I blinked several times, before shaking my head and wheezing. Olga was crying. A tear fell from her left eye and dripped onto my face, hissing as it met my skin. It hurt, badly, but I hardly cared even as a small portion of my skin turned hot and numb and evaporated into the wind. My whole body was stiff. Pins and needles assaulted my skin from my face all to the way to my toes. My limbs felt weak and malnourished, and moving them felt as though I was lifting heavy stones. I could move them, but only with great difficulty.

“You’re back!” Olga launched herself at me and wrapped her arms over my shoulders, pulling my face into her chest. I wanted to hug her back, but my arms felt almost frozen. She cried into my robe, before pulling back and taking a deep breath. Her eyes were red and tinted with tears as she spoke, “I thought you were dead – your whole body had died! Your heart stopped beating and I felt not a single trace of a thought in your mind. But… I felt your magic, still burning in your chest, and I knew I had to bring you with me, even if I had to drag you all the way to the exit.”

“And then,” She continued. “I felt your magic explode, before calming down and settling across your limbs again; and I knew you would live.”

I breathed in and out, feeling the rush of heat flowing within me, my magic streaming from my chest and filling my limbs. The heft that held them down disappeared, and I felt myself capable of movement again. The pins and needles did not disappear, however, but some discomfort was better than not being able to move at all. I pushed myself up onto a seated position upon the snow. Olga smiled and grabbed my hand as she stood. “Come on, Uriel, we have to get moving.”

She pulled me up to my feet. I staggered, but she held me by my hand and kept me steady. I breathed in and out, standing in place until the strength of my muscles and bones returned in full. My robes were in tatters, covered in holes and tears and rips. And yet the cold of the snow around us barely touched me. I felt it, but it was still as muted as it was when we first arrived. Olga spoke, “Can you walk?”

I nodded and turned to her, my vision still somewhat blurry. I glanced over Olga’s shoulder and eyed the deep furrow behind her, carved upon the snow when she dragged me along. “How long were you carrying me, Olga?”

“Three hours,” She answered with a deep sigh and a shake of her head. She looked exhausted, but there was a fire to her that burned in spite of that. “You were dead for three hours; I’ve been dragging you along the snow the whole time. You’re heavier than you look, Uriel.”

I nodded. “I… thank you, Olga – thank you. I would probably be dead if you just left me behind.”

There was a glimmer of something in Olga’s eyes as she smiled, despite everything that raged around them, despite the endless blanket of snow, and the darkness that lingered overhead. For a moment, Olga glimmered like pearls in the sunlight, shimmering in the haze beneath the sea. Her rainbow flames flickered in the cold, but the warmth that radiated from her was… unreal. She smiled and the universe seemed to pause and tilt, “I’ll never leave you behind, Uriel.”

I could only nod. Words had gathered at the tip of my tongue, at the edge of my lips, but I could not say them; I didn’t know how to say them. Because I’ve never heard them before, those words that lingered. And so, I could only nod and smile back as we turned to look at the icy road ahead of us. “Thank you.”

Olga’s smile faded as she glanced around us with narrowed eyes. “We should keep moving. I haven’t seen any monsters just yet, but the woods are vast; there’s no telling what we’ll run into.”

“Alright,” I said. “If we do get attacked, we’ll protect each other, alright?”

“Of course,” Olga nodded. “You’ve learned to use your magic to defend yourself in a fight?”

“Sort of,” I answered. “I’ve used it on someone who was bound and incapable of fighting back. The other spells I know wouldn’t be of much use in a fight. I know a healing spell, though; that should be useful, right?”

“Don’t worry,” Olga said, still smiling. “If anything comes too close, I’ll burn it to ashes.”

I breathed in, feeling the cold air through my nose, flowing into my lungs. It was different from that other place we’d been sent to, where Olga and I first met, that war-torn city in a land of ice and snow, where the chill of the winds seemed to freeze our bones and turn our skin as hard as stone in the dead of winter. And yet, in here, in this strange realm, the cold was… unnatural. It seemed almost alive, bearing a will of its own.

Then again, I figured, this was the dominion of a powerful Dark Mage, the Ice Queen; she wouldn’t have earned such a moniker if the very concept of frost did not bow at her feet.

I shuddered and rubbed my hands together – a futile gesture, but it seemed to help warm up my mind. Olga, meanwhile, willed forth another ball of multi-colored flames above her palm, keeping the ice and frost away from us as we slowly, but surely continued onwards. The cold didn’t bother me as much as it did her, but the blanket of warmth certainly helped.

