Monster Girl World Ch. 15

“Gerda, I want you to stay here and rest up.” Kai said.

“I’m not leaving you to go alone in there. That’s suicide!” Gerda said strongly.

“But Gerda...”

“Don’t! We made it this far together, we can see it through to the end.” She said. She knew he was just looking out for her, as carrying both him and their packs was hard enough on her usually plentiful energy reserves, but she didn’t feel right letting him walk into danger alone.

Kai sighed and held out his hand, which she took and allowed him to help her to her feet. “Okay, but if things get hairy, you run as fast as you can. You’re faster than I am in the snow, so you have a better chance of escaping...”

Kai’s voice trailed off into a whimper upon seeing a dozen blue skinned women standing in front of the bridge. A group of glacies, who were probably guarding the castle under the cover of the blizzard, and had just now taken notice of the unannounced intruders. They all wielded spears and shields made of ice, and looked at them with frozen glares that made Kai and Gerda freeze on the spot lest they be impaled on their weapons. The leader of the group, who was taller and more voluptuous than her sisters, stepped forward to address them.

“Come with us, intruders. Our queen would like to speak to you.” She said, motioning towards the bridge. “If you’ll come with us...”

“How did you know we were here?” Kai asked.

The smile the glacie gave him was enough to freeze a glacier ten times over. “Nothing happens in these mountains without our queen knowing of it.”

The palace was even more beautiful on the inside. It was like a mix of natural ice formations and perfectly crafted architecture, all done with some very powerful ice magic. Kai and Gerda marveled at the halls as they were escorted by the glacies to the throne room, but they remained firmly fixed on their mission.

‘Ice queens aren’t known for being warm or caring of other people, humans or monsters. At best I can just hope to negotiate with her. At worst...’ Kai frowned. ‘At worst we’re eight killed on the spot. Hopefully we’re just thrown back out into the snow.’

Kai held Gerda’s hand to keep her calm as they walked through the quiet halls. No one said a thing, mostly because the glacies weren’t interested in conversing with their prisoners or each other. Soon they reached the large doors to the throne room, where the leader pushed them open to gain entry.

“My queen, we’ve apprehended the intruders. Here they are.”

Kai and Gerda were herded into the large throne room, which looked like one large mirror reflecting light off each other. At the center of the room was a tall throne sitting atop a pillar of ice standing two feet tall. Their gaze immediately turned to the person sitting on the throne, still and quiet like a statue.

The ice queen.

XXXXXX

Elsa couldn’t remember what happened after her father was killed right before her eyes. She didn’t remember brutally slaughtering the bandits and the Ilias Kreuz murderers. She didn’t remember her powers exploding outward to create a giant pillar of ice that destroyed the burning church and nearly killed Kai. All she remembered was waking up in the middle of the forest, surrounded by her mother’s glacie servants, her little arms wrapped around her dead father.

Elsa had always seen her mother as the unshakeable force of nature, but when she laid eyes upon her father, the woman cried frozen tears, sobbing openly as she knelt over her dead lover. Elsa hugged her mother tightly, giving her support, for she knew that if her mother showed emotion so openly before her subjects, then she was truly heartbroken.

Her mother froze her father’s body and buried him deep below the castle, in a beautiful chamber where her grandparents, great-grandparents, and great, great-grandparents were buried from generations past. Even after the funeral Elsa still grieved, and what’s more was that she still felt that simmering anger towards those men who attacked Freezenburg. They claimed to preach the word of Hemera for the betterment of humanity, but all they did was murder man and monster alike for not adhering to their views.

The Order was a bunch of hypocrites who couldn’t be satisfied with the way the world was now. Elsa wondered how many monster girls like her were orphaned by their callousness. How many girls like her were forced to watch their mothers cry uncontrollably, or even watched their mothers die in front of them? As Elsa asked herself these questions, her anger escalated from a burning rage to a cool anger that froze her heart. The fact that this happened all too often in the countryside was a crime in it of itself, and she will not stand for it any longer.

