Volume II: Unforgiving Kingdom
Chapter XIII: Ice Queen (Part II)
Location: Underground Tunnel between the 12th Floor and the 7th Floor
"Regardless, this is the end for all four of you. Inside these tunnels is where you will fight for the last time in the world of the living."
Not wanting to move back any further, Ragna, Monika, and Feena did their best to try and stand their ground in the constantly dropping temperatures. Iska on the other hand still walked towards them, creating more and more icicles with every step she took closer towards the three of them. Meanwhile behind all of them, Grena remained unconscious. The barrier that she had managed to generate to protect herself was starting to fade away and soon she would be left defenseless against the icy environment.
"This woman knows too well that we can't perform as well as she can in these temperatures...!" Monika said. "Grena managed to get us one chance to take her down with that explosion of hers a few minutes ago and now we've wasted it!"
"This girl's gotta be getting exhausted too you know." Ragna commented. "Ice or no ice, she can't hang forever if we keep this up. Dead Spike!"
Ragna dragged his sword along the ground and sent a giant beast head in Iska's direction. The Ice elemental responded by striking at it with her icicles, causing an explosion of darkness and ice. Under the cover of the explosion, Ragna came down on her, having his sword transformed into a scythe. Iska quickly responded by holding her staff upward in defense. Having blocked the attack she then fired even more icicles at Ragna, forcing the man to jump back and dodge. However the moment he landed, a pillar of ice suddenly shot up from below him, and knock him back into Monika and Feena.
"What a pitiful attempt." Iska giggled. "Now then. How about we quit playing games and skip to the part where I apprehend all three of you all by myself?"
"You can't skip to something that doesn't exist." Ragna replied. "We're not going down that easy just because you lowered the damn temperature this much!"
"Ragna's right." Monika said, preparing to stand her ground as well. "If we quit here then everything that we've worked for will have amounted to literal nothing."
"We're not gonna go down like this." Feena commented as she aimed her crossbow once again. "It's not just our lives but Grena's as well. She got herself involved with us and I'm not gonna let it end like this."
"When will you ever learn, you imbeciles?" Iska asked, closing her eyes. "I've shown you some of my greatest and some of my strongest spells that I have. I used my Negative Zero ability. I've predicted and countered many of your attacks with ease. And yet even through dealing with all of that, the three of you have the audacity and the strength to continue to stand up to me. Why is that? What compels you to keep defying the inevitable? You won't be able to win. You won't be able to escape. The only wise choice is for you to surrender to me. And yet you ignorant fools-"
Iska was suddenly knocked back by Ragna's fists colliding with her face, then Monika's and Feena's feet colliding with her stomach, knocking her down.
"We've heard enough of your shit." All three of them said at once to Iska.
"?! How dare..."
Iska waved her hand and sent forth her icicles from earlier out towards the three. Quickly the trio jumped out of the way of the attack and all rushed in on Iska together. The ice elemental raised her hand and formed several ice pillar from the ground around her to use as defense as she attempted to block each one of their attacks. However while the ice pillars succeeded in blocking out several if not all of Ragna's and Monika's attacks, they could not prevent Feena from scoring a shot in with an explosive arrow. The explosion eradicated the pillars and sent Iska flying.
"Ragna! Monika!" Feena exclaims all of a sudden. "I'm gonna see if I can get Grena back up and at it! Can you two hold your own without me?"
"Got it." Ragna responded.
"How do you plan to get her back up?" Monika asked.
"I-"
Just as Feena was prepared to answer that, the group was forced to all jump away as a large icicle suddenly spiked upward from the ground below them. They all looked to see Iska standing back up and clearly not happy about all of this.
"Never mind." Monika said. "Just, do you what you have to do."
"Right."
