Chapter 29 - Ice and Fire

Ryu wised up and found himself in a void. Like in a children's storybook, he uncontrollably heard and saw a story unfold before his naked eyes.

Thousands of years ago, in the era when humans, monsters, demihumans, and dragons co-exist, a beautiful 18-year-old maidenly princess lived in the westernmost part of the hot desert continent.

The people revered her for her unparalleled beauty, which was said even the goddess of beauty would envy. However, her life had not been easy since the people kept their distance because of an illness—or rather what they called a curse, forcing her to live isolated.

The Undying Frozen Heart. A rare body constitution where the owner's heart and the surrounding get frozen every midnight, freezing the whole body comparable to death. The worst experience was being conscious during the entire duration, feeling all the pain before completely being numbed.

Every midnight, the Princess's room would be filled with her cries in agony, from her highest pitch that gets hoarser every minute until her throat dried up and she could speak no longer.

The ice layers covering her body would melt when the sun rose. She would wake up with a scorching fever lasting for hours—shaking from the cold, aching bones, severe headaches, excessive sweating, rapid palpitations, and burning skin.

The curse became a regular event since her birth.

Even though she was born amid the desert continent, she had the attribute of ice. So people called her the Cursed Ice Princess.

People thought that she was the unluckiest person ever to live. However, no one knew that an ugly prince existed on the other side of the world in the snow continent of the north.

A prince with his entire body filled with severe burn marks from top to bottom even made his parents think of disinheriting him. But because of his unmeasurable strength of attribute to fire, that even the coldest part of the snow continent would melt in his presence, he became the kingdom's military general.

No one in the snow continent could win against him. The Ugly Prince won war after war.

His enemies refused to admit defeat, so they conspired with the desert empire, asking them to send their strongest warrior in the war to kill the Ugly Prince. The selected warrior was none other than the Desert Empire's Second Prince, who was the brother of the Ice Princess.

Their plot failed, and the said Ugly Prince killed the Ice Princess's brother. Since he was the only person, the Ice Princess considered a family, hearing about his death made her enraged, unintentionally freezing almost the whole desert empire.

One night, she decided to avenge her brother and join the war.

The Ugly Prince, wearing full battle armor, and the Ice Princess, wearing fashionable clothes, met in a forest. It was dark. The place was painted white, covered with snow, and surrounded by trees.

The only thing people could hear was silence.

Not long after they started to fight, the people couldn't see anything at first, but they could hear the sound of the Ugly Prince's sword clashing with the Ice Princess's ice magic. The battle heated up until a large flame could get seen that illuminated the night.

A forest fire and a snow blizzard contended against each other.

The battle lasted for half a day and ended when the Ice Princess got cornered onto a large boulder with the Ugly Prince's sword.

The Ugly Prince saw the Ice Princess close her eyes. He then hesitated. Thus, his sword missed her neck by a few inches.

With this chance, she froze him with the power of Undying Frozen Heart, leaving only his head unfrozen.

After immobilizing the Ugly Prince, the Ice Princess wanted to see the face of the man who killed her brother before she decided to kill him. So she removed the iron helmet he was wearing and was shocked afterward.

She saw his disfigured face.

It reminded her of her sufferings. Unaware, tears came down her cheeks which quickly turned solid.

Seeing a lady cry before him made him dumbfounded, only to notice that in his front was a peerless beauty.

Time passed, and the ice covering his body melted with his natural scorching blood. Still, the two only stood there staring at each other's eyes.

The silence broke when he looked at her chest and noticed the scorpion necklace she was wearing. He remembered the strongest enemy he killed, wearing the same one, making him finally understand.

He rummaged for an item from his leather pouch.

Rustle... Rustle... Rustle...

A matching scorpion necklace appeared in his hand. An item that the Second Prince handed to him for his last wish. A request to give the handmade necklace back to his dear sister. Saying how much he loves her.

"Your big brother loves you dearly."

After learning everything, he wholeheartedly apologized to her.

When she saw the sincerity in his eyes, her thought became apparent, and she accepted that this man was not the culprit. It was the war. She deduced that the man in front of him had a good heart.

Forgiving a man like him, he knelt and offered his sword. For a warrior, he was giving her the right to sever his head. She can kill him and avenge her brother.

