.
"My darling~"
He blinked lazily, before he turned to a beautiful woman with bright azure eyes that stared at him with love, or what the woman herself thought. A section of her dull teal hair was tied into a bun, with a shiny silver hairpin―decorated with amethyst jewels. Her skin was pale, white as snow as she wore a silver and red dress.
The woman had worn the crimson dress rather than her usual blue. Her reason? She stared at the man clad in red and black, as eyes like the sun and sky stared back at her. A small smile gracing his lips, and she ignored the way his eyes were devoid of the same love she had.
He stood there under the setting sun, caressing a gold phoenix hairpin with rubies decorating the phoenix. Her gaze lingered to the hairpin, blinking her eyes dreamily as she stepped closer to him. She trailed a hand over his arm, smiling at him.
Mismatched eyes glances at her, before twirling the hairpin, and she watched as it vanished into incandescent particles. She pouted but felt herself melt as a cold hand caressed her cheek.
"My darling, who owned the pin? It was lovely." She smiled, pressed her own cold hand to the one against her cheek.
The man smiled, "My mother. It's the last thing I have of her... But for you?" He reached behind her, and plucked the silver pin from her hair.
The silver pin rested in his hands, and she gasped as flames devoured it. She went to shriek in horror, but as the flames died down, she saw the same silver pin with golden details. The amethyst jewels were now glinting rubies.
"Oh Alastor! It's beautiful." She gasped, wrapping her arms around his neck and moving closer to him. Alastor tilted his head, a close-eyed smile upon his countenance.
"Gwyneira... You are as well." His smile was crooked, and Gwyneira couldn't help but stare deeply into those eyes. They were devoid of emotions, and she could not help but love them even more.
The coldness of his eyes was magnificent―to her. It was frigid like the ice and snow she created, and the incandescent flames he summoned was nothing to his niveus aura.
She giggled as the frost that formed under her feet melted from the flames he created. Her heart raced as she leaned into him and pressed her head against his chest. It was warm, warmer than she was used to, but she loved it.
"My darling~ I will love you forever, and ever, and ever until my ice thaws. Let us be together, frozen in time!" She fawned, feeling a pair of arms wrap around her waist.
She felt a pair of warm lips press against hers, and she truly felt herself melt upon the kiss. She gasped into the kiss as Alastor's fingers dug into her waist, and harshly pulled her closer. She loved the ferocity and submitted to the aggressiveness.
This man.
This... monster. The demon revered as the king of infernal beings, the strongest of the heptagram, and god of contracts very own counterpart. She had claimed the man as hers...but...
"That's never gonna happen."
She belonged to him, but he never belonged to her.
.
The two demons stared at one another. The humans, or alleged humans, shuddered away from the mixed sensations of cold and hot. As piercing blue met, vivid red and black, the two released the essence of their elements.
Gwyneira created more and more frost, while Alastor melted all the ice and snow around him. The monsters Gwyneira created growled and hissed at the group of five, as the demon of the group stood before her with the same emotionless look she fell in love with.
Aether's brows furrowed at the pure desire and hate in the eyes of the frost demoness, clenching his fist as he stared daggers at the woman. Her hair was unkept, but there was a silver hairpin, messily holding a section of her hair back.
"Gwyneira... You look awful." Alastor said, tilting his head as the demoness began to giggle at him. Aether thought it was creepy, but he couldn't deny the sudden flash of nostalgia and longing.
He seriously questioned what their relationship was, considering how passive and annoyed Alastor looked like.
Gwyneira took a step forward, and puffy white clouds began to turn grey. Her rabid grin growing more concerning as she outstretched a hand towards them, as if offering them―Alastor a a dance. A graceful waltz to a nonexistent symphony.
Alastor merely glanced at her hand, and closed his eyes. He felt annoyed at the familiar gesture. It was the same thing she did everytime she froze something she loved so dearly. It was an obsession, he knew that, it made him pity her.
Gwyneira was heavily attached to anything that defrost her heart, and brought her a great warmth. He couldn't understand someone so aggressively gentle fell in love with him. Someone who let go of everything and never understood the prospect of eternity.
"Darling... Won't you take my hand? It's been a centuries since you isolated me here." Gwyneira said, smiling ruefully at the contract demon.
The rest of the four couldn't help but shudder at the cold yet seductive voice she had. Her dress was made of ice and frost, and the fabric seemed to glitter menacingly.
"No thank you, Gwen. The last time you offered me a dance, you tried to freeze me forever." Alastor scoffed.
"... But don't you miss me? It was such a wonderful waltz we had. Up above the mountain, where you melted my ice and I simply made more frost. Don't you miss it?" She asked one more time, her face scrunching up in a manic confusion.
Alastor simplt shook his head again, "No―"
"I said dance with me, you liar!" She screeched, and spikes of ice erupted from the ground.
Paimon shrieked as Aether and Kaeya jumped away from the ice while Diluc threw flames at it, only to flinch away as it did not completely melt. Alastor merely stood there, protected by a small Wal of fire that instantly melted the ice.
"Come dance with me! Dance with me like you actually loved me! Dance with me like you actually looked at me! Dance with me as if you never lied!!" She screamed, pure rage upon her expression yet tears cascaded down her cheeks.
