Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Chapter 60 : Desire Salvation

I felt it all.

I was it all.

My whole being connected to the billions, trillions of souls, binding them closer and closer together like glue. I felt their whole existence now becoming my own. I was them, and they were me.

I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what I could do. But I felt an urge within me, within all of me. It was to consume, it was to become.

It was to reach out and become whole… Again.

‘I was whole… Once?’

I looked down at my body, at our body. I wasn’t just a mixture of people, but of forces, of events, of places. I wasn’t just a who, I was a what, a where, and maybe even a when.

In my right hand was a spear of lightning, formed from the memories of thunderstorms, of the souls that lived briefly in the charges of the sky, crashing down onto the earth. In my left hand was a hammer of flame, born from the fires of destruction that burned many villages down.

My form was starting to turn to ice, like a glacier, from the spirits of frost that are ever present throughout Galfania, littered with mountains, small patches of grass, and so much more. I was the world, and the memories of the world, shifting and sputtering like a broken engine.

I took a step forward, and from my feet came forth the memories of the land, crashing like waves against Nawia as it began to terraform the underworld, manifesting small swamps, rivers, and trees. It felt amazing, I felt amazing, as if the world was becoming me, and I was becoming the world.

I had to; that was my goal, my purpose. And the dragon flying towards me was trying to deny me of that. He was a bygone relic of a queen long lost, a guard dog with no master. There was no use for him any longer other than to become part of me, to become one with me.

But he was strong, his Essence had Ascended, his desire and will power outstripped my own, but not for long. He shall fall, and I shall ensure to be the one to grab him by the wings and guide him to his descent.

I threw my spears of lightning at him. They crackled through the sky like missiles, each one he swerved and avoided with ease. They struck the Nawia, shaking the island itself as they created massive craters in the ground roughly the size of Zmey.

Closing the distance, I swung with my hammer, bringing it down upon the dragon who parried with his tail. Yet, I could feel him struggle as with each blow, I forcefully imprinted myself onto him, forging his soul and mind to my whim, yet his spirit did not yield, battering my hammer away as he opened his mouth and shot at it with his blasts of Ether, sending it flying over the horizon.

I reached out with my arm, bringing forth the spirits of war as I shrouded the area with fog, smog, and the echoes of gunfire. Soldiers from all eras marched forth, some in metal armor, wielding pikes and swords, conjuring catapults and trebuchets as they hurled massive stones towards Zmey, who easily swatted them aside.

Then, men with dark leather body armor began to arm themselves with high-caliber rifles, aiming at the eyes and joints of the dragons and letting loose, while a few even grabbed anti-tank armaments, from missile launchers to heavy-caliber auto cannons.

However, Zmey rolled his eyes, spinning in the air as he dodged them all with ease. He didn’t want to waste his breath on them, using his tail instead to sweep across the landscape, crashing and demolishing their forces at once.

I did not let up, though, this time bringing back the memories of more advanced warfare. From my body came forth the histories of wars, planes, and jets, carrying bombs as they flew high into the sky, dropping their payloads as they carpeted Zmey with their explosions.

Yet, even then, it wasn't enough. The three-headed dragon zoomed alongside the planes and jets, raising his wings up. He spun around, completely wrecking them all. Then, he landed amongst the transformed battlefield, forcing back its terraformation with sheer will. 

I switched gears; instead of bringing about the powers of technology, I reverted to something more sublime, more esoteric. The spirits of nature were my allies, and together we shall cover the earth once more in our beauty.

Famine and disease grew from my feet. The wailings of hungry children reverberated through the air. The growling of the hungry struck like lightning as the scenery changed. Now, the land became a barren street, covered in decrepit houses, as I brought forth the memories of those who fell from plagues and famine to overcome Zmey, filling him with that same despair, that same helplessness, to force him down.

However, the almighty dragon resisted, roaring as he would not submit, tearing out the memories with his bellows as he raised his wings and beat away the plague.

Next, ice covered my body, the dominant nature of Galfania. It was everywhere, and within me was each snowflake trampled underfoot, or that fell into a stream of water before being gulped down by a monster or traveller. I didn’t simply control ice; I was ice. It was an extension of who I was.

