The Sovereign-V2: C5: Answers Come Later

The Sovereign-V2: C5: Answers Come Later

They moved as one, a ragged, pain wracked unit fleeing the gallery of death. Shiro stayed close to Kuro’s flank, his own agony a blazing crucible in his arms, each step sending fresh torrents of fire up his nerves, the exposed bone in his wrists scraping with every jarring movement. He focused on the pulse of his scar, the thrum of the crystal, anchors against the garden's suffocating aura of preserved despair and his own body’s betrayal. Ryota took point, his Polaris eyes scanning the shifting shadows beneath the skeletal trees and frozen topiaries, radiating a protective fury that seemed to push back the encroaching gloom. As they passed the woman frozen mid curtsy, Elara Veyne, Ryota's aunt, host to Kaya's last gathering of starlight, Shiro couldn't help but look. Up close, the detail was horrifyingly intimate, a single, perfect tear captured as an ice diamond on her cheekbone, the intricate lace of her collar frozen mid flutter, the faint pattern of her silk stockings visible beneath the hem of her gown. The despair etched there felt personal now, another searing crime laid at Ryo and Nyxara's feet, fuelling his own desperate fire.
Reaching the monstrous, ice encrusted rose trellis was like approaching the jaws of some frozen beast. Haruto, releasing Kuro slightly to Juro, edged forward, his slender blade probing the thick, layered ice and the shadows behind it. He found not a door, but a section of the ancient, vine choked stone wall that had partially collapsed inward, hidden by decades of frozen rose growth. Behind it, blackness yawned, deeper and colder than the garden’s gloom. The scents shifted abruptly: damp earth, the rich decay of centuries of root rot, and the deep, mineral chill of buried stone, replacing the cloying lilies and void cold. The baying of the Hounds was momentarily muffled by the thick wall, but the hungry, frustrated edge was unmistakable, coming from multiple directions now, some close behind, others echoing from ahead, confirming Mira’s warning.
"Down," Haruto ordered, already slipping through the narrow, jagged gap, his form swallowed by darkness instantly. "It’s steep. Loose rock. Careful."
Ryota went next, broad shoulders scraping ice as he maneuverer through. He turned immediately inside, reaching back to help guide Kuro through the treacherous opening. Juro braced from behind, half lifting, half pushing the prince. "Easy now, Princeling. Mind your head. Almost through." Kuro stumbled as his feet found uncertain ground within the darkness, his corrupted arm brushing against the razor sharp, frozen thorns of the trellis. As he did, the thorns near his touch seemed to shiver, tiny, hairline fractures spiderwebbing through the ice encapsulating them with unnerving speed. It wasn’t much, but it was movement in a place defined by stillness, a chilling demonstration of the power whispering beneath Kuro’s skin, reacting to the Blight’s source nearby. Kuro flinched violently, pulling his arm away as if scalded by molten metal, a fresh wave of horror, revulsion, and self loathing washing over him. "Don’t touch me I fucking hate this fuck!" he hissed, the command directed as much at his own treacherous limb as at his companions.
Shiro went last, pausing at the threshold. He looked back one final time at Nyxara's Garden, at the petrified figures caught in eternal terror, the dead star tree weeping silver poison, the beautiful, frozen horror under the skeletal branches. It was another collar; he realized with cold fury. Not binding a Hound, but binding a moment, a place, a memory of Kaya's light and Elara’s joy, twisted into a monument of despair for the worlds corruption. Ryota's words echoed: "Uses her love for the sky..." Nyxara used it to sustain her blight, to create her collection. He touched the starlit chains scar on his forearm, feeling its warm pulse resonate fiercely with the crystal, a spark of defiance against the consuming cold. We shatter chains. All of them. He turned his back on the garden, on its silent screams, and plunged into the earthy, suffocating darkness after the others.
