Chapter 304: Bipolar

Maria and Jacob were equally tired of travelling through the snow. Anger consumed their being, Zoey’s condition still burning fresh in their minds.

"I’m tired. I’m so tired of this life, Maria."

Maria looked at Jacob, her heart dropping slightly. These were not words she was used to hearing from him. The pressure was chipping away his will power every second.

"Why do you say that? You don’t normally talk like that. Is everything okay?"

Jacob scoffed.

"Maria, has anyone we’ve ever been friends with survived longer than a year with us? And I mean besides Slimo, Lidia, Squabee, and Sarah."

Maria remained silent slowly processing her answer before speaking again.

"No one’s deaths were something that we could control."

Jacob shook his head.

"I know I keep coming back to this, but was my dad truly wrong to say weakness was horrible? I mean, look at what happened to those of us who were weak. I know he did terrible things, and I’m not forgiving him for that, but I’ve been trying to find an answer to that question since we’ve been travelling together, and his argument seems more convincing the more I outlive my friends. However, I think I’ve finally started to piece it together."

He kicked up a pile of snow before taking in a deep breath.

"This feeling of hopelessness, this feeling of weakness, it all stems from the same source: loss. My father losing my mother, us losing our friends, it’s all the same."

The winds around them slowly kicked up.

"My father wasn’t evil for seeking power from loss. He was just human."

Hearing Jacob’s words made Maria feel at peace with her view of Jacob’s dad. He was never a kind person to her, he was a ruthless leader who would almost always put his own power before the people, but that didn’t mean those actions that appeared rude to others were done with the intention of being rude. He was trying to strengthen people as much as he could. He wanted to weed out the weakness of his people, making them strong so they don’t need to rely on him as king. Maria looked back at Jacob confidently before speaking.

"If that’s the case, what matters more in the end? His actions, or the intention behind those actions?"

Jacob smiled. The wind battered harder against their armor.

"The fact that there is no perfect answer to that question means we can’t judge my father too harshly either way. In reality, it’s easy to judge someone for a decision that you never had to make yourself."

Suddenly, an explosion of frost sent them flying off their feet into the air. Maria and Jacob blocked their face as they soared higher into the sky. A creature with glowing, azure wings raced after them towards the clouds. Jacob reached out to Maria and grabbed her arm.

"Maria!"

"I’m on it!!"

Jacob turned himself forward, using the strange motion to create some distance in the air between her. Maria threw her spear down at the invisible creature, shattering one of its wings into thousands of small shards. However, it immediately grew back. Glowing eyes appeared behind the haze before a hand closed itself around Jacob’s throat.

Jacob squinted from all the hail pounding against his face. He grabbed his sword from his belt and slashed at the arm holding his neck. The pressure was slowly relieved, bringing some color back to his face. Maria and Jacob crashed into large piles of powdered snow, allowing more white flurries to get caught by the wind.

"It’s him! It has to be him!"

Just then, the frost monarch landed on the ground thirty feet in front of them. As it landed, a small bubble was created around them, halting all the winds and snow from blinding the area. The figure towered above Maria and Jacob. His height was almost double that of Jacob’s, his broad shoulders lined with flawless muscles poking under small holes in his icy armor. A misty flail was hanging from his waist, waiting to be called upon at any moment. A dark chuckle escaped from the impenetrable darkness of his hood.

"So, you’re still alive, boy? Old man Zalo couldn’t finish the job?"

Jacob recognized the voice, even as it crackled like a frozen lake unthawing.

"No... you should be dead. Zalo killed you!"

The Frost Monarch took off his hood.

"Aw, come on. You’re going to break your uncle’s heart."

Leo had revealed himself in front of both of them. His eyes were glowing white as he adjusted his stance in the snow.

"You’re the Frost Monarch?! But, how?! You were supposed to be in charge of Iron Kingdom!"

Leo laughed manically before his face suddenly turned pale.

