Coldsnap: Storm's Call

Chapter 34: Into His Own Hands

We last read Chapter 33, in which Typhoon finishes cleaning up Coldsnap's "mess" and meets with her superior, Commander Windsor Galeforce, inside his office on the highest floor of his spire. Grabbing two bowls of popcorn, the duo promptly sit on a pair of beanbags before a magical, floating television screen depicting a live video feet of Moscow---the capital city of Russia---which is due to be hit by a nuclear strike from the United States the following day in retaliation for the "Russian-orchestrated attack" on the United States' Hoover Dam, which was in reality carried out by the Storm Sect. However, when Galeforce briefly leaves to use the bathroom, Typhoon reveals her true colors, exposing herself as a sick, twisted, love-hungry yandere with an unhealthy obsession with Galeforce, to the point of openly talking about having sex with him and outright killing anyone who would try to get in the way of their "relationship", despite Galeforce obviously not feeling the same way. This time, we check in with The Ascendant and see how he has been doing; between this and the war against Alpin and Flamestar two years ago, he has decided that he can no longer stand by...... Meanwhile, W.H.R.R.L. insists on seeing the endgame of Galeforce's plan personally---alongside the President---and Sledge, Geode, and their allies prepare for battle.....

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-The Ascendant's Sanctuary-

In his own separate pocket world, The Ascendant, the creator of the Mage Aspects, gazed down sadly at the big, blue world below, feeling deeply at fault for everything that he had indirectly put it through---and put the Mage Aspects through---over the past few years.

He saw Frost King Alpin and Morton Flamestar starting to become corrupt, so he had birthed Coldsnap with the express purpose of eventually defeating them; however, his heart ached for her due to acknowledging that he was placing a heavy burden on her by doing so. After all, if she had failed, then all of humanity would have ceased to exist. So.....no pressure, right?

That was two years ago, back in 2020. Now, in 2022, the Earth was in danger once again, and like before, it was one of his own creations that was the cause. He could only imagine the weight that had been on Coldsnap's shoulders back when she fought against Alpin and Flamestar.....and there was no doubt that she was going through something similar now. If only he had been more diligent with disciplining the rogue Mage Aspects who deviated from his mission.....then perhaps Coldsnap and her friends wouldn't have had it nearly as hard.

He had tried to banish Commander Windsor Galeforce, Typhoon, W.H.R.R.L., and the rest of the Storm Sect to Limbo eons ago, in an attempt to teach them a lesson for Galeforce sinking Atlantis. But, as his earlier argument with Coldsnap had shown, even exile wasn't enough to deter the Storm Sect from carrying out their schemes.

They were learning way too quickly, and straying from his mandates even more than Alpin and Flamestar had. Under Galeforce's direction, they had carried out numerous destructive terrorist attacks on Earth while posing as members of different countries, somehow reconfigured their own portal themselves to lead to anywhere on that planet, and even flooded the Grand Terminus, killing a large amount of Mage Aspects and severely displacing others.

.....And The Ascendant had mostly remained passive through it all.

But that was about to change.

Coldsnap had already informed him that she and her friends would take care of this situation themselves; that they could no longer rely on The Ascendant's intervention due to how poorly he had handled the situation with the Storm Sect thus far. But the guilt that The Ascendant felt was mostly incomparable; perhaps it was even on par with the remorse that Keena felt for killing Hydraxus.