Kosmos: The Witch

They had been traveling for three months now, and the temperature had been getting lower and lower. The boy, that Adriana named Sol, was constantly glued to either her or Morgana. He had a weird pattern, where he would randomly get pretty feral and stay with Morgana, and the rest of the time he would be very calm and well behaved, generally sticking to Adriana in that state. He was incapable of speech, and while Adriana was trying her best to teach him a few words, it was taking an excruciatingly long amount of time to even get him to repeat a word properly, like he was learning twice as slowly as the average child. After copious amounts of arguing, Adriana managed to convince Nova to at least get Sol a winter coat to replace his worn down rags. Nova just manifested winter clothes out of nowhere after pulling out a piece of paper and writing on it for a minute before it disappeared, to be replaced by the clothes. When asked about it by Morgana, she said:

- "Oh I just ordered child size winter gear on Amazon."

- "Amazon ?"

- "It's a company in Eretria that specializes in Teleportation magic, the paper I used is what you write your detailed order on, and they will deliver it instantly to you if they have it in stock ! For the name, it's just because the woman that founded it hailed from Themiskyra, the land of the Amazons. She was probably feeling a bit patriotic."

- "Teleportation magic ? Is it free ?"

- "It lets you instantly displace things, requiring more magical energy the more magical energy the thing you're trying to transport has. Also no, it's not free, I just paid two gold drachmas. I was the one who decided not to cancel the trip, so that's the least I can do !"

It quickly started to snow, and soon enough they found themselves traveling through a snowy mountain range. They were attacked by a few creatures along the way, the most recurring ones being strange mountain bears with white fur and ice crystals protruding from their skin. They were relatively easy to kill, as the group itself was a powerhouse, but the cold was wearing them down very quickly. The only person that managed to stay warm was Adriana thanks to her permanently active sun, and for some time she tried spreading her warmth to the rest of the group, but she couldn't do it for long periods of time or she'd lose focus and rapidly start to actually burn them. During this entire time, she was holding Sol in her arms, letting him benefit from the heat of her sun. Theo was, by far, doing the worst, as he was seemingly unable to use pure fire magic for anything other than party tricks. All he could do was create large glass structures to shield everyone from the wind while they were resting or moving through flatter areas, but maintaining them into existence was very hard on his magical energy, causing him to constantly be exhausted. Sophia seemed to be relatively fine, her tattoos producing heat around her body and keeping her warm enough. While Theo was struggling with his magic, Morgana was struggling with her constitution. She quickly discovered that she really, really hated the cold, and Nova explained to her that fire dragons usually are a lot more sensitive to low temperatures than other species. Therefore, she was constantly maintaining a fully fledged aura of flames around her to keep herself warm, but just like Theo's spells, this caused her to always be on the brink of passing out due to overuse of magical energy. It was still better than Magnus, who's aura of flames was flickering on and off, and who needed to constantly be healed by Nova due to the burns of various degrees he was accumulating over time. Finally, Cassandra was doing completely fine, in fact she was handling the cold even better than Adriana did by maintaining an aura of constant heat around her. However, she kept running out of magical energy long before the end of the day, requiring her to take very frequent breaks and go through the humiliating process of walking between Morgana and Magnus to survive off their heat. All of these factors, besides Adriana and Sophia's performances, slowed the group down considerably and made them more prone to attacks from monsters like the ice bears since they were more easily noticeable, and looked like easier prey due to their speed. One day, Sophia got ambushed and abducted by some kind of giant white owl while she was meditating on a rock as part of her usual personal training routine. Adriana flew after her, leaving Sol to Morgana, and Morgana used her flaming bow to assist from a distance. Eventually, the owl was taken down, but Sophia fell on the side of the mountain and broke her leg as she managed to orient her fall towards a rock protruding from said mountain. It was pretty loose after the impact, so this started a fifteen hour long rescue operation to get her back up. After all of this, they finally got past the massive mountain range, and were faced with a snowy landscape extending to the horizon, with snow covered forests, frozen lakes, tall glaciers and a few hills and mountains sprinkled across the land. No sign of civilization, not even paths left by travelers, were visible in front of them.

- "Welcome to hell on earth !" Nova exclaims, her voice echoing through the mountains and being carried by the winds.

They begin their descent from the mountain range they were on, and as they get closer to the river they were originally following at the bottom, whose surface is frozen from this point forward, Cassandra speaks up in a trembling voice.

- "...Guys is it me or is it getting colder ?"

At first everyone thinks she's crazy besides one person, who could feel even the slightest temperature changes.

