Chapter 13: Visions of cold and winter

MAX

Hester gasps from behind me as he recognizes the legacy seed, and I nod. The seed isn't the only thing in the room though, in front of the crystal is a massive ice spider, twice as tall as I am, with more bladed appendages than I can count. Icy breath puffs out from between its mouth region, coating the already icy cavern in frost.

I stare at the massive monster, who's eyes gleam with intelligence, and I hesitate to fight it, we are both wounded and tired, Hester could barely stand, this wasn't a good match up for us. I say as much to Hester and he nods, although he eyes the crystal, and I know he wants it.

The monster doesn't let us leave though, as it runs towards us, it's numerous appendages swishing and clattering in menace, and I realize that I couldn't hesitate, it was all or death.

I rush forward, my blades aimed at one of the appendages, the monster isn't too fast because of its size. My blade cuts into its appendage, but more appendages swipe at me, cutting deep lines in my skin that is immediately coated in ice, the cold seeps directly into me, and I grit my teeth in pain.

I manipulate the winds around me, to coat my arms, stomach and leg, like armor. I create a concentrated gust of wind in my fist, and throw a punch beneath the monster, shattering a couple of it's appendages.

Channeling lightning into my blades, I strike at the monster, slamming them against it's sides as the wind protects me from it's appendages. The lightning arcs off its armor like skin, but it freezes for a moment, giving Hester an opportunity to shatter a few more of its appendages.

There's only a small crack where I plunged my blades into it, and I despair at how durable the monster was. I try to run under the monster but shards of ice pierce into my calf and I fall to the ground in pain.

Blade like appendages reach forward me to slice me, but Hester water blades protect me, giving me enough time to push myself away, and stand. Pain lances through me, as I walk with my wounded legs, but I ignore it, if we don't manage to kill this thing on time, it would kill us.

I reach the crack at its sides in seconds, while Hester distracts it, and I slam my blades into it again. The crack widens and the monster cries out in pain as I channeled lightning into its open wound, it thrashes, throwing Hester a few feet, and cutting into his skin.

I manage to avoid it's blades as it thrashes, lightning ravaging through it, still I know it wont be enough. Hester slams his water blades continuously into the wound widening it greatly.

I stretch my hands towards the monster, as it regains itself, bolts of lightning strike down at it, shattering a couple more of its appendages. Its mouth open in a shrill scream and I direct all that I have, squeezing every arc of lightning from my cells, into its open mouth.

The gold lightning enters its vulnerable insides, carrying all of my intent, the lightning roars through it, drying it up as it did the richtclaw, it struggles for a couple more seconds and I fear it'll survive, until it finally crumples, shattering into a massive pile of ice shards.

I'm bloodied and tired, this sis the furthest I've pushed myself in a fight since the richtclaw, I turn to see Hester stumbling towards me, a weak smile of victory on his face.

"I thought we were going to die for a minute."

"Your mother would kill us, if we got ourselves killed by this monster" I say and he chuckles at the irony of it. Hester turns to the crystal a few moments later, and I urge him on, this would be incredible for him.

He clasps the crystal in his palms and I watch it disintegrate into snow like matter that is absorbed into his skin.

HESTER.

Flashes and impressions of cold and winter go through my mind, immediately I touch the crystal, I shiver as the crystal connects to me and I suddenly find myself in a vision.

I see people going about their lives, with hair as white as freshly fallen snow, buildings of ice so beautiful and clear, and I realize I'm somewhere in the empire of UNOROS, the northern empire.

The cold assaults me in this vision as frozen crystals fall from the sky, I stretch my palms and they fall into it, tiny round crystals as clear as glass.

The vision is replaced by another, this time I see a woman, with skin an unnatural black as dark as night, and hair as white as snow. She stands on the shore of a massive river, turning to me, she flies to the centre of the river.

I watch as if enraptured as she dips her toes in the water and I realize that apart from some minor covering to her privates, she's entirely exposed. Ice rapidly spreads from her feet, until the entire river is frozen solid.

In minutes, an entire river, many times larger than my home is frozen with minimal effort, she stretches her hands to the frozen river and I watched as it rose, spinning and growing as an entire castle of ice is created in minutes, bigger and larger than any building I've ever seen, and shimmering with the colors of the rainbow.

She looks back at me and I go towards her, stepping on the frozen river, I walk into the castle, and I'm awed at the amount of detail that was packed into this creation in only minutes. Statues of mythical or long dead beasts adorn the inside of the castle, I follow around the palace until we reach a small room, lined with ice shelves.

The room is empty except for a single fruit of ice, shimmering with colorful light. It was absolutely beautiful.

I find myself moving towards it, the woman watches me, and when she doesn't say anything, I take the fruit, the chill burns my hands, but it doesn't matter, I've never seen so much power in anything.

"You already have a talent"

Her voice is cold and melodic, sounding almost like chimes, as clear as crystal. I nod at her words.

"This will not be an easy process for you"

Her voice is distant, almost emotionless, yet still so melodic, my hands are frozen stiff, so I bend my head and take the fruit into my mouth, it dissipates upon contact and in seconds, my throat is frozen solid.

The feeling spreads through me, causing panic to rise within me as I start to lose control of various parts of my body. The pain starts as the chill seep into my bones, my entire body is covered In frost.

In minutes, I'm entirely frozen, and I fear I would become like one of the ice statues that fills the palace, I don't know how much time have passed or how long she just stands there watching me,

I'm unsure if this is a common process for legacy inheritance, or if I was actually being murdered instead, but after Ascenders know how long, she finally nods and turns to walk out of the room, the last thing I see is a silver sunburst at her back, before I'm taken out of the vision.