Where Winter Meets Summer (Rusame Countryhumans)

Against the Clock: SIX

(RUSSIA POV)

Enduring. Time and time again, and another hundred times more. The chill of winter was a bygone memory now. Only bitterness remained.

The wind's wretched howls were laced with another voice– one so pitiful that I dared not look. I was back in this hell on earth.

No. It was the hell of my mind. The same frozen wasteland that I always seemed to end up in. The only difference was the occasional trembling of the ground and the pleading voice which was getting more and more desperate. Then it all stopped abruptly, leaving an eerie silence in its wake.

Once the storm had calmed a little, I could see a figure, standing a little ways away from me. It wasn't unusual, for I often encountered the man I now recognized as the Soviet Union. But as I drew nearer, I could see it wasn't him. Instead it was another teenage boy, around the same age as me. His breaths were ragged and his sunglasses lay just out of reach, revealing his three, ultraviolet eyes that darted around wildly. He was bound by chains attached to nearby pikes of ice, allowing the rime frost to crawl over his skin. He was clearly in terrible shape and I had to take a moment to process what I was seeing.

"...A- America?"

At the sound of my voice, he jolted towards me with a gleam in his eyes. But it wasn't relief or joy. It was fiery red hatred.

"You've gone too far this time," he growled as his struggling became more aggressive, "Take one more step and I'll see you personally to hell!"

I was taken aback at this reaction when suddenly, a torrent of electric blue flames erupted from him. It raged straight for me, ready to tear me inside out. Incredibly, the rime ice chains that held him didn't melt. Instead, they seemed to gleam even brighter and the translucent white was replaced by a sharp, chilling gold. The rime grew at least five times their original size and dug into his flesh, drawing blood. This prodded a choked scream from Ame before the flames vanished and he collapsed. The rime had returned to its original state.

I was shaking, unsure of what to think of. What had I just seen? What was that?!

"The key to a new era," a deep, heartless voice replied. Soviet walked right past me and grabbed Ame by the chin, "This is the true ability of the Final Permafrost."

"Soviet, don't do this," America growled, "You know that you and I will both die. Stop this madness now!"

"I'm aware. But you're begging the wrong person."

"BEG?! I'M NOT BEGGING YOU– I'M THREATENING YOU!"

Soviet ignored him and tilted his head towards me, "The decision will belong to you. The Final Permafrost will be unleashed someday– it is inevitable. So decide whether the world will end in fire or ice.

...

The Coloso erupted with cheers. It was brought alive with all the students that had come down to watch the final days of training before the preliminaries. This was how it was yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that. People always came, despite rain or snow. Of course, most of them sat higher up and away from the edge now. They had learned to expect danger, even as audience members but that didn't stop a few daredevils from standing right at the front.