A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

“Yothmlak sought our king due to the greed for knowledge.”

Now on the road—well, we were actually traveling through the underground tunnels created by the ice burrowers—the greater elementals held onto their promise to tell me more about Yothmlak and the Ice Elemental King. Well, two of them were. The worm, who was commanding a group of ice burrowers to make these tunnels for us, and the elk.

Technically, aside from the ice elemental king, elemental communities wouldn’t have a de facto leader. It was unlike a fairy community where we would still have family heads leading their community of fairies for the royal family. They did have the concept of listening to those older than them, though, making the greater elementals still leaders in some capacity. They just wouldn’t call themselves as such, nor would they allow the “title” to disturb them from doing what they wanted. Extremely free-spirited. They represented Goddess Zephira and all faefolk quite well in this matter.

The entourage wasn’t humongous compared to the number of elementals we met at the cave, though. As mentioned, from the six greater elementals who spoke to us yesterday, only two would be guiding us to the glacial peaks with a few normal elementals, but plenty of lesser ones, including the three nymphs that have been with Vifi and me since the start of this “quest.” The fact that they were balls of ice mana, unable to shapeshift, made it easy for them to float around us in mass.

… Well, saying all that didn’t make this collaboration seem very impressive, honestly. However, the fact of the matter was that the elementals we had included were two greater elementals. Now, while they were nowhere close to the strength of the ice elemental king and how its ice mana was potent enough to overcome my true ice mana, these beings were practically masters of the composite element.

They could wield it as well as any dragon and better than most ice archmages. With their preferred form varying from one greater to the other, they were still all titanic beings around the size of a rank A dragonkin. They could fight the local fauna with ease, keeping us safe as our party kept traveling… although, the whole point of traveling inside these tunnels was to stay away from most threats, including Yothmlak.

It did mean that my entire description of how capable these elementals were didn’t mean much since they weren’t really able to use that strength. Speaking of strength, I was actually able to make sure that none of the elementals who attacked Lord Rhekkraxus were here. Aside from the fact I didn’t see any greater elementals who liked to assume a mammoth or armored monster form—assuming none of them changed to another form—I also didn’t sense any similar sounding voices from back then.

At least I didn’t have to get mad at somebody for having insulted Princess Hestia. It would be awkward.

“Searching for a method to change his body and the flow of his mana; a method to earn true ice mana without having to ask the dragon ruler of Frozen Nest. Yothmlak spoke about his wish to evolve into a rank S that will revitalize his clan,” the elk elemental explained with a feminine voice—whom I had decided to call “Elk” to simplify things. As always, everything I heard through [Fae Talk] would be translated to Vifi as she walked with me. “True ice mana… the epitome of what the ice element is. The beauty our late king could create is still etched into my soul. When I was born as nothing but a lesser, our king ruled over us as she showered us with the resplendence of what ice is. I remember it even after all those years.”

“Yothmlak hadn’t explained to us what he exactly sought, only that the mana at the peak of the glaciers would grant it,” I said. “However, wasn’t the ice elemental king exiled? Yothmlak is alive, so why hadn’t he obtained the power?”“You already hold the answer.” Elk nudged his head to the side, making me look at the ice elemental king’s core floating next to me.

“… You require his permission.”

“Correct. That is what our king did not explain to the dragon, and something he could not have known. Tasianna, tell me, do you know Thalaxarus?”

“He was the last Dragon Ruler of Ice before God Kargryxmor slew him and conquered Frozen Nest to become part of his empire. The seat of Dragon Ruler of Ice became vacant during this time as a show of rebellion from the ice dragon flight and drake wake, before Empress Melloxtressa took up the position after the Kargryxian civil war,” I explained exactly what I read from the books of Clan Nordor’s library.

“We elementals rarely wander down south after Thalaxarus’s death. He was our previous king’s friend, and his most trusted companion until the dragon’s death. To him, our king presented the gift of witnessing and learning the true power of what ice can inflict onto the world, both its beauty and cold dominance.”

“True ice.”

“Correct. To obtain the training needed to produce true ice mana like our previous king, you needed his permission to touch his core and drink from the lakes of these glaciers. Our home looked far different before the invasion of the foreign gods,” Elk stated with a joyous jump in his voice, almost as if the memory sent him back to his “childhood.” Despite the reality of the present, Elk kept his lifted mood up as he continued his story. “It was to allow Thalaxarus to protect our land from foreign dragons, especially from the fire elementals and dragonkin in the south. The fun we had with Thalaxarus is still in my mind, fairy! He was ruthless with his prey and enemies, but how we celebrated!”

