It was in Mox's Tundra.
Standing in front of Ant was the king of the Westerners. Aisochs. Aisochs's gigantic wings blocked the falling snow. The pure white drops ceased to touch the ground below his feet. Ant Infele stared at the dragon's sharp face. Aisochs's giant orange eyes looked down upon Ant's face, and then one of them began to emit light. The golden light that was similar to pressure-washing yourself. The weight of the ground around him shifted.
It was a voice that made Ant's vision stutter.
[W ho ar e you ?]
The faint ringing in the back of Ant's ears became louder. "I'm Ant," he said in a voice that tried to be tough.
The dragon tilted its head. The golden light became stronger. The snow that was once underneath them vanished under the intense heat. The process of melting thousands of years of frozen water began underneath Ant's feet.
[I kn ow you.]
Ant's skin began to burn.
[W e know o f you.] The dragon's mouth did not move as he said the following words: [An t In fe l e.]
"Ant."
The familiar voice made Ant snap his head backwards. There was Zo, standing there. He was dragging an extremely long snake behind him. Wait… that wasn't a snake. That was a Loong. "What took you so long?" Zo asked.
Aisochs laughed. The air began to crumble. [I do no t kn ow o f you, tho ugh.]
Aisochs would describe Zo as indescribable.
[Yo u smel l fami liar.]
The mouth of the giant Westerner opened as if he wanted to eat them, but he resisted the temptation. Zo shot a look at Ant, telling him not to provoke Aisochs. Of course, Ant hadn't known Zo for long enough to understand looks. Zo made a gesture pointing to behind him how he had cleared the weakest ring of Loong defences, and they were safe to talk to the queen.
Ant understood none of this.
[Wh at 's thi s ?]
Aisochs's terror-inducing voice rang out in the ice fields. [Yo u see m we ake r tha n h im…]
The dragon tilted his head towards Zo. [Hi m. Mo re in teres ti n g.] He took a single step towards Zo, and the entire world seemed to shake. It was only because the layer of ice underneath them was so thick that him and Ant did not plunge into the water.
"Hey, motherfucker!" Ant yelled, waving his arms to get the attention of the godlike creature. "Piss off! We aren't here to talk to you?"
[H ow pecu lia r.] Aisochs's face contorted into an unreadable expression. [T he sav io u r thin ks he ca n de fe a t us.]
With the power of the hundreds of slaughtered kings before him, Aisochs flapped his sky-covering wings. A heat unbearable to all humans enveloped Ant's already damaged vessel. The remnants of his bleeding arteries were cauterized instantly, along with the bringing of waves of terrible pain.
[Amu s ing.] Aiscochs dropped his head to look at Ant's scarred body closer. Thousands of thoughts emerged from the inside of the last ancient dragon's mind. [Wh at do yo u want to d o wit h her?]
Ant assumed he was talking about the Loong Queen. "I want answers on - - - - -."
This was what Aisochs heard. The reason for his laughter was unknown to Ant.
[T he oth er 'sa vi o u rs?]
It had been hundreds of years when nobody could mention the past of Mox's end. Someone was toying with them. Dots of blood birthed in Aiscochs's fire-coloured eyes.
"Ant, we have no time," Zo grabbed onto Ant's scorched shoulder. "You came here for answers, so let's get them."
Aiscochs lifted his glorious head towards the sky. With a slightly disappointed voice, he said to the aether: [Jikoku. D o yo u kn ow of his being?]
Jikoku. The man that hired Ant as the saviour, and the god of this world. "I know him."
[Th ere is n o Jikoku in Mo x.]
"What are you saying?" Ant began to walk away slowly. "Jikoku is alive and well! He's trying to save this planet!"
[Fro m wha t?]
"The… The End?"
Aiscochs sighed like Ant was foolish. [I wi ll hav e to kill you so meda y.]
Zo grabbed onto the top of Ant's head. He dashed into the ice structure that was guarded by endless rings of spikes. Aisochs began to follow at a slow pace. "The reason this castle is so tiny is because the rest of it is underground," Zo began explaining the layout of the Loongs' mansion while dragging Ant through countless hallways made of ice. "On a related note, what were you thinking, bringing that small child along with you?"
