Capítulo 565: Chapter 510
Just the fact that they had been rather…open and accommodating to my presence raised a great many red flagS in addition to all the ones I'd seen thus far.
Sure, I devoured that fruit without hesitation, but I also thoroughly checked it before doing so and was absolutely positive it had no negative effects. Something able to give me – even a marginal boost in strength – without any drawbacks and without any effort on my end? That was significant enough that I felt I owed them a debt of gratitude, so my immediate response wasn't anything hostile.
That being said, I was highly skeptical of what was going on.
What benefit did this tree gain from doing such a thing? Clearly, it was an entity born in this realm – and by extension a Fae themselves, even if they're in the form of a Tree. Perhaps you could call it an Elemental or Nature Spirit, but the fact remained. It held to the logics of this place in its mind, it operated on nearly the same principles.
What was the goal here?
I had that entire thought as Unnulf led me to the base of the big tree that hung over our heads.
No qualms about it, no hesitation and there was no 'security' around it.
Sure, people walked to and from around it, as the human city had extended rather far around it as the base.
But no one gave a second look when I walked up and put my hand on the main truck.
However, the fledgling World Tree inside me seemed to shudder, vibrating in response to a strange feeling emanating from the Tree.
I wouldn't quite call it a resonance, but it felt like the Fae Tree recognized the small World Tree I had growing inside of me, and I felt a pull.
The surroundings around me changed, or rather, my mind was projected into a mental world.
The Fae Tree stood tall, and behind me, my budding World Tree stood unwavering, smaller in stature, but its presence loomed over the Fae Tree regardless.
However, looking at the Fae Tree, I noticed something odd about it.
A few things started clicking into place.
The Fae tree vibrated and something pushed out, a humanoid shape, perhaps a mix between a person and a tree. Reminiscence of a Tree Nymph or some variation thereof.
It was a reflection of the Tree's will, it's consciousness.
And it was old.
The Elderly Fae Tree's projection looked like it would fall over and die at any moment.
Yet, it looked at me then at Yggdrasil in awe and wonder. Despite its old age, it held an odd, almost child-like curiosity in its eyes.
Yggdrasil behind me swayed gently despite no wind existing in this mental plane.
"#@$%^#@$" The Fae Tree opened its mouth, saying something I couldn't comprehend. It looked at me showing a faint frown. "#&%&#@, !*$*%^*, @&%&#*" I could vaguely recognize that it was continuously speaking in different…languages? I don't know if I could classify the sounds it was making as a language. "Is this better?" A horse voice finally sounded that I recognized.
"I can understand you now." It wasn't hard to gleam its intent.
"*$#*(%." Her brow furrowed. "#$%^, Words are hard. Not used to this way of communicating."
"Do you not communicate with the humans outside?" Unnulf was pretty clear that they did have some form of communication with the Tree at certain points.
"Feelings, intent." The Fae Tree answered, smiling happily.
That made more sense. It seemed like….the tree was having a hard time even projecting a mental avatar in this place.
"Hello. Hello. Hello." The Tree spoke oddly, quickly and with a strange perkiness. "That's what they say right? Things like how are you? Greetings. I watched them for so long, I never thought I would be saying them myself."
I tilted my head, completely taken aback by how the Fae Tree was acting. I decided to humor it for now. "That's right. Humans generally introduce themselves in their first meeting. I'm Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg."
"Introductions?" The Tree seemed to understand, but still perceived it as a foreign concept. "I don't have a name. A name…..some of them called me Yggdrasil but…" It stopped, looking at my Yggdrasil. "It would be strange for me to adopt that name. The others too are….they belong to others. I suppose I do have one title that belongs to me alone, but it isn't a name."
The longer the Tree spoke, the more familiar it became with doing so.
"Are you a god?" The Tree suddenly asked me, not even giving me a chance to respond. "They all talked about their gods. I don't know what a god is, but I feel something from you, and the term came to me."
"I'm not a god, but I possess divinity, a power possessed by gods." I didn't lie, still trying to take this Tree's measure.
"How interesting." The Tree looked at me curiously. "And you have that young Elder inside of you."
Young Elder? I suppose that's a very apt description for a sapling from the World Tree.
"I heard the whispers among them too." She abruptly changed subjects. "I can hear them even now. They're talking about how they may finally have a chance to go back home. That you all have a way to take them back. Is that true?"
