Apocalypse: The Ice King Returned

Chapter 2: The Erazer

Luther desperately pulled a dagger from his pocket and quickly slashed it across his leg, spilling blood all over the floor where it mixed in with the rain.

He gritted his teeth. The smell of blood filling his nose and the pain lingering in his mind allowed him to remain conscious just a little while longer. The blue light brightened slightly as he attempted to focus his energy into holding the crystal, but in a few seconds, it had dimmed again.

Luther had regained consciousness now and he wasn’t giving up. 

As the beam weakened, he picked up the dagger again, but only grazed his thigh without breaking the skin.

His eyelids grew heavier. Luther’s vision was now blurry, and the light began to fade.

The scene around him quickly changed. In a five-meter radius surrounding him, the red rain had now condensed into sparkling ice.

The sky had turned completely black, and the only light to be seen was the intense glow of the red moon. The bodies of a man and a woman were now fast asleep on the roof of the International Trade Center of Coldhaven. About a day later, the woman woke up in a daze.

The woman was Constance. She looked around the rooftop from where she lay and could not believe her eyes. The rooftop was completely covered with eyes and in the middle of it was Luther, who had blood run down his legs. She crawled over to him and brushed ice crystals off his chest. She cradled his head on her lap and patted him. "Luther, wake up."

After she gave him a rough shake, his eyes fluttered open. He groaned from the pain of his leg as he attempted to get on his feet, and with his sister’s help, he stood up. He felt something strange and looked at his hand. It was shaking uncontrollably.

Constance gasped when she saw that in seconds, a fist-sized ball of water had accumulated in Luther's palm. He threw it at the iron door on the rooftop about ten meters away.

Bang!

The water struck the iron gate with a dull sound.

Luther's eyes sparkled. "Water. I can control water, and I’ve reached the third degree."

There were nine levels of Erazer and mutant creatures, each with five ranks: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, amethyst, extraordinary, epic, legendary, god-level.

With each level of Erazer, the subject’s overall physical fitness and powers were improved. Luther was of a bronze rank 1, and his physical fitness more than doubled.

There were two aspects to having these powers. One was the quantity of superpower, which was determined by the level of Erazer.

The other one was the degree, or the power intensity, which went up to 24 degrees. For example, if two Erazers--both of a bronze rank 1 ice property--were to combine their powers, the newly made third-degree superpower would easily shatter a meager one-degree Erazer, just like the difference between steel and iron.

The difference between quantity and degree: quantity determined the number of ice picks that could be made. If there was no quantity, an Erazer could only produce one ice pick.

Now Luther's superpower had reached the intensity of three degrees, which was commendable at the beginning of doomsday.

In the early days, an Erazer was usually one degree, and it took days to reach the second degree. Luther could achieve absolute suppression at the same level.

But it is harder in the later stages because each level of Erazer was a factor that changed the overall quality of the body, and how much you had. Having a lot of energy made up for the difference in degree.

Luther was about to ask Constance what strength she had gained when he noticed the ice under his feet.

Luther furrowed his brow and said, "That’s strange, why is there ice here?"

Constance thought he was asking her. "I just got up and found ice all around you." She paused and said, "Luther, how did you create that in your hand? Is that what you mean by a superpower? I’ve never seen anything like that."

Luther seemed absent-minded and looked down at the ice until Constance prodded him further. He looked up at her, "Well, it's a superpower. A lot of strange things are going to happen on doomsday, you'll see. Constance, you have power now. You need to figure out what it is and how to use it. I need to study this ice."

Constance looked at her brother in awe, then at the blood moon in the sky. She sighed to herself, “It’s just like he said. Maybe he is a prophet.”

Constance had believed everything Luther said after seeing everything he foretold, and she knew he was right. So, she watched from the sidelines.

Luther was completely immersed in his world, looking at the inches of ice that covered his body and where he had slept. But instead of feeling pain from the frost on his skin and his wound, he only felt warmth.

Although the power of water had a special connection to ice, Luther now had the power of three degrees of water. But in all his knowledge of superpowers, he could not find one instance where someone could control ice with water.

Luther's eyes lit up as his thoughts came together, and when he saw the ice, he felt a sense of strength over the air surrounding him. He concentrated on the ice in his hand as he felt a certain harmony between the air outside and the water he could produce.

Luther was not familiar with his power yet. But through some speculation, he thought that his power over water might be transformed into power over ice through the air.

In Luther's memory, ice was one of the most potent natural forces on doomsday. Within years after a previous doomsday, the only ice enchanted Erazer was revealed to the world. The humans called him “Ice Demon.”

Rumor had it that he was a legendary grade super. He made a city into an ice realm by the power of his own hand and built an ice palace in the city in which there were numerous human slaves. He could have saved the world, but he was wanton and cruel. Finally, the federation of humans had to unite to kill him.

Five legendary Erazers and 30 epic and extraordinary Erazers battled Ice Demon in his Ice palace. After the war, Ice Demon was never seen again, and only three legendary Erazers, along with a dozen epic and extraordinary Erazers, were left to attack him.

Although word of the Battle of the Ice Demon was not made public, the people knew that any Erazers that did not return from the battle were buried in the Ice palace with Ice Demon.

Since then, word of the Ice Demon was not spoken of again.

Now Luther had the power of water, but there was a higher source of power in front of him, and he had to explore it.

After a decade of doomsday life, Luther knew that when the time came--even if a person was especially strong--they would only survive in the face of zombie hordes and monsters. He had seen several solitary men with incredible power, and in the end, they could not avoid death. He was just a normal guy with some skill, but he survived because he relied on his humanity.

Luther, who understood that human solidarity was a necessity, was born again, and his goal in the first place was to establish a base. Now with control over ice, he started work on creating a camp of ice for shelter. It was time to prepare.