As Feena ran back to get to Grena's side, Iska attempts to aim for an attack at her behind. However, she was suddenly cut off by Ragna and Monika stepping right in front of her, forcing her to stop and focus on the two of them. Immediately Ragna and Monika rushed at the Ice elemental, both bringing their blades down on her as she jumped backwards into the air. Iska aimed her staff downward and fired several large icicles down at the two, who quickly sidestepped out of the way to avoid being struck by them. Iska quickly propelled herself in Monika's direction, forming a spear tip on the end of her staff as she did so. Iska spun around and clashed with Monika, her spear striking against Monika's sword. While in the midst of the deadlock she smirked as suddenly a large explosion of ice occurred under them, knocking Monika into the air and caused her to crash into the ceiling. Iska attempted to strike at her once again, but was thrown off as Ragna's fist collided with her face. Iska then attempted to fire a beam of ice at Ragna from close range, and was soon cut off by Ragna dragging his sword along the ground and sending out another beast made of dark energy. As both attacks collided, only Iska had been sent flying backwards due to the explosion caused by Ragna's attack having more power compared to her ice beams.
Iska kept her distance away from the two and raised her spear upwards, summoning several ice pillars to extend from below the ground. Both Ragna and Monika jumped out of the way of several, but were caught off guard as all of a sudden two more pillars extended from the walls behind them. This knocked the two into each other and left them to fall downward on the ground. As the two started to pull themselves up, the ground underneath them had been suddenly turned to ice. Iska slammed her spear against the ground and caused several spikes made out of ice to appear all over the icy ground. Monika and Ragna quickly jumped up out of the way, followed by Ragna slamming his sword on the ground, shattering the icy terrain below them. The two then looked up to see Iska rushing at them once again, holding her spear out in front of her.
Monika stepped out in front and pulled out her peacemaker, firing six rounds towards Iska in order to stop her. The ice elemental smirked and only watched as the bullets began to freeze mid-flight, allowing her to merely flick at them with her fingers and shatter them before they could hit her. Soon she rushed in and swung her spear, clashing with Monika's and Ragna's blade. Suddenly Iska was caught off guard as Ragna's other hand suddenly changed into a dark monstrous claw. As she attempted to back off Ragna grabbed the woman and pinned her up against the wall closest to them. Iska however, still managed to keep her composure. As Ragna had her pinned down, he suddenly looked down and noticed that not only was the ground under him, but was also starting to freeze him as well, from the feet up. Ragna was forced to let go of Iska and slam his fist into the ground, shattering the ice and freeing him in the process. Just as he was free, Ragna was knocked back as an ice pillar came from the wall next to him, sending him flying backwards.
"Damn them both...!" Iska scoffed while talking to herself. "I can't keep doing this all day. I'd better try and see how much can I speed up this cooling process."
Soon the blade on the end of Iska's staff disappeared as she held it up in the air. The ice elemental had the full intent of freezing the tunnel as fast as she could.
BANG
"?! What the-?!"
Iska was then taken by surprise all of a sudden as a gunshot rang out, followed by a bullet grazing her hand, causing her to accidentally let go of her staff and throw it backwards. She then focused her attention onto Monika, who had recovered and reloaded her peacemaker while Iska was dealing with Ragna.
"I don't think so." Monika said with a smirk on her face. "Let's see how well you do without your weapon."
Iska growled as she saw both Ragna and Monika rushing at her, while she tried to run faster in order to get her staff.
With Feena in the meantime, the former mercenary had rushed over to Grena's side, and moved the woman a good distance away from the fight, hoping that would aid in warming her up.
"Dammit, this isn't gonna go fast enough!" She said to herself. "Come on Grena wake up!" Feena slightly shook Grena to get her back up to her feet, all to no avail. Running out of ideas she tried to think if she had anything on her that would help. "Come on, come on. I've gotta have something on me that can help warm her up."
Suddenly an idea came to Feena's head as she searched through her quiver.
"Wait, my flame arrows! If I can ignite those, maybe the flames will warm her up!"Feena looked around, sensing the temperature still dropping quite a lot despite her getting a good distance away. "T-That's if they'll ignite in this weather."
Feena began pulling out several of her arrows, and loaded the one infused with flames into her crossbow, trying her best to load in all of them at one time.
