"Oh this is so exciting! I can hardly contain my giddiness to be out on such a venture! Perhaps we will find remnants of the Troll civilization or even things more interesting!"

Cyril sighed as he tried to ignore Volteer's mad rambling, as well as the ridiculous temperatures they were enduring. They flew casually through the stormy skies of the Northern Lands, just a few miles north of Dante's Freezer. Their flight was obscured by one of the constant snowstorms that plagued the area, with woolen coats being the only thing keeping them both from freezing mid-flight. Cyril narrowed his eyes, trying desperately to see what was beyond the snowstorm. He saw some shapes in the distance, all of them shadowy silhouette's of what they could've been without the storm in the two Guardian's eyes.

"Remember, Volteer. We're here because Terrador wants us to retrieve something. We are not here for sightseeing, nor your ridiculous history studies."

Cyril said, his voice lacking any venom or power behind it due to years of dealing with Volteer's ecstatic personality. He knew absolutely nothing could stop the Electric Guardian from throwing one of his happy fits, let alone keep him from speaking like he was a thousand arrows loosed from a bow in quick succession. The yellow scaled Guardian simply smiled happily in response before speaking again in his usual lightning fast manner.

"Oh I know, but imagine what we could discover! Absolutely anything is possible. I would be elated to discover some ancient remnants of magic artifacts or some historical texts we've never seen before!"

"Volteer."

"Yes, Cyril?"

"We're here."

The Electric Guardian's smile only grew wider as they finally broke through the worst of the snowstorm. They flew somewhat smoothly into an snow covered land, the freshly fallen white powder twinkling in the low sunlight environment. Upon closer inspection, Cyril quickly noticed that the figures he thought were just trees, were in fact large pillars of ice molded after trees. The frozen replicas were almost identical to normal trees, but they were completely made of frozen water. All the way down to pine needles, they were a cold mirror of physical trees.

The two came to a fairly soft landing not far off the coast of the strange frozen land. Their paws sunk into the fresh snow, their woolen coverings protecting their scales from the cold. The two glanced around, with Volteer bearing a look of wonder at the strange trees around them. Cyril looked at the trees with no emotion. He knew that sometimes trees were coated with ice when it rained and the temperature dropped quickly soon after, but he had never seen ice coatings of trees with no trees for them to coat. He approached one of the strange icy formations, staring as his warped reflection stared back at him from the cold water.

He then noticed that the ice wasn't thin. The formations were solid ice.

Cyril's expression then shifted to a mixture of horror and confusion. Ice couldn't form perfect trees without coating them first, and any sort of method to form perfect tree replicas would inevitably degrade the form of the ice. It was as if a master ice carver hand crafted all of the replicas around them, each one different and individual.

"This is fascinating!"

Cyril turned to Volteer with a sneer, watching as the excitable Guardian hurriedly inspected one of the formations.

"No, Volteer. This is horrifying. Imagine what could've done this!"

Cyril exclaimed motioning to the frozen wasteland and strange ice formations. Volteer only responded with an excited smile.

"Exactly! An artifact that could've done this should be investigated! Imagine the small and beneficial uses technique like this could achieve!"

Cyril looked away with a growl, some anger creeping into the back of his mind. He supposed it was his natural affinity for the Ice Element, but he found the sight around him abhorrent. He could only imagine the devastation an artifact like that could cause. The image of a frozen land, devoid of life just like this one invaded his mind and terror followed quickly after it. He began to doubt Terrador's decision to send them there; whatever he wanted them to find, it wasn't something that any Dragon should possess.

"Come! We should head further inland. Perhaps it is somewhere nearby."

Cyril turned with an angry noise in this throat and watched as Volteer marched happily off into the snow, most likely spurred on by his thoughts of discovery and innovation. Cyril tried to find some argument to throw at the Guardian to stall him, perhaps convince Volteer that proceeding wasn't a good idea. But his head folded in on itself trying to find some corner to pull as leverage, and eventually he simply gave up, huffed and followed his yellow-scaled companion further into the frozen wasteland.

