Wandering inside the cave the first day had not been too bad, but another day of the same was crushing them all internally. 'At least, Erika can conjure water or else we'd be worse off by now.'
At one point Helga had offered to tear her hand for a meal when one of them complained, but not wanting to resort to cannibalism, they decided to just keep their mouth shut. Left to contemplate things on their own, everyone had taken up a corner except Mel who was watching over Amedith.
Looking right in their direction, Raven was reminded of what he'd been told about his behavior that led to him being knocked unconscious. To him, it felt bizarre, especially in the circumstances that they were in.
'Why did the goddess choose him?' Glancing around, Raven heaved a tired sigh before laying down completely. 'Hell, why did she choose us at all? Helga can easily take us on all by herself, and from what I've heard she's not the only survivor from the wars against the demon lord.'
Musing over the question, he felt his eyelids flickering with dreams. Slowly sinking deeper and deeper into a drowsy state, it didn't take him long to fall asleep. A dream, more vivid than reality unfolded inside his subconscious mind. Fluttering through the air, he could hear giggles and laughs as if he were flying alongside a council of pixies.
His dream, however, was cut short as shaking his body, Aria forced him to be awake. Through dreamy eyes, he tried to get up and ask her what was happening, but covering Raven's mouth, Aria shushed instantly. Glancing back over her shoulder, she drew Raven's attention to the others sneakily glancing around the corners.
Waking up from the sudden coldness under his body, Raven picked himself up while his eyes were still a bit blurry, he looked around at the others getting up as well. Finally, as his vision returned, he realized that their surroundings had changed. Instead of mossy rocks, the ground was made of pure blue ice that gave off an ethereal light.
"Where are we?" He asked while the others looked around as well.
But then the sound of echoing claps turned their attention up high, high onto a step of stairs made of ice that appeared beside them out of nowhere. Crowned with a snowflake pattern a throne rested at the very end of the steps, and atop it sat a pale blue-skinned woman whose oceanic dress stretched down until the last step.
"Been a while since I've had guests," with the woman's sapphire lips opening up, the world around Raven and the others quickly began to shift.
The walls turned to throbbing flesh of a deep blue hue, and eyes slit open inside them. Moving about all over, the countless crimson-veined eyes glared down at the whole party.
"A keeper?" Helga being the most experienced was the first to realize what was happening.
Looking into the woman's clear eyes, she summoned a spear in both hands–ready to fight at a moment's notice. But before making any harsh moves, she wanted to at least glance her over and figure out what kind of creature she truly was.
Her body was no different than a slender human girl, but the pale blue skin reminded her of the queen. The arrogance in her voice carried the same flame as well, but breathing chilling clouds out of her skin, she was far from a regular human.
"So shall we do this? Since you've intruded on my territory already you must know what happens next, right?" As she stretched her hand forward, the eyes on the walls grew further in number. Pulsing like a real vein the blood in their eyes grew even thicker. Rampantly moving about, the entire place was flooded with squeamish sounds as if someone was popping a thousand pimples at once.
"GET READY TO FIGHT!" Giving her trainees just one last look, she took a long deep breath. "CONSIDER THIS GRADUATION IF YOU CAN KILL THIS BITCH!"
Though tensed by the changes in their surroundings, under the leadership of Helga, they felt more confident than usual, even if their opponent was supposed to be the strongest horror they'd faced so far.
Clutching their weapons, preparing their magic, and holding up their shields, everyone in the group was ready for what was about to happen. Even letting out Mino so she could help with her spirit mage abilities, Raven was even somewhat looking forward to the challenge. And right as everyone was ready, the smiling horror on the throne above opened up magic circles beneath their feet.
"Run!" Helga commanded, her voice both stern yet not as tense as everyone had expected it to be.
Bolting away from the circle by jumping, the entire party barely missed being impaled by massive pillars of ice shooting out of the ground. Not letting them rest, however, the eyes began to shoot out a surge of blue light that froze everything that it touched.
Dodging the beams with their guileful movement both Raven and Mel managed to easily escape them, while Amedith and Aria relied on magic shields from Erika.
Summoning his light swords behind him, Amedith shot through the eyes to thin out the beams. And while he took care of culling the herd, Aria split into the clones and started taking the eyes out as well. However, unlike Amedith who was only attacking from afar, her fists were frozen the moment she beat the first eye into a bloody pulp.
'Activate you damned glove!' But activating its abilities, the gauntlet on her hands sucked more of her blood and removed the frozen status effect from her hands.
With the three busy with the eyes, the only one left was the keeper herself. Leading the charge towards the monster, Helga screamed at the top of her lungs with Raven, Mel, and Mino charging alongside her.
"Good riddance!" Screamed the Valkyrie jumping in the air for a strike that she could surely end the horror right then and there.
But the moment she landed on the ground with the spears both stabbing through the floor, she noticed that the woman was gone.
'What?!' Shocked by the sudden disappearance, she quickly looked around but couldn't find her. All that was left was the excessively long oceanic dress. But then out of nowhere, her laughs echoed all around them.
'It's never that way is it?' She thought, and like most times in battle, she was right.