Ice Queen

Back inside Endora, Hollie has just flown back inside Maya’s chamber.

“They are coming and have already passed the mark where Seth said that ascended was supposed to act.”

“Are there still no news from Seth?” asked Maya with worry.

Hollie shook her head and said: “If he didn’t even send word, things are still going as planned. We just need to wipe those soldiers ourselves. If that ascended fights back, we should be able to take him together.”

Maya nodded and stood up. “Fine. We’ll kill them all. Project my voice across the city.”

After Hollie nodded, Maya started changing her clothes into a pure black dress as she said: “People of Endora, this is your queen speaking. The enemy you have all been made aware of is currently marching on our capital.”

“I wanted to assure everyone that everything is going according to King Seth’s plans, and we’re now heading to deal with the enemy. Everyone is prohibited from leaving the kingdom until further notice so you won’t get caught in the fighting.”

After signaling Hollie to cut the transmission, they flew towards an inconspicuous house far north of the capital. The two of them walked inside and were greeted by a man and a woman.

The man fell on one knee, and the woman bowed respectfully. “Queen Maya.”

Maya nodded and said: “Ava, it appears something happened, and Seth’s plan has changed. I need you two to come with us and assist in case that sixth shell is going to make trouble. Taking care of a sixth shell destruction ascended should be easy with us four.”

Ava frowned and shook her head: “With all the respect, Queen Maya, you might not be right. Not even considering the strength difference between destruction and other elemental energies, he is at the peak of the sixth shell. Dealing with him might be closer to impossible.”

Both Hollie and Maya frowned and looked at each other. Maya then rubbed her abdomen, and her frown turned into a smile as she said: “No matter then. You all stay here.”

“Huh?” exclaimed both Ava and Hollie.

“Seth had left the kingdom in my hands when he left. If I can’t deal with the enemy, you must keep everyone safe until Seth arrives.”

Seeing Hollie about to say something, Maya giggled and said: “Don’t worry. Have trust in our man. Also, this is an order.”

Hollie sighed and shook his head: “If you act dumbly and get yourself killed, Seth will end up wiping this world out of existence again.”, Ignoring Ava’s shocked face, she continued: “I’m coming too, and if things get dangerous, I will make sure to get you out. Destruction is strong but is not the fastest energy.”

Maya nodded, knowing there was no convincing Hollie, and turned towards Ava: “You two remain here and wait for us to return.”

Without giving Ava time to reply, she and Hollie flew out, heading toward the far north. When they reached the sea of enemy soldiers, Maya turned towards Hollie and said with a giggle: “It’s been a while since I got to go all out. This is fun.”

“I’ll leave it to you then. Also, the most likely conclusion is that Seth had to kill that ascended, which means there are only humans here. The best choice would be to wipe them off with one swift move anyway.”

Maya’s face turned serious, and she nodded: “That’s what I also figured. Also, just in case, we should attack from higher up so that ascended won’t have time to protect all the humans if he’s still there.”

Hollie agreed and flew the two of them high in the clouds. Maya took a deep breath and started releasing the energy in her source. Light blue energy started extending out of her body, covering the entire sky as far as one’s eyes could see.

Her hands were shaking, and she looked exhausted, but there was a large smile on her lips. Turning towards Hollie, she asked: “Are you ready?”

Hollie looked at the floor of hundreds of millions of sharp ice spikes under them and nodded with a smile of her own. “Give them hell.”

After Hollie’s words, Maya swiftly waved her hands downwards, and all spikes flew towards the grounds.

———

The alliance army was marching towards the capital of Endora.

Everyone besides the generals directing the army was confused about why they were not attacking Oath, but they could only swallow their confusion as they followed their orders.

After passing through so many deserted villages on the way there, everyone was already anxious, but the generals ignored any advice and ordered them to continue south.

They were just as nervous as everyone else, but as they reported the situation to Ronald, they didn’t receive any new orders back, so they could only follow with their initial ones.

The only one that seemed entirely at ease was General Tarquin, who was asking his soldiers to tell him jokes as they rode to the south and laughed his ass off on his horse.

His cheerful attitude only worried everyone under his command, but every time someone spoke about their worries, Tarquin only had a single thing to say back.

“Oh, don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”

The soldiers initially happy with their general turning into a friendly idiot were now starting to wish for the cruel and tyrannical Tarquin to return.