"I hope you've brought him somewhere safe," Ant said through gritted teeth. Normally he would be able to run himself, but his legs had been frozen for some reason and they refused to move.
"He's with his sister," Zo ducked in between the lines of sight of a few small Loongs. "It took a lot of my Fragment to do that much. It'll take a while to get it back."
Zo and Ant reached a giant hole in the centre of the ice castle. Normally, since Loongs could float, the inhabitants of this place would be able to go up and down this hole as they please. But Zo and Ant could not float. "Brace yourself," Zo jumped down into the lower levels of the ice.
They landed gently. Zo caused a large gust of wind to come from the bottom of the hole, stopping them from falling so fast. "How did you do that?" Ant asked in awe.
"I simply did," Zo brushed off the dust that had fallen. " I know where The Loong Queen is. Just follow me."
Ant didn't mind asking how. His legs had finally begun to start moving again. "Why was that dragon king guy outside there?" Ant asked while running.
"I presume he's trying to kill The Loong Queen, just like every other King in his clan," Zo replied. "The Loongs and Westerners have a long history of rivalry."
Ant nodded in understanding. "He's walking slowly though."
"Don't underestimate their speed."
When Zo and Ant exited the first hallway, it finally occurred to Ant how deep they were underground. The ice of the frozen ocean was chiselled into a gigantic hall. Hundreds of ice sculptures of Loongs hung from the ceiling, and it was so high up it seemed to be a second, distant sky. Thankfully, there were no Loongs. In fact, the absence of any creature in the ice palace was strange, but for Ant, who had never been here, thought nothing of it. Ant Infele ran through the absurdly long hall, into an even bigger one. It finally occurred to Ant how deep they truly were. The roof had at least tripled in height. In the centre of the room stood a giant empty throne of ice. Surrounding the throne were more Loong statues.
"So many statues. Where's the queen?" Ant asked.
Zo was staring at one of the statues. "We've been beaten."
"By who?"
"Someone's already come here."
"Damn it…" Ant looked up towards the throne that dwarfed them. "Where do you think she is?"
"Deeper in, probably," Zo looked at Ant's face and tried to read it. "Let's continue."
The doorway behind the throne was also extremely tall. Everything in this palace made Ant feel… like an ant.
"What was your plan from the beginning?" Zo asked.
"Well… break in… interrogate the queen," Ant answered. He looked away as if he was ashamed.
Zo fought the urge to laugh, but he instead said to Ant: "Are you okay with constructive criticism?"
"Go ahead. I don't know how it can get worse," Ant followed Zo through a four-way intersection of ice.
"Your plan fucking sucks," Zo stopped moving as a faint sound was heard from another room. "Shhh…" He put a finger to the end of his beak. "It could be possible Aisochs has already sent someone in and was waiting for a message."
"He must've gotten it, then," Ant said. "He was walking in earlier."
"Looks like you're not getting your answers," Zo suddenly stood up as if to leave. "Let's go. I don't want to stay here any longer."
"What?" Ant grabbed onto Zo's shoulder, which was hard because Zo was at least a foot taller. "Nuh-uh. You aren't leaving right now."
"More than anything, I don't want to anger both Novus and Aisochs at once."
It was normal to think like this. Novus, the Queen of the Loongs, had unkown power, and Aisochs could kill with a single look.
"Too bad. I'm gonna continue."
"If you really want to die so badly…"
Ant sighed loudly. He had noticed a strange trend in Zo's personality. He had lost the old mafia-boss shit and became more human-like.
"Could it be possible that Aisochs was leaving earlier?"
"His clan were flying towards the ice palace, though…" Ant said.
Up above the surface, Aisochs was standing. He hadn't even entered the ice palace. He was waiting.
