Chapter 13: Celsius
With Gnome now lending his power, the group makes their way out of the Temple of Earth. The journey is surprisingly quiet, but before they leave through the exit they are stopped by a squeaky, unwanted voice. "That's them, that's the group of fools that knocked me out!"
Lloyd turns back around after a momentary pause, and he says in a somewhat worried tone of voice "Ummm…guys, you might want to look at this." The group turns around and finds a mob of about fifty gnomes gathered together, with the one that Riku beat into unconsciousness standing at the front of them all.
"…I can't help but feel this is my fault." Riku quietly points out after sighing at the presence of the gnomes. Looking at the group, the frontal gnome known as Big Brother says "Kill them all! Leave none of them fools alive!"
"This is just what we needed, a fight with an entire race of gnomes." Raine points out, glaring specifically at Lloyd and Riku for getting them into this mess. The teenage Overlord wants to make up for his mistake quickly though as he turns towards the professor and comments "Sorry about this little mess-up Raine, let me make up to us quickly."
As the sound of one-hundred tiny feet charge at the group en masse, the teenage Overlord nonchalantly flips his right fingers upward, pulling a large chunk of rock up from the ground to create a thick wall between the group and the gnomes. About twenty smacks are heard as the gnomes collide with the wall, and Riku lowers his hand and turns around while commenting "Alright, now we can leave."
As the group flips back towards the entrance of the Temple of Earth, they can just barely hear the gnomes cursing up a storm regarding the wall as they bang their little hands against the stone to try and break it down. "I'd feel sorry for the gnomes, but they kind of brought this upon themselves for being so uncooperative…Save for that one guy." Sheena comments.
"…Come to think about it, that guy that tried to help us was probably a part of that mob." Lloyd says, to which Riku shrugs his shoulder and comments "Eh, an ally one day can be your enemy the next…Of course, I don't think I have to remind you of that."
Lloyd pauses and thinks about Kratos as the group arrives at the parked Rheairds, replying to Riku's remark with a simple "…Yeah." Before he boards his ride. The Rheairds take off to the sky, and one they were high enough Lloyd asks Regal "So where is Flanoir?"
"It should be northeast of the Renegade Base. But we shouldn't waste any time at the city while we need to make a pact with Celsius." Regal explains, and to reassure the man Lloyd comments "Don't worry, I wasn't planning on detouring there. We'll stay right on course."
"Awww, that sucks, I heard Flanoir's lovely this time of year, and the ladies tend to wear the best type of clothes around there." Zelos says, his mind wandering off to dirty thoughts, and for once Sheena just ignores him entirely.
The group flies towards the frozen land mass they briefly saw as they headed towards the Renengade Base, and after a good amount of time the air starts to become frigid and difficult to bear. The problems lie mostly in how high up they were, leading to the group's hairs standing up on end as they try to stay warm. "Brrrrrr…What the hell, how can anyone live around here?" Lloyd comments in a chilled tone of voice.
"It's an acquired sensation Lloyd. You'll be fine after a while." Raine comments in a calm tone, and from the looks of things she was the only one not greatly affected by the weather. The teenage Overlord looks at Raine and says to her "Well the last thing we want is for someone to be frozen to the Rheairds. Here, let me help you guys out again."
With his power over flames, Riku surrounds the combined flight space of the Rheairds with a veil of heated air, making the temperature around average. Everyone's hair settles, with Lloyd glancing at Riku and saying in a thankful tone "That's a relief, good work Riku."
Raine shakes her head and states in a rather disappointed tone to Lloyd "Riku won't always be around to make things warm Lloyd, you're going to have to face the cold someday." Genis responds to his sister by saying "Raine, not everyone can be as immune to the cold as you are…"
"I'm not immune to the cold Genis, I am just able to handle it better than most people." Raine calmly replies, which is followed by her brother whispering out "I guess that's just something cold-hearted people can do…" But the half-elf professor naturally heard him, as evidenced by a few seconds later when Genis gets an Apple Gel thrown into the left side of his face.
After a few more minutes, the group takes the Rheairds towards the only part of the icy land mass that isn't the city of Flanoir, and that is an elevated series of cliff paths that lead into three different caverns. Landing on the ground in front of the cliffs, the group notices a swift change back to a colder temperature that actually managed to overwhelm Riku's heat. Not only that, but the cold carried with it a familiar feeling.