- "Yes, it is. I despise the cold." Morgana replies.

The further down they went, the more noticeable it became. When they finally make it to the foot of the mountain, everyone is literally freezing in place, even Adriana who ends up increasing the heat of her personal sun to keep herself and Sol warm.

- "I'm gonna die !" Magnus laughs as his flames consume him.

- "Huh ? Magnus hold on, don't die on me !" Cassandra yells as she adjusts the temperature of his aura of fire, stopping his burning but rapidly depleting her magical energy.

- "This cannot be the end of me…" Theo says as he falls forward, one knee on the ground, frost forming all over his body.

- "Theo ?!" Cassandra screams.

- "I wonder if…" Morgana closes her eyes, and her skin catches on fire as she stops trying to control her natural flames. "Never mind, it's making it worse. I am even colder now." she comments as she falls backwards and lands in the snow, extinguishing her fire. "The fire is a part of my body. If it loses heat, I lose heat. I'm sorry, everyone…"

- "Morgana ?!!" Cassandra continues.

- "I can handle it." Sophia says.

- "Ah, at least you're fine Soph-" Cassandra stops as she notices Sophia is standing completely still. Unnaturally still. "You're just trying to tough it out ! We're screwed !!"

- "What do we do ?!" Adriana panics.

- "Turn up the heat to max ! I don't care if it burns them, they can recover from that at least !"

- "Alright !"

They slowly start regaining the ability to move as Adriana's sun shines brighter, searing the area. The snow melts around them, and the sensation of cold is rapidly replaced by an unbearable heat for everyone besides Adriana herself, Morgana and Sol. Cassandra, now sweating bullets, yells out to Adriana:

- "Try to control your power !"

- "I can't really !" Adriana responds.

- "Picture your magic as a napkin around you, then make more or less large holes in the napkin without tearing it in half !"

- "I'll try !" Adriana focuses, closing her eyes for a moment. She reopens them after ten seconds, and nothing happens. "Sorry, it just doesn't make sense to me !"

- "Damn it all ! Don't resist !" Cassandra raises her right hand towards Adriana's sun, and starts fiddling with the temperature emitted by it in the entire area. A few seconds pass, and the heat becomes a lot more bearable for everyone.

- "Woah Cassandra you really can do anything." Adriana comments.

- "I owe you my life." Theo adds as he gets up.

- "I'll personally cook your dinner for a week after we get back !" Magnus says as his aura of flames goes out.

- "The result of training and discipline. I am not surprised." Sophia adds.

- "Appreciate the compliments, but I'm not keeping this up for more than an hour. Get your shit together before that !" Cassandra answers.

Thanks to that, they get about an hour of respite while Cassandra is fighting for her life trying to control Adriana's monstrous output with her feeble amounts of magical energy. Meanwhile, Theo creates a miniature castle of glass around them using his glass orbs, with multiple, closed off rooms and a few windows that let in some cold wind.

- "What are you doing ?" Adriana asks. "It looks pretty."

- "Thank you. I can control the circulation of heat inside my glass, which is how I weakened Magnus and Sophia during the arena incident. I just was continuously expelling heat towards the outside, causing the glass to grow colder and to absorb the heat produced by their flames on the inside. I've never tried actually retaining heat inside my glass, so I figured I could try while Cassandra is controlling yours to keep all of us warm and allow her to rest after she completely depletes her supply of magical energy. My only limit is that I can't absorb too much heat, or my glass will melt and I won't be able to control it properly anymore."

- "Oh, that's really nice. You hear that Cassandra ? You'll be able to take a break without everyone dying !"

- "Great." Cassandra immediately stops focusing, and falls on the floor, completely limp.

- "Ah." Adriana's heat starts violently searing everything again, and most people inside the glass castle lose balance due to the sudden temperature change. The glass rapidly starts to melt, and Adriana quickly lowers the temperature of her personal sun to its usual level.

After that, Theo closes his eyes and one of the closed off rooms opens, letting in a stream of warmer air and maintaining a cold but bearable temperature across the entire structure.

- "I cannot move it, but I can maintain this castle indefinitely at the price of my glass spheres, which I won't be able to use as long as it is standing. The heat should last us for about a day if I do not fail to control it properly." Theo says, seemingly focused.

- "What do these glass orbs do anyways, besides letting people know that you use that magic ?" Cassandra asks.

