"Roar!"
A massive Frost Dragon beat its wings and appeared above them.
Each sweep of those enormous wings whipped up violent gusts, and together with the surrounding snowstorm, it could easily trigger a full blizzard.
"What... is that thing?!" Four Arms's eyes went wide. Where had that monster come from?
"This is bad." Worry flickered in Gwen's eyes.
"That's Mr. Jingles's proudest creation!" Elsgood recognized the creature in the sky at once. "It's called the Frost Dragon. It was originally just a statue, but Mr. Jingles used magic to control it!"
Swampfire looked up at the ice dragon with complete disdain. No matter how the Frost Dragon roared and tried to intimidate him, he didn't budge.
"Cuz, get out of there!" Gwen shouted urgently. That was the center of the dragon's attack path.
"Get out of there?" The corner of Swampfire's mouth lifted slightly. "The one who should leave is it, not me."
Gwen froze, then quickly realized that Cuz's strength was terrifying now. He didn't even take giants seriously anymore.
"Roar!" The Frost Dragon threw back its head and let out a thunderous cry.
Then it dived straight down, its huge body aiming to smash the intruder to pieces.
Swampfire's gaze sharpened, and he slapped the Omnitrix on his chest.
Boom.
A towering giant rose straight up from the ground.
Way Big let out a low growl, clenched his mountain-sized fist, and drove it into the Frost Dragon's jaw, instantly sending it flying sideways.
The Frost Dragon was caught completely off guard. It had thought the enemy was some small fry, not a giant monster.
In midair, the Frost Dragon beat its wings hard to steady itself, then opened its fanged mouth and spat out a blast of icy dragon breath.
The freezing breath crashed into Way Big.
Way Big stood firm without moving an inch, letting the frost batter his body like an immovable mountain.
"That little attack isn't even enough to tickle me," Way Big said with a laugh.
An ordinary alien might have been frozen solid, but he was Way Big, carrying To'kustar DNA.
That race was born in terrifying cosmic storms, with bodies of extreme resilience and near immunity to elemental attacks.
"Roar!"
Seeing its attack fail, the Frost Dragon poured on even more ice power and unleashed its strongest freezing breath. At that point, it didn't dare hold anything back.
"Cosmic Ray!"
Way Big held his left arm flat and raised his right arm straight up, firing a blue Cosmic Ray.
The freezing dragon breath couldn't stop it at all. It was overwhelmed instantly and forced back toward the Frost Dragon.
Boom!
The overwhelming Cosmic Ray blasted the Frost Dragon apart, shattering it into countless icy fragments that scattered through the snowstorm.
"Oh yeah, Cuz is insanely strong!" Four Arms said, giving a thumbs-up.
"See? I told you he was amazing." Gwen smiled as she showed off to Elsgood, her eyes full of pride.
"Correct." Elsgood nodded in agreement.
...
After the fight, Elsgood led them to a secret room.
The moment they stepped inside, they saw a whole wall of photo albums.
One kindly old man appeared in them more than anyone else, often posing with the little dwarves.
"Who's that?" Gwen asked.
"That's Mr. Jingles, the owner of the Christmas Resort."
Lucian's eyes shifted as he noticed one photo of Mr. Jingles with a little boy.
And it was in black and white.
"The little boy next to Mr. Jingles is me." Elsgood stepped forward and looked at the photo, nostalgia rising in his eyes.
Back then, he had still been a normal person. He hadn't turned into a dwarf yet.
"Then why is it black and white? Cameras are all color now. When did you take this picture, Elsgood?" Gwen asked in confusion.
"Huh? Just a few days ago."
"What year?"
"1932, of course." Elsgood said it as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
But to Lucian and the others, it sounded unbelievable.
1932? What kind of concept was that?
That was the last century.
They were already in the twenty-first century now, decades removed from 1932.
Lucian frowned and thought it through carefully.
Not only did the timeline not match, but from outside in the desert, they couldn't see any trace of the Christmas Resort at all.
Outside was blazing summer, while inside was a frozen winter world.
That made no sense.
Unless... they hadn't just crossed through space, but also through time, and ended up in the Christmas Resort of 1932.
That would make everything fit.
At that moment, Elsgood walked over to a streetlamp and pressed it.
A hidden passage immediately opened in the floor, leading straight down into darkness.
"Come on, follow me. Your grandpa is inside." After saying that, Elsgood jumped right in.
Lucian touched his lengthened ears and gave a bitter smile, then followed.
Gwen jumped in right after him.
"Wait for me!" Ben hurried after them.
...
The group dropped through the hidden passage and landed in a sea of presents.
Lucian poked his head up and looked around.
This was clearly a gift factory. Little dwarves were everywhere, standing along assembly lines and working day and night.
Numerous blue toy bears carried cargo back and forth like cheap labor, hauling things around like emotionless transport machines.
As for the toy soldiers, they served as guards. Every one of them carried a sword. Though expressionless, they looked even more intimidating that way.
The gift boxes nearby rustled.
Ben and the others poked their heads out too, glancing around in confusion.
Elsgood pointed at an entrance and said, "That's the entrance to the workshop. The Jingle Heart is inside. It's Mr. Jingles's machine. You have to destroy it to break the Christmas Resort's curse."
"But the workshop entrance is heavily guarded. It'll be hard for you to get in."
As Elsgood spoke, they watched one reindeer after another slowly entering the workshop with loads of gifts on their backs.
Two tall toy soldiers stood there motionless, not stopping the reindeer at all.
"I've got an idea!" Gwen's eyes lit up.
...
A moment later.
Wildmutt, with two antlers stuck onto his head, disguised himself as a reindeer and carried Lucian and the others slowly toward the workshop.
The reindeer ahead passed through one after another without any trouble.
But when it was Wildmutt's turn, one of the toy soldiers extended its long sword and blocked his path.
Those pitch-black eyes actually showed a trace of confusion.
Gwen gave an awkward smile and pointed at Wildmutt beneath her. "Uh, hehe... he's from Europe..."
As if it understood, the toy soldier withdrew its weapon and let Wildmutt pass.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
But after Wildmutt entered the workshop, a toy reindeer walked over.
It looked Wildmutt up and down for a moment, then suddenly let out a shrill scream...