Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Mira's scythe appeared in her hands, and she used her ice to freeze the bush and whoever was hiding in it. Then, she flashed from her position and appeared behind the bush with her scythe pressed against the being inside.

In a cold voice leaking with killing intent, she said, "Who are you?"

It was silent for a few seconds before…

"...Sniff…Sniff… WAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

…Mira heard the cries of a child.

'What the…! A child?' Mira wondered but didn't remove her scythe. She refused to believe that a small child was able to escape from her senses.

Therefore, Mira destroyed the bush the 'child' was hiding in to get a better look at her little stalker.

What appeared before Mira was a girl seemingly no older than 6 years old. She had beautiful dirty blonde hair, pearly white skin, and a cute appearance. The kid was also wearing a pink kimono with flowers embroidered on it. This kimono was special, but Mira couldn't tell what.

Lastly, the little girl wore a necklace with a silver crescent moon pendant. Again, Mira felt like this pendant was quite special, but she couldn't sense anything from it, so she just ignored it for now.

Mira found everything about this girl strange, but she didn't know why. Her instincts were telling her that something was off with this girl. However, no matter how Mira inspected her, she didn't find anything wrong.

In the end, Mira stopped examining the girl after not sensing any danger.

What's important right now is to figure out who this child was, why she's here, and how she was able to escape from her senses.

"Kid, I asked you a question. You have three seconds to tell me who you are and why you were sneaking up on me before I kill you." Mira threatened while releasing more of her killing intent.

She's never been all that good with children and wouldn't make any exceptions, especially for a child as suspicious as this one.

However, contrary to what she thought would happen, the child's cries intensified!

"Wow! This is a new low, even for you, Mira. To think you'd make such a cute little girl cry so much. You've really opened my eyes." The Guardian mocked, but Mira could tell he wasn't the least bit disturbed by the situation.

If anything, he probably found it all amusing.

Unfortunately, Mira wasn't in the mood to play around. She felt like the 'child' in front of her was nothing but trouble!

"Shut it! This girl is clearly suspicious! We're clearly still somewhere on the Ancient Beast Mountain Range, yet a little girl with no power and incredible stealth skills just 'coincidentally' appears before me? Like hell, I'd fall for something like this!" Mira rebuked and pressed her scythe against the child's neck further, causing a drop of blood to fall.

"Last chance, kid. Tell me your identity and purpose for being here, and I won't kill you right now." Mira warned, and it seemed like this was enough to ignite the kid's survival instincts.

She stopped crying so loudly and turned to look at Mira with teary eyes.

"S-So… So, you're saying… you might kill me later…?" The girl stuttered.

"That depends on your next words," Mira said without a hint of emotion.

"Hiik-!" The girl shrunk back, terrified, but still attempted to introduce herself.

"My… My name …is Hana Silvermoon." The little girl, Hana, said in between breaths.

"Alright, Hana, what are you doing here, and why were you watching me?" Mira asked while distancing the blade of her scythe from her throat by a centimeter.

Hana calmed down a bit now that the scythe wasn't pressed against her throat.

"I-I was already hiding in the bush when you suddenly appeared out of nowhere." Hana didn't explain further, but Mira understood the girl's underlying meaning.

'So, it's my fault? Are you fucking kidding me? Wasn't that Teleportation Talisman supposed to teleport me somewhere random? How the hell did I end up right next to this suspicious kid on this gigantic mountain range?! Ugh… After this, I'm not buying any more teleportation talismans!' Mira inwardly cursed.

So far, all her experiences with teleportation talismans have been bad! The first one was when Number Two teleported the both of them into a dangerous cavern underground. Because of that, she was forced to lose 10% of her lifespan, 500 Abyssal Battle Ladder Points, and almost got crippled.

Now, she found herself in another troublesome encounter after using a second teleportation talisman.

"Alright, that explains that, but I'd like to know something else as well. How did you escape my senses? When I appeared, I was sure there was nobody around me. You're just a kid without any cultivation. How is it possible for you to deceive me?" Mira said, staring at Hana intently.

Hana felt uncomfortable under her gaze and was clearly hesitant to answer Mira's question.