I readied myself because if I affirmed her suspicions, I was fairly confident she might attack me. "That's right, if they want to leave, we can take them all back to the Human World."
The Fae Tree looked at me and smiled brightly. "That's wonderful! Please, take them home. I'll even give you a reward for doing so….but I don't have much left to give…"
"You're not upset?" I hesitantly asked.
"Upset?" The Fae tilted its head. "Why would I be upset?"
"What….is your relationship with them?" I decided to just be blunt.
"Isn't it obvious?" The Fae Tree said as a matter of fact. "They call me mother."
Was….it really that simple.
I had a sudden realization.
"Those fruits….you're using your own life force to nurture them."
The Fae Tree looked at me. "Of course, how else would they grow? I have to feed my Children and keep them healthy." She once more spoke as if it were an obvious fact.
It was literally expanding its eons of potential lifespan to keep the humans here living.
"Why?" I asked.
The Fae Tree smiled wistfully. "I remember before they came. When these waves were new and I started thinking for myself. Everything was so new and bright, so lively. But eventually, I realized that I was all alone. I couldn't venture out, I didn't have anyone else to talk to. The rare few times that someone came to this island, they left in a hurry when I tried to reach out. I don't know how long it was, until they came, I didn't perceive the concept of 'time'."
I closed my eyes letting out a long breath. "It was until they started aging, right?"
"It was strange, watching one of my children age and die. I didn't know what those words were until then and I decided I never wanted to experience them again." The Fae Tree spoke.
"Even at the cost of your own life? It's natural for humans to grow old and pass away. They're mortals for a reason, everything eventually returns to the earth."
The Fae Tree simply continued to smile. "My children, they speak of this word 'love'. I didn't know what it meant until recently. They say it to each other, saying it to their mates, their own children, their parents." The Fae Tree looked up, touching her own trunk, the weathering of old age showed in obvious signs. "Against my instincts, I wanted to ensure their survival regardless of what cost I had to pay. They are my children, and I love them all dearly."
Was I looking for an evil that simply wasn't there? Upon arriving here, I never found anything wrong. Sure, many strange things for my sensibilities and my perception of the Fae Realm in general.
But….
The Fae Tree's words but explained everything properly and left me confused.
In the end, it was just a Mother wanting to protect her children.
"You ate one of my fruits, right? The first one is always the best, but consecutive ones aren't as good as I've seen with my children. But I can give you a few dozen if you want as a reward." The Tree paused. "Oh, I also have this." She held her hand up and her true body in this mental landscape trembled, a branch fell down. It looked much different than the others, still full of vitality and life. "This is one of the good branches I had left. You can have this too if you help my children go back home."
It didn't even give me a chance to refuse before I was whisked out of the mental world.
My eyes opened, I was holding the branch and there were dozens of the fruits sitting on the ground around me.
I let out a small sigh, feeling a strange twinge in my heart.
I really did have a soft spot for loving mothers. Even if I didn't plan on already helping them, even if I didn't receive a reward, I would have helped regardless.
Regardless, wasting more time here was not something productive. Despite their plight, we had our own goals for being in the Fae Realm.
Time to find their leaders and settle this place properly.
@***@
POV Crom Cruach
I calmly sipped my wine as I looked out one of the highest windows of the Winter Castle.
Say what you will about the Fae – especially the Winter Court – but they had dreadfully pleasant wine.
Even a dragon such as myself, I found it rather worthy of my palate. In truth, It made my foray into this dreadful place somewhat bearable.
I particularly did not like their species – as broad as that term claimed. They were just as insufferable and annoying as they were thousands of years ago before they retreated back into this realm at the behest of the wardens of the pathways.
Particularly, they were prevalent in my homeland. The metaphorical walls that separated us are rather thin around that part of the world.
And here I am again, mingling with the sort I utterly despised for my own goals. I can truthfully say that if I were a couple thousand years younger, I would not have the patience for this.
"And the forty-third term of the contract – which I don't believe I need to explain is only valid during the 8th full moon of the stellar cycle – is operable on the conditions that both parties – "
It's a strange thought that just entered my head. How amusing it was that the ones of this court have the same beauty standards as humans. There are of course the more rugged and 'monstrous' members, but simply being outwardly and objectively 'beautiful' seems to win you quite the merit here.
