For most of this time when Elsa and the others were out at sea, Kristian was able to manage his problem. However, his flare ups were becoming more frequent. By the time that Elsa had her ordeal out at sea, Kristian was no longer able to venture out to the village. Kristian even had to avoid most of the palace as well. However, Kristian was still able to walk to the edge of the fiord waters.
It has become a daily ritual for Kristian to walk to the water's edge to release his energy. It has also become a ritual for many villagers to stop and watch the flames shoot skyward. Over time, Kristian's fire shot higher and higher into the air. People were becoming concerned with this increase of flame, especially the Captain of the Palace Guard.
Another indication of Kristian's decreasing condition is the lines that are visible on his face. These lines are no longer black but have once again turned red in color. Also Kristian's nightmares have become more frequent. Grand Pabbie had been able to either stop these dreams or reduce them in intensity. However, the increased frequency has meant that some of the dreams were starting to get pass Grand Pabbie's magic. Finally one night, things came to a climax.
Like previous nights, Grand Pabbie was suppressing the negative dreams cause by Tollak and the curse. Grand Pabbie was using small magic stones to accomplish this. These stones did this by floating over the top of Kristian in a magical ether. However, all of a sudden, Kristian's body flares with a concussive blast. Due to the blast, Grand Pabbie and the magic stones are flung across the room. As Grand Pabbie hits the wall, he grunts in pain. The concussive blast also shook the whole palace, and a mass of flame erupted out the window of the cell as well.
"Grand Pabbie!" exclaims the young troll as he comes running into the room. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, but it seems that Tollak has gotten impatient with our stalling tactics," replies Grand Pabbie. "Tollak has greatly increased the energy of the curse."
As this was happening, the fiery image of Tollak appears to Kristian in his dream. "Tollak!" exclaims Kristian in surprise as he tenses up to brace for anything that Tollak might do.
"You have been defying me Kristian," says Tollak. "Somehow you have managed to block my influences on you. Have you managed to convince this ice witch to help you in some way?"
"She was willing to help me even before you started to cause problems, Tollak," replies Kristian coldly. "So your attempt to force a confrontation has failed."
"She is a fool then," responds Tollak. "The witch may have been able to delay things, but she doesn't have the power to stop it. Nor can you prevent me from using you."
"I've managed so far with the aid of some friends," replies Kristian. "And I will continue to resist your attempts at using me."
"You don't have the strength to resist me," says Tollak as he raises a flaming hand up. As he does, flames emerge around Kristian and surround Kristian in a type of shackle like arrangement. "Will you do what I ask, or will you suffer because of your defiance." With this, the fire restrains begin to burn Kristian, and Kristian begins to cry out in pain.
After a moment though, Kristian focuses his thoughts. Then the fire, that restrains Kristian, erupts upwards. As it does the fire loses its grip on Kristian and sails into the sky of his dream. Now Kristian stands free of Tollak's flame.
As this was happening in the dream, another fire erupts from Kristian's body in the palace. Again a large mass of flame erupts out the cell window. This time many people were awake and they were able to witness it.
With Kristian being able to escape Tollak's restrains, Tollak becomes very angry; but he is also very impressed. "Your resistance is becoming annoying, Kristian," says Tollak with anger. "But I will admit that I am impressed by your skill. Someday you may even rival me in power. However, now you are only delaying things. Even with your skills, you do not have the ability to resist my magic."
With this, Tollak unleashes a flame surge at Kristian. In response, Kristian generates a fire shied that tries to redirect Tollak's flame. The first flames do get diverted, but soon some of the fire curls back and encases Kristian in a cylinder of fire. Now with Kristian secured in a semi clear fire cylinder, Tollak walks up to Kristian in this dream.
"Since you have refused to work for me, I must now forcibly use you," says Tollak.
"You can try Tollak, but I will fight you with every ounce of my being; even if it means giving up my life!" exclaims Kristian.
"Such a fight will only cause you agony, and you will only delay the outcome," replies Tollak. "In time, your body will erupt with such fire and heat that it will melt the stone around you. Then the magic will draw the molten core beneath the surface upwards. A volcano will form with such power that any being with the power over the cold will surely perish within a few miles."
With this said, Tollak stretches his hands towards Kristian. Then energy begins to flow from his hands into the fire cylinder. Kristian cries out as the surging flames begin to penetrate to the interior of his being. Kristian does try to release this energy with some success, but the energy that is being fed into his body is greater than the energy that he is able to release. To both of these men, it looks as if Kristian's resistance was going to fail; but Kristian continues to try and fight.
Suddenly, an unexpected magical energy enters the cylinder. Then the cylinder begins to shake, and soon it explodes with tremendous force. The magical energy that Tollak had been putting into the cylinder is released with such force that Tollak was knocked backwards. Tollak had to shield himself with his arms as the escaping energy hits him. Meanwhile, Kristian is kneeling on the ground as he recovers from the pain of Tollak's energy.
