The inner tunnel of the Crypt of the Frozen Claw trembled beneath the onslaught of a living darkness. The echo of the shattered gate still reverberated through the depths, a broken lament mingling with the low, pulsing hum of the viscous black sun hovering behind Aurora. The runes carved into the walls of eternal ice, which had glowed with a serene blue for centuries, now flickered in a feverish red, as if the mountain itself were screaming against the profanation advancing from the outer defenses. The air, thick and sharp as frost needles, grew heavy with an acrid stench: the sickly sweet aroma of black roses fused with the metallic tang of frozen blood spilled in the earlier battle. From the balcony of the Council Chamber, Kraal and Zyth watched the shadowy tide surging through the passageway, their faces hardened by fury and a growing shadow of despair.
"They won't pass beyond this tunnel!" Kraal roared, his voice a thunderclap that cracked the ice beneath his boots and sent the chains of the wyverns shackled above rattling. His bluish-white scales flared with an icy gleam as he raised his war axe, a relic forged in the heart of a glacier, its edge shimmering like a shard of a frozen star. "Guards, formation! Priests, to the altars!"
The elites of the Glacial Guard, towering figures clad in obsidian and ice armor who had sworn their lives to the crypt, stormed in from the side corridors, their boots striking the ground in a rhythm that echoed like a war drum. These were veterans hardened in the mountain's depths, distinct from those who had fallen at the outer wall, their massive spears pulsing with runes of glacial power. They formed a perfect circle before the tunnel, a living wall of white scales and frozen steel, their voices rising in a chant that defied the darkness: "With blood and frost, we sing your glory…" Their spears crossed in a web of bluish light, conjuring a reinforced ice shield that sparked as it repelled the first shadows lunging forward.
Aurora advanced at the forefront, her figure draped in an armor of pure shadows that rippled like a cloak of living ink, absorbing the runes' light and leaving a trail of liquid darkness dripping to the floor. Her amber eyes, twin embers housing galaxies swirling within, glowed with glacial indifference, and her green hair writhed like a living venom, snaking through the air with a will of its own. With an almost lazy flick of her shadow sword—a black blade dripping mist and slicing the air with a shrill wail—she unleashed a fresh wave of creatures that erupted from the black sun at her back.
These were not the same forms that had ravaged the outer defenses. Winged shadows burst from the tunnel's ceiling, their membranous wings slashing the air like scythes, their claws glinting with a reddish sheen as they screeched with soul-tearing voices. Dark titans rose from the ground, colossi of solid shadow wielding maces of condensed darkness, each blow resounding like thunder that shook the walls. And among them, black tendrils with glowing eyes—dark petals that mesmerized with green flickers before ensnaring their prey—slithered like living serpents, their spines snapping with insatiable hunger.
"Golems, now!" Kraal commanded, his roar shaking the crypt to its foundations. From niches carved into the walls, colossal golems of eternal ice awoke with a deafening crunch, their three-meter bodies gleaming with deep blue, their fists conjuring avalanches as they slammed into the ground. One advanced, crushing a dark titan with a blow that echoed like a glacier splitting, sending shards of ice and shadow flying through the air. But the winged shadows swooped from above, their claws rending the golems' joints, while the eyed tendrils climbed their legs, sprouting within their bodies with a wet snap until they collapsed into darkened fragments.
An ice wyvern, more imposing than those at the outer towers, broke its chains with a roar that shook the tunnel's columns. Its translucent wings beat with fury, tearing winged shadows from the air with claw strikes that flashed like frozen lightning. Its fangs sank into a dark titan, ripping its solid form apart in a burst of black mist. But a swarm of eyed tendrils reached it, their petals glowing with a hypnotic green that made it falter. The wyvern roared one last time, its claws shredding three shadows before a dark titan smashed it against a pillar, its body crumbling into frozen pieces that faded into the darkness.
"Hold them, damn it!" Kraal shouted, leaping from the balcony with a swing of his axe that sent a wave of glacial cold through the tunnel. The icy breath he exhaled crystallized the air before him, forming a barrier of spikes that impaled a dozen winged shadows, their bodies dissolving into black puddles. But Aurora raised her sword with a slow motion, and black roses sprouted from the ground, absorbing the ice as if it were water, their stems pulsing with grotesque life as they surged toward the elites.
The veterans of the Glacial Guard resisted with desperate ferocity. Their ice shield flared brighter, repelling the dark titans hammering with their maces, the impacts ringing like broken bells. One elite, a colossus of white scales with a scar slashing across his face, raised his spear and summoned a living ice river from the ground—a serpent of frost with spines that lunged at the shadows, impaling several before the tendrils ensnared and darkened it. Another elite fell beneath a titan, his spear snapping as winged shadows tore into him, his chant cut off by a gurgle as black roses bloomed from his chest.
Skarr, the Royal Emissary, crawled from the balcony into the tunnel's depths, his white wolf tunic stained with ice and blood. "Save me, Guardian!" he cried, his voice cracking as his mages followed, their staves trembling in their hands. One raised his weapon, conjuring an ice simulacrum that mirrored his movements, blocking a winged shadow with a strike that rang like shattering crystal. But an eyed tendril caught him, its petals glowing as it mesmerized him, and a dark titan crushed him with a mace blow, leaving only a puddle of silver scales.
