The Maid and Her Princess - Chapter 55: Chapter 55

The lift descended straight into hell, Madoka was convinced. Specifically, the hell belonged to the fathomless being encased in an infinite glacier. Its eyes did not move and if she were to stare at them for too long she felt like she would lose herself within them and her soul would be snatched. Both girls hesitated to step on the ice that kept a thin barrier up between the eldritch and their own two feet.
"What do we do?" Audrey mouthed to Madoka. The two observed the ominous being for a moment before noticing the altar. It was similar to the one in the forest. The odd and symmetrical pillars jutted infinitely into the glacier and even pierced the creature's... Madoka did not even know how to describe what it pierced.
It hurt to look at any of it, like a stake being driven through her eye slowly as she observed it. From the distance of the lift, the creature seemed like it was many colors of paint smeared across a flat canvas and depending on the angle it went from blurry to blindingly sharp. If she moved her head and kept her gaze, the shape would warp her perspective inside out. Her vision went black, feeling Audrey's fingers lay across her eyes.
"Stop looking at it," Audrey warned. Madoka remembered the mutilated servants and soldiers in the King's throne room so she heeded the former princess's command. "It's got some kind of cognito-hazard on it. And, yes, that word's meaning is just as unpleasant as it sounds before you ask."
"It's... indescribable," Madoka gasped as the darkness calmed her down. She did not realize she must have been going blue by holding her breath in a horrified suspension. A being so dangerous it could kill with its presence, Madoka had trouble processing that feeling.
"We have no choice but to walk, don't we?" Audrey said. "Please be frozen, please STAY frozen. I know objects appear closer in the ice than where they actually are. Or was that a mirror? Anyways..."
Madoka said nothing but followed Audrey's lead and set one foot on the glacier. She was not sure what would happen but she suddenly wished she was back up on the bridge. It was not like an extra bit of weight upon the ice would wake the creature below them up, right? She gulped as she forced her other foot to move.
"Come on," Audrey spoke. A glow burst from her bag. Ares was speaking to her. "Don't you know what is underneath your precious altar? Why does walking have to be so scary?"
The creature remained still beneath their feet. Madoka still could not bring herself to look. The altar was close. The alien aura from its ruins marched across her skin with a clammy and crawling wind.
"Do you think the thing beneath us is the Frost Queen?" Audrey asked. Was she asking the talisman or me? Madoka wondered.
"Maybe this is the thing that ate the Frost Queen," she mused, staring at the ceiling as they walked. Above her, the spires of the Frost Queen's palace looked like upside down castles. Some were frozen midway in their descent. She sensed that Audrey gave her a dirty look.
"Come on, that's dark even for you, Madoka."
"Just looking at it makes my skin want to crawl off my body," Madoka complained. Their steps crunched against the ice.
"Just a little more, Madoka," Audrey encouraged her maid by squeezing her hand. "Then I can return this library book— I mean talisman to the altar."
"I'd like to ask Ares how its altar ended up here in the first place," Madoka sighed. Her neck began to feel cramped so she forced herself to look ahead at the altar. Between an alien feeling and a soul-rending frozen god, she sighed.
"It's not like you to be so vocal," Audrey commented. "Let's get through this. I know you can—"
「I have been waiting to see you for a long time, Madoka.」
A voice called out to Madoka and the world transformed before her very eyes. She froze in sheer horror. Did Audrey hear that? Audrey turned to look at her, who cowered suddenly at the onslaught of visions. She jerked upward as if something's large hand plucked her into the sky.
When Madoka's world straightened out, she realized she was stranded on a blackened pit. It was the creature's eye! The ice rumbled as its pupil rolled, making a sickening sound of squishing liquid and flesh coiling on itself. Eventually, the eye centered itself directly under and the ice began to crack from its rapid twitching.
"Audrey!" Madoka reached up. It was too late! The ice shattered and her stomach dropped and she plunged into the eye's abyss. She flailed and screamed in the pitch black void before latching onto something murky. Madoka sputtered and coughed up black bile, groping about blindly for a way to stand.
She could not see anything although she preferred it that way. Did she really fall into the creature's eye?
