He was a short man, skin dry and wrinkled like an ancient scroll, nose akin to a long beak, hair white and balding, which he often concealed with a wig that didn't stick entirely well. What he lacked in height, he overdid in pride and greed.
Everyone knew the Duke of Weselton when they saw him. However, Arendelle would see none of him.
He sent all his troupes to the kingdom, staying in his own like the ridiculous coward he was.
He wanted Arendelle, its riches, its power... Elsa's power.
He would never get the ice magic, so in order to be more powerful than the queen, he would have to defeat her.
.
Autumn was nearing its end. It was getting colder every day.
The sky was clear, but no sunlight would alleviate the chill in people's hearts.
The commoners had taken refuge within the castle grounds, as Anna saw to it.
Outside only remained Elsa, Astro and all the soldiers, both from Arendelle and the allied kingdoms that had offered their help in that time of need.
It was quiet, deafeningly quiet, as if every person, every animal, every plant, were holding their breath. Even the wind had stopped.
And then it happened. From the seaside, in the horizon, enemy ships were spied. They were coming, quite fast indeed.
"Your majesty, watch the landside. I will take care of this."
Before Elsa could answer, Astro was flying to the highest tower of the castle, propelling herself with the flames.
She waited for the boats to approach some more, and then...
A barrage of flames came from her hands, setting fire to every single one of them. This was the true magnitude of the warrior's powers.
Every boat was lit, the screams of enemy soldiers burning to a crisp filled the atmosphere, but some managed to jump off to the water in time. 1/3 of them survived, and began swimming towards the shore.
On the landside, more Weselton soldiers came, carrying all sorts of weapons, even dragging catapults. This was going to get serious.
Elsa let out a battlecry, signaling the beginning of it. She, too, was going to stand tall.
As her soldiers went to fight the enemy, she directed a magic-loaded wind that froze the catapults before they were able to shoot. This would earn them some time.
.
The sounds of battle reached the insides of the castle. Anna was hugging Olaf and Samantha protectively.
Kristoff was out there, fighting as well, riding Sven.
The princess was terrified. She feared for the people of Arendelle, and mostly, her loved ones.
What if any of them got hurt? Or worse?
She shuddered at the thought of loss, and hugged tighter onto Olaf.
Samantha squawked, sandwiched between the two.
.
Elsa would go from soldier to soldier, freezing them before they could reach her, keeping up. So far, so good.
The archers at the walls would shoot the incoming hordes that hadn't made it into the kingdom yet.
"I won't let you take Arendelle!" Screamed the queen, summoning spikes of ice that would keep the enemies back.
She was trying her best to just scare them away, without hurting any of them, like she had done at her castle months ago.
This time, however, the foe was a whole army, fearlessly cutting and smashing the ice that blocked them, aiming to destroy everything that crossed their paths.
A scream broke Elsa's brief train of thought: one of her own soldiers had been impaled by a spear.
It was Sigur, the blacksmith who had first tried to protect her kingdom from Astro upon her arrival, having seen her as a threat. He was strong enough to join the battle, and he had moved to protect another Arendelle soldier from the spear.
Elsa witnessed the life being drained out of his eyes, his bulky body falling limp and splashing blood everywhere.
She turned to see how many other soldiers, both allies and enemies, were suffering the same destiny.
This was the truth of war. These people had families, friends, and they would all be mourned.
She wasn't aware of how a scream came out of her throat, as she created a tornado that would sweep away a great amount of Weselton soldiers.
What snapped her out of her trance was a fly arrow flying past her, scratching her cheek in the process, drawing blood.
The crimson was a huge contrast with her pale skin and cold color palette.
She turned to face her attacker, and shot shards of ice at him.
.
Those who had survived the flame barrage had made it to the shore.
"What was that?! A dragon?!" Yelled one.
"Didn't the queen have ice powers?! Where did that fire come from?!" Exclaimed another.
A third one opened his mouth to reply with yet another question, but he was silenced by a dark figure running past, like a volatile shadow.
"Hey-" The first soldier croaked out. "What was that?"
But the third man didn't speak. His mouth was open, and blood began to bubble out of it.
The skin on his neck slowly parted open, beginning to drip as well.
He fell forward, dead.
Whoever had run past had slit his throat.
"What the-" The second one panicked, but he was greeted by a flaming punch on his cheek. It broke his jaw, twisted his neck, sent him flying away, also dead.
The first one could stare face to face at their attacker: a tall, scarred woman, dressed all in black. Flames came from several areas of her body, sharp teeth gritted and showing, heterochromiac eyes piercing his very soul.
"Die."
Her voice was a mere whisper, and before he could react, she shoved a hand into his mouth, shooting flames within his body.
All the other soldiers turned to the commotion.
A storm of arrows and swords came towards the woman, and she jumped, propelling herself with fire to dodge them, jumping forth towards the group of Weselton soldiers.
She slammed her foot onto the face of one.
