Chapter Ten: The Frozen Queen

The fire rod made fire magic much easier. It felt like I was using regular fire magic against normal ice when I had to burn my way through tunnels. Eventually, I found a chest that had a key, and a fairly large one at that, so I pocketed it. I continued to search for stray fairies until I had explored every cavern I could find. I then opened the book to see if there were any spells that could tell me if I had gotten all the stray fairies. I was lucky because there was such a spell.

"Faye locatio." I cast. I felt something mentally tug me in a certain direction, so I followed it. It led me to a new section of the cave. In this new section, I found small insects that had ice incorporated into their shells. However, they were easy to take care of. Eventually, the tugging took me to a place that had a giant door that I recognized as a sealing door.

They were meant to hold monsters that were incredibly powerful. So powerful that the ancient mages feared that, if they were allowed to roam free, then they might destroy the world. I took out the 'big key' as I had dubbed it and I couldn't believe that I had missed it, but I found that it was a sealing key. I took a reassuring breath before I fitted it to the lock. It fit perfectly, magically as well as physically. One more breath and I turned the key, with a small prayer that I would be able to get out of here alive, along with the stray fairies, and that whatever was behind the door would stay behind it.

The first thing that I noticed was the blue flames, giving the place an eerie look. The second was that the stray fairies were frozen in icicles. The third was that there was a giant eye hovering near the fairies! The creature dropped down and gave me a better look at itself. It looked like a giant millipede that had ice as its shell and only one eye.

I took out the fire rod and prepared to cast, meanwhile it circled me, closing the door in the process. When it had done a full circle, the monster lunged at me, its jaws wide open, so I threw a fire burst in! It changed its course once it had swallowed some fire, and then crashed into a wall in its pain filled panic. Some icicles dropped down, but I managed to roll out of the way of them. This time, when it charged me, it kept its mouth shut.

I rolled out of the way and fired a skyward blast at its shell, making the ice crack at the power of it! I soon realized that that was my ticket to beating this creature, so I let it charge me again. This time, when I rolled out of the way, I used the fire rod near the crack in order to expand it. The third time it charged, I hit it with some fire and made it crash into a wall again, subsequently making more icicles rain down! Then, when I tried to repeat the process, it tried to impale me with its legs! It was about then that Spirit Link decided to check up on me.

"What are you doing?" He asked me. He took one look, answering his own question for himself, and came to a conclusion.

"You aren't doing any real damage to it." He pointed out. I replied that I wasn't trying to kill it; that I was trying to make it fear me, but he just rolled his eyes, shook his head, and disappeared into the Master Staff, so I continued to break its shell. After I managed it a second time, an icicle fell and pierced its shell on the back! I figured that this was proof that the goddesses could back someone and still punish them for their sins.

When the monster charged me after it had recovered, I warped right above where I was standing. Fortunately, I managed to land on top of the creature. The monster became very confused, so I took advantage of its confusion to melt the icicle. Finally, it noticed me on top of its shell and it tried to knock me off.

It would have succeeded if I hadn't had its broken shell to hold on to. That said, its shell was quite sharp, and realizing that I was never going to be able to use the fire rod, plus being unwilling to drop down, I cast Din's Fire. Thankfully, it had the same effect. The monster charged into a wall, climbing it a little bit before really slamming into it, so when the icicles started to fall, a huge icicle fell and speared itself in the eye.

"What happened to making the Queen Gohma fear you?" Spirit Link sarcastically asked. I just shook my head in response and changed the subject by asking how he knew the creature's name.

"I've fought one like it before." He responded, calmly. I just nodded my head, thinking that at least one world ending monster was down, but that I didn't want to know how many to go, meanwhile, freeing the stray fairies. Thankfully, they zoomed straight toward me without a spell's help. Once they reached me, the other stray fairies came out and joined their sisters in circling me. Afterward, they cast a warping spell that took us to the Great Fairy's Fountain, then they went to their sisters that were there and they combined to form the Great Fairy.

"Thank you for all of your hard work, young one. As a reward, I will double the amount of magic energy you have." She said, showing me her palms. Her magic then surrounded me and infused me with strength.

"Come see me if you are weary, and I will restore you." She said once her spell was done. I nodded my understanding.