Vol 2 Eternity of ice part one Small man big giant saga
Chapter 23: The New Sun
The violent air began to calm itself. The soil rested once again. The clouds—what was left of them—hung in the skies, gray and angry.
Melody stood with her head bowed, tears beginning to form.
Goodbye, father, she thought to herself.
I watched her. The scene before me was incredible—an enormous crater was all that remained, and the sky above still cracked open.
In that moment, it felt like my body moved on its own. I ran toward her. I didn't know what I was going to say when I reached her, or what I could possibly do to comfort her. What does one do in a situation like this? I had so many questions—so much I wanted to understand.
When I reached her, my arms wrapped around her and I pulled her close.
"Mel," I began to say.
"No, Maddox," she whispered through her tears. "Please… just hold me like this. There's no need to talk right now."
We stayed like that for a while—silent until we were interrupted.
Pink sparks began to pulse through the air. A glowing ball of pink, glitching with flickers of light, appeared in front of us. We looked at it, surprised and confused.
"Melody…" a familiar voice echoed from it—and in a flash of blinding light, poof! Lilith and Eliza appeared.
"Mother!" Melody gasped, running into her arms.
"You did good, my sweet, sweet daughter," Lilith said, holding her close and glancing up at the broken sky above.
"El…" I breathed, looking at her. "How…?"
"Hi, Maddox," Eliza said with a smile. "Look how filthy you look," she teased, coming in to hug me.
I hugged her tight. She still smelled of roses—the same scent I'd always known. I leaned close and whispered in her ear.
"All the pain… all the emotions poured out in those few words. I was finally relieved.
'El… it's finally over.'"
Her tears soaked into my sleeve, but I could feel the smile on her face. We both knew: our friends could finally rest. Hules Orphanage could finally be at peace. Today, we had won.
We walked through Bounty Reach, Lilith leading the way, explaining to El and me the truth about Magnus. She apologized for keeping it secret for so long—and why she had done what she did.
When we reached the edge of Bounty Reach, I was beyond speechless. It looked like the edge of a dome, where the sky folded downward onto itself—as if we had reached the edge of the world. That was the only way I could explain it. The border of the world.
The sky itself had begun to crack.
Lilith took a deep breath and placed her hand against it. The surface broke away, splintering like tiny shards of glass.
As it slowly fell apart, what was revealed took my breath away. My mind couldn't even comprehend it. My jaw dropped—so did Melody's and El's. Even Lilith began to cry.
"So that's where you went…" she whispered.
We stood impossibly high above the clouds, atop what looked like the stump of a massive tree—a monumental tree stump that held all of Veloria and the lands.
The more the glass dome shattered, the more we could see: a clear blue sky emerged, so vivid it looked painted. The gray clouds of the dome vanished, revealing a real sky—and sunlight. Warm. Soothing.
I had seen this tree before—in the memories, in the pages of the Codex.
This was it.
The remains of the Tree of Life.
We looked down—so far down—and there it was: an ocean, vast and deep, blue like ink. Unreal in its beauty.
"Your father may not have been perfect… he was far from it," Lilith began. "But this… this is what he fought so hard to bring."
Birds from the dome sang as their wings opened wide, and they soared into this new world.
The real world.
The scent of the ocean hit me, and in that moment, I felt peace.
The world I had known… it was so small compared to this.
This—this was freedom.
I stood at the edge and raised my arms, basking in the new sun. And in that moment, I saw them—Bethany, Isaac, Ola, Ren—all the kids from the orphanage. Their faces flashed before my eyes. They were smiling. Finally, they could rest.
Wait—Neptune. Kimora.
They were still stuck down there, weren't they?
"Oh shi—I completely forgot about them!"
"Mel! We forgot about Neptune and—"
"Oh sh—" she cut in, eyes wide. We both sprinted back toward the gates of Bounty Reach.
"Wait, who?" El asked, confused.
"It's a long story, but we need to get back to Veloria—fast."
"Oh, then," El said, panting, "if we need to get back quickly… watch this."