The rest of his clan had already retreated to a safe distance. The six other Westerners fled upon Aisochs's order, and they had heard a long time ago from a wise old man, that this was the moment where Aisochs would melt this frozen ocean. The ocean that had ice hundreds of kilometres deep for over one thousand years.
The voices inside Aisochs's head spoke to him.
"Think hard about this," said a woman's voice.
"Gleep Glorp," said the voice of a frog who was killed at birth.
"T-t-t-t-t," said the ant of a hundredth life.
"Do it already!" said a man who enjoyed the battle.
"You might kill Ant and that other guy…" said the skeptical school student.
[I wi ll be gin.] said Aisochs. Everybody chanting in his brain wanted him to say the same thing, years upon centuries of living condensed together in unison. Aisochs said: [I will kill Novus.]
The eye Aisochs took from another life was torn out by his gigantic wing. The glowing red chains hidden behind it fell out onto the frozen ocean, and it began to sizzle. This was one part of his collection. The chains of his master from 643 years ago. The chain kept falling from his empty eye socket. Its length became nearly six kilometres when the chain finally ended. The sanguine chain wasn't what Asiochs wanted. The chain was simply a seal.
One of his seals had now fallen.
The eye that was held in Aisochs's giant hand suddenly burst into a bonfire. Over two million degrees of heat burned from the eye.
[Fi e ld o f fire] Aisochs said. The eye began glowing as if it was reacting to his words. [Des troy everything.]
Not one soul tried to stop him. Rather, they were cheering. The eye rose up into the air, spinning. Everything suddenly stopped. The eye that was in the air vanished back into Aisochs's hand, and it was placed once again in his eye socket. The moment it reconnected, a shimmering line of orange fire erupted from his feet. Aisochs placed one hand on the ground. For one second, there was peace.
The destruction that would follow would be indescribable. It was as if a meteorite the size of The Maximum itself landed onto the ice. A gigantic crater had appeared in the ice, where thousands of Loong corpses were found. The flaming orange highlights on Aisochs's body turned into a striking violet, and the purple forest of blazes ate everything. Soon, there would be no living creatures on the Tundra. Soon, there would be no Tundra.
"Where the fuck could Novus possibly be?" Ant asked as him and Zo ran through more caverns. There was a deep rumbling noise somewhere above them. It had suddenly become warmer,
"We're running out of time," Zo looked around. "And we've checked all of the rooms. Novus is not in this castle."
"Where could she be, then?" Ant punched one of the walls. He was pretty sure he had broken a few fingers.
"We might have missed her," Zo grabbed onto Ant's shoulder to stop him from punching the wall again. "We need to leave here. This place will crumble in ten minutes."
"How the hell would you know that?" As much as Ant wanted to keep searching, he knew Zo was correct. "Alright, fine. Let's go."
{Aisochs.}
It was the voice of the Loong Queen, but it came from the mouth of an extremely tall beautiful woman. She had silver hair that flowed to the ground and striking golden eyes. On the top of her head two pale yellow horns stood. From her neck downwards, shiny scales covered her body. A silk white dress covered her body and it dragged along the ruined land.
[T he re y ou are.] Aisochs turned his head to look at the woman. [Tu rn o ff that form.]
{Come down to my level.} The woman looked at the ravaged ice around her. {This will cost a lot of money to repair.}
[Novus.] Aisochs suddenly exploded. Red fire burst from the ground underneath the revealed form of Aisochs. A man taller than Novus stood. He had an appearance that was unrecognizable as one person. Every few seconds, his looks would flicker between his previous forms.
Novus knew fully well that she could not handle Novus. She had been alive for only a fraction of Aisochs's true age. {Leave. We have no need to fight you.}
[Y ou do not.] Aisochs appeared behind Novus. He put a hand on her shoulder. [B ut I do.]
The heat that came from Aisochs's palm was enough to melt a crater in the ice. Novus vanished to a safe distance milliseconds before.
{Tsk.} Novus resorted to taunts as the scales on her body pulsated. A giant hole in her stomach appeared, and from within it, a giant clawed hand emerged. {Aisochs.}
Aisochs didn't say anything. His right arm turned into an amalgamation of metal, dirt, and flames. He leapt at Novus's stunned body and attacked. Novus's body was pulled backwards. A giant eastern dragon flew from in front of her. It had scales and horns like the tall woman.
