Peggy, breathing heavily, looked up at Glacius with soft determination in her eyes. The thunder roared above them, but her voice was calm.
"...You should carry me on your back."
Glacius blinked, momentarily caught off guard. "What?"
She didn't elaborate, didn't pleadâshe just gave him a tired but confident smile. "Just trust me."
There was hesitation in him. A rare thing for the ever-calculated Glacius.
He had carried many burdensâmemories, ideals, battlesâbut never another person like this. Especially not someone like her.
But still...
He crouched, and slowly allowed her to climb onto his back.
Her light body pressed against him, arms wrapping gently around his neck, legs curling loosely around his waist. She radiated a quiet warmthânot overpowering, but real. Her skin against his was soft and warm, and for a moment... it clashed with everything he was. Ice and heat. Distance and closeness.
"...It's different," he muttered under his breath, glancing back with a side eye.
Peggy gave a faint, teasing smirk despite her exhaustion. "Don't worry. I'm not warm enough to melt you. Yet."
Glacius didn't respond to that. He only adjusted his posture and stared ahead as the fury of Electrica loomed.
"Concentrate," Peggy whispered, her voice soft in his ear. "Focus on beating her... I'll help you do that."
Though drained, she gathered the last remnants of her fairy light energy. As Glacius raised his hand and began hurling precision-crafted ice spears, Peggy used her own weak light beams, not to attack, but to distract Electricaâflashing in her line of sight, glowing unpredictably, giving Glacius the split-second windows he needed.
The teamwork was seamless. Her warmth didn't dull his edgeâit sharpened it.
Electrica shrieked in disbelief, dodging narrowly, bolts of lightning flying wildly as her fury spiraled out of control.
"You're resting on his back now?!" she spat, eyes flaring with crackling rage. "You cling to him like you matter!"
She hurled a wild thunderburst that cracked through the palace, splitting stone.
"You're both delusionalâ!!"
But Peggy's eyes were calm.
"I don't care what you think," she murmured, more to Glacius than Electrica. "I know who I am. And I know who he is... even if he doesn't always say it."
Glacius narrowed his gaze. Her words... they weren't strategy. They weren't deception. They were truth.
And for the first time in a long timeâ
His heart, long frozen, felt something stir.
He pressed forward, his grip tightening, his attacks now sharper, colder, more lethal. Electrica, blinded by her heartbreak and envy, missed the shift.
The girl she thought would fall apart... was now on his back, shielding his mind, guiding his focus.
The prince of ice... and the guardian of light...
together, pushing back the storm.
The palace trembled.
Every wall, every column, every stained-glass window of the once-mighty Thunder Palace cracked and groaned beneath the clash unfolding in its heart. The sky outside had turned a violent shade of violet, electricity snarling like wild beasts in the heavens above.
The battle raged on.
Electrica's eyes were locked onto themâa storm of betrayal, grief, and raw hatred coursing through her veins. With each movement of her fingers, bolts of lightning lanced downward, not just blindly, but with furious intent. Her attacks were no longer just powerfulâthey were wild, charged by the emotions of a woman scorned.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN MOCK ME?!" she screamed as the electricity around her began forming a sphere, building into something monstrous.
Glacius gritted his teeth as he slid backward from the force of a thunder burst, his boots scraping across cracked marble, leaving icy trails. His ice spears flew out with mechanical precision, one after another, blocking, parrying, aiming for weak pointsâbut they weren't enough. Not against this.
She was too strong. The more emotional she got, the more volatile her lightning became. Each strike faster. Each strike louder. Each one closer to overwhelming even his meticulous defense.
Peggy, clinging tighter around his back, could feel his tension in every muscleâthe coldness of his body trembling, not from fear, but from strain.
Her own light was flickering.
She closed her eyes briefly, gathering all she had. Tiny beams of fairy light burst outward from her palmsâgentle, fluttering distractionsâbut aimed with thoughtful precision. One glinted near Electrica's eye. Another bounced off the lightning sphere. They weren't powerfulâbut they were just enough to throw her off.
"Glacius, leftâ!" Peggy whispered through a heavy breath, sensing a gap.
He moved instinctively, rotating his shoulder, twisting his hips just rightâthe ice spear barely intercepted a spiraling electric arc.
But it hit the ground near them anyway. The explosion shook the throne room, the floor beneath them cracking, sending them slightly airborne before Glacius planted himself hard, shielding Peggy with his body as they landed.
"She's... getting stronger," Peggy whispered, struggling to even lift her arms now. "But we... we have to hold."
Glacius said nothing.
But inside, he was calculating. Measuring. Estimating power. Timing her bursts.
And he felt itâthey were being pushed back. Slowly, inevitably. Not because of weakness, but because Electrica's fury was now a storm without form, unpredictable, primal.
She was becoming lightning incarnate.
"You lied to me!" she screamed from above, hair now floating, crackling with thunder, arms raised high. "You made me feel wantedâand now you protect her?! HER?!"
Glacius looked up at her through narrowed eyes, frost creeping across his cheeks from the effort of keeping his core stable.
"You're right," he said, his voice like cold wind. "I lied."
"And I'll make you regret every moment," she snarled, charging her next blast. "I'll end you... both."
But Peggy didn't look afraid. Her grip stayed steady.
Her voice, though faint, reached him again. "You're doing great... just a little longer."
Glacius inhaled deeply, ice forming in delicate patterns around his hands, readying his next move. The cold surrounding him thickened, responding to his silent fury.
Peggy's warmth on his back didn't melt it.
It strengthened it.
A fragile balance.
The princess of light.
The prince of frost.
And a storm determined to tear them apart.