The Great Pillar

The howling wind of the frigid landscape lashed against Axe's and Silvia's faces. While Axe remained utterly unfazed, her expression as impassive as ever despite the icy gusts that nearly frosted her eyebrows, the princess shivered violently beside her, her teeth chattering like a nutcracker pulverizing walnuts. 

"Hey, can you wait?!" Silvia called out, her voice barely carrying over the howling wind as she struggled to close the distance between herself and Axe, who was already several meters ahead. The snow reached their knees, each step producing a sharp crunch as their boots sank into the thick, frozen layers. They had been traveling for days, and even Axe—though she would never admit it—was beginning to feel the first stubborn whispers of fatigue creeping in.

"Stop yelling, Damsel. I'm not deaf," Axe grunted, halting abruptly. She waited with dwindling patience as Silvia trudged through the knee-deep snow to catch up. "At this pace, we'll never reach the dungeon," she added, her raspy voice barely concealing her irritation.

Silvia tugged her thick fur coat tighter around her shoulders - perhaps the only wise purchase they'd made for this expedition. Without proper gear, even seasoned warriors became frozen corpses in this wasteland, their arrogance literally frozen on their faces. "I'm trying, okay?! You really don't stop being an unlikable piece of--"

The princess' insult died in her throat as Axe's head snapped toward her, jaw clenched, eyes burning with silent warning. "N-nevermind," Silvia amended with an awkward chuckle, suddenly finding the snowbanks very interesting.

"Keep quiet now," Axe commanded, her voice cutting through the howling wind like one of her axe blows. Without waiting for a response, she pivoted on her heel and resumed her relentless march. Before them, jagged stone monoliths stabbed through the glacial snowfield like the broken teeth of some buried titan, their peaks vanishing into the oppressive cloud cover. The eternal winter here had choked out even memory of sunlight - this was a place where snow fell but never melted, where storms were born but never died.

"You don't make this easy for me..." Silvia pouted, stumbling forward until she collided with Axe's broad back. The red-headed warrior stood frozen, her emerald eyes locked on the distant horizon, her expression sharpening like a honed blade. "Axe?"

"We're here," Axe murmured, her voice low. "I can feel the dungeon's magic in the air."

Silvia spun in place, scanning the endless white expanse. "Here?" The princess saw nothing but snowdrifts stretching to every horizon. "Maybe you're just tired? There's nothing here except snow, more snow, and—"

With a sudden movement, Axe hefted her massive battle-axe, muscles coiling like steel springs beneath her furs. The deep inhale through her nose sounded like a whetstone dragging across blade. Silvia scrambled backward several steps. "H-hey! No need to get violent! We'll find it eventually!" Her voice trembled as much from fear as from the cold.

SWOOOSH 

Axe's axe carved through the air with a thunderous whoosh, the sheer force of the swing blasting Silvia backward. The impact sent a shockwave rippling through the snowfield - an explosive eruption of white powder that mushroomed into the sky. It looked less like a weapon strike and more like a cannon blast, the endless snowscape suddenly alive with swirling chaos.

Silvia shielded her eyes as the artificial blizzard raged, watching in awe as meters upon meters of accumulated snow were violently excavated. The sheer power behind the single swing continued radiating outward, scouring the landscape clean in expanding circles until...

There.

Revealed beneath centuries of compacted ice, a weathered stone staircase descended into darkness, its steps carved with runes that pulsed faintly with residual magic. The entrance yawned like a hungry mouth, exhaling air so stale it made Silvia's nose wrinkle even from a distance.

Is that...? Silvia's thought trailed off, her earlier skepticism crumbling like the snow walls around them. 

Despite having traveled with Axe for some time now, Silvia still found herself constantly underestimating the grumpy warrior's terrifying strength.

"Told ya," Axe smirked, her voice dripping with smug satisfaction as she gestured toward the snowdrift where Silvia had been buried. Only the princess's flailing arm was visible, desperately waving like a drowning swimmer.