They walked for a while, with Cyril finding himself painfully counting the seconds, then minutes that passed. He managed to count all the way up to twenty-four minutes and forty-three seconds before he lost count. He glanced down at the compass wrapped around his wrist and noticed that the needle was spinning erratically in every direction imaginable. A sign that they were close to the North Pole. He lifted his head and observed as the ice trees began to thin out, becoming more sparse as they walked further. The snow was also getting thinner, as their feet stopped receiving resistance as they moved forward.

The snowstorm they had encountered earlier seemingly refused to touch the island, as Cyril could see the raging winds just off the shore of the strange arctic island. The island itself was small enough that he could see the storm, but not the shoreline itself nor the ocean below the shore. Cyril forced himself to look forward as they walked, trying to ignore the feeling that he was walking into a trap. They moved in silence, with Volteer maintaining a mad grin and occasionally spouting random trivia and nonsense when he spotted something interesting to him. Cyril remained silent, sincerely hoping that Volteer could sense the unease and slight anger from him and was choosing to stay quiet because of it.

Soon, the snow completely disappeared and gave way to a huge expanse of solid ice. The ice was an aquamarine blue, evidence that it was solid for a great distance. The ice was also completely smooth, lacking any sort of scratches, blemishes or dips. The expanse continued for a great stretch forwards, seeming almost endless at first glance.

"Oh my! This is quite the difference in location."

Volteer commented as he carefully circled the ice patch he stood on and hopped a little on it to test it's strength. Cyril knew immediately that the ice wouldn't give; he could tell. The ice underneath his feet spoke to him, and it spoke of thousands of years of age. It also spoke of something underneath it, far below anything Volteer or even Cyril could try to reach. It would take destruction on a scale unheard of in the Dragon Realms.

Cyril sucked in a breath and did his best to cut off his connection to his Element. He was worried enough as it was, he didn't need the silent speech of the ice to drive him further towards the edge. Instead, he lifted his head and walked forward, ignoring the fact that Volteer continued to test the ice before turning and following after his comrade. Cyril walked with a nervous purpose for a while, his posture speaking of his unease and unsteadiness. Volteer kept after him, staying carefully silent in the wake of Cyril's silence.

Then, something hit Cyril's mind like a truck. Something massive underneath the ice. The Ice itself seemed to scream that danger was around, and that it had long kept something trapped within it. And underneath the speech of the Ice, there was something else. Something massive. If Ice had an equivalent to the fear of something lurking deep beneath the water, this was it.

Volteer immediately noticed, walked up next to his partner and sending him a worried glance.

"Cyril? Is something amiss?"

Cyril did his best to control his breathing; never in his long life had he ever encountered something like this before. The ice had spoken to him before, yes. It was required to become a master of Ice in the first place. To know your Element was to hear it's call deep within one's soul. But this was different. There was something different beneath the frozen sheet of water; something powerful enough to have frozen the entire island into existence in the first place. Strong enough that it either needed to be trapped under a mountains worth of Ice, or willingly trapped itself to prevent something.

"There's something underneath the Ice. I don't like it. We should leave. Soon."

Volteer maintained his worried look as Cyril's hurried words slipped out of his mouth rather than seeming like the calm, collected and logical speech he normally produced. Even though the Electric Guardian would normally jump at the chance to learn something about what was under their paws, seeing his partner this spooked was enough to give him pause.

Volteer drew in a quick breath before looking around hurriedly. Their only escape route was the sky, and even he wasn't sure that they could fly fast enough to get away from Island in time. He knew that depending on how deep the Ice went, the time it would take for the entire Island to collapse into the ocean varied. It could've been an hour to a matter of seconds, and they could only fly fast enough to escape a collapse that took sixty seconds. Any faster than that, and they would most likely be caught in the splashing water and dragged into the freezing waters along with it.

