章 55: Chapter Fifty-Five: The Meeting On The Mountain

I stood in the middle of an oasis, spanning five-hundred meters. Spring had arrived, endorsing the vascular plants with open arms.

Usually plants in the wild tend to contend with one another. It usually led to things such as wild growth, covering entire areas with their branches, leaves, or whatever they had. But instead there was only peace, like someone had tended to the plants since a young age. It didn't seem like a forest, more like a garden.

I felt the sensation of the plants rubbing against my skin; yet I hoovered over the air, not even touching the ground. How I felt such sensation, I had no idea.

The entire mountain peak was five kilometers in length, while also having the form of a circle. There were three biomes. The snow and lava took up the same amount of space, a weird sight to say the least.

Despite my new found affinity with weather, I still felt a connection to nature. I had yet to leave my humble origins behind and would never. Weather, whilst not nature, was still deeply connected to its origin.

Thanks to this, even if I was in an unfamiliar world, different from how I had viewed everything before, I kept my calm. The plants soothing my worries, stuffing them before they could flourish; like the plants on this mountain.

…

I started exploring this new world, aimlessly floating centimeters over the ground, circling the oasis in the middle of the mountain. No life was present on the mountain top, other than the organic plants growing in the middle.

From time to time I sneaked a peak at Jasmine. She was still unconscious after stabbing herself. That disgusting skull still floated above her, guarding her from possible danger.

Even if I hated the thing, for what it was, I was still thankful. Without it, the orc would have stayed, killing Lenart and Harold, perhaps even destroying the city.

How and why the orc retreated, I don't know. The skull was even weaker than Lenart, nothing to fear. Even if it joined the fight, it wouldn't change the end result. So the very fact that the orc fled baffles me, why would it run from a guaranteed fight?

…

As I wandered my new mountain top, I felt the flux of an unknown energy, suddenly entering my perception. Before I even noticed, another being had joined me on the mountain. Carelessly stepping towards me.

"Welcome, Jantyr Of Weather, a new, inferior god, to the Mountainpeaks.", the intruder exclaimed, widely fluttering its arms in the air. Somehow it had managed to sneak up on me, only allowing me to spot it, when it was only meters away.

"Who are you?!", I asked, downright hostile from its prior remark, catching the weird creature of guard.

"I am Rakwrath Of Void, a superior god worshiped by Lesser Dragonkind." the thing said dramatically, once more jerking its arms back and forth.

The thing in question was taller than me, by about a meter, reaching the height of three meters. It was completely black, darker than obsidian. Scaled from head to toe, while having a humanoid form. It had a tail and horns. But the most important thing, just like me, it had no deafening features. Sure it had the form of a dragonoid human head, but no facial features such as eyes, or a mouth, only those weird completely black horns.

After pausing for about a second, the thing continued. "I feel some form of resentment from you, young god, why is that?" it asked, confused over my hostility.

"You called me inferior, I don't find that very 'friendly'." I answered, seeing no reason to hide my reasons.

"Ah, I see. Sorry, but you are inferior. Nothing bad about it, it's your ranking, where you stand, your power. You know, we gods and goddesses have ranks, just like mortals, tier one and such!" Rakwrath answered, and I almost sighed at my own ignorance.

"Then what are those who's yet to reach this place?" I asked, genuinely curious. What could be worse than Inferior.

"Those aren't gods!" Rakwrath answered firmly, no hesitation whatsoever.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Would you call spirits gods? No, that's presumptuous. What makes 'gods' different from spirits if that's the case, at that stage we can only bless and nothing else. That's not even worth being called a god, just another spirit!" it ranted.

Deciding to change the subject I asked "What is this place?"

"This is the Mountainpeaks, a mountain range consisting of thousands of mountains, each resembling a god that's living or lived here! As for where this place is, we are in the middle of the world, where the core's supposed to be, but we never had one. So instead of living on a smaller, minimized version of Medulieon we live in Mountainpeaks, a realm made by the world itself, within its body." Rakwrath said and I caught a keen detail.

"Wait, this world doesn't have a core?"

…

~Pov Lenart~ (Third person)

After Jasmine stabbed herself, the Scullvoll refused to let anyone near her. It wouldn't let anyone interfere with the procedure, knowing the possible risks.

Not even Lenart, who had helped her, was allowed to help. So in the end, he left.

…

Walking through the city, it only now hit him. So many had died in the span of a few hours. His close friends, gone, with few remaining. Most unknown. There was still no way to know who had died. Only Jantyr knew such things and he had gone quiet all of a sudden, not responding to Lenart.

He had been badly shaken when he saw Jasmine. Her magic, for the first time, scared him. Not for what it could do to him, but for what it did to her. His Niece, he couldn't just let her die, or harm herself in such ways.

Now he understood the danger behind magic, but such thoughts could be entertained another time. For the moment, he needed to search for his brother and help save the few people still alive under the rubble. Carry the injured to a doctor, so on and so forth.

He just hoped for one thing, praying with utmost sincerity to his god. 'Please let my brother be alive'.