"Who dares to interfere?!" exclaims Tollak after he recovers from the backlash of his own magical energy. Tollak looks around and soon his eyes fall upon a figure standing in Kristian's dream. This figure is Grand Pabbie.
Grand Pabbie had used his own magic to project himself into Kristian's dream to aid Kristian in his battle against Tollak. Now Grand Pabbie and Tollak face each other.
"A Troll!" exclaims Tollak. "You have no business being here old timer!"
"It has been a while Tollak, and I have always made it my business to interfere with your plans in this area," replies Grand Pabbie.
"Have we met before?" asks Tollak.
"It has been many years, during a time when I was just a young adult," replies Grand Pabbie. "You were causing problems all over the region, and all the troll tribes decided to work on removing your threat."
"Of course, I had spent millennia creating focal points of magic all over large regions," says Tollak. "Then many of these points began to vanish. You were one of the trolls responsible for eliminating those focal points."
"Nature was crying out for balance, and you refused to head its cries," replies Grand Pabbie. "All we did was reestablish nature's balance by removing your points of magic."
"Your interference has restricted me to a small region," growls Tollak. "I had to recreate focal points to expand my reach once again."
"Yes, and we have worked to reduce your reach," replies Grand Pabbie. "You must not be allowed to expand your influence as far as you have done in the past."
"Do you think you actually have the power to stop me, old timer?" growls Tollak as he unleashes a flame torrent at Grand Pabbie.
Grand Pabbie responds by activating his own magic, and the flames turn into flower petals. "I am far more capable than you think, Tollak," replies Grand Pabbie. "I alone may not be able to stop you from harming Kristian, but many people are working to aid this young man."
"No one would dare help a fire demon!" exclaims Tollak. "All humans are cowards and fearful of all things foreign!"
"I won't argue with you on those points," replies Grand Pabbie. "Yet there are a few humans that can see past the abnormal and see the beauty in a person's soul. There a handful here that have seen this in Kristian, and they have shared this with others. With the help of these special individuals, Kristian has a whole village willing to help him in his time of need."
What can mere mortals do against an immortal?" responds the fire image of Tollak. "And what do you think you can accomplish by interfering?"
Now Tollak stomps his foot down on the ground, and flames quickly spread until they are underneath Grand Pabbie. Once there, the flames begin to erupt upwards. However, Grand Pabbie was quick with his own magic. As the flames began to come up, Grand Pabbie was able to alter the flames into a rapidly growing tree. After it was done growing, Grand Pabbie quickly climbs down to the ground.
"Many things can be done against you, Tollak," says Grand Pabbie. "As for my roll, I only have to delay your influences."
"We shall see how much you are able to delay me, Old timer," replies Tollak as both of his hands flare up with fire.
Meanwhile outside the dream, the young troll watches as Grand Pabbie is in a trance next to Kristian. Also Kristian's entire body is covered in flames as the struggle in his mind continues. As the young troll watches this scene, Olaf comes running into the room.
"What's happening? Everyone has been seeing a large amount of fire exiting Kristian's window," inquires Olaf.
"Tollak has gotten impatient," replies the young troll. "Right now, he is battling with Grand Pabbie in Kristian's dream."
"Well it looks like the battle is coming to the outside of Kristian," says Olaf. "And he is making it pretty warm in here. He'll need something to cool down with." So Olaf begins to run out of the room. As he leaves Olaf exclaims, "I'll be right back to help cool things off!"
Inside Kristian's mind, the battle between Grand Pabbie and Tollak has been a stalemate. Kristian has been able to help some, but his abilities weren't anything compared to the magic of Tollak and Grand Pabbie. Finally a lull in the fight occurs.
"How are you able to fight me, old timer," snarls Tollak. "My power is beyond anything you have ever witnessed."
"Your power is strong, Tollak; but my skill in the mental ether is exceptional," replies Grand Pabbie. "My skill makes me a match for you here."
"Then perhaps I should fight you in the real world," says Tollak.
"There are no focal points for your magic in the area for you to use," replies Grand Pabbie. "So you will be unable to send your projection anywhere near my location."
Tollak begins to laugh. Then he says, "Unfortunate for you, I do have a focal point in the area; and it is closer to you than you realize."
With that, Tollak raises his hands, and his image begins to fade away. "What is Tollak up to?" ponders Grand Pabbie to himself.
In a few moments, Grand Pabbie receives the answer to his question. All of a sudden, Kristian's body surges with fire; and Grand Pabbie is thrown across the room. "Grand Pabbie!" exclaims the young troll.
Grand Pabbie grunts in pain as he hits the wall. As he looks up, Grand Pabbie can see the fiery image of Tollak develop. "How is this possible?" asks Grand Pabbie. "There are no focal points of your magic anywhere near this kingdom."
