CHAPTER 117: FROZEN LAVA CAT

Hermes lost count of how many minutes had passed since they stepped into the Void’s labyrinthine guts, but Magni had been narrating every last second like they were walking through a history museum.

"And then," Magni’s booming voice echoed off the jagged cliffs around them, "we infiltrated this Threat Rehabilitation School. A ghastly place, really. Tiny cells, shock collars for children. Can you believe it?"

He gestured wildly as he spoke.

"They had trackers embedded in their spines. Every time they used their gifts—zap!"

He slapped his own chest for emphasis, sparks of magma spitting from his palm. "The bastards thought they could break a child’s spirit with lightning. But that’s where they’re wrong!"

"Sounds familiar," Ymir muttered, his icy breath curling white against the oppressive heat of the terrain. "Humans never change. Same cruelty, just different packaging."

Magni nodded solemnly, though solemnity never lasted long with him. "Yes, but that’s where I came in! We broke them out. Ha! The chaos was glorious. Shattered walls, melted floors... children running free, laughing for the first time in who knows how long. Of course, they all adored me instantly."

"They adored the one who disabled the trackers." Ymir cut in, arms folded across his chest.

"Who?" Hermes asked.

Ymir huffed. "That would be me, of course. This guy’s molten brain forgot. I had to thread ice needles thinner than a strand of hair right into the circuits. One wrong move, and it could’ve fried their nervous systems. But no, let’s all worship the lava idiot stomping around like Fire Bigfoot."

Hermes hid a grin. "Sounds like a perfect partnership to me."

Magni puffed up, magma glowing brighter through the cracks of his skin. "Exactly! He freezes, I smash! Together, we’re unstoppable."

The Void around them shifted like it was listening in. Gravity bent sideways, cliffs curling inward into spirals, rivers of molten stone running upside-down across the ceiling. Hermes tilted his head back, watching embers drip upward like stars reversing course.

"Unstoppable." Hermes echoed, though his mind drifted.

Hermes was reminded that he wasn’t here to admire their teamwork. He was here for a scent. For a pulse.

Just then, the Void rippled, and something small darted toward them.

"Hey! Heyyy!"

A little girl stumbled out from behind a cluster of jagged rocks. Her shoes were half-melted from the heat, but her grin was radiant. She couldn’t have been more than seven. Around her neck hung a battered plush keychain of a cartoon cat—big round eyes, stubby paws.

Hermes blinked. "What in the—?"

"Ah!" Magni exclaimed, striding forward. "One of ours! You found us, little spark!"

The child lit up as Magni crouched down, his massive frame shrinking ever so slightly so as not to terrify her. "Mister Magni! Mister Ymir!"

"You’re supposed to be with the others," Ymir said, frowning. "The Void is no place for children to wander."

But the girl was already tugging at Magni’s arm, bouncing on her toes. "Can you make me a cat? Please, please, please? Like this one!"

She held up her keychain of a famous cartoon cat character with a pink bow on one of her ears, eyes shining with hope.

Magni chuckled, placing his molten hands together. Stone and fire coiled between his palms, shaping under his will.

Slowly, a sculpture emerged: a tiny lava-and-rock replica of the cat, with stubby legs and pointy ears. The heat rolling off it shimmered the air.

"Ta-da!" Magni declared proudly. "Your very own fire-cat!"

The girl squealed, reaching out....

Only to yank her hand back with a sharp "Ow!"

The sculpture glowed too hot to touch.

Ymir sighed. "Unbelievable."

He stepped forward, placed a single fingertip to the molten cat, and frost rippled outward. Steam hissed, leaving the figure solid and cool to the touch.

"There. Now it won’t roast her alive."

The child hugged the sculpture tight, eyes welling with gratitude. "Thank you! Thank you both!"

Hermes watched, a surprising warmth flickering through his chest. He let out a low whistle. "Look at that. You two would make great parents."

Magni beamed. "At last, someone recognizes my potential!"

Ymir smacked Hermes across the forehead with the back of his hand. "Shut. Up."

Hermes laughed, rubbing the spot. But the laughter died almost instantly when something hit him.

Not sound. Not sight.

Smell.

It sliced through the Void’s sulfur and smoke like lightning, sharp and unmistakable. A scent that lived in his bones, in his blood. Frost and ash, magma and snow.

Eirwyn.

Hermes froze mid-step, heart pounding. His head snapped toward the twisting landscape, nostrils flaring like a hound on the hunt.

"He was here..." He whispered.

"What?" Ymir asked, but Hermes was already moving.

He bolted across the fractured terrain, boots striking shards of black stone, his breath ragged with urgency. Ymir and Magni shouted after him, but their voices blurred into background noise. The scent was everything, pulling him deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of warped gravity.

And then...

The ground shook.

From the abyss ahead, something massive rose.

A chimeric beast slithered into view, its scales glistening like frozen oceans, wings carved from jagged glaciers. From the neck down, it was a dragon of solid ice, every breath chilling the molten rivers into brittle crystal.

But its head...

It’s head was the snarling visage of a wolf, eyes glowing blue, teeth rimed with frost.

It threw back its head and roared.

A torrent of icy wind spewed forth, slamming into them. Hermes barely had time to shield his face before the blast encased the ground in a prison of crystalline frost, walls of ice jutting up around them like a sudden fortress.

The beast prowled forward, steam rising from its breath.

Magni’s eyes widened. "By the void... I know this creature."

"Good." Hermes snapped, drawing power into his fists. "Because I’d like to know what the hell we’re about to fight."

Magni’s expression sobered, something rare and unsettling on his face. He stared at the beast, awe and memory flickering in his molten gaze.

"This..." He said, voice heavy. "... was once the companion of your ancestor, Ymir. The great wolf-dragon of the Primordial Goddess Skadi. We’ve entered the domain of the Ice Queen herself."