Permafrost

72: Sheer

⭐️Chapter 72: Sheer

The group was quiet for a few seconds before Jack spoke up.

"Well, do you think there's a spare key hidden here?!"

Corrin winced at the reaction being loud, but he didn't really know what else to expect anyways. While it COULD be possible, the group didn't have time to look around for it. Tempest could be back any minute now, and they couldn't afford to waste time.

"Why don't we just bust the door down?" Fang grumbled impatiently, readying his tenta brella.

"Because then Tempest would KNOW we broke in. If we could get in without her knowing, then we probably wouldn't have to face her alongside Misty," Rehl explained.

"Ugh...well...maybe we can just...um..." Jack muttered, trying to come up with something.
"I wanna go through a window!" Cosmo exclaimed.

"Let's uh...not do that now..." Silvia said nervously, not wanting anyone to fail a jump and fall from this height.

Besides, the windows all seemed to be blocked and covered at the moment. There was no way any of them could achieve enough momentum to break the glass and not get tangled in the curtains if they tried to super jump or catapult themselves in via window.

"Hmm...Oh! Can we lockpick it?! Does anybody have the tools for that?" Ryn asked.

"I do, but I'm still not going to fight Misty," Zane grumbled.

"Fine, so be it! Let's just hurry and get this done!" Jack replied hurriedly.

Zane shook his head as he pulled out a piece of metal from his pockets. It was oddly shaped, but it managed to fit in the keyhole just fine. He squinted at the lock, and carefully moved the metal piece around until he heard a click.

"Got it."

He jostled the doorknob, and sure enough the door opened up without a problem.

"Hooray for having helpful teammates!" Jay and Cosmo cheered.

"Now let's go," Corrin said.

As the group set foot in the tower, they had a look around. Silvia closed the door behind them once they were all in, so that Tempest would suspect less. Overall, the room was pretty neat and well organized. There was a visible bed, desk and chair, as well has several crates and boxes containing unknown materials. As much as the group wanted to steal from the room, they knew they couldn't.

The ceiling of the room was fairly high. It was in a cone shape, and seemed to be made of a dark material...probably wood or metal of the sorts. The walls were smooth and well painted, though nobody could tell what substance they were made of. Everyone got to searching for Misty's stone, though they weren't quite sure about fighting in such a small place. Sure, maybe Tempest had been warned about damage beforehand but...why cause further trouble?

The group looked under things, in between crevices, everywhere they could get to. They especially dug through the boxes that were scattered around. Most of it seemed to be things like art material, old items and souvenirs, and other items that didn't seem to have a lot of value. However, everyone knew that they'd probably have to put all this stuff back together in case they were caught. They could leave things strewn about, and besides, it would probably be bad for when the fight started. They could risk stepping or tripping on things.

The group started to get to work. It was quiet for a long time until Fang spoke up.

"Hey uh, question."

Corrin looked up from his position, looking at some boxes on the floor.

"Yeah?"

"Do we have to summon Misty to throw her stone down the...whenever we're doing it? Can't we just do that or destroy the stone without her presence?" Fang asked. "Unless you answered that and I didn't hear it..."

"Well, if we did it while she was dormant, we'd be risking some things. Some possessed items teleport to a safer location by default when the spirit is resting, others send the spirit to another vessel nearby. I don't know if Misty's stone does either of these things since you know...it's never really moved and nobody's attempted anything with it until now, so my best bet it summoning her, beating her, then throwing her while she's weak," Corrin explained.

"Well yeah but if she's awake, can't she consciously escape her stone?"

"We'll have to make sure she doesn't!" Jay chirped.

The casual talk started to pick up the more the group worked, and they found that it helped pass time...even though they were on a time limit. They had to keep their voices hushed so that Tempest wouldn't be able to hear them if she came back. It was a small room, so there wasn't too much to look through...and yet at the same time the group was getting nowhere. Boxes were double, triple, even quadruple checked, and most furniture was moved to see if there were any hidden switches or buttons to activate a potential secret thing. Alas, there was nothing of the sort, no secrets to be found in this room.

The group was just about finished with checking every single box in the room at least once. Some of the group members had already double checked a few boxes and some were starting to check around the room again. Just then, Silvia stumbled into Rehl while walking across the room. She was trying to move a box back into its original location, but she guessed she didn't see the Mimic Ocsnowling until it was too late. He fell backwards into several boxes that the group had already checked, almost messing them all up upon landing.

"Oh, s-sorry about that!" Silvia said worriedly, extending an arm and offering to help them up.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," Rehl replied simply as he took her hand and stood up.

"Aww, and now we'll probably have to clean this mess up..." Silvia said, starting to remove some of the smashed boxes from the pile.

"Wait!" Cosmo exclaimed.

Ryn looked up.

"Huh?"

"Hmm? What is it?" Silvia asked, looking back at the area where Rehl had landed.

"Look!"

The Infernos and the others gathered around the area, looking for anything that could be important enough to shout out about. Suddenly, they saw a teal glimmer amongst all the boxes and junk. They were almost confident that their eyes all landed on it at the same time.
Because sure enough...

It was a large, teal, translucent stone.