Ice followed in her wake, lacing up and across the surrounding undergrowth as she headed towards the mountain, snapping some trees and even causing some spikes to grow out of the ground. The partially cloudy sky darkened a little and a brief spell of a strong gust rustled the trees. Yet, Elsa did not pay any heed to the alterations her power was making to her surroundings. To her, everything else besides said natural place was a blur, a void outside of her own world. She was driven, determined, one might even say hell-bent on getting there and dishing out some well-deserved justice.
It's what he deserves she told herself again for the umpteenth time as she subconsciously formed a bridge of ice over a fallen log and traversed it, shoving some branches out of the way and leaving them a frosty mess.
In the time since she had left to go after Cthulhu, her mind had been a whirlwind of emotions. Resignation, firmness, grief, sadness, anger, fury, and even simple nothingness; all of it had and continued to dominate her thoughts, throwing her reason, her logic, her control out of the window. Her mantra: 'Conceal, don't feel' was now abandoned, replaced by one single desire.
To get to and kill Cthulhu.
One might look at her and think that she would be horrified at herself for thinking something like this, that she would really go to the point of using her powers to kill another being. But that was as far from her thoughts as Arendelle was from the island now, and likely more on top of that. Her past usage of her powers on others, be they people or titans, was for self-defence of herself, or to stop them from bringing chaos and destruction. Ebirah and the Kraken had devastated Arendelle, Battra had tried to kill Godzilla in the Southern Isles, the Duke's henchmen all those years ago had tried to murder her, yet she had not wanted to kill them. To stop them, or at least keep them in place for others to deal with them, yes, but never to inflict any real harm on them. And to her right now, what she wanted to do was to ensure that no real harm would come to anyone or anything else, that Cthulhu would not pose a threat to the world.
She reached the clearing just before the mountain entrance, pausing for a moment to survey it, her blue eyes boring deep into it as if trying to see him, to make sure he was there before she took him on. Did he know she was coming? What she intended? Probably. He was meant to be a god after all, or at least that was what Moll and Lora had told her. It would not matter; the result would be the same. Her fingers bent, almost resembling claws as ice and wind rushed through them, that feeling, that rush of something electric coursing through her veins, raring to be unleashed like a wild animal.
Elsa looked down at herself, then, with a wave of her arm, ice forming across her legs, arms, torso, hips and feet, growing until each was surrounded by a layer of sky-blue ice that resembled some kind of armour. Her forearms, neck area and shoulders were themselves hidden by a transparent layer of frost, one that looked thin and delicate like what a person would see on a winter morning, but she made sure was tough and resilient, bearing no more weight than that of a feather. Her 'armour' too was the same, able to be carried by her without any hinderance of her movement and had the strength to rival even some of the best armour any blacksmith could make. She wanted to be prepared.
Whatever happened next, whatever happened to her as she stepped into the cave entrance, she would not give in.
She emerged from the tunnel into the chamber once again, the orange glow of the lava reflecting off her armour like fire was directly before her. Before her on the platform, the one where she had seen him take her into the blackness above, she saw Cthulhu standing, facing her direction. He'd been waiting. Despite the distance, she could see his piercing gaze and the firmness behind them mixed with the calmness he had. Elsa responded by hardening her own expression as she strolled towards him, swirling ice between her fingertips, wanting to throw the sharpest icicle imaginable at him.
"You returned," he spoke, his tone calm, yet still able to carry through the chamber. "Have you not seen enough?"
"No," Elsa replied, pausing just before the pathway to the platform, glaring dangerously at him. "You obviously saw me coming?" she asked rhetorically.
"You arrived quicker than I thought," he paused and waved his arm towards her. "And as I expected." He added with a more melancholic tone. "I hoped you would have seen the light and gone home."
"I have seen the light, you monster," she seethed. "It showed me that you murdered Godzilla!"
"It was something that had to be done, Elsa," Cthulhu moved backwards as Elsa marched down the platform, glancing warily for a moment at the lava below in the belief he was going to cause it to collapse into the hot substance below. She paused at the other end, now just a few moment's paces from the god. "You know as well as I do that he was dangerous."
