The morning sky was a pale silver haze when Cyrus began his preparations.The Odyssey's engines were idling low, vents releasing soft plumes of mist that drifted across the snow like breath. He'd already packed the essentials — thermal rations, mapping drones, and a resonance scanner rebuilt with Meltan's help.
The ship's hangar door yawned open with a slow metallic groan. Inside, the crawler sled gleamed faintly — a compact transport built for harsh terrain, its treads reinforced with alloy plating. Cyrus checked each seal along the energy conduit, the routine grounding him.
"Navigation grid online," the ship's AI reported through the comm. "Projected course leads twenty-two kilometers inland, following the strongest harmonic readings."
"Let's hope it's a straight shot," he muttered, pulling his fur-lined hood over his head. Meltan clung to his shoulder, letting out a cheerful metallic ping, as Ditto morphed into a scarf to keep close to Cyrus.
Before departure, Cyrus stopped at the observation deck one last time. The sea ice stretched endlessly north — a fractured mirror of blues and whites. In the distance, he caught faint movement: a herd of Ice-Steel Copperajah and Cufant trekking across the frozen plain, their armor glinting with crystalline frost. They moved in perfect rhythm, trunk tips brushing the ice as if tracing unseen lines.
"Even the wilds move like they're part of the pattern," he murmured.
Tyrunt gave a curious growl and pressed against his leg. The young fossil Pokémon's eyes glowed faintly, it could feel the vibration in the ground too.
Cyrus crouched beside it, brushing the frost from its snout. "Yeah, I feel it too. Let's go see what's singing under there."
The crawler rumbled to life and began its trek inland. The sound was swallowed almost instantly by the snow. For hours, the world was nothing but wind and the rhythmic grind of treads. Cyrus kept his eyes on the scanner, watching the waveform strengthen with every kilometer.
Around midday, he passed a series of ice spires jutting from the ground like glass teeth. They resonated faintly when the wind hit just right, creating a haunting chime that shifted in pitch, the same frequency the scanner had been tracking.
Meltan tilted its head, tapping the metal hull in sync with the tones.
"Is it a warning system?" Cyrus said quietly. "Or… a language?"
He stopped the crawler near one of the spires and held out a probe. The air shimmered faintly, small flakes of ice hanging in place longer than physics allowed. A low vibration ran through the ground, deep enough to make his teeth ache.
Then — movement.
The snow about twenty meters ahead began to sink in a slow spiral, like something massive beneath was shifting. A faint bluish glow bled through the ice. The frequency on the scanner spiked.
"Contact," Cyrus whispered. "Two signatures. Close."
He moved forward on foot, each step crunching through the crust of frost. The light brightened with every step until the ground gave way to a narrow crevasse leading downward, a stairway of frozen crystal that shimmered like living glass.
Cyrus activated his shoulder lamp and descended, Meltan and Tyrunt following close behind. The deeper he went, the more the walls seemed alive — threads of light pulsing through translucent veins of ice.
At the bottom, the passage opened into a cavern so vast it stole his breath. The air was impossibly still, the floor a mirror of frozen water that reflected the chamber's eerie glow.
In the center stood two colossal figures.
The first towered like a fortress carved from glacial metal — a humanoid form plated in layered frost-steel, its body etched with sharp hexagonal marks. Steam hissed from the seams of its arms where heat met ice. Its eyes burned cold blue, locked in perpetual vigilance.
The second was fluid and elegant — its surface translucent, like sculpted water perpetually refreezing itself. Streams of frost coiled around its form, and within its chest glowed a soft, pulsing light — the unmistakable rhythm Cyrus had been tracing for days.
The Ice-Steel Regi.And its counterpart — the Water-Ice Regi.
They faced each other across the mirrored floor, silent but alive, energy flowing between them in waves that made the cavern hum like a living heart.
Cyrus stood at the edge of the reflection, awed into stillness. Meltan's eye widened, its body trembling with static. Tyrunt let out a low growl — not fear, but recognition.
Cyrus raised his scanner, though his hands shook slightly. "Well your definitly not ruins," he breathed. "So me best guess is you both are guardians."
As if in answer, both Regis stirred — the Ice-Steel construct's chest plates sliding open with a hiss of frost, while the Water-Ice Regi's surface rippled outward in concentric rings.
The pulse changed pitch, harmonizing perfectly. The light in the cavern grew so bright it washed out the scanner display completely.
Cyrus lowered the device, shielding his eyes. "You're… communicating...great" he whispered. "Wish I could tell if it was to me, or to each other?"
Then the air filled with a single, resonant tone, a note that seemed to vibrate through the molecules of the world itself.
Cyrus stepped forward.The ground trembled.And the two ancient Titans turned toward him.