29 Glacialtarus

He stood at the entrance of the town, the entire town was there, cheering him as he turned to walk out, he lifted his fist in the air, with his back turned to the town. They did the same as he continued to walk off, he now had 8 out of 11 blessings, he smiled as he looked at the amulet, "Maybe this world is worth it," He laughed at his remark, "Why wouldn't it?"

He turned around after a while of walking and smiled seeing the walled town live in peace, there was nothing else for him to do there, except move on and continue his quest. A soft breeze blew over the plains that brushed against him. His wings were folded behind him, not formed as armor, and his arms were in their regular form as his horns rested on his head. He was alone in the massive plains, nothing seemed to even break the bending blades of tall grass. His blessing of nature began glowing as a large creature burst from the ground, "Lord Inventaariy, what is this creature?"

"A Kilotiyu, a hunting creature, what did you think of to summon it?"

"A dangerous creature."

"Well, it burrows underground and emerges to fight or to eat prey whole like a shark would to a floating prey, these creatures are also called land sharks by people who are unfamiliar with them," The creature grunted at Vidian as it smelled the air before diving back into the ground and disappearing, "They are native to this region of the Eternal Domain."

"A man told me a story some time ago, about sharks in the Great Desert, what are they?"

"Those, those are dangerous creatures, swarm predators, they are a variation of the Kilotiyu that defend the lair of the Death of the World, they don't need to eat, but if they find prey they kill and eat."

"So you're telling me that I will have to pass them?"

"We can talk about this later, you need to be heading over to Orn's sister's city, Fryida's city, the Icekin city."

"I know, are the Icekin the same as the Earthkin?"

"No, they are friendly, and they will gladly greet you, as Fryida is an uncommon goddess and if you are there to worship her, they are glad to have you in there town."

"Do they have some sort of gift, like the gift of the earth?"

"The Earthkin gift? Yes, they do, but with eternal ice."

"What is eternal ice?"

"Ice that never melts, you have a few days of walking until you get there, around 7 days I would say."

"Well, at least I know," He said as he walked in the endless looking plains, "Hey, can you tell me about the gods of Lady Fryida?"

"She has three of them, Poro, Glacial and Ventarial, the god of Icekin, the god of ice and cold and the goddess of the Frozen Winds respectively."

"Okay, and she is the goddess of Ice Forming was it?"

"Yes, of Ice Forming."

"I hope that the works aren't as bad as some other ones."

The Frozen Winds were ice cold winds that dragged snow across the sky and nearly flung them at anything in their path. The same winds were beating against Vidian's wing cloak. His wings were wrapped around him like a cloak, cutting the wind from hitting his body. His shoes crunched the snow beneath them as he trailed up a snowy path. A gust of wind threw him off balance, he stumbled to recover his balance. He leaned against an ice-cold boulder next to the path as the wind and the snow kept falling. Blackened clouds had gather overhead, mixing snow and lightning, but, this time, it wasn't his creation. He saw, in the distance, through the Ice Mountains, house-like structures grouped, together the city of Glacialtarus, he was close. Someone called him out as he still leaned on the stone.

"Oye, um, you a traveler?" The Icekin man seemed unfazed by the cold, Vidian nodded, "Going to Glacialtarus?" Vidian nodded again.

"I am, but this weather is terrible."

"A blizzard is a blizzard, it's blizzard season here, come, come, I'll bring you to the city," The man said holding out his hand, Vidian pulled himself up with the man's hand, "I'm Charles, Charles Frost, you are?"

"Vidian, just Vidian"

"You came here for?"

"I came to see Lady Fryida, your goddess."

"You came from where ever to see our goddess? Well, come, come, I'll show you the way to the city," He said as they began walking, "Are you cold?"

"A little, but my cloak is doing a good job for the moment."

"Why are you coming to see our goddess?"

"Funny you'd ask, um, I am collecting blessing from all the gods on this world."

"A blessing hunter? The last time I heard of one it was in a legend, people probably don't chose that life path," He said, walking as if the wind and snow was nothing, while Vidian's teeth slightly clattered, "Something about Eternum's Trusted, I love that story, regardless of my age," He laughed, "Have you ever read it?"

"No, but I have read parts of it, and talked about it with some people."

"I never would've thought that a man would brave the cold and barren lands to just get a blessing."

"You say that as if it is a waste of time."

"No, no, no, I mean, it is a perilous journey from the entrance of the Ice Mountains, so I didn't expect a human, right?" Vidian nodded, "To arrive all the way here for Lady Fryida's Blessing."

"It is important for me."

They slowly walked down a path, out from the thick blizzard clouds, into a slightly less thick snow storm, "See the town over there?" He pointed at the town that Vidian had thought to have seen as the storm rose, now, it was a massive city, "Welcome to Glacialtarus."

"I thought it was smaller."