"And you're not?!" She shot back, the air around her dropping in temperature. "He hid from the world, he left Arendelle because he wanted to keep it safe!"
Cthulhu held up a finger. "No, let me correct you there, he wanted to keep you safe," he told her matter-of-factly. "And you admitted I was right. You know he destroyed a village and a ship. He threatened everything."
"Well how do you know he was not trying to protect himself from the ship?" Elsa countered. "And as for the village, I saw that he had regret! He hid himself away."
Cthulhu sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, or whatever the equivalent of it was, a human sign of frustration on a titan. No doubt a surprise, but also one for worry considering what this one was capable of.
"For how long, Elsa?" he asked her. She did not answer. "He would have only done this again. He has before, long ago when he took the balance of the world into his own hands, and an entire island and its people were lost. His kind care for control, not the preservation of life." Elsa gritted her teeth. She went to speak, but he cut her off. "You fail to understand what he really represented, Elsa, let alone your opportunity."
"What opportunity?" She spat.
Calmly, he replied: "That you did not leave and go back to Arendelle." A pause to let it sink in. "When Godzilla fell, you had the chance to amend everything wrong with what happened in your home, and my girls explained it all to me. And so did you, I could see it in your eyes, the severe situation that your home was in."
He paused again and took a step closer to Elsa, one of the shadows from the glow of the lava below covering her form very easily given how tall and wide he was.
"When Godzilla had been removed, you had part of his dorsal plate to take home and show people that he was no more. You could have declared that you personally removed him, or that he had died naturally, or whatever satisfied you, the fact would have been the same. Godzilla would be dead and your world would have settled peacefully into how it was before. Life would have returned to normal for you and your family."
Upon hearing the last part, Elsa's face fell. If what he was saying was true, then … then … she had come all the way out here to … kill him. It had been Cthulhu's plan all along. The visions, the warnings, that had all been ready for her, he had really planned for her to kill him, or at least take part in doing so long before she herself even knew.
He straightened up a little more, "Your sister, I take, has not given her blessing for you coming here?" Another shake of his head. Rhetorical, yet plain and simple in his delivery of the question.
The snow queen turned her head away, biting her lip, trying to hold back her tears. Cthulhu took a step towards her, going to grab her face, but she slapped it away, a look of anger directed at him. How dare he try to touch her! Who did he think he was?!
He made a strange noise, a sort of a mix of a grunt and a growl, a low sounding emittance that Elsa felt vibrate her insides a little. He gave her a disappointed expression and she glared at him, the temperature dropping once more and a wind, though it was no more than breeze, going through the chamber. If Cthulhu noticed, though, he did not show it.
He turned away from Elsa. "I'm disappointed in you, Elsa," he said to her, emphasising his words with a shake of the head and a sigh. "I had hoped you would do the next right thing and leave. You have the chance, the opportunity, and are tossing it aside to fulfil some act of revenge."
She shook her head, her blue eyes glaring deep at his back. "What about you?" she growled. "I tried to make you understand, but you didn't want to listen. He was dangerous, yes, but he saved my people, my home and my family."
"No, Elsa," Cthulhu told her matter-of-factly. "He saved you. But he also put you in danger. The wound on your stomach is more than enough proof of that."
She glared at him again, teeth gritting once more, eyes burning with a fiery fury. If he saw it, he was unfazed.
"Believe me, Elsa. You are safer without him, and so is the world. This 'balance' he set up was to his liking, not that of the world. I am simply restoring it to how it should be."
"Only to your liking," Elsa said. "For a 'god'-" (she added a rather sarcastic tone on this word.) –"You're awfully human."
His golden eyes glared deeply at her and she noticed his hand clenched into a fist. Good, I'm getting to him. I'm hitting a nerve!
"You would do well to leave," he growled, turning away and taking a step towards the center of the platform. "Your need here is past."