"Zyth, now!" Kraal roared, his axe cleaving a dark titan in two, the shadow dissolving in a burst of black mist. The Chief Shaman stepped forward from the Council Chamber, her wrinkled scales aglow with tattoos pulsing with intense green light. Priests surrounded her, kneeling before obsidian altars, their chants rising in a deep chorus that shook the wall runes: "Oh, Ice Dragon, your spirit guides us…" Zyth raised her dragon-fang staff, studded with gems that shone like frozen stars, and the air crackled with a power that stung the skin like icy needles.
"For the Glacial Scales!" she cried, her voice resonating with a force that seemed to rise from the mountain itself. She struck the ground with her staff, and a living glacier erupted from the eternal ice, a colossal mass of spines and ridges roaring like an enraged god. The spines surged upward, slicing winged shadows into fragments that fell like black rain, while the glacier advanced, crushing dark titans beneath its weight with a deafening crunch that shook the tunnel. The wall runes blazed with blinding white, feeding the spell, and a green vortex spiraled from her staff, a living whirlwind that tore tendrils from the ground, their dark petals withering under the fury of the frozen gale.
Aurora tilted her head, her amber eyes narrowing for the first time with a flicker of interest. "Intriguing," she murmured, her voice a whisper that cut through the chaos like a chilled blade, echoing in the hearts of all present. She raised her sword, and the black sun behind her pulsed with a hum that rattled the tunnel's columns. A tide of black roses sprouted from the ground, their stems snaking toward the glacier, their petals opening to reveal toothed maws that bit into the spines, absorbing the ice with a wet snap. The green vortex clashed with the winged shadows, ripping them from the air, but the eyed tendrils climbed Zyth's staff, their hypnotic flickers glowing as they sought to bend her will.
"I won't yield!" Zyth roared, her staff blazing with a green light that lit the tunnel like a frozen dawn. She struck the ground again, and the glacier rose higher, its ridges slicing dark titans into fragments that dissolved into black mist. The priests doubled their chant, their voices quavering as Zyth's power reached its zenith. The vortex expanded, a maelstrom of wind and ice that trapped winged shadows, freezing them mid-flight before shattering them into fragments that fell like dark snow. For a moment, Aurora's advance halted, her figure enveloped in the green glow of the spell, the wall runes pulsing with a fury that seemed to defy her presence.
But the darkness would not relent. The black sun contracted, as if inhaling, then erupted with a snap that echoed like fractured thunder. A new wave of creatures emerged—shadow wraiths with dagger-like claws and red eyes blazing with voracious hunger—charging the glacier, their bodies dissolving on contact only to reform instantly. The black roses climbed Zyth's spell, their stems entwining the glacier's spines, darkening it with grotesque speed until the ice began to crack. The green vortex faltered, the eyed tendrils reaching Zyth's staff, their petals pulsing with a glow that clouded her sight.
Kraal leapt forward, his axe cleaving a wraith in two as his icy breath froze another into a block that crashed against the wall. "Zyth, hold on!" he roared, his voice trembling with a mix of rage and fear as he watched the glacier collapse beneath the black roses, its fragments falling like frozen tears. The remaining elites fought with savage desperation, their spears impaling wraiths, but the shadows reformed, their claws rending armor and scales with lethal precision.
Zyth raised her staff one final time, her tattoos blazing with a green light that illuminated her weathered face, etched with exhaustion and unyielding resolve. "For the Frozen Claw!" she cried, her voice slicing through the black sun's hum like a glacial bolt. The vortex condensed into a sphere of living energy, a core of ice and wind pulsing with the mountain's spirits. With a final gesture, she hurled it at Aurora, the air roaring with a force that shook the tunnel, the wall runes flaring white before fading.
The sphere struck the demon queen, exploding in a whirlwind of ice and green light that tore black roses from the ground and froze wraiths mid-air, their forms shattering into ashes that fell like dark cinders. For an instant, the tunnel fell silent, the green glow illuminating Aurora's still figure, her shadow armor sparking under the impact. Kraal held his breath, his axe trembling in his hands, as the remaining elites raised their spears in a gesture of hope.
But Aurora raised her sword with a slow, almost bored motion, and the darkness of her armor expanded, absorbing the whirlwind as if it were a breeze. The black roses sprouted again, faster and fiercer, their stems entwining Zyth's staff and wrenching it from her grasp with a dry snap. The shaman fell to her knees, her breath forming faint clouds in the frigid air, as the eyed tendrils climbed her body, their petals glowing with a hypnotic green that clouded her eyes.
"No…" Zyth whispered, her voice breaking as the black roses pierced her scales, blooming from her chest in a burst of frozen blood. Her staff clattered to the ground, its gems extinguishing one by one, and her body collapsed, motionless, as the tendrils enveloped her like a living tomb, their petals pulsing with sated hunger.
"Zyth!" Kraal roared, his voice a cry of fury and anguish that shook the tunnel. His axe flared with an icy gleam as he charged at Aurora, his colossal form cutting through the wraiths with a force that shattered the ice beneath his feet. But the demon queen met his gaze with those amber eyes, cold and indifferent, and raised her sword once more, the black sun's shadows pulsing with an intensity that darkened the entire tunnel.
Skarr crawled to a corner, his mages trembling around him as the last elite fell beneath a wraith, his spear splintering into fragments. The tunnel, once a bastion of glacial power, filled with darkness, the runes fading one by one, and Aurora advanced, unstoppable, toward the Chamber of the Frozen Claw, leaving behind a silence broken only by the echo of Kraal's desperate roar.