- "They are actually made of real glass, that I magically compressed into this form. Each of them weighs around two hundred kilograms. I can create glass with my magic, but that glass, like any other magically created objects, will eventually disappear. However, the glass in these orbs, while limited, is permanent and allows me to create lasting constructs, like this shelter. They also double as weak magic focuses, letting me create longer lasting magical glass constructs if I mix in a little bit of their glass in my spell when casting it."

- "I understand how it works. Granted, that way of using magic is only a luxury available for those blessed with enough magical energy."

- "I apologize if-"

- "It's fine !" Cassandra cuts. "I could feel it in the mountains already, I can already maintain my field of heat slightly longer than I could before. I'm sure if I practice more in this place, I'll eventually be able to go for an entire day !"

- "Oh." Theo seems surprised. "I am glad to see your morale is high."

- "You bet it is ! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna snooze for a bit." Cassandra painstakingly takes out her sleeping bag from her backpack and lays it on the now rocky floor before sliding in it and starting to snore loudly.

Date: April 30th Location: Hyperborean Territory

Nova came down from the sky for the day's lecture about magic theory, and she finds all of her students inside the glass castle, huddled up around a fire on top of which Magnus was cooking the remainder of the bear meat they had stored up.

- "Good morning class ! I see you're doing well, that's a nice place !"

- "Doing well ?" Cassandra starts maniacally giggling, staring at Nova. "Doing well !" She repeats, louder.

- "Sorry Cassandra's going insane !" Magnus says as he takes one of the bear steaks and stuffs it in her mouth to prevent the incoming deranged rant she was about to spiral into.

Sophia was meditating in the corner of the room, and she opens one of her eyes upon hearing the commotion.

- "Oh it's miss Nova. Are we still holding lectures in these conditions ?"

- "You bet we are ! These are the best conditions for learning, since your life is on the line if you don't pay attention !" Nova answers.

- "When can we go back ?..." Morgana asks. She usually had a murderous look in her eyes by default, but she was emitting a downright sinister aura now.

- "You don't look so hot !" Nova replies.

- "The cold makes me want to kill."

- "That's a good segway into the tip I wanted to give you for the day. Most of the fauna here is pretty smart and will run away from large groups or massive sources of heat. So if you want to hunt, you should probably gather up a hunting party of two or three people and leave everyone else at the camp ! Especially since frost dragons would probably attack you if you were in a large group, and you don't want to mess with these guys. They're more likely to attack if you're transporting food too. Plus, your camp might be attacked by random monsters looking for an easy meal, so you'll need some people to make sure you keep your stuff ! I'm speaking from experience, my grandpa trained me here and I constantly got my lunch stolen by frost wyverns or dragons."

- "Okay. I want to leave."

- "Too bad, you can't ! You guys need to head further north to find one of those giant ice trees, and bring back some of their ice if you want to graduate from your first year !"

- "What ? That's new, I thought it was just for training."

- "I had something else in mind for you guys to graduate just in case this place was too much for you, but you guys are doing fine so I'm going with plan A !"

- "You're talking about boreal oaks ? Seriously ?" Cassandra says.

- "What about them ?" Sophia asks.

- "They're massive trees made of ice that only grow in the Hyperborean Territory, and are known for having very valuable bark for ice and frost magic users. For reference, remember Adriana's giant sun she used against the chimeras, and that we could see in the distance ?"

- "Yes ?"

- "On average, those trees are double to triple its size."

- "Really ?!" Adriana exclaims.

- "Yeah, and that's not the worst part. Approaching them is really difficult because they are considered sacred by the Hyperboreans, so they can be pretty heavily guarded." Cassandra continues.

- "Really ?!" Magnus also exclaims, smiling uncontrollably.

- "Calm the hell down Magnus, you really don't want this fight." Cassandra sighs. "These things also emit a metric ton of cold around them, so we're gonna be having it be even worse than right now. What were you thinking, Nova ?..."

- "That'll get you in shape ! Plus, that'll guarantee us more budget for next year." Nova replies.

- "You're totally doing this for the money !"

- "No comment !"

- "Adelaios told me not to mess with Hyperboreans. This is too dangerous." Morgana says.

- "Oh don't worry, I'll be attacking their village in the meanwhile ! That'll give them something else to worry about, so you won't be fighting an army of giants anytime soon. Probably."

- "I see. How much time do we have ?"

- "Up until September, so five months ! Anyways, everyone gather up, it's time to start the advanced magic circle course."