"Ah, but there is," replies Tollak. "You are forgetting about the curse that is contained in Kristian."
"You shouldn't be able to use the curse as the focus. It should be impossible for you to generate enough magical concentration in a person," says Grand Pabbie.
"Normally you would be right, but Kristian is not a normal being. His natural abilities have allowed me to create a limited focal point. One strong enough for me to physically project myself here," replies Tollak. "So now we are outside the mental ether. The advantage is now mine."
Now Tollak unleashes a fireball at Grand Pabbie. Grand Pabbie has to dive out of the way, and he is slow to push himself off of the floor.
"Pabbie!" exclaims the young troll as he jumps between Tollak and Grand Pabbie. "You leave Grand Pabbie alone!" exclaims the young troll.
Tollak is surprised by the appearance of the young troll, but not for long. "Out of the way child!" yells Tollak as he launches a fireball at the young troll.
The young troll quickly jumps out of the way. "Missed me!" exclaims the young troll.
"Not for long," exclaims Tollak as he once again aims for the young troll. Yet once again, the young troll avoids Tollak's attack.
"Boy, are you slow!" exclaims the young troll as he jumps out of the way of another fireball.
"Stop this foolish act of interfering!" shouts Tollak as his hands flare up.
Meanwhile Grand Pabbie has gotten to his feet. "I'm getting too old for this sort of thing," says Grand Pabbie as he pulls out some magic stones.
Grand Pabbie begins to energize these stones, and they begin to float in the air. Then Grand Pabbie makes these stones quickly fly towards Tollak. However, before they could get to Tollak, Tollak turns and catches them in a ball of fire. Then Tollak throws the ball against a side wall, and he thrusts another fire at Grand Pabbie. This fire ends up restraining Grand Pabbie against the wall.
"Pabbie!" exclaims the young troll as he leaps to aid Grand Pabbie. However, the young troll is also snared by Tollak with another flame.
"Finally old timer, your interference comes to an end," says Tollak as he walks towards Grand Pabbie.
Then from outside the room, everyone hears a voice. "Heads up!" exclaims the voice.
Tollak turns to look and the next thing he sees is a large ice block come siding across the floor. Before he could do anything, the ice block hits Tollak in the leg. "Augh," cries out Tollak in pain as the ice block melts quickly. The block also causes Tollak to fall to his knees. The next thing Tollak sees is Olaf come into the room quickly pushing a hand cart full of ice.
"A snowman!" exclaims Tollak in surprise. However, Tollak responds to Olaf's presence by launching a fireball at the snowman.
Olaf cries out in fear as he falls backwards. As he falls backwards, the fireball sails over the top of Olaf. This act of Olaf's, also causes the handcart to fall to the floor as well. However, the hand cart continues to slide across the floor, minus an ice block or two. This hand cart slams into Tollak, who falls on top of the hand cart and remaining ice blocks. The hand cart continues to travel across the room with Tollak still on top, until it hits hard against the far wall.
Tollak roars in pain and anger for being thrown against the wall by a silly little snowman. While Tollak struggles with the hand cart to get to his feet, Olaf goes and grabs one of the ice blocks and uses it to put out the fire that is restraining the young troll.
"Boy, he is a bit of a hot head," exclaims Olaf as he frees the young troll.
Meanwhile, Grand Pabbie was using his own magic to free himself from Tollak's fire. As he is doing this, Grand Pabbie exclaims, "Young one, the stones!"
The young troll and Olaf look over to the magic stones that are lying on the floor. So the young troll quickly darts over to the stones. As he was running towards them, Tollak launches a fireball at the young troll. The young troll has to make an awkward move to avoid the fireball, and he goes tumbling onto the floor.
Now Tollak generates another fireball and is about to throw it at the young troll. "Look out!" shouts Olaf. Then just as Tollak extends his arm forward to release the fireball, a second fireball comes streaking through the air and it strikes Tollak's extended arm. This causes Tollak's fireball to go in an unintended direction.
"What?!" exclaims Tollak as he turns to look at Kristian's bed. What Tollak sees is Kristian propping himself up on one elbow with his hand extended forward. Kristian had managed to wake up from his mental ordeal. However, his body was still covered in flames.
"You still intend to defy me!" exclaims Tollak. "You refuse to learn the lesson of my dominance!"
Then Tollak releases a fire attack at Kristian. Kristian, who is in a disoriented state, is unable to establish a defense. So Tollak's attack strikes Kristian hard and sends him tumbling off of his bed. While Kristian was being attacked, Grand Pabbie had finally freed himself; and the young troll had gotten to his feet.
Now Grand Pabbie unleashes a magical ether that surrounds Tollak. This ether causes Tollak's vision to be blocked and his hearing to be obscured. "What is this old timer?" exclaims Tollak. "You think you can defeat me by blinding my senses!"
