Chapter 1047: The Divine Trident

"I asked for one very simple thing: don’t get out of bed." Frieren said while remaining with her arms crossed in front of Ariel, who was once again sitting among the pillows after practically being carried back to bed.

Ariel kept her eyes lowered, although the expression on her face made it clear that she was not particularly sorry. Her human legs were hidden beneath the sheets again, and the employee responsible for making rounds remained near the door trying not to show any amusement at the situation.

"I managed to reach the window." Ariel replied while discreetly raising her eyes toward Frieren, as if that detail considerably improved her defense.

"You also couldn’t make it back." Frieren shot back while pointing toward the princess’s legs, which still showed small tremors caused by excessive effort.

Ariel opened her mouth.

She found no argument.

"That’s a detail." Ariel murmured while shifting her eyes toward the window that had caused all that trouble.

"That’s exactly the detail that determines whether you can walk or whether you can only fall a little farther away from the bed." Frieren replied while pulling over the chair and sitting in front of her, clearly having no intention of letting that attempt pass easily.

Ariel let out a sigh.

"I spent three days unconscious. I don’t like continuing to be stuck in a bed now that I’m awake." Ariel explained while slowly moving her feet beneath the sheets, showing the restlessness she had been feeling since regaining consciousness.

Frieren understood perfectly.

That did not mean she would allow it.

"If you fall, hit your head again and go back into a coma, I’m going to consider it a personal offense." Frieren informed while beginning to check Ariel’s eyes again, making sure the exertion had not caused any worsening.

Ariel remained quiet while Frieren finished the examination.

"All right. I won’t get up again without someone with me." Ariel promised while raising one hand in surrender.

Frieren narrowed her eyes.

"For today." Ariel added after realizing that the former elf had not completely believed that promise.

Frieren slowly exhaled.

"That’s something." Frieren replied while finally moving away and allowing Ariel to relax against the pillows.

The princess remained silent for a few seconds, but her expression changed when she remembered what she had felt in front of the window.

"Frieren, there was something in the sea." Ariel said while all playfulness disappeared from her voice and her eyes returned to the expanse of Black Ice visible in the distance.

Frieren stopped.

"Something like what?" Frieren asked while carefully observing the sudden change in the princess’s expression.

Ariel brought one hand to her chest.

"I don’t know. It felt like... a presence. I felt something calling me from the depths." Ariel explained while lightly gripping the fabric over her chest, exactly in the region where Frieren had detected that strange energy.

The former elf fell silent.

Strax had mentioned something similar.

That was enough information to turn the scolding into genuine concern.

"Don’t try to answer if you feel it again." Frieren asked while standing from the chair and casting another look toward the window.

Ariel nodded.

"I didn’t try the first time." Ariel replied while still trying to understand why her own body had reacted to that presence.

Frieren picked up her notes.

"I’m going to tell Strax." Frieren said while beginning to walk toward the door, determined to add that to the growing number of problems related to the ocean.

Some time later, far away from the medical wing, Strax had considerably more physical problems to solve.

The sound of tons of ice breaking echoed across Asgard’s coast.

Scarlet, Cassandra, Daniela and Bellatrix were in their draconic forms over the gigantic expanse of Black Ice, using claws, tails, brute strength and concentrated attacks to break parts of the barrier created days earlier.

The situation was almost ridiculous.

The Black Ice had been excellent at preventing Asgard from being destroyed.

Now it was excellent at preventing anyone from using the ocean.

Fishermen were standing still, small boats could not even reach the water and an absurd stretch of coastline had become a practically indestructible black plain.

Cassandra raised an enormous paw and slammed it against the ice.

A crack crossed dozens of meters.

She struck again.

A gigantic slab finally broke free.

Daniela grabbed the broken edge with her claws and pulled with force, tearing away a mass of Black Ice so large that she needed to open her wings to avoid losing balance.

Bellatrix worked farther away, breaking a strip that would eventually form a corridor toward the open ocean.

Strax watched everything with his hands in his pockets.

Scarlet stopped.

The dragoness slowly turned her enormous head toward him.

"Why don’t you just burn everything?" Scarlet questioned while pointing with one claw toward the colossal expanse of ice they still needed to remove.

Strax looked at her.

Then at the ice.

"Because it doesn’t work." Strax replied while removing one hand from his pocket and walking toward an untouched area.

