Chapter Four:
Fire and Ice
Jeremiah quickly pointed out that she had a major weakness to flame. If her crystals were to melt, her very life force would be drained away. He also mentioned that this information was gathered from a different dimension.
"I guess we should probably tell you now, but we're not from this world at this time. Jeremiah, Elyssa and I came from the future, 700 years into the future." explained Jeffrey.
"Oh! So that's why those shoes of hers were never seen in this time. That's some interesting information Jeffrey but we have a bigger problem here." said Beatrix with an annoyed tone.
Ethenera released the icicles hanging from the ceiling and poured them down to the ground. We thought our fate was lost just then, until someone came back to her senses.
"Phoenix! Come forth!" as Christie summoned her majestic pet.
Her familiar melted the icicles and one crystal on Ethenera, but oddly the Phoenix disappeared in an instant after it saved us.
"Your pets are of no use here; as long as this portal persists… their very souls are drained and used to fuel my own power!" Ethenera implied with a terrifying rage. "Now taste my undying wrath!"
The room slowly became spiked with stalagmites tipped with crystal points. Francis found it hard to see what element this attack was so he did not know what to do with the situation.
"Hey! Tip my arrows with flame again! I have an idea!" Beatrix implied.
Francis quickly did then Beatrix released 5 simultaneous arrows heading for Ethenera's icy crystal ligaments which melted a majority of them. The stalagmites ceased straight after that, saving the group from death.
"That was a close one…" I said quietly to myself.
"Yeah you better thank me for that, saved your lives yet again!" she said while sticking her tongue out at us.
"Don't get cocky now Beatrix, the fight isn't over." Jeremiah said with a monotone voice.
Ethenera didn't seem like too much of a worry probably because we outnumbered her but I knew something was coming… something purely terrifying.
"From the depths of the icy seas and using my final ounces of strength, I summon the great beast formed from the submerged glaciers themselves… "Ethenera said as she slowly faded away.
A terrifying monster made from prehistoric crystal had taken Ethenera's place in the fight. It also held the few crystals Ethenera had left as its final life force. Elyssa woke up at last from the roar of the creature.
"This being was the reason the continent was put into a cold surrender, if we were to kill it, the continent would finally be freed from the ice and we would be allowed to leave. This is your chance!" Elyssa explained.
"Lets not waste any time then… en-guard!" as I swung my flaming sword at the creature's tail.
It seems like fire had no extra advantage this time, except for the damage it did to the crystal's life force on the creature.
"Let's get this party started shall we?" Elyssa said with great motivation.
She cast a spell on the group which would add a permanent Fire enchantment for the duration of the battle so that the crystals would quickly melt away. Francis and Christie headed for the main torso of the creature whilst Jeffrey and I chipped off the parts of its tail. Beatrix had to stay with Elyssa seeing as the arrows needed a separate enchantment for each one. Jeremiah was still heavily injured from the previous battle so he had to take a rest for this one.
"Burn in hell you pathetic fiend! Take your queen along with you!" Francis shouted as he cast an inferno to the main crystal near its heart.
"That's the attitude I like! Keep it up!" agreed Jeffrey as he sliced the crystal from the end of its tail.
"There are two crystals left, but they're inside the creature! How can we get to them?" Beatrix asked.
I knew there was only one way, and I had to risk my own life force to hopefully destroy them.
"I'll have to head inside using the arcane scroll I bought many days ago before coming here. It will warp me inside, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get out." I said as I volunteered.
"WHAT! That's suicide! You'll never make it!" Christie implied.
"There's no other choice, its either we all get trapped, or at least the rest of you are set free." I sadly mentioned.
After moments of arguing with them, they simply had to insist on dying with me.
"Then we're coming with you!" volunteered Francis and Christie. "There's no way we're letting you have the final blow! What fun is that?"
Then I knew this was settled, so the three of us ventured inside.
"Arcanum activate!" the scroll slowly warped us inside the monster's main body.
