I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Creature in Ice

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This dungeon is so... incredibly... cold...

If the walls have their own color, I can't see what it is. Everything is covered in a layer of white ice. It's not even smooth ice, it looks more like someone threw water at the walls and it froze mid-splash.

I really should be wearing something warmer, I really should, but I have to see that Phelphor is indeed contained. So instead of wearing a nice warm coat, pants, and a sturdy pair of boots, I have my shendyt, a pair of flimsy sandals, and absolutely nothing on my chest. I'm folding my arms and hugging them close to my body, my teeth are chattering, and a cloud billows around my face each time I exhale.

Chaor, the only other person with me at the moment, is as poorly dressed for the cold as I am, but he seems unaffected. His breath also freezes in the air, but that's all the sign of cold there is around him.

"Here we are," Chaor says, and he steps aside. I look into the room ahead of him, at the only occupied prison cell in this whole frozen pit. Inside is a jagged pillar of ice. It's completely transparent, unlike the surrounding ice, and I can see the creature inside it very clearly.

The creature has slick red skin, with paler areas on running from his lower jaw, down his chest and stomach, and also on his biceps. A set of violet blades start on the top of his head and trail down his back. He almost appears to have no neck, and his muscles are large and sharply defined.

He wears gold-colored arm guards, shin guards, and armor over his left shoulder, the shoulder armor held in place by a leather strap that loops under his right pectoral muscle. A belt hold up his leather kilt, and his clothing and armor are studded with emeralds, or at least green gems.

"Th-th-that's definitely Ph-Ph-Phelphor..." I say as I walk around the frozen creature.

Chaor folds his arms. Is that worry on his face? "That's what Lilth and several other humans have called him. Everyone who knows his name seems terrified when they see him."

"For g-g-good reason," I shudder. I place a hand on the ice. It doesn't feel wet. Good, that means it isn't melting.

"What are the M'arrillians, Osiris?" Chaor's eyes are wide, with none of the arrogance he is typically portrayed with. "Why you Humans so scared of them?"

"I'd f-f-freeze to death in here before finishing if I t-t-tried to tell you here," I stammer.

Chaor nods. "Come with me. Let's get you somewhere warmer."

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"You were acting like an idiot, Michael," Isis scolds. "You couldn't spend two minutes putting on something warmer before going in there?"

I shiver under my coat as my company and I follow Chaor up the stairs to a higher floor. "It was stupid," I admit. "I just needed to see that everything was secure."

Isis looks like she wants to say more, but apparently our destination is close. Chaor turns to a small door, at least compared to him, it's quite large compared to the rest of us, and enters the room beyond it. We follow.

"Hello again, Prince Osiris," says a female voice.

I blink. The speaker was of course Queen Lilth, but there's another Human woman here as well. Sitting across from the dark-haired Queen of the Underworld is a statuesque blonde woman wearing what appears to be a black silk gown. It's as provocative as the outfit Lilth is wearing, with a low cut front leaving little to the imagination.

The blonde woman studies me for a moment. "Osiris?" she says more to herself than anyone. She leans a bit on the armrest of her chair and runs her hand through her hair. "Prince of the Mipedians? You're a lot... more than I was expecting." She winks and smiles.

Oh come on! Is she seriously coming on to me? "Hello. Let me introduce Princess Isis," I gesture to her, "my wife."

The blonde woman's flirtatious posture immediately vanishes, and she sits up straight. Lilth smirks. Isis gives me an approving glance. Chaor merely looks irritated. "Your soldiers will have to wait by the door, Osiris," he says.

"Three guards," I counter.

"One guard," Chaor growls.

"Two," I snap. "Don't try to tell me your don't have guards in this room yourself."

Chaor throws his hands up. "Fine, two guards," he snarls.

"Thank you," I say. "Maliph, Malvadine, you two stay."

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After a lot of fussing about who sits where, we're finally ready to talk.

The blonde woman speaks first. "Seeing as nobody bothered to introduce me..." she turns to me. "I am Sarah, Head of the Human-Danian tribe."

My eyes bug out, and look at her again. "Are you-?"

Sarah narrows her eyes. "I swear, if you're about to ask if I'm the same Sarah from the show..."

Uh... "A-are you the one making sure inter-tribal relations between the Humans and the Danians go well?"

