Memories Of Ice

Atlas, Glinda and Syl arrived at Glacial Academy. The halls now sat empty, with all the Droids having left, including the Droid that had led them here. Glinda walked ahead of the others to her office.

"I have access to the Temple through my office, but the inner sanctum has been blocked off by rubble. Bryan thought he did it without me noticing, but I've slowly been working on a way to get through" Glinda explained as they neared her office.

"What did you come up with?" Syl asked.

"Wouldn't explosives work?" Atlas shrugged.

"No, explosives would likely lead to the Temple structure collapsing and the crystal being unreachable" Glinda replied.

"I mean, wouldn't that be preferable to Bryan taking control?" Syl asked.

"In the short term yes, in the long term, it would dampen the Crystal's power, causing the environment around Disceath to heat up" Glinda explained.

"What about teleporting in, like you did when you took us to the top of the Spire?" Syl pondered.

"I can't teleport into the temple, the air is too thick with Ice aether" Glinda shook her head as she opened the door to her office. The office had been torn apart, papers lay on the floor and the once hidden door to the temple had been blocked by a wall of thick ice.

"I think he found out about the secret passage" Atlas joked as he and Syl walked into the room. Glinda sighed as she walked over to the ice wall.

"I don't think I can get through this" Glinda said as she ran her hand down the cold ice wall.

"May I be of assistance?" A familiar voice asked, as a man in a tattered hood walked into the room. Glinda summoned a Celestial Sword of Pure Ice in a split second and had it to where the man's throat was.

"Hey! I'm here to help!" The man sighed as he pulled down his hood. "I'm Helios, Headmaster of the Imperial Academy, here on the authority of Empress Abyssia" Helios explained.

"You're not helping yourself, mate" Atlas shrugged.

"What business does the Empress of Aranei have in Disceath?" Glinda asked.

"She has announced the intent to reform the Council of the Academies, to help organize and unite Crystalla against the coming threat" Helios explained. "The Council will not be associated with the Empire in any way" He added.

"That's very nice, but we're trying to regain control of the Ice Crystal here" Syl shrugged.

"Allow me" Helios nodded as he approached the wall, he summoned his Celestial Morningstar, and smashed it against the ice, the ice slowly cracked before shattering, clearing the way ahead.

"Thank you, Helios" Glinda nodded, before running down the stairs to the temple.

"Glinda! Wait!" Atlas shouted as he ran after her, Helios and Syl followed. As they reached the bottom of the staircase, the way ahead was blocked with rubble. Glinda walked up to the boulders and placed her hands on them, the boulders slowly expanded before shattering into shards of ice, and the temple ahead was revealed.

"We're too late..." Atlas sighed as he saw into the Ice Temple. Bryan was in the machine, which was transferring the power from the Ice Crystal into him. Chrys Iryn was operating a console nearby.

Atlas walked into the room, with his Celestial Blade in his hand, he walked over to Chrys who backed away from the console.

"Please... don't kill me" Chrys begged, Atlas shrugged and walked over to the console.

"How do we stop this thing?" Atlas asked as he pointed the sword at Chrys. The others had approached the device that Bryan was strapped into.

"You can't, once the process has begun, it is too late" Chrys replied.

"It's never too late..." Atlas sighed. He ran toward Bryan, jumping over the pipes and cables that ran along the floor, the others back out of his way as he ran toward the machine. When Atlas reached Bryan, he plunged the Celestial Blade through Bryan's heart.

"Take that!" Atlas yelled. He was thrown across the room by a burst of energy, Bryan had sat up, his skin now encased in ice, Atlas' celestial weapon faded away as Bryan stood up. Chrys fled in fear, but as he neared the exit he was impaled by an ice spear.

Syl ran at Bryan, but before he could reach him, Bryan had jumped up through the ceiling.

"Damn it!" Syl shouted, Atlas stood up and ran over to Syl and looked up.

"What the hell was that?" Helios asked.

"That, was the new Ice Crystal..." Glinda sighed as she looked at the empty crystal shell that now sat in the middle of the temple.

"We best get out of here, before it floods" Syl said, remembering the fate of Pyre Academy.

"Wait... there's still a deposit of Ice aether in this Crystal" Helios said, as he pointed out a faint glow of Ice.

"That won't last..." Glinda sighed. She placed her hand on the Crystal and frowned, before turning to Atlas. "You are now the Headmaster of Glacial..." She said, raising her hand to Atlas, a small pulse of energy was shot into his heart.

Glinda faced the crystal and took a deep breath, moments later, the Ice energy that had been present in her body flooded into the Crystal, restoring a decent amount of Ice energy into the Crystal. Glinda fell to the floor, lifeless.

"Glinda, no!" Atlas shouted as he ran over to Glinda's body. Syl frowned as he looked up into the skies above Disceath.