If the Order was unable to reign their people in, to keep atrocities like this from happening, then she will do it herself. No more girls like her will suffer anymore, and no more fathers will lose their wives and daughters to these animals.

Elsa never came back to Freezenburg after that night, and her thoughts of Kai were slowly buried underneath thoughts of revenge.

XXXXXX

The ice queen was inhumanly beautiful. Like the glacies, she had pale blue skin and long white hair tied behind her head in a long braid. Her dress was a deep indigo blue and hugged her shapely form, with a deep neckline that showed off her ample cleavage. Her eyes were like crystal clear reflecting pools, and on her head was a white icy crown with sapphires embedded in it. Her expression was cool as she looked upon Kai and Gerda, although her eyes were more focused on Kai.

“So these are the intruders who risked their lives to venture so deep into my territory. Such foolishness is expected from one of those moronic hellhounds, not a simple human and a white horn.” The ice queen’s voice was soft yet strong, as if on the verge of turning menacing if need be. She looked at the glacies and waved them away. “Leave us. This might take a while.”

The glacies bowed and in a flurry of snowflakes, they vanished, leaving Kai and Gerda alone with the ice queen.

The silence that followed was tense. Kai and Gerda didn’t speak in fear of angering the ice queen, but the monster didn’t say anything to start the conversation. She just sat there watching them like an artisan studying his crafts with an intuitive eye. Mustering up her courage, Gerda took a step forward.

“Um, your majesty, my name is Gerda and this is Kai. We came to ask why you are attacking our town...”

“Silence.”

The command made Gerda freeze on the spot. Not literally of course, but it wasn’t too far behind the real thing. Kai swallowed hard as those cold ice blue eyes remained on him and he wondered what she was thinking about. After a few minutes of silence, the ice queen finally spoke to them.

“You don’t remember, do you?”

The question was directed at Kai, who had no idea what she was talking about. “I...excuse me?”

The ice queen smiled, but it was a humorless smile, as if she were expecting something bad to happen. “Of course...it’s been, I say about nine or ten years since I left that town.” She said wistfully. “It’d be too much to ask for to have you remember me.”

“Wait, what are you talking about? I just met you.” Kai said, getting agitated. “We came here to ask you to stop attacking our town. We know you’re sending glacies to attack settlements all over the mountain range.”

“I’m not attacking towns, boy, just the churches. I’m doing the world a favor by eliminating those effigies to that false goddess.” She replied, leaning her chin on her hand.

“Why? The Order hasn’t don’t anything to you. They’ve lived peacefully with monsters in this region for years!” Gerda exclaimed.

“I told you to silence yourself.” The ice queen glared down at Gerda, who shrank from her glare. “I’ve only attacked the churches of that abysmal goddess, and no civilians have been hurt in my raids. If your Order priests and servants are so angry about my attacks, then why are they not here? Why do they not come face me themselves?”

“Because most of them know that you’ll kill them the minute they step foot into your lands.” Kai growled. “And not only did you attack our church, but your blizzards are seriously harming the people of Freezenburg. It’s the middle of spring and we can’t even sell our food without getting snowed in for a week! We came here to respectfully ask that you stop or we’ll resort to use force to drive you from this land to carry out your vendetta elsewhere.”

The ice queen crossed her legs and laced her fingers together as she looked at the young man who dared to speak out against her. She didn’t seem angry, only...disappointed somehow.

“Ten years ago, Freezenburg was attacked by a rogue Order priest who conspired with a group of bandits from Ilias Kreuz. They attacked the townspeople, set fire to their homes, hunted down the monsters like dogs. And in one lone church, under the careless gaze of Hemera, a girl watched her father get cut down trying to protect her. All because she was a monster.”

The temperature had lowered drastically in the room, but for Kai it was more of his heart dropping into his stomach at the realization. He remembered that night, he still had nightmares from it. The screams of his best friend as her father fell to the ground. The explosion of magic that nearly froze him solid afterwards and left him unconscious.

