A WORLD OF ICE 2

"Congrats, kid!" Ivan ruffled the blonde's hair, receiving a deadpan stare in response. Even when he finished praising Canis, she never even attempted to fix it.

"Mnm…" She hummed in response, grabbing his ring from his finger and spawning a couple food items from it. Though she understood that her actions may have been impolite, she returned the ring to his finger and handed him one of the foot items she took from it.

"This is yours…" She muttered. Ivan only smiled wryly, not mentioning the irony of her offering him things from his own stash.

What she needed was replenishment, that he was well aware of. So along with the food items he handed her some of the cores of the monsters they slew in the dungeon.

Considering the Schnee dungeon was a rather late game tier labyrinth, the cores of the monsters inhabiting it were quite nutritious.

'All homunculi are gluttonous' Ivan understood that well, especially so after witnessing his own daughters INHALING food.

"Well now that we found you, go ahead and get on my back, you're no use if your body is too tired to do anything. Oh, and put these clothes on. What the hell were you thinking just standing in the blast zone of your own attack!? Though I must admit it was pretty cool…"

He half-admonished and half-praised her, much to Canis' amusement. Ivan squatted down and allowed her to straddle his shoulders, a new coat dangling around her shoulders.

It was an awkward sight, a 5'7" woman sitting on the shoulders of a man.

"No fair…" The only one not happy with the situation was Felis, who was regretting the fact that she hadn't exacerbated her own injuries.

Then again she'd be sitting on the floor injured inside her tent if she didn't wake him up so harshly.

"Onwards we go! To the next comrade we may find~" Ivan stepped forward with an extra pip in his steps, marching forward with wide strides.

He didn't bother asking Canis what she felt about the trial, seeing as how the latter immediately fell asleep on his shoulders after wrapping her golden furred tail around his waist.

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"Ah, so we've come across another comrade of ours." This time the still awake duo didn't rush toward the sounds of combat, they took the same strides they did when setting off on their journey. Ivan in particular made movements to not awake the tigersess using his head as a pillow.

The odd thing was that this time when they approached the arena one of the ice walls melted without the clone indoors being defeated.

"Hoooh~" Ivan exhaled, amused, turning his eyes toward the darting figures within. There he spotted Tio, and then another Tio, but with snow white hair, dark red eyes, and swarthy red skin. The two were duking it out with magic spells that would leave the average spectator blind.

"Fufufu~ It would seem we have some guests! How about it, me? How about I expose our true self before their very eyes~? Oh master, what would he think of us once he learns of our deception…?" The copy spoke with a grin, malicious intent in her eyes as she fluttered toward the opening where the others were.

`Finally, a normal seeming trial!' Ivan on the other hand was elated, directly disregarding what the copy had said. He was feeling a bit awkward if he was being honest, a copy reflected the dark emotions held by someone, so when the Tio in front of him went off about deception and lies he felt a little bit guilty about peering into someone's repressed feelings.

But the actual Tio made no movements, no words, nothing. She just stood there, as if to urge the copy into getting things over with. In response the copy snorted, her body enshrouding in a dark cloud.

Each second marked a drastic transformation of its body, a claw the size of her former body grew from her hands. Her body went from red swarthy skin to scaly white. Tio's copy grew several meters in size, wings and a tail occupying the changes and becoming the main brand of her appearance.

A white empress dragon, strongly contrasting to that of Tio's black dragon form.

And then, with telepathy— it spoke.

"Your search for the heroes, you never did tell him why it was that you left your land for them. That's right, you had orders. That's true. You, the princess of the few remaining dragonkin took the mission of investigating the outside world in hopes of meeting the heroes who may have a way to defeat the god that caused the erasure of our utopeia many years ago…"

The copy prod with its words, looking down at Tio with its scaly eyes for any reaction. Like a snake, when its opponent flinched or shifted their expression, it would attack.

Tio, in response to the copy's words, transformed into her dragon form. Black scales, long gray claws, golden piercing eyes..

She let out a breath attack of the same darkness of her scales, meeting the copy's white dragon breath with her own.

"But with that pride came a dark desire, you imposed your own selfishness onto your mission, the very mission they entrusted you with. And so you found a hero, one more potent than the rest, he would become your poison to the enemy you sought."

Beams of light scattered within the arena, reflecting off the icy walls and turning the arena into something akin to that of a laser tag room. Ivan took cover behind a nearby wall, listening in on the copy's tale.

"Your mother, your father, their deaths defending the people and land we dragons protected for centuries. All it took was a single sentence to turn the world against us, 'The dragonkin evolved from monsters, that's why they possess a transformation no other race has.' Those words echoed throughout the world, and every bit of us dragons were erased. You ran away helplessly, watching the crucified bodies of your parents…"

Tio never responded to the copy's words, she attacked with all her might. This didn't satisfy the copy, it didn't feel itself getting stronger but it didn't feel itself getting weaker either.

"Despair turned into malice, the practice of justice the dragonkin endorsed for all these years fell deaf upon your desire for revenge. And in that desire, you manipulated a hero, accompanying him just to enact your revenge!"

"Alright, this should be enough." Finally, Tio spoke. Her words unrushed. She spoke calmly. Her attacks came to a stop and the copy just stared at her stupidly.

The clone subconsciously let out a gasp, like a rock plummeting off a cliff its strength dropped in the blink of an eye.

Tio had been playing with her food all along, allowing it to use her darkest thoughts against her just to see how much it'd affect her. The last thing she wanted to do was face a god when she wasn't even capable of facing herself.

And after four hours she had finally obtained the result she was hoping for.

The copy stood in shock, this whole time it had thought that it was in control. And yet in front of this true dragon its trials were nothing but a test to see how well she could control herself under manipulation.

"Seeing as how you copied my form, let's test whether you have what it takes to be considered a dragonkin. You better not disappoint me, faker…"

Tio didn't allow the copy a moment to respond. The black dragon inhaled deeply, the air around it contorting and cracking. The massive amount of mana contained in its maws was enough to awaken the copy from its stupor.

But its time was limited, in a futile attempt it tried its best to hastily form a breath attack of its own.

BOOOM!

What came out of Tio's mouth was too potent to be called a breath attack, it drove forward like an all consuming beam of light. Too dense to even see anything through it. But it was unmistakable the same black patented fire Tio was a specialist in.

In contrast, the copy's breath attack came out like a spewing fountain, within its white flames were many cracks that could be identified as separate strands of flames.

The result was obvious even before they collided, and like that the entire room was engulfed in a nauseating bright light.

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Finished! Ah, I'm tired. Studied for like 6 hours and then spent two writing some chapters. Time to play Stardew Valley! Been really addicted these past few days, in fact there's 8 more days until I complete my first year. Which I should meet today~!

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