Something rumbled in the distance, followed by a burst of powerful, but familiar magical energies, and a strange, almost wooden, howl that shook the ground at our feet. The sound that rippled through the winds seemed almost like a scream, a thousand voices all crying out in pain at once. The magic resonated with something inside me and I realized right then and there that the creature that’d made that awful sound was connected to me through unseen threads. For a moment, I closed my eyes and extended my senses inwards and outwards, reaching for both my magic and the threads that connected me to the strange howling thing in the distance. And then, I felt it, the presence of a raging, bestial mind that knew only death and destruction and nothing else. I felt it tugging at the edge of my consciousness, waiting for me, waiting for my command.

This construct is bound to our will, a familiar voice echoed across my thoughts. Command it and it will follow; we could use some more protection from the monsters that stalk the snow.

I nodded, glad for the fact that I could now properly communicate with my magic, the source of my power. And it was right as well; Olga and I were just Neophytes, who could barely use our magic. The Blood Curse, the Bone Curse, and the Heart Curse were all well and good at killing things, but we needed so much more than that.

Come to me, I spoke through the link that connected us, a transfer of thought and will. The creature on the other side stirred, the bestial rage that’d overcome its mind suddenly overwhelmed by its instinct to obey. The ground shook. The snows that’d gathered upon the leaves of the tall trees fell onto the ground or scattered into the wind. The air seemed to grow heavy as thunderous footsteps echoed in the distance, great lumbering booms that sounded almost akin to the explosions of distant canons. For a moment, a scene played in my mind – a city aflame, planes roaring overhead, filling the skies with fire and death, screams and gunshots, and the distant thrums of artillery fire, pounding the ground to shake. I breathed in and quickly reminded myself that I was far from the Japanese, far from Manila, far from everything that’d once consumed me – the fear and the smell of death.

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Olga’s eyes widened as she turned to me and seemed to freeze. The multi-colored flames over her palm seemed to blaze and brighten, roaring until it encompassed the entirety of her form, filling the air with iridescent lights and flickering tongues of fire that melted snow, ice, and frost. She reached out to me and grabbed the collar of my robes, before uttering something underneath her breath. In an instant, a shimmering ball of fire and light surrounded us, obscuring the tall trees and whatever else lay outside.

“Something’s coming towards us!” She said. Her eyes were wide and filled with fear. “It’s big; the ground is shaking.”

I laid a hand on her shoulder. Olga turned to me. “It’s alright. Do you remember when I turned the trees into… an abomination? It was waiting for me to call it.”

“You….” She began, eyes narrowing, before shaking her head and sighing. “You can control it?”

I nodded. “Yes… I told it to come to me. If the Ice Queen’s monsters do show up, I figured it’d be good to have a monster of our own.”

Olga nodded hesitantly. “Alright… I trust you. But, I’m keeping the shield up just in case a monster attacks us.”

I nodded right back.

A minute or so later, the trees parted and a gargantuan abomination stepped out and revealed itself.

The first thing I noted, of course, was its immense size. It was easily larger than a building. Its gnarled head, filled with jagged and misshapen teeth, was the size of a bus. It looked more or less the same as it did before, but it was much larger now. And its form, despite its abominable quality, seemed more robust, capable of fluid movements that made it appear almost alive. The trees that composed its form had lost whatever cohesion they once had and simply became something akin to scales, like that of a lizard, only each scale was about the size of a window. Its eyes blazed red and black fumes steamed from its maw, like the smoke that came out of the backs of cars. Its form somewhat resembled a cat or a dog - if either of those creatures had large spikes trailing its back and had horns the size of large trees extending from both sides of its head.

“Are you sure you can control it?” Olga’s eyes were wide as he turned to face me.

For a moment, I checked the link that bound the abomination to me and found it intact and strong – stronger than it was before. My eyes narrowed. Did the link grow stronger the closer we were? That was good to know, at least. It also highlighted the possibility of my creations losing control if I were to wander too far from them.

The snow melted around it as it approached. The ground rumbled and cracked, and a great wave of heat blew against our faces. It stopped several feet from us and tilted its head downwards as it glanced at us. I breathed in and sent single command through the link. Get down.

It understood instantly. And the massive abomination lowered itself until its jagged, spiny underside met the ground and its legs were folded. It was still tall, but it no longer towered above the trees if I didn’t count the length of its horns. It let out a snort that belched forth twin plumes of crimson flames and black smoke.

“What’s it doing?” Olga asked, taking an absent step backwards towards me. “Why is it on the ground? Did you tell it to?”

I nodded. “I told it get on the ground. Its back is full of ridges and spines, but I figured riding it should be better than simply walking the distance from here to wherever the exit is. Besides, it should be safer up there when the monsters come running from the woods.”

