Ch 52: Ice Lord

The icy beast looms over the group, clearly intent on eradicating them from it's territory. As terrifying as it looks, this creature may be even more dangerous than it appears...

            A bead of sweat rolling down her face as she stared at the creature nervously, Amy said, “What is this thing?!” Unsure himself, Fenrip said, “I’m no expert, but this monster is unlike anything I’ve ever heard of!” Summoning her broom and leaping onto it, Mythra said, “That’s no monster! It’s a wild elemental polymorph, a very rare kind of advanced anomaly born from an inanimate object! Be careful, it’s extremely dangerous!” Suddenly sprinting forth on its four legs, as the ice beast lunged at them, everyone quickly scattered. Rushing to get away from it, Rufus tripped and fell flat on his face, and as he got to his hands and knees, he looked back to see the beast’s head facing him, freezing energy glowing in its mouth. Unable to move, as the beast fired a beam of icy power from its mouth, Rufus cried out in terror, and Ian was affixed to his hat like an ornament, his eyes nearly popping out of his feline cranium as he cowered with fear. 

Rushing between them and the beam, Amy quickly raised a psychic barrier and blocked it, a mound of ice quickly forming around the barrier as it continued to channel the attack. Then as EDE shells pummeled its side, the beast let up in its attack and turned its attention to Fenrip as he continued to fire from his EDE shell launcher. Turning to Rufus, Amy said, “Are you ok?!” Getting to his feet with a sigh of relief, Rufus replied, “Yeah, thanks! I thought I was done for!” Holding her hand up to form his shard again, Amy said, “Memory Summon: Reaper!” As the ghostly entity known as Reaper appeared at her command, Amy turned back to Rufus and said, “Go with Guru and find a way inside the ship! We’ll handle this!” As Rufus hurried off with a nod, Amy rushed into battle with Reaper right behind her.

            Raising his sketchbook before him as one of the beast’s clawed appendages swiped at him, a giant shield like those wielded by knights of legend appeared to defend Fenrip, but striking against the shield powerfully as it floated there in the air, the beast’s strike shattered it and knocked Fenrip back. The shield having taken the brunt of the blow, as Fenrip landed on his behind, he moved to clutch the shallow wound on his left arm, but quickly stopped as he found ice from the beast’s body spreading across it. Gritting his teeth, Fenrip fearfully thought, “A direct hit from its attacks could freeze you solid!” Suddenly opening its mouth and lunging at Fenrip with its jagged teeth, as the beast bore down on him, he seemed doomed. 

Swooping in on her broom, Mythra plucked Fenrip from the jaws of the beast just in the nick of time, and turning back, she took aim with both her wand and her crystals as she unleashed arcane stars and elemental beams at the beast’s head. As the ice beast staggered, Amy rushed up behind it and leaped up onto its tail. Running up the tail onto its back, she leaped into the air and clasped both hands together, raising them up and bringing them down on the beast’s back as she shouted, “Stone Hammer!” As she struck its back with cataclysmic force, the beast’s legs gave way and its body fell to the ground. While the ice beast lay there on its belly, Reaper held the curved tips of his bladed arms together as he gathered dark energy between them, preparing to fire at the beast with an energy attack from where he hovered above it in the air. 

Dropping Fenrip off and gathering her crystals before her, as all her crystals turned red and a great red rune circle formed, Mythra shouted, “Ultimate Element: Flame Orb!” Moving out as they readied their attacks, Amy threw up a psychic barrier around herself as Mythra’s flame orb shot out, a gigantic fireball that struck the ice beast dead on and exploded in a fiery blast. Then Reaper fired a mighty beam of dark energy into the flames, adding a blast of dark power to the raging flames. The beast vanishing from sight under their attacks, everyone waited with bated breath for the aftermath to clear.

            The aftermath was swept aside as great icy wings spread outward from it, the creature now in the form of a one-eyed dragon made of ice. Its neck long and serpentine, its tail longer, its body was now lined with razor sharp spines. Taking flight on its wings, it circled around the airship and began to rain orbs of freezing flames from its mouth at them. Flying after it while dodging its attacks, Mythra fired her beams at the ice dragon, but with great agility it effortlessly dodged. Back on the ground, Fenrip had cast aside his EDE shell launcher and was using a hammer from his sketchbook to free his arm from the ice. Breaking it apart at last, he skimmed through his sketchbook again, and finding the page he sought, he placed his hand upon it and said, “Come forth, Galequis!” In a flash of light, his summoned creature appeared, and he soared into the skies on the back of a great golden griffon, a beast with the body and tail of a lion as well as the claws, wings, and head of an eagle. Using bursts of psychic force to jump back onto the airship carrier’s wing, Amy could only send Reaper in to pursue the enemy while she watched from below, unable to keep up with the dragon’s maneuvers with psychic bursts.

