Old Capital
The next morning, the pair of siblings quickly prepared for the travel, preparing food and clothes for it while enjoying their walk over Snezhnaya that ironically, Allen did not find it so horrible now that he was leaving it, enjoying his time with Ellen and discovering another side, more commercial and open from the city.
'I suppose that this city is only kind to the strong'
Once they had everything, they returned to the mansion, finishing the last touches and taking a prepared carriage, bringing them directly towards the old capital.
"So here it is" The travel took 3 days of carriage, the old capital being in the most northern part of the region. Fortunately, nothing happened during the travel with only the boredom to deal with it, not that it minded much to Allen and Ellen who truly enjoyed their time together after so long.
"Woaw! It's enormous!" As they left the carriage, Ellen wondered as she looked up, seeing an immense glacier that should be over a kilometer tall and too wide to even measure with the eye.
"Yes, it's truly wonderous" Allen nodded looking at the glacier and the frozen lake under it "For what it seems, we need to climb it, the old capital being on top of it."
"I read that there was some kind of elevator before, but it's no longer there" Ellen explained. "Brother..." Ellen looked down, shyly playing with her feet.
"Don't worry, Ellen. Leave it to me, I'll take you on my back."
"Hum!" Ellen nodded and both walked over to the foot of the glacier.
Once they arrived, Allen put his big bag on the floor and started taking out climbing material, harnesses, helmets, a hammer, crampons, piolets, quickdraws... preparing himself and Ellen, tying her over his back.
Thanks to his previous life, Allen had some knowledge of climbing, being quite used to it and its material. Unfortunately, this time was quite different.
First, ice climbing was different than the rock climbing that he was used to, only having done ice climbing twice. Second, climbing alone with a big weight on his back was quite the novel and added difficulty. Lastly, this was no normal ice, it was incredibly slippery, needing to pierce through to climb as Allen expected, however, the problem was that it was incredibly hard, making it almost impossible to pierce through it.
The only way to make it possible was for Allen to use his Vision, coating his piolets and crampons with Cryo and increasing their strength, making it possible to pierce the hard ice.
Slowly, Allen started climbing the huge glacier, taking over 2 days to reach the top. Allen could have gone quicker, however, he wouldn't risk Ellen's life so he secured each step, piercing nails all over the wall every few meters to secure his fall and stopping from time to time to rest while hanging secured by multiple points. Anything that wasn't at 100% secure wasn't suitable with Ellen on her back.
"Good work, brother. You were incredible!" Ellen congratulated as they reached the top and Allen took her out from his back, but keeping the rope joining both. "Sorry for being an hindrance."
"It was nothing, Ellen. Do not worry" Allen smiled and looked in front of him, at the immense plain that extended over the glacier, the top being completely plain, with quite a big city over it. It couldn't be compared with the actual capital, this one being far smaller, but it has its own charm, more minimalistic.
'It's far more special and characteristic than the actual capital, but it's not worth the hassle' Allen couldn't help to think in the climb.
"Let's go, Ellen. We are near" Both started walking, their objective being the city in front of them and more specifically, the stone castle in the middle of it.
As they approached, they were able to discern more about the city which consisted mostly of wooden houses. Moreover, all the buildings had been frozen, having a wide layer of ice over them that helped to preserve them, protecting them from the damage and letting both siblings see the city perfectly as it was years before.
"It's strange for all the buildings to be frozen so uniformly" Allen analyzed as they reached the gates of the city, seeing the layer exactly the same width as every building "And there's no destruction at all, everything perfectly preserved as it has been made at the same ti-"
"!" Just as they stepped inside the city, Allen stopped and his eyes went wide, a sensation running across his body. One that it has been quite a while since he had felt before 'Cold'
Having been raised at Snezhnaya, Allen was quite used to the cold and after acquiring his Vision, his resistance went far ahead, having almost forgotten about that feeling called cold. Yes, he knew that he would most probably be unable to resist at the Zapolyarny Palace without protection, but that was because of the Tsaritsa.
'Ellen!' Allen's face quickly showed a frightened expression as he realized the danger of it. A cold so strong to make him feel it could be lethal for Ellen.
Just as he was to turn around, Allen found his leg clenched by Ellen "Brother, it's cold" Ellen declared in a low voice while trembling.
Allen quickly took Ellen with his arms and stepped back from the city, returning to the usual cold, quickly warming Ellen with more layers of clothes and an improvised fire, forming by the remains of a Pyro Slime.
"Are you fine, Ellen?" Allen asked worriedly.
"Hm!" Ellen nodded "Suddenly, I felt very cold."
'We are both wearing multiple layers of clothes, even the ones from the Zapolyarny Palace. Would it mean that the cold here is worst than the one at Zapolyarny Palace?' Allen quickly shook that idea 'No, the effects over the atmosphere there are too extreme. Thinking about it, it did not have any sense for clothes like this to be able to resist such a cold, there should be some trick behind.'
