City Under Ice Antarctica Novels & Stories

It smelled of ancient salt and the metallic tang of a life lived entirely behind glass. ​The City Beneath the Crust ​They descended into the ice through a shaft lined with primitive, hand-carved runes. This wasn't the elegant geometry of the Sterling Board or the organic flow of the Weaver. This was the work of desperate hands. ​At the bottom, they found the Ice-City of Callisto. ​It was a city of ghosts. Thousands of people stood in the frozen plaza, their skin not amber like the Earth-born, but a translucent, ghostly white. They wore furs made of synthetic fibers and jewelry fashioned from salvaged wire.

A large, pale hand was extended in front of her. “Oh, thank you,” Triana said, placing her gloved hand into his. “Watch your step. The wood is slippery,” Vlador warned. Nodding once, Triana began to walk across the gangway. “This city is covered in thick snow,” Triana remarked as they stepped onto the dock. “A city of eternal snow. That’s what Verxic is called.” Vlador explained. “And this city is quieter than I expected. It looks like a town.” Triana observed their surroundings as they strolled.

As expected, the disciples immediately pricked up their ears and listened to his explanation. Each of the six ancient cities had its own distinctive features. In some cities, tens of thousands of years of frozen ice was constantly permeated with a kind of coldness that could freeze the soul. Once entering, the first thing to pay attention to was whether or not they would be frozen into an ice sculpture inadvertently. Otherwise, it would be too late to realize this. Some of them were directly deep in the sea, and if they were not careful, they would be swallowed by some sea race and become the other party’s delicious food.

“Really? You’re not mad?” “Why would I be mad?” I smiled, unbuckling the spare helmet and holding it out to him. “A ride it is. Hop on. I’ve got a good route planned.” We left the noise of the campus and the city behind, heading out toward the winding country roads. I took us through open farmland—long, quiet stretches of dark ground flanked by rolling green hills, old timber fences, and dense lines of pine trees. The morning air was crisp and cool, carrying the strong scent of wet grass and pine needles.

His body trembled as goosebumps crept onto his skin. When the icy wind and snowflakes subsided, Austin was completely stunned. For a moment, he forgot about the extreme cold around him. There was a city that stood tall amidst the icy wasteland. With walls towering dozens of meters high, the entire city was pitch black. It looked imposing and intimidating. It gave off an immensely powerful and oppressive aura. It seemed like a colossal beast lurking in the ice fields. Just as Brian had said, this city was just like the people here. They were abandoned in the icy wilderness.

Miss Krake was indeed behaving like a dog, but she wasn’t a dog. She was a giant octopus... “Lela, if Miss Krake also leaves with us, who would protect the people?” Enkai asked, raising a point to Lela’s smooth brain. “Ah, you’re right. Okay, Miss Krake, you stay here.” Seeing how easily Enkai controlled Lela’s absurdness, Harriet was relieved. She sighed and raised a soft smile. “Alright, we will depart to the Antarctic Pole now.” Antarctic, or the Southernmost freezing place of this world. It was said that the Antarcticite Clan was named after a mineral found in the Antarctic. It would be interesting if she could find some pieces of history about them there.

The cold was so absolute it burned. "Don't touch her, Kael!" Rhys shouted, stumbling out behind him. "Her surface temperature is near absolute zero. You'll lose your hands." Kael stared at the girl he loved—the girl who was now a monument of ice in the center of the city. "She saved them," Sif said, walking to the edge of the roof and looking down at the silent, stabilized city. "She gave them the New World. But she had to stay behind in the old one to do it."

One wrong move on the ice could expose the monster hiding inside him. The crowd noise crashed over Kane Harlan like thunder the moment he stepped onto the frozen surface. Twenty thousand fans screamed for blood and he planned to give them exactly that. He pushed off hard, skates biting into the ice as the game exploded into motion around him. Cold air burned his lungs but he welcomed it. This was his world. This was where he could let the beast loose just enough without anyone knowing. A rival winger came flying down the wing with the puck. Kane met him like a wall. Their bodies collided with a loud crack that echoed through the arena.

It made me want to scream just to prove I still existed, just to break the terrible quiet that stretched between us like a chasm. I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted copper, sharp and metallic on my tongue. Just a little longer. Just until we reach my apartment. Then I can breathe again. Then I can fall apart in private. The city stretched on endlessly, towering buildings giving way to smaller ones, expensive districts fading into the kind of neighborhoods where people like me lived. The hum of the engine was the only sound between us, steady and low, almost hypnotic. I found myself counting heartbeats, counting breaths, counting the streetlights as they passed—anything to keep my mi

The descent into the lower city was a slow, muted passage through a landscape that had surrendered entirely to the frost. Away from the university’s high granite ridges, the streets narrowed into the cramped, crooked arteries of the industrial quarters, where the buildings were lower, constructed of timber and soot-darkened brick that seemed to lean toward the center of the lane as if crushed by the weight of the sky. The snow here was not the clean, white drift of the quadrangles; it was a grey, industrial slush that had frozen into thick, jagged ridges under the wheels of the dray wagons, forcing Kai and Ria to pick their way along the narrow ledges of the foundations to keep from losing t