Then, before Volteer could make the split second decision required for them to escape in time, the Ice underneath them groaned. Even Volteer heard it as the ground beneath them shifted under their feet, the integrity of the ice suddenly falling to levels that were undeniably dangerous. Cyril looked up and watched in horror as a hairline crack formed off to the side, then a larger and more noticeable crack popped into existence a little closer.

The entire island shook as a far larger, far more terrifying crack surfaced to the Guardian's right. The fissure was large enough to swallow one of their legs, perhaps even trap their wings. Then, another one formed to their right. Cyril quickly followed the path, with both cracks meeting at a single point. Another huge fissure formed quicker than he could recognize it, before the three large breaks in the ice began to form smaller and far less stable cracks around themselves.

Cyril and Volteer looked at each other with a mixture of terror and determination in their eyes.

"Fly, Cyril! Fly!"

Volteer shouted before lifting off, his wings beating hard to carry him away from the Ice. Cyril grit his teeth and followed suit, nearly pulling a muscle as he pushed off the ground as hard as he could before flapping his wings furiously. Some elated relief seeped into his mind as he felt his paws leave the Ice and his wings spirit him even farther away from it. He glanced downward, watching as the ice groaned and popped as thousands of huge cracks formed in the ice. The origin point of the cracks began to push upward; something was trying to shove it's way out of it's prison.

Cyril sucked in a breath and flew faster, carrying himself further into the sky and following after Volteer as closely as he could. They flew as far they could into the air, their ears listening as the ice shattered and cracked and warped behind them. It wasn't long before they reached a safe height away from the island. Volteer turned and watched the destruction of the Ice, encapsulated by a morbid curiosity. Cyril flew a little farther to make himself feel safe before turning and watching as well.

The Ice cracked and shattered, the many broken pieces rippling as something writhed viciously underneath. A huge boom under the Ice echoed outward, the chunks frozen water moving upward before sinking back down again. The small glaciers then groaned as they sunk further downward, seemingly collapsing as whatever held them up was destroyed.

Then the entire formation exploded upward, yellow electricity arcs jumping out from under the ice and scorching some of the chunks sent flying. Cyril and Volteer looked away and closed their eyes, doing their best to avoid either colliding with one of the chunks or being impaled by a smaller spear-like piece. As they worked to avoid bodily harm, an event took place faster than they could witness.

Four shadowy beastial creatures leapt out of the giant fissure actively being formed by the strange explosion, followed by a coated and hooded figure. The beasts clutched onto the flying chunks of Ice, trying to gain footholds on the airborne battlefield. The hooded creature did the same, it's two booted feet landing firmly on one of the chunks underneath the creatures. In the blink of an eye the hooded creature drew a weapon from it's back, the handle of the object vibrating with energy. The creature then swung it's instrument, the motion distorting the air around it.

The air itself seemed to warp as hundreds upon hundreds of slashes tore the shadowy beasts apart, reducing them to smokey wisps and slicing the chunks of ice into thousands of twinkling shards. The hooded creature then looked skyward, it's attention locking onto a stray shadow beast that had escaped it's onslaught. More Electricity leapt outward from it's weapon as the Element was called upon, the arcs of yellow melting parts of the Ice around the creature. The Electricity then roared as it was enveloped in a shield of powerful energy.

The Electricity leapt upward, jumping from flying ice chunk to ice chunk with a speed that was only allowed to the Electric Element. The arc of yellow power shot right by the shadowy beast, rending it's head from it's body as it passed. The chunk the creature was standing on was cleaved in half, both of the large pieces continuing to float in the air as the hooded creature climbed further into the sky. The Electric field faded as the hooded figure stopped it's ascent, maneuvering in the air to face downward towards the huge hole in the Ice.

Two more shadowy creatures leapt from the pit, their wolf like jaws snarling in fury as they chased their quarry. The hooded figure prepared it's weapon once more. This time, Fire leapt from the blade as it was aimed towards the beasts. The flames formed a comet as the hooded figure rocketed towards the ground, huge waves of superheated air turning chunks of ice to vapor as it passed them. The figure landed squarely on a still secure piece of ice on the outside of the pit, their feet touching the ground with a force like that of a meteor hitting the Earth. The collected pieces of ice then collapsed inward violently, causing the rest of the glacier formation to ripple in the wake of the impact.