'I can't risk Ellen in there and while there's no monsters now or any sense of danger, it could change so I can't let Ellen alone. Better let her in a safe place and try it myself. I don't really know why the Tsaritsa thought making Ellen come.'
"We should better return for now..." Allen stated.
"No!" Ellen quickly interjected "I'll be fine. I can continue!" She said with determination in her eyes. She knew how much of a hindrance she was being and she did not want to continue being to even cause Allen's quest to fail.
"But Ellen, it's very cold. You could fall ill agai-"
"I came prepared" Ellen took out her little bag and started taking a lot of warm sacks from it that rubbing them, creating warmth. "I can do it, please!" She pleaded with big round eyes that were almost about to cry.
"Okay" Allen nodded unable to win against her face "But if for a mere instant, you find yourself bad or anything, we will turn around."
"Hm!" Ellen nodded and prepared herself, this time with far more protection against the cold.
Stepping inside the city, Allen kept his hand joined with Ellen, always keeping his attention on her, being able to sense if her condition worsen.
'It seems that she is quite well now' Allen sighed in relief seeing Ellen's condition, glad that she was fine. However, he did not stop being alert.
They finally reached the stone castle in the middle, Allen opening the big door with some difficulty due to being frozen, needing to destroy some part of it.
Once he entered and before Ellen was about to step inside, Allen quickly caught Ellen in his arms "Close your eyes. You don't need to see this" Allen hugged Ellen, keeping her eyes covered by his chest.
Unlike all the city that was completely devoid of any life, only the buildings being there, the castle was different.
Inside the huge hall at the entrance of it, a lot of corpses stood all over it, laying all around and painting the hall with strange blue blood. The corpses were all broken into smithereens, being impossible to distinguish them and easily becoming the most difficult puzzle of the world, showing that someone put an immense effort in killing them, as rather than a simple kill, they went for utter destruction. Apart from the corpses, there were also some broken ice statues in far better shape than what seemed to be humans.
It was rare this much destruction, but the strangest of all was that the corpses were not frozen or decomposed, they were merely in a state that seemed to have just been destroyed a few days back, however, looking over the hall and the aftereffects of the battle, it was far clear that a lot of years had passed.
'What could have really happened here?' Allen thought about it but quickly focused on the most important. So he crossed over the hall, ignoring the scene and walked over the castle following the instructions of the quest while keeping Ellen in his arms.
Finally, Allen was able to reach his destination, the Throne Room. He scanned it before anything and seeing it without any corpse or anything like, let Ellen "We have arrived, Ellen. You can open your eyes."
Ellen left Allen's arms and looked around, seeing the long corridor with a red carpet surrounded by ice statue soldiers wielding spears that guided over where it should have been the throne, however, instead of the throne, a huge lump of ice was over it.
"Don't leave my side, Ellen" Allen took Ellen's hand and started walking over the corridor, his right hand never leaving his sword at the hip 'Seeing all those broken statues, it won't be strange for these ones to start moving.'
Allen and Ellen walked down the corridor, their footsteps echoing softly on the floor. They soon reached the lump of ice, and as they approached it, Allen was able to examine it more closely. He could see a small hole in the ice, piercing it all over.
As Allen looked more carefully, he noticed that there was a person inside the ice. The man appeared to be elderly, with white hair, and the hole in the ice had formed a hole over his heart.
"Leonard!" Allen was shocked as he was able to recognize the man inside the ice. He was Leonard, an adventurer and Venti's father whom he met over that memory at the Golden Apple Archipelago.
Suddenly, Ellen stepped forward.
"Ellen!" Due to his sudden shock, he was unable to stop Ellen who extended her right arm towards the ice.
*Shing* A blinding light shone all over the room, forcing their eyes close. Opening it, Allen found some changes in the room. Leonard was in the middle of it standing while panting exhausted and in front of him, the Tsaritsa stood tall. And somewhat the place seemed warmer.
"You are really a strange one, Naberius" The Tsaritsa stated with a strange smile that created a huge contrast with her usual emotionless face. Then, she extended her hand and Leonard's body started freezing. "Maybe there are more interesting things."
The scene ended abruptly, and Allen found Ellen standing beside him, her face mirroring his own shock. It was apparent that she had witnessed the same thing he had.
*Crrr!* Suddenly, the ice statues started to move, emitting loud cracking noises.
"Shit!" Allen drew his sword and positioned himself in front of Ellen, ready to defend her at any cost.
"Ellen, stay behind me. I'll protect you!" Despite his resolve, the statues surprisingly kneeled down, lowering their heads to the siblings, with no intention of attacking.
"Brother," Ellen tugged on Allen's clothes, her face reflecting confusion.
As Allen turned around, he was shocked to see that the lump of ice and Leonard had completely disappeared, replaced by something shiny resting on Ellen's right hand.
"Look, brother," Ellen exclaimed, extending her hand to show a bright, pale blue gemstone resting on her palm, something that Allen had seen many times before and always kept with him. A Cryo Vision.