Chapter 26. Sunset Part 1
C/N: Monday's Post
Chapter 26: Sunset Part 1
The landscapes of Ice Island were rapidly transforming as the blazing colossus of a bear stood against the backdrop of the sky. It wielded its trident with a fierce determination, siphoning every ounce of ice cream from the island. Each plunge of the trident into the ground sent quakes rippling through the terrain, fracturing the dusty grounds and making it nearly impossible for the island's inhabitants to escape the imminent destruction.
With a mighty roar that echoed through the heavens, the bear's eyes glowed with an intense fury. It swung its trident, pulling it out and plunging it into another surface, drawing the very essence of the island's ice into itself. The trident acted like a siphon, sucking up every ounce of ice cream in a process that turned the ice into a cold mist before it was absorbed.
Mountains of ice crumbled and melted away, leaving behind barren rock and lifeless soil. The once-majestic Icicle Keep had already disintegrated into nothingness. With each heavy step, the bear left massive paw prints that could form mini-lakes, its path of destruction clear for all to see.
The bear's powers were clearly defined: its ice trident absorbed the ice, while the flames that emanated from its body burned with a heat that went beyond mere physical destruction. These flames consumed the very essence of things, turning solid ground into dust and reducing the lush, icy flora of the island to ash.
Anyone witnessing this trail of destruction saw doom - the end of their lives in the might of the powerful bear. It was a tale as old as time: the strong triumph over the weak. Yet, this was far from the whole truth.
The bear's roars of terror were, in fact, hollow cries of sorrow, unable to be expressed otherwise. Its task was set, aligned with the fate of existence - a path it could never walk away from, no matter how much it desired to do so. These were the rules of the universe it had to abide by like every sentient being: jump off a cliff and you fall, eat a devil fruit and you become cursed, break the devil's deal and everyone dies. These were the rules the bear had to follow for all eternity, a curse it could never escape, a prison it could never leave, and a sentence well deserved for all the atrocities it had committed.
Its rampage was destructive, but the apocalypse was yet to begin. The bear now stood at the heart of the island, wielding its trident to cause more chaos and terror while causing cotton candy to rise to the sky instead of falling from it.
Into the heart of this rampage moved a brave bunch - well, a brave one and two misguidedly loyal siblings. This brave one had come to believe in himself after three years of tireless training and beast-slaying. None could blame his sense of self-confidence, for he had once slain a sea king four times his size with just his bare hands.
Such was his strength and the willpower that misguided him to believe he could take on a powerful, ethereal being that was way out of his league. Fighting the demon bear - or any other similarly punished creature - was equal to challenging the universe itself.
However, in his bravado and egoistic self-confidence, Charlotte Keki believed that he could fight a creature over six times his height, beat it into submission, and make it his pet. Like the unknown fate of the Ancient Weapons, Zunesha, and the enigmatic Oni Kuma, only time would tell if Keki was up to the challenge, yet.
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Holding my broad and long blade, I challenged the Oni Kuma from below, staring at it fiercely and boldly, as if I were gazing into the heavens. "Hey, Kuma. Fight me!" My voice was brave, my belly full of gelato, and my muscles eager for action.
However, the bear barely noticed my challenge, focused on its task of causing an apocalypse on Ice Island - a new genesis, if you may. The trident was hard at work, causing tremors that bounced me around, making the ground feel like an uncomfortable trampoline. But the ground never actually fractured.
I grunted in frustration as the bear ignored my fierce, brave challenge. Determined to get its attention, I decided to provoke it further. "Galette, can you use your butter to create a slippery road for me to get closer to the bear?" I requested, turning to my sister.
Galette nodded and set up a slippery surface on the dusty, trembling ground. Together with Moscato, we squeezed, and using the butter Galette created beneath our feet, we slid towards the bear, hoping that the quakes would work in our favor by increasing our speed.
The ride was bumpy and uncomfortable, sometimes an inconvenience as the ground quivered, pushing us back instead of propelling us forward. Luckily, a larger quake managed to push us closer to the bear by propelling us into the sky - high enough to see what the bear had been up to.
Surrounding the edges of Ice Island were flames dancing on magma. It looked like Ice Island had been marked as an inescapable territory, giving me more reason to aspire to defeat the demon bear. Even if we had listened to Moscato's advice and ran, the bear setting such a boundary meant that it wasn't going to let anyone escape.
A terrible feeling gripped me when I noted that only scraps of ice remained in a few places. An involuntary shudder followed as I realized that the Kuma would only destroy the island if all the ice had been consumed. Regardless, I had to recompose myself as gravity pulled me down, luckily close to the bear's foot.
I drew my blade and aimed for a cut. If it hadn't noticed me before, this would do the trick.
Swoosh!
The blade cut through the air and the bear's hide as I rolled on the dusty ground alongside Moscato an Galette. A moment passed, then—
Kr-kr-krrrrr... Crunch!
—my blade split into two even pieces.
I looked at the blade, disappointed in its lack of durability. However, despite the blade breaking, it had done its job of capturing the bear's attention.
"Look out!" was the first thing I shouted as the ice trident came hurtling straight for us.
The demon bear attacked with ferocity, swinging its trident with immense power. The strikes sent serious tremors (unlike before) through the ground, fracturing the earth wherever it struck and obstructing any chance of us coming up with a clear maneuver.
Hungry flames formed on the ice trident, scorching the ground and causing it to crack and break apart - the bear had lost all the subtlety it had earlier.