“Celebrated! Celebrated! Sing and dance to the flow of the stream!” the lesser and normal elementals exploded into a jubilant cry, even prompting the ones controlling the ice burrowers to join in. Our progress through these tunnels quickly halted as even the mighty worm elemental—“Burrower,” I called them—started to party as it was too reminiscent of the past.

Haa, this is why it is hard to speak to us fae. Even our elders can be quite unpredictable with their moods. It makes me miss the onnikai’s more reserved demeanor outside of their explosive anger.

Elk swung his icicle antlers around, laughing as the lesser elementals and nymphs. Their shrill, shriek-like laughters were only audible to us fae, while Vifi enjoyed the relatively quiet cracking of ice. I had to endure it, despite how much it displeased me.

The story was interrupted! Just like that! Elk did not look back as it and Burrower kept celebrating with the other elementals as if it hadn’t just left me at a cliffhanger!

“E-excuse me! Could you continue with your—” However, I was interrupted by the raving of the three nymphs.

“Dance with us, king! Dance with us! Sing to the rhythm of the ice with us, oh, king of ice! Let us hear your voice and make the ice release their voices!”

“Oh, king, oh, king! Dance with us for now! ♫” the lesser elementals sang like a choir of children cajoling an adult to join them. They were freely moving around my body as if they were trying to push me forward.

The nymphs couldn’t do anything since, as lesser fae, their bodies didn’t have a solid form even as nymphs, but the elementals were a different question. Although plain icy wind-like balls naturally, they could still harden some of them into ice, showing their potential to transform into these mighty arctic and tundra monsters of Frozen Nest.

With their bodies, the elementals shoved me away from Vifi, while distracting her with a small hail of snow falling around her shoulders. As I tried to resist them, more of the elementals came charging in, taking it as some game as they chortled a merry song, prompting the normal elementals to join in this “game.” I was swiftly taken away, and Vifi just sighed and stared at me as I did so.

I’m not trying to hurt them! I could already imagine her chastising me for acting so meek.

The entire day was pretty much wasted with this. Neither Elk nor Burrower was in the mood to continue the story and was completely immersed in playing with the little ones. I was pulled into this “Dance! Sing! Celebrate” event against my will and was turned into an attraction for them as the nymphs began to flatter and boast about my ability to use true ice. The elementals wanted to see me truly use it, so I was forced to cast [Fimbulvetr Wall] and [Everlasting Bloom Flower].

Since they also noticed that I would “shed” dust from my wings, the fae were flip-flopping around my abilities like kids who were unable to focus on a single activity. My [Fae Frost], the unique skill I received after proving my loyalty to Princess Hestia by gaining [Hestia’s Imperial Guard], was unable to produce true ice mana since I wasn’t a master in it yet, but it was still an unknown skill to the elementals. Although, maybe they were just curious about fairies since I haven’t met a single one on Frozen Nest.

Watching them cheer like this did make me notice how they were able to recognize each other so easily. Elk and Burrower, especially, could differentiate the elementals who helped control the giant tunneling worms, despite only addressing each one as “you,” “little one,” and “youngling.” Recognizing each other by each other’s mana signatures made sense in such a community.

I couldn’t really disagree with how these elementals would view us fairies. Our predisposition to use names did come from our elven allies. I didn’t need the greater elementals to tell me how the different races came to be, for I have read about it, but hearing it from such an ancient, but whimsical being, was a different experience from gaining this knowledge from pages.

“More! More! Play with your magic even more, oh, king! Show us more!” The elementals were relentless with their desires. They would not have enough of my true ice.

“No! Enough! I’ve shown you all the spells I have, I can’t do anything more, okay?” I rejected them, causing them to pout out loud with groans. “Urgh, I apologize, but I would like to ask Elk—”

“It’s okay! Same is same, but same is good! Beautiful magic only our king can wield! Show us less, show us less, oh, king!” they interrupted, causing me to go speechless.

… T-that’s not how you say that. It’s not ‘less,’ it’s—arrgh, to be a faemancer is to have patience. Like with alchemy. They are still children. I must treat them as such. Princess Hestia would scold me if I couldn’t keep my cool with them.

