Warnings: violence and bodily injury from fire

Chapter 19: First Blood

Morning broke over the capital city of Arendelle, the sun shining brightly on the snow and ice, reflecting rainbows and sparkling fragments of light everywhere. The city was silent, save for the occasional animal or bird.

Miralai Yaqub noted this with some dissatisfaction. This city should have had close to two thousand people in it, a surge of their troops which would have given his master the final amount of power he would need to defeat this fifth spirit and vanquish the tyranny of elemental spirits that imprisoned his liege. Still, with over fifteen thousand soldiers at the ready, they had more than enough to find and conquer anyone in their path.

"Miralai, where are the bodies for us to raise?" rumbled the Deathlord.

"I do not know, my lord. It would appear the city is abandoned entirely."

"And what of our cavalry? We sent half of it ahead to prepare the population for my arrival. They should have slaughtered the city wholesale."

Yaqub looked around, seeing a road leading out of the city into the hills with darker snow on it than the surrounding land. He pointed wordless at the snow-laden road. "My master, I cannot see through all this… snow. It is hampering our ability to bring our troops here."

The army of the dead had marched through the Southern Isles, then taken a coastal road through Sweden to reach Arendelle. The Deathlord had warned that taking boats was too dangerous; with the flick of a finger, a fifth spirit could freeze a harbor and condemn their army to a watery imprisonment with little effort. Moving over the land gave them the ability to replenish their troops as well, conquering towns and hamlets along the way.

Until they reached the outskirts of Arendelle and found snow. In late summer. Drifts piled high along the roads, wind whipping up crystals in the air. Anyone from the region would have guessed it was late December instead by the snow and ice everywhere.

"Let us see what is at work here," muttered the Deathlord, raising Al-Fyniq's staff and casting green fire at the darkened snow on the hill. The intense heat melted the snow, revealing tiny shards of metal in a large circle on the ground, a glittering field that denoted the resting place of their cavalry.

"Impossible!" shouted Yaqub. "No one withstands the might of Rabi Al-Mawt, the lord of death!"

"It is very possible, Miralai. The fifth spirit was here. Look carefully. The ground is scarred from whatever destruction this Elsa wrought. She is clearly a water spirit," he sneered. "This bodes well for us. Water spirits are the easiest to destroy. They cannot fight, only run away and hide. Fear is their element and their weakness."

He raised his staff higher, but nothing happened. "Feh! She so thoroughly destroyed their bodies that there isn't enough left for me to raise. Very well. We will take our revenge for her insolence another way. Gather our troops and let us begin the march north."

Within thirty minutes, the undead host was on the northern outskirts of the city, white hills with large stones protruding from them. "Look, Miralai. The fifth spirit attempted to deny us reinforcements somehow, but she does not know who her enemy is, or what I am capable of."

The grave markers of countless generations of Arendellians lined the hill, with the most prominent stones for Iduna and Agnarr atop the hill. The Deathlord held his hands high and green smoke flowed over the white snow. Within moments, skeletal remains dug their way out of the earth, clawing their way to freedom. Yaqub nodded in admiration. Animated skeletons lacked much of the strength and resilience of more robust corpses, but they still served some use, especially for their psychological impact.

"Curious, isn't it, that the two largest markers have no bodies beneath them," mused the Deathlord. "I do not read or speak this language, but this shows some prominence. Perhaps something else of value is here. Hans Westergaard, step forward!"

Hans' corpse lumbered forward, his military uniform now a dull grey with bits of pale green mold and rot infesting the chest wound that killed him. "My lord?" he said with a gravelly voice.

"Speak, Hans, and tell me the significance of these graves."

"These are of the parents of the fifth spirit. They died at sea, and no bodies were recovered. There is nothing of value here that will aid you in your crusade."

"So the fifth spirit is a sentimental creature with emotional attachments in this lifetime."

"Yes, my master. She has a younger sister named Anna who is queen of Arendelle and Elsa's strongest emotional attachment."

