The ascent from the Solar Core back through the chimney was faster than the descent—Ignis practically launched upward through the narrow basalt tunnel, his ember wings folded tight, the heat differential between his thermal body and the cold rock walls creating a natural updraft that pushed them toward the surface. They emerged onto the Frozen Sanctuary plateau into a storm.
The Frost Archon's main column had found the plateau while they were below ground. Forty frost gargoyles now ringed the basalt pillar circle, their frozen wings spread and shadow-frost energy crackling between them in connected lattice arcs—the same trap configuration Kael had dismantled from the rune pillars that had held Ignis captive. Only now it was being used as a siege grid against them.
From above the cloud layer, something descended. Vast. Ancient. Cold.
The Frost Archon himself did not descend fully—only a projection of his power: a titanic humanoid figure assembled from shadow and frost, three hundred feet tall, its hollow eye sockets blazing with blue-white void energy. Even from this distance, the projection radiated a cold so absolute that the temperature on the plateau plunged thirty degrees in seconds.
"SCHOLAR," the projection's voice came—resonant, contemptuous, resounding between the mountain peaks. "YOU CARRY THE SUN-RUNE. SURRENDER IT. JOIN THE FROST. OR BURN WITH YOUR GRYPHON."
Ignis's ember feathers ignited to maximum intensity—every feather blazing crimson and gold! The gryphon reared up on his hindquarters to his full height, spreading his wings wide, his war cry shattering two of the nearest frost gargoyles just from the thermal shockwave! Kael raised the sun-rune in his palm—the geometric glyph blazing at fifty-hertz resonance—and shouted back: "Aethelgard does not bow to the cold!"
The Frost Archon projection released a compression frost beam directly at them! Ignis moved without any signal from Kael—using the soul-tether's shared awareness to anticipate the beam path, launching himself sideways at maximum speed—his ember wings catching the edge of the beam and reflecting it back up into the projection, using the sun-rune's energy as a prism!
The reflected beam struck the Frost Archon projection like a lance of solar fire!
BOOOOOOOM! The projection detonated in a thunderclap of shadow and light, scattering frost gargoyles from the plateau rim! But the impact caught Ignis on the rebound—a fragment of the frost beam struck his right shoulder, driving him downward at speed!
Kael saw the trajectory through the soul-tether's shared vision in a flash of desperate clarity: the gryphon was falling toward the Frost Pass—the narrow glacial corridor between the Aethelgard range and the valley below. He was going to hit the glacier. Come on—PULL UP!
The command fired through the soul-tether like a bolt of solar energy—and Ignis responded, snapping his wings open at the last possible moment, converting the fall into a swooping arc that brought them skimming across the glacier surface close enough to leave a melted trail in the ice behind Ignis's glowing feather tips! They pulled up hard and climbed, leaving the frost gargoyle column scrambling on the Frost Pass below.
Kael checked Ignis's shoulder through the tether—the frost fragment had grazed the feather surface but hadn't penetrated. No injury. Close, though. Far too close.
"Fourth rite," Kael said, breathing hard. "We need the Sky Aerie. We can't do this alone."