The descent was immediate and brutal. A steep, earthen ramp slick with frozen mud and loose rubble sloped sharply downwards. The air was thick, stagnant, and bitingly cold, smelling of ancient decay and wet stone. The faint glow from their scars and Ryota’s eyes was the only light, casting long, dancing shadows that made the rough walls seem alive. Shiro’s boots skidded, sending fresh jolts of agony up his arms as he instinctively threw them out to brace himself. Kuro groaned with every jarring step Juro and Haruto guided him down, his breaths ragged gasps. Above them, the frustrated snarls and scrapes against the garden wall underscored the razor thin margin of their escape.
"Steady, princeling" Juro murmured, his own breathing laboured under Kuro’s weight. "Almost... flat ground."
They reached the bottom of the ramp, spilling into a wider, low ceilinged space. The air was even colder here, smelling intensely of frozen earth, ancient wood rot, and something else, a faint, lingering sweetness beneath the decay, perhaps the ghost of the spices Elara Veyne once stored. The ceiling was a chaotic lattice of thick, ancient roots, woven together and encased in layers of hoarfrost, hanging low enough that Ryota had to stoop. Crumbling stone shelves lined the walls, some holding desiccated husks of plants or shattered ceramic jars. The only light came from their own pulsing scars and Ryota’s Polaris gaze, illuminating a scene of frozen dereliction.
The cloaked figure slipped silently through the gap last, blending instantly into the deep shadows near the wall, a silent observer. The faintest gleam within the hood, the swirling Corvus constellation, remained fixed on Kuro’s struggle.
"Which way?" Ryota growled, his voice echoing slightly in the confined space, his eyes sweeping the cavern. "Mira?"
Mira raised her fractured lens, peering through the complex prisms. The crow shrieks layered over her voice again. "Left... follow the wall... there’s an archway... blocked partially by roots... but passable. Leads to the tunnels..."
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They moved along the left wall, shuffling through ankle deep frozen mud that crunched underfoot. The baying above was growing louder, more frantic. They could hear claws scrabbling furiously at the opening they’d just used, ice cracking and stone shifting under the assault. They’re forcing their way in.
"Faster," Haruto urged, his voice tight. He reached the archway Mira indicated. Thick, gnarled roots, thick as a man’s thigh and sheathed in ice, partially blocked it, forming a natural barrier. Haruto began to hack at them with precise, powerful strokes of his starlit blade. Chunks of frozen wood and ice splintered off.
Kuro stumbled again, his legs giving out completely this time. Juro and Haruto barely kept him upright. "Can't... hold..." Kuro gasped, his eye rolling back slightly, the static buzz rising to a deafening roar in his head. His corrupted arm jerked violently, fingers splaying wide. A visible pulse of sickly blue white light shot through the veins beneath the translucent skin, radiating cold that made the air around his hand shimmer unnaturally. The roots Haruto was cutting near Kuro seemed to recoil, the ice encasing them fracturing with audible pings.
"Kuro!" Shiro hissed, lunging closer despite his own agony. "fucking Focus! Fight it don’t let this be the end of the saga!"
Kuro’s head lolled. "T-trying... so cold... inside... whispers..." His voice was a broken whisper. His right hand twitched again, fingers curling into a claw like shape. The pulse of light intensified.
Haruto cleared the last of the obstructing roots with a final heave. "Clear! Go!" He gestured into the dark tunnel beyond the archway, a narrow, brick lined passage sloping downwards into deeper blackness. Ryota ducked through first, Starbreaker held ready. Juro and Haruto hauled Kuro towards the opening.
Above them, a cacophony erupted, a triumphant snarl followed by the sound of heavy bodies crashing through the gap and landing with heavy thuds on the cavern floor behind them. The scraping of claws on frozen earth, the guttural panting, the hungry growls vibrating through the stone, the Shadow Hounds were inside the cavern.
"GO!" Ryota roared from the tunnel entrance.
Juro pushed Kuro through the archway, Haruto right behind him. Shiro scrambled after them, turning just as he crossed the threshold. In the dim, pulsing light, he saw them, two massive, shadow wreathed forms, eyes like burning coals, already surging across the cavern floor towards the archway, jaws gaping wide, filled with rows of needle sharp, ice coated teeth. The stench of ozone and void cold washed over him.