I sent myself to embrace Zmey, smothering him in my cold embrace, hoping to make him part of me, to slow and freeze him down until his and my souls merged. However, he even rejected that. He stared at me, as if trying to figure out what I was, before calling out.

“Flames. Warm me.” His command echoed to the flame spirits within me, bursting open as the oxymoron of fire and ice began to confuse my existence. I froze and burned with a myriad of souls screeching in the chaos.

I compromised, becoming water instead, quenching the flames and taming the water. I mixed together and surrounded Zmey with my body. I couldn’t drown him, of course, even if this was reality, dragons never did need air to breathe. But I could trap him inside of me, and that’s what I did, solidifying my form into the earth, becoming a ginormous mountain that encased him inside as I tried to subsume him.

However, Zmey seemed to count on that; his heads moved even within my body, studying it. 

“Come forth, Chosen of the Harbinger, your flames are misguided. Let go, Chosen of the Caretaker, revenge shall only lead to the downfall of the world.”

My body convulsed, flames rode through the cracks of the earth, while a green glow emanated from deep within my body. He was calling out… Jane? Marian? I saw their spirits- No, they were part of me, I felt their memories flow through me. Every day working for Ephitet, either researching in the laboratory or by the cells slaving away. I was there, and I was them.

Yet, when Zmey called out to them, to me, I could feel them being ripped apart, as if he was tearing away at my organs, scooping them out. I gritted my teeth and held them back. I merged them with myself once more as hands emerged from the dirt and rock, grabbing onto Zmey.

I did what I did to Bartholomew, searching through his memories, or tried to at least. His mind was like an iron gate. I tried hundreds of times, searching through it was impossible, no matter how many times my soul tried to reach him.

That was until I felt Jane; her flames erupted from the many hands. They, like me, have Ascended, completely denting Zmey’s iron mind as he roared while being roasted by the fire.

It was then that I rushed deep into his head, reaching out as a mansion of memories sprang forth like a dam bursting open. Most of it, however, was horrifically boring.

I watched as Zmey stood guard for not just dozens, or hundreds, but for thousands of years. He had been standing in the same spot for so long that he would every so often make himself look invisible to spook or scare people. Even flying around was essentially useless, and he only did it to make himself appear much grander.

An existence as an eternal guard dog, with the only benefit of seeing the souls of the dead fall in. However, it seemed that the rate had only slowed down quite recently, with few interesting souls popping in every now and then, and when I looked, I saw that those souls were all travelers from afar.

They wore clothes I saw back in my history books, with gear such as telescopes and binoculars hanging from their backs and waist. 

“No wonder you wanted to be entertained…” I muttered, walking on the recreation of the Nawia, walking on the Kalimov Bridge towards Zmey, with each step I took, I went a few dozen years into his mind’s past.

It seemed to be the same old routine, day in and day out. If this were me, I would have certainly gotten mad, especially with how tedious it looks and how he had to keep this all in check. It made sense, though; this land was essentially dying off. The people here mostly turned into monsters or joined the Smorodina, unable to properly move on. 

Then, after a thousand years or so had passed, I saw the entire Nawia shudder, almost as if it were in an earthquake. It began to rain hard as a storm surged throughout the underworld, thunder crackled, and the waves of the Smorodina crashed onto the river banks.

Within the storm, warriors of all shapes and sizes began to march through the Kalimov in confused droves. Men and women wearing armor with sigils of a seven-branched tree lined up the sides, filling up the line for what seemed to be thousands at a time.

“This must have been the war… The one for-“

“Jawia's Independence. Yes.”  

Zmey’s voice echoed behind me as I saw him appear. I looked around and all of a sudden, the memory paused as if he were the one in control. From the shadows, the three-headed dragon emerged with a small grin on his face.

“How did you-“

“I am the guardian of Nawia and you… Child of…”

He frowned all of a sudden. “Rock. Child of Rock. Peter Sai. It was you.”