"Oh... that’s right. No one really liked me there."

He started to cry and hold his face. Then, he lifted his head confidently looking outward.

"Ahh but look at how far I’ve come along! I found my own people! I was their savior!"

His face started to droop again, his emotions waning by the second.

"Oh... but most of them died on the journey through the water. Even after I got my power, they all became..."

His body twitched.

"T-They all became..."

His face grew happier every second.

"They all became PERFECT!! Perfect vessels, perfect extensions of my incredible power!! I hunted that statue in the ocean, and once it was mine, I made sure there was no other statue for anyone to take! I froze the ocean over with one breath! I annihilated this continent and claimed it as my home!"

His face dropped again.

"Oh, my. So many dead families. So many people wailing for their lives. It was so heartbreaking."

His smiled turned upward once more.

"Ah, but they had become a part of me. They had become my perfect vessels of frost!! Don’t you see, Jacob?! See what I have become! Am I fit to lead now?! Am I not the perfect leader?!"

Jacob winced seeing how chaotic his uncle’s emotions were.

"The corruption is getting to your brain. You don’t even know what you’re feeling anymore, do you?"

Leo laughed, then started crying again.

"Feeling is just terrible. This just feels so awful. My heart is so cold now."

Before his emotions could change again, Maria threw her spear at his face. Leo caught it with two fingers effortlessly. He looked at the spear confused before crushing it in his grasp.

"I’m sorry, I don’t think I’m going to let you hit me anymore. I just felt so bad for you two! So helpless and weak in the air!"

Maria spat on the ground next to her, having her spear return in her hand. She planted her feet in the ground and stared into Leo’s light eyes.

"I’m sorry, Jacob. I’m going to kill your uncle now."

Jacob took a step forward and readied his sword.

"None taken. I’ll even give you a hand."

Leo’s face lit up as if he had remembered something he had forgotten about.

"A hand... a hand... AH! That’s right!"

The arm that Jacob had cut off slowly grew back.

"How about I repay you for the hand you took for me? A hand..."

Leo stomped on the ground, completely freezing the surface below their feet. The ice itself started climbing their heels, locking them in place.

"... for a HAND!!"

Leo thrust his arm upward with the motion of an upper cut. Suddenly, a massive fist of ice crashed through the ground below them and smacked them into the air. Its size was comparable to the trees they were surrounded by in the jungle. Jacob’s armor groaned under the pressure, but it held. He pushed himself off the knuckles and balanced on the icy fist.

"Don’t hesitate, Maria! Kill him if you see the chance!"

Without saying any more words, Maria’s face turned cold. She exhaled slowly, allowing a small bit of steam to escape her mouth. She steadied herself on the rising fist and shot downward, thrusting her spear in front of herself. She was right on target, ready to pierce through the Monarch on her first attack.

However, a fist and the back of a heel rammed into her chin at the same time. She was sent flying to the side, crashing through multiple piles of snow and ice. Two people stood in front of the Monarch. One of them was a headless servant with a wide body and sharpened gauntlets. His broad, icy armor made him look like a golem.

The second servant was a woman with a terribly deformed face. Her armor was much thinner than the other servants, but every inch of it was covered in miniature spikes. In her hands, she was holding a scythe.

Jacob watched the scene unfold before his eyes. He knew Maria couldn’t handle all three of them. He grabbed his sword and jumped down towards his uncle, screaming as the wind flew past his ears.

Leo looked up at Jacob as he fell and grabbed hold of his flail.

"I’ve always hated how much you looked like your father."

Maria stood back up out of the snow, her eyes glowing green as she stared the two guardians of the frost monarch down. Her eye read through their power as she shook some snow off her armor.

"Nothing but thralls. It’s a good thing you’re both stronger than me."

Even though Maria saw that both of the thralls were as strong as guardians, she wasn’t scared in the slightest. For the first time since entering this continent, she was finally able to unleash everything she had on an opponent.