"This is…mana?" Presea comments as she feels the snow exclusive to the caves falling directly atop her skin and hair. "How fascinating, the snow here is made out of crystallized ice mana. That means we've arrived at Celsius' domain." Raine says in her usually intuitive voice.
"I don't see how having mana inside makes the snowflakes any different from normal ones." Riku comments in a half-jovial tone, to which Regal replies with a knowledgeable sounding "It's just a way of identifying a Summon Spirit's domain in a thriving world since the Oracle Stones have disappeared."
"I guess that makes sense. Either way, lets hope we can find Celsius without running into anymore annoying species…" Riku says. The group then proceeds for the only cave they can reach for now, that being the one directly in front of them.
Crossing through the snow proves surprisingly simple because of how low it was, but even so the group was thankful once they didn't have to deal with it once they entered the cavern. Looking around, there wasn't much to see save for a ground filled with thin layers of ice atop solid rock flooring and a ceiling covered in icicles of varying sizes.
"Whew, it's actually a lot warmer in here." Zelos comments after letting out a sigh of relief. "Huh, from my experience, caverns are usually colder than the outdoors." Riku says in turn.
"Hmmm, you have a point. Actually, considering Efreet is Celsius' opposite, perhaps he is protecting us from the cold so long as we are inside of her domain." Raine theorizes, leading to Lloyd scratching the side of his head and commenting "Why can't he just protect us from the cold all the time? Talk about selective help."
Raine folds her arms and looks at Lloyd with a glare, saying to him "Because, Lloyd, he can probably only help us with Summon Spirit related weather." But before they two could get further into this argument, Regal points out "It doesn't matter why the cold isn't affecting us here. The moment we make a pact with Celsius, we should no longer have to worry about it."
"Regal's right, we're just wasting time complaining." Sheena agrees with the man's remark, leading to Lloyd dropping the subject with a nod of the head and a simple comment of "Sorry, I was just a little worried about Colette."
"Huh? Why is that Lloyd?" Colette perks up in confusion and asks. Lloyd turns to her and points out "Well you've never handled the cold very well. Winters in Iselia always left you bed-ridden for weeks."
"Oh yeah. I always remember how you would come into my house and offer to help make soup for me. Hehe, then there was that one time Genis tried to use magic to heat the water and ended up covering the kitchen in noodles." Colette's recollection leaves Genis embarrassed at himself, at which point he stutters out "I-I was just learning magic back then, it was an honest mistake."
"It's ok Genis, my parents got a laugh out of it, and I did too…Once I got better." Colette says to make her friend feel better, but this cutesy moment between the three friends was interrupted by Zelos "You can reminisce later. Regal's right, we shouldn't be standing around wasting time."
Lloyd narrows his eyelids towards Zelos out of annoyance, and Sheena nudges the Chosen in the hip and says to Lloyd "Sorry, he just isn't good at reading the mood." The group moves on again until they reach an elevated stone bridge, at which point Lloyd glances to the right and notices something interesting on a platform in the distance.
"Hey, shouldn't the cold prevent flowers from growing?" He asks, his words bringing Raine to an immediate halt as she turns around and draws her eyes on the object Lloyd mentioned. It was a small flower of pure white that was made entirely out of ice.
"That's the fabled Celsius' Tear! Legend says that this flower is capable of turning an entire ocean into ice with a mere touch, and can send a person's body temperature to absolute zero! Ohohoh, to take such a flower and figure out how it works has always been a professor's greatest dream!" Raine's excited voice reaches a critical and rapid peak near the end, leading to most of the group slowly backing away from her.
"So…Ummm, think we should grab it?" Lloyd asks, leading to Raine immediately flipping around and calming down before stating "Lloyd, we can't just grab the Celsius' Tear. Any one of us would die if we tried."
"But I have gloves on, it can't touch my skin." Lloyd's obliviousness leads to Raine groaning before she points out "No Lloyd, even with those gloves you'll suffer a severe case of frostbite."
"Then I'll just put another layer of gloves over them!" Lloyd proclaims, and this time it is Regal who interrupts the commentary between the two to mention "If I may…Lloyd is not exactly wrong. I have heard rumors that there is a certain set of gloves that can withstand even the cold temperatures of the Celsius' Tear. They belong to Penguinist's, a rare creature that looks like a human dressed as a penguin."
