Conquering His Cold Heart

Chapter 754 The Inner regions

Glacial mountains, eastern catacombs.

Frost, Kiba, Major Pasha and the other envoys were making good pace through the deep caverns.

"Major, how far away is our exit point." Asked Frost.

They had been travelling through the narrow tunnels for quite some time now, easily 3 to 4 times longer than when he moved with the Cavalry corps.

"15 kilometres give or take." Answered Major Pasha.@@@@

"So far."

"Needs to be if we want to completely avoid the enemy that's sieging our doorstep."

If it was too short then they'd be detected and likely hunted down by the enemy soldiers. This was a covert operation; the enemy mustn't know that an envoy had been dispatched to Karak Kanz.

"We've excavated all manner of tunnels and pathways over the years, some are designed for flanking, some for escape and some like our current path are designed for outmanoeuvring patrols and watchers." Their speed didn't falter as they spoke, a healthy gallop atop trained battle mounts.

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"How strategic." Frost grew more and more impressed by the Icethorne fortress with every secret that was revealed to him.

"We learned from experience young Frost....not every battle we fought and war that we engaged in ended in decisive victory, many were in fact pyrrhic and some we lost miserably." Major Pasha revealed with a forlorn look.

Before the ascension of Duke Runak, Icethorne and the War Ursa Battalion were in much weaker positions than they were now.

It was only when under his powerful and dominating leadership that they were able to cement their position between the inner and external regions, becoming a true overlord within the mountains.

Frost during his brief albeit memorable visit was greeted by the fortress' sky obscuring walls, the vast array of war machines that lined their peaks and the unrivalled battle prowess of the battalion's many elite soldiers thus it was difficult for him to imagine them once being 'weak'.

The group carried on through the narrow tunnels.

"When we exit, we'll work together to clear the area but once that's done we go our separate ways." As they were coming up on the exit Major Pasha reiterated the plan.

"I know, don't worry I won't impede your mission Major." Frost painfully understood that Major Pasha would broker no interference nor delay in his mission, not even for such a talented and well regarded man like Frost.

"Good." Pasha nodded his head and gently smiled before retrieving a token from his inner pocket.

"Here you'll need this if you want access one of the outer passages alone." He tossed the token to Frost who caught in his hands.

The design was rather simple, square in shape with a picture of Icethorne on the front and an eastern facing mountain on the back.

'It feels like a type of jade.' Frost ran his fingers across the token, trying to understand its makeup.

"It's a temporary pass that'll allow you to open up a catacombs passage from the outside."

"Temporary?"

"Yes it'll work only once, and only on a passage within the eastern catacombs. Afterwards it will lose its lustre and become a dead object, useless unless reforged by the smiths and alchemists of the War Ursa Battalion."

Major Pasha didn't elaborate further but there were many more hidden restrictions placed upon the so called 'temporary token' to protect it from being used by their enemies, but Frost didn't need to know all that.

"Yes, yes when have I ever broken a promise to you." Frost shook his head and scratched the back of Kiba's ears.

The young tiger let loose a small triumphant roar before charging off into the distance with Frost on his back.

As long as nothing impeded their path it would take roughly two days for them to reach the realm of Niflheim's secret entrance given their current speed.

Compared to the external regions the inner regions were a fair bit larger and far rougher in terms of terrain and environment.

After travelling for an hour or so even Frost with his powerful resistance to the cold felt the temperature harshly drop.

And that wasn't all, there was a strange sensation attacking his nerves, a pressure, a natural feeling of dread that warned him of danger.

He liked such a feeling.

A smile grew upon Frost's lips, his muscles became limber, and his body naturally entered a battle ready state as he allowed the feeling to wash over him.

This was the first time he'd come across a threat from nature itself. The entire environment felt like an enemy, as though it was rejecting foreign life.

"No wonder people classify this place as a danger zone." Even without the monsters roaming about, the temperature and weather alone were enough to kill you.

"Grrrr!"

"You feel it too Kiba....it feels like home." Both he and Kiba were heavily aligned to the ice element and thus felt a close connection to the Glacial mountains.

Such a frigid environment was akin to their ideal habitat, a place in which they would thrive and feel at peace.

Fwoosh.

A short moment later however as the blizzard blew harshly against Frost's face, he frowned. There was a strange scent on the wind.

"Kiba." He gently said while tightening the grip he had around his glaive.

"Grrr." Kiba growled in reply, bringing his speed to a sudden halt.

The two stood their ground, their eyes and senses searching the vicinity for any signs of movement.

Seconds passed but neither moved an inch.

"There, [freezing fireball]" Suddenly Frost caught something in the distance and with impressive speed he summoned a small sphere of silver flames and launched it at the supposed target.

"Roar!" Just before the fireball was set to strike against a patch of snow the ground violently erupted revealing what appeared to be a large gorilla with a scaled hide and an elongated mouth.

"A razor scaled yeti." Frost recognised the monster as an evolved variant of the yetis he fought several months ago. A monster quite common in both the first and second layers of the inner regions.

And unlike the ones he fought against during his first excursion into the mountains this breed acted alone. They were ambushers, silent killers that would patiently wait for their victims to draw in close before attacking them with their long, thick and frighteningly powerful arms.

"It's strong and durable but slow when not charging straight ahead, outmanoeuvre it Kiba."

"Garow." Kiba understood Frost's intentions and chuffed in reply before quickly picking up speed. He ran around in a circular motion, forcing the yeti to repeatedly rotate its large, cumbersome body.

This would technically be their first true fight in the inner regions.