3 Sylphina

"When the breeze of autumn turns to a chill. The season of winter shall give them a thrill. When all the men and women face winter's cold breath. They are decimated and freeze to death." A black haired woman stood on a giant creature.

She wore a light blue dress with silk wrapped around the waist flowing in the cold air. Beneath her was a giant butterfly.

It looked no different from regular ones, except that it's wings were more colourful. Iridescent yet murky, every flap of its wings changed from black to colourful.

It was like the inside of a mollusc shell had fused with the small scales of its wings.

The flapping grew stronger and a chill breeze glazed the landscape in frost, all life had now became brittle and shattered into pieces every time the butterfly flew near them.

"Now let's go back to our mistress." She was the butterfly that Princess Angelica had corrupted. She was the Incarnation of Frost.

The unfeeling butterfly witch. A lonely entity of the freezing cold. Her true form is the giant butterfly. The human that stands on its back is a tangible illusion.

The Incarnation of Frost, Sylpina had arrived.

....

I was bored out of my mind and started playing with my Relic. I wondered when that butterfly witch would come.

I paced around the room feeling anxious on whether or not she'll be taken hostage by now. "What is that Demon King is doing??!! He's late! Ah, fine I'll just sleep for now!"

She sighed putting on her nightgown she went to her bed and fell asleep. In the shadows however were three figures cloaked in darkness.

They sneaked around her bed gently, silently capturing her. They smiled widely and disappeared.

....

"That fight was so cool! Princess Angelica and Prince Tristian are really strong!" Ishida shouted out loud, expressing his opinions to his friends.

"Yeah, to be honest if I remember correctly that transforming aspect was created by the Princess right? I asked the maids and they said that her highness's innate magical ability is to transform." Sakura was very attentive and felt that it felt a little too flashy and familiar.

"It felt like I saw a magical girl transform. I wonder if they exist here though. Even then we've been told that the Princess made use of magic combined her Relic powers and transformed!" Akatsuki was also suspicious so he had gotten even more information from the priest.

He continued. "She then taught others how to do it, it seems like that all you needed to do was combine your Soul Power and your Magic Core together and use transformation magic in the midst of it." They others nodded.

They had already been taught about this from the priest, the transformation differs from one person to another and like how a Relic can be similar to others but are very different.

A transformation would be very different. So far there are only seven forms with the seventh being the Superior State.

Base Form, Warrior Arms, Magic Artifact, Lord Realm, Emperor Phase, Ultimate Stage and finally Superior State. These denotes the strength of a person.

The system was created by Princess Angelica herself. There are very few people who had reached the seventh stage and even the creator had not achieved it yet.

She is however at Emperor Phase. The special features of the Emperor Phase is an expanded domain. A Domain is a territory, a sub space where the person can control anything within it.

This system was created by Princess Angelica but no one knew how she developed it or how she was able to bend the rules of space and reality.

This is why she was known as Lawmaker. Instead of following the rules she made her own ones. She was so feared that the surrounding counties would never dare to incur her wrath.

She along with her brothers and a few others in the surrounding countries are known as the 13 Zodiacs. Angelica, Tristian, Gerald were Virgo, Capricorn and Scorpio respectively.

They are hailed as geniuses who could destroy a country if they desired to. The four heroes gulped in fear when they found out about this.

But Eiko was optimistic. "Don't worry! One day we'll be strong enough to beat them! We're Heroes aren't we? We are known to grow stronger than the average human!" Her enthusiasm ignited their competitive hearts.

"Yeah! We can do it!"

"We'll be the best Heroes ever!"

"I'll get stronger!" All sorts of cheers were thrown in one by one until. "That's just a fleeting dream for us right now." The rest turned to him surprised about his comment.

He shook his head implying that he thought of them as naive. "First of all the 13 Zodiacs are rumoured to be as strong as the Demon King, however without the Crest of Heroes they cannot do anything about it."

Ren was quiet the whole time because he was reading a book filled with information about the 13 Zodiacs given to him by the young prince Gerald.

"First of all I doubt that even if we had defeated the Demon King and fought with the Zodiacs after that. We'd still lose.

The Zodiacs have an abundant amount of Mana as well as Soul Power. Some even have special abilities that they were born with to help them fight.

For example Angelica's transformation power has been known to be nearly limitless. Tristian has an innate ability of Permeation. He can go through any matter organic or inorganic it doesn't really make a difference to him.

Gerald has a metal manipulation power which is why most of his attacks home in on people and attack targets easily.