While Feena continued to work to get Grena back up, Ragna and Monika continued to deal with Iska. The ice elemental to make a run for her weapon, but wasn't quick enough. Just as she reached it, Monika caught onto her leg and caused her to fall. As she did, Ragna managed to come in and swipe her staff up into his hands before she could reach it.
"We're not letting you take this back." He then said to Iska.
The ice elemental scoffed as she rolled around and broke free of Monika's grip on her leg. Holding her hands downward, she shot herself over and behind the two via a blast of ice from the palms of her hands.
"If you had the thought process that my powers as an ice elemental were limited to only when I have my staff as a weapon then you are surely mistaken." Iska said to them. "While I may not have as much firepower without it than I did with it, I am still completely capable of taking you down."
Iska held out her hands and fired off another blast of ice in the direction of the two. Monika stepped behind Ragna as the latter blocked the attack by using the shield on his Azure Grimoire as a defense. While he did so, Monika stepped out from behind him and held out her peacemaker, firing a bullet straight into Iska's right hand and causing the ice elemental to shriek in pain momentarily. While she was preoccupied, Ragna's fist collided with her gut, followed by a flying knee to the face courtesy of Monika. The two attack were enough to knock her back once again. However, even with all of this it wasn't enough to put a stop to Iska. The woman shot straight back up into the air after the attack, freezing her own wound to stop the pain and heal herself using the ice on her frozen hand. Iska then spun her hand around her body, forming several icicles all around her in a circular pattern. She pointed towards Ragna and Monika and sent out the icicles in their direction, only for the two to counter them by knocking them away with their weapons. While this went on Iska attempted to make a grab and run to snatch her weapon away from Ragna's hand. However, the moment she attempted to rush at them Monika quickly caught on and spin kicked her away from them.
Recovering from that surprise attack, Iska soon ducked as Monika fired several more shots from her peacemaker in her direction. Iska clapped her hands hard and sent out a wave of ice towards the two, knocking them away from her. Hoping that Ragna had dropped her staff after being sent back, she was left disappointed to see that while it did knock it away, the staff was now behind Ragna and Monika, even further from her. Monika and Ragna had attempted to get back up and rush at Iska, but were suddenly pinned down when two icicles suddenly stuck into their clothing, keeping them from moving effectively. Iska immediately used this to rush and grab her staff. However when the ice elemental came towards them, Ragna's hand morphed into a monstrous claw once again. He dragged his hand along the ground swiftly, causing several dark spikes to come out from the ground below. Iska's quick thinking allow her to create an ice wall to block this by sending out large blasts of ice from her hands, but even this wasn't enough to stop the full force of Ragna's attack. The ice elemental was knocked back a couple of feet in the process. By that time, Ragna had managed to free himself by yanking the icicle out of his coat, and then proceeding to do the same for Monika.
As the two stood back up, a sudden chill went down their spine as the air around them had dropped to a very noticeable amount. They looked to see that instead of using her staff, Iska was just using her hands to blow out a cold wind throughout the tunnel. Though it left her completely wide open, she was confident that by freezing the air around them, she could disable them long enough to grab her staff and finish them off. In order to prevent her from reaching her weapon, Ragna grabbed his sword and rushed at the ice elementalist. He swung vertically downward and attempted to bring his sword down on her from above, to which Iska quickly jumped out of the way. She spun both of her hands around her and formed a barrage of icicles in the air, all of which she sent after Ragna. The man in return attempted to use his shield to block the icicles. While successful, a few still struck him due to the shield's limited size. As she attempted to strike again, she suddenly moved out of the way of a gust of wind sent out by Monika, who was doing her best to cover herself with her coat. However this kept her distracted as Iska knocked her back with a blast of ice.
"Well now I might say that I'm more dangerous without my primary weapon than I am with it." Iska started to brag. "Even though you have me unarmed, I am still able to keep up with you just fine and even put you both in your place as I have done previously with my weapon in hand. And yet the two of you are still unable to put a stop to me. I don't see why you resist. It's clear that I am the one who will emerge-"
Iska was forced to shut up immediately as Ragna smacked her across the tunnel with his shield.