“No, it’s enough!” I tried to talk them down again. “We’ve spent too much time on this, so let us—”

“Tell us a story!” an elemental suddenly interjected, and those very words caused an avalanche I could have never expected. Their wish to see me cast spells disappeared entirely.

“Yes! Story! Story! Story! From the outside! Tell us a story, oh, king! A story of your adventures outside Frozen Nest!”

… Urgh, Goddess protect me. These children are far more flippant than even the kids Gael hires.

I was… persuaded to tell them a story. They wouldn’t stop, and it seemed like it was impossible to move any further today. When I told Vifi about my predicament, she just laughed at me! She told me I should just do what the “kids” wanted and get it over with. No support at all despite how much we’ve been working together after we got separated from Princess Hestia! Argh, I was sure she had a lust demonkin side to her with how sadistic she was!

Unfortunately, complaining was meaningless with the barrage of words hammering my poor brain into submission. I could not concentrate, and the constant repetition of the word “story” made me unwilling to ask Elk for any more information. I could only surrender myself.

“… Let me tell you about my mistress and best friend. They are people I have been traveling a lot with on the continent next to Miononbolax.”

“Oooh, but how can our king have a mistress? You are king, oh, king of ice!”

Hearing one of them say this was a good reminder that elementals weren’t fools or lacking in knowledge. They just had the typical attitude most fae had with that strong inclination to follow their emotions and desires without thinking about the consequences those would bring. The greater elementals were clearly wise and knowledgeable, and from the way they enjoyed sharing stories with the younger ones, it was clear intergenerational learning was a tenet of their community.

… Just like us fairies. Even with the library, I was one of the few who visited it. The fun stories our elders and adventurers shared were primarily for entertainment, but also for learning.

“I am not king yet, no? Just an heir,” I said, cursing myself as I was starting to realize the ice elemental king betrayed my trust in a way.

He knew the greater elementals were wise and some were capable of acting responsibly, but most just wouldn’t want to do so. There was another condition why the king chose me as the heir, and why I never had the chance to give it up the moment I accepted its core, but I couldn’t think about it now, for I had a story to tell.

I continued, “I am an adventurer, a wanderer who walked with my adventuring party consisting of my mistress, Princess Hestia, daughter of the Dragon Empress Melloxtressa, and the last scion of Belzac, the great three-eyed wolf of a massive forest just south of where the elves of Saelariel and I lived. Miss Saori is her name, and she is my best friend.”

“Oooh, so many cool names! More, more! What did you do, oh, king?”

“Uhm, this is a story after I met them. After they rescued me from a rather precarious situation. We were trapped in the Belzac forest, and my companions wanted to return to civilization. As her dutiful maid, I, of course, was willing to help her in this endeavor. I led them north, towards the elves of Saelariel. However, our quaint journey wasn’t as peaceful as I had hoped for, as we had to enter the Belzac swamp!”

Oh, my first adventure as a member of Aurora… certainly, retelling my tale of how stressful our entry into the Belzac forest was made me feel slightly melancholic. Not due to the adversaries we encountered, but since I couldn’t repeat such a wonder with Princess Hestia and Miss Saori now. This glacial expedition was supposed to be the first adventure I would go on with Princess Hestia after a year of seeing her in a coma. Yet, here I was, wandering around with Vifi. Not that it hasn’t been fun or exciting, but I wish I could journey with Princess Hestia more.

Maybe that melancholy touched the elementals after I finished the story. I guess my retelling of meeting the escaped lizardmen slaves and the giant leviathan wasn’t as exciting as it should have been. Ahh, I thought at least my description of how we first met the twins and Asterios would be enjoyable.

“… King? Your story isn’t very… interesting! Or very happy!”

U-uh, pardon?

“W-well, I mean, I told you how it happened. I mean, there were plenty of interesting points like how my lady defeated those three lizard monsters to save the lizardmen!”

“Yes, that is very cool! Your mistress is very cool!” the elementals cheered, but quickly began to pout again. “But everything outside of that is nothing really important. The story feels so lame.”

L-lame?

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“Yes! Yes! Another story! Another story!” they shouted after they gave me their feedback.

However, at this point, my mood had sunk to the depths. I wasn’t in the mood to say anything else, prompting the greater elementals to notice this and herd the elementals towards them by dangling a story in their faces. Due to their limited attention span, they ran away from me.