Dodging as the ice dragon dove at her, Mythra turned to aim after it with her wand as she kept firing her beams and shouted, “Seeker Stars!” Multiple spiraling stars shooting after the dragon like homing missiles, the dragon dodged as Reaper flew at it with a twin slash of his bladed arms, and then began to evade the oncoming seeker stars. Unable to shake them, it turned about and fired a cone shaped wave of frozen power from its mouth, literally stopping the stars cold and forcing Mythra to make evasive maneuvers as the wave nearly froze her as well. Flipping through his sketchbook as he rode his flying steed, Fenrip summoned forth a great spear and flew Galequis after the ice dragon, catching up to it with great speed and striking out. Stabbing the spear point into the side of the ice dragon’s frozen armor, Fenrip tore a great wound into its side. Quickly backing off as the angered ice dragon turned its head at him and fired another wave of cold, he kept it distracted as Mythra read from her grimoire. 

All seven of her crystals turning red, as a great red rune circle formed from each one, Mythra snapped the Grimoire of the Spellweaver shut and shouted, “Spellweave! Ultimate Element: Flame Orb and Ultimate Barrage, take shape as the Ultimate Flame Blades!” A giant sword of fire forming from each rune circle, with a wave of her hand Mythra sent them flying at the ice dragon one after another. Ducking and dodging the flame blades, the ice dragon’s injury seemed to slow it down a bit, and finally a flame blade hit the mark. Impaled by the flame blade through the chest, as the flaming sword glowed brightly, it exploded and blew the ice dragon apart.

            The bits and pieces of the ice dragon flying everywhere, the falling chunks of ice began to dissolve into bits of snow and quickly floated through the air to gather around the icy eye. Reforming before their eyes, the ice dragon appeared in the air before them once more with a shrill cry. Gritting her teeth, an annoyed Mythra muttered, “Damn, can we even kill something like that?!” Dodging Reaper with ease as he flew at it to strike out with his bladed arms once more, the ice dragon sent him sailing into the side of the wall with a whip of its tail. Then as the ice dragon started to gather freezing energy into its mouth, the EDE turrets of the Titan Class Carrier came to life and opened fire on it. Caught by surprise, the ice dragon was struck by the powerful EDE shells being fired at it, and despite its attempts to evade as the ship kept firing, the focused barrage was too much and it was hit with shell after shell. 

Plummeting through the air to crash on top of the airship’s main body, the ice dragon had been reduced to little more than a pile of ice. Moving up from the wing onto the main body, Amy watched as the dragon’s icy body dissolved into snow and began to reform into something else yet again. Watching how it gathered around the eye, Amy thought in realization, “The eye! It must be its core or something!” Fenrip coming down to land beside her, Mythra hovering just above them, they watched as the creature took the shape of a towering ice giant clad in frozen armor. Three stories tall, spikes of ice sticking out from its back and shoulders, the giant’s right arm had an icy double axe blade where a hand normally would be. Staring down at them with its single icy eye, swirling snow gathered in its clawed, three fingered left hand as the giant raised it at Amy and Fenrip, and as two spikes of ice shot out of the swirling snow, they both dodged to the side.

            Striking the hull of the carrier, the ice spikes exploded into freezing shrapnel, catching both Amy and Fenrip off guard. Hit in the shoulder by a jagged hunk of ice, Amy found her shoulder and arm beginning to become covered in thick ice. Fenrip basically in the same boat, his leg wounded by the freezing shrapnel, he was forced to drop to one knee as his leg froze over. Grimacing as she saw the two of them injured, Mythra called her Elementum Orbis before her and unleashed elemental beams as she shouted, “Up here you walking refrigerator!” Staggering back as it was struck by her beams, as the giant shifted its attention to Mythra, Amy shouted, “The eye Mythra! Hit the eye!” Zooming past the giant and trying to lead it away from them, as it turned to face her, Mythra took aim at the eye with her wand and fired a beam of arcane magic at it. Striking some form of barrier around the eye, the beam exploded with little effect, and in retaliation the giant swung his axe arm at Mythra and unleashed a snowstorm at her. Blown off her broom, Mythra disappeared over the side of the ship. 

