A river so immense, it spanned the horizon from edge to edge, as if splitting the heavens apart with its titanic size. One that covered the entire sky of Lanekia.
Savage darkness was vanquished by blinding, soothing light.
It appeared to be both liquid and vaporous, constantly shifting and curling into elaborate whorls and spirals with a mesmerizing motion, resembling a slow, graceful dance of frost and energy.
“What is that…?”
Olivia asked, touching her shoulders with her hands, her body suddenly growing cold. But this was not the savage, brutal cold Lanekia possessed, but a pleasant chill. Like how one would feel after entering an air-conditioned room in the middle of summer.
Kazikato appeared to be in a trance, same with Alexander. They were breathing heavily, and were mesmerized by the titanic river in the sky. It seemed to have that sort of effect, but only on higher beings. Edward and Emma were slightly mesmerized, but they shook it off.
Olivia and Alice weren’t affected at all.
“Do you hear that… Alice?”
She asked, shrinking away, a cold mist escaping every pore of her body.
“Yes…”
Alice affirmed. A faint, melodic hum accompanied the river, a chorus of soft notes like the chime of icicles swaying in the wind. It was pleasant to hear, but as it was with the unknown, it brought fear.
Olivia and Alice helped Emma get inside a building, while Edward carried the other two. And then, all of a sudden, the melodic hum was gone, replaced by roars. Roars belonging to beings of titanic size, and might. They covered their ears, and Lanekia trembled. An earthquake of a magnitude that would ruin Earth.
One caused by the sudden ascent of hundreds of dragons, frost dragons that ripped the air apart with their mighty breaths, and brought an even colder chill. Beings the size of mountains, the size of hills, and even those the size of cars rose up to the sky, towards the river.
Their glistening scales, their terrifying maws, dragons resembling those of eastern myths and western stories, and those with humanoid shapes.
But there was a singular dragon that stood out, one made of pure ethereal, cyan light… One made of the river itself. A dragon of pure light.
They all fell asleep, unable to handle the sight of the dragon of pure light, unable to handle the sight of Alan’s ‘mother’.
Lanesha, Queen of the frost dragons, and the youngest child, and only remaining daughter of Ariel.
Lower beings like them simply couldn’t handle the sight of a supreme being, especially one that was using the river as a conduit to appear. In a pure form.
“Do you see it, prince?”
On top of the walls, Azmakul asked the dazed, worried Alan. Though he was unaware of his worry, he simply took it as awe. He continued.
“The path to divinity, or profanity, is reached only when one can harness the source of their elements. The rivers of the arcane.”
He stopped for a bit, taking in a deep breath, reminiscing of a time long, long past.
“And the path to supremacy…”
“…is to dominate the river.”
Alan completed his sentence, yet with a different approach. Azmakul looked at the young dragon, hiding many emotions behind his odd mask.
“Yes, one can also say that.”
His gaze remained on Alan, examining his expression, as the dragons in the sky received multiple motes of blue, cyan light from the dragon made of pure light.
They descended soon after receiving them, the children played with them, whilst the adults took them back to wherever they originated from.
A small mote of light, an orb of crystalline appearance also descended towards Azmakul, who gave it to Alan. The mote of light was absorbed by his skin, but the effects were unknown. Azmakul put his hand on Alan’s back, engraving a certain magical spell on the young prince. One that he was oblivious to, and hopefully would always be oblivious to it. “Lanekia is the home of frost dragons, because it is where the river’s power is most magnificent. And it is here, that two supremes of frost were born.”
One that was him, and one that was Lanesha, though only one remained a supreme now. Azmakul had given up his supremacy long ago.
The sky was clear now, the massive dragon of pure light disappeared, and the rest followed. But the river still remained.
“It’ll take a while for the river to disappear, I want you to make the most of it.”
Azmakul said, stroking Alan’s wild hair, and took both of them down, far away from the jade city to a field of pure, white snow.
Alan fell into it, only his head remained on the surface.
“Eh?”
“Use frost walker, young prince. That would help.”
Alan climbed up, and used the skill [Frost Walker] he gained after consuming Lanesha’s drop of ichor. The skill made the snow beneath his feet harden, turn to slippery ice that was hard to stand on, but better than snow.
“Your first task is this…”
Azmakul invoked the mana in the atmosphere, and used light from the river itself to create a pillar as tall as thirty meters, and as wide as twenty. No runic pattern was engraved on its exterior, yet it glowed with an incandescent light.
“Destroy that pillar, you may use anything at your disposal. Take as long as you need.”
He was about to leave, but before he could vanish into thin air, Alan suddenly asked him a
question.
“Alright… But can you tell me something?”
The ancient dragon stopped, and nodded his head.
“Who is Kizmal, and what is exactly do I have to beat at his heart?”
He would like to know that, it was a question he had on the back of his head, and planned to
ask Azmakul whenever he saw him next.
Of course, not when he was interrupted by a sight like the river, and other things.
“Kizmal? Ah, Kizmal is a giant, young prince.”
He continued.