"Good, good. If we are to defeat the fifth spirit and drain her magic from her, she must be alive for me to do so. We will find a way to use this sister to our advantage. Thank you, Hans Westergaard. Return to our troops." The Deathlord grinned, assured of victory over the spirits and the living.

The Edge of the Enchanted Forest

"We're almost there, everyone. Just a little further!" yelled Anna from the back of Nokk, trying to cheer up the caravan. It had been a grueling two days to move the population of Arendelle to the lands of the Northuldra, but it would be worth it if they could keep everyone out of danger. They'd been lucky so far; barring a few minor injuries, no one had been seriously hurt or killed so far.

Yelana and the council of elders met the Arendellians at the spirit gates, the giant stone monoliths that denoted the edge of the Enchanted Forest. "Queen Anna, Fifth Spirit. Bures boahtin - welcome. The Northuldra greet you in friendship," she said, placing her hand over her heart.

Elsa returned the gesture. "Giitu, Yelana. Thank you for your warm welcome. I only wish it were under better circumstances. Ryder and Honeymaren warned you?"

Yelana nodded. "You face Ruohtta, the god of sickness and death. Elsa, this is something no one has ever seen. We have legends and tales of the past, but never dreamed we would be facing a god ourselves."

"With luck, you won't have to face him at all, Yelana. This is my battle to fight, and only the magic of nature will save us. How far north could you move the people?" Elsa asked.

"Not far enough, Elsa. We cannot flee from a god. Where could we go?"

Elsa closed her eyes, tears pooling. The Northuldra were practically a second family to her. While she hadn't always been comfortable during her stay with them, she could not deny their warmth or beautiful natures. To think of them enslaved to this god of death made her sick to her stomach.

"All right. We'll do our best to fortify this place so that you can keep the people moving as best as you can. I am sorry, Yelana. I wish I could do more," cried Elsa.

"Maybe you can, Elsa. Ask the spirits about the barrier. It kept us safe for thirty four years. Perhaps they will consent to protecting us again," said Yelana calmly.

Elsa nodded. "I will. I'll call to them in meditation once everyone is safely inside the forest."

The North Mountain

"My lord, an impenetrable ice barrier stands in our way. Our troops cannot cross it," shouted Yaqub from his mount, standing at the front of the army's formation. He gestured at the miles-long, yards-deep barrier of razor sharp icicles just a mile ahead, sparkling in the sunlight.

The Deathlord laughed heartily. "Perhaps you cannot, but this little spirit is nothing more than a water wisp. This is the best she could do?" He raised his staff to set the ice barrier alight when a thunderous sound echoed through the valley.

Before he could pinpoint the source, a cadre of his soldiers simply… vanished, as a wall of ice and wind rushed past him. The Deathlord turned to look at the barrier and saw… snow creatures? "Miralai, what are those?"

Yaqub raised his spyglass. "They appear to be golems, my lord, made of snow and ice, quite tall, and throwing large chunks of snow and ice at us."

"The girl must be close, perhaps in that ice tower up the mountain. Come, we are nearing our victory!" The Deathlord stopped a massive column of ice from crushing him by casting green fire at it. Fire met ice in mid-air and sizzled into steam, vanishing. He launched a ball of fire at one of the Marshmallows and burned a hole through its chest, causing it to fall to the ground and shatter into snow.

More boulders of ice crashed into his army, crushing corpses into paste, but as soon as they were smashed, the Deathlord summoned their remains into flesh golems and sent them lumbering towards the snow golems.

The Enchanted Forest

Elsa stumbled, sitting down next to a campfire ring as the caravan unpacked and got settled in the forest. The spirits had not answered her call for the magical barrier around the Enchanted Forest to be restored. In fact, they had not answered at all.

"Elsa? What is it?" asked Anna, immediately rushing to put her arms around Elsa's shoulders.

Elsa closed her eyes. She could feel her magic under assault, feel her creations slowly coming undone. The sensation felt like numbness, a sensation of parts of your body prickling with discomfort that wasn't quite pain, but not pleasant either. "It's… it's the North Mountain. The enemy has reached the North Mountain, Anna."