A sword came her way and she dodged in time, kicking the face of the wielder and pulling his weapon away, using it to cut the head of yet another one.
An arrow landed on her left shoulder, and she hissed in pain, the sound almost inhuman, but that didn't stall her, as she immediately turned to face the shooter and claw his eyes out before ripping the arrow off herself and burying it deep into her stomach.
A huge group of soldiers surrounded and charged at her, ejected away by a fire explosion.
Astro was a merciless warrior. She was used to people attacking her, to fighting for her life.
This time, she was fighting for something bigger.
"For Arendelle!" She cried out. "For the queen!"
And as more soldiers ran to her, she charged.
.
Elsa and the Arendelle soldiers had cleared a great amount of the enemies.
The Weselton army had tried to unfreeze the catapults, but most of them had broken in the process.
As the queen moved to charge against yet another foe, he blocked her magic with his shield, which he then used to hit her face, knocking her down.
He then removed his helmet.
A strong ginger man with broad shoulders, a pointy nose and green eyes.
"Hans-" Elsa let out in disbelief. He kicked her in the stomach.
"I've come for revenge." He said, gritting his teeth as he remembered the giant snowball that had one day come all the way from Arendelle and pushed him against the horse feces he had been sweeping.
How had the prince of the Southern Isles ended up cleaning up crap?
His failed attempt at getting rid of the sisters and conquering Arendelle had led him to being punished... For life.
"Revenge for what?! You got less than what you deserved-" Grunted the platinum blonde, trying to stand, but she met another foot against her stomach.
"Silence, whore!" He roared. "I will het what I want, and I will get it now! Weselton promised me half of his earnings after we win this, after we get rid of you and your witchery!"
He lifted his sword, and she was too tired from having fought for so long, too nauseous as her belly had been hit twice, too dizzy from the shield that had been slammed against her now bleeding forehead.
She was clearly not used to fighting.
As she shut her eyes tight, ready to meet the sword on her, she thought of Anna. She didn't want to leave her alone. Anna was her world, and she...
But the sword never reached her.
In front of her stood a muscled woman, covered in blood from herself and many others, who had blocked the attack with her left arm, the sword completely piercing through it.
She was panting, her breaths akin to a growl.
"Astro-" Elsa let put in a choked voice.
The female warrior looked up at hans, her eyes blurry from the blood that covered her face, but there was something she could make out: the man had green eyes.
Elsa's attacker had green eyes.
Two green eyes.
Evil green eyes.
Astro opened her mouth, letting out a beast-like roar that stunned everyone around them, and then exhaled fire against Hans.
As he stepped back, screaming at his burning flesh, she pulled the sword from her arm, stabbing him multiple times, to the point where his own blood nearly extinguished the fire on his body.
Elsa was staring with wide eyes. Her friend had gone feral.
However, as Astro turned to look at the queen and approached, instead of dealing her any harm, she wiped the blood coming from her cheek with a gentle thumb.
"You're hurt..." Her voice was raspy, quite distant as Astro's mind seemed to be somewhere else, yet so warm and close, as she worried deeply about the queen.
"You're hurt too..." The pale woman let out. "Astro, you're losing a lot of blood-"
"It doesn't matter now." Said the ravenette. "Let's wrap this up. Make another tornado, and leave the rest to me."
Elsa was exhausted, but she pushed all her strength to oblige. Anything for her kingdom.
As the icy tornado formed, Astro filled it with her own fire.
The contrast in temperatures made it grow in size, intensity, destructiveness.
Together, the queen and the warrior directed it to sweep the remaining enemies.
Arendelle grew quiet once again. The remaining soldiers who had fought to protect the kingdom were injured, tired, but relieved it was over.
Until...
New ships were spied in the horizon: the last reinforcements from Weselton.
The terror was visible in Elsa's eyes: they were too tired and injured to fight back and win this time.
She watched as Astro stood up, almost wobbling as she had lost too much blood.
"Astro, what-"
"I will end this. For Arendelle. For you."
The Spanish female elevated herself with fire, and raised herself up, far into the sky, high enough to surpass the height of the castle.
As her left arm was limp and profusely bleeding, she lifted her right hand, open to face the ozone layer.
Suddenly, the atmosphere began to heat up, only for a few seconds, before a few meteorites the size of a soda can came down against the enemy ships. Yes, they were small, but coming from so high up, they had enough destructive power to sink every single ship, killing every passenger, one after another.
The sounds were deafening, and so was the silence that followed them.
As this final attack had completely drained the ravenette, her eyes slowly closed, the fire propelling her up died, and she began to fall.
"No!" Elsa quickly used some of her remaining energies to create a slide high enough to scoop the warrior and ease her fall, leaving her safe in a pile of snow.
She ran to her friend, who was covered in blood, and still losing a great amount of it.
"Astro-"
Her eyes filled with tears at the sight. Her tanned skin was paling, her temperature beginning to drop.