"No, but it shall lead to your departure from this kingdom, and the end to the mental anguish you have been causing Kristian," replies Grand Pabbie. "I could not remove you while you were in Kristian's mind. However, you have ventured outside his being; and by so doing, your verbal assaults can be silenced."
"You are deluding yourself, old one," says Tollak. "My control over Kristian's dreams cannot be undone, and your attempts at blinding me have now come to an end."
Now small flames spring up all around the room, and they begin to move around. Finally they stop moving. "There you are," says Tollak with a gloat before he unleashes a fire strike at Grand Pabbie. Grand Pabbie is knocked backwards and his magical ether around Tollak disappears. "No more games, old one," says Tollak. "There is nothing that any of you can do now."
"You are mistaken," replies Grand Pabbie. Then looking over to the young troll, Grand Pabbie exclaims, "Now, child!"
In response, the young troll hurls the magic stones that he had gathered up at Tollak. Before Tollak is able to respond, the stones enter his flaming image. This causes Tollak to cry out in pain as well as in anger. Tollak's flaming image also surges with fire.
Now Grand Pabbie pushes himself off the floor, and he raises his hands. "I may not be able to stop your curse, but you will no longer bother anyone here with your image," says Grand Pabbie.
Instantly the stones inside Tollak begin to glow brightly. "Nooo! I won't allow it!" cries out Tollak. Then Tollak increases the fire output of his body as he tries to fight the magic that works within his form. However, it was a futile attempt. Eventually Grand Pabbie's magic wins out.
However, because of the power that Tollak was exerting, a major release of energy occurs. As Tollak's image dissolves, a huge magical mass of fire energy is released. It quickly travels throughout the palace, and it erupts out all the windows of the palace.
This sudden and strong release of magic surprises everyone, from the people above and to those down in Kristian's room. Olaf was the first one to speak up. "Whoa, he really left in a dramatic way," says Olaf. "I think I might have lost some weight do to his fiery exit. So, how did the rest of you fair?"
"I'm all right," says the young troll as he jumps up from a sheltered place. "What about Grand Pabbie?" Then the young troll runs over to where Grand Pabbie is lying on the floor. "Pabbie, are you OK?" excitedly asks the young troll out of concern.
In response, Grand Pabbie groans before he begins to push himself off the floor. "I'm getting too old for this sort of thing," replies Grand Pabbie. "Still, I have come through this scuffle relatively unharmed."
As Grand Pabbie was speaking, Olaf had walked over to the place that Kristian was laying on the floor. "Hey Kristian, how are you doing?" asks Olaf.
There was no responds from Kristian, as he lies on the floor. However, his body blazes away with fire. In a moment, Grand Pabbie comes over with a little assistance from the young troll. As Grand Pabbie looks down at Kristian, he says, "The final phase before the end has begun."
"What has begun?" asks Olaf. "Is Kristian going to be napping on the floor now?"
"Because of the demon's curse and Tollak's efforts, Kristian's body has reached its limit," replies Grand Pabbie. "Parts of his body are already beginning to turn to stone."
"I see it!" exclaims the young troll. "You're talking about that dark coloration that is showing up along the red lines on his face."
"Yes, and this is just the beginning. In time those areas will spread out until his entire body turns to stone," replies Grand Pabbie.
"Isn't there anything that you can do?" asks Olaf. "We just can't give up trying. Kristian is one of my best friends, and I will do everything that I can to help him."
"I wasn't planning on giving up," replies Grand Pabbie. "I will still do all that I can, but I am afraid that Kristian will no longer be able to suppress his fire. Without that, the heat around Kristian will increase; and as the heat increases so does the rate of deterioration of Kristian's body."
"Taking care of heat is something I have found I am very good at," chirps Olaf. "So if you can take care of Kristian, I will be able to keep him cool!"
"Ohh… Olaf, you really need to learn to keep it down when someone is unconscious," says Kristian, as he stirs and pushes himself up until he is leaning against a wall.
"Kristian!" exclaims Olaf as he happily jumps around.
"Careful, Olaf, you could end up destroying yourself if you get too close to me," says Kristian as he rubs his aching arm.
"Don't worry about me!" chirps Olaf. "Right now, everything is about you; and even if that means that I will be melting, I will gladly do it to make sure that you are OK."
Kristian smiles as he sits there on the floor. "You will never give up on me, will you," says Kristian with a smile.
"I will never stop trying to help any of my friends. So, why would I give up on you?" replies a smiling Olaf.
In other parts of the palace, there is a lot of commotion going on. The magical fire release that had occurred earlier had frightened everyone in the palace. Luckily, the fire had moved quickly and it had done very little damage. However, the Captain of the Palace Guard was finally going to take matters into his own hands.