Emile slid out of Willow's grip and placed his feet on the smooth, gray stone beneath him. All around him, in fact, the gray stone persisted.
Its surface was smooth and clean, free from holes and craters, blemishes and spikes all which Emile was used to seeing in the Hollow Mountains.
Littering the walls, soft blue crystals protruded out. They appeared in bunches of three and four and were found all over the ravine; from the floor Emile stood on to the ceiling above them.
Thankfully, the crystals released a natural blue glow that illuminated their surroundings enough to see, similar to the light of a full moon.
After brushing himself off, Emile absorbed his surroundings.
Beside the bunches of crystals and the remnants of the fallen tree, the ravine was not occupied by much. Losing interest, Roy took over and began guiding them through the tunnels.
"How far are we?" Emile asked, surprised at the mist that erupted from his jaw.
"Not far—" Roy replied, "we should be there in a bit."
Roy turned a corner ahead of them and instinctually stopped.
"What's wrong?" Willow asked.
"There's a breeze—" Roy replied, "a strong one."
Emile stepped into the tunnel with Roy and immediately a blast of cold wind rummaged through his outer garments. Goosebumps began to form, but before his body could shiver Emile's Gift regulated his temperature.
Although he wasn't suffering from the effects of the cold, he felt it nonetheless. The powerful breeze flowed at a constant and was ridiculously dry so it had to be cold enough to freeze water almost instantaneously.
Pushing forward, the trio marched into the icy weather. The further they went the colder it became.
What was first nothing more than a chilly breeze had quickly evolved into a torrent of frost. Glacial particles were carried by the wind and thrown into the three travelers.
Soon after, a thin sheet of ice froze over the stone and an audible crunch accompanied each of their steps. The small glacial particles eventually grew into snowflakes and the snowflakes combined into clumps of snow.
Before they even caught a glimpse of the end of the tunnel, a torrent of snow barreled towards them. They stepped through inches of snow, swallowed mouthfuls of water, and huddled together as they persevered.
Forcing his eyelids to remain open, Emile squinted through dry eyes and snow to see ahead, but all he could see was white. The floors, ceiling, even the walls were covered in snow at this point.
"Where is all this snow coming from?!" Emile yelled.
"I'm not sure!" Willow responded, "I've never found snow this North before!"
The snow continued to pile up, forming a wall of soft ice. They made it to the wall and crashed into it, trying to push through to the other side.
Now completely working in the light, Emile dug his fingers through the snow and plowed his way forward. Before he knew it, he burst through the snow and fell over, tumbling onto a downward slope of snow and ice.
Rolling down, the snow stuck to Emile's wet clothes effortlessly and consumed him whole. By the time Roy and Willow emerged, Emile had already transformed into a living snowball twenty feet down the slope.
***
Blood paced back and forth in front of the metal wall while talking to himself:
"They're obviously never going to find this flower—"
Blood paused and gazed at the wall once more.
"Even if they did, where are they supposed to put it?"
He approached the wall and traced the circles with his fingers, "There isn't a place to insert anything. There's no key hole."
He grabbed a shard of broken rock off the floor and rammed it into the wall:
"And the wall's indestructible… I think."
He inhaled a large breath and repeatedly slammed the rock into the wall as hard as he could. Wiping some sweat from his forehead, he ran his fingers along the grooves again.
"Nothing—" Blood sighed, clearly disappointed, "why can't I dent it?"
"Actually, here's a better question! Why can't I enter the damn miasma!" Blood chucked the rock behind him and it exploded against the canyon wall.
"Relax, relax, I'm safer here anyway. This is a blessing in disguise—I think that's the expression."
He threw his body into the metal wall and slid down, sitting on the ground. He looked forward, seemingly at nothing, but his eyes moved as if he was reading.
"Soul Saturation: a thousand out of a thousand…"
Blood's head fell into his knees, he tucked his body tight and squeezed.
"What the f*** is this?"
[Soul Rank: Enlightened]
[Soul Saturation: 1,000/1,000]
[Soul Essence: 300/300]
[Gift: Vampirism]
[Description: Manipulate blood to your will]
[Enhancement: Hosts blood coagulates faster]
[Ability: Crystallization]
[Description: Crystalize blood under your control]
[Legacy: Abandon your humanity]
[Notification: Host cannot transcend due to "Legacy"]