Mira was still outside the archway. She’d been scanning the cavern one last time with her eyes. She turned, her eyes wide behind the fractured glass, as the first Hound lunged.
"No!" Shiro screamed, throwing himself back towards the archway, his ruined arms screaming in protest. He was too slow, too broken.
Ryota moved. A blur of fury and starlight, he surged past Shiro, Starbreaker a comet trailing Polaris fire. He met the first Hound’s lunge head on. The massive blade slammed into the beast’s shoulder with a sickening crunch of shadow stuff and ice. The Hound howled, staggering back, but the second beast was already swerving around its companion, jaws snapping towards Mira.
Mira stumbled backwards, tripping on the uneven ground. The Hound’s maw filled her vision, death and cold incarnate. She raised her hands defensively
A figure moved from the deep shadows beside her. The cloaked one. They didn't draw a weapon. Instead, their gloved hand, bearing that heavy ring with the dark stone, shot out. Not towards the Hound, but towards the ceiling directly above the charging beast. They snapped their fingers.
There was no sound. But a massive, ice encrusted root hanging directly above the second Hound shattered. Not just broke, it exploded inwards with terrifying force, as if detonated from within. A cascade of frozen shrapnel and heavy, icy debris rained down, hammering onto the Hound’s back and head. The beast roared in surprised agony, driven to its knees, momentarily buried under tons of frozen wood and ice. The cloaked figure grabbed Mira’s arm, yanking her backwards towards the archway with surprising strength, shoving her through towards Shiro.
"Move!" The voice from within the hood was low, distorted, impossible to place, neither male nor female, young nor old. It held an unnatural resonance, like stone grinding deep underground.
They tumbled through the archway into the tunnel. Ryota disengaged from the first Hound, which was already recovering, shadow knitting its wound. He backed through the archway, Starbreaker held defensively. The cloaked figure followed last. As they passed through, the figure raised their ringed hand again towards the archway’s top.
Another silent command. Another internal detonation. The stone lintel and the frozen roots framing the archway imploded, collapsing in a roaring torrent of rock, ice, and frozen earth. The tunnel entrance vanished behind a choking, impenetrable wall of debris. The furious howls of the Hounds were instantly muffled, replaced by the grinding, settling sounds of the collapse and their own harsh breathing in the sudden, deeper darkness of the tunnel.
Silence descended, thick and heavy, broken only by the dripping of meltwater somewhere and Kuro’s ragged, pained gasps as Juro and Haruto lowered him to the cold cavern floor.
Shiro stared at the cloaked figure, his heart hammering against his ribs. "Who the fuck are you?" he demanded, his voice hoarse. "Why help us?"
The figure didn't turn. They stood facing the collapsed entrance, head slightly tilted, as if listening. Within the deep hood, the faint Corvus constellation swirled slowly. The ring on their finger gleamed dully in the faint light from their scars.
"Answers come later, Shiro Aratani," the distorted voice replied, still without turning. "If we survive the descent. The collapse won't hold them long. And the Blight... it stirs below. Can you not feel it? The root of the corruption. The source of the freeze." They finally turned their hooded gaze towards the group, lingering for a moment on Kuro, who lay trembling on the ground, his corrupted arm pulsing with that sickly light against the dark stone. "Kuro... his time grows shorter with every step down. The deeper we go... the stronger it becomes within him."
Kuro groaned, curling slightly on his side, clutching his corrupted arm with his good hand as if trying to physically hold the spreading horror back. The blue white veins pulsed brighter, casting ghastly shadows on his ashen face. A fresh tremor wracked him, independent and violent. He looked up, his storm grey eyes wide with a terror deeper than any Hound could inspire. "Fuck Shiro..." he choked out, the word thick with static and despair. "It's... waking up... inside me. I can feel it... like a termite ready to feast."
Above them, through tons of rubble, came the first muffled, determined scrape of claws on stone. The Hounds were digging. And deep within Kuro, the sentient frost stirred, its cosmic hunger sharpening the further they go towards the barracks what waits for them well only one way to find out…

V2: C5: Answers Come Later