Eye of Judgment

Chapter 3: Lost in Icefield

The bone-chilling wind, laden with ice shards, lashed at Adelia’s exposed skin like a thousand tiny needles. Nine days had passed since they fled the smoldering ruins of Emerald Kingdom, and the desolation of the northern ice wastes defied imagination. Vast, endless snowfields stretched out, interspersed with contorted ice spires that resembled frozen lightning, casting an eerie glow under the overcast sky. Each strike of Lariel’s wooden staff against the ice sent out a flash of blue light from its runes, yet it did little to dispel the oppressive silence that hung in the air.

"According to ancient Elven ballads, Windscar Canyon should lie beyond that bank of fog," Lariel shouted, his words torn apart by the howling gale. His silver hair whipped wildly in the wind. "But the songs also speak of guardians that devour all who approach the Abbey..." His voice trailed off as Adelia suddenly grabbed his cloak.

The Seed of God - Sight within her trembled violently, casting a searing purple halo at the edge of her vision. She stared at a seemingly ordinary snowdrift to their left, where the air warped strangely as if an invisible membrane was being torn. With a sharp crack, five Frost Wraiths burst forth. Their bodies, constructed from ice crystals, were coiled with black incantations, and their breath exhaled not white mist, but green-flaming frigid air.

"Their weak point is the joint of the left forepaw!" Adelia cried out. Her God - Sight allowed her to see the pulsing curse energy coursing through the creatures’ bodies. Lariel’s magical arrows pierced one Wraith’s chest, only to be met with a screech as its ice body reformed. She gripped the shard of her father’s broken sword and, as a Wraith lunged, drove it precisely into the joint. The ice shattered, and the green flames splattered onto the snow, instantly corroding the ground into charred craters.

However, the battle’s noise awakened an even more terrifying presence. The snowdrifts in the distance began to undulate like waves, and a colossal ice worm, as large as a castle, burst from the earth. Its carapace was densely engraved with twisted runes, similar yet perverted versions of the protective runes that once shielded Emerald City. Lariel’s face turned deathly pale. "That’s the Frostmaw... Legend says its belly holds the passage to forbidden realms!"

The ice worm opened its maw filled with jagged ice teeth, and a hurricane of bone-numbing cold rushed out. Adelia was hurled backward by the blast, her back slamming into an ice spire. The searing pain made her vision blur, but the Seed of God - Sight flared with unprecedented power. Her consciousness was suddenly dragged into a strange void, where countless glowing runes spun in the darkness, piecing together a faint outline of the Gray Mist Abbey. Deep within, a faintly - glowing egg-like object pulsed, and the fragment of the scale was embedded in its shell.

"Adelia! Use the rune!" Lariel’s shout snapped her back to reality. The old elf was shielding her with his body, the light from his staff’s runes dimming to a flicker. Gritting her teeth against the pain, Adelia pressed the acquired rune onto the ice. The symbol erupted into golden light, burning a scorch mark on the ice worm’s body.

Enraged, the ice worm whipped its tail, sending it hurtling into its open maw. As they plunged into darkness, Adelia’s God - Sight activated again. She saw her father trapped in a cage woven from chains, surrounded by floating fragments of broken memories. "Hold on, Father..." she whispered in her mind, her nails digging into her palm.

Inside the ice worm, a viscous, pitch-black world awaited. Corrosive mucus dripped constantly from above. Adelia’s God - Sight carved a glowing path through the labyrinthine passages, guiding her and Lariel forward. Along the way, they encountered creatures formed from the worm’s gastric juices, each bearing Metemnis’ face and laughing mockingly. "Tiny mortals, daring to challenge the divine domain!"

After a fierce battle, they finally reached the ice worm’s core—a throbbing blue crystal, its surface covered in the same twisted runes. Lariel channeled his last reserves of magic into his staff, and Adelia drove her sword shard into the crystal. With a deafening explosion, the ice worm’s body shattered, and shards of ice rained down like a storm.

When the dust settled, Adelia discovered the second set of runes on the ice—a symbol composed of three intertwined chains. The Seed of God - Sight revealed that these chains were not just seals but keys to unlocking the Abbey. Lariel suddenly grabbed her wrist, his expression grave. "Princess, did you... see something you shouldn’t have, inside the ice worm?"

Before Adelia could answer, the ice-waste sky turned blood-red. From the distant fog, hundreds of figures with glowing green eyes emerged—the cursed ice golem legion of Metemnis. Black divine blood dripped from their weapons. Adelia clenched the rune, and the Seed of God - Sight burned hotter within her as if echoing the impending battle.

"Onward we go," her voice was cold and resolute. "No matter the obstacles, I will find the Abbey, shatter the gods’ lies, and free my father." Lariel looked into the young princess’s eyes, seeing the same determination as the warrior who had founded their kingdom from ruins. He tightened his grip on his staff, ready for the arduous fight ahead—for they both knew that beyond the fog, the gears of fate were turning faster, and they were the ones pushing them forward.