We continued our way through the second floor, happily hacking apart Draugr as we went and marvelling at the experience we gained. We perfected the tactic we stumbled upon in the first room, Sigmir blocking them for a bit while I liberally threw freezing magic into the room, then Sigmir switching to her Lok'nar and letting me protect her with two shields via Ice Magic. It worked very well even if I was out of Astral Power after each fight. Still, my Astral Meditation got a workout and our speed was quite good.

On this floor, there were eight rooms with enemies and a large room in the middle, like upstairs. We fought our way through all of them, with me reaching level 42 and gaining multiple levels in Ice Magic, Ice-Rune Mastery and Astral Meditation, I guess using Ice Magic defensively made a difference. I also noticed that the Astral Power I gained had a strange flavour to it, for lack of a better word. It felt a little strange and when I asked Lenore about it she agreed, it felt more attuned to Darkness than Ice and Blood. When experimenting a little, I noticed that my Darkness Runes took less Astral Power to cast, not huge amounts but a definite difference.

This time, the room in the middle was a mirror of the one upstairs, only instead of the stone coffin, it had a raised dais, concealed by heavy drapes so we were unable to see what was on it from the outside. After my buffs and a kiss for luck, it was time to enter, prepared for anything. Sigmir had one of the shields on her back not fastened but just hooked so I could easily lift it off with my Ice Magic while she was holding her Lok'nar at the ready. I had my Butterfly-Wings in hand and the second shield on my back similarly ready for deployment, walking a few steps behind Sigmir and to the right. Ylva silently paced along at her left side.

We were maybe ten steps into the room, when an insane laughter sounded from the throne and the drapes were thrown back. Upon the dais stood a large throne, made out of dark, almost black, wood, and lounging on the throne was our opponent.

The being on the throne was quite simply beautiful. There was no way around it. She was tall, maybe six feet, with a body that looked as if it stepped out of a magazine. She had black, silky hair bloodlessly pale white skin that made a fascinating contrast with her hair and her light-blue lips that sparkled with small crystals. The most remarkable feature however, were her eyes. They shone with a clear lustre, like diamonds, When she stood, we were able to admire her dress, silvery white gown with deep, crimson roses embroidered into the fabric. As she started talking, I felt frozen again, just like against the first boss.

“My, my, I have guests. But where is my beloved? Why is he not with you? Do you want to be my new maids? No, I don't need new maids. My beloved promised me that he would come for me soon.”

Her speech was strange, disjointed, as if she wasn’t fully with us. Suddenly, she started pacing on her dais and I saw a knife sticking out of her back.

I managed to focus enough to use observe.

Sally, the Snow-Queen - level 43

“He said he had to do something and then we would be together forever. I waited here for so long, why is he not with you? Admit it, one of you stole him away, didn't you? I will kill you for it! He is mine, only mine! Guards, Guards, attend me! Take those whores and put them into the dungeon! They stole your King from you!”

While she talked, her voice turned shrill and then two Skeletons, clad in armour and armed with shield and sword stepped out from behind the throne. Observing them told me that they were level 40 and called Sally's Skeleton Warriors.

Then they charged at us and Sigmir activated her red protective aura and counter-charged. I kept an eye on the Snow-Queen but she seemed content to stand on her dais for the moment. Shortly before they collided, I took control of the shield on Sigmir's back and waited until the guards were almost upon her.

Then I moved it to the right side and smashed it out from under her arms, bashing the right-side guard and smashing his shield aside. He was set to block a frontal, high strike from Sigmir so when the shield smashed into him from below and the side, he was staggered and fully off balance, wide open to a crushing blow from Sigmir. And crushing it was, While the overhead strike was not strong enough to cleave the armour, it was strong enough to deal crippling damage. Not only did it smash a deep dent into the pauldron, the skeleton actually shrunk a bit as it's hip- and leg-bones were crushed. Then it collapsed, clearly out of the fight.

My Shield-bash from the side had continued on, after hitting the first skeleton and I managed to turn the strike from the left skeleton far enough aside that it missed Sigmir. Then the skeleton barrelled into her and both staggered back.

“You killed my knight? How dare you? I will take care of you myself!” I watched while the Snow-Queen took out a carved crystal from her bustier and waved if from from left to right. Above her head, three large icicles appeared and a moment later, all three were launched in our direction, one at each of us. While I jumped aside and saw that Ylva also easily dodged, Sigmir was unable to dodge due to the swordsman attacking her. Not letting my Sigmir get skewered was very high on my list of things to do so I used Bullet Time and focused on the Icicle, trying to turn it aside. There was some resistance but I was able to push enough power into it to shift it's course into the skeleton's back, having it take the hit.

“You try to usurp my power? I will see you hanged!”

