Permafrost

71: Subzero

⭐️Chapter 71: Subzero

IceStar had led the Infernos and Fang out of the Throne room and back through the hallways towards Tempest's Tower. Her tower was technically in the same direction as Misty's room, but further onwards. There was a specific path the group had to take because the other paths either had guards the group wasn't willing to deal with, or were blocked off due to other events going on in the castle at the moment. King Chion hadn't told the guards about the change in plans yet, so until then the group had to remain hidden. Corrin was leading everyone with Ryn by his side, though he occasionally glanced back at the other members.

Fang in particular interested him. He was part of the Wave Crashers, sure, but maybe it was...good...that he wasn't sure which side to be on. Those bullies seemed like nothing but trouble, and perhaps it wasn't too late to change him back to the good side before he made a big mistake. Ryn and the rest of the Infernos on the other hand, weren't as sure. So what if he did a few good deeds here and there?

Jay was in the middle of the group, with Rehl and Zane in the back. Zane clarified that he would not fight Misty unless dire situations arose. While the group WAS a little annoyed (and also slightly confused, considering the fact he never had to join them in the first place), they just let it be. They could take on a spirit after they'd taken on two of King Chion's high-ranking subjects...at least, the Infernos assumed they were like that. As the group kept walking through the halls, up stairs, and in an out of doors, they began to strike up a conversation among themselves.

"Let's think of battle strategies for Misty!" Ryn started.

"Oh definitely! We should prepare ourselves if this spirit is supposedly strong enough to create weapons and start a cult..." Silvia added.

"Well, I don't know about the cult part, but yeah I get what you're saying," Corrin replied.

"So...are we just going to fight this spirit head on? There has to be a better way, right?" Jack asked.

"Well, the location she was moved to doesn't give us many options for stealth. The tower room IS pretty small," Rehl sighed.

"Can't we just break the stone she possesses?" Fang grumbled.

"No, because that'll free her of the stone. If we do something else, like throw the stone into a bottomless pit, Misty will be stuck to it, and won't be able to go very far from there," Corrin explained.

"Well then, do you guys have a bottomless pit or something?" Jack asked.

"Unfortunately not...I'm sure there's something else we have, though!" Jay replied.

The group was now nearing the tower area. The solid floor had turned into what LOOKED like bricks made out of ice. There was an arch that led out into the outside, a door nearby having been already opened. The ice bricks formed a sort of pathway/bridge to the tower, and the group could see faint rays of light shining onto it. They briefly stared at the beautiful architecture in front of them before continuing ahead and onto the path.

"Well we're gonna need it! If we want to rid of Misty for good, we need a permanent solution, not a temporary one!" Ryn exclaimed.

"Yeah! You say you wanna rid of her so badly, but you need a way to do it!" Cosmo chirped.

Corrin shook his head, acknowledging that the two were right about that.

"I know, I know, I just-"Suddenly, the group halted. There was a figure flying around the tower. At first their features weren't really noticeable, but when the humanoid creature landed on the roof and sat down, the group could make out wings and tentacles. Which could only mean one thing.

Skyling.

Not only that, but their ink was cyan, their tentacles were long, and they wore some sort of lightweight armor. The Infernos were soon able to recognize the familiar Skyling.

"Carp! It's Tempest!" Ryn quietly exclaimed.

"Stay quiet everyone!" Silvia whispered.

"What do we do?!" Cosmo cried.

"We need to get in there...but not alert her..." Jack muttered.

"Codsalmnit dad..." Corrin hissed under his breath.

The group quieted down for a minute to think. Tempest might be easy to distract, but it would be best that the group not even make themselves known to her. Sure, they could go up and ask her because Chion had let them get here, but she might not believe them. The last thing they needed was a fight with her before they fought Misty.

"Hey wait, is Tempest strong? If not, we could probably take her out!" Ryn suggested.

"Oh true! We could even long range it if we do it well enough!" Jay added.

"I'm not throwing any ninja weapons at her," Zane muttered.

"Aww beans...."

"I mean, we can just fight her normally...." Ryn said.

"Yeah, but then we'd waste energy that we need for fighting Misty," Corrin sighed, answering Ryn's question.

"Dangit, you're right. Hmm...."

While everyone was chattering, nobody saw Fang search the area. His eyes landed on a hand-sized chunk of ice, so he picked it up. Once again scanning the open area around him, he also saw that there was a group of very tall rocks nearby. Without warning, he threw the ice chunk towards it, the chunk making an audible "clack" as it hit the surface and fell down into the depths below. Everyone saw the chunk shoot by and turned around to face Fang, who'd hidden in a small splotch of ink he made. Turning back to see Tempest returning, the others followed suit and hid in their own ink.

Tempest halted flight as she heard the noise, and looked around. All she could see was the kingdom below and weird splotches on her ice bridge. Man, someone needed to clean that...anyway! She heard it come from the rocks nearby, so maybe it was over there. She decided to fly down the rocks to see if it was perhaps a ball or something.

"You guys are all stupid," Fang snorted, having seen Tempest actually fall for his trick.

"Hey!" Ryn exclaimed, a little angrily.

"Yeah, we kinda deserved that," Corrin shrugged, at least glad a plan at all was formed and put into motion.

Ryn turned to look at him, VERY confused.

"Wh-"

"Don't question it."

Since Tempest flew off to investigate, that meant...The group had a chance now!

Quickly, they jumped out of their ink and ran up the stairs and to the door of the room. It was moderately sized, not too big or small. Corrin reached for the doorknob and grabbed it, then started to move it around. A minute passed. Then two. Something was up.

"What's the holdup?" Silvia worriedly inquired.

"Uh. We kind of have an issue here..." Corrin replied.

"What's wrong?" Ryn asked.

The Rinkling prince turned to look at her.

"The door's locked."