I didn’t know if I should feel thankful or insulted. Regardless, I fell to the ground, feeling exhausted, unwilling to travel any further today.

With the sound of footsteps crunching on the blue soil, Vifi said “I found the story fun” from behind me. When I turned around, she patted me on the shoulder before taking a seat next to me, taking out some rations from her backpack. Handing me one of the packs of dried meat, I sighed as I took a bite from it.

“Though, they are right, your trip to the swamp was pretty uneventful, even if they seem important to Donut,” she added.

I frowned. “Tsk, well, I can’t help it. I personally found the trip quite fun.”

“Well, yeah, of course. I heard the enthusiasm, but you’re not telling the story for them. You’re telling the tale to yourself,” Vifi said, causing me to tilt my head. “It’s just how it is. You’ve been an adventurer for long enough now, so you should know how they tell stories. They try to make themselves look better by embellishing some parts. Not everything has to be exciting—needs some moments of rest—but you can’t just blabber on as if it’s something important.”

“But it is! The buildup is—urrrgh. I don’t want to embellish anything.”

“Why not?”

“Haa, because I dislike it.”

“I’m asking ‘why not’ to prod for a better answer than that, Tasianna. Come on, you talked so much and now you’re leaving me hanging?”

“You think this is some practice or what?” I glared at her as she snickered, giving me a teasing look that told me I spoke the truth. Grimacing, I shook my head, but still accepted her request. “You already know my time in my hometown and also how I lost Princess Schuri. You heard the elementals and how they kept telling me how ‘serious’ I am for a fae, and while I do I agree, it is just how it is. I don’t want to return to my past self. That unserious side of myself that I instinctively carried around as if everything in this world was just filled with fun and excitement. Ha, it didn’t help when our village adventurers would return, bringing extremely embellished stories back that could never truly be true.”

Vifi shrugged, looking like she couldn’t understand my dislike. “They tried to make themselves look better?”

“They made themselves look like the story’s heroes!” I shouted before slapping my head to calm myself down. In a quieter tone, I continued, “As in, they tried to make themselves look like the protagonist, making them seem like the heroes who did everything! I believed it, like all my fellow villagers. We all thought they spoke the truth, but it was obvious they couldn’t be the ones to have killed a troll or giant monster. It made no sense.”

Vifi scoffed. “Like how you’re able to kill massive rank Bs or threaten dragons? Pretty impossible, huh?”

“Are you here to mock me, or what is your problem today?” I snapped.

“Not in the least, dear friend. Maybe some teasing, but nothing too serious.” Vifi giggled before patting me on the shoulder again. I almost wanted to reject it. “But, here’s the thing, there is a difference between embellishing a story to make it more interesting, over outright lying, okay? If you’re describing that monster stampede at the start of your story, don’t just say how it just happened and how Saori managed to make Donut open up a bit more after that. Nobody is there to listen to you flatter your mistress; they are listening to you tell an exciting story! Talk about the stampede more about how monsters would trample others to death, or shove them into the large stream, or over the cliff, or anything else to make it better! How is that embellishing?”

I groaned, understanding her point.

“See? You get the point. The kids probably want you to make the story more colorful, so do it. You don’t need to lie to make a story sound cool, but adding some details and extra fluff can do the same thing. In fact, maybe those fairy adventures you spoke about never really lied but they did exactly what they told you but just with additions. To make the story sound better. I mean, you kept talking about how you fae are supposedly quite innocent and prone to follow your emotions. What makes them liars?”

After saying that, Vifi left me to ponder on her words as she continued eating. I was speechless, unable to answer back as I brooded on her words until it was time to sleep. Yet, when morning came, or what I felt like morning when Elk woke me up, I still couldn’t find an answer. Thankfully, I didn’t have to think about it when Elk finally continued the story as we continued on our journey.

“Our previous king was mortified when we found out that Thalaxarus had died to Kargryxmor. The loss of our friend caused him to retreat to the glaciers and stay near the peak, until the time came when the invaders came to our world, ousted our primarchs to take their seats as our gods, and invited the demons to attack our world,” Elk reminisced, sounding quite distraught. “No new dragon ruler was chosen, but it changed when the current one came into power, no? Melloxtressa, the first dragon—at least during my lifetime—who had gained the powers of true ice through their own powers, without requiring the aid of our previous king. She managed to reach the pinnacle of our element, mightier and more potent than even our previous king’s ice. Your mana is similar to hers, in that aspect.”