All Madoka could do now is groan. She has escaped storms, dealt with an annoying companion who she loved dearly, descended from the scariest heights, electrocuted herself and even defeated a deadly bear only to get lost within an impossible realm. Only the kind gods knew where she was.
Her eyes adjusted and she found herself ragged. Her boots were standing on ice. What a surprise, Madoka grumbled. As her eyes adjusted, she realized she was no longer in a chasm. Something made a clicking noise near her. Instinctively, she drew her axe. The murkiness her boots sank in dissipated and she compassed her head ahead of her for any signs of Audrey. There were none.
Golden sparks started to pour from above her catching a glint of what was ahead. Madoka noted that it has been a long time since she has been alone. Not since her time at the palace during the Fall. The golden sparks reminded her of those chains above so she reached for them. Her hand swished through the glowing speckles.
Another click could be heard and a panel of light burst into life nearby, hurting Madoka's eyes. A chorus of clicks followed and the massive room she found herself was blindingly white and sharp blues, droplets of ice hanging from a metallic ceiling. Her eyes stung from the amount of light pouring in.
Madoka gasped.
A towering monument bore its presence over her with a chained alien sculpture standing upon it. Large, black tubes wrapped around its many limbs and stretched infinitely into the darkness above the light. She paused. Darkness above the lights? The glowing panels' illumination could only stretch so far above her head. However, what was more disruptive to her was the condition of this vast room.
It was so messy from being neglected for so long! Had there not been a giant sculpture of a kind god standing above her, Madoka would have began her cleaning duties immediately. She swept nearby debris and ice in a neat pile with her axe nervously.
Now what?
Curiosity drove her to feel the smooth platform that the statue rested on and a large stairway allowed her to approach the statue. She could not even reach the top of its boot. She squinted upward from beneath it. It had four arms and a feminine face covered by a wicked helmet, adorned with what appeared to be many weapons or tools. A halo floated above her head. Wait, Madoka paused in her head. She has seen a halo before above another entity. Another loud clunk reverberated through the chambers, nearly forcing Madoka to her feet.
"Urk," was all Madoka could muster. What was that phrase Audrey used? Curiosity killed the cat? Madoka regretted getting near the statue. She just wanted to dust it off!
The massive helmet's visor lifted, revealing a cavity inside as the sculpture looked down at Madoka. Was that a person? It was a woman, who looked asleep and sat on a throne within the sculpture's head. It marked the strangest thing Madoka has ever seen in her life. She realized the sculpture's head tilted further, causing the woman to plummet. Was this a test by the kind god?
Madoka had to time this just right or else she would have a bloody mess on her hands. She swooped to the left and caught the woman with ease. The woman's weight was light, most likely because of her malnourished state and being here for who knows how long. The woman's features were strange, slanted and beautiful, with her ears pointed like... Madoka gasped.
"C...Z... something," She muttered to herself. Whether this woman was dead or not, she looked a lot like the woman from her visions in the afterlife. Madoka peeled back her memories of the event. "Ella?"
The woman was frozen over and most likely dead, Madoka fussed as she lay the girl on the ground. What would Audrey do in this situation? Freak out over safety regulations or whatever? Overtime? Cracking and popping noises came from below her. The ice was slowly breaking and freeing the woman. Madoka watched in anticipation. She put her axe away but had her hand on it at the ready.
The woman's exposed eye cracked open and stared at Madoka, who gasped. More ice fell off, leaving a frail and skinny woman lying in a puddle. She was unsure what to do, until the woman sputtered and coughed out water. How was this woman alive?
"You..." the woman spoke to her in Noble after some more coughing. Madoka instinctively wiped her face down without hesitation. Something in her wanted to protect the woman at all costs. "You're the...! Nevermind, I have been waiting for you! For a long time!"
The woman's voice was youthful despite her ancient history. Silver hair draped like soaked curtains down her shoulders and fangs showed when she smiled. Madoka paused as the woman shook her hands with a frozen grip of her own. She was certain that she probably got swallowed whole by the monster and she was dead again.
"The Holy One has spoken so much about you, Child of the Stars," she said. Her eyes were reptilian. On second glance, this person was definitely not human at all. Madoka resigned herself.
