The room started to tremble as the five ice pillars started glowing red with the eyes. In the center of each pillar was a small red bead that flew out of the ice and started revolving around the skull. With each revolution around the skull, the beads would grow in size until they were the same size as a man's torso. Once they were all at that size, the beads stopped in the air, and small cracks began to form around them.
"What do you think they are?" Cidre asked as larger cracks began forming, causing the group to run towards the pillars for cover.
"I'm not sure, but we should be ready to fight whatever comes out," Sydra says as he peeks out from behind the pillar he is hiding behind. The cracks have stopped forming on the red beads, and the room has become silent.
'Click' The five beads resound together as they fall apart, showing the group what was hidden within them. Now floating in the air are five sets of bones, one torso, and four limbs. Each bone is humongous, with multiple red spikes sticking out of the arms and shoulders. Before the group can move, the ice pillars they are hiding behind shatter, and the shards of ice fly to the bones.
"We should get out of here," Erich says as he turns to the tunnel, only to find it blocked off by a large chunk of ice. Sighing, Erich turns back around and watches as the ice shards swirl around the bones, slowly connecting to them. As the bones collect the shards, they also begin moving towards the skull, slowly creating the rest of the body.
"That's terrifying," Cidre says as the ice becomes one with the bones, and the body fully forms. The red eyes are still glowing, but it doesn't seem like they are alive yet. "Should we attack it now, before it finishes forming?"
"No, let's wait and see if it is hostile," Sydra says as the creature's feet land on the ground, and life seems to enter its eyes. As the red light flickers away, the humanoid creature yawns and stretches. When the icy color of its skin fades away, and a pair of clothes form from the leftover ice, the group is surprised. The man is wearing a blue coat that covers his torso, but it also has holes in the arms and shoulder where the man's red spikes poke out from. Behind the coat is a white cloak that wraps around his shoulders, and he is also wearing light blue pants, that stop at a pair of brown boots. Strapped to the man's back is a large blue and white sword, that is giving off an extremely icy aura.
"Ahh, I'm finally awake again. Now then, who woke me up?" the man asks as he looks around the room, and spots Sydra and the others standing there awkwardly. "Ah, so it must have been you four. My name is Jason, thanks for waking me up, but I don't seem to recognize you. Could you tell me your names, and why you woke me?" Jason asks as the group slowly nods.
"Um, My name is Sydra, and we didn't mean to wake you. I had found a crystal eye a while ago, and when we came here it entered your skull, waking you in the process," Sydra says as Jason frowns, before looking back at the pedestal where his skull had been laying.
"I see, so how did you come to enter my home? I can tell we're still moving, so you must have flown here, right?" Jason asks as he bends down and places his hand on the floor, releasing an icy aura. As the aura travels around the room things made from ice start appearing. The first thing is a throne that Jason sits down on, then a few couches and chairs appear around the room for the group to sit down as well.
"We did fly here, as we planned on taking down the Emporer rank eel before it destroyed our ship. We already took down a lot of its smaller buddies, and this was the last one. We were unaware of you, and we didn't expect anyone to be living here," Sydra says as he sits on a chair that is close to Jason's throne. Surprisingly, the seat of the chair isn't cold and is also quite soft to the touch. 'Can he control ice like Louis could control crystal?" Sydra wonders as he feels the cushion underneath him change to fit the form of his rear. To have the ability to change the properties of something was quite rare, such as Louis being able to give life to crystal objects, or Jason being able to create ice that is squishy to the touch.
"I see, but that's odd, Fluffers is usually not aggressive. Please, hold on a second," Jason says as he stands up from his throne and talks to the middle of the room. Placing his hand on the skull causes a flash of light to appear before Jason slowly raises his hand with a circle part of the skull rasing with it. Beneath the raised part of the skull is a mostly blue sphere, but there is a yellow rune on the top of it. "Hmm... That's not good, it seems that someone has meddled with the control sphere of Fluffers. But it is an easy fix for me," Jason says as he places his hand on the rune, slowly rubbing it off. After a few seconds, the rune fades away and the group feels the air around them start to lighten.
