The Last Ruler: The Return of the Goddess
The castile of ice

Accommodation after Altair's departure...

Geck... Geck... Geck..

" Mrs Mira, Mrs Mira! There's something emergency, please come out for a moment!."

Remilia who could not find where Altair had gone to Mira and Yi's room to tell him that, she had even knocked on her door nonstop since then.

Shortly thereafter, the door opened...

Chequek...

And Mira went out with Yi behind her, they looked confused because Remilia had been pounding on the door ever since.

" Remilia, what's wrong??" ask Mira to him.

" Mrs Mira, Altair... Altair was not in the room." said Remilia also chimed in, he was really very worried about the current state of Altair.

While Mira and Yi were surprised by that..

" What do you mean missing? Isn't he with you??" ask Yi later.

" I don't know, we were together in our sleep. But when I woke up from the cold, he was gone. And the window of the room was wide open." explained Remilia.

There was no way the window would just open, and if someone sneaked in there would be no trace there. Then his conclusion was there was only one, Altair went by itself.

For Mira it makes sense, since hearing the story Altair is indeed interested in the mountains. And thought he was going there...

" He must be fine, Altair went to the mountains together with Zico.." Mira was sure of that.

That does sound reassuring, considering that as a teacher, Mira is the one who knows Altair the most among them. Even so, Remilia was still worried if something happened to Altair there.

" Is it okay? He could've been hurt."

" Don't worry, Remilia. He'll be right back, I'm sure."

Remilia simply nodded her head in response, her worries not lessening, even so she wanted to believe that it won out right.

***

Meanwhile Altair, he had been in a storm for quite some time. Until finally... It reached an open area, about 200 meters from the mountain. Strangely, there was no storm at all.

He looked around and back, the storm surrounded this mountain, and in the mountains itself the snow fell not too heavy. That's like... There is a special barrier that surrounds this mountain. Ah no, the storm is a barrier for those who want to enter this place. Altair then bows his head down, there are some black objects that freeze right on the road that he and Zico pass now. It was Atar.

As Mira said, they were all frozen in the middle of the storm that was blocking them.

Altair looked at the mountain carefully, there was only a snow cover in that place. Everything was very white and also gloomy. Hour... Altair saw huge ice sparkling in that place, or rather.. Ice castle.

" What is this? Why is there an ice cube in this place??" Altair held her chin thinking about that.

[" Don't think about it, go inside and grab him.."]

Groarrs...

Altair's daydreams were spoiled when Zico roared loudly, telling Altair that something had appeared in the castle, as they approached him.

" What? What are you looking at, Zico??" Altair lowered his body and stared where Zico was looking.

What he saw in the castle was... Snow walk? No, it's a snow monster! And they pelted them with chunks of ice and giant snowballs.

" Zico, dodge!"

Zico did that, he flew agilely in the air. Dodging every attack that the snow monster made to them, Zico even threw fireballs at the monsters several times.

Unfortunately, that's not enough.

Although some monsters were hit by the attack, others came over more and attacked them in unison. And at that moment, one of the ice thrown by the monster shot up Zico's right wing.

Krooa..!!

" Oh!!."

The dragon fell from the sky after losing its balance, of course along with the Altair on its back. They swooped sharply and uncontrollably, with Altair trying hard to hold on while holding onto his scales.

And finally, they fell smashing into the snow-filled ground...

Brugh...

Because of that too, Altair is knocked down and his grip on Zico is released. It fell not far from Zico.

Altair tried to wake up amid the pain and cold that hit his skin, he usually would not be that cold but why suddenly the atmosphere became so cold. Altair could almost feel his fingers freeze.

But besides that, he was more concerned about other things...

" zico! You okay, Zico??"

He immediately stood up and ran towards Zico who was lying on the snow.

" Summer..."

Hurrs.. Hurrs.. Hurrs...

His breath was wheezing, it was not because of the injuries he had experienced. But because of the cold that suddenly increased in this place.

Altair did not believe this, even a dragon that was at the top of the ecosystem pyramid as a being that ruled everything, until like this was only because of this snow and cold air. His wings were frozen in ice.

Tears then fell from his eyes, Altair was sad to see Zico become like this. " I'm sorry Zico... I'm forcing you too much." he said beside rubbing and hugging Zico's head.

Besides, Altair also saw something... More precisely someone, when they fell earlier. He was inside that ice castle, staring at it sharply and emitting the same cold aura as this ice and snow.

Remembering that made Altair's forehead shrivel in annoyance.

" He who made my Zico like this, I will repay him..."

***

- At the inn.

It's been about 3-4 hours since Altair went out to check the mountains, no sign of him coming back. Because of this, Yi and Remilia finally decided to wake up the men who did not know about this.

So now, they all gathered by using the inn's living room as a waiting room.

" Don't this take too long? He might get lost in a storm like this." said Aksa who first raised his voice there.

But Israhi who heard that sighed, "You forgot who we were talking about? People who can do instant teleportation and people who can create dimensional portals" he reminded.

" uh..."

In view of how Aksa reacted when he heard that, like his he just remembered.

How could he forget when it happened just a few days ago, and they were together all this time.

Then everyone's attention was turned to the open space portal on the wall...

A cold wind and snow rushed into the room abruptly. And a moment later, Altair came out from there and directly leaned against the wall next to him as his body staggered... Duk!

The portal disappeared without a trace. While Altair is filled with ice flowers all over his body, it looks like he is hugging something in his hand.

" Altaire! What's up..??" Remilia who saw that asked in alarm and surprise.

Not just him. The other people are the same. They immediately swarmed over to him, as Mira then touched both of her cold cheeks.

" Good God, what's going on? Altair, can you hear me??"

Then Altair held Mira's hand on her cheek and smiled, "I'm fine, teacher. I fell on the snow" he said calmly.

" How can you say that when your body is filled with ice??" derrick chimed in, wrapping Altair's body in a thick, warm blanket.

And Mira's trying to channel heat energy into Altair's body that feels like chunks of ice.

" But I'm really fine, even though I'm not cold" Altair said later.

" What do you mean?"

" It seems like Lumine's power is still active even though she is healing herself. I don't freeze even though I freeze, and I don't get hot in the middle of the fire. That's what I mean."

" So you mean you can't feel hot and cold because of Lumine??" Israhi asked after hearing that.

Altair nodded his head hesitantly, he thought it was good and profitable because it meant that the enemy's attack would not affect him. Although it was actually not just because of Lumine, as the more Altair got used to such an attack it would indeed not be able to affect him anymore. Unfortunately, that was not what Israhi and Derrick thought...

Judging from how grim their current reactions were.

Altair panicked about it, "Let's talk about it next time, there's something more important to me!" he said, as he extended his hand toward Yi.

Zico with his small version was on his hands at this moment, and Yi who saw it was flabbergasted in disbelief. Then Altair said..

" Please help dilute Zico's wings, Yi."