"You could've warned me!" Silvia hissed as she finally emerged, spitting out a mouthful of snow. She shook herself violently, sending powdery clumps flying from her fur-lined hood and coat. Her royal dignity lay buried somewhere beneath three feet of displaced snow.

The moment Axe's boot touched the first stair, the dungeon awoke. Ancient torches burst into spectral flames along the passage, their blue-green fire casting jagged shadows that seemed to point deeper into the abyss. Each step triggered another torch, as if the dungeon itself was drawing them inward.

Silvia's fingers dug into Axe's bicep as another row of torches ignited ahead. "Okay, seriously," she whispered, "magic torches lighting our way? That's not ominous at all."

Axe didn't break stride. "You wanted platinum-class." Her axe scraped against stone as she adjusted her grip. "This is what it looks like."

The flames pulsed as they passed, revealing faded murals of warriors being consumed by the very walls. Silvia's breath hitched. "That's... new."

"Still just torches." Axe kicked aside a skeletal hand reaching from between cracks in the stonework. "Save your panic for when the floor starts screaming."

The dungeon's oppressive heat hit them like a forge's breath—a stark contrast to the frozen wasteland above. Axe wasted no time shrugging off her fur coat, letting it slump to the ground. Her battle-honed frame, taut with muscle, already gleamed with perspiration.

Silvia followed suit, peeling away layers with less grace. The clinging fabric of her undershirt did little to mask the curves beneath—the swell of hips, the rise of her chest—all shimmering faintly in the torchlight.

"Some ice dungeon this turned out to be," Axe muttered, rolling her shoulders.

"I feel like I'm melting," Silvia groaned, swiping at the sweat clinging to her brow. She shot Axe an exasperated glare—the warrior's indifference might as well have been another heat source. "How is a temperature shift this extreme even possible?"

"Dunno." Axe shrugged, her bare shoulders gleaming under the unnatural torchlight. "Same shitty dungeon, different day. A little climate crisis won't stop me from cleaving the boss in half." She hefted her battle-worn axe one-handed, the weapon's scarred blade catching the firelight as if hungry for violence.

"You're really something," Silvia muttered under her breath, trailing so close behind Axe that she nearly stepped on the warrior's heels. Her fingers flexed around the hilt of her sword—a polished, jeweled thing that had never seen real combat. But this time, she wouldn't just be a spectator.

I'll show her what I'm made of! Silvia's inner declaration burned brighter than the dungeon's unnatural torches.

Axe's arm shot out like a barricade, halting Silvia mid-step. "Look," she breathed, nodding toward a circular chamber teeming with a dozen chittering goblins. Their yellowed claws scraped against rusted weapons as they squabbled over piles of bones.

"Goblins..." Silvia's whisper wavered slightly.

"Ah. You brought your blade. Good." Axe's grin took on a predatory edge.

"Axe?! Hey, what are you—"

THUD

The world spun as Silvia found herself airborne, then face-first on the cold stone floor. She barely registered the chorus of goblin shrieks before her royal instincts kicked in. "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!" she roared, spitting out a strand of disheveled blonde hair.

"Watch your back," Axe drawled from the doorway.

SHINK!

Silvia whirled just in time to see a goblin's jagged dagger slice through where her neck had been. Her rapier met the next attacker in a flurry of desperate parries, each clash sending sparks skittering across the chamber. "AXE! A LITTLE HELP?!" she yelped, backpedaling as three more goblins fanned out around her.

Axe leaned against the archway, biceps flexing as she crossed her arms. "I believe in you," she said, the picture of nonchalance.

"Axe?!"

"AXE?!"

"AXE, I SWEAR TO ALL THE GODS—"

The princess's threats dissolved into a battle cry as she lunged forward, her blade carving a silver arc through the gloom. 

Axe didn't move. Not when a goblin's rusty dagger nicked Silvia's sleeve. Not when the princess's boot slipped on spilled monster blood. The warrior just watched, arms crossed, as if this were some training exercise—not a fight where one misstep meant death.

Help wasn't coming.

Silvia realized it the moment she caught Axe's smirk. This was the lesson, carved in steel and survival: Prove you belong here.