"Is the Holy One you speak of named Ares?" Madoka stammered. Feelings of loneliness churned within her, like the gears and mechanisms in the great palace miles above her. What would Audrey do in this situation?
"Huh?" The woman bowed her head. "My apologies! I am being rude. I should have introduced myself but I couldn't help myself! I am the Dragon Pelé. Once upon a time, I was known as the Frost Queen."
"The F-Frost Queen? D-Dragon?" Madoka backed away slowly and bowed as sincerely as she could. "Forgive me, Your Majesty."
Pelé burst into laughter but then broke into a coughing fit. Madoka moved to clean the ground but the strange woman waved her off.
"You have arrived way past the end of an Empire," Pelé said with a sigh. A sharpened look furrowed her brow at Madoka. "Just as you have witnessed the end of your own kingdom, no? No need for formailities."
"You remind me of the Princess," Madoka grumbled, though she relaxed into using the Commoner's tongue. Pelé stumbled a bit so Madoka tore her cloak off and lay it on the ground for her to sit down. The Queen scoffed but chose to sit down eventually. "You and her would get along."
"And you would have loved this palace. It was a gift from the Holy One," Pelé laughed. "Plenty of places to clean. I can tell your dedication by the maid's dress beneath your armor."
"T-That's none of your concern!" Madoka folded her arms and looked away. Pelé laughed. More ice melted off of her and color returned to her skin, like flowers in the spring.
"What were we talking about again?" Pelé began. "Long ago, this world was invaded by a strange and war-like being. Your kind cannot say his name, only loose translations of his name have been spoken. He has allowed Ares to be an acceptable moniker. His invaders built a gate from another world and he sent his champion out. It was named Conqueror."
"Is t-that the horrible monster frozen below the palace?"
"You catch on quick! Ares sent his champion out to destroy this world, but!" Pelé rapped a fist against the sculpture. "Me and her make a good team, no? Now, my power has long since faded. I am hardly able to keep up with this form."
"Hai," Madoka said, not quite understanding how a statue could help her against a monster that is capable killing others by simply being looked at. "How did I get here?"
And how do I get out of here? Madoka thought, but did not ask the question.
"You see," Pelé already sensed Madoka's desire to leave. She merely pointed upward. Madoka's eyes followed up her scaly arm and ended past her pointed finger. The bizarre and stretching creature's eye twitched far above the abyss and this room's lights. "We are inside the belly of the beast. Right now, your friend is trying to wake you up."
"Am I... dead?" Madoka stumbled over that question.
"No, you are not dead," Pelé sighed. "We just needed to have a small chat, you see. Don't pout!"
That command only made Madoka pout on purpose.
"The gods are watching you, Child of the Stars," Pelé said. Madoka did not know if that was a threat or a good thing. "Ares wishes to speak with you but your eyes have yet not opened to the Celestials."
"Didn't you defeat him already?" Madoka interrupted.
"Er—" Pelé stopped halfway through her sentence. "I defeated his physical form here. However, gods cannot be killed so easily. After I drove him off, he made me his new Conqueror. Now that I met you, Madoka, I wish to give you a gift before I let you go."
"I am a servant," Madoka protested. "I do not deserve gifts."
"He told me you'd say that..." Pelé laughed again and suddenly grabbed Madoka's left shoulder. Madoka seized up as she felt the woman's cold and clammy hand.
Madoka's shoulder began to swell with light beneath her surprisingly strong grip. A burning sensation gathered underneath the Queen's hand and made Madoka's heartbeat pound as a crunching noise stormed within her mind. Pain burned her. Pelé's hand eventually stopped glowing and fell to her lap. After the pain subsided, Madoka was clutching her shoulder. A part of her cloak was burned all the way down to her bare shoulder. Something glowed on it but Pelé collapsed, distracting Madoka.
"Y-Your Majesty!" Madoka leaned over the deteriorating Frost Queen.
"This will help you reach the Celestial," Pelé's voice was a whisper now. "Ares has called for you to be his new Conqueror. Go forth with this gift."
A red rune was burned onto Madoka's shoulder. She suddenly recalled Audrey's warning about red runes. She knew not what a videogame was but if it was bad, then this rune must mean...