Anna gulped. "That puts them about a day away from us. Elsa…" she started, her voice low and quavering, "We're not going to make it, are we? We're not going to be able to save our people." Anna looked around her. The people had made a valiant evacuation, but she couldn't ask more of them. Families were setting up camps, making small meals in the forest with the help of the Northuldra.

Elsa gripped Anna's trembling hands. "Yes. Yes we will, somehow. The spirits didn't answer about the magical barrier. I think they want us- me- to stop running. To stand and fight. If we could just get our people out of harm's way, clear the field except for the strongest of us, then we could stand our ground." She sighed. "I can travel to the North Mountain and try to buy us some more time."

"Elsa, that's suicide. You can't take on an entire army yourself. No. No, I won't let-" Anna stopped in mid-sentence, her finger in the air, mouth gaping, as though time had frozen.

"Anna?"

"That's it! THAT'S IT, ELSA! Traveling!" Anna screamed gleefully.

Elsa quirked an eyebrow. "I'm… not sure I follow you."

"Can you create a portal big enough that we could send people through it?"

"I don't see why not. Where would we send them, though?"

"AWAY FROM HERE!" Anna shouted, louder still. A few families nearby turned their heads to look at the sisters, concerned. "Elsa, think! We've been to Iceland, to Hungary, to Transylvania, to- to- ENGLAND! Elsa, Stonehenge! It's a huge open countryside, nobody around to interrupt or inconvenience, and it's hundreds of miles from here. And we're friendly with Queen Victoria, so our people wouldn't be in danger when they arrived. It would take that army weeks to marshal up enough boats to get to England and weeks more to sail from here to there."

Elsa's eyes brightened. "Yes, yes you're right, Anna! Why didn't we think of this before? Even if I can't stop this army, it will buy our people far more time."

"Don't talk like that, Elsa. Okay, how long do we have?"

Elsa frowned. "We'll need to create a portal now, get everyone together, and start sending people through. We can't just shove everyone all at once, it'd be like a bunch of people trying to get through a castle doorway. So probably a few hours at least, closer to a day, especially since we'll need to evacuate the Northuldra too. We will need Mattias and the entire army to get everyone moved out; we won't be able to spare them to fight."

"And the enemy is a day's march away, at the North Mountain," Anna groaned.

"Or less. Remember that they don't need to eat or sleep. So we'll stick with the plan. I'll create a portal here, you get everyone through it, and I'll travel to the North Mountain to slow down the enemy as best as I can before retreating here and following you through," Elsa said firmly. Even if she buried the army under an avalanche, that would be a couple of hours bought.

"No! Absolutely not. The spirits warned us both at Ahtohallan that you can't do this alone, Elsa. Yelana and Mattias can coordinate the evacuation, but you need me, you need the power I have to help you, and you know it," Anna shouted.

"Anna, it's too-"

Anna placed a finger over Elsa's lips. "Don't you even say it. Now come on, let's find Yelana, Mattias, and get moving."

Yelana and Mattias made for a great team, Anna thought. Together, they'd have the Northuldra and Arendellians through to Stonehenge in just a few hours. Elsa had announced the decision that Mattias and Arendelle's soldiers should accompany the people; fighting the Deathlord would just ensure more soldiers joined his army. Mattias was displeased at not helping to fight for his queen, but reluctantly agreed to get the people to safety.

Time was short; Elsa had felt most of the marshmallow soldiers fall, with just a few remaining. Once they were defeated, the undead army would be free to move past the North Mountain and begin their march towards the Enchanted Forest and their people.

Elsa concentrated, drawing on Anna's powers and her own, and opened a new portal to the gates of the Ice Palace, overlooking the field of battle. She armored both of them thickly, and they fell through to the North Mountain.

Upon arrival, Elsa surveyed the carnage. Five of the two hundred marshmallows were left on the battlefield, surrounded by foot soldiers who were being cleaved in two with the ice swords that made up the marshmallows' fingers. Elsa immediately cast five more ice storms and new marshmallows began to rise from the ground to supplement their brethren.