"…What?" Riku says in a tone of stoic disbelief. As Regal explains himself further, Raine reaches into a bag she happened to have on her "Unfortunately, I imagine we will have to scour far and wide to find a single Penguinist. But perhaps-"
"You are referring to these gloves, correct?" Raine interrupts the man and holds up a pair of blue, soft looking flippers. Regal blinks for a couple times before whispering "How do you…" Raine explains herself immediately after by stating "I happened to find one of these in Sylvarant. Who knew they would have a use."
"Alright Professor! You always got something to help us out! Put them on Colette, she can fly over and pick up the Celsius' Tear." Lloyd says, and as he mentions this Riku immediately widens his eyes and thinks about what would happen if Colette were to suddenly trip over her own feet while holding the tear. Imagining the entire group being kept in cryogenic status was one of the more harmless options.
"Ummm, wait a second Lloyd, it'd probably be better if I handled the Celsius' Tear." Riku says in a nervous tone. The boy turns towards him as Colette puts the Penguinist Gloves and says "Don't worry about it, so long as Colette flies off the ground, she can't trip."
"I won't let you down, Lloyd." Colette enthusiastically states before she takes off towards the Celsius' Tear with the help of her angels wings, flapping her hands up and down like a little penguin might before she lands in front of the flower and picks it up, turning around and flying back to the group while keeping the flower held between her hands.
"Alright, so now that we've gone flower picking, what's next?" Zelos jokingly states, with Raine saying as she stares close at her reflection in the Celsius' Tear and smiles "I can only imagine this will help us get to Celsius. Let's get a move on."
Entrusting Colette with the flower, the group cautiously moved further through the Temple of Ice until they reached a frigid pond with four submerged pillars and various rocky spikes. "Hey Professor, you said the Celsius' Tear can freeze an ocean, right?" Lloyd asks.
Raine nods her head, but as the revelation of what Lloyd was insinuating hit her hard the half-elf professor glared at Lloyd and said "No. Don't you think about-" "Colette, place the Celsius' Tear on the surface." Lloyd gives Colette some instructions, and the girl nods her and moves her hands down towards the surface of the water.
Raine exclaims "Colette Brunel if you use that Celsius' Tear I will-" But it was too late, the flower touches the water, instantly freezing it all over and making the Celsius' Tear vanish into nothing afterwards. The half-elf falls to her knees and cries out in agony at the loss of such a rare artifact, and after lowering her head she starts whimpering out "Those are rarely born into this world…Sniff…"
Lloyd doesn't pay attention to Raine for the moment and says as he looks out at the frozen pond "Alright, now we can cross. Hopefully Celsius' seal is close by." After hearing Raine sniffle a few times in self-pity, Lloyd turns around and says "…Professor, maybe Celsius can make another of those flowers once we form a pact with her."
"…I guess you're right." Raine admits, and after brushing aside a tear she got back onto her feet and further admits "That wasn't very mature of me. Sorry everyone."
Everyone excepts her apology without a word, and after a little slip sliding 'fun' on the frozen pond the group ends up on the other side. In their way are four pillars guarding a single stone slab door. "Ah great, a puzzle." Lloyd groans out. "It seems we have to put the pillars in a specific position to open the way…" Regal rubs the bottom of his chin as he says this, cracking a slight smile at the puzzle as a contrast to Lloyd's annoyed expression.
"Tell me there's some sort of hint to help us out." Lloyd says, hoping that Raine would provide a solution of her own. But the half-elf stays silent, because even she didn't know the answer to this puzzle. "Ummm guys, just look back at the pond, the solution is obvious." Riku gestures behind himself with his right thumb, causing Raine to turn around and see what the teenage Overlord was referring to.
Indeed, there were four pillar heads sticking out of the ice, and since they were perfectly aligned with the pillars in front of the door it was obvious what the group had to do. Raine and Riku tell Lloyd and Zelos which direction the pillars need to be swerved, and once they are successful the slab of stone flies straight up into the wall to allow entrance to the next room.
