Chapter 12

On icy winds until dawn part 3

As swiftly as the blizzard had descended on us it departed revealing the devastation of the entrance hall. The floor and the walls had multiple spots where something had broken through or shattered the stone. The gatehouse was laying in two separate pieces as if something massive had cut it in half. Bodies of guards and the ashes of burned Wendigo's where scattered across the entire hall, the stench of death laying heavy in my nose.

It wasn't a smell I think that I could ever actually get used to. The sight of it didn't have the same affect though actually it had been that way ever since I woke up here and got into my first combat. I shook my head to banish those dark thoughts even as I took a mental head count. All of the crew was here if a bit beat up, an unconscious Lil, Accino who was sporting minor cuts, and...

A howl of anguish split the air and my eyes snapped over to see Accino collapsing beside the bonfire. Something or someone had crashed into it, scattering the planks of wood and embers. Luffy, and Sanji stood behind him, their eyes downcast. Oh, I could guess at what happened. Despite our best efforts Accino had lost another member of his family.

Trailing after Zoro and Nami, I walked over to where everyone seemed to be gathering. A spot near the bonfire but not close enough to interrupt Accino's grief. The walk gave me a chance to take a closer look at everyone. Usopp and Nami had gotten away with only a couple of minor scrapes, everyone else however were sporting an impressive collection of injuries.

Stepping up besides Robin, who was carrying an unconscious Lil, I bent down to ask her after what had happened. Lips quirking into a small smile she gave me a quick summary of her own battle against one of the Wendigo's. My eyebrow's rose at her description and I did my best to ignore the cut along my brow that had started to bleed as the wound stretched.

Much like Kintsugi now was, Robin's Burning Glaive had it's own intelligence and abilities that it had access to. It also meant that the glaive was picky about who was allowed to wield it. The fact that it had allowed Lil's to use its powers meant that the situation had been more deadly than anyone realized, or that the glaive judged Lil's to be worthy to use it. Either way it bore thinking about in the future. Actually that brought another thought to mind, how had Lil been controlling the plants and making them grow?

Something to ask about later when she was awake and we had the time. Which likely wouldn't be for some time since she had just lost her last living sibling. Someone nudged me, pulling myself from my thoughts I glanced around and then down. Chopper was staring up at me, holding a roll of bandages. Dutifully I kneeled down so that he could wrap the wound on my head. While he did, I studied Shadow clinging around Chopper's neck. Just one more thing that I didn't have an answer too, one more question ontop of a pile of others.

Once the gauze and the bandages had been applied he allowed me to get back up, hurrying over to Robin to treat her wounds next. Setting Lil's down onto a bed of sprouted arms, Robin allowed him to dress her wounds. Luffy, Zoro, Nami, and Sanji had gathered into a small group that appeared to be talking in low tones. I couldn't hear what they were saying without getting closer but if it was something important I'd soon probably know.

Franky was sitting on the floor, holding his left arm up while Usopp patch welded it into place. Merry was watching the pair curiously as Franky lifted the repaired arm up and down, testing its range of motion. Looking past where they had gathered, past the broken gatehouse, and through the broken front doors, I could see that the weather had calmed down. Dark grey clouds completely covering the sky. I continued to stare out onto the ice, searching for any signs of movement or incoming enemies.

Behind me someone cleared their throat, pulling my eyes away from the stillness outside I started to turn to see who was trying to get my attention when it happened. It being a howl loosed by a creature not from this world. A howl of such volume that it was more felt than it was actually heard. The sound making it feel like my bones were shifting beneath my skin. Hands slapping against my ears in a desperate attempt to get some sort of relief.

The ground buckled, throwing everyone from their feet as ice and stone gave way beneath us. As the sheer audio assault on our senses finally ceased we looked around in shock at the yawning rent that had split the room in twain. If anyone was speaking it was impossible to hear it over the ringing in ones ears. Zoro grabbed Nami's hand and tugged her up just before more of the ground crumbled away into the abyss.

Springing into motion, everyone rushed towards the front doors just as a chunk of the roof broke off and plummeted down, narrowly missing Usopp as he sprinted towards the door. Chopper in his Walk Point darted past me, Lil on his back held in place by one of Robin's arms. Luffy and Zoro were carrying a still insensate Accino between them as we exited the building, the last ones inside before the building collapsed.

The dust from the building was only just beginning to clear when the source became visible in the distance. No-one had time to collect themselves or marvel at the narrow escape as all eyes were drawn to a gathering of clouds. Far across the ice field, just before it fell away into the ocean, was a funnel of dark clouds that stretched up into the sky. One that was slowly drawing in all of the clouds.

