Dungeon of Niflheim

"....Well that was stupid." Khione brutally mocked, her tone biting and sharp causing Frost's upper lip to twitch. He expected to be insulted but not for it hurt so much.

"Yeaaahhh stupid sounds about right but I didn't exactly have much choice. I was presented with a situation that went against my personal ethics and was thus forced to travel down a path that veered away from theirs." Frost shook his head, his shoulders feeling heavy from carrying this immense weight but even, so he didn't regret his actions in the slightest.

Sedrick backed Leo's treasonous uncle and commissioned the illegal and brutal enslavement of Nanna and Loki of course he couldn't side with a man that was scum in human form. While Randolph the crown prince tried to use him as a sacrificial pawn in his own conflict, looking down on him as if he was something disposable and unimportant. An attitude that made his spine tingle and want to slap the smile off his pompous face regardless of the consequences.

Refusing to play ball with the high and mighty Crown Prince, openly insulting and even threatening him after an S-rank powerhouse rushed to his aid he was officially labelled an enemy, a thorn in his side that would eventually be eliminated.

Thankfully he had the support of Douglas Furano and the respect and acknowledgement of Northrend's Emperor Franz Northrend. Alas everything came crumbling down suddenly when Randolph revealed himself to be an even more despicable piece of shit that his younger brother.

Northrend spiralled into a violent civil war, the nobles fiercely divided between the two brothers, slowly but surely destroying the foundations that had been painstakingly built up over the centuries.

The only reason his camp cum city-state was able to survive and grow was because he wasn't considered a substantial threat. Both Randolph's and Sedrick's military strengths were focused on restraining one another granting him a brief reprieve the key word being brief.

Knowing or at least guessing the extent of the threat posed Frost refused to leave his territory until a proper defensive wall had been established, one that stood taller, thicker and even more heavily armed than Furano's during the stampede. But the moment he stood at the gates of Icethorne it was as though a lightning bolt crashed onto his head, enlightening him to the horror of what he could face in the not so distant future.

Walls that stood over 100 metres high and over a dozen thick. Peaks littered with mana cannons, archery and mage platforms, ballistae, war machines and that's all on top of the tens of thousands of brave men and women that defended her from fierce onslaught throughout the year. Even just an offshoot, a single well equipped regiment from the War Ursa Battalion would be enough to crush his city-state and Dungeon into dust.

As he travelled and saw more of the world and the level of strength it held Frost became more and more worried, stressed and even frightened.

He did his best to lock these feelings away in the deepest reaches of his heart, focusing on improving his own strength to an almost fervent degree. Pushing his body and potential as far as it could go and then some, pain was just a sign of gain.

But now that he was out and about with Khione this musclebound beauty as they toured Niflheim, visiting the many sights offered and tasting the sumptuous treats available his mind eased and relaxed allowing this stress and worry to rise to the surface.

Khione's strength and large stature provided him as sense of comfort as though even if the sky fell she would stand tall and hold it high above her head.

Feeling a need to get his worries off his chest he explained to his date the difficulties he was facing, the current and future problems that plagued him endlessly, problems that he needed to be the one to take care of giving his role as ruler.

Frost spoke at length, detailing his rise, his encounters, his experiences and his greatest threats and compared himself to Shivali who despite taking millions of years to achieve his realm's current level of development had significant advantages.

Unlike him he was a God and one of the most powerful, time meant nothing to him, he could go slow and steady without feeling the need to rush. His strength surpassed his own by more than a significant margin even at the very beginning of their existence thus eliminating most if not all manner of threats. But the most substantial difference was the fact that his territory was surrounded by competitors, competitors that were already highly established and were not wont to share territory. While Niflheim was separated from Nova, situated within its own dimension making it almost impossible for an invasion to take place his Dungeon and his recently developed city-state was practically a sitting duck, a quickly growing weed within a garden filled with tall trees and vibrant bushes.

The moment this weed started to spread its roots and fight for dominion it'd be targeted by its neighbours and if he wasn't smart and lucky, eliminated from the race completely.

"I need power, and I need it quickly, Northrend is in a perilous situation and unfortunately I don't have the means to defend myself against them once this civil war is over." Frost bemoaned as a cold sweat dripped down his forehead.

He acknowledged Avira's talent, her bravery and skill but she was for all intents and purposes an underdog among underdogs. Her only support was a single A-rank General from the Frost Wolf Battalion and a few die-hard nobles who either refused to join Randolph's or Sedrick's camp or firmly followed the will of the Emperor and Empress even after their unfortunate demise. That was the extent of her means in the capital, hardly a force that would allow her to fight for a piece of the pie let alone claim it entirely for herself.

Her main backer was Duke Oscar Runak, War Marshall of the War Ursa Battalion and Lord of Icethorne, Northrend's strongest and most valiant solider, a man who represented both Northrend's strongest sword and most invincible shield.

Duke Runak's capabilities would in fact give Avira a fighting chance, his forces more than a match for two possibly even three other Battalions while he himself could crush any other General both in and out of military service.

Unfortunately because of Northrend's situation an alliance had been formed by the most powerful nations and tribes in the Glacial mountain's inner regions, their aim to depose Duke Runak and his War Ursa Battalion from their chokepoint that restricted their influence into the external regions and further south. The timing was almost too much of a coincidence.

Avira with her heart filled with hope and naïve determination arrived before her loving uncle and spoke her of desire and the desires of her now deceased father. She wanted him to help her ascend to the throne and punish the evil in human form that was her eldest and second brother alas her hopes and dreams were almost shattered.

Her strongest backer the person who'd be able to give her a fighting chance was powerless to lend his aid. His mighty army and immovable bastion were under siege, attacked by an enemy that had a decent chance at wiping them out. All Duke Runak could do was promise to hold them off for a few months, he couldn't even offer a single squad to aid in Avira's just endeavour.

The chances of Avira having a chance to take the throne were too minuscule for Frost to place his hopes on at least at the current venture therefore he needed to plan for either Randolph or Sedrick's inevitable thorn removal.

Even if you don't count the number of A-rank Generals that would be sent just to supervise a clean and thorough invasion the number of basic soldiers would be more than enough to overwhelm his current forces.

The Ice trolls, Ronsos and Yuki-onnas were strong but even they with the support of the Dungeon's mana and its beneficial environment couldn't fight a hundred or even several hundred to one.

The more Frost allowed himself to think of the future and the image of tens of thousands of war bred soldiers marching upon his territory, standing stalwart and intimidatingly before his measly 20 metre wall the more panic stricken he became. His heart started to rapidly thump, his blood pressure rose, his head started to ache and spin while a feeling of nausea curdled in his stomach. He needed to sit down and take a breath, get his bearings.

Khione listened attentively throughout his explanation and the moment she so him clutching at his chest and growing red in the face she picked him up like a Princess and dashed towards a nearby bench sat him down, retrieved an empty travel bottle from her storage ring and filled it up with water from a nearby free access water fountain.

"Drink this slowly and take deep breaths, in… out… in… out… in… out." She rubbed his back in a soothing manner her face mirroring some of his panic not expecting him to have such a sudden adverse reaction. The man she thought was confident, bold and unshakeable had so much weight on his shoulders, a weight that he refused to let anyone else see until he relaxed with her.

Khione felt touched by the trust and sense of comfort he had towards her but at the same time she felt a pain in her heart. Seeing Frost suffering like this, hurt, she wanted nothing more than to help him, to lift this weight from his shoulders and bear the burden herself, just so she could she that warm smile of his never falter.