I tried to fight back, holding onto the trident at one point, but the moment I did, I felt my flesh being scorched from the inside and my incredible strength fading like a balloon losing all its air in a second. My eyes widened in horror as the bear focused entirely on my position, Moscato and Galette already bruised from the minimal but abrupt trident swerves.
However, I still thought I had it in me to take it on.
"No, brother, let's run instead," Moscato pleaded one more time.
"My ability is useless against this demon," Galette added as her butter melted in the presence of the demon's fiery body.
"I can defeat it," I said, rushing out to increase the distance and remove the bear's focus from both Moscato and Galette. However, to my dismay, shock, and sheer terror, the demon bear abruptly shoved the trident directly at Moscato and Galette's location.
For a moment, I thought they had been stabbed by the giant trident. I stared in a mix of shock and hope as the bear withdrew the trident.
After the dust settled, I noticed Moscato and Galette lying still on the ground with blood oozing from Moscato's lower body. Terrified that they had perished, I wanted to rush toward them but realized I would be putting them in more danger.
I decided to get the bear's undivided attention on myself alone.
Angrily, I shouted at the bear. "Fight me, you bastard bear!" I demanded, jumping onto its body through its fiery fur, punching and kicking with all my might as I climbed upward. The bear remained still for a moment, as if tracking my movements and establishing a trajectory.
And then, all of a sudden, just as I was about to make it to its chest—
STAB!
—the ice trident skidded right past me, missing me by mere inches, leaving me with just a graze, and penetrating through the demon's hide and into its own body.
"SON OF A—!" I swallowed my words, horrified and terrified at the sight, blood oozing from the area of injury. My heart thundered in my chest, not out of a desire for war, but from the terror of watching something stab itself close to the heart and then pull the trident out like it was nothing.
Adrenaline had never hit me so hard, begging me to realize the gravity of the situation and run for dear life.
I didn't even have enough time to process what I had just seen before it moved to plunge the ice trident for a second time. Fearing it might be more accurate this time, I let myself go just as the second stab happened.
Shock and terror found me spraining my ankle as I crashed on the ground, dumbfounded. Just as I rose from the ground, I felt another hair-raising 'fwhoosh' behind me that got me limping to Moscato and Galette as fast as I could.
It was rapidly dawning on me that I had bitten off more than I could chew.
"This is Elden Ring all over again! I'm just not ready for this level," I churned in terror as the ice trident followed me, its razor-sharp point missing by mere inches with every swing, my own stumbles miraculously keeping me just out of reach.
"We gotta run!" I shouted to Moscato and Galette, finally grasping the urgency of their warnings. "This thing is just too crazy!"
Sliding and ducking next to both siblings, I realized the much danger I was putting them in by leading the ice trident to this location. Moscato was groaning in pain and Galette was only half-conscious. I could see the stab on Moscato's hip and the cut on Galette's waist - making me feel more stupid and guilty for endangering their lives further.
However, nature seemed to offer a sliver of hope. The trident's relentless strikes had fractured the ground, weakening it and causing the bear's left foot to sink into the earth, throwing off its balance and momentarily losing it's grip on the weapon.
Seizing the opportunity, I hurriedly scooped up my brother and sister, and despite the ankle sprain, I sprinted away - in limbs - from the demon before the situation could deteriorate further.
"Shit shit shit," my heart pounded with terror, and every time I stumbled and fell, my body bled from even minor injuries that normally wouldn't affect me. I was so scared I wouldn't make it out of this apocalyptic event. I shuddered every time I heard the bear roar and throw its trident at me, the shattering landscape conveniently bouncing me away from the danger of being directly stabbed in critical areas.
I had no clue where I was going; I just ran aimlessly on a dusty island, hoping I would somehow reach the edge, if such a thing was even a possibility. In this horrific time, I reminded myself to listen to my elders the next time they advised against something. I was way too in over my head this time.
While Galette had passed out on my shoulder, Moscato was fortunately still conscious, which proved to be useful because he still understood Ice Island better than anyone else. If he were the type to gloat, this would have been the perfect opportunity to say, "I told you so," but instead, despite his pain and drowsiness, he offered to help. He provided directions and guided me to an excavation he had engineered below the Gelato Mines (on the actual ground). His ingenuity turned out to be our salvation.
Finding the excavation was no easy task - given the constant roaring, rumbling, and the dust that had settled over the area - but I finally came upon a hollow pit that housed the entrance to the cave-like excavation. I took a moment to rest, realizing I had expelled all the ice cream from my stomach during the frantic running. But as pieces of debris began to fly towards the cave's entrance, I saw it as a signal to grab my unconscious siblings and follow the tunnel to the end.
Navigating through collapsing sections and narrowly avoiding the trident's strikes, I eventually emerged at a port where fiery flames danced over hot magma. Terrified, I knew I couldn't pass through the fire without getting hurt. However, after a few deep breaths to reinforce my resolve, I took a brave step into the fire. The flames scorched me from the inside, but my exterior remained intact. Swallowing the pain, I pressed on, walking on the flames until I felt my feet sink into the cool water of the sea - then the rest of my body - and finally submerging my shoulders and turning the sea red from Galette's and Moscato's blood.
After treading the waters for some time, carrying my two injured siblings over my shoulders and striving to get as far away from Ice Island as possible, I saw something that flooded my heart with hope. I had never been so relieved as the moment I spotted Jake's Sunset sailing cautiously near the island. Its familiar sight reminded me to be grateful for the wise crew I had.
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