"What the hell is that?" Asked Zoro as his free hand creeping towards the hilts of his swords. I grasped the hilt of Kintsugi unable to look away. It was unexpectedly a horse voiced Accino that answered the question, he had lifted his head to stare in the same direction as the rest of us.

"The creature that started our nights of terror, the one that ripped our ice prison apart in a single blow." Everyone glanced towards him, remembering the broken cliff of ice that they had seen when we first arrived. Slowly our eyes turned back to the clouds and froze upon seeing a pair of red eyes that were staring back at us, visible despite the clouds.

It felt like I was facing down an angry Garp all over again. Every breath that I took felt like it froze in my lungs and spread out from there. Robin was the one who broke the silence, her voice trembling as she seemed to recite something that she had once read.

"Death-Walker... God of the Winds, you who walk on the wind, Ithaqua." As I processed her words my brain ground to a halt, a single word repeating endlessly through my mind. No. Finally I managed to get out a single word that summed up all of my feelings of the current situation.

"Fuck!"

He, it, stepped out of the swirling clouds revealing itself in all of its unnatural glory. It was like someone had taken a Wendigo and then never stopped stretching it. Everything was too long from the head down to the toes, all of it covered with thick white fur.

It lifted one foot as if preparing to step forward even as it's lips started to peel apart. Alarm bells rang in my head, memories of an icy landscape and people frozen solid. I threw myself in front of Accino and the rest of the crew, even as I yanked on the magic controlling my size.

In seconds I was once more 14 feet tall, wings snapping out their full extent. Ithaqua's foot fell, even as it's mouth fully opened, revealing jagged white teeth. There was a stab of intense cold followed by a feeling of numbness creeping across my body. I struggled to remain conscious but found myself sinking into darkness in order to escape from the pain.

Briefly I floated in a void of darkness, before the feeling of something very hot being brought near my head returned me to the present. Instinctively I shied away from the source of the heat, my body didn't quite respond though. I moved but my limbs were stiff and it felt like something was restricting my movement. Something that had ended up cracking in places as I had moved.

It took another moment for my vision to clear, blinking bits of ice away as I focused on the glowing cherry red hand inches from my face. Looking beyond the hand I noticed that everything was covered in a thick layer of fresh ice. Accino was standing in a half crouch in front of me, left hand near my head while he punched repeatedly with his right. Each punch creating a red ball of heat that zipped across the intervening distance to slam into Ithaqua and force the Great Old One back. He was melting the ice off of me even as he kept everyone else safe.

Shaking myself like a dog I felt the last bits of ice break apart and fall to the ground. A glance over my shoulder showed me that the rest of the crew where hunkered down in the ice free V that extended from where I had taken the attack.

"Tii'chia are you alright?" Luffy asked even as he stepped besides me, fists clenched tight. I was going to reply positively that I was fine, as I started to shrink back down when I noticed how much pain I was in.

"I can still fight if I need to. But I'd rather avoid getting hit by another one of those please."

"I'm gonna punch Itha-whatever in the face!" Luffy shouted taking a step forward only to stop as Nami whacked him over the head with her Climatact.

"You idiot we can't fight something like that!"

"I...I agree! That things taller then Dorry and Brogy and probably hits harder than them as well." Usopp said adding his voice to the conversation.

"Your long nosed friend is correct. None of you are a match for this creature, this is a monster that would be more at home in the New World than in Paradise." Accino added as he straightened up, emitting so much heat that the ice beneath his feet was melting. Luffy looked ready to argue before Ithaqua released a howl that matched the one that had collapsed the building around us. The recently generated ice shattering, sending razor sharp shards spraying everywhere.

I ducked, shielding my head and face as the shards bounced off my shield. Others found their way through my armor or sliced across exposed skin. As suddenly as the howl had started it ceased and I raised my head in time to see Accino slamming a super-heated fist into Ithaqua's jaw. Like a great tree that had just been cut down, Ithaqua fell backwards for a moment before it's arms bent at unnatural angles backward and it caught itself.

Something scratched at the edge of my mind as I tried to reconcile the images that I had just seen. One of Ithaqua towering tall enough that it's head scraped the clouds, the other of it being only slightly taller than most giants. It was with considerable effort that I jerked my eyes away from the sight. I don't think I ever understood how much the sense of sight lied to ones brain.

What I had just witnessed was the very rejection of reality that something like Ithaqua was born from and embodied. One that would drive those of weak will insane and tested the willpower of even the strongest of men. I wasn't the only member of the crew that had been able to resist the aura of madness that surrounded the Old One. Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji had remained on their feet even if they looked slightly green. While having remained conscious, Robin and Franky had dropped to their knees and were currently being sick. The rest of the crew had collapsed, foaming at the mouth.

