Thousand Year Sword: Part 9.05: Cold as Dragon's Breath

     That key, that was unfitting to the graveyard labyrinth would be perfectly at home in the place before Lukatara now. Like the black temple it is like a mountain embedded into a sideways sky. Unlike the black temple this is a temple made of blue gems that shimmer in an imitation of ice. At least he assumed it an imitation as he had never seen real ice before and it is the fairy that describes frozen water to him; something so alien in this land of perpetual muggy spring filled with the stink of rotting flesh. The air grows cooler as the wind blows off the temple upon his approach.

 

   There is not much to be said about the interior of the temple, annoying magical ice that slides him along hidden paths in its surface forcing him to solve weird ice puzzles; which only become easier upon finding inside an ill-fitting to the general ice and snow theme of the fiends here a treasure chest mimic with a horned skull demon puppet inside its toothy maw, a magical lantern.

 

   “huh,” says the fairy as Lukatara picks it up, “how’d that get here?”

 

  “What?” asks Lukatara,

 

  “That, and its guardian monster were supposed to be inside the crypt. But in a passage that was caved in.”

 

     It’s not a mystery either of them can solve but the magic item is very much welcome as it melts ice pillars in their path, shoots flames at enemies. Before too long they come upon the central door. A massive blue stone door with a key hole. The dragon key vanishes, as does the door upon turning it.

 

   Inside the icy room is very much like that of the northern temple, except full of ice, and a mural on the far wall of a five headed wingless dragon. Entering the room the door forms into a solid wall behind them. Heads first the mural peels from the wall, forming into three dimensional ice as it snarls and steps down.

 

   Lukatara draws his sword and shield, blocking the monster’s ice blasts that issue from its mouth and despite the frozen floor stands his ground when it smashes at him with its icicles for horns heads.

 

   “None magic ice,” says the fairy, “the spider cloth made boots…which you can thank me later for gathering up and keeping safe for you when…never mind incoming!”

 

   Lukatara leaps to the side as a head comes down and slices through the ice with his sword. As the monster rears back, after three seconds of staggering and shouting two more heads grow in its place.

 

   “What?” says Lukatara, “how do I kill this thing?”

 

   “Ice Hydra,” says the fairy, “you aren’t going to like how to kill it.”

 

  “Tell me,” says Lukatara as he hides behind his shield from an ice blast.

 

  “You have to put the shield away,” says the fairy.

 

  Lukatara just stares wide eyed at the little glowing ball.

 

  “and,” continues the fairy, “hold the magic lantern instead. When you slice off a head, you need to immediately use the magic fire to seal the wound, with the last head cut off it will die….and no you can’t just use the lantern to melt the whole thing, it isn’t strong enough. Man, good thing the lantern was in this temple and not back in the crypt like it should have been otherwise Albia’s older sister would have really screwed you over, more than she did anyway.”

 

   “Whose Albia?” asks Lukatara.

 

  “Dodge the monster!” shouts the fairy as Lukatara is brought back into the fight.

 

  Despite his instincts he replaces his shield with the lantern and thankfully able to use Lohln’s web despite holding weapons swings about slicing off heads and sealing the stumps with the magic fire. After repeating this for each head and focusing on dodging the Ice Hydra the monster falls down dead. Its body starts to melt and shatters like glass for some reason, leaving behind one large piece, a floating crystal.

 

   “Shatter it,” says the fairy, “this monster had the crystal safely inside its body, unlike the last one.”

 

   Lukatara shatters it with his sword and a blinding light fills the room. When it clears the temple is still blue, but not frozen, and the sound of dripping water can be heard everywhere. A mighty blue sigil appears under his feet and a woman rises up. A woman with pale white skin, pointed ears, long blue hair, and wearing a long flowing blue sparkling gown.

 

   “Thank you for releasing the seal on my holy place,” says the woman, “I am the Blue Dragon worshipped here in ancient times. By thy virtue I can reclaim this land for my own. As a gift…”

 

   As she walks up to him she stops and looks at him puzzled, “why do you smell of the white sea?”

 

   The fairy surprises the dragon woman and flutters in her face blinking wildly.

 

  “Oh,” says the dragon blushing, “I see, heh.”

 

  She smiles a somewhat forced smile, “well anyway, I will grant you the power of ice. To freeze your enemies solid, even the undead will unable to move and become brittle.”

 

   Lukatara thanks her after being told to try his powers out on a torch.

 

   “One more thing,” says the woman, “be careful of the company you keep, chaos has many faces.”

 

   With those confusing words in his ears, which make him think back to Lohln and Echidara, he leaves the temple.

 

   The dragon’s voice appears in his head, “get as far away as possible from the temple, quickly.”

 

   Lukatara sprints away, not knowing what the dragon meant but knowing it can’t be good. Inside the temple the body of the woman turns to solid ice as the sigil glows brightly beneath her. Her body explodes into a blue cyclone which grows bigger and bigger. With a mighty roar something rises inside the cyclone. From outside there is a sound louder than anything Lukatara had ever heard. Turning around he sees the temple explode out as a massive blue cyclone rips upwards from inside it. Something is inside the cyclone, a giant blue serpent of a beast with a strange flat crocodilian in a way with mammalian features head with antlers, a celestial dragon. The cyclone clears as its long winding body coils about floating in the air above it. Its body is half in the dome, half outside the dome, the dome blinking weakly around it. Blue clouds form around it, as blue lightning bolts blast the temple apart.

 

   When nothing but rubble remains the dragon flies into the air and head dives down into the rubble, its body like some blue scaly rainbow as it descends into a massive blue sigil that spins, sucking the rubble down with it, leaving where the temple was, a lake.