Eternal Winter's Reign - Book 2 - Chapter 35 - The Meeting (Patreon)

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Don't mind this. It's so that free readers can't see half the chapter.

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Alexander North

I decide to use this time to recover in this storage room, letting my energy regenerate a bit. But I also make sure not to stay too long in it because of what happened the last time I did.

What with the frozen ones chasing me away when I tried.

If they really are trying to herd and trap me, they’re not gonna just let me sit still and regenerate my energy.

So I wait for about ten minutes in the storage room before the walls of the room itself begin to crack slightly and I immediately make my way out the door, not really having recovered much energy at all in the process. Then I slowly begin to make my way down the hall, feeling more than a little nervous this time around. But who wouldn’t when they’re walking into a trap knowingly?

Not much else I can do though. If I don’t then I’ll just be herded into the trap instead.

I continue walking through the hall for a bit, only to stiffen up the moment I reach the next intersection. Because there… isn’t really much of an intersection.

Uh…

In a hallway that is supposed to be splitting off into three different halls, this one… doesn’t. The three halls are all collapsed and there’s a hole in the floor leading down a floor. But I can already tell from up here that there isn’t much going on down there either. Just a hole in the wall leading to tunnels.

Yep. I’m definitely being herded here.

They’re not even leading me further into the base anymore. Just leading me into their own tunnels.

I grit my teeth, before glancing behind me, only to find the hallway not far behind me collapsing. Almost as if they’re telling me not to retreat.

Seriously?

That has me sighing before I turn around again and pull my radio out, pressing the talk button while raising it to my mouth.

“The frozen ones cut me off from the base and have herded me into tunnels branching out of the underground base,” I speak into the radio before waiting for a response.

And it doesn’t take long before the same officer from before answers, “Roger that. Stall for as long as you can, and make sure to keep your radio on so we can track the signal.”

“Understood,” I answer before clipping the radio on my belt again and slowly walking down to the lower floor and then into the tunnel, purposefully dragging my feet to go slower. Because I know they’re just gonna force me forwards if I don’t move at all.

They probably won’t do anything if I just move slowly though.

So I continue dragging my feet as I proceed into the tunnel, briefly pausing when I hear rumbling sounds from higher up. Most likely from the others arriving and heading down deeper.

They should have some devices to move the rubble with them.

To my surprise, I don’t find any frozen ones for a while. None of those serpents that ran, or rather, slithered away. Or any of those frozen ones I saw before in the base.

I’m a little nervous to be in the tunnels just because of the chance of a snake passing by where I am and gobbling me up, but if I’m being honest, it’s not really any worse than being in the base itself. Seeing as those snakes tore through the base walls like paper when passing through anyways.

Not to mention how many times they were bringing the roof down.

I do wonder though… how many of those serpents are there? If the serpent or serpents keep moving through the base like that, and they’re making these tunnels, how many are there? Is it just one? Or a bunch of them?

That thought has me frowning. The possibility that there could be multiple serpents instead of just one.

No matter how far I make it through the tunnel though, I don’t run into any of the serpents.

Instead I end up finding some elite wraiths. Like the one that chased after me a while back.

And I don’t just mean one.

There are dozens of elite wraiths just roaming around a large cavern underground. A natural looking one, except for the tunnel leading into it that I just entered through.

Meaning the cavern is probably a natural one that the serpents just dug into.

Honestly, I feel… uh… a little, probably more comfortable in this cavern than the tunnels. Simply because the walls are so much further away from me, so I don’t have to worry about an unexpected serpent attack.

Now if only all of these elite wraiths weren’t here staring at me with these creepy looks in their eyes.

Silence fills the cavern as the elite wraiths just kinda line up around the walls. Meanwhile two of those large serpents break through the walls and just stick their heads out into the cavern.

My eyes narrow and I tense up, my claws out.

But still, none of them do anything.

They just stare.

Then it happens.

Footsteps begin to echo from the tunnel on the other side of the cavern, making me tense up more and more until I finally spot the owner of the footsteps.

And the owner has me rather confused.

Because this frozen one looks very humanlike in appearance. She – and it’s obviously a female – has pale skin, pale blue and glowing veins, glowing blue eyes, long white hair, and claws with a single talon on each of her index fingers. And she’s actually a little shorter than I am.

She’s also clearly intelligent considering what’s happening, and how she’s looking at me.

The sapient frozen one slowly walks forward into the room, passing by the elite wraiths in the process. All of whom immediately bow down towards her as if she’s their leader.

Then she stops several meters into the cavern and looks me up and down.

“Looks like you’ve arrived,” she says, her voice sounding as cold as ice as it travels through the entire cavern. “So let’s begin.”