"What did you do?" Erich asks as Jason lowers the part of the skull, and heads back to his throne.
"I've simply erased the rune that was feeding a sense of hostility into Fluffers, causing it to become calm once more. Fluffers should no longer attack your ship, and we can talk in peace," Jason says as he looks around at the group. "Do you mind telling me how you obtained my eye? I believe the person who took it, is also the person who messed with Fluffers," Jason asks as he turns to look at Sydra.
"Sure, I found your crystal eye inside a white box that was stored underneath the seat of a boat. The boat was docked in a harbor connected to Seasun Island, but other than three ships there was not much else on the island. The settlement was empty, and it looked like people hadn't lived there for a long time," Sydra says as Jason leans forward, listening intently.
"Alright, I know the island you are speaking of, but I'm surprised no one is living there anymore. Before I went asleep, that island was constantly sending things back and forth over the seas. The people there were quite nice as well, so I don't think any of them would steal from me," Jason says as the group looks at him in confusion.
"Not to be rude, but who are you, and how did you come back to life after being separated into six pieces?" Robert asks as Jason turns to look at him.
"You're not being rude, I'd be happy to tell you. My full name is Jason Naslin, and I am an Ice Weaver born from a human woman and a male ice spirit. I received my human nature from my mother, and my ability to control ice at an incredible degree, as well as these red spikes, from my father. Sadly, my father left when I was young, and my mother raised me alone on the Icecreed Islands. That is where I met Fluffers and raised him to this size, as well as trained in the sword arts. When my mother passed away I set out with Fluffers to try and find my father to learn more about my ice powers, but I never found him. After years of searching, I became tired and decided to use one of my powers to seal myself away. It seems that sometime during my sleep someone came here and removed one of my eyes, only for you to return it to me. The return of my eye caused my sleep to be disturbed and I returned to find out why," Jason explains.
"Now that I am awake, I have decided to explore the world once more and see what has changed during the time of my slumber. But before I go, I would like to bestow you each a gift for waking me. During my travels, I amassed a large number of precious things, and I really have no use for most of them," Jason says as he places his palm flat down on the armrest of the throne and a part of the ice wall opens up. Looking through the opening in the wall, the group is amazed by the glittering treasures.
Standing up, Jason leads the others into the room and allows them to each pick one treasure that suits their fancy. Erich chooses a full set of light blue armor that changes its size to fit the wearer. The armor also gives extra protection against elemental damage and keeps the wearer cool in any weather. Robert decided on a large red gemstone that he can have a blacksmith place in the middle of his next war hammer, which will make it more powerful when he channels his fire aura through it. The red gemstone and the red crystals from the crystal castle will make his next war hammer incredibly powerful. Cidre looked around the room for a bit before deciding on a rare book that teaches one how to fight properly while flying. If he had learned the techniques taught in this book before the battle earlier, Cidre would have fared much better.
'What about you, do you see anything that suits your tastes?" Jason asks as he turns to Sydra, who has yet to choose anything. Shaking his head, Sydra walks around the room again, picking up items here and there.
'I wasn't able to receive any benefits from the battle earlier, because of how much in a hurry I was. That caused me to miss out on absorbing any of the eels auras when they died, so I'm hoping I can find something here that can make up for it,' Sydra thinks as he puts a pair of light blue boots down. Feeling at a loss, Sydra is about to go back and pick up the book on dagger tactics he had seen earlier when he senses something tugging on his tree's roots. Looking around, Sydra finds out that the tugging is coming from something underneath a shield. Picking up the shield, Sydra's eyes shine when he sees what was tugging on him.
"Now this is something that can make up for earlier," Sydra says as he reaches out his hand and picks up a dark container, that has light emitting from the edges.