“I learned it from her. My fellow trainees did the same.”

“Then you are the first true ice wielders since Melloxtressa.”

That was true, actually. Lord Alextraxus, despite how close he was to Empress Melloxtressa, never learned how to wield true ice. Yet, Shay, Beth, and I had this luxury. Despite how weak we were compared to the rank S Dragon Ruler of Ice, we were the ones chosen by Empress Melloxtressa.

I wasn’t sure of the reason, but maybe it was a status symbol. Maybe Lord Alextraxus rejected the empress’s willingness to teach him because wielding true ice was the mark of the Dragon Ruler of Ice. Maybe that was why all on Frozen Nest consider Empress Melloxtressa the true Dragon Ruler of Ice, since the only reason she didn’t hold the official title was due to the laws of the empire. Then again, she was also the strongest ice dragonkin alive, so nobody ever had the chance, anyway.

I sighed. As this reasoning seemed quite similar to how I actually acquired the ice elemental king’s core.

“Which was why the king chose me as the heir,” I said.

This was the real reason why the ice elemental king chose me. Not because I was wise or more responsible, but because I was a fae who could control true ice. Not perfectly yet, but I was still better at it than the greater elementals.

“True ice is fundamentally different from the rest of the ice element as it can freeze us,” Elk explained why the elementals who attacked Lord Rhekkraxus were scared of my spells. “Learning it can destroy us. Those unworthy of it will face eternal slumber when we absorb the mana at the peaks, and that is how most of us perish and hand over our duties to someone younger. We shall continue to pursue a path to the divine to correct the injustice of losing our elemental emperors, but none of us are worthy. Only our previous king could possibly ascend, but they never accepted the mantle, simply awaiting someone more worthy to do so. We cannot allow such powers to those with flesh. Our ice elemental king or emperor must be one of us.”

“You cannot learn it naturally. You have to be surrounded by it constantly. Day and night; absorb the true ice mana flowing in the air and even then, my fingers break whenever I cast a spell. I can recover, but it is a mark that I still am not proficient enough to consider myself good enough to teach it to others,”—I looked at my fingers, trying to remember how often I had to see my hands crumble before my eyes—“Mine isn’t strong enough to grant you it.”

“Which is why you have the core. Which is why our previous king told you to reach the peaks, because only then can you fully embrace the power. I can even feel some of that mana in your dress, but there is a seal on it, correct?” Elk asked, prompting me to nod. “The power is at the peaks, and that is why none of us ever sought our previous king. Why we listened to them. Even if we could feel him, none of us were ready to become the king. One of us could have absorbed the mana at the peaks, but the decision was to appoint you with this honor. We elementals only wish to have our king back.”

“Yes, king! King! Oh, king! Take up your title!”

… And that was where it stopped, despite how I still had some questions. Another day’s progress quickly ended as the lesser elementals wanted to play with me.

“Go.” However, unlike yesterday, Elk urged me to do so. “We can continue tomorrow. We have time. A story can always rest. Tell your story, young one.”

I couldn’t really object since Elk and Burrower started to tell a story to the normal elementals, leaving me to take care of the “kids.”

[“Nod if you want a story,”] Vifi said through telepathy, looking slightly annoyed. Even if she couldn’t understand what the elementals could say, she could still speak with them and see them.

When the elementals started to dance around Vifi, yelling “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Vifi took it as a confirmation even without needing me to say it. She sat down and began telling a story about the first week after she enlisted in Bole’Taria’s army. Although her mood was quite reserved and aloof, the elementals seemed to enjoy it as they listened intently, drawing some of the ones around me to her.

Seeing the elementals crowding around me urged me to start a story, I sighed and sat down as well, deciding to tell them about that time our party entered Cedaraille’s dungeon with Ellaine and Grimnir… although, with some adjustment as Vifi told me. I figured that, unlike how Elk told me a story in a serious and informative manner, they would assume a more fun-loving personality when they spoke with the younger ones.

You could call it similar to serving our customers in our restaurant, right? Some… fan service, as Princess Hestia would call it.

“So Princess Hestia rose towards the moon during that night! Flames as iridescent as the light elemental emperor, and proclaim before infernos caused by the giant spiders, ‘I am Hestia Atsuko! With Goddess Aurena as my witness, I shall smite this beast down!’” I recalled, adding some ‘details.’

