Chapter 498: The Frozen Grave
Alice folded her arms, her tail flicking behind her. "Wait a second. You want us to work for you? We’re the ones paying you."
Hilt didn’t look up from the anvil. She picked up her hammer and tapped it once against the steel, a sharp, ringing note.
"I said help me speed it up. If I do it alone, it’ll take all day. You said you want it fast, didn’t you?"
Alice opened her mouth, then closed it. Her tail slowed.
"...That’s true."
Azrynn caught the flicker of irritation in Hilt’s eyes. She stepped in before Alice could make it worse, resting the bundled arrows on the counter.
"We’ll help. Just tell us what to do."
Adam glanced at her. Azrynn met his gaze briefly, then looked back at Hilt.
"We need that dagger today. If working the bellows or hauling coal gets it done faster, that’s a fair trade."
Hilt studied her for a moment. Then she nodded, a small, approving tilt of her chin.
"Good. At least one of you has sense."
Alice made a face. "Hey—"
Hilt ignored her. She pointed at the far wall with her hammer.
"Bellows are over there. Keep the fire hot. Don’t stop until I say so."
Alice grumbled under her breath but walked over to the bellows anyway. She grabbed the handle with both hands and gave it a test pump. The forge flared, orange light washing over the workshop.
Azrynn moved to the coal pile near the back wall. She picked up a small shovel and began feeding the fire in careful, measured scoops, watching the flames shift color with each addition.
Adam leaned against the counter, arms crossed, watching the three of them work.
"So what am I supposed to do?"
Hilt finally looked up. Her eyes swept over him once, from boots to horns, and her expression flattened.
"You stay out of the way."
Adam blinked. "That’s it?"
"Last time you stood too close to the anvil, you knocked over my tool rack. I’m not losing another set."
Adam pushed off the wall, frowning. "Since when have I ever knocked over your tools?"
Hilt didn’t look up. Her hammer came down with a clean, ringing strike. Sparks scattered across the anvil.
"I’m just making things up. So stay there and don’t cause trouble."
Adam let out a long breath through his nose. "How little do you trust me?"
Hilt finally looked up, tongs still in hand. Her face was calm but her eyes glinted.
"I trust you to kill things. I don’t trust you near my anvil."
Adam raised both hands in surrender and walked to the chair by the wall. It creaked under his weight as he sat down, arms crossed, watching the three of them work.
The forge flared and settled in rhythm. Alice pumped, Azrynn fed the coals, and Hilt’s hammer rang steady against steel.
Adam’s gaze drifted to the fire.
He watched the flames curl and shift, and for a moment, the golden light reminded him of something else.
He leaned back in the chair and muttered under his breath.
"...I should’ve just gone to the dungeon with Ignis."
Meanwhile....
Deep beneath the ruined earth, the air inside the Dream Grave dungeon shimmered with heat.
Ignis stood in the center of a collapsed chamber, her chest rising and falling in sharp, uneven breaths. Around her, the walls were cracked and blackened, still glowing faintly from the last wave of fire.
A many-eyed creature lunged from the shadows, its dozen pupils locking onto her at once. Ignis didn’t move. She just raised one hand.
Golden fire erupted from her palm and swallowed the creature whole. It shrieked, thrashed, and crumbled into a pile of charred husk on the floor.
Ignis stared at the smoking remains.
"...Not like this."
Another monster burst from the ground behind her, claws raised. She spun and drove her fist straight through its chest. Her hand came out the other side, dripping black ichor. The creature collapsed without a sound.
Ignis pulled her arm free and shook the blood off her knuckles.
"...Not like this either."
She stood still for a moment, then closed her eyes. She drew a slow breath in through her nose, held it, and let it out through her mouth.
The air around her shifted.
The temperature climbed. The stone beneath her feet began to crack and glow. The remaining monsters in the chamber, dozens of them lurking in the dark, shrieked and tried to flee, but there was nowhere to go.
Ignis opened her eyes.
Golden fire exploded outward from her body, filling the entire chamber in a single blinding wave. The monsters didn’t even have time to scream. When the flames faded, nothing remained but ash and scorched stone.
