My Milf System

Rin was still snoring loudly, as if unbothered by the ice that had encased her and turned her into a statue. The cold, dark mist was thickening inside the cube, while Mrs. Lawson kept punching Tama hard in the face. Her daughter sat nearby, now bored but also worried about the commotion outside. Citizens had already fled, and the muffled shouts of patrol knights echoed from beyond the cube. It wasn't surprising. Not many knew about her mother's dark ice prison, not even high-ranking hunters.

Freya sighed. She'd have to come up with a story to calm the public… perhaps claim they were fighting a blackcat criminal. People would praise them as heroes, as always.

But then she looked up and gazed at Tama again. She felt a little bit unease. If Asher ever found out she was the one behind Tama's death, there'd be hell to pay. Her master had ordered her to keep an eye on him, the whole reason she'd asked to work at his company Stick & Lick Enterprises in the first place. Well, she'd just have to make sure her face was never seen and all evidence destroyed.

She sighed again. "Mom… I think it's high time we moved. You can finish torturing the brat at the master's private quarters."

Mrs. Lawson growled, not slowing her punches. "Urgh, you know he'll just want to experiment on her and never let me touch her again. Let me knock her around a bit more. These bastards don't die from a few punches."

"You sadistic psycho…" Freya muttered.

"Your—!" BAM! Lawson's blow on Tama's face sent a shockwave through the ground.

"Kind—are the reason—!" BAM! BAM! Another hit, each one angrier than the last.

"I—don't—have—a husband—right now!" BAM!

The beating was relentless, each blow landing with enough force to make the cube's frozen floor tremble. Then, mid-punch, Tama's body jerked violently. Her head whipped from side to side in unnatural snaps, the motion so sharp it looked like her neck might break. Her eyes rolled open, showing nothing but milky white.

From her mouth, a thick coil of black smoke spilled out, oily and heavy, snaking down her chin. It poured from her ears next, so dense it seemed to splash when it touched the floor, clinging there like liquid shadow.

Mrs. Lawson froze mid-step, her fist hovering in the air. "…What the hell…" She snatched up her void sword from the floor and backed away.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Freya muttered, eyes narrowing.

The shadows surged, swallowing Tama's frame until she was barely a silhouette. Her spasms grew so violent the tremors rattled through the cube itself. Fine cracks spider-webbed through the cursed ice holding her, and then CRACK!, it began to break.

With a final shatter, Tama dropped to the ground. The shadow-smoke billowed from her back in jagged, spined shapes like the limbs of something demonic, stretching her bones with audible pops. She screamed, her voice tearing through the mist while a hundred whispering voices murmured along with her, as if the darkness itself was speaking.

Clutching her head with both hands, she screamed again, the pain in her skull far worse than any injury she'd suffered. It felt like she was dying. Or perhaps she did. One last violent shudder followed, and then she went utterly still, the place going silent.

"Did… did she die?" Freya asked, keeping her voice low.

Lawson's hands were trembling around her sword. "Forget her—what the hell is wrong with my blade?"

The weapon rattled like it was alive, pulling toward the shadows as if drawn by an unseen force.

From inside the black haze came the sound of bones cracking, a neck stretch, knuckle pops and Freya's skin prickled. The hairs on her neck stood on end, her heartbeat so loud she could hear it in her ears.

Then a pair of fierce, glowing yellow eyes flared open in the dark, lighting the space with their predatory glare.

Freya swallowed hard.

The sword wrenched itself free from Lawson's grasp, vanishing into the darkness in a blur.

A moment later, the blade emerged again now held easily in Tama's hand.

Click… click… click…

Each step she took made the swirling mist peel back, the shadows parting for her.

Lawson and Freya instinctively backed away, their knees trembling under the oppressive weight of her aura. Their bodies wanted to bow. Pray and submit. Until their backs hit the ice wall. No escape.

Tama stepped fully into view. She was no longer the battered blackcat girl they'd been beating moments ago. Over her cat ears floated a crown of writhing shadow, its edges never still. A long black coat clung to her shoulders, its high, curved collar framing her face; its tattered hem fluttered despite the still air. And her expression looked cold with an unreadable rage.

"Good grief…" she muttered, voice deeper now. "Thought I was gonna die there. Some 'ancestral blessing' that was…"

She was speaking more to herself than to them, but then her gaze locked on the dark elves. She raised the sword, pointing it their way.

"Dark Arts… Piercing Spears."

In an instant, hundreds, maybe thousands of black-ice spears materialized before her, all razor-sharp and aimed directly at them.

Tama's voice was calm. "Now… about your master. Wanna tell me who he is?"

Mrs. Lawson snarled. "Go to hell!"

Schlkkk!

Half the spears shot forward.

Freya's reflexes kicked in as she conjured a massive ice shield, but the first volley shattered it like brittle glass. The spears ripped through, skewering Lawson's thighs, forearms, and shoulders, pinning her to the frozen wall. Her scream was muffled by the sound of splintering ice and cracking bone.

Freya deflected what she could, but a colossal shadow-hand erupted from the mist and slammed her into the floor hard enough to rattle her teeth. Dazed, she barely heard Tama's next command before more spears hung above them like a rain of death.

"We… we have to flee. Mom—deactivate the prison!"

Lawson choked on her own blood. "I… can't… lost my sword…"

The spears impaling her were already freezing her from the inside out, spreading a black frost across her skin, leaving only her head unfrozen.

Tama tilted her head. "The master—who's he?"

"I said—go to—"

BANG!

The rest of the spears came down as one, without hesitation.

TBC