As they were approaching the capital of Endora and the tension in the air was almost palpable, Tarquim suddenly stopped laughing and looked upward with a frown.

“It’s raining… ice?”

The other soldiers following after him also looked up and couldn’t spot anything out of order, and they were once more convinced their general had utterly lost it.

“General, what about ice?” asked one of the soldiers with a laugh.

Tarquin looked at him and smiled: “Oh, don’t worry. Just an water ascended attacking us with ice from the sky. You’ll probably all die, but I’ll live, so everything will be fine.”

The smile on that soldier’s face froze, and he looked up but couldn’t see anything again.

“Haha, General, you shouldn’t joke like that.”

Tarquin shook his head: “I’m not joking.” The next moment, everyone was stunned to see Tarquin lift his hand as a round shield appeared above his head.

With the same smile on his face, he said: “Bye-bye. You were all great. I’ll miss your jokes.”

Before the soldiers could process everything, a wall of spiked ice fell from the skies, skewing every soldier alive before continuing to travel deep inside the earth. The entire army was completely wiped off in a second, turning into a mess of blood and gore.

———

After sending their attack, Hollie and Maya floated from above, looking at the lake of blood covering the land for hundreds of miles, slowly seeping into the ground through the holes left by the spikes.

Seeing Maya looking over the lands covered in death by her own hands, Hollie rubbed her back and asked: “Are you alright?”

Maya nodded with a tired look and said: “Seeing it up close is quite disheartening, but I don’t mind killing everyone who would ever threaten Seth and our happiness. No matter how many come, I’ll bury them all the same.”

Hollie looked at Maya’s face and was impressed by her words when her ears fluttered, and she looked towards the center of the pool of blood.

“Never mind that. I think I found our ascended.”

Maya’s face turned serious as she asked: “Is he attacking?”

Hollie’s eyebrow twitched as she shook her head: “He appears to be yelling: ‘Sisters, over here. Sisters, over here.’”

Maya’s serious expression crumbled as well as she asked: “Are you sure you’re not hearing wrong?”

Hollie sighed and started floating along with Maya closer toward Tarquin. When they reached him, the image they saw was even more exaggerated than they expected.

Tarquin was jumping up and down, waving his hands toward the sky with a wide smile. The image of his childish acting while surrounded by a literal sea of corpses was quite traumatic.

Maya and Hollie looked at each other before asking simultaneously: “What did Seth do to him?”

“Sisters, sisters, is Seth here?”

Maya and Hollie sighed and floated towards him. Once they reached what they considered a safe distance, they stopped and asked: “Who are you?”

Tarquin scratched the back of his head and said: “I’m Tarquin. Seth sent me here with these people. Too bad you killed them. Some of them were quite funny.”

Maya tried to reign in her confusion as she asked: “Take off your bandanna. Also, why didn’t you kill them yourself?”

Tarquin quickly took off his bandanna, exposing the mark Seth had placed on his forehead and allowing Hollie and Maya to heave a sigh of relief before saying: “Seth said I didn’t have to kill them but only be their general until they got here. Did I do good? He said he’ll kill me if I didn’t do good.”

“You did well.” Said Maya with a nod before turning towards Hollie: “Do you know what’s happening?”

Hollie frowned and said: “His perception might have acted up, and he broke the idiot’s head. Since Seth allowed him to come, I imagine it’s fine.”

Maya nodded and said: “Tarquin, Seth is busy right now. Let’s go to his home and wait for him.”

Tarquin nodded, and a wave of air energy suddenly enveloped him. Hollie carried everyone to Ava’s house, where Ava was waiting for them with an anxious expression.

Seeing Maya and Hollie return safe along with Tarquin, she heaved a sigh of relief and asked: “Did everything go alright?”

Maya and Hollie had awkward faces, but Tarquin rushed to the kneeling Dan and started looking at the mark on his forehead: “Haha, we must be brothers. I have one as well.”

Ava looked at the scene with a raised eyebrow before giving Maya and Hollie a questionable look.

“We can only wait for Seth to come back and explain, but at least he appears harmless.”

After setting Tarquin to live with Ava and Dan, Maya returned to the palace and announced their victory to the people before sitting down to recover her exhausted energy.

A celebration was held among the population of Endora the following day, and the academy ascended were all sent to clean up the fight area.

After rumors started spreading about the battlefield condition, a new name was being chanted along the common population.

“Ice Queen, Maya Cantory.”