Permafrost

78: Steam

⭐️Chapter 78: Steam

Okay, now that the stone mission had been accomplished, the Infernos needed to regroup with the others. At the moment, they could only assume that they were in the castle. They ran over, having to get through the main gate and through several several doors. Luckily for them, Corrin had run into one of the main rooms at the same time they had. He quickly explained the situation at hand: King Chion was rallying his elites to re-freeze the volcano.

The Infernos had noticed that the only other person with him was Fang, his teammates being absent. Corrin explained that they had all split up, and hadn't joined back up yet. However, it was not something to wait on since this was an emergency. The Infernos asked where to go since they'd dropped the stone into the volcano, and Corrin directed them to a series of hallways and stairs they could follow, promising he'd catch up after he did something. Nodding, the Infernos (and Fang) sped off, and Corrin ran in the opposite direction to do his thing.

He ran straight to the throne room, where his dad resided. As he got to and opened the doors, he could see several guards and elites running about the place, though his father was still on the throne. Corrin wove in and out of the people in the room, trying to reach Chion as quickly as he could while the ground still shook. Luckily Chion saw him, and instead made his way over to his son. Corrin looked up at him as the two met halfway.

"Son, I'm sorry about all of this. For not listening to you. I know now that I need to be less stubborn," Chion said, voice sorrowful and saddened. "It isn't your fault the kingdom is going to fall, even though you technically woke the spirit first. I should have listened from the start and rid of the stone before further damage could be done."

"Dad..." Corrin mumbled, though he was wide-eyed.

"I...I don't know what to say, but...."

He shook his head and pulled himself together as best he could.

"Thanks for believing in me and changing your ways."

Chion simply nodded in response. He then made a hand motion towards his son, one shooing him away gently.

"Now go, please. I have work to do."

"But dad, you might...you know...this is a dangerous task and I...I can't lose you!"

"Yes, yes, I know. But if that fate is to happen to me, I might as well deserve it. You know where your mother is anyway, don't you? Now go."

Corrin looked at his father with wide eyes, not expecting such words to come from him. However, he still understood the situation, so he nodded in confirmation before turning around and running out of the throne room. He then made a run for the halls and stairs he had told the Infernos to go to. His lungs burned, but at any moment the volcano could erupt and everything could collapse, and he wasn't taking that chance. He found the Infernos and Fang as they were starting to go up the staircase to the higher areas of the castle.

"Oh good, I found you," he huffed.

"You're back! How's your dad?" Ryn asked.

Corrin pointed to a window nearby the staircase, and all of the Infernos went to see. He had no more breath for speaking at the moment.

Meanwhile, Chion walked out towards the kingdom, where more and more cracks were opening up. He held up his hand, and a large icy trident was summoned. He then slammed the pole end onto the ground, and a large wave of ice shot from it. It began to cover the ground, though the volcano was still shaking. It seemed to be a battle of Misty's fire activation magic and Chion's ice subduing magic.

The Infernos watched him from an the window by the staircase. They figured Chion would win because Misty was gone, but magic was a strange thing. You never knew what could happen.

"Whoah..." Ryn muttered.Cosmo was also staring at the scene in amazement.

"How is he..."

"He's an Arctoling, a super powerful kind of Rinkling," Corrin replied, slowly regaining control of himself as his breathing slowed.

"Man, that's amazing!" Cosmo exclaimed.

"I agree, but we should keep moving while we can," Silvia said.

"Right, we have to get out of here," Jack added.

Corrin said no more, and the group kept going. It had only been about 2 minutes before another question was asked.

"So....all those innocent people from our home and those other homes...what about them?" Ryn asked.

"The prisoners that were taken from towns in an attempt to control the Fire Kingdom are released, but the ones actually punished for crimes...well...I don't know," Corrin said.

"That's okay, at least the innocents are getting out," Ryn sighed.

"Wait, how are they going to get back home?" Jack asked.

"Some of the other elite Rinklings with cryokinesis are working together to create ramps for everyone to go down," Corrin replied. "That's probably how you'll get home too. They're all up at the top of the castle because slides require a lot of elevation, so that's where we're going."

"Man, how many of you guys have that sort of stuff?"

"Eh, it's a 30% chance. Cold exposure does things to you in strange ways..."

As the group made it to the top of the castle, they could already see large groups of people with Rinklings instructing them on what to do as they generated their slides. The Infernos and Fang almost immediately recognized the citizens of Laocrah Town and ran over. Ryn however, faltered before she made her way over. Despite the kingdom crumbling and the mountain shaking, she still felt...bad. She turned around to face Corrin and ran up to him.

"Are you going to come with us?"

"If you want me to, since us Rinklings will all go back together," he replied with a smile.

"Yeah, sure! I think you'd like our home, and-"

The two were interrupted as a VERY large tremor shook the mountain. Pieces of the castle were starting to fall apart, and the two could faintly see more and more houses being destroyed as Chion stood in the middle of it all.

"Okay, no more wasting time. EVERYONE, START THE ICE SLIDES NOW!" Corrin yelled out, to which the Rinklings followed by indeed doing just that.

"But what about your dad?" Ryn cried.

"He'll be fine, now let's go!" Corrin shouted.

So with that, the two ran back to Laocrah Town's citizens. The Infernos took one last long look at the Ice Kingdom...

And jumped down the ice slide to their home.