Scarlet tilted her head.

Strax opened his palm.

White Fire appeared.

The flame emerged small, extremely concentrated and luminous, distorting the air around his hand from the temperature alone. Any ordinary ice would have disappeared before even making contact.

Strax lowered his hand.

The white flame touched the Black Ice.

The two energies reacted instantly.

A violent pressure appeared between them and pushed Strax’s hand upward, while small white and black particles exploded in opposite directions.

Not a single drop of water appeared.

The ice did not even melt.

Scarlet stared.

Strax tried again.

The reaction was exactly the same.

The White Fire approached, the Black Ice responded and the two manifestations simply repelled each other as if refusing to share the same space.

"How did this happen?" Scarlet asked while her enormous draconic head moved closer until it was only a few meters from Strax.

Strax extinguished the flame.

"No idea." Strax replied while shrugging and tapping the tip of his boot against the ice.

Scarlet continued staring at him.

"Apparently my ice is stronger than my fire." Strax added while looking just as confused as she was by that realization.

Scarlet blinked.

Strax raised his hands.

"I’m a dragon. This doesn’t make any sense at all, right?" Strax asked while looking at Cassandra, as if expecting another dragoness to offer some logical explanation.

Cassandra stopped breaking ice.

She looked at Strax.

Then at the Black Ice.

Then at his hand.

"No." Cassandra replied while simply raising her paw again, apparently deciding she was not being paid enough to solve that magical contradiction.

The paw came down.

Another enormous crack appeared.

Scarlet still looked genuinely disturbed.

"You created a fire that can’t melt your own ice." Scarlet commented while slowly beginning to return to human form.

The enormous draconic body shrank until Scarlet landed on the ice with her arms crossed.

"I didn’t do it on purpose." Strax replied while looking at his own hand again, as if it might somehow explain why his powers had decided to develop incompatibility with each other.

Scarlet pointed at him.

"You realize that makes it even stranger?" Scarlet asked while an extremely confused expression remained on her face.

Strax shrugged again.

"My powers do strange things." Strax replied while apparently having already accepted that as the best explanation available.

Scarlet continued looking at him for a few seconds.

Then gave up.

Behind them, Daniela tore away another enormous slab of ice and threw it toward an area that had already been cleared.

She prepared her claws to strike again.

Then stopped.

Something was shining inside a crack.

Daniela moved her head closer.

A small blue reflection appeared between two layers of Black Ice.

"I FOUND SOMETHING!" Daniela shouted while immediately pulling her claws away so she would not destroy it by accident.

Strax and Scarlet looked in the same direction.

Cassandra stopped her work.

Bellatrix also turned her head.

The four approached.

Daniela carefully used the tip of one claw to widen the crack. Several smaller slabs broke free until they finally revealed a small object trapped between the ice.

It was a ring.

Daniela returned to human form to examine it more closely.

The object had a blue-silver metallic structure and an extremely pure sapphire set in the center. Even covered by a thin layer of ice, the stone seemed to emit its own light.

"Why is there a jewel in the middle of the sea?" Daniela questioned while crouching and moving her face closer to the object without touching it.

Strax did not answer.

Something had just happened in his arm.

The Gauntlet of Darkness vibrated.

Once.

Twice.

Then the chains trembled.

Strax became serious.

"Move your hand away." Strax asked while Daniela immediately backed away after noticing the change in his expression.

He approached.

The shorter the distance, the stronger the Gauntlet reacted.

The violet lines that were still recovering from exhaustion began emitting small pulses. It was not enough energy to completely restore its functions, but the reaction was much more intense than what most magical objects produced.

Scarlet noticed.

"The same reaction as that girl?" Scarlet asked while remaining beside Strax, remembering what he had told her about Ariel.

"Similar." Strax replied while crouching in front of the ring and carefully examining the sapphire.

He extended the hand protected by the Gauntlet.

His fingers touched the ring.

The reaction was immediate.

The sapphire shone.

Strax barely had time to close his fingers before a blue wave exploded from the object.

"Strax!" Scarlet called while stepping forward, but stopped when she realized the energy was not attacking him.

The ring began to grow.

Strax opened his hand.

The small metallic structure expanded rapidly, changing shape while remaining suspended above his palm.

The band opened.

The metal lengthened.