We stopped and looked at her, confused—just as a pink, glitching dome pulsed into existence above us, warping space and time.
"I wasn't training for nothing," she grinned.
That reminded me—I never even asked how Lilith and Eliza got here in the first place…
"Well, I'll remain here," Lilith said. "Hurry back, okay?"
"Wait, why?" Melody asked.
"I can only carry two other people plus myself at the moment," she admitted.
"Oh… that's still really impressive though," I said, encouragingly.
"Yeah," she smiled, "I really did work hard."
"We'll be back soon, Mother," Melody said.
And just like that—poof—we were back in Veloria.
"That's such a cool ability, El," I said, still stunned. "So many surprises today…"
We rushed into the house and made our way to the basement, underneath the staircase—just as I'd left them. There they were: Neptune and Kimora. Still bound. Still looking absolutely pissed.
I didn't hear the end of it for five minutes straight.
Well deserved, I guess, I thought to myself dryly.
We returned to Bounty Reach two trips later using El's power—and like us, Neptune and Kimora were speechless when they saw the view.
But this time, when we looked over the edge, something caught my eye—movement. On the ocean's surface, something massive was approaching.
"Do you see that?" I asked, squinting.
Behind the figure… a trail of floating dbris.
Below, on the ocean surface—unseen by those above—was a giant.
Blue skin. White beard.
He marched toward the colossal tree stump, groaning with every step.
"This… truly will not do," he muttered.
He raised his right hand—and in his palm, something began to form. A long, cold rod, twisting and stretching into a sharp spear—no, two more forks joined it—forming a trident. A blue, ice-cold trident. Steam poured from its sub zero surface.
From above, i squinted, struggling to make sense of the shape.
Then it clicked.
WE were under attack.
"GET DOWN!" I shouted.
The trident had been thrown. It ripped through the air, immense and unstoppable. But it missed—
Or so we thought.
The man below vanished in an instant—blitzing out of existence—and as the trident soared past me, i saw him. I looked him in the eyes.
Lilith acted immediately.
Thunder cracked the sky as the man flew upward—now holding the trident. The skies, once clear, darkened again. Cold air spilled out, chilling everything.
The man aimed again, blue light gathering at the trident's core. He unleashed it.
A firestorm of light ripped through the sky.
" IT'S TIME, EL!" Lilith shouted. "GET READY!"
A hand pressed against my chest.
"Look after my daughter ," she said.
And just like that—I was weightless.
Pushed.
I plummeted off the edge—Melody followed. Then Eliza.
The trident came crashing down, followed by a frozen bolt of lightning.
It struck the sand of Bounty Reach—exploding. Shards of ice, mountains of crystal, froze the land instantly. Trees. Flowers. Buildings. Animals. People.
Kimora. Neptune. Lilith.
All frozen in place in a blinding flash of light.
What kind of power was this?
Godlike.
As we fell, screaming through the sky, El reached out—grabbed my hand—signaling for me to grab Melody's. The pink aura formed again.
She glanced around—then poof!
We reappeared inside a massive tree, smashing through branches, crashing down into a forest of gigantic green trees.
We landed with a hard thud on the cold, wet grass.
What had just happened?
From a distance, the great stump could be seen—frozen in space and time.
A frozen lightning bolt still crackled from the sky, embedded in the land.
And so…
The Age began.
The man landed on the icy surface. He looked around. Smiling.
"It is done," he said. "This will do."
And just like that… he vanished.
Like he was never there.
Future generations would speak of the events of this day.
The day an entire civilization was frozen in time.
The day the Age of Eternal Ice began.
Notes ~
Hi, I'm Dox
I've come up with a bit of a schedule for how I'd like to upload chapters going forward. I'll be releasing one chapter a day until the volume is complete. After that, there will be a break—a month or two at most, depending on how much I procrastinate—before the next volume drops.
If you've read this far, I truly appreciate it!
Please feel free to leave any feedback or share your thoughts its super helpful and helps me grow and catch things I might've missed or need to fix.
Thank you, and don't forget to shine brighter than the rest :)