{That's enough, dear.} The broken body of Novus's second body smiled and turned into a flash of light. The Loong had golden eyes that penetrated the armour of Aisochs's human-like being. Aisochs was not worried. He had begun to laugh.
[I do not need to change forms to deal with you.] Aisochs said in an unbroken voice. Every single soul in his body agreed on this one thing.
One small room in Aisochs's mind was scurrying for answers. Searching through countless documents and speculations, the author known as 'Jonas' was making ideas in his head.
"Why was Novus waiting outside for us?"
A stick bug that was sitting on a chair that dwarfed them. They made strange clicking noises, which roughly translated to "Maybe she was doing errands?"
"What errands!?" Jonas flung his arms into the air. "There were no errands on her to-do-list!"
"Maybe she knew we were coming!" clicked the tiny stick bug.
"This is a disaster," Jonas collapsed into a crumpled heap.
"Shut the fuck up, drama queen," clicked the stick bug as a furry spider the size of a fingernail dropped onto Jonas's head. "Calm yourself at once, thou author," said the spider. It was a nameless spider who had learnt English over the span of many hundreds of years. "Your impudence is unsatisfying, to say the least."
An elderly lady whose face had half-melted due to a fire took notice of Jonas's conspiracy board. "It seems like Novus's plan was to wait Aisochs out. She only revealed herself to protect the Loongs."
"Your observation is astounding, madam," said the nameless spider. "Jonas here should take a page from your book."
"I wrote that down!" Jonas retorted.
"You need to remain calm at times like these," The nameless spider jumped onto the corner of the conspiracy board. "You have no need to worry. Trust our saviour."
The floor of Aisochs's mind trembled slightly. Novus was swirling around Aisochs's glitching incarnation. A whirlwind of sleet rushed against his skin. Yet he remained unmoving.
[Pitiful.]
Aisochs stuck out one arm. The tips of his fingers touched the side of Novus's snake-like scales, and then everything burst. It was as if someone had painted everything in a white that reflected everything. Blinding heat coursed through Novus, and if contact had remained for even a second longer, she would've exploded. The scales that had been damaged healed within the blink of an eye. Who would win, unlimited death or unlimited life?
Their battle continued. With every meaningless blow Novus would try to deliver, Aisochs would tank through. With every fatal shot Aisochs landed, it was instantly healed. Aisochs began to cackle in a delirious way. His vocal cords twisted as unimaginable sounds echoed from his throat. Was it a laugh?
[I suppose it's time to start trying.] Aisochs rose in the air. His fingers shattered into coiling black chains that floated like extra limbs. At the end of each chain, a ball of flesh turned into a harpoon. Fire that melted everything burst from the ends of the harpoons, and then they collided with Novus. Four fountains of flames consumed Novus's untouchable skin. She cried in agony as Aisochs laughed again. With limp arms, he ran towards Novus. His neck twisted and his body span, and a giant beam of fire was produced from his mouth. Novus curled her body to dodge the attack. The ice spike thirteen kilometres away was hit, and more tundra was broken. Ice from the crater was created in ice spikes. Aisochs twisted to avoid them. [You're weaker than Angnath ever was!] Aisochs laughed crazily. The ice spikes shattered and then they instantly regrew. Frozen water stacked and stacked and formed a prison around Aisochs. But it had no effect. It was as if Aisochs had become the sun. The Ice Palace of the Loongs was almost fully revealed. Ant Infele blocked the boiling water that came from the ice ceiling. Sunlight broke into their chamber.
"Looks like it didn't take ten minutes," Zo watched as the roof above them exploded into shards. An extremely tall person with broken arms and a broken neck was fighting a giant scaled snake.
[Hellflames.] Aisochs clapped, and his arms disintegrated. Fire emerged from where they were before. [Fountain.] with these words, the sky and ice became red.