The following days and nights flew by as I crafted Teya's new form - a massive, dog-like body that stood as tall as a Jotun. The frame was made of sturdy wood, covered in thick leather to make it watertight. I fitted it with another large seat to house her human form, ensuring she could maintain control over this new body. Basically, all Teya had to do was climb onto the dog’s back and strap herself in and then she turned from a mere armored human into a canine tank.

As I worked, I couldn't help but grin at the absolute absurdity of what I was creating.

"I'm going to call this monster, 'tank doggo'," I told Teya and Stormy, who watched my progress with evident curiosity.

Once the basic structure was complete, I covered the entire body in layers of iron plates, creating a formidable armored shell. I added water channels throughout the body, similar to her humanoid form, allowing her to control every part of it with precision.

The moment the dog was filled with running river water and when Teya's human-shaped body climbed atop it and clipped the belt closed, the connection was made and the massive body came to life. Teya took her first steps as a giant, armored canine, her movements initially clumsy but slowly growing more confident.

I watched in awe as she tested her new form, plowing through dead trees with her massive paws. When she stood in the river, water blades spun around her body, slicing through anything that came too close. It was a sight to behold - part machine, part magic, all power.

"How does it feel?" I asked, grinning as Teya bounded around, leaving deep impressions in the snowy earth.

"Aaammmaaaarr-ssiiiinnn-grrr!" Stormy translated, her little face scrunched up with the effort of conveying Teya's enthusiasm.

While Teya acclimated to her new form, bouncing around the remnants of Svalbard and sending piles of rubble and branches flying in her wake, I turned my attention to improving my own protection. I began work on a new set of armor for myself.

The new set of armor I designed in the smithy was multi-layered and incredibly thick. The innermost layer contained my witchy crystals, ensuring I maintained my connection to my domain. Patchwork of Zemy’s banners sat atop of the crystals.

Over the cloth, I layered witchglass bone-plates, their magical properties adding an extra level of defense.

The next layer was made of Ferronite - iron reinforced by a remote produced from gem 62. When gem 62 was cranked to its maximum, the Ferronite it produced was truly tough, blocking radiance of dragonglass.

Finally, I covered the entire armor in a layer of resin mixed with powdered dragonglass. This, I hoped, would offer some protection against Charisma allure attacks and void-based orders.

As I worked on the final touches of my armor, I glanced over at Teya, who was still romping around in her new form. Despite the seriousness of our situation and the challenges that lay ahead, I couldn't help but smile. There was something undeniably joyful about watching a millennia-old river spirit discover the simple pleasure of being a pupper - even if that pupper was the size of a small house and covered in iron plating.

"We make quite the pair, don't we?" I called out to Teya as she trodded over to me, making the earth under her shudder. "I bet that Uncle George won't know what hit 'er!”

“Rrrr-rawr,” Stormy commented dryly from my shoulder.

I gave the kitten a pet.

As the iron doggo accelerated and spun past me, Teya’s human-shaped body sitting atop it drew back her massive hunter’s bow and let an oversized Ferronite arrow fly, the air thrumming in its wake. The arrow struck a distant pine, cleaving it in half with a boom.

I whistled.

“Gr-oo-dddd?” Stormy asked for the river spirit as Teya snapped the belt open and jumped off the dog, landing beside me.

“Pretty good,” I grinned. “Just wait till I teach you how to use guns.”

----------------------------------------

-=[Yaga Grandhilda]=-

I stood at the edge of my green glade, the sequoias, cedars and pines whispering behind me.

I gazed out into the vast expanse of the Astral Ocean ahead. The deep Underside in front of me was filled with countless violet stars, their light pulsing gently in the ethereal darkness, reaching out to me, endless Endalaus looming above it all.

This was the edge of the neath, the place of meetings and something had called out my name across infinity, asking for a conversation.

I accepted the pulsing dark thread with one of my own emerald feathers, stretching one of my wings above myself towards the inky-black void.