"Dammit!" He exclaimed. "This woman's g-getting on my nerves!"
"Come on Feena, hurry...!" Monika said. "W-We can't keep this up..."
With Feena, however...
"Crap! Crap! Why isn't this working?!"
The mercenary had done as she planned. Using whatever arrows she could ignite, she fired all of them around Grena, even some of the at her chains, igniting them. The flames were indeed burning brightly around Grena, but even so the chained mercenary would not wake up. Her body temperature had warmed up but it was apparently not enough to get her up on her feet.
"That heat barrier of hers isn't gonna last forever! Aw man, I've only got one arrow left that I can use and the others I fired aren't doing anything to help out either !" Feena said to herself. "And then the rest of the tunnel's just dropping in temperature way too much! Come on Feena think! Think! There's got to be something that I can do to get her up! Anything!"
Feena continued to look down at her crossbow as she thought. Suddenly her head shot up as one last idea came to her. However the one thing she knew about it is that it would be a gambit with Grena's life.
". . . Please let this work..."
Feena held up her crossbow and aimed directly at Grena's chest, planning on sending the flaming arrow straight into her, in hopes that it'll warm her up from the inside instead of hurting and possibly killing her.
"And if this hurts..." Feena continued to say as she closed her eyes. "i'm real sorry about this Grena.
CRASH
"What's the matter? Don't tell me you're running out of ideas."
Ragna and Monika continued to do their best to run around and avoid all of Iska's attacks. At the same time they had to do their best to keep her away from her staff and keep out of range of her freezing the air.
"R-Ragna this isn't working!" Monika exclaimed.
"Dammit Feena!" Ragna responded. "W-What the hell's taking so long?!"
Iska fired several more icicles at the two, forcing them to continue jumping backwards to get out of the way.
"Y-You know..." Monika said as she dodged another one of Iska's attacks. "This is the perfect time for one of us to come up with something to get us out of this situation!"
"Hate to b-break it to you, but I got nothing...!" Ragna responded, using his shield to block another attack. "Got anything?"
"Only one. Break the staff!"
"What good will that do? S-She's handing us our asses without it!"
"It's all I've got! Just break the damn staff before-"
"Don't even try it!"
Iska fired several more blasts of ice, covering the entire area and turning it into another frozen battleground for her advantage. Ragna slammed his blade down to break the ice, but was met by Iska rushing him and headbutting him in the torso to know him back, as well as cause him to let go of her staff. Iska then levitated over and landed right in front of her staff.
"Looks like victory is mine-"
BANG
"?!"
Just as Iska bent down and grabbed her staff, she suddenly stumbled backwards do to being surprised by a bullet grazing her forehead. By the time she regained herself, Monika had swooped in and grabbed her staff.
"I'm not letting you get this back!" Monika exclaimed. She then placed the staff in both of her hands. "I'll break it, a-and keep you from using it!"
"No, you can't!" Iska exclaimed.
Monika didn't say anything else and used all her strength. However, Iska soon began to smirk. Soon, that look on her face turned into a fit of giggling, which then turned into Iska laughing loudly. What she was laughing at, was the fact that Monika was unable to bend her staff, even in the slightest.
"Come... on... now..." Monika said in a strained tone as she used all her strength. "Break... already... dammit...!"
"I should've known you'd fail to succeed!" Iska laughed. "My staff's handle was crafted out of both iron and also the gemstone Topaz, specifically the white ones, even though I asked for the blue ones. But despite the gems giving my stylish and beautiful look, it also increases its durability greatly. I'll have you know I can be quite reckless with swinging around back and forth like I've done before in our fight, and that's where it's durability comes in. And, thanks to my prowess in magic, I even managed to make it extremely light at the same time while keeping its durability!"
Iska rushed at Monika and spin kicked her in the face, allowing her to grab hold of her staff as Monika let go of it. Just as Monika turned back around to face Iska and draw her sword, she went wide eyed as Iska's staff was pointed at her.
"Although, I doubt you'll be as durable as my staff here is." Iska smiled. "Fare the well."