Alastor truly did pity her. A woman broken by gods and those around her. A woman, once great and so powerful, fell from the greed of others that wished to drag her down. She had lost everything, and she found herself falling for everything she loved. She froze them, froze them so they could never leave her.
Truly, he could not deny that he found the method of coping relatable. The desire to freeze everything over so it could not change, more leave you.
Gwyneira had descended to insanity upon the Knowledge she could not keep everything frozen forever.
Alastor frowned as he summoned his sword and sliced through the spikes of ice. He clicked his tongue as what resembled a rift-hound lunged at him, and he stabbed it right through its abdomen.
The times of peace within Mondstadt was wonderful itself, from his existence alone did demons keep it. But his death was far to consequential now. He hoped that Venti―Barbatos, would finally appreciate his work.
The archon had been useless to him for the past millennium, and he didn't even plan to stay. Mondstadt would have been left unprotected, and deep down, he felt that he would fail his father if every the time came Mondstadt fell.
"Alastor!" Gwyneira yelled, shattering the earth with the ice she erected from the ground itself.
"LOOK AT ME!" She yelled, summing daggers of ice that floated behind her, before she directed them towards Alastor.
The contract demon winced as one stabbed at his shoulder, and he instantly removed it. His blood covered the ice before it began to melt from the scalding red liquid.
"Alastor! What do we do?!" Aether yelled, fending himself of from the cryo-made monsters. Kaeya had began supporting him, knowing full well that the two of them were the ones in trouble. Diluc was already smashing through the monsters with his fiery claymore.
Alastor glanced back at them, gritting his teeth and raising his hand to the air. "Leave Gwyneira to me." He sighed, as chains of fire manifested around him. He violently swung his arm towards the frosty demoness, and the chains followed the direction.
Gwyneira began to panic at the sight of those horrific chains and slammed her hands to the ground. A walk of ice erupted from the ground, and momentarily redirected the chains. She breathed a sigh of relief, cackling in triumph before she saw the chains pause in the air, and shoot down towards her.
"No!" She yelled, summoning a barrier of frost as it barely pushed against the chains. She glanced back at Alastor, her breath hitching as she saw blue and yellow flash into black and red.
She felt tears well up in her eyes, before she shook her head and grit her teeth. Snarling at the chain, she snapped her fingers as one of the monsters she created took her place, and was crushed by the chains. She flinched as it turned to dust, growling at Alastor who was closing in on her.
She ran, as the contract demon chased after her. She dared not to look back, stomping on the ground to summon obstacles for the contract demon, and attempting to escape.
On the other hand, Alastor had sneered at the fast replacement, and ran after her. The ice-blocks and walls she created were instantly melted by his flames, as he chased after her. The snowy trail she had left melted, as Alastor cornered the demoness.
"Don't you dare!" She yelled, grabbing the hairpin he had gifted her, and tightly gripping it. The fear in Gwyneira's eyes were clear, and Alastor couldn't help but sigh.
He didn't know if it really was his fault. He wanted to leave her for the imaginary love she felt and to stop himself from hurting her. The least he could do was... Offer his hand and ask for the last dance.
.
"Dance with me."
Gwyneira grinned as she enthusiastically offered her hand to the contract demon. It would seem foolish to other demons that she had thought such a powerful man would even look at her.
The abandoned heiress of the Eirwen clan, and the disgrace of frost demons. She could not care less that she had asked the contract demon himself to a dance.
Her eyes flashed a deep mania that Alastor understood, but he held no love for her. Fondness yes, but love? He thought himslef incapable after being chained down so long, and being abandoned himslef one to many times.
The pale hand offered to him would not be retracted, thus he accepted it and lead her to the middle of the frosted lake. Gwyneira smiled brightly, and she began to sway as imaginary played around them.
"Tell me, why has the Eirwen clan abandoned their own heiress?" He asked, and she did not flinch.
"Simple. I am seenn as a useless princess that would not be fit as the next head of the clan. My father and mother agree that I am an obstacle for My brother." She hummed, not minding that it was quite a pitiful story.
She never gave up on showing her worth to everyone around her, but she found it tedious. What is the point of proving yourself to others, when you've proved your worth to yourself?
"How pitiful." Alastor hummed, gently pulling the demoness to a different direction and towards the center of the lake. "Did try to seize power again?"
"Yes. Multiple times, and I can't find myself killing my own younger brother. The same brother who has never sinned against me, but is a puppet to my parents."
"You're quite fond of him."
"Of course." She said, as if it were obvious and Alastor felt his heart crack with envy. She had her brother... He didn't.
"My baby brother is all I have."
Alastor hummed thoughtfully at the sentimental thought, before noticing how the world started to loose it's color. He sighed, glancing at the now frozen demoness then turning towards the cruel grin his other self wore.
"Shame. Our baby brother has turned to ashes along with the rest of our family. How does it feel to have someone so cold fall for you?" Hyde cruelly asked, stepping towards Jekyll. His head trailed against Gwyneira's cheek, a mocking gleam in his eyes.
"Well?"
"You already know."