“Elsa?”

XXXXXX

As Elsa reached her teenage years, her mother had passed on with the knowledge that she was strong enough to take care of herself. Without her husband, life seemed colder than the outer reaches of the world, and it got harder the older Elsa got. Once Elsa had become the woman she was meant to be, her mother relinquished her crown and froze herself, resting beside her father down in the tomb.

When Elsa took her mother’s position, she wasted no time in wreaking vengeance upon the Order. Their careless intolerance had caused too much pain to be left alone, and it was time they learned that she wasn’t going to let their crimes go unpunished. Together with her glacies and their husbands, they scoured the land, wiping out any and all Ilias Kreuz cells in Kaldheim. It wasn’t hard to find them, everything the ice touches belonged to her, and thus there was nowhere to hide. Elsa herself had commanded the raids on the Order churches scattered throughout the frozen north, attacking and destroying any sign of worship towards the goddess of light.

Just thinking about it sent Elsa into a cool rage and caused blizzards to suddenly appear across the lands close to the mountains. She thought of the priests who gave into the Ilias Kreuz so easily and killed using the name of their goddess to justify their actions. Well, it wasn’t going to happen in Kaldheim. The mountains from Freezenburg to the borders of Aslava belonged to her, and she will not allow the slaves of the goddess to cause pain anymore.

But as she purged the frozen north of the Order’s religious sites, Elsa would still take the time to look down upon her former form of Freezenburg. Things had started looking up for the little town that was not so little anymore. It had grown a bit over the years, and they rebuilt that damn church. But every once in a while Elsa would send a little snowflake to check up on one of the townspeople. A boy who had grown into a man. Kai.

XXXXXX

“Elsa?” Kai couldn’t believe his eyes. That quiet, refined little girl he had befriended as a child had grown into a woman...a cold, powerful woman. “How...where have you been? Where did you go after that night? I was looking for you!”

“Grieving the death of my father, and then planning the destruction of the bastards who killed him. I know why you’re here, Kai, and no, I’m not going to stop attacking the churches. I’m not going to stop until those people learn that we’re not going to take any more violence from their leftovers who roam the countryside like the animals they are.” Elsa stood up from her throne and glared down at him. “You were there, Kai. You know the damage that they caused. I’ve spent eight years using every bit of my resources and power to hunt down and eliminate any trace of Ilias Kreuz, and my efforts have made Kaldheim a safer place for everybody!”

“But that’s no reason to attack the churches! Not everyone in the Order hates monsters, Elsa. You’re just putting everyone in danger.” Kai protested.

“No more danger than the Order does leaving their rogues to run around torching everything in sight! I’m doing Kaldheim a favor by bringing Hemera’s slaves to justice, so don’t tell me about danger!” Elsa yelled, small ice crystals forming along the surface of her bare skin.

“All we’re asking you to do is stop attacking the people in our town. You’re causing us nothing but trouble and we haven’t done anything to you.” Gerda said, losing her temper, which was a first. “Please, just stop this-”

“DO NOT TELL ME TO STOP!”

Elsa’s face morphed into a snarl as ice crystals grew from her skin like spikes. She shot forward and landed on the floor in front of the pair, waving a hand and encasing Gerda in ice from the shoulders down. Acting quickly, Kai unsheathed his axe (which remained hidden in his pack, thank the gods) and lunged at Elsa, slamming into her and they both crashed to the floor.

“Kai!” Gerda screamed.

Kai and Elsa rolled across the floor struggling to gain dominance over each other. They grappled and pushed at each other, and Kai tried to ignore the stinging cold coming from Elsa’s arms as he pinned her to the floor with his axe. The ice queen snarled and froze the shaft of the axe before snapping in half and kicking Kai in the chest. He crashed to the floor at the foot of the throne and Elsa was on him in a heartbeat, her fingers turned into icy claws and her eyes now a pale blue like a raging blizzard.