In an instant, Iska fired a large wave of ice from her staff, covering the area around Monika. When it finally cleared out, Iska blinked in surprise to see that Monika had suddenly vanished from her field of view.
"She disappeared?" Iska asked herself. "I knew that Monika Weisswind would have some tricks up her sleeve, but I did not know she possessed the ability to teleport. Where could she have-?!"
Iska suddenly looked above her upon seeing another shadow cover her. As she looked up she saw Monika coming down on her with her sword in front, preparing for a diagonal slash from over her head. Quickly, Iska held up her staff and twirled it around, allowing her to block Monika's attack.
"How did you get up there?" Iska asked, demanding an answer.
"As if I'd tell you!" Monika responded. "Ragna! Now!"
Iska went wide eyed and quickly turned around as Monika said that. The moment she did, she was met with Ragna's fist colliding with her jaw, knocking her back a good feet while Monika landed on the ground beside Ragna.
"You alright?" Ragna asked Monika.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Monika responded.
The two were cut off and suddenly caught in a large blizzard storm around them, courtesy of Iska. The ice elemental struck at them faster than either Ragna or Monika could respond, leaving them defenseless against her. The cold temperatures were so bad inside of Iska's attack that Monika did have the strength or focus to wield her sword and dropped it, trying to keep the snowy weather out of her eyes. Ragna managed to pull out his shield mid-storm, but even still this wasn't enough to stop Iska. However, soon the ice elemental stopped her attack and smiled.
"Game over."
Iska made one statement as she pointed down. Confused, both Ragna and Monika went down and went wide eyed at the sight they saw; Their bodies had both been frozen solid from chest all the way down to their feet, leaving them standing in place.
"S-She froze us?!" Monika exclaimed.
"Dammit!" Ragna also exclaimed. "I knew she was trying to do something like this! She caught us off guard and now were frozen solid!"
"I would say that puts all of the odds into my favor then, yes?" Iska asked rhetorically. "There's no way either of you can beat me in this state. Once I shatter you both, I'll take good care in delivering you heads to Her Highness and receive my reward. But the question remains."
Iska summoned dozens of icicles in front of her, all aimed at the frozen Ragna and Monika, the latter of the two with a scared look on her face.
"Who do I shatter first?" Iska smiled brightly as she pointed at the two. "Oh I know! Both at the same time!"
Iska fired the icicles without remorse at the two. Monika closed her eyes and attempted to brace for an impact that her frozen body would not be able to feel. Ragna only had an angry look on his face as the icicles came at them. However, he was suddenly left with a surprised one as flames suddenly erupted from the floor under them, burning the icicles so quickly to the point where they went from a solid, to a liquid, to a gas all before they left the flames. Iska was left dumbfounded and stepped back in shocked.
"What the hell?" Ragna questioned.
"It can't be...!" Iska said to herself.
"Yo!"
While unable to turn around, Ragna recognized to the voice. Standing behind him was the Chained Mercenary Grena, back up and on her feet once again. What would've been noticeable to him would have been the arrow that was sticking out of Grena's chest. Despite in being in there she stood strong and confidence as she ignited her chains.
"I'm back, bitches!" She exclaimed and then glared at Iska, who flinched. "And I got some unfinished business with you, asshole!"
"Impossible..!" Iska said. "H-How are you-?"
"You thought that you could just freeze me to death with a cheap trick like that and get away with it?" Grena continued, cutting Iska off. "Hell no. These flames are burning strong again. And they're brighter and even more furious than before!"
Iska held her staff towards Grena and fired a second blizzard storm towards her, in which in response Grena spun her chain around and spread flames all over to block the attack. However, despite Grena's efforts she could not fully defend herself over the power of Iska's ice attacks. She could feel the cold slowly slipping through her chains but continued to stand steadfast. Just when Iska thought she had the advantage again an arrow suddenly flew out of nowhere from behind Grena, striking Iska in the left shoulder. The ice elemental cried out in pain as she was forced to stop her attack, holding her shoulder as it bled. Everyone that was able to looked back to see it was Feena who was standing behind Grena and was the one who took the shot.
