Chapter 26

This game was starting to remind me of my life. It would just chew me out, sometimes swallow me and then spit me back out. The adventure was adventuring at least but non-stop gaming wasn't looking anything like what I had expected. I just wished for a break, even a tiny one, like when I met- . I shuddered. The place where I had happened upon Erlong's quest was so close and so far at the same time. I could go, check if he was still there, if he remembered me. I wasn't sure I could handle the answer to that question though. And even if I did decide to try and cross into the Frozen Wastes, I was so far into the Ashen Mounts right now to figure out a way out.

That was the thing. Even if I was a little familiar with the terrain, I had never wondered the volcano part of the land and very little of the Frozen Wastes. Not that it would have made any difference. The Empyrean had set us down like children in the most random part of the Ashen Mounts. We were nowhere near the border that connected the two opposite parts of the Shard and we were actually right in front of a puzzle of sorts. Nothing as clean as the puzzles in the Mirror Shard though.

I looked it over once again. My main support system was out of sorts. Toliz and Fett were still in shock and grief of their fallen comrades that hadn't even tried to kill each other, they had just disputed but the Empyrean didn't seem to care when they enacted their punishment. Nax wasn't looking so good. Something about being so close to where it all started, where he came from, made him look restless and his behaviour was too erratic and unusual. Also, he had had a major appearance make over. Just like when we were in the Frozen Wastes, he could blend into the scenery with his snowy white fur and icy blue eyes, now he blended in a little differently. His fair was pitch black, the runes on his body were the colour of lava and his eyes looked like an erupting volcano. He was scarier than before but even more badass. Not that he wanted to hear any of it. 

But by power of elimination, that left me with...you guessed it! The trio I couldn't stomach and had insulted because I had been pretty sure I wouldn't get to meet again. It was supposed to be resolved in the Mirror Shard and then we would part our ways. Seemingly realizing the fact that I was reliant on them and that I would have to use their weapons and skills to break this puzzle, they had become even more insufferable. If that was even possible. I know. Maybe I was being unfair. But they felt wrong. Not like Fett, Tol or Nax. There was something so distinctly other about them, just like the other trio of players I had encountered, that put me on edge and made me feel uncomfortable.

"Why don't we just attack the lion?" DemonLord456 suggested for the fifth or sixth time as if now something had changed that would make us consider it. I didn't even look at him before I explained again. And to think I was supposed to be the dumb one.

"Because, even if we wanted to, it's far above us and if we had a way to get to the lion, we would have a way to get away from this place. Also, the lion isn't attacking so that means, it must be a helpful part of the puzzle" He grunted as I pointed at the lion who as if noticing the attention, growled once more but then just stood there quietly and unnaturally still. Only his lava mane kept moving as if it was flowing lava into a circle around his head. His body had the same colour as Nax but it looked like it broke in parts like rock. 

I sighed. We had a large and circular rock with lava cracks sitting on our right. The positioning looked random but there could be a reason why it was there. In front of us, there was a river of flowing lava that rushed into a lake of lava and was blocking our way to whatever horrors were behind that. The Lion was at at the top of the lavafall? I mean it looked like a waterfall but it was lava so...But yeah, the lion was the least of our problems at that moment. 

"The pilgrim said-"

"I KNOW WHAT THE PILGRIM SAID" Ch1tog3 looked affronted and chagrined that I would try and interrupt her so she looked at me defiantly and she went on even if we had been having this convo on repeat for the past few minutes.

"The pilgrim said To relieve a heavy heart, lighten the load on the mind" She was daring me to interrupt her as she nailed each word with bravado. I couldn't care less about her or her pettiness. I wasn't trying to antagonize her specifically. I just couldn't get past that pilgrim is all. For one, he had appeared out of nowhere the moment the trio had stepped on a crack on the terrain, had been all NPC-like, talking to them in preprogrammed dialogue and revealing this piece of information before disappearing. This clue didn't make any sense to me like the rest of the clues that somehow tickled a certain part of my brain. When I had tried to speak to him normally, he had ignored me and the trio had looked at me as if I was insane to try and talk to an NPC as if it was a regular person. This was all wrong.

"I mean, mostly in these cases, you move stuff around until you find the key right?" Ayase said in a bored voice and the others looked at her as if she had a point. "So why don't we just move that huge rock around and and just put in the lake or something?" The other two nodded and though I could see the merit in that idea and experimentation in general, I didn't know if we could handle the risks. We were players but the other three weren't exactly and I couldn't be so sure of their fates if something we did went wrong. Also, even if this wasn't a dream and I had somehow ended up in a VR game, it still felt too real to me. What if I died and-

Considering all these things was pointless because they had already gone over to the rock and were trying to push it. I shrugged. I mean, we couldn't know until we tried. I approached to help. They looked at me suspiciously but I ignored them and started pushing as well. After it got some friction and movement, it wasn't that hard because it practically started rolling on its own and its trajectory was already taking it towards the lake. Something shone underneath our feet and even though the others kept following the rock to man it need be, I stayed at what had been uncovered under the rock. It was faintly glowing and it looked like a spiral that ended into the rune for heart.

"Huh, heavy heARTTTTTTT" Something like a blast of zero gravity hit me and sent me up to exactly where the lion was. So that was where the light mind came to. He had his back on me but I could see him ready to turn to my direction. I looked down to check on what the others were doing. The rock had landed on the lake sending some deadly splashes of lava in the ground around and then it had broken into two pieces as if cleaved in half. The trio was huddled over it and moving frantically, pointing at stuff with exaggerated movements. I furrowed my brow but I felt a hot breath terribly close to me and got reminded I had bigger problems. When I looked back up, I almost touched nose to nose with the angry lava furball. "H-hey Simba"