The sapphire was surrounded by bluish structures that grew in opposite directions.

Strax had to stand while the object continued growing.

In less than two seconds, the small ring had disappeared.

In its place was an enormous trident.

The lower end struck the Black Ice with a heavy impact, while Strax held the center of the long shaft with the Gauntlet of Darkness.

Everyone fell silent.

The trident was considerably larger than an ordinary human weapon. Its structure was made of bluish metal with an almost crystalline appearance, covered in extremely small inscriptions that seemed to move whenever light passed across its surface.

The sapphire remained on it.

Now it was set below the three blades.

Blue energy traveled through the entire weapon in slow pulses.

The ocean responded.

Even separated from them by kilometers of Black Ice, a deep sound crossed the coast.

Cassandra immediately raised her head.

Bellatrix opened her wings.

Daniela took several steps back.

Strax remained still.

The Gauntlet vibrated violently around his hand.

It did not seem to reject the trident.

It seemed to recognize it.

Scarlet carefully approached.

"That’s a powerful weapon." Scarlet said while keeping her eyes fixed on the energy flowing across the trident’s surface.

Strax slowly looked over the weapon.

He could feel it.

He did not need the Gauntlet for that.

The energy inside that object was completely different from ordinary magic. It did not merely contain accumulated power. There was something deeper mixed into it, some kind of authority that made the mana around it behave differently.

"It is." Strax replied while tightening his fingers around the shaft and feeling the trident react to the contact.

A pulse traveled through his arm.

For an instant, Strax heard water.

Not the small waves near the coast.

An entire ocean.

The sensation immediately disappeared.

Strax narrowed his eyes.

"Actually, it’s a Divine Item." Strax concluded while watching the sapphire emit another bluish pulse.

Scarlet became serious.

Cassandra and Bellatrix returned to human form and approached, while Daniela remained staring at the place where she had found the small ring.

"Are you saying I almost crushed a Divine Item with my paw?" Daniela asked while looking at her own hand as if she had just realized how close she had come to doing something extremely stupid.

Strax looked at her.

"It probably would’ve been fine." Strax replied while lightly tapping his fingers against the trident’s shaft.

Daniela did not look particularly reassured.

Scarlet moved her hand closer to the weapon, but did not touch it.

"Poseidon?" Scarlet asked while her eyes followed the blue inscriptions running along the metal.

Strax remained silent.

It was the most obvious conclusion.

A Divine Weapon.

Found in the ocean.

A few days after a maritime calamity spread divine power through the waters.

During the same period in which a princess of Atlantis carrying that energy had appeared unconscious on Asgard’s coast.

Even so, Strax did not like turning coincidences into certainties before having proof.

"That’s what it looks like." Strax replied while carefully turning the trident and noticing that, despite its size, the weapon felt strangely comfortable in his hand.

Then the Gauntlet vibrated again.

This time the trident responded.

A wave of blue energy traveled through the weapon and came into contact with the black plates.

The violet lines glowed.

Strax immediately opened his fingers.

The trident fell.

Before touching the ground, it began shrinking.

The long shaft disappeared.

The three blades retracted.

The sapphire shrank.

When it struck the Black Ice, it was once again only a ring.

No one spoke for a few seconds.

Strax looked at the small object in front of his feet.

Then toward the horizon.

That same sensation that had been bothering him for days returned.

Something was in the sea.

Something extremely powerful.

And now it seemed the ocean was beginning to leave clues along the way.

Strax crouched and picked up the ring again with the Gauntlet, but this time it remained small.

"Let’s stop breaking the ice for now." Strax said while carefully putting away the ring and standing.

Scarlet looked at the entire stretch they still needed to clear.

"And the fishermen?" Scarlet asked while imagining that half of them were probably anxiously waiting for the ocean to return.

Strax looked toward the horizon.

"They’ll have to wait a little longer." Strax replied while closing his hand around the ring and feeling another small vibration pass through the Gauntlet.

He did not like the idea of keeping the coast frozen.

But he liked even less the idea of removing a barrier that might be keeping something outside.

Especially now that a Divine Item had just appeared trapped inside it.

Strax looked back toward Asgard.

"I think I need to talk to our princess of Atlantis again." Strax murmured while beginning to walk across the Black Ice, carrying with him the first concrete thing they had found since the ocean went mad.