As I watched the shimmering rings of Endalaus, a figure began to materialize before me, as if grown into existence like the roots of a rapidly blooming tree.

The figure that manifested in front of me was that of a perfect, beautiful twenty-some-year-old girl. Her skin was pale and dotted with delicate freckles, eyes green and sharp, her hair a cascade of lush, flowing red locks. She wore a sparkly, fanciful dress woven from black and gold dragon scales.

I knew her well. This was my sister, the other apprentice trained by Yaga Baga, the Gygr of Chernobog.

The perfect visage of Chrizantia was merely a projection, a memory of what she once was, a pinprick of light and reason in a vast shawl of darkness and madness. Behind this facade of youth and slender beauty lay a monstrous shadow, twisted by dark, selfish blood magic. This was the being that now led an army of inverted abominations, assaulted my glade and unmade countless witches and heroes for personal gain.

"Sister," I said. "It's been a long time."

Chrizantia smiled. "Indeed it has, sister. I see this century has been kinder to me than it has to you."

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

I snorted. "Spare me your appraisal, Christi. Why have you sought me out in the Astral?"

The Gygr's smile faded, replaced by another expression. It seemed like she was worried. It was odd to see the usually pretentious Chrizantia Malekai look so concerned.

"Something is amiss, sister," she said then.

“Oh?” I arched an eyebrow.

"We are two sides of the same coin, you and I," Chrizantia smiled genially. "Light and darkness, creation and destruction, the bog and the forest. Together, we maintain a delicate equilibrium. But now... something is tipping the scales, stirring in the wind, making the spirits scatter.”

“What makes you think that?” I asked.

Chrizantia's perfect brow furrowed. "My champion has fallen, failed on his quest."

“Which one?” I probed.

“The Immovable hero,” Chrizantia replied.

“Meaning what?” I asked.

"That's what I've come to discuss," Chrizantia replied. "Something new has entered our world, sister. Something that doesn't play by the rules we've established over millennia."

I thought of the thread I had wove, of the witch I created, of the stubborn boy with a cat on his shoulder.

“The rules?” I asked. “I believe it is you who keeps trying to bend the rules of nature by colluding with the void.”

“The void is just a means to an end, sister,” Chrizantia shook her head. “You know as well as I do what will come for us.”

“Quit waving the inevitable threat of our demise over me and tell me what it is that got your roots in a twist, sister.” I said.

Chrizantia's eyes narrowed. "You know something, don't you? What have you done, Hilda?"

I met her gaze steadily. "I've done what was necessary to preserve balance in my own way. Just as you have."

"My champion was felled by something that you’ve made,” Chrizantia growled. “A new kind of an abomination.”

“Champions unmake each other all the time, what’s the problem with that?” I asked. “Did I happen to upset your carefully laid plans, perchance?”

Chrizantia's slender face twisted in anger as she gritted her pearly white teeth.

I sighed, shaking my head. "Christi, you've always been afraid of accepting the inevitable. Growth, aging, death, rebirth - you rail against them instead of embracing them as part of the natural cycle."

Chrizantia's emerald eyes flashed dangerously. "And you've always been too complacent, sister. Too willing to sit back and let the world crumble around us."

"The world isn't crumbling," I retorted. "It's changing, as it always has and always will. Your fear of change, your desperate grasping for control - that's what's truly destructive."

"Glinka was supposed to be mine!" Chrizantia hissed, her perfect facade cracking for just a moment to reveal the inverted monster beneath. "I had plans for her, plans to use her power against the encroaching ice. Plans to save you, you old coot! Plans to save what's left of humanity!”

I couldn't help but laugh bitterly. "And there it is. You speak of balance, of the greater good, but in the end, it's all about what you want, what you can use."

"You don't understand," Chrizantia insisted. "The glaciers will come, sister. They'll swallow everything we've built, everything we are.”

