And...we're back!

The demon party headed far along the side roads of this particular region of the Hells. Lineir did his best to learn as much as possible in this time though even with his cultivator's memory he struggled to understand the whims of a completely different race and culture.

Crunch Crunch

Crags of molten rock created peaks high into the "sky" which spanned over their heads into an expansive ceiling. Lineir was not claustrophobic but he had to admit that in such a strange place anyone cultivator or not would feel like there was no enough space.

"Do you...feel that the temperature is changing?" Suddenly one of the demons, Jeirus stopped moving. He held out a hand and the party stopped at his command. Lineir looked around with his divine sense as Aileen sniffed the air. He indeed noticed that something was off. Small little cracking noises entered his ears from off in the distance. He narrowed his eyes and stared up ahead. The gently glowing orange magma walls seemed to grow dim up ahead...then they went dark. Something was coming-

"There's something here. The atmosphere is...dry...very dry." Aileen scanned the area, "It's...Yin Qi!"

Lineir immediately rotated his cultivation base as the air began to quickly turn frosty. The air seemed to grow heavier and heavier and an intense sensation of freezing cold weighed down on the area. It wasn't quite on the level of the Proving Ground he had experienced at the Monastery yet but it was rapidly getting so cold that ordinary mortal steel would begin to freeze over and even cultivators would feel uncomfortable if they did not cultivate Yin or Ice Qi based techniques.

"What's happening?" He asked as he prepared to let his Phoenix Flame Wings out. However as the faint warmth began to fill his back Aileen reached out and put a hand on his forearm.

"No...do not use fire attribute attacks here. It will only attract the cold faster! This...could be a Danger Zone." She warned as a multifaceted purple stone appeared in her hand. "Here! Bind this with your blood! It will link you to us in case we are separated!" Lineir barely had time to snatch it before a howling wind the likes of which he had never encountered appeared.

HOOOOOOOOOOWWWLL!!!!! SHUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!

The group hunched down and Lineir rapidly dripped a drop of his blood on the stone, now was not the time to hesitate!

Shing

The stone glimmered once with a translucent light and through its purple depths he could sense the location of the three demons near him. It was in that moment when chill ice crystals began to swarm by in the wind like shurikens!

Ting Ting Ting!

Immediately the party deflected them, Lineir with the black blade, Aileen with a crimson flame patterned fan, Jeirsus with a great sword, and Lysus with a wicked straight ruler. Lineir was shocked as his hand shuddered from each impact. The force behind it was far beyond what could be expected from normal wind.

"That strong??" He wondered before Aileen screamed,

"Watch out!" Lineir realized that if the ice crystals in the air had so much force behind them...then the wind behind it must be equally immense!

HOWL!!!

The gale roared and though the three demons were prepared and used a flaming shield to block the majority of the force Lineir was caught completely unprepared for the strength of the raging gust!

Whoooosh!

He was picked up much as a storm would snag an unwary baby bird and slung into the air!

Krrrrrrr

Little ice crystals began to form on his skin and on the surface of the black blade and he instinctively activated the Phoenix Flame Wings!

Whoosh!

"No!" Jeirsus cried as he spied the flame attribute technique blooming on Lineir's back. The majestic flaming wings unfurled and powerfully slapped against the wind to push him back down to the ground!

Phwoosh!

After one flap he realized he was a mere meter from the ground but with his wings fully extended he was about to be swept away! He thrust out with the black blade at the ground which had turned into icy frozen gravel-

Klang!
The black blade stabbed through the thin frost and anchored Lineir. He pulled himself down using both hands as the wind raged overhead. He had been blown several meters away from the rest of the party in the time it takes for a drop of water to fall!

"YOU fool! Using a flame attribute technique in an Extreme Yang Danger Zone! You've attracted IT's attention!" Jeirsus yelled when suddenly...the ground rumbled.

KACHA!

The entire floor of the tunnel caved in and the demon party off to the side fell away. Lineir had an instant before the cracking ground caught up to him in which to decide what to do. Before he could do more than grimace and consider whether to take to the sky and risk the freezing wind the rest of the ground collapsed and the wind shot into the suddenly hole like it was a vacuum dragging Lineir with it!

Whooooooooooooosh

Tumbling through the air Lineir periodically flared out his wings in a bid to control his descent. He was smashed all around and into various ice chunks, some almost as big as he was but his constitution was sturdy and he did not suffer serious injury though the rocks had been infused with a strange Yin Qi. The cold grew precipitous and Lineir could feel it draining his Flame Qi at a prodigious rate. Eventually he was forced to just smash into the falling rocks as he realized it wasn't worth wasting the Qi to prevent it, it was too difficult to recover his Flame Qi in this extremely cold environment. After several minutes of falling down the long chasm it had grown incredibly cold, even more cold than the Proving Ground in the Monastery Trials.

Bang!
Lineir was dashed into the stone on the ground leaving a cultivator sized indent. He stayed there for some time waiting for the wind to die down knowing that if he stood he would have to fight the wind. Finally just as he was beginning to doubt whether the wind would ever die down...it faded away. When the last cries of the howling wind finshed echoing he poked his head out of the indentation in the rock he had made.

"Where...where is this?"