"ART!" Tess screamed as she saw Arthur fall out of her sight.

Everyone else saw this as well but were frozen in shock to see their seemingly invincible friend disappear from sight. Tess scrambled to her feet, dropping Sylvie to the ground with the only thought in her head being to get to Arthur.

"TESS NO!" Lilia screamed as she saw her friend running.

Elijah was closest, and scrambled to his feet to stop her. Tess saw Elijah coming out of the corner of her eye, and without thinking moved her hand up to block him, but ended up smacking him in the face instead. Elijah lost his footing and tumbled to the ground. Kathyln used her ice magic to create an ice wall to block her, but Tess used her wind magic to jump over and clear the wall. As she soared above he looked down to look for Arthur, only to see ice moving to a large opening in the middle of the ground that was once underneath the ice. It was only for a second, but as she looked at the opening she could have sworn she saw a faint glow coming from within.

"That's where Art went," Tess thought to herself.

With another burst of wind she shot herself downward towards the opening. The yells from the rest of the party became more faint as she landed on a sheet of ice moving towards the opening. However she was impatient, and as soon as she landed she ran towards the edge and then jumped to another sheet, then another, all moving herself closer to the dark void that was swallowing up all the ice sliding into it, and hopefully Arthur as well. With one final jump Tess plunged into the darkness, praying to find Arthur alive and well.

—————————————————————

"No! Let go, we need to go after them!" Lilia pleaded as she fought against Curtis, who was holding her back.

"And what's your plan?" Elijah asked as he dug through his bag.

"Save them. Arthur's your best friend, why aren't you running to find him too?" Lilia replied.

"Because he's thinking rationally," Orson chimed in. "We have no idea how stable the ice is. If we just rush out there we risk having more people that need saving."

Orson's words calmed Lilia down. He was right, if something went wrong they could all be in danger.

"Ok. What do we do then?" Lilia asked.

"I'll go check it out and see if I can spot them," Orson volunteered.

"No, I will," Elijah said as he tightened a rope around his waist. "Arthur put me in charge if anything happened to him. And being an earth conjurer I can make some structures pretty quick if I need to save them, or myself if something goes wrong."

Elijah handed the remaining rope to Orson as Kathyln removed her ice wall. Carefully Elijah walked out onto the crack riddled ice. Kathyln tried to re enforce the ice, but some areas the cracks were so bad that her spell didn't do much. Elijah made it to the edge and looked out into what once was a sea of ice. He could see there was a wide stone ledge that led back to the other side, which would be helpful for later. As he looked down he could see everything had calmed down, with only a few large sheets of ice remaining just sitting down in the dirt. He could see the massive opening that was most likely where the rest of the ice went, but he couldn't see any signs of Arthur or Tess. Just then he felt something jump on his back.

"Hey Sylvie. I don't suppose you can see them?" Elijah asked. Sylvie shook her head and pointed down to the opening. "Yeah I think they went down there too. If only there was a way to..." Elijah froze as he mentally slapped himself. "Your and Arthur's bond! You can sense if he's still alive right?"

"Kyuu," Sylvie replied with a smile.

"Arthur said once that you two can communicate with your bond. Is he ok?"

—————————————————————

Arthur was jumping as fast as he could from falling ice sheet to ice sheet using piston stomp to try and reach the walls of the pit he was falling down, while also dodging the falling ice. In a effort to try and save his mana, once Arthur was close enough to the side he infused his blade with earth mana and thrust his into the rock wall. As Arthur expected the blade was able to cut into the stone and quickly began to slow his fall. As Dawn's Ballad cut through the stone while slowing his descent, Arthur couldn't help but remember the last time he fell like this at Widows Crypt.

"Art!"

Arthur heard his name being called out faintly, but dismissed it as he knew it must have been his party at the opening.

"Art!"

Arthur heard his name again, but this time it was louder, and he could distinguish the voice was of Tess. He quickly looked up in hopes to see her as he feared she also fell into the pit. As he looked he saw a massive hunk of ice falling along the wall on a collision course with him. While holding tight onto his sword Arthur sent a burst of wind mana into his blade that shot it out of the rock, carrying him with it just in time to dodge the ice.

"Art!"

"Tess?!" Arthur called out frantically as he searched for her, and ignited his body in a bright yellow flame so she might see him first.

"Art!"

This time she sounded much closer. Arthur scanned the area above him in search of the elf princess, and found her falling towards him. Using wind magic Arthur was able to move himself a little closer as he slid his sword back into its sheath and extinguished his flames. They both had their arms extended as they reached out for one another. Soon their fingertips touched, just enough for them to grab one another's hand and pull themselves together in a tight embrace.

"Tess..." Arthur started before Tess cut him off.

"Art I have a plan, but we'll need to get away from all this ice first," Tess blurted out.

Arthur was surprised by this, but quickly went with it as he tried to suppress his guilt for failing to protect her.