Truth be told, I wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good idea, but walking the full length of the journey, surrounded by darkness and flanked by ice and snow, seemed like a terrible idea in comparison. But, ultimately, it was up to Olga. If she was uncomfortable with the whole idea of riding atop a monster, then I would simply have it accompany us.

“You…” Olga began, eyes squinting slightly as she glanced upwards and stared into the eyes of my abomination. It was a living creature, I figured, but I also knew that it lacked any real form of intelligence. If left to its own devices, the lumbering giant would simply destroy everything around it indiscriminately. After a moment, she breathed in and sighed, “Does it even have space on its back?”

I smiled and shrugged, because I honestly wasn’t sure about that. But, given its size, I imagined it wouldn’t be too hard to find some space. “I don’t know, but it should have something to sit on or hold on to.”

She considered my words for a moment, before sighing, “Alright, I trust you; let’s climb up this thing.”

We climbed up the creature’s side. It was easier than I thought it would be. All the scales and random jutting spikes gave us plenty of footholds and crevices to hold onto as we pulled ourselves up. Olga was, surprisingly, a very good climber. She reached the top before I did and grabbed my hand and helped me up. The abomination’s back was, despite all the ridges and spines, strangely flat. More than that, however, was the strange platform of bone and flesh at its nape, which was shaped in such a way that it almost resembled a bench. Naturally, Olga and I chose that spot to sit down on.

“Move forward and follow the road,” I said out loud. And the gigantic abomination pushed itself up. Olga and I held on by grasping the spines on its back. It was, surprisingly, once more, easier than it might’ve seemed as the bench-shaped mass of flesh and blood that we sat on was steadier than the rest of the creature’s body as it moved forward. Still, every step it took made the ground shook and us with it. But a little discomfort was fine as we moved much faster than before. The lumbering creature’s strides were far and wide, and the distance it covered within the first five minutes was immense.

“Alright,” Olga said as she leaned into my shoulder and sighed. Her blonde hair was messy, unkempt, and dirty, but smelled faintly of flowers and morning dew. “This wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be.”

The creature’s head swerved left and right as it walked, its horns blocking out much of the sky. The heat it emitted was hot enough that Olga no longer needed a ball of fire to keep herself warm.

I smiled. “I’m glad you’re enjoying this.”

And then, something howled in the distance, followed by another, and another, and another. And the trees began to dance as dark shapes converged upon us from every conceivable direction, save for the sky.

I breathed in and whispered down at Olga, whose head was still leaning against my shoulder, “The monsters are here; there’s so many of them.”

She sighed and straightened. She glanced left and right and saw the same thing I did. Dark, bestial figures rushed through the snow, snarling, howling, and roaring. Iridescent flames appeared over her hands, burning brightly. Olga smiled and vaguely gestured at the abomination upon whose back we rode, “Well, at least we have a monster of our own.”

I nodded and closed my eyes. “We do. Let’s see how it does in a fight.”

And then, I sent forth a single command through the link between myself and my creation. Kill them all.

My gigantic abomination roared. And the air itself screamed as it opened its jagged and misshapen maw and unleashed a cone of crimson flames upon everything. The flames, however, did not burn. Instead, every living thing it touched and licked convulsed and exploded into screaming, screeching, and chittering masses of flesh, blood, bone, and sinew. The trees became bleeding, grotesque appendages that lashed out at anything and everything. The entire forest came to life in a chorus of screams and geysers of blood. The bestial monsters that did not become quivering masses of flesh and bone were either trampled beneath the abominations feet as it stomped forward or sent flying into the distance as it swiped its massive forearms in low, sweeping arcs, crushing everything around it.

However, the abominable flames that altered the forest could not be everywhere at once. And the abomination itself could only attack from a single direction. Its rear was exposed and unguarded and so was its side. I glanced down and frowned. The creatures that climbed up were like… people, but they were thin and emaciated, all skin and bone. They were pale and hairless. And their fingers were long and ended in claws. Their faces were shrunken, revealing much of their skull; their teeth were sharp and pointed and their eyes were as black as night. And they emitted a foul, but familiar stench – death and decay.

How were these things even alive?

“DIE!” Olga held out her right hand and the set the air alight as she unleashed a massive plume of iridescent flames that burned all in its path. The monsters screamed as their nearly-skeletal forms were engulfed in Olga's fire. Burning, many of them jumped away and tumbled into the ground, where they were trampled to dust by the giant abomination. The others held on, but kept on screaming and screeching even as their pale skin flaked off and peeled away, revealing purple musculature. Olga, however, was unrelenting. She held out both hands to the left and to the right, and drowned the night in her flames.