The switchback path winding down the mountain was heavily fortified. A dozen Aegis Sentinels—elite border guards clad in heavy golden plate—were establishing a blockade. Their barricades were made of solidified light, and cannons powered by captured starlight were already tracking the upper ridges.
"They're scanning for thermal signatures," Mina whispered, her teeth chattering despite the thermal-weave. "If we take the path, we'll be walking into a firing squad. There's no cover for two miles."
Solan didn't look at the path. He looked at the sheer, vertical drop of the ice-cliff right beside them. It was a 70-degree incline of jagged glaciers that ended in a narrow snow gorge just outside the massive Iron Gates of the border.
"We aren't taking the path," Solan said.
He walked over to the frozen remains of the Frost-Guardian. With a single swing of the Fang of Ophiuchus, he severed one of the massive, flat plates of Star-Sapphire ice that had formed its shoulder. It was roughly the size of a small boat.
"Solan, no. You can't be serious," Mina backed away, looking over the terrifying drop. "That's suicide!"
"Not with gravity on our side," Solan replied. He grabbed her by the collar of her cloak and effortlessly lifted her onto the makeshift sled. "Hold onto the ridges. Do not let go, no matter what happens."
Solan stepped onto the back of the ice-plate. He ignited his blade, plunging it halfway into the ice to act as a rudder, and then unleashed his mana.
"Astral Void Style, Second Form: Gravitational Inversion (Localized)!"
He didn't make them float; he shifted the center of gravity so the 70-degree cliff felt like a gentle slope to the sled. Then, with his left hand, he used Thermal Siphon to delete all friction between the sled and the mountain.
They dropped.
The acceleration was instantaneous. The wind turned into a physical wall, roaring in their ears as the sled blurred down the glacier. They were moving at over a hundred miles an hour in seconds.
Down at the blockade, the Sentinel Captain's helm blared with alarms. He looked up, his eyes widening behind his visor. "Above us! Fire the Star-Cannons! FIRE!"
Three beams of concentrated golden light tore through the falling snow, aimed directly at the descending sled.
"Mina, keep your head down!" Solan roared.
He didn't dodge. He channeled the Void-Tech in his left arm, his eye spinning with the violet geometric iris. "Override: Trajectory Glitch!"
The space around the sled fractured like broken glass. The sled didn't just move; it "skipped" forward in space by fifty feet, completely bypassing the first two beams.
The third beam came too fast. Solan swung the Fang of Ophiuchus, the black glass clashing with the golden laser. The impact threatened to shatter their sled, but the Crimson Aegis flared, absorbing the raw heat and converting it into kinetic energy.
The clash sent a massive shockwave up the mountain.
CRACK.
A sound louder than thunder echoed across the Peaks of Silence. The shockwave had fractured the overhanging snow-shelf above the Sentinel blockade. Millions of tons of snow, ice, and rock began to slide.
"Avalanche!" the Sentinels screamed, abandoning their cannons.
Solan and Mina were riding the very tip of the wave. The "White Death" roared behind them, swallowing the golden knights, their barricades, and their cannons in a churning sea of ice.
Solan steered the sled with terrifying precision, using bursts of void energy to hop over jagged crevasses while the mountain collapsed in their wake. His reflexes were no longer human; his Void-Tech arm was processing the terrain at a microsecond level, calculating vectors and impacts with cold, digital perfection.
[SYNCHRONIZATION: 88%]
[VOID CORRUPTION: 33%]
The gorge approached fast. The ground leveled out, but they were still moving at breakneck speed toward a massive, ancient pine forest at the base.
Solan slammed the Fang of Ophiuchus deep into the earth. "Decay Touch!" The ground beneath them instantly turned to soft ash, creating a massive deceleration crater. The sled hit the ash, violently slowing down before finally coming to a halt in a cloud of grey dust and snow.
Seconds later, the avalanche crashed into the valley walls behind them with a deafening roar, sealing the mountain pass forever.
Solan stood up, his cloak whipping in the freezing wind. He looked entirely unfazed. Mina collapsed onto the snow, gasping for air, her legs shaking so hard she couldn't stand.
"We're alive," she whispered, staring at the wall of snow that had just buried an entire border garrison.
Solan didn't answer. He looked forward through the swirling snow. Standing at the end of the gorge, towering hundreds of feet into the dark sky, were the Iron Gates of Aethelgard. The wilderness was over.