"I apologize, beautiful big sister, but my Mommy told me never to share this information." Looking into Hana's big, beautiful, and innocent eyes, even Mira was hesitant to try and force more information out of her.

Mira also remembered that she wasn't wearing a mask right now as it had long been destroyed, but she wasn't in the mood to care about that right now.

"Fine, we'll leave it at that, for now. However, what's a little girl like you doing in a place like this? You know it's extremely dangerous here, right?" Mira asked.

"I'm hiding from the bad guys, Big Sister! Mommy said that sometimes the best place to hide is often in the most dangerous places!"

Mira almost had an urge to facepalm because, with her luck, the bad guys should be…

"I can sense the girl's location again! She's over here!"

'Ah… The bad guys are here already… How surprising~~.' Mira inwardly sneered and was about to run away, trusting her instincts that were telling her not to get involved in this mess, until she felt a tug on her robes.

She looked over and saw a pale-faced Hana giving her an accusatory stare.

"They're coming! Big Sister, this is all your fault! If you weren't so pretty, I wouldn't have been distracted and would've been able to stay hidden! Mommy always told me that one should be responsible for their actions, so please take responsibility, Big Sister!"

Mira was speechless by what she had just heard, and slowly, Hana's face overlapped with Maria's. Maria was the only person she knew who was shameless enough to shift her own blame onto someone else so brazenly.

Then, suddenly, the urge to give Hana a good spanking emerged in Mira's heart.

She stared at Hana's face, trying to make a decision; to abandon her or not.

"Fine, I'll help you just this once, but I'm not doing it for free. I expect some kind of reward." Mira didn't wait for a response from Hana and began making her preparations.

A large pair of Paragon Wings quickly appeared behind Mira, and she gripped her scythe tightly.

Hana watched all this in confusion.

"Ummm… Big Sister, what are you doing? Hurry up and run away with me! We need to escape right now!" Hana cried out, but Mira had already jumped into the air.

After hearing Hana's words, Mira looked down and sneered.

"Run away? Why should I run away from those weaklings?" After saying that, she shot off in the direction of Hana's pursuers.

Seeing this, Hana slumped on the ground with a face full of despair!

"It's over… It's all over… I'm sorry, Mommy… Sniff… Sniff…" Hana started crying and just accepted her inevitable capture.

Even though Hana felt Mira was pretty strong, she didn't think she was strong enough to take out a whole team of people!

Suddenly, Hana heard explosions in the distance, followed by screams of pain.

"Argh!! Who are you?! Why are you doing th-!"

"You bitch! Do you know who we-!"

"I'll kill you!"

"Die, bitch!"

*Boom**Boom**Boom**Boom*

"N-N-NO! I don't want to die-!"

"Please spare me-!"

"Why are you killing us-?!"

This went on for a few dozen seconds before everything quieted down, and Hana saw something flying in her direction.

At first, she was scared that it might be one of her pursuers, but then she saw Mira's incomparably beautiful face and sighed in relief.

Mira quickly landed next to Hana, and before the latter even got a chance to open her mouth, Mira picked her up and…

*Smack!*

"Ouch! Big Sister?!"

…gave Hana a spanking.

"Be quiet! This is your punishment for trying to shamelessly drag me into your problem. Now quietly accept your punishment!" Mira said, then gave her another smack!

*Smack!*

"AH! Stop it!! How dare you spank me, Big Sister! Even Mommy won't treat me like-"

*Smack!*

"I said, be quiet. Until you reflect on your actions, I won't stop spanking you! Now, tell me what you did wrong?"

"Big Sister, that's not fair! I didn't-"

*Smack!*

"Ack! Stop it! I didn't do anything-!

*Smack!*

"Ugh! Please… Please stop smacking me, Big-!

*Smack!*

"Sniff… Sniff… I'm sorry… I was wrong… I won't do it again…"

"What won't you do again?" Mira asked, preparing to deliver another spank.

"I won't needlessly drag you into my problems. Next time, I'll be sure to ask for your permission first!" Hana yelled with her eyes closed.

Mira's eyes twitched at this response, and she gave her one final smack before standing up.

"Not exactly the response I was looking for, but we can work on that later. Now tell me, what should I do with you now that I've already gotten involved in this mess?"