Date: May 1st Location: Hyperborean Territory

Morgana and Sophia were heading out to hunt something for the group before they started heading north. They were picked because Magnus was still incapable of controlling his own firepower, Theo had to operate and maintain the glass shelter, Cassandra was using Adriana's sun to recharge the heat of said shelter and Adriana herself couldn't go because she would be putting Sol at risk if she went with them, since he was glued to her most of the time. This left the only two people who could actually sustain themselves heat wise, Morgana and Cassandra, to take care of bringing back some food for the next few days. It was a very silent walk, as Sophia was naturally stoic and didn't talk much while Morgana was boiling with cold-induced rage. Eventually, Sophia stops her and speaks up, pointing at the ground.

- "There's large tracks in the snow. Looks like something heavy."

- "Oh. Let's kill it, where is it ?"

- "You're a lot more aggressive than usual. Don't let that distract you if it turns out to be an actual threat, because that's very likely."

- "I get it. So, we follow the tracks ?"

- "Yes, try to remain stealthy."

They follow the footprints up until they reach the edge of the snow covered forest, not too far away from their camp. They see the beast from afar: it was a thirty meter tall mammoth like creature, with massive ice shards protruding from its back and shoulders. It had two sets of tusks, with bony prongs close to their tips.

- "That's a lot of food. Do you want me to attack first or do you have a plan ?" Morgana asks.

- "Get closer, and wait for me to engage before doing anything. If this thing hits you head on, you might just die on the spot."

- "I can kill it."

- "Morgana. Focus."

- "...Sure."

Morgana slowly starts approaching the mammoth, trying to not make any noise. However, she knew it from the days spent trying to escape her mother's laboratory: she was everything but blessed in the stealth department. She struggles through the thick snow, trying her best not to make any noise, to no avail. The creature immediately notices her and roars loudly as all the snow present in the area rises in the air, forming a cloud of millions of snowflakes. It charges towards Morgana at a speed surprisingly high for a creature of that size, tusks forward as the risen snow gathered around it, and Morgana prepares to use her burning shield. Right before it hits her, she sees a burst of red flames as Sophia flies through the air leaving a burning trail like that of a comet, and delivers a devastating kick to the mammoth's skull. The mammoth, despites its size, is completely stopped in its momentum and is instead sent flying back ten meters, rolling in the snow and seemingly confused about what just happened, its fur catching on fire and seemingly worsening its condition (20 K Fire, doubled by super effectiveness).

- "No wonder you can fight Magnus in close range." Morgana observes.

- "Training, discipline and reinforcement magic. Focus, it's getting back up." Sophia answers as she raises her fists. Morgana notices that the tattoos on the leg she kicked the mammoth with were shining a lot less brightly than the ones on her other limbs, and slowly recovering their glow.

Morgana manifests her bow of flames and creates a fire arrow before firing it at the mammoth. It pierces its hide (10 K Fire) and sends it flying into a blind rage, as it rushes towards them again. The snow was gathering around it once more, and the ground was shaking as it picked up speed. Morgana manifests her fire shield in front of her, but it is completely destroyed by the miniature snowstorm the mammoth was creating. Sophia braces herself and attempts to stop the creature's charge, but she is surprised by just how strong it was and only manages to slow it down before it lashes out, sending the both of them flying thirty meters back (15 K Physical, 5 K Frost for both) and they land in the snow, cushioning their fall.

- "Morgana, stay at range. I will-"

- "No." Morgana answers in a cold tone as she raises her hand above her head, emitting large amounts of magical energy, and her bow transforms into a forty meter tall battleaxe made of flames, emitting a very potent heat and melting the surrounding snow. She then orients her hand towards the mammoth and the battleaxe swings down on it, severely wounding it and causing some of the ice crystals on its back to melt (40 K Fire).

- "Hm. That works." Sophia comments before jumping about fifty meters in the air and propelling herself down towards the creature with a powerful jet of red flames, hitting it with an axe kick using her other leg. She breaks one of the mammoth's tusks due to the sheer force of the impact, and causes it to recoil a few meters (60 K Physical).

After that, the mammoth, now completely lit aflame by this succession of attacks it seemed to be weak to, starts thrashing in all directions, and the land itself seems to follow its rage. The remaining snow hardens into ice shards and flies in all directions. Morgana manifests her shield, and manages to block some of the attack, but the storm of sharp ice shards still manages to hit her, and even shatters her spell despites her having the elemental advantage. She barely stays standing after that, covered in bruises and open wounds (15 K Frost). Sophia isn't so lucky, as while she manages to restrain the mammoth by grabbing its tusks before it can hit her directly, the unnaturally sharp prongs still slash into her arms (5 K Physical). This damage is then followed by the ice shards mercilessly bombarding her (15 K Frost) and she seems to lose consciousness. It attempts to step on Sophia to finish her off, but it never gets the occasion to as Morgana decapitates it with her giant axe, causing its body to fall to the side (40 K Fire). Sophia was somehow still standing even while unconscious, holding the head of the mammoth.