Now, the Snow-Queen focused on me, glaring but had yet to leave her dais. Again, she swung the crystal, this time shooting all three icicles at me. I moved behind one of the pillars to take cover. While I avoided the direct hit, when the Icicles were next to me, they burst apart, showering me with razor sharp pieces. A short look to my debuffs told me that there was no lasting, serious bleeding effect and while I lost some HP, it was not critical.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Then, Ylva gave up on trying to gain purchase against the armour of the Skeleton Warrior and run towards the Snow-Queen. Just as she jumped to attack her, the Snow-Queen laughed and waved her left arm in a slashing motion and from below her dress, silvery vines burst forth, striking Ylva in the side and throwing her away. As the vines looked as if they were made out of ice, I tried to manipulate them with Ice-Magic but my magical grip slipped simply off them.

"It would be better if you run!" she yelled out.

Unable to do anything else, I tossed my two Butterfly-Wings in her direction, using them as flying weapons for the first time in serious combat. That turned it into a fencing match of me trying to use the blades to get at her while casting freezing spells of my own, trying to attack her like the Draugar.

She was defending herself with the vines, both against my flying blades and against the rays of pure cold. Then it turned, she used her crystal to toss icicles at me, I used my blades to smash two aside and had to resort to my shield to block the third. Ylva tried to get close but without a way to block the vines, she was unable to get close. The agile vines managed to strike her, no matter how she dodged.

While I was wracking my brain to break the back and forth between the Snow-Queen and me, I heard a loud clanging sound and saw that Sigmir had finally managed to break through the skeleton's shield and break the arm below. With that, their fight turned one-sided as the skeleton was no longer able to block her attacks. After a few exchanges of Sigmir smacking it's weapon aside and it awkwardly dodging out of the way, she connected with a nice blow, taking the skeleton's head off.

Done with her opponent, she charged at the Snow-Queen with Ylva hot on her heels. Seeing her charge, I let my shield overtake her, joining my Butterfly-Wings trying to block her vines from interfering with Sigmir. She still had to block one vine off but there was nothing to stop Ylva who jumped into the Snow-Queen and drove her back into her throne- The impact jarred the vines and Sigmir managed to move in, striking at her chest. Her gown was able to take the blow but she smashed into the throne with bone-jarring force. Then, above her heart, the tip of the knife appeared and the life drained out of her eyes as they lost their lustre.

“Darling? Is that... you? Why... do you have... a knife?...” With a soft sigh, she lay still on her throne.

Sally, the Snow-Queen died You gain 3 000 EXP. For killing an opponent 1 level above you you gain Bonus EXP For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP For killing an opponent with the Dungeon Traveller-Bonus in effect, you gain Bonus EXP For killing a Floor-Boss without a full party, you gain Bonus EXP Sally's Skeleton Warrior died You gain 1 500 EXP. For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP Sally's Skeleton Warrior died You gain 1 500 EXP. For killing an opponent without a Traveller in your party, you gain Bonus EXP

Skill increased You increased your skill: Ice Magic [53/100]

Then she started to turn into blackness and seep into her throne, leaving behind two items.

When I saw the first, a cold shiver overcame me, it was the dagger that had stuck out of her back.

Jealous Lover Rarity Rare Type Dagger Base Damage 18 Damage Piercing Base Damage 14 Damage Slashing Strength Modifier Low Special Effect Heartbreaker – Armour Piercing is increased. Special Effect Heart Seeker – Critical Damage is increased. Special Effect Jealousy – Once used, it can only be put down by satisfying it's curse. This Dagger was made by the Dwergar in memoriam of Alviss. It can only be passed on once it is used to slay one's lover.

After reading its description, I was sure that I never wanted to use this weapon and Sigmir agreed with me. We rolled it into some leather and I sealed it with ice, so we'd not even accidentally touch it. Then we tossed it into a Bag of Holding, hoping that we'd be able to trade it to Thekk, after telling him about the curse of course.

The second item was a lot more interesting, it was a bracelet, roughly the size of my upper arm, made from the same silvery-white material that had made up the vines the Snow-Queen had used. 

Eisblumen Rarity Rare Type Accessory Special Effect Icy Vines – When Astral Power is channelled into this Accessory, Vines made out of flexible Ice grow from it. Only the wearer of this Item can control them with Ice-Magic. This accessory is made in memoriam of the transient beauty that only lasts for a single night and is washed away by the light of day.

Not trusting the description to a hundred percent, I looked at it with Lenore's Magic Sight for a moment but was only able to see the expected glow of silvery Ice-Magic. With that, I equipped it on my upper, left arm, outside the armour. When it was in place, I felt a short sting below it and saw that thin thorns had pierced my armour and now held the ring in place, but I also felt the ring and knew that I could retract the thorns anytime to take it off but if I wanted to use it, the thorns were a necessary connection.

The sting reminded me of my own wounds, curiosity had driven them to the back of my mind. However the first I took care of was Ylva, then Sigmir, then myself. With that done, we prepared ourselves to rest for a while and then continue on. Down here, our sense of time was rather warped and only my connection with the capsule told me that it would be noon on our second day down here.