The Great Sun-Tree of Aethelgard stood at the center of the valley, ancient beyond counting—two hundred feet of silver-barked trunk rising from the valley floor, its highest branches reaching above the mountain foothills, its leaves an impossible deep gold that caught and amplified elemental solar energy, storing it in the Tree's root network and redistributing it through the soil and groundwater of the entire province.
It was the living heart of Aethelgard's warmth. While the Sun-Tree lived and blazed with solar energy, winter could reach the valley—but not defeat it. The frost would always eventually retreat.
Which was exactly why the Frost Archon's army was targeting it. As the Sky Aerie formation descended toward the valley, Kael saw the full scale of the siege through the soul-tether's expanded visual field: four hundred frost gargoyles had formed a concentric ring around the Sun-Tree, three rings deep, each ring connected by frost-lattice energy beams into a single massive constriction web—slowly, systematically draining the Tree's solar energy and converting it into shadow-frost material.
The Tree's gold leaves were already turning pale silver at the tips. Within an hour, the drain would reach the root network.
"We have to break that constriction web!" Kael shouted over the wind!
Solara, reading the strategy through the inter-gryphon resonance that the Sky Aerie formation created, peeled off with Vela and Kiran to strike the western ring simultaneously from three angles—three columns of concentrated ember fire hitting the frost-lattice connections at their anchor nodes! CRACK-CRACK-CRACK! The western ring shattered! Twenty frost gargoyles tumbled from the lattice break!
Ignis dove for the eastern ring with Ashmark flanking left. Thornfire circled high, dropping concentrated solar fire bombs—focused thermal projections—onto the northern ring anchor nodes! Kael channeled the sun-rune through his elemental rod as Ignis screamed through the eastern ring's center, the thermal shockwave of their combined field shattering frost-lattice connections in a chain reaction!
BOOM-CRACK-BOOM! The eastern ring collapsed! But the inner ring—the innermost constriction web wrapped directly around the Sun-Tree's trunk—was reinforced with direct Archon magic. Kael could see it through the soul-tether: the frost-lattice there ran three feet deep into the bark, laced with void-shadow filaments woven between the wood fibers.
To break that inner ring, they would need the full Sky Aerie formation at maximum resonance—and they would need the Frost Archon himself to break his hold first.
"We need to draw him out," Kael said to Ignis.
The gryphon's head turned toward the northern mountain ridge, where the Frost Archon's void-shadow energy was densest. Ignis let out a single, clear, high-pitched cry—not a war call. A challenge.
A direct call to the Archon. The northern sky turned black. Around them, the frost gargoyle remnants on the inner ring formation paused, their corrupted eyes flickering—as if awaiting their master's response.
Kael felt the Frost Archon's attention shift toward them like a wave of absolute cold rolling down from the northern peaks, silencing every bird, every insect, every leaf rustle in the valley below. The soul-tether blazed steady gold in answer.