Jubilee and Fresh stand together upstairs inside of Jubilee’s bedroom. Grunting from the strain, Fresh sets down her end of the cauldron of rebirth, with the ice-golem-core floating inside of it. The two of them take a deep breath at the same time to relax as they feel the gentle, cool air drifting off of the little pebble of ice that remains. The rest of the day had passed without any further happenings of major note. Basil eventually managed to settle down after a while.

The three of them sat around and talked after that, with Basil explaining that the higher ups in the church had ordered her and her former party member to spy on them and to find out if there was any way to ‘get rid’ of this new disturbance to the existing power structures of the city, before they became a problem. Fresh and Jubilee pretended to act shocked, but in reality, both of them had known this a long time ago already.

What was more surprising was Basil’s message that things were getting troublesome in the back-alley world of the upper echelons of society. The merchants’ guild and the church were having difficulties, not just because of their store in particular, but because similar financial conflicts were being played out in every store in the city. The church and the merchants’ guild were both vying for more money, for more control, which would mean more power.

Some of the street merchants had sided with this side or that one explicitly, gaining the favor of a specific party and the ire of the other. Some of them, like themselves, have managed to stay on both of their ‘good’ sides, for now. Which really only means that they were just buying idle time. Fresh was surprised at this, but Jubilee seemed only mildly so, as if they had seen this coming. Even Basil’s final statement, that the thieves’ guild was swooping in during the chaos to further entrench themselves wasn’t too shocking for Jubilee, despite it greatly worrying Fresh and apparently Basil as well.

Things are becoming difficult.

Fresh sighs an exhausted sigh and holds her hands above the cauldron, focusing on the spell. Jubilee takes a step back, being wary of her magic. “It’s fine, Jubilee!” says Fresh. “I’ve done this every night since we got it,” explains the girl.

“Uh huh,” says Jubilee, sounding very skeptical, taking another step back for good measure. “So, what do you think?” they ask, getting back to their discussion from just a moment ago.

Fresh looks up, surprised that Jubilee is asking her for her opinion. “It’s sad, but it’s probably a good idea.” She looks back down at the cauldron, focusing on the spell. “We’re wasting daylight if we’re open all day with no customers.”

Jubilee nods in agreement. “Right. I’ll make a sign then. During summer, we’re only open in the mornings from now on. At least until business goes back to normal.”

Fresh nods, listening to the regrowing ice crackle beneath her fingers. “What about Basil?”

Jubilee sighs, knowing where this is going. “Fine, we can keep her wages the same as they are.”

“Thanks Jubilee,” smiles Fresh. “You’re really nice.”

“I know, goo-brain.” The room is quiet for a while as the ice continues to crack loudly. “Don’t you think that’s enough?”

“Huh?” Fresh opens her eyes, looking down at the ice-golem-core that has grown substantially larger than she usually makes it. “Ah!” Panicked, she stops her casting, lowering her hands and taking a step back as the ice continues to grow.

“Make it stop, dumb-ass,” says Jubilee, placing their hands on their hips.

“Uh…” Fresh looks nervously around the room, watching as the chunk of ice becomes bigger and bigger. “I don’t know how.”

“Lift it out of the cauldron, you dummy!” barks Jubilee as Fresh bends forward, trying to pick up the massive chunk of ice. She clearly strains herself, wrapping her arms around the block as she tries to pick it up. It continues to grow, the frozen core binding to the fabric of her sleeves. “It’s too heavy!” cries Fresh, pulling her arms back before they freeze into place.

“Push it over!” barks Jubilee, running around to Fresh to help her push against the cauldron. The dense ice continues to grow, expanding out over the rim of the cauldron, which doesn’t budge an inch as they both push against it. The floorboards groan as the weight of the golem-core grows and grows, the ice feeding itself off of the magical water of the cauldron.

“Jubilee!” shouts Fresh.

“Shut up and push, dumb-ass!” snaps Jubilee as both of them continue trying to knock over the cauldron. “Get back,” says Jubilee, pulling out the small bag of dirt they keep on their waist. Pinching their fingers, they throw their hand out, sending an arc of dirt flying through the air. In a second, a glass crystal forms out of the mess, the jagged blade blasting towards the ice.

One prismatic surface strikes against the other. The glass shatters with a loud crack as it smashes into the thick ice, which only results in a tiny scratch on its surface. It doesn’t budge at all. Fresh grabs Jubilee’s shoulder and pulls them back a few steps as she realizes what’s happening. “Jubilee…”

Jubilee doesn’t have time to answer. The now immense weight of the cauldron breaks through the floorboards, falling down halfway through and getting stuck sideways at an angle. The giant piece of ice on top of it shifts, cracking straight down the middle like an egg being broken from the inside-out. In an instant, it shatters apart, as a form seems to grow out of it. A hulking, impossibly giant hand presses itself out of the still growing ice, each square finger the size of Fresh’s throat.

“What the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK?!” yells Jubilee. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” they shout at Fresh, grabbing her robe with one hand and pointing to the ice with the other.

Another hand forms, shooting out of the ice as the ice-golem, being reborn, literally pulls itself together, growing larger and larger by the second. Fresh inches towards the door, pulling Jubilee with her. “At… at least it’s nice and cold?”

Jubilee screams in frustration as the golem twitches, sending shards of ice flying all around the room as its upper torso breaks out of the cauldron. The metal container shatters in half as the immense pressure of the ice growing inside of it simply splits the cauldron down the middle. Water runs everywhere, but as the puddle shoots outward in an instant, it simply freezes entirely a second later. Wet tendrils hang frozen in the air, as if stopped in time itself.