Past the door is a secluded cavern with an icy blue-grey seal atop a small hill. Naturally, this was Celsius' seal. Sheena starts to approach the seal, but instead of a Summon Spirit appearing from it a voice echoes from above "You possess the right of the pact. I am Celsius, one who is bound to Mithos, the hero." The voice was bold and feminine.
Sheena looks up and says "I seek a pact with Celsius. I ask that though annulst thy pact with Mithos, and establish a new pact with me." The Summon Spirit lets out a merry laugh, but then proceeds to state "YOU seek a pact with me? How amusing. Let's see if you can handle me. Come, Fenrir!"
Without warning, the top of the seal glows bright, and from it leaps out a large canine with frigid blue fur and three tusks on both sides of it's mouth. It lands on the ground and immediately scratches at it with it's frozen claws while a ring of frost appears to the left of him and summons forth a beautiful arrangement of icy spikes. A figure descends from the ceiling and kicks right through the ice, shattering it apart to spread ice dust across the floor as she gracefully lands and spreads her arms out.
The Summon Spirit of Ice, Celsius, was a human-like figure with pale icy blue skin and a dress similar to that of a foreign dancer from Riku's world, with her skirt cut near the left leg and ringed bracelets wrapped around the arm below the wrists. She lifts her head up and reveals her frost blue eyes, smooth black hair with a sky-blue headband on top and icy grey tattoos streaked across her stomach and legs. Swinging her body to the right, Celsius says in a more subdued voice "Show me your power!"
Naturally, Sheena and Lloyd step up for battle. Riku joins in as well, followed by Genis stepping up to the plate with his kendama at the ready for spell-casting. "Hope you like fireballs, Celsius." Genis says as he nudges the front of his nose.
Celsius smiles and replies "So you're a mage? Fenrir, you knew who to go for." With a snap of her fingers, Fenrir zips across the ground and goes straight for Genis. Lloyd flips around and goes to intercept the frozen wolf, blocking his charge by standing before him and crossing both of his swords. Fenrir lashes his claws out and rebounds off of Lloyd's blades, landing in front of him and lowering it's head as it gauges out it's next move.
As Sheena glances back at Lloyd for a moment, Celsius dashes at her and leaps slightly while extending her left leg for a frosted kick, but before it connects Riku comments "Heads-up Sheena!" as he sprints beside her and swings his sword out, clashing with the middle of Celsius' foot with just enough strength to force her to kick back and land safely on the ground with a slight skid. Riku then draws his sword back beside his body as the ninja focuses back on the Summon Spirit and says "Sorry, lost my focus for a moment."
With Sheena drawing a couple of seals from her clothes, Riku comments "Don't worry about it, we got your back." The teenage Overlord ignites his sword with fire while grabbing onto his right shoulder and swinging his arm around to get a brief kink out.
Celsius glances at the boy and grins while saying "You're adamant on besting me with fire, huh?" The Summon Spirit then coats her right hand in ice and jabs at the ground. Immediately as she does so a frosted circle appears below Riku's feet, forcing him to leap to the left before a bushel of thin but sharp icy spikes rip through his body. Celsius follows up by running at the teenage Overlord and jabbing her left elbow into his gut to wind him.
Afterwards, Celsius coats her bracelets in ice and gracefully swings her arm outward to brush Riku with an icy slash. She simultaneously ducks down to avoid an attempt by Sheena to put a seal on her skin, and with amazing dexterity she slides back to where she was before.
Celsius then stands upright and begins to lean back, holding her arms at a downward slant as she opens her hands and uses her powers to create two icy lances. She throws her body back upright while swinging her arms forward to throw the lances at Riku and Sheena's heads. Sheena ducks under one of the lances as she goes in for a swift attack on the Summon Spirit, while Riku leaps to the side while cutting the other lance in half so it's momentum would stop before it hit the others behind him.
The teenage Overlord then folds his left hand back while saying to Sheena "Get beside me!" As a warning declaration as he summons forth flames in the palm of his hand. Celsius grins as she leans forward slightly and watches as Riku sends out a fireball twice his size at the Summon Spirit. Celsius slams her right hand against the ground, sending out a large wave of ice across the ground to meet the fireball.
The two forces collide, but to Riku's surprise the wave of ice swallows the fireball and turns it into a jagged, reflective sphere of frost that's suspended in mid-air. "Nice try there, but I told you that your flames wouldn't be enough to stop me." Celsius states.