The inside looked nothing like it seemed on the transparent look from the outside. It was like a maze in here, with doors and upside down staircases.
"This isn't as it seems… it's just playing an illusion on us. Cast your arcane scroll again and see what happens?" asked Francis.
So I did, it turns out that it was all an illusion and that the crystals were right in front of us. The voice of Ethenera was also lingering here near the heart of the beast. The heart was made up of both crystals which seemed to be draining my very own life force.
"This is not another mind trick, so we better get this over and done with." he implied.
Using the best of our flame masteries, we fired our shots directly at the heart. It had no effect whatsoever.
"What could possibly be wrong now?" asked Christie.
"… Foolish humans, do you really think you could destroy me so easily?" the voice said.
We knew who that was, and she wasn't anywhere close to being dead. Ethenera appeared on top of the crystal, shielding it from our attacks. That explained why our attacks were useless, Ethenera herself was a barrier between us, and our freedom… just as we heard while in our travels in the continent.
… This was our chance… our road to victory.
Then something came up, I finally knew how to destroy this thing once and for all. When we saw that the previous monster was thrown into the portal, it had to be heavily frozen to be absorbed inside. The crystal beast we fought now was not even made of ice, but pure, cold crystal.
I immediately reacted to those facts and made up my own special plan.
"Francis! Cast a waterfall onto the heart! Christie! Summon your water familiar!" I shouted out in demand.
They both did, and the natural cold in the creature began to freeze their spells rapidly.
With a final blow, I cast an Avalanche to finally cover the whole exterior and interior with snow and ice. As the creature was slowly being pulled into the portal, I rapidly used the arcane scroll to get us out.
We were warped out of the creature and back to the main throne room.
The creature was pleading for help, but we showed no pity for it.
"Damn, that was an interesting ride." Francis said in awe.
The walls of the prison began to melt along with the cavern. In an instant, it seemed like we were outside but without the cold mountains of snow and ice. The fields bloomed with flowers and grass. I knew what we did was right, and we were proud of it.
The townspeople cheered for their heroes, and I found that to be rather embarrassing. The group was invited to a feast with the people. We noticed we still had some food left over from the market, so we gave them a taste of our world too.
"I've completely stuffed myself with as much as I could possibly eat." I said with a tone of a pig.
"You should have seen how much Francis ate, and he ain't even done yet!" Beatrix laughed.
"Hey! All that hard work inside the giant took off a lot of energy, all you do is grab an arrow and pull a string, what kind of work is that?" responded Francis.
"Hah, this group ain't so bad after all. Pleased to finally have met your acquaintance, my name's Jeremiah. Sorry I couldn't have been much of help in the battle, but you inspired me to do better in the future." he said in inspiration.
Elyssa and Jeffrey smiled to see their little brother was feeling all better now.
"Hey Elyssa, could you perhaps hook me up with a pair of those shoes? I'd really actually want to try a pair. OH! And make them black!" asked Beatrix with excitement.
"Sure, why not? I'd be glad to even try to make you a pair." agreed Elyssa.
"I'm sure you fellows need a place to stay for the night, so come by our place later on." Jeffrey said as he invited the group.
After the work that was done, we remembered that all of us received a scroll with a monster we were assigned to kill. Our apprenticeships weren't completely over, but we would rather rest right now than make a fuss about that.
As usual, I took the opportunity to snatch the largest softest pillow in the house. They didn't seem to agree with that, so we began to argue. We all then got a little uncontrolled and almost ripped it apart.
"We haven't had a time like this in a while have we Elyssa?" asked Jeffrey.
"It's been too long, far too long. Now it seems we have a new family while in this world. That's something to be happy for." she said with tears.
"It's time for a… PILLOW FIGHT!" Jeremiah screamed across the room and thus our own little combat started inside the house, it couldn't have been any better. This surely brought back some precious memories. I asked myself a similar question as to before… "What is ahead of us, what waits out there?"