Across the field, a figure sat on a skeletal horse, holding a staff that glowed vivid, sickly green. Whoever it was, he wielded magic as well, launching green fireballs at the marshmallows, damaging them with each impact. That must be the enemy leader, the Deathlord of my nightmares, thought Elsa. Time to put a stop to this.

Elsa began casting. Snowdrifts started to pile up all along the ridge of the North Mountain, from the front door of the ice palace down.

"She has arrived," the Deathlord noted with satisfaction. "She must have been hiding in that ice castle all along. Miralai! It is time for us to claim what is rightfully ours, capture the fifth spirit, and vanquish this earth. Victory awaits! Turn our forces on that palace!"

Yaqub raised his sword, and the horde of undead abandoned their fight with the snow golems and began to swarm towards the mountaintop, like a flood washing down a canyon. The mindless dead trampled each other in blind obedience to their masters.

As soon as they reached the bottom of the rocky cliffs, the flesh golems took their places, standing atop each others' shoulders to provide a ladder of bodies up to the top. The cliffs, two hundred feet high, were an obstacle to most who sought entrance to the magical palace, but with no fear of falling, the undead would surmount it.

The snow golems moved to attack the troops, but in doing so made themselves easy targets for the Deathlord, who cut them down with blast after blast of green fire.

"My lord," noted Yaqub, "It appears the cliff is… growing taller. Is that possible?" He pointed at the upper ledge, covered in snow. The ledge did appear to be growing taller, slowly.

Elsa cast one final burst of snow on top of the ridge, covering it in heavy chunks of ice. "How are you doing, Anna?" she shouted over the wind and snow.

"Good! Whatever was in that necklace the Countess gave me, I'm not tiring at all. Keep casting!" the redhead replied.

Just as the first line of ghouls reached the top of the flesh pyramid, the massive pile of snow Elsa created gave way, and an avalanche began. Snow, rock, and heavy ice poured down on top of the mountain of bodies, crushing many and damaging most. The wall of frozen water behaved like a tidal wave, sweeping the undead army back down the cliffs.

Across the valley, the sisters heard a scream of anguish mixed with rage. A wall of green fire swept across the valley; some of the corpses in the snow disintegrated immediately, but the snow and ice were reduced to steaming water in seconds as flames consumed Elsa's work. In moments, the battle had reset; the dead were massing at the bottom of the cliff once more, and the melted snow flowed away, leaving bare, wet, muddy soil behind.

All the snow and ice in the area was gone, and the vegetation uncovered was aflame. Ponds and lakes nearby thawed and even caught fire, the wintry coating evaporated by the unholy fire.

Elsa squinted, concentrating, as she readied another spell.

"ENOUGH! This spirit thinks she's so clever with her weather parlor tricks. I will show her the true power of magic," seethed the Deathlord. He raised the staff of Al-Fyniq high, summoning the energy of death around him. The crystal at the top of the staff shone like the sun at midday as hundreds of his soldiers disintegrated, their energy gathered from their formerly animated corpses.

The Deathlord focused his glowing eyes at the Ice Palace and saw the fifth spirit's hands shimmering with blue ice, preparing a counterattack, no doubt. He bared his teeth, stretched out his arms, pointed the staff at the fifth spirit, and hurled a massive ball of fire the size of a locomotive towards the girl.

Elsa's eyes widened. Time slowed. She saw the gigantic green flame leap from the enemy in the valley atop his horse, the air distorting around it from the infernal heat.

Anna.

Without consciously thinking, she cast an enormous block of ice around her sister, encasing her in it, and began to form a wall of ice in front of her.

The fiery orb crashed into the wall, shattering it and exploding with the force of a thousand cannons. Shards of ice cut into her as it exploded, breaking away pieces of her ice armor. Flames engulfed Elsa, Anna, and the front of the Ice Palace, burning so hot that the walls of the palace began to crack. Elsa screamed in pain as the fire melted through the rest of her armor and her ice dress, scorching her skin, burning her hair and clothing.

Had she not been standing in front of the ice palace, she might not have survived. The fire, unholy in nature, didn't dissipate quickly, but the meltwater and ice shards from the collapsing palace finally were enough to suffocate the flames when they collapsed on her.