How strange that this was a facet that seemed to carry over to not just the majority of species on Earth, but even to Dragon-kin such as myself.
I created a humanoid form, and I did it to my own specifications, and I would objectively say that I am a handsome individual in the purpose of this thought experiment, even if such a thing was ignorable to me.
A strange thought that I would need to consider later. If it was my unconscious decision – why was it such with me being a Dragon?
I will ask some other Dragons a similar question to see their opinions.
"—and the forty-seventh term of cooperation. The sub-divisions of regulations regarding the use of food items for weaponization purposes. The rules state that you can have no more than –"
Yes, it was a rather peaceful moment all things considered. As I stood at one of the highest points in the Winter Castle, watching a strange creature swing around Jormungandr – who was only about half as large as he normally was – like a club, beating up quite a few of the Winter Queen's forces.
I didn't know what that thing was, but I wanted to fight it.
However, I had previous engagements of my own hand. If it were someone else's matters, I would have simply ignored them. But one must take responsibility for one's own actions. I am nothing if not true to my word and actions.
"Sir Crom Cruach, are you listening to me?"
I finally spared a glance towards the gnome who had a parchment unfurled, the majority of which was long enough that it touched the other side of the rather large room.
I held out a finger of mine and flicked the glass window, shattering it.
Casually, I then grabbed the little gnome and tossed him out the window.
The sound of him hitting the ice below was pleasant as I continued to sip my wine in silence.
One of the others in the room went over to look over the edge, confirming that the gnome was indeed splattered in a pile of blood and flesh.
"A pity, he was good at his job." The other – the Elf in bone armor bar his normal helmet spoke softly. "The Queen will not take kindly to you killing one of her better scribes. She will expect a proper explanation."
"I am a Dragon." I responded, sipping my wine again.
"I will pass on your words." The Elf wisely didn't ask further.
Thankfully – for purposes of my continued mental health – Strength still spoke the loudest even to these creatures.
I am a Dragon was a proper response to a great many questions levied towards me that I didn't feel like answering.
Hmm, it seemed the strange creature , the newly ascended God accompanying it, and Jormungandr were retreating.
Perhaps a wise decision as the Winter Queen's forces weren't something ignorable. She had amassed a certain strength that couldn't be ignored. It was enough that I was not dismissive of her either.
"If I'm not mistaken, the forces that were sent to deal with the newest intruders, they were about to be deployed to stop the further expansion of the Youkai Invasion?" I glanced at my 'minder', before turning back at the thousands upon thousands of dead Fae that laid across the snowy and icy fields.
"That is correct." The Elf continued to speak politely and pointedly without the normal 'mannerisms' that his people often utilized.
Well, I should hope so at this point.
I've had to kill a great many of their people since coming here that would just not take a hint.
I am a Dragon.
I did not play their games.
"That is unfortunate." I sipped my wine again. "How much territory have they seized since their invasion started down south?"
"The estimation is at 30%." The Elf replied.
Hmm, that should only be 30% of the territory below the Great Sea – as they call it. Some sort of distorted space overlapped in a large gorge that held an Ocean in the sky that required manual traversing.
How annoying, it made it a tad difficult to reinforce down below, but likewise, it made it somewhat difficult to launch a proper invasion across it.
Well, It's not like I care about them. I just wanted to test the host of the Great Welsh. I wanted to see the decisions he made and his worth as a Dragon.
It's the first time that one of Ddraig's hosts had ever slain a God, it's important to watch his movements carefully and note them down.
There was a knock at the door, but I could already sense who it was, not that they waited for me to answer.
"I brought him like you asked."
"Thank you, Aži Dahāka." I looked at the recently resurrected Evil Dragon who just grunted.
I should ask him about his choice in 'humanoid' form later too. He took one because it was more convenient to do so while walking around indoors.
Though, my eyes turned from him to the object of my request.
"Leonardo, thank you for coming." I spoke towards the young boy, the once former member of our illustrious 'hero faction'.
The amusement from that labeling was still present.
The boy didn't speak. I couldn't blame him, he was in a particularly awful situation.
My many years of traveling the world allowed me to...emphasize with the ants that I normally stepped on. Oh, it doesn't stop me from pursuing my goals and crushing everyone that gets in my way. But it was important – I believed – to understand beyond the reaches I had been born to.