But while the Summon Spirit was proud of herself, Sheena leaps around the fireball and throws five seals at Celsius, all of them attaching to the right side of her skin and grabbing her attention. She turns towards the ninja and smiles again while using her powers to freeze over the seals, leading to them crystallizing and falling onto the ground. But while she was distracted by that, Riku ran to his frozen fireball and punched the backside of it to send it flying at Celsius.
It's girth was enough to prevent even the agile Summon Spirit to dodge the frozen fireball, and when it crashes with her it shatters apart and sends Celsius flying through the air above her seal. She flips around a couple times and lands feet first against the back wall of the cavern, where she swings her arms out and swirls her fingers around to form another pair of lances.
She then leaps off of the wall and flips around to land on her feet, sliding along the ground at Sheena while spiraling her body around with her lances held out to create a deadly, slicing ring outside her body as she goes straight for Riku. The teenage Overlord holds his sword up and covers it in electricity to strengthen it as Celsius collides with him.
Her lances grind against the field of electricity surrounding his sword, pushing him slowly back across the ground until he notices the lances were being worn down just enough that Celsius was but a few feet away from his body. Riku then takes his excess of electricity and sends it straight out through Celsius' lance to electrocute the Summon Spirit's body, stopping her entirely in place as she lets out a somewhat pained cry.
Her body surges outward with electricity for a few seconds before it vanishes, and taking advantage of her brief paralysis is Sheena, who runs at Celsius' back and smacks her with a seal on the back. Riku punches Celsius in the face to send her flying back as Sheena leaps to the right to avoid getting hit. Once Celsius falls on her back in front of her seal, the seal that Sheena stuck on her goes off and creates a small explosion that launches her into the air.
As she flies towards the ceiling, Celsius recovers and flips herself around while saying in a praising tone "I didn't expect such tactics from you. But lets see how you handle this!" Thrusting her hands at the ground, Celsius unleashes a cold frost that pushes her further towards the ceiling while gracefully flipping her body so her feet stick to the ceiling once she arrives at it.
Celsius spreads her arms out and uses her powers to summon forth dozens of icicles across the ceiling. She looks down upon the ground and sees that Fenrir has been taking out by Lloyd and Genis, which leads to her commenting "Such a shame that Fenrir doesn't share the immunity to flames that I have. But I am certain you have been weakened…Fall to my bitter cold!" The Summon Spirit throws her arms at the group, sending all the icicles at her disposal down at them in a hellish rain.
Lloyd and Genis both go for Guardian to protect against the initial onslaught, while Riku swings his sword upward to shatter the icicles and Sheena throws an explosive seal to blow away a large chunk of the icicles. The teenage Overlord knew he couldn't allow Celsius to repeat this move multiple times, and with quick thinking he swung his right hand out and molding the stone below the Summon Spirit's body into fertilized dirt.
He then manipulates the dirt, rapidly growing a springy fungus from it while saying to Lloyd "Jump on this to reach Celsius! You're the only one who can get close enough Lloyd!" The boy nods his head and proclaims "Got it!" Before he runs at the mushroom and leaps atop it, bouncing high up into the air at a fast speed as Riku pulls his hand back and hangs it limp in front of his body, feeling the agony of overusing his powers pulsating through his muscles as he stands in place.
As Lloyd flies towards Celsius, the Summon Spirit crosses her arms and says "To face me head on, you are certainly a brave soul!" With even more icicles being summoned forth around her, Celsius snaps her fingers to launch them out at the approaching Lloyd, only for the boy to swings his blades outward and send out a beast-headed projectile that blows apart all of the icicles, creating a flurry of crystal flakes around his body as he pulls his swords behind his head ready for the next attack.
The Summon Spirit is taken aback by Lloyd's resolve, and her shock at this boy's determination leaves her vulnerable enough for Lloyd to swing both his blades out across her entire body. The impact of the blades against her body leaves creases of cold air in her skin, and Lloyd is pushed back down towards the ground. Celsius falls off of the ceiling, her body descending slower due to her lighter frame.