Sophia wakes up on a bed of leaves and dirt, with a horrible headache and memories of being torn to ribbons by the mammoth. She sees Morgana seemingly maintaining a large shining orange flame next to them, all the snow having melted in their vicinity. She could see the mammoth, lying in two pieces not too far away.

- "Morgana… you killed the elephant ?"

- "Yes. I made a fire to keep other monsters away. Also to prevent you from freezing to death."

- "Accept my apologies for underestimating you."

- "You did ?"

- "Yes. I was mistaken, to some extent."

- "I don't mind. I'm not like Magnus and Cassandra. The only reason I need to be strong is to save my siblings."

- "I understand." Sophia looks around. "By the way, why are we still in this place ?"

- "I can't carry the mammoth. Also, Adelaios told me it's more dangerous to transport wounded people rather than let them rest, and it's better to wait until they can walk on their own after regenerating."

- "Oh I see." Sophia gets up. "Let's go then."

She approaches the mammoth's carcass and lifts it above her head, seemingly straining herself a lot.

- "Sophia stop, you're too injured and it's too heavy."

- "It's fine."

- "It's not. Stop before I knock you out again."

- "You wouldn't dare."

- "Do you want to find out ?" Morgana manifests her flaming sword.

- "Fine, I'll stand down." Sophia drops the carcass and coughs up a bit of blood.

- "I'll keep watch until you properly regenerate your wounds. You can count on me, I have enough magical energy to keep the fire going."

- "What if we get attacked ?"

- "I will defeat them. I only just started to get the hang of Flame magic, but it's still very powerful. Plus I healed most of my injuries."

- "...Understood."

Sophia goes back to her bed of leaves and dirt, and she starts sleeping while Morgana keeps feeding magical energy to her large campfire. When she woke up again, it was night time and her wounds had finally healed. They both head back to camp, Sophia carrying the mammoth's head on top of its body and Morgana practicing the displacement of her flame to deter monsters. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to move it and keep its heat stable at the same time, so she eventually gave up. When they return, they see everyone waiting through the wall of glass around Magnus' fire. Adriana is the first to notice them.

- "They're back !" she shouts.

- "Huh ?!" Cassandra exclaims. "Where have you girls been, it's been an entire da- what is that thing ?!"

- "Oh we're eating good !" Magnus comments as he goes out to meet them midway and help Sophia carry the carcass next to the shelter.

- "I am glad you made it back safely." Theo adds. "Cassandra was about to mount an expedition to find you."

- "Bullshit !" Cassandra replies.

- "By the way Theo." Sophia says. "You've got some competition in the magic weapon creation field."

- "Oh ?" Theo replies, curious.

- "Morgana can create giant fire weapons now, half the size of Adriana's massive sun spell."

- "I don't know how I should feel about you guys using my spells as a unit of measurement…" Adriana comments.

- "I wish they used mine !" Cassandra interjects. "Be grateful for what you have !"

- "Yes I can." Morgana replies to Theo. "It uses Flame magic, not Fire magic though."

- "Flame magic ?"

- "The magic dragons use ! Also the one I use !" Magnus says.

- "Oh. So a more destructive and uncontrollable version of Fire magic." Theo replies, looking concerned.

- "Pretty much !"

- "Yes." Morgana answers. "I can't really choose who gets hit with it…"

- "Well so long as you are being mindful, I am sure it is going to be fine." Theo says as Magnus heads outside with everyone else.

- "By the way Morgana, I noticed your fighting style is oddly similar to that of the True Ancestor Helen." Sophia comments. "I've seen a few of her clashes, and she too creates energy weapons to fight. However, I've never seen her create anything like that giant axe you used."

- "Yes, she taught me how to harden magical energy." Morgana answers. "I made the axe larger because with Flame magic, I basically can't make it smaller or else I'll lose control. Then the fire will destroy the hardened magical energy and I won't have a weapon."

- "I see, this lines up with what I thought. In that case, I might have a suggestion for you, given what I know about your abilities." Morgana and Sophia stay behind to discuss something while Magnus is outside the shelter with everyone else, who are trying to keep him warm while he is using a comically large knife to harvest the meat of the mammoth.