"Hang on tight," Arthur replied and his hold on her tightened

With that Arthur used wind magic to move him closer to a slab of ice, then began using piston stomp again to begin propelling them from one ice sheet to the next. Soon they had cleared all of the ice, which was much faster than Arthur expected, causing him to wonder how Tess really ended up falling down the pit.

"It's going to be a pretty sudden stop. Here we go," Tess said.

A second later they hit something with some give, that then shot them back up, before falling back and stopping right as a loud crash was heard beneath them.

"It worked, we're ok," Tess said with a sigh of relief. She then looked to Arthur to see his eyes wide as they welled with tears and he bit his bottom lip. "Art are you ok?" Tess asked urgently.

"Your knee," Arthur strained to get out.

Tess looked down to see her knee right on his groin. "Oh gods I'm soo sorry," Tess apologized in a panic as she rolled off of him. She moved as if she wanted to tend to his injury, but as soon as she was in position hesitated due to its location.

"It's ok," Arthur croaked out as he reached down into his pants. "Everything feels intact," Arthur thought to himself as he checked his injury, and cast a light ice spell to deal with the swelling and pain as his body healed. Now more than ever he was grateful for his assimilated body, as healing moves along much faster. Now with his injury healing and the pain subsiding, Arthur could focus on the one question that on his mind. "Tess, did you jump in after me?"

"Maybe," Tess replied with an innocent tone.

Arthur sighed in frustration. "What were you thinking? You could have died!"

"You could have too! I was just doing what you would do if our roles were reversed!" Tess shot back defensively.

Arthur opened his mouth to scold her almost like a child, but stopped. She was right, he would have dove right after her without hesitation. "Thank you for saving me," Arthur replied kindly, as he finally looked to see what caught them.

"You're welcome," Tess replied with a warm smile, as she knew Arthur agreed with her.

"So, a vine net. Not bad. A lot better than my idea," Arthur replied as he admired her work. "So how does the rest of your plan play out?"

"Well, this is as far as my plan went," Tess replied sounding a little embarrassed.

Arthur chuckled. "That's fine. Let's see how far from the bottom we are." Arthur removed his hand from his pants and began to roll over when he slapped both of his hands on his forehead.

"Art are you ok?" Tess asked urgently as she tried to move closer.

"I'm fine, it's just Sylvie. She's yelling in my head," Arthur replied, then focused on his incoming call.

"Calm down Sylvie. Tess and I are fine," Arthur replied through their bond.

"Papa I was so scared for you and Mama," Sylvie said as she started to calm back down.

"Well we're fine. Tess was able to stop us in time."

"Wait, mama saved you?" Sylvie asked, sounding surprised.

"Yes, now focus. What's going on up there? Is everyone ok?" Arthur asked.

"We're ok. Glasses and I are at the edge of the ice. We'll come help get you and mama back up here," Sylvie replied.

"No, we're so far down I can't even see the light from the opening, and it looks too narrow for you to fly down and get us," Arthur stated as he looked up and examined the route he came. "Get it across to Elijah to lead everyone down to the bottom of the dungeon, we'll meet you all down there."

"Ok," Sylvie replied sounding concerned. "Be sure to keep Mama safe."

—————————————————————

Upon ending their talk, Sylvie turned around and began heading back to the others.

"Hey Sylvie, did you speak with Arthur? Are he and Tess ok?" Elijah asked with concern.

Sylvie turned around and sat down on the ice. "Kyuu Kyuu kyu kyu Kyuu kyuuu Kyuu," Sylvie replied with paw gestures.

As Sylvie explained Elijah developed a deer in headlights expression, as he had no idea what she was saying.

"Umm Sylvie. Arthur understands you, I don't. I'm going to assume they're ok. Do they want us to rescue them?" Elijah replied as he tried to understand what was going on.

"Grrrr," Sylvie replied, annoyed at this current situation. She ran to the ice edge and pointed down while shaking her head.

"So don't try and rescue them?" Elijah guessed.

"Kyuu," Sylvie replied pleasantly, and started running back to the others, then stopped and pointed towards them.

"Arthur wants us to keep going?" Elijah guessed again.

"Kyuu," Sylvie replied once more, then continued to the others, with Elijah following behind.

"Arthur and Tess aren't down there, so we're going to keep moving," Elijah informed them. "Sylvie was able to communicate with Arthur, and assured her they're ok. I'm guessing they must be too far down, or aren't able to safely make it back up."

"So what? We just continue like they're fine?" Lunaris asked.

"There's not much else we can do. If Arthur doesn't think they can make it back up then they probably can't, or it's too dangerous. We'll fight our way through the dungeon, defeat the boss, and if we haven't found them by then, we'll begin a thorough search on our way back up," Elijah explained.

No one liked the idea very much, but they all knew how strong Arthur and Tess were. If anyone in that group could make it back it was them.