"That'll keep her from taking us down!" Feena exclaimed confidently.
"D-Don't get so cocky!" Iska groaned as she started to regain her composure, pulling the arrow out and freezing her wound. "One lucky shot may be enough to defeat some opponents, but I am not one of those opponents. If you want to take me down, you'll have to do a lot more than just one simple shot!"
Iska raised her staff using both arms and fired several beams of ice towards Grena and Feena, in which the two jumped out of the way. Grena then threw out her chains, and wrapped them around Iska's arm. The chained mercenary pulled as hard as she could and yanked Iska into the air above her. Before the ice elemental could crash into the ceiling Grena dropkicks her back down to the floor as hard as possible with her foot covered in flames, causing Iska to cough up blood and smoke as she sat back up. Iska then rolled out of the way as Grena came down on her, slamming her fist into the floor below. She then recovered and kicked Grena twice before smacking her across the face with her staff. Grena stumbled backwards a bit, nearly falling down. Iska went in for another attack, but suddenly tripped. As she looked back, she noticed that her shoe had been pinned down to the floor due to being pierced by one of Feena's arrows. Quickly the ice elemental picked herself back up, but was immediately met by Grena headbutting her, knocking her back down.
Iska laid on the ground groaning as she clenched her head in pain as she expected everything else except for a headbutt. Before she could recover, another arrow pierced her other shoe, as well as her arm sleeve. The moment she noticed this, she immediately started squirming around to try and free herself, dropping her staff in the process. Grena only smirked and suddenly wrapped up Iska in her chains.
"Not so tough when you're pinned down now are ya?" She said in a mocking tone.
"You dare mock me?!" Iska asked angrily.
Not even bothering to respond, Grena freed Iska from being trapped by Feena's arrows and flung her behind her, causing Iska to crash face first into the ground. Iska broke out of Grena's chains and held out her hand. The ice mercenary fired another wave of ice from her hand in Grena's direction, and proceeded to fire several more right after. Grena reignited her chains and spun them around to block the attacks. However, with Iska sending wave after wave the chained mercenary's defense was suddenly broken through, which allowed Iska to strike Grena three times before Feena stepped in and fired several more arrows. Iska jumped out of the way and spun her right arm around to form several icicles around her. She pointed at Feena and Grena and fired the icicles. The two mercenaries quickly jumped out of the way of the icicles, Feena choosing to respond by firing several more arrows at Iska. Iska rushed forward to avoid them and went straight at Feena and Grena to go on the offensive. She picked up her staff in the process and fired several more beams towards the two, which Grena defended herself and Feena from by forming a wall of fire in front of them.
As the wall of fire died down Iska hopped into the air and fired another blizzard storm towards the two of them. Not prepared, Grena and Feena were suddenly caught in a large cylinder of freezing winds that continued to consume them as she attempts to freeze the two of them like she did Ragna and Monika.
"T-This isn't looking good for us...!" Feena said, looking down as her legs started to freeze in place.
"Y-You kidding?" Grena asked while smiling and forming a fireball in her hand. "This is the b-best condition I could ever be i-i-in!"
Grena threw her fist into the ground, slamming the fireball downward and into the blizzard with them. From there, a large flame formed under the ground under Grena, the heat from it also melting the ice around Feena's lower half. The chained mercenary spun around and had her chains get caught in the blizzard in a cylinder like pattern as well, stopping right in front of Iska, who was confused but did not stop her attack. The ice elemental had also decided to turn up the power of her attack by firing waves of ice into the blizzard storm, increasing the power and lowering the temperature.
Grena buckled at the sudden drops in temperature but did her best to persevere and survive through it. The chained mercenary grabbed the flamed around her in her hands and spun around once more, sending the flames all around her chains. This ignited them and provided warmth inside of Iska's cold attack. Feena suddenly realized what Grena was about to do.
"Feena!" Grena exclaimed. "Bail out or get burnt out!"