It was a novel experience in my earlier years of traveling while I wandered aimlessly in my pursuit of finding the true meaning of being a Dragon.
Regardless, the boy was too useful for me to overtly care since he wasn't being treated poorly.
Ample threats, coercion, promises of boons. It took awhile to break him, but they always do in the end.
Luckily for him, his purpose made it difficult to be overly aggressive in how my compatriots went about their recruitment.
Leonardo Da Vinci, the boy named after his ancestor. The blessing or perhaps the curse of being born with one of the most interesting Sacred Gears in the world.
His Sacred Gear required that he couldn't be mentally controlled nor drugged to the point of compliance. His….imagination was required for the full breadth of his Sacred Gear to show its potential.
The Annihilation Maker – a device capable of creating monsters with the possibility of killing Gods.
"Come along, Leonardo. We have some monsters to craft." I put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
Perhaps we can finish in time for me to catch up to Jormungandr and his companions.
@***@
A/N
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Capítulo 566: Chapter 511
I held the branch of the Fae Tree in my hand as I walked towards the supposed 'Government' building that the humans here created.
The Branch was actually... well, it was of value to me right now because I was working out a new spell, and this filled a spot I wasn't sure how to do so previously. Scáthach uses an Ash Tree's branches to make duplicates – lesser versions, admittedly—of her spear.
For the spell I'm devising, this branch would work perfectly since it has such an absurd vitality to it.
The same tree that had been supplying its own vitality to ensure the longevity and health of thousands of humans for centuries.
Without doing so, it could have probably lived for several hundred thousand years. Yet its branches were withering from what I could tell. It probably only has a few centuries left of life in it.
It wasn't a simple matter of giving away one point of vitality and letting a human absorb one point of vitality.
To push it out into the form of fruits that contained such pure life energy... it probably had to sacrifice ten or twenty times the same amount of its own vitality to create those. And that was more of a conservative estimate because what it was doing was not something normal or natural.
If it were possible to easily do what it was doing, the world would be a much different place.
Hell, the closest approximation are literal divine fruits.
Regardless, I have a debt now to repay. I made a promise that I would take them back if they wanted to go, and I was going to uphold it.
Unnulf walked next to me as we approached the amphitheater-like building. He didn't ask me about the Fae Tree dropping me a bunch of fruits or the branch. Honestly, the amount of trust they had in the tree... well, I couldn't even find it in myself to fault them for it at this point.
It truly cared for them like a mother.
There were no guards; frankly, there were no real guards anywhere.
For the first time since coming to this realm, this was the first time that I considered a place a sort of 'paradise' by any stretch of the imagination. Did the people want to be here? I would say absolutely not, but at the same time, it was extraordinarily peaceful on this little island, and I genuinely questioned if there even was any crime or things of that sort.
There were several dozen people inside as I walked in; a lot of arguing was going on.
It took a few moments for them to notice my presence, but they gradually quieted down, looking at me.
"Unnulf, why did you bring the outsider here? We're not done discussing." A man, Greek in origin, had a bit of a belly, and he even wore a toga with noticeable sewed edges as if it were fixed many times over the years.
"Eh, I just followed; he came here himself." Unnulf sat down, drinking a bit less aggressively, but he hadn't stopped drinking since I'd given him the barrels of alcohol.
"I'm leaving; we're leaving. We can't waste much time here; we have our own plans and objectives." I decided to cut right to the chase.
The Greek one furrowed his brow. "We haven't decided what to do with you all yet."
"And you are..."
"Kallipides." He said it with pride.
"Right, Kallipides." I nodded. "Let me make something clear: we're not beholden to you all. We came here out of good will, but that's it. As someone who's half-human and identifies with my human half, I sympathize with your situation. Thus, I'm offering you all a chance to leave this realm and return to the human world."
Someone pushed past him, one of the Vikings it looked like based on their attire. "You do have a way out?"
"And you are...?" I repeated it once more.
"Chief Hrodi." He grunted, much less flamboyant and self-gratifying compared to the Greek. "You claim to come from outside with a tale of invasion."
Ah, they didn't quite believe us.
"A group of monsters." A derivative snorts from the back.
"How do we know you're telling the truth?"
"Could be a trap."
"Demons, the lot of them." Someone dressed like a cardinal huffed.
I'm once more impressed by the breath of cultures represented that are somehow getting along.
