They spent the night in their makeshift arctic base, trying to recover from terror and extreme exhaustion. Every so often, Cal could feel mana pulsating far above their heads, clueing him in that the search for them hadn’t stopped. He was reasonably sure the fruit gamble he had taken was the only reason he could feel them at all.
“Cal, can you hear me?” Came in a voice in Cal’s head. Ir was slightly garbled, but Cal managed to make it out.
“Fulginanis, is that you?” Cal asked back.
“Yes, we shouldn’t be having this level of disruption in communication anymore. I assume whatever is going on is connected to the gateway vanishing?” the spirit asked.
“Yeah, Gryalth installation. I didn’t realize it was here until it was too late. For the moment, we are safe, but they are continuing the search. Maybe once we are deeper underground, away from their magic, our signal will be stronger,” Cal relayed back.
“Perhaps. Good luck, Cal.”
“Thanks, little buddy, though I guess you aren’t so little anymore.” Cal stood up and stretched after their mental chat ended. Most of his exhaustion had passed. His hunger, though, was growing. Luckily, he could smell Albert’s effort at a makeshift meal, and if the taste matched the scent, the capybara would not have disappointed yet again.
“You doing okay, Cal. You looked half dead after reinforcing the walls.” Stan asked, having spotted his son walking over to Albert’s pot.
“Yeah, I feel alive again, more or less. Once I get some food in me, it’s time to start working my way down. I think I can melt some of the ice down there relatively quickly with the right application of lightning. Hey Onelder, are you up yet? What mana types can channel anyway?” Cal called back to the form still lying on the ground.
“None. Well, not really, none, I guess. See these?” Onelder pointed to a pair of bracelets, one on each wrist. “They let me store my natural mana, which I used to think was only a slightly below average amount, but it took me months to fill the bracelets to level only to just barely keep up with you. How the fuck did we ever manage to kill you in a loop?” There was genuine shock on the man’s face.
“Mostly surprise and very limited time on my part to solve it. Also, I got a lot stronger after I first beat you. So there is that.” Cal answered, not remotely pleased with the memories and making sure his voice resonated with that.
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“Okay, yeah, back to the bracelets. Well they convert my natural mana into a nearby mana source of my choice, which generally pairs well with my brother and his crazy sword, but on this trip, it looks like I’ll be copying you and the old lady...” Whatever Onelder had planned to say after that was interrupted by Frank’s fist across his face. He collapsed back down to the ground, moaning in pain.
“Frank, while I appreciate the sentiment, please let me hit him next time,” Ethel said as she moved to stand over Onelder. As for you, I strongly suggest you learn to be a bit more kind, or I’ll stop encouraging Cal to control his rage.”
“So, uh, Albert, what’s for dinner?” Cal asked awkwardly, trying to change the focus.
“Just a simple stew, seemed the right weather for a nice hot soup. Dig in.” Cal obliged the capybara’s request, and his earlier hopes were proven true. Even on Pluto a capybara could still cook an amazing meal.
As Cal was finishing up his food, he felt several more strong mana sources nearby. “Shit, I think they are sweeping the area with their own battle wizards. Likely the bigger ones that I doubt we are ready to fight yet.” Cal said as he dropped his bowl and started channeling a small ball of lightning in his hand.
He dropped to his knees and carefully pushed the lightning against the ice, pouring more and more energy into it as he did. Steam started to fill the small chamber. Ethel was working it out of her bubble through a small hole she had created. “I wish you had warned me. We lost some oxygen because of my rushed ventilation. Frank, breathe harder. We need to replace some of it as quickly as we can.” Frank started breathing rapidly as Ethel instructed him to do.
Cal grew the lightning around both his fists, pounding them down as hard he could over and over, cracking through the ice at a rapid pace until he felt himself hit stone. “Time to see if Grannus has grown enough for this yet.” He thought to himself as he reached down and started pulling the stone up, channeling it out his hole and back into the igloo. After a few minutes of this, he was able to fit everyone into his ever-growing hole, and after another hour he had sealed the stone above them, letting Ethel collapse the ice shelter.
“How much longer can you keep this up, Cal? I can feel some sort of plant below us, but it’s hard for me to tell how far.” Ethel asked him.
“No idea. Pluto is basically a nice stress test for what I’ve done to myself recently, so I guess it’s time to find out.” After several hours of pushing his body to its limits, he was nearly ready to give up when he felt the rock below him give way. He fell far enough for it to be painful but not far enough for anything to break into pitch darkness and a hard floor.
“You okay down there?” He heard Stan call from above.
Forcing himself back to his feet, he channeled a small ball of lightning to light the room around him and called back. “Yeah, it looks pretty safe. I think I can see some sort of moss ahead, probably what you felt, Ethel. Frank, can you start lowering everyone down?”
“ABSOLUTELY!” Frank yelled.