“Oh, oh, then what did you do, oh, king?” the elementals asked like greedy kids, wanting candy.

“What? Naturally, I fought with her as I flew through the skies, buffeting the mad spider with ice and water so powerful, its inferno fire cannot withstand it! I saved countless humans and beastmen, as my party fought the spider! However, it didn’t end there!” I said, causing the elementals to come closer to me. I even noticed a few normal elementals had joined me midway through my story. “The spider was a force of nature. It burned so much, I thought I was swallowed by the flames of a fire dragon!”

“Oh no!”

“But, we had help! From a mighty human army! Our party and the might of so many mages and knights clashed against the spider. Flames clashed against each other, buying us enough time for Miss Saori and I to prepare a mighty combination of super spells! So mighty, they caused the spider to crash onto the ground, giving an opening for our mighty ice dragonewt, Yorschka, to fell the beast with a dragoon dive that splintered the earth!”

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” the elementals cheered, jumping around and singing in our name like some bards.

I guess I didn’t lie about anything. Just made everything a bit more… fun to listen to. Hehe.

Seeing all the elementals have so much fun felt relieving, although it did get tiresome when they tried to drag me into the singing. The nymphs were adamant that I finally just let loose, even mentioning how I should just enjoy things more. I couldn’t really disagree. Maybe I was stressing myself out a bit too much with this whole elemental king thing.

Maybe after all of this was over, everything would just stay the same. I could just announce one of the greater elementals as my seneschal and continue serving Princess Hestia.

… Although, what I couldn’t have expected was this routine to continue on every single day. Elk would speak to me and tell me a story or answer my question, and then our progress for the day would halt with the lesser elementals wanting to have fun. The flow of time felt hard to keep up, though, since we were permanently stuck underground without a proper light unless Vifi made one. If it wasn’t for our rations running out, I wouldn’t have known that ten days had passed since the start of this trip.

I was quite thankful to Vifi for staying so patient, since… I was starting to enjoy this daily rhythm. It was quite fun, honestly. The dancing, singing, and storytelling. I mean, I did run out of material after a few days, but it didn’t mean I had nothing left to entertain them. Naturally, Princess Hestia’s song! I had their lyrics memorized in my head!

“Tonight, I’m really feeling the heat surging inside me ♫

I’m about to explode ♫

And this night, won’t end until we’re done ♫

Satisfied from our fun and games ♫

So, (Blaze it all night) ♫

(I won’t be stopped) ♫

Cause this night is still young, far too young! ♫

Come on, sing with me!” I shouted as I sang [Blaze it all Night], prompting the elementals and nymphs and copy me.

Haha, honestly, at this point, I realized that Vifi was starting to get annoyed. Thankfully, when the food ran out, she did have the time to release her stress when we had to venture to the surface to hunt for some meat. I guess I enjoyed it as well, as I didn’t notice that with my prolonged contact with the ice elemental king’s core, my body was slowly becoming ever more resilient to the true ice. Fewer of my body parts would fall off after every spell cast.

In addition, this slow traveling speed wasn’t a complete detriment, though, since we did learn something about the dragon hunts from Elk. From what he told me, a faction of ice elementals did grow extremely weary and angry after Yothmlak’s betrayal, joining up with a local apex monster-to-be in that mandril to hunt down the rest of the dragons in the glaciers.

In addition, he noted how the mandril seemingly managed to acquire various tools from some unknown source, which might explain where it got all those potions and even that dragon blood. Surprisingly, it seemed this unknown source had the same mana source they felt on the day the ice king told the other elementals about the possibility of Yothmlak’s betrayal.

“It definitely felt foreign from our island. I am confident it couldn’t have been an ice dragonkin, though, as the trails and marks I found would be predominantly made of ice mana. It was mostly wind and earth,” Elk told me. “I didn’t mind the signs until the mighty mandragonga appeared with my breathens when they announced the dragon hunt.”

When Vifi and I heard this, it almost sounded like sabotage. If it couldn’t have been an ice dragonkin, then who could it have been? The ice elemental exiled themselves a few years ago, but I was confident the deceased dragons we found had only died a few weeks, maybe a month ago, due to the lack of decomposition. Even if the ice slowed the process down. I mean, one of them was even killed on the same day when we confronted the ape monster.

