Chapter 5 - 5: I am talking to an icicle

The Glacielk and fire moose monster charged into each other, their antlers glowing with magical power which caused the air to violently revolt and spark. It felt as if a burning summer wind was colliding with a blizzard. Despite the massive energy however, I kept my vision squarely on the "rune" on the ground waiting for the moment to stomp on it and get out of here. It must have only been moments, but it felt like hours as the two opposing forces of nature got closer and closer to one another. It was almost stifling; but then as the two monsters nearly locked horns, the rune finally began to glow and I stomped on it as hard as I could. Then came the darkness.

The next moment I felt as if I was sliding down a hill with no control over my body, my vision blurred by a great cascade of colors and all I could hear was my own screaming. When it finally stopped my ears were ringing something fierce while my vision was blurry. It took me a minute to get my bearings together, but I was alive...somehow. I was about to celebrate, until I heard a thundering crash behind me. I looked behind me and jumped with a start to see the Glacielk locked in combat with the strange moose monster behind what appeared to be a sheet of clear ice.

I touched the ice while thinking out loud, "What is this thing?"

"Stop touching it. You're getting it dirty", a powerful feminine voice echoed behind me.

I jumped with a start and quickly turned around to see the source of the voice, and I lost my voice in that moment.

I had landed to what appeared to be an elaborate throne room that looked to be carved out of ice. Supporting the ceiling were six pillars,three to the left and three to the right, and in between them were statues of what I could only assume to be majimonsters, albeit, they were stranger and wilder than anything I've ever seen. Upon closer inspection of the pillars, it became clear to me that it was actually a type of white and blue stone. At the other end of the room where the throne would be, was instead a pillar of ice that connected the ceiling to the floor and was as thick as an oak tree.

Sealed in that pillar of ice was a beautiful woman in flowing blue and white robes. Her figure looked like she was carved out of a glacier by a master artisan while her face had this weirdly beautiful contradiction to it. Her overall face from her lips to her cheeks had this softness to them akin to fresh fallen snow, not a single blemish in sight, just pale and smooth. But her eyes, even though they were closed, had this sharpness to them like an apex predator eyeing her prey and predicting every move it would make if it fled. It even felt that everything in this room, even my very existence, was all within her calculations.

"Well", a voice echoed in the chamber, "Aren't you going to say anything?"

I was about to shoot off a series of questions, namely who and why, but the tone of voice she used when she asked that reminded me of Ma when I forgot to put away my hunting gear, so I just timidly replied with, "Thanks for my saving my life". Then as those words exited my mouth, what I could only describe as a ghostly copy of the woman in the pillar arose from it and proceeded to land in front of me with a smirk on her face, her eyes still bearing that calculative glare but gentler somehow.

"You're welcome.", she said with this playful haughtiness in her voice (?). "Now then, I assume you have some questions for me so please feel free to ask, but as preface, my name is Voxea the Archmaji of the Blessed Glacier Pavilion and you are currently in my tomb,'' she said with a flourish.

"Well that explains the, waitaminute what did you just say?!", I shouted in utter shock. "But how, why? All the stories say that the maji died out centuries ago, overthrown by", I gestured to the mirror showing the two majimonsters, "the very majimonsters they created! So how are you alive...why am I here?"