Ignis stood in the center of it all, shoulders heaving, hair singed at the edges.
"Ahhgh, damn it! Why is this so hard?!"
She grabbed her own hair with both hands and messed it up in frustration.
"It’s not supposed to be like this!"
She dropped her hands and stared at the empty chamber, her voice dropping to a low, tired mutter.
"...What am I even doing here?"
Ignis shook her head hard, as if trying to throw the thought out of her skull.
"No. I can’t think like that."
She clenched her fists at her sides. The golden embers still clinging to her knuckles flared once, then settled.
"I have to control this fire. I have to get stronger."
Her voice dropped, quieter now, but steadier.
"So I won’t be a burden again."
Ignis rolled her shoulders and started walking.
Her boots crunched against scorched bone and broken stone. The deeper she went, the hotter the air became, until her own breath fogged in front of her despite the heat.
Then she saw it.
A hulking shape shifted in the shadows ahead, twice her height, its body plated in black chitin and its eyes burning a dull red. It didn’t charge. It just watched her, patient and still, like it had been waiting.
Ignis stopped a few paces away. She flexed her fingers and let the fire rise slowly along her arms, this time controlled, measured, tight against her skin instead of exploding outward.
She took a breath. Then another.
"Alright," she muttered. "Let’s try again."
The creature lunged first.
It moved faster than its size suggested, its massive claw sweeping toward her in a wide arc. Ignis ducked under it, her feet sliding across the scorched stone, and drove her fist into its plated side.
The impact cracked the chitin but didn’t break it. The creature barely staggered.
Ignis clicked her tongue. "Tough."
She pulled her arm back and let the fire build along her knuckles, controlled this time, a thin layer instead of a blazing wave. She struck again.
The second blow punched through.
The creature roared and swung its other claw, catching her across the shoulder. Ignis was thrown sideways into the wall. Dust rained down. She hit the ground hard and rolled, but she was already pushing herself up before she stopped.
The monster came at her again.
Ignis didn’t dodge this time. She planted her feet, raised both hands, and let the fire compress into her palms until the air around her fingertips shimmered.
"Stay still," she muttered.
She released it.
A narrow lance of golden fire shot from her hands, thin and concentrated, and punched clean through the creature’s chest. The monster froze mid-step. Its red eyes flickered once, then dimmed. It toppled forward and crashed against the stone.
Ignis lowered her hands, breathing hard.
"...Better."
She waited for the rush of heat to fade. It didn’t. Her own core still burned hotter than it should, and her control was slipping at the edges.
She closed her eyes and forced her breathing to slow.
"One more time."
The corridor narrowed, then opened again. The walls changed as she moved. The scorch marks faded. The ash under her boots thinned. And then the air turned cold.
Ignis stopped at the edge of a wide chamber and frowned.
Something was wrong.
The air here was cold. Frost clung to the walls in thin white veins, spreading across the stone like cracks in glass. Her breath fogged in front of her face.
Ignis slowed her steps. She raised one hand and tried to summon a small flame, just a spark to test the air.
But the fire did not appear and burn as usual.
Her brow furrowed. She tried again, pushing harder. A weak flicker sparked at her fingertip, then died.
"What is this...?"
She looked around the chamber, she felt her skin also starting to freeze.
"Did I walk into the wrong dungeon?"
The ground shifted.
A low grinding sound rolled through the chamber, and a shape rose from the frozen floor. It was tall and hunched, its body built from jagged blocks of ice and crystal, packed tight like armor. Its eyes were two pale blue points of light, and its breath came out in a long, slow plume of frost.
Ignis took a step back and raised both hands. She pulled at the fire in her core, harder this time, demanding it answer.
Still the fire didn’t burn as usual.
The cold had crawled into her chest. Her flames were there, she could feel them but they wouldn’t rise. Every time she tried to summon them, the frost pressed them back down.
The golem took a heavy step forward. The ice under its foot cracked and groaned.
Ignis gritted her teeth and dropped into a fighting stance.
"Alright then. I don’t need fire to break you."