The freezing cold of the cave seemed almost supernatural. The gravely silence could have made the hearts of many heroes shiver and stop, frightened for the danger that could lurk at any corner. The darkness was intense, and the torches just barely managed to light up the immediate way before the blackness swallowed the road.
Nothing is scarier than the unknown, and no one knew absolutely nothing of this place.
Still, once you've been to hell and back, some ice cave in the middle of nowhere doesn't really impresses you. However, Lion pressed on carefully, taking special care for a fatal slip, or a natural trap that could get him unprepared.
"Are you sure this being is here, Lion?"
"Would you doubt the master, Axe?"
Lion rarely referred to his allies by their names. He was once just, honorable, a strong defender of the light and all that was good, but his greed was stronger. He had left behind his origins, his compassion, and his roots to search forever power, power overwhelming. He had lost all he held dear, but little did he care, for his memory of his life before he made the pact with the demon and was then betrayed was vague, once he went to hell itself to take bitter revenge on the beast that abandoned him. Now he was a grostesque monster, vaguely resembling his orcish origins, his left hand a fair warning of not crossing him, if his entire pressence somehow had managed to not prepare his enemies.
"Of course not. I am not sure what we're looking for, though"
"Not many people do. There are many creatures which are completely alien to our nature. People don't need to know about them. People don't want to know about them."
"I'd have preferred if this particular one had taken refuge somewhere else warmed. This forsaken ice cave is awful."
Lion sneered and looked at his partner, raising his torch. There was an inherent elitism amongst magic users to look down on their most brutish, less intelligent comrades, but Mogul Khan was someone to respect. He was relentless, fearless, and remorseless. An enormous beacon of destruction, who would stop at nothing to do his Master's bidding. He still did not think he was more than an ally, a trusted one, and irritated him to no end that he used his real name instead of his title, despite his constant reminders and his reluctance to call him anything else than Axe.
"You have no idea what we are looking for, am I right?"
"An apparition? A ghost? Some sort of creature that's more ancient than this world?"
"This is Kaldr we're talking about. This is not just 'some creature', Axe. Kaldr has existed since the beginnings of time. Millions of years he has witnessed, waiting patiently to rise and unleash his grip of ice upon this existence... and negate everything."
Axe, though used to these kind of descriptions coming from Lion, was still unnerved at the thought. He had long since stopped fearing death... but 'negating everything' seemed quite drastic as a mean to win a war.
"Are you... scared, Axe?"
Axe quickly shook those thoughts. There was a reason why he preferred to be in the battlefield, drenched in the blood of his enemies, and hunting his foes, leading his armies to a decisive strike upon the Tree of Mana, to end a war that had gone on for far too long. Limitless resources to both sides had meant an exhausting war of attrition, and so there needed to be a silver stake, something that could pull on the odds towards them. That something could prove to be here, in this cave.
To Hell with consequences, even if it had to mean babysitting this orcish abomination in this frozen cave.
"Of course not. "
"I hoped so, because I'd like to direct your attention to the temperature..."
It had dropped a few degrees, but, most importantly, the atmosphere seemed much more dense than seconds ago. It was obviously not a natural cave, but he never expected this to happen. The cold was biting on his skin, and his reaction was to pull the torch close to him, to try and get some heat from the fire. Lion, however, seemed completely oblivious to the sudden lack of light. When Axe realized that his torch had gone off, he also realized that the light hadn't dimmed. He rose his sight to meet what they had been looking for.
It could take awhile to make sense of its body, but Kaldr was an impressive sight to behold, shining from the power that he radiated, feeding from the heat, creating entire continents of ice to hold his physical manifestation on this plane of existence. He resembled a group of stalagmites, joined together as to form the upper part of a man, a featureless face, and its arms floated disjointed from its shoulders. Around it, pieces of apparent ice moved slowly around him. This apparition seemed to take no notice from its two visitors, and, undisturbed, sat motionless, floating perfectly in the center of the cave.
The two dire warriors approached the creature, slowly but firmly, trying to caught its attention. Finally, not known for his patience, Axe broke the silence.
"Kaldr?"
Neither the Demon Witch or the Axe could have been prepared to the thunderous, impossible deep voice that broke from the entire cave. Both warriors fell to their knees, overtaken by the power of the ancient apparition directing its virtual omniscience at two mortals.
"You come here with a purpose. And I do have knowledge that purpose."
Heavily breathing and coughing, Lion rose to his feet quickly to meet his gaze. The apparition wasn't looking at them, it was just staring into space. How do you refer to a being older than creation itself without risking incurring in its wrath?
"There is no need for introduction, Demon Witch. You have come here to try to convince me to help you defeat these Radiant forces and put an end to the Tree of life. And I will comply, as it suits my purposes."
LiIon stood, mouth open, without any clue how to act. Still shaken by the forces of the entity, he nodded.
"I was prepared for your omniscience, ancient. Forgive my ignorance, but how shall we expect you to act?"
Kaldr moved its body closer, and Lion could feel his bones freeze. His left hand, his demonic hand,however, felt strong and clash of temperatures was really uncomfortable, and he struggled to keep his face straight, and to hide his pain.
"Do not expect anything."
As Lion and Mogul Khan left the cave dumbfounded, they didn't utter a word. The Axe felt as if their life energy had been drained by the experience, but he couldn't bring himself to ask the Witch if it was the case. Finally, the rays of daylight somewhat heated their bodies and morale, and Lion slowly spoke "Let's meet up with the rest. We have much work to do."
"Do you think Kaldr will arrive soon?"
"He will know when to appear. Don't try to understand, his rationale is way too alien for us to understand. We better just hope he will arrive."
Mogul watched over his shoulder, and felt a sudden need for violence. As the Demon Witch prepared the enchantment to go back to their outpost, he muttered "There will be pain", and the pair disappeared from sight.