“My father was a dedicated member of your so-called Order and he was killed by people worshipping the very same goddess! You don’t know what it’s like to lose a father like that! You don’t know what it’s like to see your mother slowly wither away into a shadow of herself! You don’t know what it’s like to cry yourself to sleep every time you think of how everything is slowly slipping away from you!” Elsa roared, grabbing his coat and slamming him into the floor multiple times. “You don’t know what it’s like to lose someone you love!”

“I do.” Kai grunted.

“No you don’t!” She shouted.

“I do!” He shouted back. “Because that’s what I felt when I lost you!”

Elsa froze, her eyes widening at his declaration. Seeing his chance, Kai jumped up and pressed his lips to hers in a kiss and held her close. Elsa didn’t struggle. She just sat there slowly relishing the kiss as her body warmed up to an almost uncomfortable degree. The ice on her skin melted into water, as did Gerda’s icy prison. After a minute Kai ended the kiss and pulled back to look into Elsa’s eyes, which were now glistening with unshed tears.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that all alone. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed a friend. I know you’re hurting and that you’re carrying a lot of pain right now, but I promise you that you will feel better. But only if you let go of that pain.” Kai said. “Please, Elsa, don’t run yourself into an early grave on a path of vengeance. I’m sure your father wouldn’t want you to waste your life for his sake when he would want you to live yours to the fullest.”

Elsa wanted to yell at him, wanted to say that it wasn’t a waste. She wanted to tell him that she was truly making this land a better place by purging it of the Order’s influence, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. She knew he was right; her father was a loving, caring man who would be weeping in his grave if he saw how far Elsa had fallen. He never condoned vengeance or violence in response to violence, even though he knew that some people had no other choice.

“What...what am I supposed to do?” Elsa whispered. “I can’t let this go...I won’t. Those bastards have caused me so much pain and I just want them to suffer for it!”

“I know it’s hard, but you’re not going to go through this alone.” Kai said, hugging her now warm body close. With her heart warming with the love she once felt for him as a child, Elsa found that her powers were dwindling. “I want to help you, but only if you’ll let me. Please, Elsa, I don’t want to lose you just like you lost your own family.”

Elsa stared at him for a long time before the tears that were swimming in her eyes finally broke free and she began to cry. It was a soft, tired cry that still sounded loud in the vast throne room of her palace, and she buried her face in Kai’s jacket as she sobbed.

XXXXXX

When things settled down, lots of things changed. Kai elected to stay with Elsa in her palace while Gerda returned to Freezenburg to tell everyone the semi-good news. Their goodbye was teary, at least on Gerda’s end, but Kai assured her that they will see each other again, but not for a while. Right now, he had a friend to save, and he wasn’t going to stop now that he had her back.

Elsa, in the state she was in now, was in no condition to continue ordering attacks on the Order’s settlements, and Kai wanted it to stay that way. Elsa shouldn’t hold on to such hatred for so long, and Kai would do whatever it took to ensure that she let go of her hatred. Elsa herself barely said anything to him after Gerda left, but whenever he held her hand, she would hold it back, as if wordlessly seeking his support.

It took months before Elsa truly opened up to him again. It started with small conversations that changed into long talks about what they did over the years. Kai slowly began to warm Elsa’s heart and pieces of that girl who would do magic tricks for him as a child began to break free. He knew that she could never be that girl again after all that’s happened, but at the very least he could ensure that she won’t drive herself into her own grave attacking anyone who worshipped Hemera.

Even though the relationship between Freezenburg and Elsa’s ice kingdom were slowly thawing out, stories would be told of the snow queen who tried to bury all of Kaldheim in ice in vengeance of a sin committed against her. The story of the queen with a frozen heart that was only thawed by the warmth of her true love.

Kai wasn’t fond of stories being made of his lover’s arduous life, but at least Elsa wouldn’t be remembered as some cruel ice demon living in the mountains. He could’ve gone without their daughter wanting to hear the story every night before bed, but what can you do? Dealing with an ice queen, even a little ice princess, was like trying to control a blizzard.