The others also have unique powers such as the ability of making things float, creating illusions that interfere with one's senses, transform damage into strength etc."

There was only one word that described the Zodiacs the best. Monsters. Every single one of them. Then Ayano realised something. "There are only supposed to be 12 Zodiacs right? And another thing do constellations, astronomy and astrology even exist here?"

The others were shocked, her second question had actually made sense. "For your first question the 13th Zodiac is Ophiuchus the Snake bearer. As for your second question. I do not know." Ren knew more about the Zodiacs more than them so he understood their roles perfectly.

"I guess we can ask tomorrow." Akatsuki had suggested that they slept for their big ritual tomorrow. It was exciting.

....

The six heroes wore stiff clothings and the boys had to wear armour over it. It was very uncomfortable.

They were back in the throne room with the entire royal family and priest but there was one person missing.

The princess. The family did not care as they knew she was busy with something else today. After all she did miss out on her classes yesterday.

A giant crystal that had an appearance similar to a glacier, it had an ethereal blue light blanketing it. It was such a calm yet cold aura. The magic power suppressed the six heroes into a state of internal panic.

They kneeled down and prayed, they set all of their emotions free, expressing their wishes to save this world.

Six out of all the colours of the rainbow appeared and burst forth shrouding them. In their hands were the Relics that were laying dormant in their souls.

Akatsuki had gotten a double handed sword with a golden handle and a silver blade. The special feature of the sword was that it had holy attributes which made it effective on dark magic and anything the user considers evil.

Sakura had obtained a spear with a wide golden head with red accents and a coppery-gold pole with runic words on it. The sharp blade bursts into a flame whenever the user wills it to.

Ishida has a Warhammer studded with a sharp ruby tip. It was a fully silver hammer that seemed mechanised as it had gaps that emitted green light. If the user wants to he could change the weight of it resulting in light to handle but deals dangerously lethal blows.

Ren had gotten a pitch black musket with some red accents. The special thing about it was that it shot infinite magic bullets, the bullets can give special effects depending on what the user wishes to manufacture.

Eiko did not get s weapon but rather a golden mirror with a silver back. This mirror was extremely powerful as it could reflect attacks. As with many other Relics the higher levels you reach the more abilities you gain. The mirror is no exception, however the mirror has more defensive than offensive skills.

Information about the Relics had flashed through their minds, as they were digesting all of the energy the door blasted apart.

A cold chill covered the room. "Domain: Palace of Winter." A mature sounding voice softly whispered, but it was enough for them to hear her words.

She was an Emperor Phase master. The throne room distorted and the king had transformed.

The others had already transformed shielding the heroes from the freezing chill. The Domain was strange.

All over the place were floating snowflakes that went back in reverse, snowmen of all shapes and sizes marched across the room.

Creepy laughter filled the air, the giant butterfly struck them with just its extending tongue.

This was going to be a long battle.

....

"Haah." I woke up from my slumber only to realise that my bed wasn't the least bit comfortable at all.

I was in a dirty old cell with a wide barred window. It was quite spacious. The Demon King's castle. The Never-ending Night Domain.

I pace around my room trying to find a way to escape. I hesitated for a bit before deciding to transform.

I twisted the glaive around, the blade facing the front of the cell and inserted the little tip into the keyhole. My ability to transform was not limited to myself but others and objects.

As of right now I changed the tip of the blade to an exact fit of the keyhole. And turned it. The cell unopened. It was now my time to shine.

I walk around for a little while unsure of my directions. I then proceeded to follow when I saw a tall greyish-green Goblin. I followed trying to stay silent the whole way.

Then, something unexpected happened a giant white snake with three metallic horns spotted me. I smiled and sliced it up.

Putting the remains into an item bag for later consumption. My stealth mission was ruined. Almost everyone knew I was here.

I laughed wildly, this was the best fun I could ever have!

....

They were critically wounded and had taken lethal damage. Broken bones, ruptured organs, organ failure all sorts of things.

The butterfly woman was too strong we had no idea how to defeat it until Gerald had a brilliant idea.

They were filled with ghastly amounts of miasma. The priest caught on and had decided to purify it.

With the additional power from the Heroes they had destroyed the hideous creature. It had been fully decimated into dust.

The strange thing was once the Domain disappeared a butterfly flew out of the ashes of the beast.

The others had no idea what had happened, then a soldier came by reporting that the Princess had gone missing.

It was said to be caused by the demons. This only served to raise panic all over the castle. This was war.