Karin was now breathing heavily as her mother slowly chipped away at her defenses. She had lost the armor on her head and arms. In the distance she was captivated by the massive storm soaking the land. There was plenty of water to turn to ice but she had no upper hand against her mother in a desolate land like this. She would have used her earth powers if there was plant life but this world was empty and dead.
Crash, went her ice sword against her mother's staff. She narrowly avoided another blow.
"Why do you resist becoming royalty so much?" her mother shrieked into the wind. "Don't you long to return home and have your pick of the strongest men to become your king?"
The Earth rumbled with the stomp of the throne onto Karin's now shattered sword.
Karin said nothing; she had nothing she wished to say to the demon her mother had become. Instead she drew in the water from the air and worked on creating a new weapon.
"You ungrateful child!" her mother swung the staff down to stab Karin again but this time Karin's new weapon turned the staff to shrapnel.
Bewildered for a moment, Karin's mother seethed in anger at the loss of her weapon. The throne broke down and the ice queen returned to her normal size, wielding an ice mace.
"Why did she not just make a new weapon?" Karin wondered as she sank down to the ground.
The two stood in a face off for a few moments, waiting for the other to make the first move. Karin advanced, spiking the ground with pillars of razor sharp ice. Her mother avoided but did not block. She came running in from the side with much more speed than she had moved in her throne tank. Her speed mirrored Karin's and they were now in a game of strategy. They moved like comets, rebounding off each other only to clash again.
There was a sudden flash of lightning that lit the sky, followed by a distant scream of agony. Karin swung her head in the direction of the scream. Kazune's voice reached her ears as if it were supersonic. However, she was dealt a blow to the head by her mother's mallet. Karin fell to the Earth unconscious. She landed and sent up a cloud of ash, blinding her mother.
Karin lied there in a dream. Everything was calm and cold. In the distance she could see Kazune struggling to stand and she could hear a faint laughter from above her. Everything else was white. She felt that her existence was being nurtured and tickled by grass. Suddenly she was in a field of flowers and new growth. Had the whole adventure been a dream? She just wanted to lie back and let warm sunlight absorb her. She wanted to be covered in the plants. Deep within her world, she felt the Earth begin to shake. It felt this world would split.
Jolting awake, Karin saw nothing but darkness until another quake shook the air around her. A beam of dusty light shone through the roots that had enveloped her. Through the hole she could see her mother striking down again. Karin endured the hit and sprung up using the roots as a shield. The ash and water had started new life below the soil. Karin's need to protect herself while she was incapacitated, stirred the life to grow faster.
She saw her mother huffing in frustration. She looked more haggard and weak than before.
"She is not creating anything new, only trying to defend what she has." Karin thought. "She must not be able to rebuild, if I can rid her of this weapon that she created from her throne, I should be able to win the fight!"
Karin was also exhausted though. Her head throbbed and her earthen abilities were not very strong here. She was also concerned about Kazune's scream. She had heard him cry out before but this was such an immense sound she feared the worst. She stared at her mother as she planned her next move. Karin knew this was a fight to the death.
The wind whirled around as the draw came to a close. Karin wielded her frozen ax, striking from above. The ice queen attempted to block but the ax fell to water, making her fall forward from her own force. Karin then swept around and kicked her mother in the side of the knee. There was a chilling snapping noise as the ice queen fell to the ground. Her leg bent at the wrong angle, the ice queen's rage boiled over. She acted more like a trapped animal than a person. Ice was flying every which-way and her weapon was slowly shrinking.
Karin leaned over to stand on the queen's arms, crushing them as well under the weight of the frozen water. Unable to move, the ice queen fell silent. She looked deeply into her daughter's face trying to beg for forgiveness.
"All those who commit crimes must atone for their sins." Karin stated.
Those were the only words she spoke before a fiery blast shot past her cold body, making her step off her mother's arms. The sky was still, the ground slowly weeping the excess water, a smoldering coal was left dying in the damp earth while a snow woman cried out.
