444. Beyond the sky, 7

(Rose)

We travelled toward the origin of this desert.

What we saw, what we found, was even bigger than what I expected.

From the dead city there, we could see an inselberg, a solitary mountainous peak by the horizon, shrouded in clouds.

As we slowly got closer, we came to think that the thing which laid waste to this land, was now reigning over it from the summit of this distant peak.

And over the following days, as I walked over a ground that was gradually losing even its dirt, we realised our mistake.

The mountain was weirdly hollow. It was more like a surreal sculpture of arches intertwined, growing many kilometres high in the sky. Clouds were accumulated in a very unusual manner around that mountainous but weird landscape.

From afar, it had the silhouette of a young and tall mountain, or sharp volcano, shrouded in mists.

The shorter the distance, the more it revealed that despite its size, it was not at all a natural structure. It was not a sculpture of geological powers as they should still behave on Earth.

It was something different. Not a tree, though it shown similar shapes in a way, but still a construct unlike any I saw in such size before.

A monument to a new god, rising in this northern land.

Something defying not only my limited imagination, but the laws of physics as well.

It was by all means a mountain worthy of being in the highest of alpine peaks, but it was full of holes and really hollow. Yet it still stood, without crumbling. It was as a skyscraper. It was a mineral Eiffel tower, but one built by a different form of empire, and a different ambition.

Even I was now able to feel the acidic itch on my skin and in my eyes. The air had become noxious even to me.

I could see in the twirls of the clouds up there the movements of the vacuum this mountain was slowly but widely doing.

Somewhere at the yet to be discovered peak of that mountain, sat enthroned a being still eating the life of the lands around, as far as it could reach. What throned out there was as hungry as ever. Nothing changed.

The clouds were not flat in a single layer as they usually are around mountains. Here they climbed over it, clinging to it, wrapping it in an odd and hazy coat, making it partially invisible. Although the shapes and hollow were clearly visible as we got closer, the shapes of the clouds themselves were intriguing.

It was a mountain worthy of the Alps from what I saw before. At least 3 km high above the flat land, and as many wide, standing like a tower or a pyramid in this uneven and rocky wasteland.

The mountain of god. My Olympos.

But I was already carrying the power of one of its old gods. Zeus, or Priest as I called it. I was carrying his lightning, as it still shone in a stone around my neck.

That was a powerful weapon, but it surely wouldn’t be enough to strike down Olympos itself. But what about its master?

We still had no clue what that thing, that god, looked like. We could only guess looking at the situation that it resided at the summit of that odd sculpture.

~

Over ten years, it simply grew.

Probably unchallenged, or at the very least, undefeated.

Until it reached above the sky itself.

It wasn’t enough.

I wonder if I’ll be troubled by altitude sickness out there.

But before that, we’re in the core of its domain...

B - I begin to feel its real aura. Its unspoken will.

R - So, what kind of being is it? With word? With awareness?

B - ... It’s not the good kind... I can at least see that. If it realises we are here, so close, it will obliterate us without mercy. The only will I can read, is one of destruction against everything but itself... Not much more transpires from its mind from where we are.

We don’t have a triumphal march to accompany us, but our resolve does get sharper.

R - How can we win a fight and how can we win in rhetoric? How do we even speak to it?

To fight, Blume can do magical poison to destructure usual biological patterns in the physics of T.I. Although it would preferably require direct contact with a body of the beast, the core body of that thing, to work efficiently.

I, we, can also use the remaining wish stones as spells or bombs.

I’m not sure I have enough energy to break the feet of a mountain though. Fire and light wouldn’t do much against massive rocky structures.

B - If we have to break it, I think it would be best from the top rather than the ground. For what it looks like, the summit grew as a keystone above the feet. There should be a good place a little below the summit and above the inner void to blow it. Then it will all fall in the hollow like a building.

R - So we have a structural weak point for Olympos at least.

To speak, there is no choice, we have to get much closer anyway first. Before we can send a message of some sort that wouldn’t be instantly digested.

And whatever the monster’s real body is, we have enough wish stones to dissolve it in toxic light. Though my life will be highly at risk, there’s no doubt about that.

B - We should be ready to fly. That thing won’t be throwing stones at us when it awakens, I can tell you that. It will be apocalyptic.

R - That’s encouraging... I see what you mean. As a last resort, I know how to fly a little.

B - You do?

R - I do. I’ve flown in many possible ways now. I can use the violent magic sparks as a last resort.

B - Sparks?

R - It’s using violent impulses that also create a lot of light in flashes. It’s not a smooth magic like you did before nor usually do. It’s more like sudden sur-human jumps. It bleaches my body along so I’m aware it’s not healthy to do.

B - I see. At least that could save your life in a dire situation, but you would clearly be seen. We require something softer to go swiftly but quietly as much as possible, without using nor emitting too much T.I. as we get closer.

R - Then we need wings.

B - I think I might be able to do something about that.

R - I have a suggestion then, or a few even, from experience.

To reach the gods, we will need to fly.

And then...

I don’t know what we will find at the summit of Olympos.

And it’s not impossible, albeit unlikely, that it will listen to our plea...

Evolve in a more friendly way for all...

Usually, gods are too proud.

Why has this one built such an imposing monument? It goes beyond the surrounding land’s sky in height.

Why would anything build a hollow mountain like an open house, and why so high?

I’m worried about the aim of this god’s will.

My kegs keep walking along the cleansed rocks of that wide and dry desert. The river we followed is vanishing in the hollow of the ground that is now without earth. There are only rocks, as far as one can see.

The air is heavy now, different, as the wind changes.

I feel like I’ve entered Pluto...

Death at least leaves a body, some remains, dirt and dust. Here, it’s now a landscape showing what is beyond death, far, far beyond death. Annihilation. Nothing remains. Who was the god of nothingness and void, living deeper underground than even Hades? I don’t recall.

Blume has begun building us wings.

What now fills the world is beyond me.

I will meet my fate here.

~