Then, the air warped again before the wave of heat viciously burned the area. A column of fire climbed downwards, the waves of oxidizing energy consuming the entire pit formed by the Ice's explosion and stretching downwards into the Earth. The shadowy beasts were then reduced to ash as the raging storm of fire enveloped them like a waterfall. The event sent a massive burst of superheated air and steam outward, smacking into Volteer and Cyril like a physical wall that pushed them into a while spiral backwards. Both Dragons struggled to regain control of their flight, eventually catching themselves mid air.

The hooded creature then stood from it's crouch, raising it's weapon and sheathing it on it's back before looking back at the utterly annihilated scenery behind it. The landscape was now dotted with steaming remnants of the snow and ice it used it be covered with, and the glacier holding the hooded creature was now nothing more than a ruin with only small parts of the broken ice remaining.

Volteer and Cyril looked back at the battlefield with surprised and somewhat horrified expressions, both of their eyes wide with amazement. They looked at devastated island, their emotions in a whirl of confusion like never before. After observing the new landscape before them, they allowed their gazes to shift to the coated figure below. Cyril's fear skyrocketed as he looked down at the mysterious figure. He knew immediately as he saw the figure that it was what was trapped underneath the ice.

And now it was free.

"Volteer! What just happened!?"

Cyril demanded his eyes still locked on the back of the thing standing below them. Volteer glanced between his partner and the creature, the fear and confusion clear in his voice.

"I-I don't know! It was too fast, I couldn't perceive what occured!"

Before Cyril could make any quick decisions, he watched as the creature stumbled where it was standing. The thing shook a little before it dropped to one of it's knees, using it's arms to hold itself up for a few seconds before it fully collapsed onto the ice. Cyril felt some relief fill his chest as he witnessed the thing fall victim to whatever was ailing it. This thing was far too powerful to be alive, and it should have remained trapped in the ice. After witnessing the destruction around him, he was sure of that.

Some silence fell between the two Guardians, the two staring at the now motionless body of the coated creature. Cyril felt a little more comfortable knowing that the creature was at least incapacitated, if not dead outright. Volteer remained somewhat irked by the entire event, but his curiosity soon came back to him.

"We should investigate."

Volteer said, allowing his wings to catch a gentle wing and carry him down towards the unconscious creature. He circled the area for a moment, noticing that the fissure in the ice was deep, anything he could've seen disappearing into darkness at least seventy feet down. After a quick circle of the pit, Volteer carefully maneuvered himself into broken chunk of ice next to the unconscious creature. The ice creaked and rumbled a little, threatening to collapse into the pit before settling. Volteer let out a sigh of relief before moving forward to inspect the creature.

Cyril hesitated for a few seconds, his unease still holding a strong grip on his reason. The screams of the Ice still echoed in his mind and the influence on his psyche was obvious. The destroyed land around him only solidified that fear. He didn't want to go anywhere near the creature laying on the ice. He reasoned that there was a very big reason why it had been locked away, and the display he had just experienced further reinforced his opinion that anything with the power this creature demonstrated should remain imprisoned.

He then felt some sunlight touch his scales. He looked upward and watched as the permanent clouds around the island were beginning to lift, exposing the golden sun behind them. Cyril looked around, watching as rays of sunlight pierced the through the overcast and started to warm the snow covered island. The small columns of steam from the melted snow and ice added another layer of beauty to the scenery around him, the white wisps of evaporated water stretching into the sky to join the parting clouds.

He felt some uncertain hope inch into his heart.

"Cyril! You should come see this!"

Cyril snapped back to reality as Volteer's voice reached his ears. He recognized that tone. It was the tone Volteer used when he had just discovered something incredibly dangerous. He had used the same voice when he realized that a set of explosives were in fact about to detonate. The Ice Guardian proceeded to look down on the landscape, spotting his partner crouched next to the unconscious creature. The tiny hope in Cyril's heart faded like a match blown out with a strong wind, and he immediately swiveled his wings and let them carry him down towards his fellow Guardian.