"Only a couple thousand people live here, but we use a lot of land, we have to feed everyone."

"What do you guys eat?" He said as they entered the city, "I have no clue what grows here."

"We have livestock, Winterbeasts, and we also grow snowplants, so it grows a plenty," He said as Vidian kept his wings as a cloak, "Come, come to my home, my wife should have cooked something for lunch, there should be some for you."

"You don't need to."

"I insist."

"I'll pay my part."

"Over my frozen body, we invite you to our home."

"If you insist that much then, I will join you," He said as Charles opened the door to a house, "Nice little place you have."

"Charles, which friend did you bring over?"

"A new one, a traveler, he is joining us for lunch, he is human, so the blizzards seem to affect him a decent amount."

"Oh gosh, I don't have anything for the cold, I haven't really prepared for that."

"Please, I am fine, my cloak is warm enough for that, I am fine."

"Speaking about that, what is your cloak? I have never seen that material," Charles pointed out as his wife brought a dish of food into the room.

"It isn't really a cloak either."

"Then what is it?"

"Since I am a blessing hunter, I have two blessings that pair together and give me a sinister appearance."

"The one of day and night."

"Yeah, so these are my wings, I am covering my horns and also, they help with the cold," He laughed, "They are a little large, so I won't spread them out here," He said as his hood moved off from over his head, revealing his white and black horns.

"You are a blessing hunter?" Charles' wife asked, "Are you here to see Lady Fryida?"

"I am, but Charles so kindly offered to feed me, I accepted, if it doesn't bother you," He said as she pulled a chair to the table for him, "I guess it doesn't."

"Of course not, here, sit down."

"Tell us a little more about yourself, Vidian, where has your quest lead you to?"

"Well, I'll start from the start."

"Seems logical, my friend," Charles laughed as Vidian sat to eat.

He stood in front of the massive temple of ice, the sun gleamed off of the ice pillars. The wind had slowly raised as he had walked on the ascending streets to get to the temple, the Frozen Winds that seemed to be made to protect the Icekin as few types of beings could make it in the cold without actual preparation or ability that could protect them from the skin biting winds. For Vidian, he had his wings that could wrap around his body to make a warm, wind-blocking cloak that had done everything but his face had pleasure of not being cold. His breath was like a thick cloud of white smoke as it left his mouth and could have probably froze in the air. He turned and looked over the city. Thick, whirling, white clouds seemed to form a protective ring that hid and isolated the city. He turned back to the temple as the frozen doors of the temple opened, and a figure, in light, shining blue armor that covered all except the eyes of the figure. Its helmet had spikes of ice that seemed to be a type of crown. The figure looked door at Vidian and then a deep laugh emerged from under its helmet, before it turned and walked back into the temple, gesturing with one of its fingers for Vidian to follow it.

The temple was slightly warmer than the outside, but his breath still seemed a cloud of white smoke. The figure's armor seemed to crack off of it, revealing a smaller figure with exo-skeleton of ice around it. The ice broken and it landed on the floor.

"Hello Vidian, how are you?"

"Um, you are?"

"Who am I? You don't know?" He grit his teeth and a pillar of ice shot out of the floor and slammed into Vidian, sending him slamming into the wall, "You should've known who I was before you step in here," Another pillar of Ice hit Vidian, making snow knock up from the floor near the door, hiding him, "And now I'll teach you exactly what I do and who I am," He turned to the cloud of snow as he heard laughing, "What are you laughing about?" He saw Vidian holding the pillar of ice away from him with his arm stretched.

"Lord Glacial, should've guessed from your armor," He flicked the ice and it crumbled, "I saw it coming."

"Good, good, you know who I am, Lady Fryida should want to talk with you soon," A whirlwind of ice and snow formed in the middle of the temple, "As I was saying," A female figure appeared from the whirling snow and ice, "Lady Fryida, Vidian has finally come."

"Oh, isn't that perfect, I was starting to doubt that he passed Krranus's test."

"I passed it, Lady Fryida, I am here for your work."

"I assume you've been to the Earthkin lands?" He nodded, "I assume you killed Wolvarian there?" He nodded again, "I have something else I want you to deal with, a, small, um, problem."

"She is talking about a man she fell in love with as a goddess and he was an icekin," Another female figure appeared in the room after a gust of cold, skin-slicing wind, Fryida turned to her and glared at her.

"What did I already tell you, Ventarial? You and your Frozen Winds" She pronounced her name with a tone that made it seem that just the thought of her name was disgusting.

"What is up with my Frozen Winds? You were the one to make me the Goddess of the very thing that you use so often."

"Please, Lady Fryida, and Ventarial, we do not need Vidian to hear our quarrels as gods, I, Poro, the God of the Icekin, will take the task of introducing the problem to him."

"Fine, go ahead, while I show Ventarial some manners she hasn't learned in hundreds of years."