Lloyd lands on his feet, surviving the jolt to his legs thanks to his Exsphere, while Celsius crashes on her back in front of her seal. At the exact moment that she falls, Fenrir disappears into the mist. "Did we win?" Genis asks. After a few more seconds, Celsius breaks into a merry laugh and uses a chilling gale to lift herself back onto her feet. Looking at the four warriors she fought, she says in a satisfied voice "Excellent. It would appear that my freezing chill is but a summer's breeze to you."
Celsius then looks specifically at Sheena and states "Now, speak your vow. A vow worthy of my power!" With confidence flowing through her body, the ninja proclaims "For the sake of creating a place in which the two worlds no longer must sacrifice one another, I ask that thou grant me thy power!"
Celsius nods her head and states "Understood. Use my power well." Her expression then turns to one of brief surprise as the air around her grows slightly hotter, with a burning sensation of light summoning forth Efreet before her. The Summon Spirit of Fire nods his head gracefully and says in a gentleman-like manner "Celsius…It has been a long time."
"…I never thought I'd have to see your face again." Celsius replies with a voice of semi-disdain, which leads to Efreet lifting his head up and asking "While we may be opposing forces, must you avoid me so earnestly?"
Celsius brushes the side of her hair and says in a brutally honest tone "What choice do we have? We are harmful to one another" Efreet appears rather saddened by this reminder, and as he folds his arms he states "Then perhaps we should be joyous that our mana has been severed."
"…Who knows. What is clear, though, is that this situation will affect the entire world." Celsius gently states, to which Efreet says agrees to with a nod his head and a simply spoken "Indeed." The two Summon Spirits then turn to face Sheena, with Celsius stating "All we can do now is trust in the pact-maker."
Efreet adds on to this by mentioning with confidence in his voice "We leave everything in your hands." He then vanishes, and Celsius turns into a collection of mana particles that transforms into an icy-blue seal that lands on Sheena's open palm…Making Celsius the sixth Summon Spirit that she has made a pact with.
"Just one more mana link to go…" Lloyd comments as he sheathes his swords and turns around to meet back up with the rest of his friends. Colette comments "Do you really think Sylvarant and Tethe'alla will be cut off from each other forever?"
Zelos ponders Colette's question for a few seconds before looking at Lloyd and asking "We're gonna do this regardless, right?" Lloyd nods his head, albeit with a bit of hesitation, and replies with a simple "…Yeah."
But as Genis is quick to point out "But if the Rheairds stop working after we form the last pact, we're going to be stuck on one world or the other." Sheena reminds the group as well that "The people of Mizuho wish to move to Sylvarant…There has to be something we can do."
Raine brings her wisdom into the discussion by suggesting "We should do something investigation on the effects of separating the worlds before we form the pact with the final Summon Spirit."
Suddenly, an earthquake takes the group off-balance, throwing Lloyd and the weakened Riku against the ground while Zelos quickly works to catch Colette by the back before she lands herself. When the tremors come to an end, Lloyd and Riku slowly rise back up, with Regal commenting in a worried tone "It seems as though the shaking has increased in magnitude…"
"…The time between the severing of the mana flow and the resulting earthquake has decreased as well." Presea adds her observation to the mix in a stoic tone, leading to Lloyd commenting afterwards "I guess the worlds are struggling to split apart…"
Riku barely hears the conversation as he gets up, for something rips into his mind as he stands up, causing him to barely stand upright as he holds one hand against the side of his head and a voice calls out to him. "Ri…Don't do…You're going to…Sto…em…Imbal…" Their voice is cut off, and Riku's head turns back to normal as he whispers out "…Takashi?" The name of the black dragon that was also his friend, who he had not heard since he had arrived on this world.
"Huh? Who's this Takashi fella?" Zelos asks in a puzzled tone. Riku realizes the mistake he had unconsciously made and looks at the Chosen of Tethe'alla before saying "I-I thought I just heard a friend of mine contact me."
"You have a friend outside this world?" Regal asks, leading to Riku nodding his head and stating "Don't worry about it. When the time comes, I'll introduce you to him…"
"Hmmm…" Zelos hums out in intrigue before changing the subject with a swift and suavely spoken "So where shall we go now?" Raine comments "Lets return to the Rheairds first, then we can decide our next course of action from there."
With the group in agreement on that, they began to depart from the Temple of Ice. Along the way, Riku scratched the side of his head and thought to himself "…Takashi, what has happened to you and Sodenko?"
Next Time: A Problem Arises from a Descent