“Come on! We have to go,” says Jubilee very quickly, backing away.

“What? We can’t, Jubilee! We have to kill it before someone sees it!”

“WE HAVE TO GO!” says Jubilee, louder now, as they grab Fresh’s hand to start pulling her out of the room. An explosion of ice blasts through the space, right behind them as a wave of some magical eruption forces its way out of the golem, which now has two legs that are each the size of a large tree-trunk. It reaches up to the ceiling and the floor where it stands seems to sag, threatening to collapse at any second. Shards of jagged ice fly in all directions, just barely missing the two of them, as the crude daggers smash into the wooden walls as they run to the door. Fresh sees one fly right past her face and stick into the door-frame.

The ice-golem rises up to its feet, its chunky head smashing against the ceiling as it stands upright, breaking through some of the boards and sending insulation falling down into Jubilee’s room. As Fresh looks back behind themselves, just as Jubilee tears her out through the door, she sees two rabid, crystalline eyes glaring her way. The ice breaks on its face, creating a jagged mouth as the golem roars a strange roar, filling the air with a deafening sound that shakes her body from the vibration of its deep cry. Her teeth chatter, not from the cold, but simply from the density of the pressure that reaches her.

A second later, it barrels towards them. The behemoth, made out of ice, with two furious, smoldering eyes, tears the world apart as it thunders their way.

It all erupts as the massive entity, which is taller and larger than even the man from the sect, barrels into the door-frame just behind them. The wood tears apart, the door shatters and rips off together with an entire section of the wall. The golem barely even slows down. Fresh and Jubilee bolt down the staircase as a series of rapid, gargantuan, thudding steps shake the house behind them. The golem, that is too large for the upstairs corridor, tears through it with violent force, as it sprints in pursuit of them both. Its coarse, crystalline body rips apart the walls on both sides of the hallway, shattering the single window near the end.

A hand yanks her to the left as they reach the bottom of the staircase, that Fresh doesn’t even remember going down. All she can focus on is the hulking giant that hurtles through the air, a ton heavy rock of ice flying down the stairs after them, about to crush them both.

Fresh can’t discern the glass from the ice anymore, as the entire space around her fills with a mixture of shimmering visual noise, as the sounds of destruction fill her ears with nothing but shattering and crashing an oddly out of place tinkling sound, the world shakes. She stumbles forward as the quake smashes down behind them, as the golem crashes down the stairs, smashing down into the counter and flattening it entirely as its immense weight breaks halfway through the ground floor. Wooden splinters and slivers fly in all directions, mixing in together with the dust and the glass and the ice around them as Jubilee tears the front-door open and both of them bolt outside, running away from the golem that is still in pursuit. The feral, rabid thing tears the store apart with its massive hands, as it drags itself after them, as it lurches upright and barrels after them once again.

Her mind is blank, her body is almost numb and weightless, Fresh doesn’t feel anything except a terror, as the golem smashes its way forward, as the front of the store rips itself off of the rest of the building. The wall that she had repaired for weeks, tearing open like a piece of paper with a fist smashing through it. Like it was never there at all. Fragile.

It’s all coming undone, Fresh watches as the monstrous amalgamation of dust and ice lurches after them. Its body is constantly regrowing as it swallows up anything and everything into itself as the ice regenerates. Jagged boards, nails, insulation, coins, potions, everything that is around the monster is absorbed, as it charges through the wreckage, as it tears their home apart in its mindless pursuit. All of it.

As they run forward towards the dungeon, a hand tightly grips hers. Fresh looks away from the carnage and destruction for a moment. She looks back forward ahead of themselves towards the giant gate that is not far away now. The usual aura of the glowing portal is accentuated by the strangely bright night that shines with a cool glow, despite its moonlessness. The girl’s heart pounds, thrashing in her chest as she feels a new terror overcome her core as she sees it. As she sees what’s wrong with it, the dungeon. As she sees what Jubilee hasn’t yet. Time seems to slow down for a moment, her senses becoming far beyond hyper-alert as her mind races in thoughts at a speed far too fast for her waking mind to follow, as the voice in the back of her head tells her something. Something that she feels, but can’t explain.

The world is so loud. So noisy. It’s full of the sounds of smashing and chaos, it's full of the sounds of their frantic running and of the collapsing of the world she knows and has built. But there is also a single sound that she differentiates. A single, clear voice that she can hear in the debris exploding around her. A single, laughing trickle, as the fountain, just behind the dungeon, continues on dripping like it always does. As it lets her in on a little secret tonight, like it always so likes to do.

Not because it cares. But because it’s funny, is all.

The water trickles. The fountain laughs. Fresh’s eyes open wide in horror and now she herself yanks to the right, pulling Jubilee away from the dungeon-gate in an instant, as her sense of time returns to normal. Just as the streak of the red aura shoots from the top of the dungeon portal down to the bottom, like the strike of a bolt of lightning. Just as the long neck of the first vampire lashes out of the great construction.

Then another. Then another. Then another.

Dozens of long, winding necks press themselves out of the dungeon-gate, flailing around like worms rising from the dirt of a grave on a rainy day. The blue glow of the ethereal portal shifts entirely, turning into a dark, crimson red in an instant, as if it had been tainted by a corrupting, foul blood.

The fountain laughs, as it tells her again, just because it’s funny, it tells her again, that the bad times are here and that despite her hardest efforts, she isn’t ready in the least.

Isn’t that just hilarious?