As the giant moved to look over the side after her, Rufus’ voice called out over a loudspeaker, “Keep your heads down, I’ll blast this psychotic snowman to bits with the EDE cannons!” The EDE cannons across the top of the ship taking aim at the giant, a single round blew it over the edge, but taking little damage from the blast, the giant landed on the floor below unharmed. Rushing to the edge, Amy looked down to see the giant approaching the incapacitated Mythra, the snowstorm having frozen over much of her body. Mustering her golem’s strength and breaking apart the ice around her shoulder and arm, just as Amy was about to jump down to aid Mythra, Fenrip said, “Wait! My leg hurts pretty bad, but even if I may not be able to fight anymore, I can still do this much! Contact with that thing’s attacks should be avoided, so take this just in case!” Pulling a single edged sword from his sketchbook, its guard small and its blade curved slightly at the end, Fenrip tossed it to Amy. Catching it and looking at it a moment, Amy nodded and said, “Ok, thanks!”

            Landing on the floor, Amy rushed at the giant with sword in hand as she shouted, “I’m coming Mythra!” Calling Reaper to her, as the phantom ally flew down beside her, she hopped on his back and he carried her up to the giant’s shoulder. Readying her blade, as the giant turned to look at her, Amy swung the sword at the eye. Striking the same barrier as Mythra, Amy could not break through. Then as the giant reached up to grab her, she quickly leaped off, Reaper swooping in and catching her. As Reaper dropped her off on the floor, Amy watched the giant turn its full attention to her, and in frustration she thought, “There just has to be a way through that barrier!” Rushing at Amy faster than she would have expected it to be able to move, the giant raised its axe hand and brought it down, striking the floor with a loud crash as Amy leaped to the side just in time. 

Rolling to her feet, Amy called on the golem’s power and slammed her fist into the ground as she shouted, “Stone Wave!” A wave of force rolling through the floor like a wave in the ocean, the ground itself didn’t rise up as the wave passed through it like before, the floor made of solid Deus Calx. Instead, a concentrated earthquake shook the floor powerfully as it headed towards the giant at a breakneck speed. Turning to face Amy, as the quake passed under it, the giant stumbled, but catching itself with its hand, it simply got back to its feet. Her injured shoulder aching, Amy called Reaper in, who began slicing at the barrier around the eye as she clutched her shoulder and struggled to think of what to do. Then noticing the ice forming on the blade of the sword Fenrip gave her, Amy thought, “Of course! It’s a barrier of pure cold! Mythra may have used fire before, but none of those attacks were a direct hit on the eye itself! I’ve got to get Mythra!”

            Rushing over to where Mythra laid frozen, as Amy approached, it was clear Mythra would be in no condition to fight. Much of her body and part of her head covered in thick layers of ice, as Amy started breaking her out of it, her body shivered as her teeth chattered violently. Seeming somewhat confused, most likely due to hypothermia, Amy struggled to bring her to her senses, saying, “Mythra! You’ve got to get up! We need fire to destroy the eye! I can’t do it by myself!” Looking at her sword and suddenly reaching out for it, as Mythra placed her hand on the sword, a red rune circle formed from her hand as she chattered, “E-enough e-excuses, I’m t-too c-cold for this r-right n-now…” Flames suddenly sparking across her sword, as the blade raged with fire, Amy held it before her and exclaimed, “I didn’t know you could do that!” 

Suddenly they heard the giant’s thundering footsteps coming their way. Having finally fended off Reaper’s attacks, the giant was on them before Amy even turned around. As she turned about, it brought its axe hand down powerfully before she could even concentrate on making a barrier, and Amy could only raise her sword in defense instinctively, praying that all of Fenrip’s creations were made of crystallized EDE. Striking against her burning blade, the powerful attack nearly brought Amy to her knees, only having been stopped due to the immense strength she gained from her golem’s shard. Struggling against the giant’s strength as it grappled with her, the intense cold emanating from the axe blade starting to freeze over both her sword’s handle and the hands that held it, Amy thought, “It can’t end here! We’ve fought so hard, and we still have to tell the others about the Vinculus and save Grey! I’ve worked so hard… to be of use to him… I can’t…” With all her heart, Amy pushed the giant back as she shouted, “I WON’T LOSE!” 