"W-Wait," Madoka cried. Pelé was dissolving into golden sparks. "You haven't even said what it does!"
"That's for you to find out, Child of the Stars," Pelé smirked. Madoka sighed. The giant statue began to move an arm on its own, startling Madoka.
She drew her axe and prepared herself for the worst. It's a golem? Madoka growled at it. The statue moved its arm and aimed its hand at Madoka. Before Madoka could say anything, her conscience was pulled upwards like she was a puppet on a string.
Not this again...! Madoka groaned and found herself struggling to get up on her feet again. She felt a familiar rough texture of wood on her sides. She was in a box? A familiar voice
"What do you MEAN those small lifts aren't actually lifts? You mean to say the main lift has been broken for centuries and those were just gears and guides? What the hell?"
Madoka shifted and stuck her head over the box she was in. Audrey was sitting on the altar, yelling at someone or something. That perfectly circular and pure white platform had red glowing runes surrounding Audrey. Like the one back in the forest. She heard a low hum from those runes.
Suddenly, Madoka panicked as she realized the monster still was below her but after a glance she noticed she could look at the horror in the deep without being troubled. Though, it still was disgusting to look at. So that vision was not a dream, Madoka thought. She took solace in the fact that it was truly dead.
"Madoka!" Audrey sprang up. The runes and humming. "It worked! My box method worked!"
"What happened?" Madoka asked. Audrey's skin was glistening. "And why are you glowing?"
"Why are YOU glowing?" Audrey pointed back. Madoka realized that her shoulder still tingled from Pelé's gift. Madoka shrugged.
"I got a gift from Ares," Madoka said, covering her shoulder. Audrey touched it and Madoka yelped. "Y-Your hand is hot!"
"Huh? Oh, right," Audrey said excitedly. "I leveled up! I'm one step closer to you, Madoka!"
Audrey took a spare cloak out for Madoka to cover her bare shoulder with.
"Leveled... up?" Her tongue tripped over those English words.
"It's a joke, but it just means my magic..." Audrey's magic core burst forth in a brilliant and fiery light. Her eyes lit up as she saw two bands orbiting Audrey's heart instead of the usual one. "You're not the only one receiving gifts from the gods, Madoka."
Audrey lifted a finger and she could see a small luminescent blue orb gather at her finger tip. "Watch this! This is our ticket out of here! Yeet!"
Audrey whirled around and launched the blue orb with Wind magic. Madoka's eyes could barely track it. The projectile split into a salvo of even smaller blue fireballs crashing towards the cave wall. Audrey turned to Madoka.
"On second thought—" Audrey was cut off by her own spell. The blue fireballs exploded into a spectacular light and plumes of smoke billowed in the aftermath of the spell. Madoka had to look away as specks of debris and gusts of winds smacked her clothing.
Has this girl learned a thing about prudence?!
"I looked away," Audrey said in a funny accent. "Because cool guys don't look at explosions. Eep!"
"Audrey..." Madoka started but daylight trickled in and as the smoke settled something on the horizon caught her eyes.
"I know, I know!" Audrey complained. "My fire magic is way too powerful! When Ares taught me how to take from the univer- I mean cultivate it all clicked! Okay? Madoka?"
Madoka was staring out of the giant hole Audrey made with that explosion.
"Do you see that?" Madoka pointed at it. Audrey gasped. The two ran to the edge of the crater, leaving the ruins of the palace and horrible monster behind to get a better look.
Above the mountain peaks and the valley was a massive ring made out of a material that looked like alabaster. A pure white ring, clad in the arcane energies bigger than any mountain, Madoka realized that this was the gate Pelé spoke about. It floated peacefully, blotting out the sky and reflecting the sun in some spots. She could not even see the top of the enormous ring.
"What in the fu—" Audrey could not complete her sentence as the sky twisted in colors neither of the girls seen before. The space around the ring warped and suddenly it disappeared leaving nothing but a pure blue sky and sunlight behind.
"Okay then," Madoka said standing at the edge of the crater Audrey made. Audrey gawked as she tried to process what she just saw. A slope followed into an easy terrain for hiking on. "Where to next?"