"Haaaaaaaa" Frost let out a deep sigh after hearing Loki's account of what transpired. The plan he initially had was for Terrance and his team to make a little showing, revealing the fact that sapients weren't just mere fodder, not for them to come out swinging with their full strength against a bunch of riff raff. He could only imagine how Karrick must be feeling at this very moment.
To know that no matter what he did there wasn't the slightest chance of victory.
"Have Terrance and Ladius withdraw from the battlefield, hopefully without their presence the war can continue to some degree." He wanted Karrick's forces to keep attacking even if the result was predetermined.
"Findlay already removed them from the scene, he's taken them down to the third floor for now but is awaiting your instructions." Loki replied.
"Good, keep them out of sight but if Ladius kicks up a fuss have some of the ronsos guide them through the secret paths, she can study the spatial connection if she wants.' At least that way they won't pose a serious threat to Karrick's forces.
"Understood master." Loki thus left to inform Findlay.
"Let's move Khuno."
"Yes sir." Frost and his invading forces continued their delve with a quickened pace.
On the bottommost floor of Karrick's dungeon where fires raged across the landscape and streams of boiling lava stretched across the floor. A terrifying blockade of high strength monsters, traps and even several war machines could be seen blocking the entrance to a small ornate room. This was the last barrier before one could reach the dungeon's core.
Karrick along with his trusted aides, Kenta and Margo stood stalwart atop the wall with their weapons at the ready and their bodies itching for battle....at least they were until a certain report came in.
"...Say that again." Karrick requested with a shocked voice.
"Lord Frost has the aid of peak B-rank sapients sir, at least 2 but likely more as well as a B-rank monster, some kind of ice troll. Our invasion team has been broken sir; their morale shattered by their arrival....what do we do?" The monster on the other end of line reported while trembling.
"......" Karrick was silent for several second before breaking out into manic laughter. "Hahahahaha so it truly was an impossibility from the very beginning ahahhahahaha, what a fool I am."
"Sir?" Kenta his loyal aide spoke up, worried for his master's mental state.
"I'm fine Kenta." Karrick raised his hand to allay his subordinate's fears, the news was certainly shocking but not enough to shatter his spirit.
"The connecting area is liveable, medium temperature, presence of air and mana, how peculiar." She instantly withdrew her trusty magical devices and set up shop while Terrance and the others stood guard. However much like the dungeon core room but to an even greater degree, her many devices barely picked up a thing.
She couldn't explain the physics or the magical reasoning for the spatial hallway just that it existed, as if it was somehow natural. Her curiosity continued to build and of course she decided to, without hesitation take the plunge. One moment she was fiddling with her magical devices the next she leaped into the darkness vanishing from sight.
Thankfully Terrance and the rest were used to her behaviour, while Quintep and Ariana picked up the leftover devices Terrance and Mammon dove in after her.
Several minutes later the team from the federation of knowledge found themselves at the entrance of Karrick's dungeon which was the complete opposite Frost's.
Ladius pulled out what seemed to be a magical compass from her storage ring and nearly blanked out the moment she got a reading.
"We're really on Vulcan, the compass doesn't lie." Teleportation gates were certainly in existence in fact they were actually quite common but none of them could even come close to transitioning between continents. This spatial distortion was suddenly the highlight of this trip, if they could somehow replicate it even slightly the world would be forever changed.
Frost and Karrick were now yesterday's news.
"Set up a monitoring station on either side, I want as much data as possible in the timeframe we have left."
"Yes ma'am." Terrance quickly split his team up and followed her instructions, he too understood the gravity of such a find.
On the ninth floor of Karrick's dungeon.
"They're what?"
"I don't know sir, the B-rank sapients have erected some sort of device at the dungeon's entrance." Someone from the command centre quickly informed Karrick of the strange situation, the scary sapients had entered his dungeon and were doing something his monsters couldn't explain.
"Haaaaaaa ignore them, there's nothing we can do anyway, I'll just ask my brother once he arrives." That fact was an inevitability, despite his shoring up of blockades and change in tactics Frost was still making his way down towards him at good pace. Shortly he'd be face to face with his elder brother, an opponent he initially looked down upon for a plethora of reasons.
His element being at a severe disadvantage against his own, his delay in answering his challenge, his noble/scholarly looks and of course Pyro's attempts to disparage his character and capabilities. Now however he held nothing but respect for him and was grateful for his teachings.
Karrick would meet Frost on the field of battle with his spear in hand, perhaps he could prove superior when it came to personal strength.