"Nice save," Sarah says. "Obvious, but well thought out." She turns to Chaor. "Now, before Osiris joined us, we were discussing your frozen guest downstairs."

Chaor raises his hand to cut her off. "I want to hear Osiris's explanation of the capabilities of the M'arrillians and this Phelphor first."

I knew this was coming. I take a breath and begin to speak. "The M'arrillians are capable of controlling the minds of other creatures, called brainwashing in the show and the game, although it's overtly a supernatural ability as opposed to normal brainwashing. They are masters of the element water. There are three kinds of M'arrillians. Chieftains, the ones capable of said brainwashing. Kha'rall, the M'arrillian's coral soldiers. Fluidmorphers, mugic wielders also capable of some degree of brainwashing."

I take another breath. "Phelphor is a fluidmorpher. Before the M'arrillians were sealed in the Deepmines in Perim's distant past, the M'arrillians left him frozen in Ice Pillar as an escape plan. Phelphor is trying to disguise himself as an Underworlder, and in the show he claims the M'arrillians possess the Cothica."

I watch Chaor for a reaction. There isn't one, so I continue. "In the show, you have suspicions about Phelphor and choose not to trust him, so he goes to Lord Von Bloot for assistance in breaking his tribemates out instead."

Chaor raises his hand. "I've heard enough, I'm convinced."

That was far easier than I expected. "So what do we do now?" I ask. "Should we just... kill him before he wakes up and becomes a problem?" Gah, that tasted bad in my mouth to say.

"That's a lot easier said than done," Lilth says. She turns to Chaor. "Did you record your voices while the two of you were down there?"

Chaor nods and slips a small crystal out from under his belt. He sets it on the table and taps it.

"Why is everyone so scared of them?" Chaor's voice says from the crystal.

"I'd f-f-freeze to death in here before finishing if I t-t-tried to tell you here," comes my recorded reponse.

"Come with me," is the familiar reply. "Let's get you somewhere warmer."

I blink. "I remember what we said, I don't see how-"

"Shh," Lilth hisses. "There's more."

Chaor's voice once again emits from the crystal. "Actually, Prince Osiris, I don't know if I can put this off any longer."

My eyebrows raise. This is new.

My annoyed voice replies, "C-C-Chaor, I'm freezing. You can wait a bit."

I hear the clank of metal, and I hear my past self gasp. Chaor's voice says, "I'm sure you know how to use a destructozooka?"

"Y-yes," says my voice hesitantly. "Why?"

"So far you're the only person to touch the ice surrounding Phelphor without falling unconscious immediately," Chaor answers. "You might be the one who can kill him."

I shiver as I listen. Why don't I remember any of this? Isis steals a glance at me. She looks uncomfortable.

My recorded voice cracks a bit. "I... I can't just k-k-kill someone in cold blood, even if it is someone like Ph-Ph-Phelphor."

"Bulls***," Chaor's voice growls. "If this creature is as dangerous as you say, then he has to die, morals be damned! I am handing you the fate of all Perim! Are you going to take the destructozooka or not?!"

There's a long silence from the crystal. I shiver as I realize what I would say to that. At the same time as the recording, I say, "Give it to me..."

Another silence. I imagine myself hoisting the destructozooka onto my shoulder, dropping to one knee, and taking aim. Then...

The crystal suddenly vibrates, and my recorded voice screams, "GAH! Get it out of my head! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

Isis's hands tighten around my hand as everyone hears what sounds like me going absolutely nuts. Coherent words disappear, replaced by strangled cries.

Chaor's voice is heard, shouting, "Drop the weapon, Osiris! Drop the weapon!"

There's a metallic clang, and my screaming stops.

Chaor's voice is heard again. "Osiris, point that somewhere else. Osiris!"

A voice "ChAoR, kInG Of tHe UnDeRwOrLd... Die."

Chaor taps the crystal. "I doubt you want to hear the rest of it. The destructozooka wasn't loaded."

My heart is pounding. "What happened?"

"You passed out," Isis says. "Chaor carried you out of the dungeon, and you woke up thinking you'd simply followed him out."

I shiver. I'd underestimated Phelphor. The thought that there is a span of time in my memory completely wiped clean like that... it's horrifying...

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Up next: The Lord of Over and the King of Under

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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