Aeoryi

Tales of the King's Folly: Chapter 7

The insides of the ice demon ruler's rooms was surprisingly not icy.

Rugged carpets and wooden objects stood against the partial transparency of the ice castle's walls. It is the first non-solid water thing I have seen in the castle. It is very elegant, even for an unearthly horror.

Whismald, the Ice-melter, stands in front of me. He speaks with the same raspy voice that sounds like it's being forced through a rattling pipe.

"What business does this human have with me?"

I answer slowly, as to not invoke the wrath of this demonic form of ice. "I need you to help me get rid of the water that has flooded this world."

"Not all is lost yet, is it now? This northern ice sheet has yet to melt, correct?"

I ask him what he means.

"The central kingdom was one of the few places to get hit." Whismald gestures to the nearby ice table, and the surface of the table grows into a miniture map of the land in a flash of deep purple. The map shows the central kingdom, save for parts of the Central capital flooded. The west, being built on these plateaus that protected the rest of the land from being swept away by Efridit's hatred, was unaffected. "Your kingdom and some of the westerners' mining islands got hit. Nothing else."

Only the central kingdom and the mining islands. The mining islands. Why specifically mention those? They are very tiny, and usually consist of a few hundred meters of rock and forests. The mining islands' purpose was unknown. All that was really known about them was that the Western Emperor deemed them as the "West's most valuable resource". Clearly Whismald believed that as well.

 I then ask if The Ice-melter can freeze the flooded region, and in response the icy surface map of the table shatters in a pink explosion. 

"Unfortunately," he says, "I cannot use the fourth to connect to the trace he has already grasped himself."

I am confused by this statement, and ask for clarification.

"I cannot control the waters - in this case freezing them, if something else is controlling it. It is one of the most basic rules of the fourth..." The icy terror continues on to ramble about parts of a deal and that subject.

The ice demon was not as powerful as he seems. He is such a weak force compared to Efridit. Sensing this incompetence, I ask him, "Where would I be able to find someone powerful enough to stop him?"

Whismald is not impressed. A chandeler falls just a few feet away from me, shattering into a pink explosion. the explosion I can see better this time. It doesn't roll out; it rolls inwards, then implodes on itself, leaving no debris.

The sudden action comes with sudden harshness.

"I cannot control Efridit's water. That is a rule of the fourth, and not something I can change."

I ask him how I can make Efridit no longer own the water, and he says, "You can either make it challenging for him to maintain, mainly by making a large place for it to gather, which would make the water harder to constantly Enforce, or you can distract him and make him go to another waterbody."

I don't exactly understand what he means, but I get the general meaning of it. Make it difficult to hold the water in place or convince the eldritch water demon to leave. Maybe he could be rationally dealt with. Maybe he could peacefully leave. I then snap back to reality. Efridit was not leaving. He must have gone insane after I had provoked him. He called me a god, yet I am no god. It feels almost pointless now. I invoked the flooding of the world by violating some holy pact, and yet it didn't even exist. I suppose I could ask the Ice Abomination standing in front of me, so I do.

I ask, "Is there a deal between gods and demons? Is that why gods only kill demons if they 'interfere'? Is that why the Eldritch demons are st-"

A response from Whismald interrupts my question. 

"Get out. Now."

I ask him again, "But you would know, you are a descendant of those demons, right?"

Whismald tells me, "I said to get out." and motions with a clawed white hand in a punching manner. It is followed by a pink-white streak and I have just enough time to -

The crystaline floor shatters into Iridescent dust in a magenta accented flash. I fall onto the first floor, landing on some of the crystal dust leftover for some reason by the powers of demons.

The entire castle is now sand, and several pink eyes stare at be from within their watery lattices.

I should've never talked to that unfathomable ice demon. He was, in some ways, worse than Efridit.

Tales of the King's Folly

This is an easier to follow timeline that yeah... chapter 6 wasn't that great. Imma post this now instead:

-.-.-.-----------.-.-.-

I got kicked out of heaven rather quickly. 

I am falling from the skies that are crying over the fate of the world. The light, angelic beauty of heaven is shunned out as the darkness of the eternal night sky takes over. I am falling for quite some time before I finally hit the ground. My back is hurting from falling out of the weather's domain. I look up and return the cold hard stare of the weather in the skies. The weather is not impressed.

I am fortunately saved by a dragon. The very steed I took to get to the divine city above did return to save me again. The waters thrash as I approach the dragon. The winged beast and I negotiate on a deal. It flies me to the north where the land can be saved.

We soar through these massive icebergs and floating glaciers to get there. The closer we get the less seperated these ice sheets become. Frozen winds whip at my face administrated by the weather. Storming tempests of snow and hail attempt to burden us to no avail. Snow comes flying off of rounded white dunes sitting atop ice. Yet the weather cannot stop me. I have the most powerful of mounts, the beast born to conquer these various furies. The dragon pays no attention to the weather as we finally settle down in front of an icy monument.

The glamorous sight makes me drop my jaw in wonder. An elaborate masterpiece stands in front of me. A castle, carved into a massive wall of ice gleams in the sudden sunlight. Even the weather cannot deny the natural beauty of this cold place. The fortress stands over 150 feet tall, and is composed of solid ice. As I walk through the pass to the frigid doors, I cannot help but notice the details carefully engraved on the walls. This must have taken an immense amount of percision to make and maintain.

I knock on the cold hard doors. They open for me, and I can see into the immaculate foyer of this bastion. Ice demons are everywhere. They appear to be holding a meeting, so I try not to disturb them. 

The doors sqeak shut, and then close with a bang. 

The sea of eyes matched with the throes of terror makes me want to throw up. I can see the feelings of everyone in the room as I recieve the prolonged gaze of the amalgations of ice. Each ice demon is stranger than the last. Some are delacate like snowflakes, others are shaped like icicles left out in the wind. Some have 3 eyes, while other have 8 eyes. The hands vary from claws of ice to rocky fists of snow topped boulders. Various icy constructs gaze then falls on a sight behind me, and then they suddently gain an understanding of who I am.

Thankfully, they continue their wheezing conversations. I breathe out the frigid air I had been holding. The ice demons seemed to know who I was.

 An ice demon the shape of a frozen corpse half rolls, half hops to me. It speaks in it's pale tone, "Whismald the Great, the Almighty, the Reformer, lord of Ice, the Ice-melter would like to see you."

I give a nod and follow the frosty terror to the ultimate ice demon.

I was going to meet Whismald, the Ice-melter himself.