The shock of the cold wind and snow momentarily stunned Raz as he entered his own mental world, and he was glad for the goggles protecting his eyes. He looked up at the castle towering over the landscape, certain that this was where he would find the dragon. He just had to get up there somehow. There was still no obvious path, but he wasn't going to let that stop him.

"Try all you like," Melancholia's voice came to him on the wind. "You don't have what it takes to reach my lair. And even if you did, what hope have you of defeating me?"

Razputin tried to come up with a snappy response, but found himself at a loss. Whatever, he thought, frowning. His eyes darted over the cliff, analyzing potential paths. There were ledges he could potentially reach, and he thought he could see some caves, too. He'd just have to see where he could get as he went.

He summoned a levitation ball to carry him through the snow, and set off into the forest at the base of the mountain. It was dark, of course, with the trees blocking the moonlight. The snow was bright, at least, reflecting what little light his levitation bubble gave off and making it marginally easier to see.

The darkness, however, also made it easier to see certain enemies. A pack of Bad Ideas tried to stalk Raz through the forest like wolves, but the red glow of their bulbs gave them away, and they gave up the pretense as he shot one of them with a psi-blast.

"Take a hint, boy. This is a fool's errand," said the dragon.

"We'll see about that," Raz muttered, intercepting an incoming bulb with telekinesis and hurling it back toward the source. It smashed against a tree trunk and exploded ineffectually. He wasn't even sure how many Bad Ideas he was fighting, since they kept slipping behind trees and bushes while he was distracted trying to not crash into things.

A bulb blasted him off his levitation ball and he landed flat on his back in the snow. Red eyes loomed over him, and Raz hopped to his feet and punched the creature in the face. While it reeled, he launched a couple psi-blasts at its packmates, but only one connected, the other being blocked by a rock. In this dense environment, he'd have to rely on close combat.

He jumped out of the way of a bulb, psi-punched one Bad Idea into submission, and telekinetically threw the bulb at another pair, eliminating them both with a single explosion. An attack from behind sent him sprawling, but he bounced right back up and hurled a rock at his attacker. It stumbled backwards dizzily before vanishing in a puff of mental energy.

As quickly as it had begun, it was over, and the woods were still and quiet, save for the wind, once more. Raz flexed his fingers, and found himself smiling. Now he was back in his groove! He hopped up onto a rock and used the branches of nearby trees to swing himself up onto a ledge. He climbed up a web of vines onto another rocky platform, and used a thought bubble to drift over a ravine.

"I can do this," Raz said. "I can do this!"

"No, you can't," Melancholia said, as Doubts rose from the ground, shaking snow off their backs.

Raz immediately set them aflame and finished them off with psi-blasts as they scrambled around in a panic, leaving looping trails of melted snow behind. "Yes, I can. I've handled far worse than this. Compared to the Meat Circus, this is a walk in the park! Actually, it's just like getting around the Questionable Area!"

The dragon growled, unable to answer. Instead, little portals opened on the cliff wall, and out came a small band of Censors. Raz blinked; the Censors were wearing black armor, and rather than stamps, they held warhammers (still bearing the "no" symbol, of course – which was also emblazoned on the shields these Censors carried).

"You are my own creations!" Raz shouted. "I command you to stop!"

"No," came the unsurprising answer, as they lunged. The boy dodged out of the way, and nearly took a tumble off the cliff. Scrambling back to more solid footing, he attempted to psi-blast one of his attackers, only to have it bounce harmlessly off the shield. That was certainly going to make this more challenging.

"They no longer answer to you, boy," Melancholia snarled. "This mind is mine now! You belong to me!"

Raz punched one Censor and sent it reeling backwards off the cliff. "I don't belong to anybody but the Psychonauts!"

Another Censor lunged, its hammer slamming into Raz's shoulder painfully, but the attack left it open to a psi-blast. The orange bolt sent it lurching backwards, flailing its arms ineffectually. He telekinetically yanked its shield from its grasp and used it to block a second Censor's attack, then bashed it with the shield in retaliation.

Still, there was only limited space to move in, and Razputin was outnumbered. Spying a thin, fallen tree lodged over a chasm, he jumped up and darted swiftly across with perfect balance. On the other side he spun around and launched a volley of psi-blasts at the unprepared Censors.

He stopped for a moment to get his bearings. He was well on his way up the mountainside now, with the rest of his mindscape sprawled out below him. A few generic figments of scraggly trees, bushes, and birds dotted the rocky path he was following, otherwise highlighted only in the pale blue of snow in moonlight. The wind was fiercer up here, colder, but by now he was warmed by a fire of determination.

Raz continued his march up the mountain, foregoing the ease of levitation through snow in favor of better control. The terrain might have been rough, but with his acrobatics and psychic abilities, he pressed on. He swung on the scraggly branches of dead trees, hopped across rocky outcroppings, and floated over gaps too wide to jump. Where there was a cliff too steep to be climbed, Raz used telekinesis to build a platform of large stones to give himself a boost.

Eventually, he reached a cave, or more accurately a tunnel. Initially, the ice encrusting every surface made it impossible for him to clamber up the rocky ledges or cling to the stalactites, but that was nothing a quick blast of pyrokinesis couldn't fix. At one point he nearly fell onto a nasty-looking bed of stalagmites, but he was able to summon a thought bubble in time to float away.

At last, Raz came to the end of the cavern, where it opened up just outside the gates of the castle. Without a word, he briefly called upon his Archetype to slip through the portcullis and open it from the other side. The heavy metal gate groaned and creaked as it rose. The Archetype gave him a thumbs up.

"I've got your back!" it told him.

"Alright," Raz replied, "let's go slay a dragon."

"Wait, what? Nobody said fighting dragons would be involved! You're on your own, buddy!" it said, folding into a paper airplane and zipping off into the night.

"Gee, thanks."

With a sigh, Raz walked into the courtyard. The castle walls were in disrepair, but still stood tall all around him, providing at least some measure of protection from the screaming wind. Towers and spires rose up at varied intervals along the perimeter, and here and there a figment of a dead tree or a raven added color. Though he couldn't see any actual birds, he could hear their grating cries.

Suddenly the portcullis slammed back down behind him, causing him to jump. He did not have a chance to turn around to look, though, because Melancholia finally chose to appear. She stalked over the ramparts like a great panther, wiry muscles rippling under black scales. Stone crenellations cracked and crumbled under her eagle-like talons. Vast black wings loomed high above, and a long sinuous tail, tipped by a vicious blade, whipped behind her. Instead of lifting her head high, she craned her long neck down into the courtyard to meet Razputin eye-to-massive-eye. Yes, each of her cold, glowing eyes was larger than his head.

He gulped, only now really grasping how huge she was; in fact, she was probably one of the largest mental figures he'd yet encountered, second only to the "sea monster" Loboto he'd encountered in the mad dentist's mind. And Monstroboto had not directly attacked him, only throwing objects. He had a feeling Melancholia would do him no such favors.

The gigantic dragon stepped down into the courtyard, slinking fluidly over the castle wall to stand before Razputin on level ground, and drew her head back up proudly to tower above him.

With a vicious, snarling voice that shook the ground, she bellowed: "Behold my might!"

And Raz began having second thoughts.