"I understand." I held my hands up to quiet down their arguing. "Your skepticism is warrant; it's kept you all alive this long. Allow me to provide you all with some proof."
They went silent, as if to wait for me to provide said proof.
I release my spiritual pressure, pinning all of them to the ground, shaking the entire building and the island.
Even the tree above began to sway noticeably.
"If I wanted to, I could kill you all right now without a problem." I spoke calmly as my spiritual pressure receded.
I admit, I loved having learned this little trick; it's rather handy and imposing.
Some of them recovered better than others. Some of them were real warriors; others were their equivalent of politicians or leaders without any combat experience or strength to them. Other than what they've passively obtained over the years.
For the older ones, of any on this island, I don't think there are any below a 'Mid-Class' in status.
"I can speak on behalf of all your gods." I segued into the next topic. "If you're willing, the gods you worship will be waiting in some part for your return. Asgard will welcome the warriors out of time. Olympus will accept those who have stayed loyal. Takamagahara will gladly accept brave warriors from the past. And Heaven will accept all its believers back with open arms."
It's actually kind of funny that I—someone who is still technically mortal—have that kind of connection.
And truthfully, I think their 'faith' is one of the few things that's kept them going through these years.
"Blasphemy!" the cardinal-looking figure breathed out.
I flicked my hand, and the True Longinus slammed into the ground in front of the Cardinal. The Holy Power was radiant as it pulsed out, calm and welcoming to them.
"I said this before; maybe it wasn't quite understood. The world is a much different place than your times. Heaven and Hell recently agreed to peace. The Youkai—my people that have come here—participated in the peace meeting, and we have agreements with Heaven."
The Cardinal was silent, gulping as he stared at the Spear along with the ones who seemed to be of the same faith or derivations thereof.
"Ragnarök recently occurred." I continued as no one else was speaking.
"Ragnarök?" A faint whisper among the Vikings and Nords.
"I participated." I revealed. "In order to overturn the destruction of Asgard, I sat upon the throne and was momentarily the King of Asgard. They're currently rebuilding and will happily accept honorable warriors among them as comrades. And... I'm also Blood Brothers with Odin."
"Can you prove your words?"
"I can only offer my pride as proof that I wouldn't lie about such a thing. If you want to call me a liar, I will draw my blade, and we can fight as warriors." I said pointedly.
Sometimes, it was much easier to deal with these sorts. One's blade arm spoke louder than words in a lot of cases.
The pride of a great warrior was usually enough to back up tall tales, even if they sounded ridiculous.
No one stepped forward to call me a liar.
However, there were a few whispers between them—the whispering of godly names.
"The result of Ragnarök is that there are new gods among the gods of Asgard. One of them is currently within this realm. You can pray to Jinn—the Goddess of Magic, Knowledge, and Homestead." I found myself smiling.
"You are Japanese?" An older gentleman wearing regal-looking Japanese attire from an older period asked with a very polite tone. "I am Kiyabu Taro. But an old man without an ancestral home any longer. Can you speak for the Kami we pray to? Will I be able to meet my ancestors and beg forgiveness for not being able to rebuild our clan? They may not know, but you ask of us to trust Youkai."
"I was born Shimoda Takao. My mother was Japanese, and I lived and grew up in Japan until I became an adult. The Leader of the Youkai is Yasaka, A Kyuubi-no-Kitsune, and Miko for Amaterasu-no-Okami. I have a certain... relationship with Susano-no-Mikoto. And if you're willing to believe me, I'm currently... courting Izanami-no-Mikoto. I can guarantee your acceptance by Takamagahara."
Taro went quiet, clearly contemplating what I just said.
"What about us?" The Greek Kallipidies asked softly; his earlier bravado was diminished. My display of power clearly has an effect on him.
"I've met Hades on a few occasions, and I can reach out to the Gods of Olympus. I have no reason to believe they'd reject you all." Of course, they might try to frame it as a favor towards us in doing so.
However, there is no faction in the world that would reject humans that worship them with the strength they show.
It's easy for me to be dismissive of their strength earlier, but generally, they're already far beyond the 'average' strength of the supernatural world.
Considering that the average military person in the Underworld for Devils is low class, anyone above that is considered an asset big or small. It's doubly so impressive for humans because they have such low 'starting points'.
