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It was slow going. This ice--or whatever it was--didn’t want to make things easy on him. Even after trying to apply a bit more intensity with his friction, there was no difference. Just more chips flying off.

That was fine. He kept at it. His body turned numb as it suffocated, and he had to make sure to pause for more heat generation every couple of minutes. The only real danger here was the cold getting to his brain. As long as he accounted for that, then it was just a matter of time before he got through.

And eventually, he did. The iceberg finally cracked apart enough to reveal its hollow contents, if only a little. He still couldn’t see inside, however, because water immediately began rushing through the opening. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be a problem for whoever was in there, but he figured if they could survive such extremely temperatures, then they could also survive getting a bit wet.

When he punched through fully, the hollowed-out berg was nearly full of water--and sinking, too, rendering it quite dark. He had to rely on Arumoro’s again.

‘Can you sense things more clearly now?’ asked Raul.

‘I can,’ said Arumoro. ‘There are multiple souls inside, but they’re coated in more of this ice. Like frozen pods. Their soul signatures are tough to make out, but I feel like maybe I’ve...’

When the reaper didn’t complete the sentence, Raul paused. He was gripping the hole in the iceberg and trying to swim upward, but it wasn’t going very well. ‘Maybe you’ve, what?’

‘...Those are Vanguardians in there,’ said Aru. ‘Powerful ones, too. Famous.’

Oh, boy.

Raul gave up trying to pull the berg to the surface, though not because of what he’d just learned. Their identities certainly complicated things, but that was for the elders to worry about, not him. Right now, these people still needed rescuing.

He dove into the iceberg and began pulling directly on the ice pods, as Aru had described them. He relied on more heat generation, trying to help his numb fingers sink into the ice and grip it.

Didn’t work terribly well, but he still managed to wrap his arms around one of the pods and pull it through the opening that he’d created.

Arumoro didn’t stop talking the whole time.

‘My word. It’s an entire collection of generals. Kehl, Jules, Wes. I think that’s Vernon in your hands, right now.’