Geonitrus: The Industrial Kingdom

[Attn: Open]

The Ice Gorgon spouts another quick round of icicle darts, this time spreading them out more as to aim at the both of them. Lucas swings his arms and deflects any darts coming in his direction. "I know you're the prettier sister and all but is killing the ugly one REALLY the answer?" Lucas remarks to the gorgon.

[Attn: Open]

"It hurts to be the ugly sister, doesn't it?" Lucas retorts. leaping over a spray of icicle darts.

"I've got a bomb!" Hugo yells. "Fire in the hole!" He then lobs the bomb and it explodes against the devil, diminishing its armor.

[Attn: Gosalyn]

"I'm pretty sure YOU didn't think up this plan," Lucas remarks as he leaps up and punches the gorgon in the face another number of times.

The gorgon hisses then begins to inhale and it starts drawing in anything in the room. Lucas then grabs hold of a pillar. Inside that thing was bound to be an instant Luc-Sickle trip.

[Attn: Gosalyn]

"I meant the plan to get IN here. Don't worry, it's okay to be slower than the other kids." Lucas then drops back to the floor. "Uh-oh," he says. The Gorgon then breathes out a large, frigid beam. The beam was far to large and powerful to avoid so Lucas crosses his arms and blocks the beam with his buster knuckles.

[Attn: Gosalyn]

That beam had HURT. Unpleasant was an understatement. There was SNOW in Lucas' hair. But the worst of it was over and he could roll away from what was left. Hugo them lobs another bomb at it but it swallows the bomb and looks down as the small detonation from within rattles it. "Wait a minute," Lucas says. "That's it! Let it inhale the bombs but keep one. We can light that one and throw it in there then-"

"BOOM BOOM!" Cerelus chimes in.

"Get the bombs as close as you can when it inhales so it'll suck them in," Lucas says, slamming his fists together. "We'll distract it!"

He then turns and, with a running start, leaps up, punching it in the face again.

[Attn: Open]

Lucas says nothing now. He merely rolls back as the ice gorgon spews out another fan of icicle darts that he promptly manages to avoid with a jump. Meanwhile, Cerelus moves one bomb closer to the target and Lucas maneuvers himself, getting near it. "Hey look over here! Candy!" The gorgon hisses at Lucas who clings to a pillar as it inhales, unintentionally inhaling the bomb he'd been near and swallowing it.

[Attn: Gosalyn]

The Ice Gorgon turns its attention to Gosalyn and snaps at her like a snake before beginning to inhale, eventually sucking in a bomb Hugo and pushed toward her. "There's only one bomb left!" Hugo shouts. "We'll have to be quick about this! Light it and then get it in there!"

[Attn: Open]

The Ice Gorgon inhales the final bomb, clamping down as Gosalyn draws close so that the dragoness grabs hold of its fangs and resists being sucked in. Suddenly the behemoth looks down upon itself and swings Gosalyn free before letting out a bit of a yelp. Finally it happens. Every bomb inside of that creature explodes, taking the beast with it.

[Attn: All]

Hugo checks the throne room rather thoroughly, only to find no one inside. Suddenly Cerelus stumbles into a hidden chamber...a frozen one. Her stand the king and queen as well as the rest of the castle's inhabitants, all froze solid. "Holy..."

Lucas observes them all. "The king and queen are still alive. Only a few of these people are dead yet. The freezing was recent. Let's thaw 'em out and be on our way."

"Aye. A good idea," Hugo agrees.

[Attn: All]

Eventually, everyone is thawed. Hugo and Cerelus pray for those that didn't survive before returning to the others. "The king an queen will be needing a bit to recover but they'll be fine," Lucas says. "Princess too." Something then occurs to him and he turns to Gosalyn. "If you want that reward, I suggest coming back tomorrow. I'm sure they'll be willing to pay you rather handsomely after what you just did." He then puts his hands behind his head and starts to leave. "I already talked to 'em. Don't need the money. I'm gonna head back to Hugo's and rest a while."

[Attn: All]

Later on that evening, Hugo and the rest sit around the table, eating the feast that Hugo and Cerelus had prepared for them. "So," Hugo begins after taking a large bite of his turkey leg. "Back to business then? The factories should all be operational soon enough. I can make your weapons for you. Finest crafted things you ever did see."

"Thanks, Hugo. You don't know what this means to us," Lucas says.

"But there's a problem. Celcius is thinking like this is just a battle. Like it was warding back monsters. The world's never seen true war before. The old Monster Battles could hardly compare to something of this scale. My providing you with weapons wouldn't solve anything. You don't need weapons. There is a kingdom in the forest. Ufaria. There you'll find two things. First, talk to the royal family and talk to them about the Tome of the Goddesses. It's an ancient book that holds infinite knowledge about those divine. No one's opened that book in over 1000 years. Odds are, that book holds a way to defeat the Ice Goddess."

"The next thing you'll find is a big tunnel network!" Cerelus chimed in.

Hugo then nods. "Aye. She knows as much as I do about the old Monster Raids. Us veterans of those days...we built a network of underground tunnels throughout the region to connect the kingdoms much more easily and conveniently give us a faster route from kingdom to kingdom without heading through monster territory. This kingdom didn't exist back then. She's a young one. But Ufaria was caught in the middle. They're the nearest kingdom and they have a tunnel. Get there. Use the tunnel to get back to Soleste once you have that book. Then take down that Frosty Witch. It's times like these that people need to learn to work together. That's how we beat the monsters in the old days. That's how we can overcome this."

"Ufaria's East of here. People call it the hidden Kingdom because it's hard to find. Just keep going East. When you're close, you'll start hearing Blue Jays. Ufaria is home to a lot of Blue Jays."

[Attn: Open]

Hugo says nothing. He knew the feeling all too well. But he'd since grown out of it. He had to learn long ago that the needs of the many outweigh self gain. However, Gosalyn was a smart young lass. Stubborn but smart. He didn't feel the need to tell anyone anything more. "The same forest as before. That'll get you to Ufaria if you get far enough East. It's about a week's time in walking distance if you're quick about it. You can be on your way tomorrow."

Sure enough, the next day, Lucas and Gosalyn were back at the gate of the city, equipped with a new compass, a map, enough food to last them the week's travel, and their new weapons. "All right, we forgetting anything?"

"YEAH!" Shouts out a small voice from a distance. It was Cerelus. She was running toward the two, her bag over her shoulder, likely packed with bombs and whatever else she could fit.

"What're we forgetting, sport?" Lucas questions, kneeling down to her.

"Me!" Cerelus exclaims with a wide smile on her face.

Lucas then stands back up and scratches his head. "Is that right?" He then turns to Gosalyn.