"The arrogance of mankind is to believe that nature is under its control ..."

May 4

Year 2150

Southern Norway

Although winter was finally over and the beginning of spring days was looming, the weather remained very low in the lands of Norway. The last layers of snow still managed to hold on some hills.

On the fjord, bathed by the northern sun of this early afternoon, stood the town of Arendelle. Census population: 400,000 inhabitants. Arendelle was a very old town and steeped in history. Founded in the Middle Ages and known in the 1800s as the country's royal capital and one of the most influential trading ports, it had evolved over the centuries, eventually becoming one of the most advanced cities in terms of technology across the country. The modest brick and wood houses had given way to buildings and towers with glass walls. The stalls of yesteryear, replaced by high-tech shops. The port that once hosted merchant ships from other kingdoms, now served to accommodate large liners and other luxury ships and filled with tourists keen to see the historic monuments present in the city.

Indeed, despite this era of progress and technology, Arendelle remained very attached to its heritage and had been able to preciously preserve several places in its history. One of them, a little away from the city but which could be reached quickly by car, was a magnificent castle, perfectly preserved and built on the water's edge.

This symbolic castle was the domain of the kings and queens of Norway who succeeded one another during the old era. But today, the monarchy having disappeared for a very long time, it was only a kind of museum for tourists.

But today, the castle closed its doors exceptionally, for scientific reasons. A team, belonging to the Monarch organization, had privatized the place in order to conduct careful research. Even employees working usually at the castle were not allowed in while the team was there.

One of the team members was alone, walking slowly through one of the halls of the castle. With his pensive eye, he looked one by one at the objects and paintings exhibited under large glass cages. He focused his attention on one painting in particular. The one representing two young women, appearing to be sisters. One with silver blonde hair and wearing a big blue dress, and the other with red hair like fire, and wearing a green dress. The man stared at the painting, recognizing the two women. Elsa and Anna, two of the most famous queens who had marked the history of this country in their time. A very old legend even wanted Queen Elsa to have magical powers ... Other legends of Norway even said that the fjord would have been the scene of an apocalyptic battle between gigantic creatures that could have brought about the end of humanity ... the Norwegians seemed very proud to tell these legends to easily impressionable tourists...

_ "Professor?! Professor Serizawa?"

At that voice mentioning his name, the man, of Asian origin, readjusted his glasses on his nose and sighed softly. Henri Serizawa, that was his name. 29 years. Short black hair, small mustache and goatee. Dressed in a black suit and wearing the Monarch badge. Henri had organized this inspection at Arendelle Castle for good reason. A few months ago, he had got his hands on an old notebook, which had once belonged to his ancestor, Ishiro Serizawa, a great scholar, who apparently had met Queen Elsa and Princess Anna in person ...

_ "Professor Serizawa, ah there you are." then said a young woman, with brown hair tied in a ponytail and she too dressed in the same black suit and the same badge of the organization pinned to her chest. The woman looked in a hurry, leaning her hand against the wall and catching a little breath.

_ "What's going on, Doctor Lewis?" Henri asked in a neutral tone.

_ "Sir... we found it." the woman simply answered with conviction and a smile on her lips.

Right away, Henri's expression changed, becoming more enlightened, and without wasting any more time, followed his colleague with a hurry.

The two finally arrived in another room in the castle, which once appeared to be the old library. Other team members were all focused on one wall in particular, the back wall. One of the men, holding some sort of handheld device with a small blue screen in his hand, was hunched over the results and seeing Serizawa and Lewis come into the room, turned to them.

_ "We scanned the wall, sir ... and the result is final: there is a passage behind." asserted the man from Monarch.

Bingo, Henri thought to himself. According to beliefs, there is a secret passage under the castle. Until then, no one had ever found him, but it turned out that some stories could turn out to be true.

_ "Open this passage, immediately." Henri ordered.

Monarch's men obeyed and set about installing a device. Two small white metal robots, in the shape of spiders, were activated and crawled on the wall in question. From their heads, they fired a small red laser beam, beginning to cut an opening in the wall large enough to allow a human and equipment to pass.

_ "There you go, we're going to have another trial for degradation of a historic site. Do you collect them or what?" Lewis sighed, crossing his arms and looking at Serizawa with a slight shake of his head.

Serizawa didn't even answer, not looking away from the two robots' work, which after several minutes had finished. The block of the wall then collapsed heavily to the ground, revealing behind it a large dark tunnel. An old stale smell escaped it, making the team members wince.

_ "Gentlemen, get ready and let's go." Henri announced with determination.

In order to avoid possible gas pockets, the team put on gas masks and equipped themselves with torches. One by one, they entered the dark place, certainly being the first humans to enter in centuries.

They did not have to search very long to discover, a little further in the darkness, a pile of objects of different sizes, which seemed to have been intentionally put here, to be hidden there. Lewis and Serizawa gave each other the same puzzled glances and decided to go forward first to take a look. Their eyes then became round in amazement behind the visors of their masks.

Among the pile of objects was another paintings made in the 1800s, but this time depicting not members of the royal family ... but colossal and terrifying creatures ... One by one, with the beams of their torches, Lewis and Serizawa inspected each painting ... one showed a huge moth with sparkling wings ... the second, a monstrous reptilian bird covered in fiery flames ... the third, a big, massive roaring brown gorilla ... and the last, the most massive painting of all, showed a large humanoid lizard with black scales, its back covered with sharp thorns and unleashing the ocean around it ...