The humans here were silent.
It was probably hard for them to accept the casualness in which I just spoke about the gods they worship.
The unreachable thrones for their belief, yet for me, it's usually a rather mundane experience. I've had dinner with Hades and his wife. Izzy, there's not much that needs to be said there. Odin, I've literally kicked him off a building before.
Still, while they were speechless, they weren't normal humans any longer. Perhaps they've never met their objects of worship, but they've lived in this realm for years.
"You will take us out of this realm?"
I looked at the one who spoke, a younger man—though that might not be a case considering. "Immediately, no. We're currently an advance party looking for the path to cross this ocean and to acquire ships. If you're willing to wait, within a month, I'd say at a maximum."
"I heard stories about our home." He said quietly.
Ah, he was one of the ones born here, it seems.
"I intend to gather our people and leave rather soon." I said, crossing my arms. "You need to make a decision quickly. However, we have set up base on a nearby island. I can't say I know the directions from here, but it should be easy for you all to find if you know these parts."
"I'll go with them." Unnulf spoke amid their silence. "We got a little bit of time; they're doing their fighting; I can check things out and see if it's true." He said, taking a swig of his drink.
"Unnulf is trustworthy." One of them muttered.
"Aye, Unnulf could have been Chief. His words will bring no doubt." The Viking chief nodded, and they seemed to come to a silent agreement. "Thank you, brother."
"It's my duty." Unnulf said shamelessly.
Shamelessly, because I knew him for hours at this point, and I knew for a fact he volunteered because he knew we had more drinks.
I didn't reject it because it didn't interfere with our goals in the slightest.
If it set their minds at ease, so be it.
I pat Unnulf on the shoulder. "I'm heading back to the ship; be there within the next quarter hour."
He probably had some quick words that needed to be exchanged privately, and I left them to it as I left the building.
"Nurarihyon." I said quietly.
"I'm here." The Youkai leader entered my perception at my side.
One of the few beings that, despite my strength, could go undetected by me. "Ready to head out?"
"Not much for us here to keep us preoccupied." He grunted. "Give me one of those fruits."
I shrugged, handing one over out of my ring. "I'm surprised you didn't steal one... or a few."
He happily accepted it, munching down on it with vigor, licking his lips of the juices. The wrinkles on his face decreased noticeably. He still looked old, but there was a newfound energy to him, his back a little bit straighter. "Oh boy, that's a rush. My Touki nearly burst out for a moment." He stretched his back for a moment. "I feel twenty years younger." He let out a breath, glancing at me. "I considered it, stealing a few. Probably was going to do so, but I snuck in on that little meeting you had with the tree. Lost my motivation after that."
I felt my eye twitch after hearing that he snuck in on a mental meeting with the Fae Tree.
I wanted to say plenty of things to that, but I decided it was better for my sanity to just ignore it for now.
@***@
"Watch the star there." Unnulf pointed up towards the sky. "It moves; we use it to track the time of day."
"Fascinating." I replied, looking at the star in question. "And the one next to it is the point of reference."
"Aye, that one never moves." Unnulf nodded.
The ship of ours hit the waves quickly. We made a short trip back to the island to drop off our acquired boats, then we immediately set sail again.
"Human brat." Nurarihyon appeared next to us, startling Unnulf. "Got a question. How come you all haven't left yourselves? Surely you could have found a passage out of here. If so many of you accidentally stumbled into this place, there has to be equally as many exits."
"Ah…" Unnulf scratched his beard. "Elder, you speak the truth. However, this realm is not forgiving for humans. We live on these waters because they are the safest. But equally so, there are no known exits within them. Every group of ours that ventured out from these waters, they returned with heavy losses or not at all." He said quietly.
"Have you left this ocean before?"
"Aye, I was among a group that tried to push out, to raid some of those cursed things's homes for revenge." He shook his head with a hint of melancholy. "Eventually, we lost all desire for revenge and only wanted to survive."
Thankfully, Unnulf knew the location of the 'exit' to the other side. The exit that put us right into the main territory of the Winter Court.
A few hours of sailing, and the temperature started to drop, so I could feel we were getting close.
"Tell me about the exit." I asked. "What kind of defense should we expect?" It was a good idea to either scout it now or secure the exit properly.