Feena did even bother to respond as she quickly formed a barrier of wind around herself and ran out of range of Iska and Grena as quickly as possible.
"I don't know what you think you're doing, but don't even try it." Iska commented while still firing wave after wave. "The temperature has dropped to levels that are more dangerous than you can imagine. Fire elemental or not, within a few more seconds you will be dead and out of my hair for good!"
Grena smirked. "Wanna bet?"
Grena let out a loud battle cry as all of a sudden her entire body bursted into flames, turning her into large heat source. Because of this, the flames that were spawning from her body were suddenly drawn to her chains and the flames already around them. Iska went wide eyed in fear as her blizzard storm was suddenly turned into the basis for a flame cannon. Before she could react however, it was too late. The flames had left Grena's body and went straight upward along the chains. Iska's screams could be heard as she was consumed by the flames. Soon Grena retracted her chains and cut the attack off short all of a sudden. When the flames finally vanished, the roof of the tunnel could be seen scorched heavily by the attack, but thankfully had not been burnt open. With Iska, the woman crashed into the ground, covered in several burn marks and clearly in a lot of pain, as well as not moving at all. Not unconscious, but immobilized.
"Phew. That was a close call." Grena said. "I almost burned the whole roof down."
"Nice one Grena!" Feena exclaimed. "That ought to take care of her!"
"That's wonderful." Ragna commented all of a sudden, with a stoic expression. "Now could do you me and Monika a favor and maybe thaw us out?"
Despite the amount of heat Grena pumped out, Ragna and Monika were still frozen solid.
"Sorry buddy, no can do." Grena answered.
"What?!"
"That blast took a hell of a lot of fire from me. I don't even know how I'm still conscious at this point." Grena suddenly collapses onto the floor behind her. "Truth is I'm all burnt out for a while. It might be a couple more hours before I'll be able to make fire again."
"Y-You're joking right?!" Monika asked frantically. "I-I don't wanna be frozen for hours!"
Grena shot back up to her feet, laughing loudly. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding! Oh man! I can't believe you guys fell for that!" Grena continued to laugh, even though the looks on Ragna's and Monika's faces made it clear they weren't entertained. "Relax, I'll have you both out in a few minutes."
Ragna slowly looked over at Monika.
"Why did we let this bitch tag along with us again?" He asked.
"Beats me." She answered.
Grena soon ignited a small flame in her hand and prepared to get to work in thawing out Ragna and Monika. Feena sat down on the ground while the chained mercenary got to work, finally being able to take a break. While the group of four was preoccupied, they didn't noticed that Iska had regain a bit of movement in her arms. However, instead of taking any shots to attack him she held her hands out in front of her face and began to form a small ice crystal in her hands.
Location: Courtyard, Castle Vallera
"...? Hm?"
At the time, Prime Minister Aglovale was currently seated in the courtyard, taking a break from his duties. All of a sudden he noticed a small ice crystal forming in front of him. The look on his face could tell anyone that he knew why it was there, and what this was all about. Aglovale held out his hand under the ice crystal, allowing it to finish generating. Looking into it, he could see Iska's bruised, burnt, and bloodied face.
"Iska?" Aglovale asked in worry tone. "What happened to you?"
"My... liege..." Iska said weakly. "I... I'm sorry... I failed you... I'm... I..."
"Iska, tell me what happened! Where are you?!"
"I... T... Twelfth... Floor..."
Iska suddenly stopped talking as her head collapsed back to the ground, indicating that she fainted. The crystal suddenly shattered as well, cutting off her conversation with Aglovale. The Prime Minister did not know what to make of this. He merely placed a hand on his head and closed his eyes.
"I see." He said to himself. "These foes appear to be quite formidable it seems."
Aglovale slowly opened his eyes at the sound of footsteps approaching him. He sighed, but did not turn to see the cause of this.
"We may have a problem." Aglovale said as he stood up. "Looks like we'll be working together after all."
Soon Aglovale looked over, as he knew that the person that approached him was none other than Alexiel. The former Prime Minister stood there with her hands on her hips as she awaited to hear what Aglovale was going to tell.