For several seconds, everything vanished.
White mist swallowed them from all sides, so dense that Eirwen could barely see Andromeda despite her sitting right beside him. Droplets of frozen moisture hissed into steam whenever they touched the phoenix's body, surrounding them in a boiling veil of cloud and fire. The descent continued, faster and faster, until Eirwen's stomach rose into his throat and his fingers began to ache from how hard he was gripping the plumage. The phoenix screamed again, and the sound tore a tunnel through the clouds ahead of them.
Pale light broke apart as the mist thinned.
Then they finally pierced through the bottom of the cloud layer and Below them awaited a new world.
Eirwen stared despite himself, his breath catching for half a second as the sheer scale of what lay beneath the clouds unfolded before him.
A gigantic basin stretched in every direction, surrounded by mountain walls so tall that their upper halves disappeared back into the clouds they had just crossed.
Frozen rivers split the land like veins of silver, winding between dark forests, snow-covered ruins, deep ravines, and fields of black stone. Vast sheets of ice reflected the pale sky like mirrors.
Far in the distance, another frozen sea glimmered beneath the pale light, its surface broken by islands of ice and the remains of ancient structures.
Storms moved slowly across the horizon, their clouds hanging low and heavy, filled with faint flashes of blue lightning. Here and there, pillars of black rock rose from the snow like broken fangs. Entire stretches of land looked scarred, as though something enormous had clawed trenches through the basin long ago.
It was the kind of sight that made a person feel fear despite seeing something beautiful.
The Saint pointed toward the center of the basin. "There. That's where my corps is stationed."
Eirwen followed his finger.
At first, the structure looked small compared to everything around it. Then the phoenix descended lower, and his sense of scale corrected itself.
The fortress rising from the black stone plateau was enormous. Its walls were built from dark material that looked like obsidian or a very dark and strange type of metal.
Several towers rose from the outer wall, each one crowned with metal frames, signal fires, and mounted weapons. A single watchtower stood higher than the rest at the center, tall and narrow, its peak burning with a crimson flame.
Around the entire perimeter stood hundreds of stakes, some made from black wood, others from bone or metal, each one burning with pale fire. Trenches carved the ground outside the walls in uneven rings, and beyond them were barricades, frozen pits or rows of sharpened spikes.
And most importantly to note: the fortress was under attack.
Nightmare Creatures swarmed the outer defenses in scattered waves, each group stranger that the last.
Some crawled on too many limbs, moving low to the ground like spiders made of bone and frost. Their joints bent the wrong way, and clusters of pale eyes blinked across their skull-like faces.
Others were taller, with plated backs, curved horns, and long arms ending in hooks sharp enough to carve through steel.
One creature dragged itself forward on six arms while its lower body trailed behind like a torn sack of flesh, its mouth splitting open from neck to stomach as it shrieked.
Another resembled a stretched out wolf, its ribs protruding through translucent skin while black mist leaked from between its teeth.
Massive centipede-like horrors slithered through the snow, their armored segments grinding together in a disgusting sound.
A few winged creatures circled above the battlefield—their featherless bodies covered in patches of ice and exposed muscle—only to be struck out of the sky by bolts of light fired from the watchtowers.
Yet despite their numbers, the attack did not look like a crisis at all. Somehow it looked like they had everything perfectly under control.
Soldiers moved along the walls, firing Memories, operating mounted weapons, throwing spears, and releasing other strange Aspects.
A line of Awakened outside the first trench advanced in formation, cut down several creatures, then retreated before another group took their place.
Eirwen watched one giant creature breach the first line, its massive body smashing through a barricade as it roared toward the gate.
The thing looked like a cross between a bear and an elephant, covered in overlapping plates of black chitin. Jagged tusks protruded from its face, and dozens of smaller mouths opened and snapped across its shoulders as it charged.
But before it could take another step, a figure leapt down from the wall and struck it with a hammer made of violet flames. The impact flattened the creature into the ground and sent cracks and fire racing through the plateau.
No one on the walls even stopped to stare.
Another soldier simply shouted an order, and three ballista-like weapons turned toward the next wave. The bolts they released were covered in glowing runes, and when they struck the snow outside the trench, chains of fire erupted outward and wrapped around several Nightmare Creatures at once. The horde screamed, burned, and froze all at the same time.
"Is this normal?" Andromeda asked quietly.
The Saint glanced down at the battlefield, then shrugged with one shoulder. "For this time of day? A little annoying, but normal enough."
Eirwen slowly turned to look at him. "That is normal?"
"Welcome to the Ninth Circle," the Saint said, his mouth curving into a faint smile despite the exhaustion on his face. "If nothing is trying to kill you, something is probably hiding and waiting for the right moment."
The phoenix descended lower, and the fortress finally noticed them properly. At first, only a few soldiers looked up, but seconds later more followed.
The sight of the massive burning bird passing beneath the clouds drew attention faster than any command could have. A deep and heavy horn sounded from the central watchtower akin to an ancient beast. The phoenix answered with a piercing screech that made the air tremble and moments later, drums began to pound from within the fortress.
With a slow and powerful rhythm they echoed from the walls and trenches.
The Saint exhaled softly, as he saw some of the flying Nightmare Creatures change the target of their charge. "They saw us," he said simply. "But don't worry kids, they won't reach us."
The horn sounded again and the soldiers on the walls shifted formation, several mounted weapons turning away from the horde just long enough to cover the phoenix's descent. The burning stakes around the perimeter flared brighter, their pale flames rising several meters into the air. A section of the upper platform near the central watchtower cleared, soldiers moving away as chains were pulled and a wide landing area opened atop the black stone structure.
Eirwen looked from the fortress to the battlefield and then at the Saint beside him. "This is your corps?"
The orange-haired Saint smiled with a tired expression. "Part of it, our great Monarch Gehrman isn't here unfortunately."
Before Eirwen could ask what that meant, the phoenix folded its wings and descended toward the fortress.
Heat rolled off its massive body in waves, melting snow from the upper walls as soldiers stepped back and raised their arms against the sudden blast.
Below them, the Nightmare Creatures screamed and rushed forward, thirsting over the new souls that arrived.
The war horn sounded a third time, the drums grew louder, and the burning stakes around the fortress flared until the entire perimeter became a ring of pale fire.
The phoenix screamed one last time as it dropped toward the landing platform.
Its wings flared open fully at the final moment, scattering waves of heat across the fortress roof and forcing the nearby soldiers to stagger back. Then its massive talons struck the black stone with a thunderous crash.
The entire platform groaned.
Cracks spread beneath the phoenix, racing across the dark floor as dust and old frost burst into the air. Chains rattled and the gears that moved the structure cried somewhere below them.
The phoenix lowered its burning head, embers drifting from its feathers as the last echoes of its cry faded into the sound of war and distant screams.
They had arrived.