"They have no people guarding it, but something much worse. We call it the ice mirror valley." Unnulf said taking a drink. "Large glaciers of ice, crystal clear that you can see your reflection."
"Dare I ask what's wrong with it?"
"Don't know." He took another drink. "The only survivor died before being only to explain. Only said that death awaits us there. Every party that went to investigate never came back."
I would have to see it for myself.
But there's surely a limit to what they can 'copy'.
"Something we should be concerned about?" Nurarihyon looked at me.
"I'm honestly not too concerned." I shook my head. We could handle what came our way.
Before I could say something else, I felt a small tinge of cold as I looked up and saw snow falling from the sky.
Less than a minute, and it picked up heavily, making me frown.
"We've been discovered." I said, voicing my thoughts as I let a falling snowflake land on my finger.
It was made of pure magical energy.
Every single one of the falling bits of snow was made of magical energy. I questioned the purpose of it until I realized it was drowning out my senses.
Clever.
Something I hadn't considered before, but it made sense. If you blasted your magical energy in front of someone, it was nearly impossible for them to sense a point of magical energy somewhere else.
This accomplished the same thing in that a snowstorm spawning on top of us was basically drowning out my perception.
I could disrupt it, but the amount of magical energy... it would simply reform in moments.
There was no point in using a dragon shout every breath for hours on end.
"I see something ahead!" A shout came from above.
The little Youkai with the single eye that could see even further than me was pointing forward.
I summoned my sword and swung it forward, cleaving through the storm in front of us for just a moment so I could see clearly.
Right, when he said Glaciers, he wasn't lying. They were massive and numerous. Each one like a skyscraper. But beyond those, I could see the climbing pillar of light from the lighthouse, it seems.
Rather quickly, the snowstorm covered up my sight as it became difficult to see a few dozen feet in front of us.
Still, it was somewhat peaceful, as nothing happened. It only took a few minutes for the ship to float up to them.
There was no 'going around' these glaciers, it seemed, either; they surrounded the lighthouse protectively.
As the ship slowly advanced forward, it nearly brushed up against the side of a glacier, and I stepped towards the edge to get a good look.
I put my hand on the side, the crystal-clear ice, my reflection doing the same, as you would expect from a reflection.
However, as soon as I put my hand on it, my eyes widened in realization. "Uh oh."
"What?" Nurarihyon was quick to snap his head to me.
"These glaciers are made of crystallized magical energy." Different from Dust, but functionally the same.
And they're massive and numerous...
I couldn't notice until we got this close because of the snowstorm.
"Brat!" Nurarihyon raised his voice.
I looked over, and the reflections of the crew were different.
They pushed against their side of the 'glass' so to speak, and like ice sculptures given form, they materialized and took shape, landing onto the ship, looking at their counterparts.
Even one of Nurarihyon popped out, and its aura was no less than the old man's.
The glaciers' positions were intentionally arranged in a grand ritual, and the glaciers themselves were made of magical energy.
There were no guards here because this place was one big trap.
I looked back at the reflection of myself, and it was looking back at me, crossing its arms.
The snowstorm distorted and dispersed abruptly, with an intense wind whipping around.
Just as quickly, the vast majority of the glaciers disappeared.
…as if they were consumed.
My reflection stepped out.
I could feel the sheer amount of magical energy it contained. And it was rather easy to put two and two together to know where the crystallized magical energy from a moment ago went.
Glaciers of crystallized magical energy arranged in a grand ritual to fuel a doppelganger creation.
I caught one last snow flak and came to the realization that it wasn't only used to obscure my perception but also used to investigate us thoroughly.
I heard a faint but cold laugh across the chilling winds.
Well, it was far from the first time I've fought a mirrored version of myself.
The fake me looked around, at me, then down at his arm as a very familiar Red Gauntlet appeared on it.
[Alright, now it's personal]. Ddraig chimed in. He's just bluffing regardless. [I don't feel any Dragon presence from that thing, so it's a fake through and through.]
I cracked my neck. "Alright, let's see what half-assed copying you've got."
My copy smiled smugly and spoke in the same voice as myself, holding the Gauntlet up. "I who am about to awaken..."
...suddenly, I don't think he's bluffing.
@***@
A/N
If you want to read 10 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone
I also have a boosty if you can't use the above.
We got a Kunou chapter, a Cyclops chapter, and two Arachne chapters up there ahead of the normal releases.
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