"Not yet, you monster," she replied, her voice turning darker. "You think you're the one who can take his place, but you're wrong. You're wrong about him, and you never will be the next ruler." She saw him stiffen at these words.
"The only next right thing for me to do is to finish you off!"
A pause passed, the silence between them broken only by the sound of the lava below. Then, the gigantic being looked half-back at Elsa, his expression firm, his golden eyes burning with something. Was it anger at her challenging him? Was it the disappointment? Was it even both?
"Is that your desire?" he asked, not hiding his disgust. "Is that how it must be?"
Elsa's hand began to swirl snow and ice between her fingers. "It's how it will be."
Cthulhu stared at her, meeting her gaze as if trying to understand why she was doing this. Part of him really wanted to delve deeper, to see why she was so hell-bent on avenging him, a demon, a monster, the real monster of this world. He was here to set things right, yet why did she want to impede such a thing?! Was she even wanting to avenge Godzilla, or to take his place for herself? It was certainly not impossible.
Elsa's hand conjured a long, thick spear of ice that was nearly double her height, both tips pointed to look as sharp as a knife, one directed right at Cthulhu, who only raised an eyebrow. As much as her power was below his own, he could not deny a part of him was still impressed.
"Elsa, you will be making a huge mistake." He warned her.
"I already did," she replied.
Suddenly, the ice spear shot out to the gigantic creature, slamming into his chest with a sickening THWACK and a tearing of flesh. He roared out, the sound becoming overwhelmingly ubiquitous and hurting Elsa's ears, but she remained standing and watched as he staggered sideways, clutching the spear. His feet found the edge and before he could stop himself, he fell over the side, his roar filling the chamber, only to be stopped as he slammed into the lava.
Elsa rushed to the edge and saw arm sink into the lava, the orange/yellowy thick, bubbly mixture absorbing his gigantic form, relieved that he was gone. It was oddly easy, but relieving. Godzilla was avenged, everything was back in order and -
A loud rumble shook the chamber, startling her. Some rocks fell from nearby, landing with a crash around the platform or into the lava below. Loud bubbling drew her attention and she saw a large black shape begin to form within it, slowly rising out of the lava into view. Her stomach dropped. She gulped.
"Oh shit," she muttered. The chamber rocked again as what looked like the tip of a huge finger began to rise out of the lava, it easily dwarfing the thickness and size of the platform.
Elsa ran, stumbling a few times as the chamber shook, not daring to look back at the monstrosity rising behind her.
She emerged from the cave and fled into the jungle as fast as her legs would carry her. Behind and beneath her, the ground shook. Trees shook, their palms and leaves rustling loudly. Some birds roosting in the trees took flight, cawing loudly at the sudden growing instability. Elsa skidded to a halt in a small clearing with a good view of the mountain, chest heaving, sweat running down her forehead, her eyes fixed on the mountain.
CCRRRAAAAASSSSHHHH!
As if a volcano had erupted, the mountain exploded outwards, throwing chunks of rock the size of the houses in Arendelle in all directions, each landing with a CRASH or a THUD like an enormous thunderstorm raging overhead. Elsa conjured up a thick dome of see-through ice as rocks and chunks of earth and the occasional tree landed all around her. Some crashed into the dome, cracking it, but she willed it to hold on with outstretched hands. One chunk slammed into the ground on the edge of the clearing, scattering the trees there. Another landed on the dome and broke in two, leaving a deep crack on the front. Elsa ducked, frantically praying her ice dome would hold against the shower of dirt and rocks falling all around her.
Then almost as quickly as it came, it stopped. Gingerly, she looked up, dissipating the ice dome around her. Looking up, she gasped.
Standing in place of the mountain, or what was left of it, was a huge form, titanic, immense, held up by two powerful legs. Her eyes followed the body up to a head glaring down at her from a height that would have even rivalled Godzilla's. Elsa's legs backed her away as Cthulhu's growl rolled out across the land.
Elsa immediately put herself in a fighting stance, though her expression was terrified.
She could only hope her powers would be enough for her.