—————————————————————

"So is everything ok?" Tess asked as Arthur opened his eyes.

"Yeah. I just told Sylvie to have them continue to the bottom and that we would catch up," Arthur replied, then rolled over. "Now let's see how much further down we need to go."

Arthur stuck his arm through the net and launched a fire ball downward. They both had their eyes locked on the bright yellow ball of fire as it propelled downward. The light was getting harder to see when it suddenly appeared to pop.

"What just happened? Did it hit the bottom?" Tess asked almost frantically.

"I think so. Let's try this again, but with a bigger fireball this time," Arthur replied hopefully, then launched another fire ball twice as large as the first. Yet again the fireball appeared to burst at about the same distance.

"It did hit something! Do you think it's the bottom?" Tess asked excitedly.

"Maybe. It's a couple hundred feet down," Arthur replied as he examined the net. "It won't be easy, but I think if we cut most of the net loose we'll be able to climb most of it way down."

Arthur and Tess then held on tight to the vines as they used wind blades and ranged fire spells to sever the vines at the walls.

"This is it. One last group of vines and this net becomes a ladder. Any second thoughts?" Arthur asked.

"Just one," Tess replied. She then leaned in and quickly kissed Arthur on the lips. "Hang on tight." Tess then sent a wind blade at the last bunch of vines.

The net began falling, hinged at a point that would make the net longest. Arthur was caught a bit off guard by Tess' kiss, but managed to recover well enough to keep his grip tight on the vines. As they fell they also began swinging towards one of the frozen rock walls of the pit. So as planned they both used a wind spell to act as a cushion so they didn't slam too hard.

"Tess, are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine, you?"

"I'm good." Arthur then looked down towards the bottom, which was still too dark to see. "Let's start climbing down."

It only took them a few minutes to reach the bottom of the net, and as they did they realized that the wall of the pit disappeared. Arthur ignited his left hand in fire mana to illuminate the area. The light reflected off of the ice to reveal that the pit opened up into a massive cavern, and below them was all the ice that fell with them.

The large sheets of ice had broken apart from the fall. Some had broken into smaller sheets that could be walked on, while others had broken in such a way that they were pointed up, looking as though they would pierce through anyone unlucky enough to land on them. Many of them however shattered into much smaller pieces and looked like piles of sparkling diamonds between the larger sheets.

"Well, if it wasn't for our current situation, I'd probably say the way the light shines makes this place look beautiful," Tess commented as she gazed upon the scene below.

"I'd agree with you, if it weren't for that," Arthur commented as he pointed to the beast they had defeated, half buried in ice as a pool of blood was freezing around it.

They climbed down to the end of the net with their feet dangling. Directly below them was what appeared to be a stable sheet of ice, and together they dropped down to it. This turned out to be a mistake, as soon as they landed the ice broke, and they fell down riding on the ice towards several spikes shards that were pointed right at them. By instinct Arthur grabbed Tess and held her in front of him as he turned his back towards the ice, using his own body like a shield. As the ice hit Arthur's back it shattered as it redirected them down, but Arthur fought to use himself as Tess' shield. After a few more shards their fall ended with a splash as they fell into a pool of freezing water.

Tess burst out of the water shivering, her lips already turning blue. "Arthur?" She called out as she looked for him. As if on cue Arthur burst out of the water gasping for air. "Arthur are you ok?" Tess asked in a panic as she rushed to him.

"I'm fine. These clothes definitely work better than I expected," Arthur replied before wincing in pain.

"Oh no," Tess worried as she began to examine him for injuries.

"I'm fine. The ice didn't break my skin, it felt just like blunt force hitting me," Arthur reassured her.

"Really? Are you sure," Tess asked worried.

"Im positive. Now come on, we need to get out of this water before we freeze to death," Arthur replied.

It didn't take long to find an opening from between the ice sheets where the pool formed and they climbed out, and began walking on top of the gravel like ice that covered the ground.

"H-h-how i-is it t-there is w-wa-t-t-ter down h-here?" Tess asked as she shivered.

"All this ice was probably water at some point, but either it froze or something restricted the water flow. This whole area was most likely underwater well before our parents were born," Arthur replied as he handled the cold better than Tess. He looked back to see that she had fallen behind, and her steps weren't steady. Arthur then stopped and took a knee. "Climb on, I'll carry you."

"N-n-o, I c-c-can handl-le it," Tess replied as she reinforced her body with even more mana.

"Tess, because our clothes are soaked, the heat is being pulled from our bodies even faster than before. If you climb on my back I can heat us both," Arthur explained, concerned completely with Tess' well being.

"Ok," Tess replied.

Tess climbed onto Arthur's back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his abdomen. Arthur then interlocked his hands behind his back to act as a seat as he stood up and started walking, while he searched for dry land so they could start a fire without it going out from melting ice, otherwise they both risked freezing to death.