Eternal Winter's Reign - Book 2 - Chapter 36 - Contact (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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To be perfectly honest, I have been having some difficulty figuring out where I want to take the story from here. But I think I have it figured out now. So that slump should be over.

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For those of you who are reading this on a website that is not Patreon, please stop. You're reading a pirated version. Instead, if you would be so kind, please click on the table of contents link below and go to my Patreon instead. Or even read it off of Royal Road, which is free.

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Alexander North

The female frozen one is actually wearing armor unlike any of the other frozen ones I’ve seen. Or to be accurate, she’s wearing armor that isn’t a part of her body. Armor that would be removable.

Or at least, looks like it is removable.

“Hybrid, you have two choices,” the frozen one says while idly tapping one of her talons on her thigh. “Come with me quietly or come with me half dead.” Her eyes narrow slightly. “Your choice.”

Hybrid? Guess she means the fact that I’m part frost infused and part not.

Interesting that they’re actually calling me that though.

“And if I chose a different option?” I ask, briefly glancing up at the ceiling of the tunnel when rumbling begins to echo from relatively far away. Likely from the others using explosives.

Which means the eternal winter isn’t currently covering this area. Since they wouldn’t be able to use explosives otherwise.

Cold energy just simply isn’t able to make explosives after all, so using cold energy as a fuel to fire explosives wouldn’t work.

The female frozen one doesn’t even bother to give me a response to my question. Just continues staring while tapping her talon on her thigh. A thigh that is covered in what looks like a pants sleeve mixed with some metal armor with a couple icicles sticking out of the flesh underneath.

Guess there are no other options in her mind. And she’s not gonna bother messing around.

So with that in mind, I look around at the surrounding frozen ones, getting a good look at each one of them. And in the process of doing that, I also make sure to pay attention to my other senses as well. Checking the energy signatures and power of every frozen one here.

But the energy source that is the intelligent frozen one overpowers them all way too much to do so.

At the very least though, I managed to find the source of that overwhelming energy source filling this entire nest.

It’s from her.

Which was to be expected. All things considered.

From what I can tell, her energy seems to be somewhere around the energy level of a Tier 4 Symbiont Host. Which likely means she’s the one leading the Secondary Nest nearby.

Probably means all of these frozen ones with her are from there as well. Leaving that Secondary Nest rather barren right now.

Unless she absorbed the crystal there before coming here? A likely possibility.

But at the same time, I’m not too sure about that. Because then the frozen ones would all spread out and it wouldn’t be a nest anymore. And she’s no doubt been here for a while setting up this trap, yet there was no word of the Secondary Nest dispersing.

“You have ten ticks,” she says, confusing me with what I’m assuming is her word for a time interval.

My eyes narrow ever so slightly. But I quickly look around the area, trying to feel out the elites here.

If I had to guess, those are the same as the elite wraith I fought over half a year ago. Meaning they’re likely weaker than a Tier 3 Symbiont Host. More along the lines of somewhere halfway between Tier 2 and Tier 3.

So I should be able to take on plenty of them.

But those serpents… I’m not sure. Especially with the intelligent frozen one here.

In the end, I don’t think I can win this. I won’t even have a chance.

Not on my own at least.

Since that’s the case, I make sure to keep my finger on the radio’s talk button as I ask, “Before I make any decisions, would you answer one question for me? Are you the Frozen One in charge of the larger nest nearby?”

My question seems to take her by surprise. And she actually answers after a brief second with a simple answer, “Yes. You have five ticks left.”

Not cutting the countdown for chatting, huh? A pity.

Then again, maybe she will for…

The radio that I’ve been palming for a while now beeps, making everyone in the cavern stare at it. Whether they’re sapient or not.

Then a voice comes through it, “Sapient Frozen One, release First Lieutenant North or we shall have to take him back by force.”

The female frozen one looks at the radio and frowns.

A second passes. Then two seconds.

Eventually she frowns, turns to look at me, and asks, “Why is your box threatening me?”

Silence fills the cavern.

I blink in surprise as my mouth parts open ever so slightly. Only for me to close it again a few seconds later.

Meanwhile the radio has gone silent, the first lieutenant on the other side no doubt startled by this as well.

This frozen one has no idea what a radio is.

Also looks like the frozen one was surprised enough that she stopped that countdown of hers.

Convenient.

Didn’t expect the frozen ones to be ignorant towards technology though.

|It is most likely that the reason for that is due to technology’s inability to work within the eternal winter created by their god.|

Oh. Yeah, that would explain it.

They’re ignorant to technology because it’s never been able to work within their domain.

And since that’s the case… right as the walls and ceiling shake a little bit more, drawing their attention, I raise the radio up and say, “This box is a device that allows other people to speak from a long distance. And for them to hear us speak back to them.”

The sapient frozen one narrows her eyes slightly and stares for several seconds. Then she eventually asks, “Then the words spoken by the box were spoken by another warm one?”

She catches on faster than I would’ve expected from someone new to technology.

“That is correct,” the first lieutenant’s voice comes from the radio again, drawing her eye to it again. “Now will you comply with my demands, or will we be required to use force?”

The sapient frozen one stares for several more seconds before stating, “Force.”

And with that one simple word, a shard of ice forms in front of her and shoots out to pierce through my radio, knocking it right out of my hand and onto the floor.

Then the frozen ones around the cavern all begin growling and hissing – in the case of the serpents – as they start to move in towards me.

Only for the ceiling to cave in, revealing some sort of digging machine with a full force of dozens of soldiers from the base, along with a bunch of soldiers I don’t recognize.

Good timing.