. D'Este is getting away!" Antonio yelled, pulling Abel from his train of thought. He looked around and saw the old man escaping through a large hole in the wall.
He was dragging Cherubim behind him, desperately trying to flee the imminent battle.
"We can't let him. I'll back you up, Antonio!" Abel screamed as he watched the old man retreat into the hole. He didn't wait for an answer; he jumped out from behind the desk, gun ready. "Leave her to me. You go after him!"
He continued to shoot down the shards of ice as he charged toward Ice Witch. He had to get closer!
"What do you think you're going to do?" The woman smirked at Abel's efforts.
Suddenly, something was crawling at his feet. The floor was no longer made of stone cobbles. It was a pool of water. No, it was worse than that. It formed into an amoeba-like creature with tentacles that were now reaching out to him across the ice. "Crap!"
He wasn't going to be able to get her this way. He shot at the hideous tentacles to buy himself enough time to retreat.
The tentacles, though, weren't solid or liquid. They simply crumbled and reformed, over and over again.
"This is the Winter Maiden staff. It has a man-made soul. With the proteins that control water molecules, it can cool to one-hundred and twenty degrees centigrade below freezing point. When mixed with micro machines, it becomes living ice." Helga snorted. She was like a cat playing with her prey. "Beautiful, isn't it? It's a fantastic pet for a witch."
The pool of water seemed to match the personality of its mistress. It started to flow forward. It froze everything in its path as it moved. If Abel was caught in it, he would be frozen too.
"Argh! You give me no choice!"
An ominous light shone in Abel's eyes. His mouth opened a little to reveal sharp fangs.
"Nanomachine 'Crusnik 02,' forty-percent limited opera..." His blue eyes shone red. His hair started to lift up as if each strand had a life of its own. Then...
"We've finished with the fun, heretic! I won't let you do this!" There was a dull roar of gunshots from behind him and soldiers came pouring out of the elevator. Evidently, they had managed to get it working again. They all shot at once, aiming at Abel. "No! You mustn't come in!"
Abel's eyes had already returned to blue by the time he issued the warning. The soldiers barely caught glimpse of the witch's glowing wand before they were screaming in panic. "RUN AWAY! You're..."
The warning came too late. There was a scream as thousands of tiny shards of ice went ripping through their limbs. Blood spurted across the wall. "Wh-what is this?!"
The gigantic tuned soldier, Father Friedrich, was there too. But even his twin whips weren't a good enough defense. The ice ripped through his body and he fell to the floor—a mist of blood all that was left where he had once stood.
"Stop this, Christa. They were not a threat... "Abel wasn't allowed to finish. The creeping pool of water had found its target. Abel's face screwed up in pain. Frost started working its way up his legs.
"Don't worry about those humans. Worry about yourself, Father." However, Helga sounded less victorious; rather, she seemed a little saddened. "So this is Crusnik? The 'enemy of the world'? Pathetic!"
The witch sneered. Abel let out a scream as he was entirely encased by the water.