The Deathlord savored the easy victory over the fifth spirit. Clearly, she was a novice spellcaster. He could taste her power from such a great distance, but she barely used any of it, and obviously had no experience fighting other magic wielders. His attack harmed her, he sensed, but did not kill her, leaving her weakened and ripe for the taking. He salivated at the thought of consuming her power for himself.

He swiveled his head to survey the surroundings. The false winter they had been fighting in was dissolving quickly, now that he'd injured the fifth spirit enough to break her spells. He looked at the nearby forest and lakes and savored the stench of death, new and old. The snow golems had damaged many of his soldiers, but not irreparably, and the land would provide more.

The Deathlord lifted Al-Fyniq's staff and bellowed to the sky. "Yartafie! Rise, my soldiers, and bring me glory! BRING ME THE FIFTH SPIRIT!"

Earth broke as bony bodies rose from it. Corpses buried in the soil, unlucky travelers ambushed years ago on the dangerous mountain pass resurfaced. Frozen bodies of ill-fated mountain climbers exhumed themselves. The lakes and ponds boiled as animal carcasses lumbered from their depths.

Pointing his staff at the mountain, the Deathlord commanded his army to strike.

Blue. All Anna saw was blue, blue ice everywhere. She could barely move her body, encased in some kind of ice cocoon by her sister.

Then the flare of green light. Through the distorted lens of the ice, Anna watched a wall of fire like a meteor shooting out of the sky slam into the silhouette of her sister. The ice surrounding her instantly thinned and became more clear, the heat of the green fire melting it. The ground shuddered beneath her feet, and a deep rumble began behind her.

Anna struggled to turn her head, and screamed. The facade of Elsa's ice palace was shattering and crumbling. She pushed against the ice to no avail.

Until something fell on her icy shield like a spatula hitting an egg. The walls of her icy confinement cracked and gave way. She looked around and realized it was chunks of the ice palace falling from high; one of them must have struck Elsa's protective shell she'd woven around Anna in the last second before the attack.

She clawed her way out of the ice like a newborn chick, forcing her way out. A wail escaped her lips as she saw her sister, badly burned, lying unconscious on the ground in front of her. Elsa's clothing was mostly melted, her skin red and black in spots, cracked and blistered. Her beautiful face was marred with angry red blisters and charred flesh, and most of her hair cut short, melted and burned away from the flame. Her ice armor had saved her from the worst of the flame, but she had still suffered grievous injury. Her chest unevenly heaved; she was still breathing. Thank god, Anna thought. I haven't lost her.

Anna looked back. The portal Elsa had cast to bring them to the Ice Palace was still open, but it was half as large as it had been and was shrinking quickly. With her unconscious, perhaps the energy that kept it open was depleted, Anna realized. She gingerly put her arms under Elsa's and picked her upper body up, dragging her towards the portal.

The ground trembled more. She could hear, feel, and smell the approaching army of the dead. Creatures of every kind would be upon her in seconds. Anna searched inside herself for the strength to save her sister, found it in abundance, and lifted Elsa like a bride. The smell of burned flesh and hair filled her nose, and she suppressed the urge to vomit. Elsa. Elsa was all that mattered. Anna ran for the portal and reached out her hand to touch it.

Just as she reached it, the first wave of undead rounded the mountain trail, a hideous sight. Creatures in every state of decay mindlessly scampered towards her like life-size roaches. In front was a bloated undead rider on what looked like the remains of a reindeer.

In the blink of an eye, she recognized them.

Kristoff. Sven.

She screamed, touched the portal, and fell to safety.

Author's Notes

Elsa's never fought another magic user in canon. She tangled a bit with the spirits, but she's never gone head to head, so it stands to reason on her first outing, she'd probably not do so well. Did the Deathlord one-shot her? Yeah, pretty much. Boss versus boss is like an old fashioned gunfighter duel. Whoever gets the first most accurate shot off wins. It's not a stand in the middle of the street and empty your six guns at the other person, it's one shot, may the best shooter win.

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