Staggering away from her unexpected strength, as the giant backed off, Amy leaped after it. Unleashing a combination of airborne slashes and kicks, she kept using bursts of psychic force to propel herself after the giant as it staggered back even further from her mighty blows, struggling to shield itself with the flat side of its axe blade. Pushing off the giant’s chest after striking with another powerful kick, as Amy sailed backwards through the air, she propelled herself at it yet again with a mighty spinning drill kick. Though it tried to raise its axe hand in defense again, the power behind her drill kick toppled the giant, knocking it onto its back. As it started to try and get back up, it found itself pinned in place by Amy’s psychic powers, kept from moving by her very concentration. Then shooting into the air above the giant with a burst of psychic force, Amy came down with her flaming blade and stabbed it into the giant’s eye with a cry of rage. Piercing through the barrier of cold, the blade stabbed straight through the eye, and as a shrill cry echoed through the room, the giant disintegrated into a small pile of snow with a memory shard sitting on top of it where the eye had been.

            Gathering in the main control room of the Titan Class Carrier, with the elevator destroyed, Amy and the others needed another way to get out of the underground hangar. With an apologetic look, Amy said to Guru, “Sorry Guru. Once we’re out, we can hide it somewhere else if you want.” Taking it rather well, Guru crossed his arms with a sigh, and then said with a reluctant smile, “It’s fine. As for what you decide to do with it, I’ll leave it up to you.” Somewhat surprised, Mythra said, “Are you saying we can keep it? What happened to all that ‘this thing is too dangerous’ talk of yours?” Shrugging his shoulders, Guru said, “Oh well right? Somebody was sure to find this old thing again someday. I can’t think of anyone better to turn it over to than Angelorum Lux themselves.” Stars in his eyes, Rufus jumped for joy and exclaimed, “AWESOME!” Raining on Rufus’ parade, Fenrip said, “I’d be surprised if five people can even get this thing off the ground though.” 

Having been thinking the same thing, Mythra said, “Yeah well, we won’t know until we try. To be honest though, as long as we can open the hangar doors, I could fly us out on my broom one by one.” Hearing this, Guru quickly said, “Wait a minute, why take the ship then?!” Turning to him with a frazzled look on her face, Mythra said, “You just said it was fine! If you wanna leave it here that’s fine too, but it isn’t going to stay here for very long either way.” In confusion, Guru said, “Huh? Why not?” Glancing at Mythra, Amy asked, “Grave?” Nodding, Mythra’s expression was serious as she said, “The man who was with us earlier is part of Altera Veritas, the new Dark Crusade. Once they know that this thing is sitting here for the taking, with an entire stash of fighter airships stored inside it, do you really think they won’t come and take it for themselves?” A look of realization on his face, Guru said, “Then we sure as hell can’t leave it here! My granddad did write in his diary a bit about how you work this thing, so I think I can figure it out if I take a look.”

            Up on the surface level of the abandoned air base, as sirens and warning lights went off, a large area of the bare stretch of Deus Calx sank into the ground and slid aside to reveal the massive hangar doors beneath. The armored doors opening as well, the loud hum of powerful repulsion engines filled the air as the Titan Class Carrier rose out of the underground hangar and headed towards the skies. Standing at the commander’s main control panel over by the window, the others sitting at various critical command posts surrounding the holo projector in the center of the bridge, Guru grinned as he exclaimed, “Woohoo! Good work folks!” Punching in commands on the control panel, he added, “Should be able to set her to auto pilot now. Go ahead and take five if you like.” Leaning back in his seat with a big grin on his face, Rufus said, “Wait till Schmitt get’s a load of this baby!” 

Looking over at him in amusement, Fenrip said, “I’d bet everyone will be surprised when we show up in this. Though there is something that’s bothering me still…” In concern, Amy looked up from her controls and said, “What is it Fenrip?” Laughing at her reaction, Fenrip replied, “Oh, it’s nothing too important. Call it my creative spirit at work, but aren’t we going to give this ship a name? You can’t keep calling it ‘it’ or ‘this baby’ forever, right?” With a thoughtful expression, Amy uttered, “Hmm…” Thinking on this as well, Rufus said, “Well, how about Blade Wing, or maybe Sky Lord?!” Looking rather unsatisfied with these, Fenrip said, “They’re not bad names, but they just don’t feel like they have the right flair and originality to them.” 

Leaning back in her chair resting her eyes as she listened to them, Mythra said, “What’s your idea for a name then Fenrip?” Thinking a moment, as his ideal name suddenly came to him, Fenrip replied, “There’s a mythical titan in elven legend. The legend says that in the world’s darkest hour, when the trees of life themselves rot and decay, the titan will ascend to the brightest star in night skies and save us from destruction.” Eagerly, Rufus said, “Cool! Let’s name it after him!” Interested as well, Amy said, “What’s the name of the titan Fenrip?” With dramatic flair, Fenrip said, “Tentrion!”