“Then that is to be our fate,” I shrugged. “We’ve lived long enough, perhaps it is time for a new generation of witches to try something else.”

“The Song of the Wormwood Star spreads its corrupting influence from the South,” Christi added. “If they succeed, there will be no more new Champions and no new Witches, no more Nordstaii. Just the Arcanicx abominations and their bound, mindless thralls. Only we can preserve the Nordstaii way!”

“In the void?” I arched an eyebrow.

“If that’s what it takes!” Chrizantia snarled. "Things folded into the void can be unfolded when it is time! I will walk the earth someday as I look now when I attain victory and the Nordstaii will worship me as their savior Goddess!"

"In your quest for power, you've lost sight of what we're meant to protect,” I chided her.

Chrizantia's form flickered, her anger causing void ripples in the Astral sea. "You're a fool, Hilda. A sentimental old fool who will watch the land of the Nordstaii be engulfed with ice rather than take action."

“I took action,” I said. “I made something new, something that you did not expect.”

“An un-champion, un-witch abomination,” Christi barked. “You’ve made a Stillwalker!”

“Is that what you’re calling him now?” I asked.

“He makes no waves in the Astral, radiates no magic for my spirits to latch onto,” Christi’s fists opened and closed. “Like a piece of driftwood simply floating there, a monstrous mechanism hidden in its wake, waiting to unfold, to unmake all.”

I pursed my lips.

“He is dangerous. Unpredictable,” Christi insisted. “Wrong.”

'Less wrong than you', I thought.

“You prod a bee hive and then you cry because you got stung?” I asked. “Had you simply left my apprentice alone none of this would have happened. You chose to send your Jotuns after him. You chose to send a Champion to hunt him down. Even now you’re choosing selfish things for selfish reasons.”

“I need Glinka!” Christi yelled. “The river spirit belongs to me!”

“By what right?” I asked.

“She is the creation of the Nordstaii people the manifestation of their desires and blood!” The Gygr shouted. “She…”

"Christi, the river is not a possession to be claimed. She has her own will, her own destiny, her own desires,” I interrupted her. “She is far older than the Nordstaii.”

"You don't understand the gravity of what's at stake!" Chrizantia bawled, sparks of tears forming on the edges of her eyes. “You never have! Why do I even bother?!”

"I understand more than you think," I replied, putting on a calm facade. “We must trust in the natural order, in the balance that sustains us all.”

"The natural order?" Chrizantia scoffed. "The natural order leads to our untimely end. I simply seek to transcend it, to save us all!”

"At what cost?" I asked softly. "How many more must die for your plans? How many more villages of the Nordstaii must fall to satisfy your grand ambitions?”

Chrizantia's eyes flashed dangerously. "Whatever the cost, it will be worth it in the end. You'll see, sister. You'll all see."

I sighed simply. “What is your next move then?”

"You've left me no choice," Chrizantia said, her voice cold and hard. "I will hunt your Stillwalker down with all of my champions. The wish-granting river will be mine one way or another.”

“I don’t foresee good things in your future if you keep moving down this path, sister,” I said simply.

“I make my own future, sister," the Gygr snapped back. "And when I win, when I save everyone, you will accept that I have always been right and I will accept your apology with grace!"

Her face askew with anger she stepped back into the void, dissolving, sinking away into tendrils of shadows, once more lost amidst violet endless stars.

As I stood there, alone once more at the edge of my glade, I couldn't help but feel pride with a pitch of worry. Ioan, my most unexpected creation, was out there changing the world in ways even I couldn't have predicted. And now, he had drawn the ire of one of the most dangerous beings in our world.

I turned back to my glade, my mind already racing with plans. I had work to do, preparations to make. The game had changed, and the stakes were higher than ever.

As I walked back into the comforting embrace of my domain, I couldn't help but wonder what Ioan was doing at that very moment. Was he ready for what was coming? Would his cleverness overcome the Legion of the void? Only time would tell.