_ "Oh my god ..." Lewis sighed in shock at this discovery "It was true ..."

Although in shock as much as his comrade, Henri managed to move forward a little further, also examining the other artifacts present and covered in dust. One of them particularly caught his attention and he was speechless when he saw it, right at his feet ... it was him, he had finally found him, after so many years of searching for him through the world ... what his father and grandfather had told him about as a child ... as delicately as possible, he took it in his hands, wiping the dust that covered him ... Ishiro Serizawa's spellbook. .. Lewis came to his side, also panting at the sight of the old book that Serizawa slowly opened, revealing pages dusty but still very well preserved thanks to the lock-up. Looking at the contents of the pages, the two Monarch scientists were left overwhelmed by the surprise of their discovery.

_ "What does that mean, Mr. Serizawa?" Lewis asked.

_ "This means, my dear ... that contrary to what we thought, we know very little about this world in which we live." Henri declared before closing the book.

**************

Meanwhile...

Arctic Circle, off the coast of northern Norway

But what Monarch's agents didn't know was that they weren't the only organization operating in the area. On the sleeping ocean of the Arctic Circle, an imposing ship resembling a kind of great terraformer and equipped with multiple mining and drilling machines, had cast its anchor. On its dark gray metallic shell was a large, uppercase A-shaped logo, the right half of which was white and the left half was dark red. This was the logo of the corporation known as APEX.

But unlike Monarch which acted independently and discreetly, APEX was a public, global corporation renowned and important, in particular for its work concerning the drilling of precious minerals around the world, but also for these remarkable technological advances which had enabled humanity's technology to take a great leap forward in this age of new scientific discoveries that would shape the future even more.

There was a good reason why this APEX terraforming ship anchored in these waters so far from all land. A month ago, one of the corporation's satellites had detected strange signals coming from the Arctic Circle, and more precisely, very far off the coast of Norway. The satellite had also detected an important mineral deposit there, never discovered until now. Intrigued, the boss of APEX decided to organize an expedition, eager to be the first to make a discovery that could allow his already flourishing business to become even stronger.

And what the ship's crew, made up of some sixty men and women working for APEX, had discovered was beyond anything they could have imagined.

It might have looked like a gigantic glacier lost in the ocean, but it was much more than that. The scanners carried out by the very sophisticated machines of the crew had made it possible to conclude with a most surprising result: it was not a simple glacier, but an immense frozen river, which plunged into the depths of the abyss. However, the precise age and composition of this ice was impossible to determine by scanners, which further puzzled the crew.

While most of the crew had returned to the ship to prepare the drilling machines and begin mining this unidentifiable ice, a small team of men, equipped with polar suits and hard hats , had gone on patrol towards the center of this frozen river.

_ "Brrr ... even with the suit, I'm still cold." one of the men hissed.

_ "You are not paying to complain, Jim. So shut up and move on." answered firmly the team leader who walked in front.

Another of the men on the team held a detector in his hands and scanned everything around him for any unusual signs. In the first few minutes he saw nothing, but suddenly the small digital screen began to emit a small warning sound, the radar built into it indicating a direction close to the team's position as they approached from the center of this river.

_ "Hey, look. The portable radar picked up something over there ... it looks like ... yes, I'm not dreaming ... it's a form of life!"

_ "What? But nothing could live here." said the chief, reluctant at first, but seeing the result on the screen, had to admit that it was strange but not impossible.

Deciding to bet on caution above all, the team armed themselves with their weapons, machine guns, and advanced in military formation. In spite of the relief of the ground, thanks to their boots with crampons, they could without problem reach the center of the river. Immediately everyone was frozen by the sight of what they had in front of them.

_ "What the hell ...?" Jim gasped, his eyes wide.

_ "Holy shit ..." breathed in turn the team leader, just as shocked as the others.

In front of them was a large translucent ice crystal, several feet tall. But what shocked them the most was what was inside. It was ... a woman!

A very beautiful white-skinned young woman with long blond-silver hair and wearing a long white dress. She had her eyes closed, her arms around her body, and seemed to be sound asleep. The dress she was wearing, very light, seemed to date from another era.

The man with the radar, despite the shock of this discovery, stepped forward and scanned the structure with his device. The blue laser beam covered the crystal for a few seconds before disappearing and the result came to the screen.

_ "Normal bio-reaction on screen. Vital signs detected. She's alive." asserted the scientist, stunned and his eyes shining with fascination. The ice constituting this river being impossible to analyze effectively, it was impossible to know since when this woman was in this state. Several years? Centuries? Millenniums?

_ "What are we doing, sir? That was not planned." Jim asked.

The team leader thought for a few moments, but quickly made his decision. Taking his communicator in his belt, he activated it to contact the rest of the crew on board the terraformer.

_ "Reconnaissance team on report. Contact APEX headquarters immediately and tell them to send a cargo plane urgently." the team leader asked, not looking away from the woman sleeping in the ice crystal.

_ "Why? What did you find?" the voice asked in the communicator.

_ "You will never believe it ... the boss will hallucinate when he sees this." the team leader laughed softly.