The Ice Princess took his sword while the Ugly Prince closed his eyes and waited for his end.

Clang!

The Ugly Prince heard a metallic sound. He opened his eyes and was puzzled seeing her drop the sword.

She spared his life.

A few months passed, and the desert empire withdrew its support to the war, making the snow empire with the Ugly Prince victorious.

The war ended.

With peace, the Ugly Prince reminisces about the beautiful Ice Princess from time to time, and he decides to send her a letter.

Another month passed, but no answer from her. So the Ugly Prince secretly traveled through the vast desert to see her in person.

He traveled day and night until he arrived. He asked the people of the desert empire for information. He learned that after returning from the battle against him, the Ice Princess was apprehended and imprisoned by her people.

Furious. With a few competent men at his disposal, he planned and rescued her and was successful.

One midnight. The group was in the middle of their escape when the Undying Frozen Heart was triggered. The Ice Princess shouted in pain, crawled and isolated herself, and asked him to stay away. This is usual for her, so she assured him nothing wrong would happen.

Despite the assurance, she screamed painfully, making him unable to handle his emotion. He went inside her tent and hugged her tightly when both noticed the so-called curse suddenly stopped.

It was a miracle!

She prevented him from feeling the scorching pain, and he stopped her from being frozen. They had never felt this good before. Looking at each other's eyes, they fell in love.

After a few months of their escape, they settled in a faraway land, built a house, and married. Their life was blissful, and they were happy that they didn't need anything more. They were contented.

They thought that they could have lived happily ever after. But this was not the case.

On one peaceful day, a powerful Evil Sage noticed that the prey he was grooming, the Ice Princess, was gone. He shouted in rage, which made a whole mountain shake. He roared, immediately casting tracking magic to locate her.

The Evil sage closed his eyes and meditated.

A few days passed, and the magic finally located the target. He abruptly opened his eyes and flew with all his might, breaking down the trees and rocks on his path.

A few days passed, and the Evil Sage arrived where the couple lived.

The Ice Princess and Ugly Prince sensed the danger and fought together against him. But the overwhelming power of the Evil Sage with his dirty tricks couldn't compare even with both strengths combined.

After a few minutes of battle, the Evil Sage defeated them.

"Ha Ha Ha!"

The Evil Sage laughed, not only because he captured her back, but he also had this fateful encounter to have the Ugly Prince, the person blessed by the god of fire.

He excitedly cast a sealing spell, taking the lives of the Ice Princess and the Ugly Prince. The seal extracted their souls into separate magic orbs made from a dragon's heart.

The Ice Princess and Ugly Prince's bodies, lying on the floor, nearing their death, could only look at each other. They tried to reach the other's hand but failed. The only capable thing they could do was use their eyes to tell how they loved each other.

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

The couple screamed as the orbs extracted their souls.

After successfully transferring their souls, the Evil Sage called his new toys the Ice Dragon Orb and Fire Dragon Orb.

With these two items, his power grew significantly. He used his left hand to control the ice element and his right hand to control the fire element. Boosting his magic power allowed him to battle against elder beings, which he had difficulty with in the past.

Now, no one can stop him from conquering the world.

A few centuries have passed, and the Evil Sage became the most powerful being ever to live, but even someone like him couldn't escape the death of old age.

With no other choice, he created a magnificent tomb even more conspicuous than those made for emperors. He created traps with undying ice and fire monsters to protect his wealth and succumbed to his greed until the end.

The tomb was located between the borders of the desert and snow continent, called the Ice and Fire Tomb.

In another thousand years, the era of supreme beings has ended. The other races have multiplied enormously. Many human and demihuman adventurers discovered the Ice and Fire Tomb, which they considered a labyrinth, and successfully conquered it, taking the Evil Sage's precious treasures.

When they found the Ice Dragon Orb and Fire Dragon Orb, they were still brimming with strong magic power. The adventurers tried to distribute them to different groups as rewards, only for the magic inside both orbs to go on a rampage. With this, they decided to keep them together.

Later, the owner decided to imbue the orbs into a pair of swords, making the legendary weapons Ice Dragon Sword and Fire Dragon Sword.

The pair of swords were called the Unbreakable Destiny, which meant 'Not even death will do us part.'