I know I just fought him, but that was when I was an amalgamation, when the voices all spoke to me at once, crossing over my thoughts

His heads were all focused on me, staring hard. “Y-Yeah, that’s me, Peter. Listen, I-“

“I know what you are… Cornerstone. The foundation. For some reason, you are the glue that has bound them all together. You are the factor that holds together this abomination.”

Zmey sneered and slammed his claw into me, pushing me to the ground. “What has that fox told you? What is it planning?”

I winced as my head burned, thousands of memories floating in and out as I got lost in the pain and overwhelming knowledge, but I managed to gargle out.

“I-I don’t know… She didn’t tell me anything. She just said she granted my wish.”

“And your wish is…”  All three of his heads stared at me, looking down with intense curiosity.

“To be special…”

He seemed to frown again, as if that was disappointing, but then smiled.“To think… This is what I overlooked, what I forgot. Hah, my Queen would have absolutely yelled at me for such a blunder, for such a mistake. Child of Rock…”

"W-What are you going to do to me... to us?" The souls within me all asked as I stared back at Zmey, who laughed.

"I shall put you all to rest. That is my duty, but thank you for giving me a chance to fight, to show me what it felt like to be alive in this underworld..." Zmey opened up his wings and his maws, aiming down at me. “For that... thank you, and Rest.”

All at once, large swathes of blue like energy ruptured through Zmey’s mouths, shooting towards me as he held my body down. 

It wasn’t just the one in front of me, but in every memory that I was in. Within every mental corridor I was on, Zmey was there, all of them firing that same beam of light, filling my vision at every point until I saw nothing more.

I felt my body fall apart, breaking down even more than it did with the Smorodina. It felt as if I was being cut off from my rope as I scaled a mountain, falling into an abyss of light. 

All at once, I exploded, the souls that made me up shot through the Nawia like atoms in a nuclear bomb, streams of blue light followed their trail as we were separated from each other.

But we didn’t just go around the Nawia; many passed through the roots that connected the sky and the ground, shooting throughout the cosmos.

I saw it all, everything, for a brief moment, I passed by the center of the Nawia, filled with groves of trees bunched together, finding an elderly man sitting alone with horns like a goat on his forehead. He stared at me with interest and wonder, as if I were a toy.

I passed through a castle of ice inhabited by golems made of frost. I passed through a throne room where a beautiful woman with a figure of a goddess and a dress of blue ice stared at me with confusion and fear, as if I were a monster.

My soul shot past the Nawia, coursing through the mortal world as an ethereal form, bouncing around region to region, forest to forest, river to river. All at once, in my trail, I left behind the spirits that were in me, blossoming them back to life with whatever little power Marian had.

Once more, I saw it all. Cities under mountains, managed by tall rock-like creatures in towers of stone, forged by unity and hope. Hunters of monsters that have survived through the years, kneeling to great spirits and gods for protection and power as they rush into the darkness of the night.

And in the North… I saw shifting mists and heard whispers, chattering hymns, and speaking rhymes even my eldest spirit hadn't heard of.

So I rose up even more, aiming for the Heavens themselves, dashing through clouds and stars, transcending the mortal plane itself.

I shot through the atmosphere and stared at the enormity of the planet, at first finding a round ball of earth and water, but the further I went along, I found the perception changing. 

From a round earth, it elongated, becoming a giant tree-like structure, with the oceans becoming dew along the cracks.

I looked up at the branches filled with leaf-like clouds that were filled with grand cities of gold and silver that had choirs of servants and angelic-like beings dotting their civilizations, all of them looking at me in disgust and horror as if I had brought a plague. The largest of them all, a man with a beard on his chin and an axe in his hand. He stared at me as if I had killed his people, rage filled his eyes as lightning flashed behind his body.

I looked around, and found dozens, hundreds, no… thousands of bright lights like me, shooting upwards to the Heavens like a reverse shooting star.

I was them, and they were me; even when separated, I could feel them. Even for just the briefest of moments. And in those moments, I heard them cry out all at once.

“Thank… You.”

I smiled. I didn’t even know what just happened, or even if I could comprehend what just happened. But I fell back into the world, into the tree, and into the planet, closing my eyes and perception as I did what Zmey commanded me to do and rested.

Volume 1: Ice. Ended