"Get away from that thing! It's dangerous!"

He shouted, forgoing his usual calling of Volteer's name. Volteer only sent a glance towards Cyril before looking back at the incapacitated thing on the ice. Cyril maintained a solid stare at the seemingly dead creature as he descended as quickly as he could towards the ground. The thing made no movements at all, either completely unconscious or dead outright. Yet Cyril couldn't shake the feeling that it could revive and destroy both him and Volteer in a heartbeat.

It took less than a minute for him to land on the same slab of frozen water as Volteer, his glare still locked onto the creature. It remained still and unmoving on the ice that it had passed out on. Volteer was levelling his own worried look at the incapacitated thing as well, his yellow eyes observing the being in detail.

"Cyril. Do you notice anything about this creature?"

The Ice Guardian looked at Volteer with a slightly offended look, his eyes crinkling at the prospect of investigating the thing in front of them. But he did so anyway. At first the question seemed almost meaningless as Cyril gazed at the unconscious creature. Then he began to notice peculiarities that he felt vaguely familiar with.

The creature was bipedal, bearing a set of two legs that allowed it to walk upright with grace and fluidity. Cyril estimated that the creature stood roughly the height of himself and Volteer, which was around five feet and ten inches. The creature also had a pair of arms that ended in five fingered hands that allowed for increased range of motion and finesse.

Cyril's mind began to click into place as he observed the creature further, his memories from childhood strangely aligning with the appearance of the thing before him. Volteer glanced between the thing and Cyril, occasionally watching as the theory in his own mind began to blossom in his partner's as well.

Cyril attempted to pry more details from the creature's form, but found that the thing's clothing mostly hid the most important features. He took the time to inspect the clothing as well, while he was at it.

The creature wore a long, two tailed and hooded crimson coat that bore sharp black markings that Cyril didn't recognize to be part of any language. The creature also covered it's legs with a set of hardened leather boots that were dyed black. The boots doubled as both protection and prevented Cyril from observing the creature's feet, which put some doubt into the Ice Guardian's growing theory as to what the thing was. On it's back, the creature bore a handled weapon that Cyril recognized as a sword, which was sheathed tightly in an ornate black leather scabbard and bore a silver T shaped guard and a spiked pommel.

"We need to flip it over."

Cyril suddenly said, abandoning his original safety and sense of danger. He reached out and carefully placed a paw onto the broken chunk of ice the hooded figure laid on, testing the balance of the small glacier before stepping fully onto it when he deemed it stable enough to hold him. The then carefully slipped the back of his paw underneath the unconscious creature, being carefully slow to prevent it from waking from whatever coma it was in.

All of the pieces slipped into place to form a giant, obviously completed puzzle when the creature rolled over. Cyril gaped and backed away as he beheld what laid before him, his childhood memories screaming at him as he moved back onto the platform Volteer was perched on. The Electric Guardian himself spared a look of sudden realization; a moment of Eureka in his already quick witted mind striking like a lightning bolt.

The creature was stunningly plain, bearing no hair except for the neck length straight hair on the very top of it's head that also helped to conceal it's eyes by covering them. It also had pale skin and sunken eyes, clear signs of either exhaustion, dehydration or starvation. Perhaps even all three. It seemed to be male as well, bearing a muscular frame and relatively wide shoulders that helped keep it's coat on it's body. Underneath it's coat, even more clothing as visible. It wore a hardened leather chest plate, made of the same dyed black leather as it's boots and a dark tunic underneath the armor. It's legs were covered by a set of black pants that held onto it's legs tightly, but not so tightly as to restrict movement. A belt was clasped around it's waist as well, and Cyril noticed a black and crimson colored porcelain mask hanging from one of the belt loops.

Cyril and Volteer proceeded to look at each other in shock, disbelief and slight fear.

There was no denying it now. This mystery creature was a Human.