Permafrost

77: Temperature

⭐️Chapter 77: Temperature

"You guys put your home on a VOLCANO?!" Ryn shrieked.

"Well, when it wasn't active. It actually hasn't been active for several, several years according to my dad," Corrin replied.

"Okay, and NOW it's becoming active! We have to do something, and fast!" Ryn exclaimed.

"Right, uh, what to do..."

Fang gave him a look as if he was doing something wrong.

"Dude."

"What?"

"If the kingdom is over a volcano, then what the heck is sealing off the mouth of the volcano to allow you to stand on it?"

"Oh. Rocks and really tough ice probably."

"Both of those are going to melt, and then we're going to be in trouble," Fang snarled.

"Well, we need a small spot to open up so we can throw Misty's stone down there and she'll be forever rid of," Jack said.

"Oh yeah, let's do that first," Jay piped up from behind the group.

"GUYS!" Ryn shouted.

"What?!"

"We have to evacuate EVERYONE off of here!"

"But the stone...." Corrin muttered.

Everyone was in a mess. Nobody could decide where to go first, what was most urgent, what to do. And Misty....well, she was out, but for how long?

"CORRIN!" Ryn exclaimed.

"WHAT?!" Corrin shouted back.

"OUR PARENTS, OUR FRIENDS, AND SEVERAL OTHER INNOCENT LIVES MIGHT BE GONE BECAUSE OF THIS IF WE DON'T DO SOMETHING!" Ryn shrieked at the top of her lungs. "I know we said Misty was bad, but COME ON!"

"Okay, okay! We need to figure something out, then!" Corrin barked back, now starting to get a little irritated and stressed with what was going on.

The others were getting worried. None of them had a plan formulated in their heads yet, but they didn't have all day. They also couldn't risk a friendship breakup smack dab in the middle of a Kingdom collapsing. Zane was starting to wake up, but after hearing the chaos, he turned into a squid in Rehl's arms and went back to sleep.

"Alright, yknow what?! Let's get both done at the same time! IceStar can evacuate everyone because they have access to the dungeons. The Infernos can find a place to drop Misty's stone to finish her off!" Fang growled out of impatience.

Luckily for him, the group was ready to stop arguing. Both sides nodded, and then headed to the castle to split up. Fang then looked up at Tempest, who was watching the chaos unfold from her tower.

"And you!" Fang barked, "Go help the citizens escape or something, I don't care! Unless you want to prove you Rinklings have a heart of ice..."

Before Tempest could respond, Fang went after the others. Of course, the thing he'd failed to address (though he still recognized it anyway) was the fact that he was neither an Inferno nor an IceStar. He was a Wave Crasher, and the rest of his team would have to be released from their rightfully-deserved prison (even if they hadn't commit a major crime) just in case the volcano erupted and so the Rinklings wouldn't be charged with (uncalled for) murder of other civilians. Well, the Frost Army had probably murdered a lot already, but that was besides the point. He decided to go with IceStar, since his team resided in the dungeons...though a part of him still wanted to join the Infernos.

The Infernos ran out into the open kingdom as citizens fled down the mountain using the main entrance. Guards and others were helping out as the ground shook from underneath everybody. Despite the calm snow covering the beautiful kingdom, screams of terror changed it all. Jack checked the stone again to make sure he still had the real deal, and he did. Couldn't have someone else swapping his out with a fake.

-----

IceStar was running to the dungeons, having found the spare set of dungeon keys to unlock the doors. They carefully weaved their way around the Rinklings who were also freeing innocents, though some were going elsewhere. Jay immediately made a run for the Thistlins, and found that them and the people around them were still locked up. The group as a whole agreed to check on the Wave Crashers last, so they started on freeing the civilians from Laocrah Town first. Clara had asked where Ryn and co. were, but Corrin simply told her that Ryn herself would explain later and that for now they should just flee with everyone else to get to the ice slides the Rinklings were starting to make.

-----

The Infernos were now looking for an open spot to throw the stone into. They were on a ticking time bomb here, because not only were they on unstable ground, but they needed to do something before Misty saw Jack had her stone and attacked the group to get it back. They also had to make sure that they themselves did not fall into the lava because there were no respawn points in sight and they weren't taking chances. Now, one idea would be manually making the crack if the time didn't come, but that was risky. The other option was checking to see if there was an existing crack.

The group looked towards the middle of the kingdom, where there wasn't much except rocks and compacted snow from people walking on it. However, they could see snow starting to cave in around one area, and figured that that might be a weak spot. Ryn threw over a burst bomb to see if her ink would be able to melt the snow and reveal any cracks. Sure enough, it did, and it revealed the fact that there was indeed a small area starting to cave into the volcano. Of course, it had to be bigger for the stone, but it could work.

Hearts pounding out of sheer anxiety, the Infernos slowly got closer to the one area as screams and people leaving still filled the area. Ryn tossed over more burst bombs in an attempt to speed up the process, and little by little the dent was made bigger and the crack was made larger. Then, on a stroke of pure luck, the mountain shook to the point that the Infernos had to get to the ground to avoid falling as houses around them started to collapse. The crack in the ground opened up a lot more, and bits of snow and rock nearby fell into it. This was their chance, and it was now or never. Jack got as close as he could to the crack and threw in Misty's stone.

He watched it fall down, down, down into the lava. The group could hear an audible shriek from where they were as the stone was consumed by the molten rock, and they took that as the signal that Misty was gone, once and for all. Just to be sure, they looked up to where Misty had rested herself after activating the volcano. Sure enough, she was gone. No trace of her whatsoever as the lava bubbled. So the Infernos had done their job...

But...

What would happen to the Ice Kingdom?