He filled it.
Frost surged into the vacuum before the cascade could reclaim the space, spreading from the heart into surrounding tissue while fire kept draining the heat faster than the chain reaction could regenerate it. Two elements working opposite ends of the same problem.
The ice held.
'More,' he grunted inwardly, and the ice spread faster, crawling outward through Ragnar's torso, locking the glowing cells rigid before they could ignite, and the dwarf king's triumphant screaming turned raw as the cold reached his lungs.
"No... I refuse...! Explode already, damn it..." The words came strangled as frost climbed his throat, the mad grin still splitting his face even as ice sealed the flesh around it, and the hatred in his remaining eye burned hotter than anything the cascade had produced right up until the moment it froze over.
'More.'
The cold hit the ridge and kept going.
