Permafrost

56: Phantom

⭐️Chapter 56: Phantom

When Corrin woke up, he found himself on the cold, hard floor. He sat there, looking around at his surroundings. Everything was still so...blue. His entire body stung with pain, and he couldn't find the strength within him to sit up, no matter how hard he tried. He simply lay there, unmoving.

But then...It all slowly came back to him.

The fight, the attacks. Someone had knocked him cold. His friends had tried to defend him, and had failed. One of the rivals revealed one friend had boiling hot ink.

A Pyroling.

Corrin jolted upright, despite his injuries.

'I can't tell dad about this! He'll find out about those Infernos, and I think that small red inkling fight be the creature of fire!' Corrin screamed in his head, panicking.

He winced as the pain caught up with him, and he laid back down on his back. Nonetheless, his heart remained beating as quickly as it was. He had to do something about this, but...he didn't know what. Within the silence of the room, he heard a door opening. Dear cod, who was it?

Hopefully it wasn't a castle member he was acquainted with. He didn't want to deal with their concerns right now.Corrin sat in silence as the footsteps neared him. He tried to remain calm but found himself failing. Corrin braced himself as a familiar octoling hovered his head over Corrin's.

"Rehl?! Oh thank goodness, I need your help...wait-how did you get here?!" Corrin asked.

"Ah, I brought him with me to look for you!" a cheerful voice replied.

"Jay?!" Corrin exclaimed.

"You told me to wait an hour, and I did!"

"Jeez, it's been an hour already?" Corrin mumbled to himself, though Rehl was within earshot.

"Forget that, what's wrong with your face?" Rehl asked.

Corrin hesitated. He still didn't trust his friends with the information. However, this situation was becoming more and more urgent. He needed all the help he could get. Slowly, he took in a deep breath.

"You know that stupid prophecy about the fire creature coming here to stop us?" Corrin asked.

Rehl nodded as Jay skipped over.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"It's true."

"You mean to say you've met this creature of fire?" Rehl asked.

"Yes, and you know that recent raid on Laocrah town?"

"Yeah?"

"Basically they're from there, but this big, mean group of what looked like X Rankers stole some of our gear and weapons, and we all got into a fight. They knocked me out, then froze the fire creature and their friends and put them in the dungeon," Corrin explained with a sigh.

"But...if they're of fire...why didn't they break free?" Jay asked.

"They seemed a little younger than me, so I assumed they didn't know how to use their power yet. Also I only heard "boiling hot ink", and no actual fire."

"That's still a Pyroling," Rehl replied. "The prophecy is true..."

"But now I don't know what to do! I'm not prepared to be beaten up again!" Corrin exclaimed, hands flying to his head.

"I think you're going to need to use the Nitro Blade for this one..." Jay said, now concerned for his friend.

Corrin gasped at that. The Nitro Blade was a nitro weapon that was, you guessed it, a sword. Like all nitro weapons, it could freeze things solid if it came into physical contact with them. He'd rarely used it during practices, but had done so in case of an emergency.

"But I don't feel comfortable freezing a bunch of people I don't know about," Corrin sighed.

"If they attack you first, you have the right to claim self defense," Rehl explained.

"If...if you say so..."

"Where are they again?" Jay asked.

"They're in the dungeon."

"Then let's go to the dungeon and free them!"

"Alright, fine..."

The two slowly helped Corrin up, and the trio made their way over to the castle's medical wing. They needed to get fixed up before a fight. As they made their way over, Corrin explained everything to them. The way down, the meeting, Kagayaku, all of that. At this point, he just couldn't take it anymore.

It felt good to get the information off his chest, anyway. He thought he could keep all that information in, but it came to a point where it got pretty bothersome. He'd changed his mind about telling his friends, because he didn't expect the situation to rise-or sink-to this. The Infernos were down, and he knew he wasn't physically able to take on a colossal squid and three giant ones alone. As the trio got into the wing, the nurse currently there panicked when she saw Corrin.

Corrin quickly lied that it was a sparring accident, through the nurse shook her head after inspecting him thoroughly. She sighed, and asked him if it was urgent or not. Corrin, Rehl, and Jay all nodded yes, and added that the king already knew about this. The nurse went into a back room for a few minutes. The Rinkling then came out with a small vial of clear, red fluid.

Handing it to him, she asked him to never speak of this ever. Corrin carefully drank all of the contents, and found himself back at full strength with only small traces of injury left. Oh, the wonders of a Shadowling potion. Thanking her and promising to keep it a secret, the trio them left the room. The only thing left to do now would be grab weapons and go to the dungeon. The Rinklings used special crystals to hold and release their weapons, so Rehl and Jay needed to get theirs.

Also, the Infernos would need them too.

Corrin made his way over to the storage rooms as quickly as they could, while Rehl and Jay went back to their rooms to get their weapons. It took them a minute, but the three of them were then able to meet back up in a main hall successfully. Corrin had also taken an alternate route to grab the Nitro Blade from the guard rooms as well, and store it in the crystal.

"Are we ready to go?" he asked as he got into the room.

"Yeah, we just need a plan," Rehl replied.

"Unfortunately, I think we'll have to make one when we get there," Corrin said.

"Why?" Jay asked.

"We'll need to see what kind of situation the groups are in first."

"I...Okay, I guess..." Rehl replied with uncertainty.

Nonetheless, the group shook it off and made a mad dash towards the door that Corrin had come out of when he'd taken the Infernos to his room. There were other entrances, but this one was the closest one. Adrenaline was pumping as the three friends made their way over. They didn't have time to grab any other allies, this was urgent. As they neared the door, their excitement and readiness grew. Corrin began to slow down as the group got closer.

"We're almost there-"

"Hold it."

A cold voice split the quiet castle room like a blade. A puff of white smoke appeared in front of the dungeon's entrance, and when it cleared, a figure glared down at the three.

Zane was blocking the door.

"You're not going anywhere."