I took one stumbling step than another before I was able to regain something resembling balance. I bent down to pull Franky's right arm over my shoulder as I helped him to his feet. I scooped Usopp up with my free hand and tossed him over my shoulder. Sanji had helped Robin up to her feet just before she crossed her arms. Multiple sets of feet sprouted beneath Nami, Chopper, and Lil marching them back towards Sunny.

Glancing back I saw Luffy watching Accino as the man slammed another fist into Ithaqua just as it had gotten back to its feet, forcing the monster back down. As Ithaqua fell it swiped out with one arm batting Accino away towards us until he crashed head first into a snowbank. By the time Accino had gotten back to his feet the heat that he had generated had turned the snow into a small pit of boiling water.

Accino leapt up out of the hole landing some distance away from us. As he turned to look at us the remains of his sunglasses fell away, apparently snapped in half by the hit. It was somewhat surprising that he had somehow escaped getting injured. Did he have access to Hardening Haki?

"You should run Straw Hat, this isn't a beast that you can beat." When Accino spoke it had a tone of finality to it. Spoken like a statement of fact. In the distance Ithaqua was clambering up onto it's feet again.

"I won't run, me and my crew can help you defeat this thing!"

"Your crew is in no condition to continue fighting. If they did how many do you think you would survive the fight if you did recklessly force them to fight?" Luffy looked at all of us, tired, injured, almost half of the crew unconscious. He then glanced beyond us towards The Thousand Sunny, bobbing in the rough waves, before his fists unclenched.

"Everyone...back to Sunny." He sounded so defeated as he said those words. I wanted to say something but no words came from my mouth. Luffy turned away from the fight, joining the rest of the crew as we started to walk away.

"Straw Hat." Luffy paused in mid stride, all of us turning to look towards Accino once more who had turned to us as well. Steam poured off of his body and with the way it was glowing he looked similar to Luffy's Gear Two.

"Take this as a lesson for what is to come. Your nearing the end of Paradise the last stop of your journey will be Saobody before the New World. As your crew is now you won't survive for long on that sea. A monster like this, strong as it is, doesn't even compared to the Emperors or some of those under their command."

Accino started to turn away but than paused and turned back towards us. He seemed to be considering his next words before he spoke.

"Get stronger Straw Hat, you and your crew. You've got the drive to become King of the Pirates now you need to strength to back it up. I leave my daughter in your hands, keep her safe and tell her that I loved her. Tell her that I went out keeping her safe."

He turned away, and as the temperature spiked I realized that there was nothing else to be said. Luffy led the way back to Sunny and despite the sounds of battle behind us no-one turned to look. It was a frantic scramble to get ready to depart with those that had been knocked out by the howl only recovering halfway through. The added hands were excepted with relief without a single word being exchanged. The anchor was raised, Sunny beginning to bob away on the waves.

It didn't take long for Sunny to get back out and into the safety of the open sea. One by one as we finished our individual tasks we started to congregate by the railing that faced Lovely Land. At the current distance all that was visible was Ithaqua's immense body and the flashes of light from Accino's continued attacks. Lil had been placed in one of the beds that occupied Chopper's office, still unconscious. I don't know if Chopper had try to wake her up or not and I wasn't about to ask.

The earth groaned as a plume of lava erupted high into the air in the middle of the island. Molten rock cascading down onto Ithaqua as the lava's upwards energy gave way to the pull of gravity. The Great Old One howled in pain and lashed out with its control over cold, draining the heat from the lava and converting it back into rock. Waves battered Sunny's side as a powerful tremor ran through the water as the earth around the island shifted. Larger and larger plumes of lava pushing their way to the surface.

It didn't take long before the constant eruptions shrouded the island in a thick blanket of steam. Still we continued to watch the location of the island as the sounds of the eruptions faded away and a faint breeze picked up. Where Lovely Land once lay there was now a newly birthed volcano, lava still running down it's sides until it encountered the sea. There was no trace of Ithaqua, Accino, or any recognizable landmarks. One by one we turned away from the sight, going back to our individual tasks as the Sunny sailed away.

On the branch of one of Nami's tangerine trees unnoticed by anyone at the time, one of the fruits turned red. Orange and yellow swirls forming on the skin of the fruit, appearing as waves of heat.

AN: Thus the Ice Hunter Arc draws to a close with a new crewmate, a yet undiscovered Devil Fruit, and the knowledge that determination can only take one so far.