The timeline felt quite awkward, but it was evident something was wrong. However, sadly, informing Princess Hestia and the rest about it was difficult without revealing the portal since, well, elementals didn’t need to sleep. They only rested for the night for Vifi’s and my sake. If we were to wander around, they would follow us.

Though, on the 16th day after the start of this trip, Vifi decided she had had enough of it and made a mad dash through the tunnels the ice worms created, using her extreme speed to outrun any elementals trying to follow after her. When she returned, she told everybody she needed to run around to release some pent-up stress, successfully making the elementals believe her.

On the other hand, she told me she successfully delivered a message to everybody with the information we had gained from her. In return, she learned Princess Hestia and the others were almost ready with their preparations and were only waiting for her core to regrow. Furthermore, she also gave Vifi a single piece of firework, intended to be used like a flare to inform everybody of our position.

[“We’re supposed to ignite it once we are at the peaks, and they will strike. If we were to find Yothmlak, then we could do the same,”] Vifi explained. [“She only gave me one since, regardless of the situation, we would then reunite and continue together.”]

[“Understood, then—”] I turned to the elementals, smiling softly as I waved at them. [“—let’s make sure to enjoy the rest of the trip, right—Huh?”]

I jerked back when Vifi suddenly grabbed my arm, holding it tightly as she pulled me over to face her.

[“Don’t forget that we have a mission, Tasianna. The objective isn’t to cozy up with these elementals, it is to find out the truth of everything and then help both you and Donut gain whatever power you need. We still need to retrieve that spear from the mandril and find the last artifact left behind by Donut’s icy grandfather.”]

[“Of course! We need to find a way to pacify that mandril and tell it the truth, not to mention, bring Yothmlak to justice for what it did to the elementals!”] I said, filling my chest with vigor as I couldn’t help but imagine fighting that dragon. We couldn’t kill him, but we had to make him face the consequences of his failure, making me hope we could persuade the elementals when the time came.

Vifi though, squinted for some reason. [“Yeah… we have to do that, huh?”]

[“Uh, yeah?”] I tilted my head, finding it weird how serious Vifi was being. [“Come on, you’re bringing down the mood, Vifi! Quickly, the kids will get sad if you scowl like that!”]

When I felt Vifi releasing her grip, I flew over to the elementals to continue my singing practice with them. I would make them all fans of Princess Hestia’s song! I would do my part to have her follower numbers grow!

And then it finally happened. On the 21st day after the start of this trip, Elk and Burrower finally noted how we had to ascend. Our rations were still full, so we didn’t have to, so the only reason to do so was obvious.

We finally reached the peaks.

When we dug ourselves out of the underground, my eyes widened when I was finally able to see the highest point of the glaciers. The reason why we couldn’t continue was that everything from this point was made from ice and water. No soil could be found, as the glacier looked like the most pristine crystals in this world, nay, it was similar to the beautiful sheets of ice on Empress Melloxtressa’s mountain.

I couldn’t hold my excitement to feel the chilly winds brush against my skin, feeling liberation. The freedom of the blue clear skies made me want to fly so badly, but I held myself back as I saw the elementals cheer for me, telling me how my goal was so close. That their king would soon “return.”

I giggled awkwardly as I stared at the peaks, noting how I could see some elementals flying and walking around on the icy peaks. Due to how the peaks were one giant glacier with nothing else on it, it was quite easy to recognize anything that moved, like the elementals and the river flowing down from the peaks.

“It is time, Tasianna,” Elk stated as they stared towards the peak with a look of wonderment. “With the mana you have absorbed during this journey, I am sure you will succeed.”

“… You took all that time to allow me to acclimate to the core, correct?” I deduced from the way they spoke, prompting them to nod. “I see, then—”

[“Found you.”]

A chill ran down my spine as a voice appeared in my head, causing Vifi and me to snap to the skies, where we saw a shadow quickly close onto us until it completely covered us and the elementals in it. My eyes widened in terror when I finally realized who this voice belonged to.

[“I figured those worms came from my old friend. Ha, leaving you to do the travel yourself certainly spared me the need to continue arguing with you. Ta. Si. An. Na.”]

It was Yothmlak. He found us.

[“I hope you absorbed enough so I can eat you for that power, fairy! Don’t worry, if that fire dragon brat is still alive, I’ll make sure to send her your last words!”]