Chapter 302: Frost Monarch’s Domain

Jacob and Maria crashed into an icy pile of sleet. The temperature around them felt similar to the kind they had to travel across the ocean in. However, this time, both of them had well-insulated armor to keep them warm.

"Did he really teleport us away that fast? He must be serious if he was so quick with that action."

Maria nodded her head.

"I still find it hard to believe Lidia’s one day old child is going to be the savior of this world. I find the whole thing off-putting. It feels like this shouldn’t have happened at all."

"To be fair, it feels like a lot of things should not have happened at all. The only thing we can do is move forward, right?"

Maria sighed.

"Right. Where do we go to find this Frost Monarch anyway?"

"I’m assuming he wouldn’t throw us somewhere that wasn’t close unless he couldn’t get us close to him. Let’s try travelling through this-"

Suddenly, a headless frozen human grabbed on to his foot, trying to scratch at his armored leg. Jacob lifted his leg and crashed it down on the frozen figure, shattering it to pieces. Both Maria and Jacob studied the pieces of the creature they had just killed.

"What was that thing? It didn’t look corrupted."

"I don’t know. My eyes didn’t have time to read what the words said. I could feel it trying to hide itself before it attacked me though. It looks like that jungle was really good practice for travelling through this place."

"Just make sure to stay close to me, Jacob. I don’t think I’ll be able to kill anything for a while thanks to how strong I am."

"I will. Maybe we don’t have to wait as long as we thought to find this thing."

Just then, the ground rumbled below them. Jacob balanced himself while grabbing on to Maria to ensure they wouldn’t get separated. Hundreds of ice creatures broke out of snow mounds surrounding them, each one holding a weapon crafted from the dark blue ice of the ground below their feet. Jacob unsheathed a long white sword. Its surface shone brightly against the polished skin of creatures around him. After taking in a deep breath, he shot forward.

All of the creatures were vaporized in an instant, leaving behind a massive shockwave in its wake. Just as quickly as he left her side, Jacob zipped back to where Maria was standing.

"These are only monsters, but there’s a lot of them. I bet if we kill enough of them their boss will appear eventually."

Jacob grabbed Maria’s hand after fastening his sword back into his belt.

Strangely, there were no monsters anymore for miles upon miles of frozen earth. They had walked for hours without finding a single sign of life. Soon, they came upon a frozen structure made out of a strange metal. Jacob touched his fingers against its surface lightly.

"This looks like a... house?"

He walked around to the front where a door was broken in, missing its handle. He slowly peeked inside to see what the interior was like. It looked peaceful. The whole house was only two rooms large with one being the kitchen while the other was the bedroom. In the kitchen, a strange stove was in place where a kettle should have been with small knobs that turned on the front.

Jacob studied the knobs before pushing one in and turning it sideways. A small clicking sound came from the stove before a fire had created itself on top. Jacob’s eyes widened.

"What is this?! Did this continent have enchantments too?!"

Maria held her cold hands against the flame.

"This is incredible! I think we had one of these in royal kitchen back in Iron Kingdom! You place pots above this flame to cook food!"

"Oh. So, it’s really not that special? What about those strange glass balls that are stuck in the ceiling?"

Maria looked up at what he was talking about. There were indeed strange round things of glass inside of the ceiling. They both looked around until Maria flipped a small switch on the wall. Suddenly, the entire room was illuminated in an instant.

"Woah. They have light enchantments inside of glass balls! Why didn’t we think of that?!"

"But... I don’t sense any magic coming from them. Is it really an enchantment?"

"How else would light be produced from nothing?"

Maria nodded.

"Good point."

Sitting in the other room was a large wooden box with a thin glass screen on its front. There were black, vine-like strings that escaped from its back and plugged into a wall. Jacob studied the box carefully.

"What about this thing? What is its purpose?"

Maria looked at the box a little closer, noticing small buttons that lined the bottom of it. She pressed the very right one to see if anything would happen. Suddenly, light began to appear behind the screen and slowly brighten as if it was waking up from a long slumber.

"Man, this house sure does have a lot of light creations."

Suddenly, a loud siren came from the wooden box, causing both Maria and Jacob to jump. They both looked at the screen that was now illuminating a strange scene in front of them. There was a man talking to them through the screen while holding a stick with a round end up to his mouth.

"...so, if you haven’t already, please evacuate with your loved ones immediately. The monster was last seen heading for the Trinity City."

Jacob waved his hand at the man speaking.

"Uh... hello?"

The man ignored his voice.

"If you encounter a person with the following symptoms, please run away and seek shelter immediately. Do not try to help them, do not try to save them, and most importantly, do not let them follow you. Blue skin, cold breath..."

Maria waved her hand in front of the small man’s face.

"Can you hear us? We can hear you."

Once again, the man ignored them.

"This broadcast will be up indefinitely to help those in need. Remember to follow the proper government protocols if you ever encounter the beast. The last known report mentions that it pretended to imitate an older human gentleman. Do not, I repeat, do not let his weak appearance deceive you."

Jacob sighed.

"I don’t think he can hear us. What is the point of this thing? Why are we the only ones who can hear him? He’s possibly the only person alive and we can’t even talk to him!"

Maria shook her head.

"I don’t know. What a useless invention."

Both Maria and Jacob left the small wooden box on as they walked back out into the snow. As they left, the TV played its final words.

"This has been Roger Weller with Channel three-... Oh god! It’s here! IT’S HE-"

Jacob slouched over as they continued their walk.

"Did you notice something weird about how that man was talking?"

Maria nodded.

"Yeah. It was like something else was speaking for him while he was saying something else entirely."

"You don’t think that box was a monster, right?"

"If it was, my eye didn’t seem to notice anything."

They both continued their travels, Jacob managing to defeat creature after creature that stood in their way.

An entire day came and went. Maria and Jacob sat around a fire eating small bits of meat they dethawed from one of the creatures.

"This place is nothing but a wasteland. There’s nothing but cold and snow for miles in every direction. Are we sure Leno brought us to the right place?"

"Well, it wouldn’t really be a frost monarch domain without frost, would it?"

"Yah, but I don’t want to travel for weeks just to come up empty handed."

’If you think about it, finding and killing the Frost Monarch is our only way back to the others. Remember what Leno said?"

Maria was right. Leno mentioned how they would understand how to get back to help everyone else in time after defeating him.

"Maybe we aren’t moving desperate enough. I don’t think the time limit Leno gave us is really sinking in properly."

"Then let’s move before it does."

"Wait, before we move again, rest against me. I’ll watch over you, so we don’t burn ourselves out at the same time."

Maria smiled and walked over to Jacob, resting herself into his embrace next to the crackling fire. Meanwhile, Jacob kept a keen eye until she woke up hours later.

A few days of travel turned into a few weeks in no time at all, the same mind-numbing routine of killing lesser ice creatures began to aggravate Jacob to no end. They were running out of time and there wasn’t as much as a hint in the direction they were meant to be taking.

"This isn’t fair!! What are we supposed to be looking for?! It’s all frost! There isn’t a frost being anywhere!"

Just as he was starting to lose hope, Maria grabbed onto his shoulder and pointed through a thin haze of snow. Far off in the distance were the shadows of hundreds of buildings that reached toward the sky — each unique in shape.

"Buildings. There’s something there! Let’s go check it out!"