Chapter 31: The Peak

The morning sun did little to combat the biting cold that permeated throughout the cabin. Even under a heavy blanket and sharing body heat with Aria, Nic could still feel his body chilling more and more. It was cold enough that every muscle in his body was begging Nic to stay wrapped up in the blankets.

The woman laying in the bed next to him was acting the same way. Aria turned herself around and dug her head into Nic’s chest. Nic wrapped his arms around her and tried to pull her as close as he could. The body heat from the other person was heavenly to both of them.

Nic wanted to stay in that position forever. He really did. Yet when the door to their room was flung open, the two of them bolted upright. Despite being nearly fully clothed from the cold, Aria instinctively grabbed the blanket to cover herself. It only took her a second to realize what she had done and dropped the blanket, her face growing red.

The open door had let in a blast of warm air from the main room, where the fire had already been started. Standing in the center of the doorway was Yuuki, a slight frown on her face as she looked at the two of them. Unlike the previous day, she had heavier pants on and a long sleeve shirt under a small vest. All she needed was a thicker jacket, and she would finally look like she was wearing the same thing as the rest of them when they trekked up the mountain.

“Time for you two to get up. Breakfast.” Quicker and more curt than normal, Yuuki was about to leave when she turned back and looked at Aria. “You feeling better? Able to walk?”

“Yea.” Aria nodded as she watched Yuuki quickly close the door, leaving the two alone in the room again.

Nic thought about Yuuki’s curtness that morning. Even if she had slowly been getting more direct with how she talked over the past few weeks, this felt unnatural. It was like something was directly affecting her.

Nic wrapped his arm around Aria and pulled her close. “You heard her. Time to get ready for the day.”

Aria simply nodded. Like Nic, she seemed to be confused about Yuuki’s attitude. She shook her head. “Let’s get ready.” When she stood up, Nic could see that she was forcing herself to not think about Yuuki. She wanted to be happy. To show that happiness to Nic and the others.

Nic wasn’t about to let her outdo him. He quickly got up and put on some thicker pants and an extra layer covering his upper body. There were two larger jackets sitting on a small table next to the door to the room. They were the two final layers that Aria and Nic would wear once they finally continued their journey to the other side of the mountain.

Sitting underneath the table were their packs that held all of their travel gear. Nic grabbed both and put them right outside the door. Aria grabbed their jackets and brought them out as well.

A wonderful odor wafted through the main room. Kara and Kiara were both standing near the fireplace, flipping cuts of meat that were being cooked for breakfast. Smelling it, Nic couldn’t help but salivate slightly. Sara and Sarman were in a small kitchen making the rest of the food that would go with the meat.

The Crystallian members of the delegation sat on the couches in the main room, waiting patiently for the food.

“Sarman’s in the kitchen today?” Nic said as he sat down on the free couch.

“I’m surprised. I didn’t think he was that good of a cook.” Aria sat down next to Nic.

“He’s surprisingly decent. They also needed Salamander's ability to control the heat of the flames.” Yuuki waved their questions away with a simple answer.

Hearing what she said, Aria chuckled quietly. “That’s the real reason.”

“I can hear you all!” Sarman cut through a carrot while he spoke. The thud of the blade hitting the wood accented the end of his sentence.

“Don’t get distracted! We need to get these vegetables cut up.”

“I know. I’m going.”

The knife continued to thud against the wood as Sarman quickly chopped up the carrots, then moved on to cutting different other vegetables. It didn’t take long for the meat to finish cooking. Only a couple of minutes after and the breakfast was plated and served to everyone. Several strips of meat were put onto a vegetable salad.

It wasn’t something that Nic would consider a proper morning meal. But their host was a dragon, and that fact made Nic think that this wasn’t so out of place for Kara.

Nic took a bite from the meat that smelled so good. It melted in his mouth. The meat was for more tender than any he had ever had. It had some toughness to it, but only on the initial bite. As soon as it was in his mouth, the meat seemed to melt. It tasted like the meat from Gigant Bears, but was much softer.

“What meat is this?” Aria questioned it herself.

“Snow Mole.” Kara said.

Nic almost choked when he heard her. His mind went back to the day prior and the white creatures that had been chasing them. They hadn’t seemed like creatures that would have a lot of meat on them, nor ones he had thought would even taste good.

“It tastes way better than I would’ve thought.” Nic said before stuffing his face with more of the Snow Mole meat.

Murmurs of agreement floated around the room as everyone ate their food. Once everyone had eaten their fill and the wooden plates were cleaned off and put away, Kara stood in front of the group.

Everyone but her were already wearing everything except their outermost jackets. They were all ready to leave. Kara knew it as well.

“It has been wonderful meeting the group of you. But I know it is already time for you to depart. Your journey to Kyoku must continue here and now.”

“Thank you for your hospitality these past few days.” Sarman bowed his head.

“And for the rest of us, thank you for the past day.” Yuuki stood next to Sarman. She bowed slightly as well.

Kara raised her hands in defense. “There is no need to bow to me. Just do one thing for me? Remember your goals, even in the bleakest of moments.”

It was an odd request when said out of the blue. They had never asked to hear their future, but Kara had probably seen them anyway. Nic realized that this was her own way of trying to secure their future.

His hand rested on the sword hanging from his hip. Its jet black jewel somehow managed to sparkle whenever he looked at it. His hand griped the edge. His goal? Which one did she mean? To purify the world or to live free? One would lead to the other.

Every member of their party was stone faced at the mention of their goals. Like Nic, they each were thinking of the reason they agreed to go on this expedition. The goals and dreams that they held deep within their hearts.

“We will. Thank you, Kara.” Sarman spoke for the group.

His words marked the end of their stay. With them, they quickly put on their coats and slung packs over their backs. The door to the cabin opened and a gust of cold air rolled through. The sun was still rising, and it did little to combat the freezing cold air of the morning. The pure white snow covered the rocky surface of the mountain.

Nic looked up. They were almost at the peak of the mountain. Kara’s cabin was situated very close to it. The path up to the peak followed the same path to the rocky overhand just above them. The group just had to continue going up.

The peak was a little over three times the size of the stone overhang above it. The top of the mountain wasn’t a point. Instead, it was significantly flatter. While there was a point that all the sides slowly ramped up towards, it was only a few cer higher than the rest. The mountain’s peak was twice the size of the town circle in Aric. But what surprised Nic the most were the broken stone columns dotting the peak.

“What’re those from?” Nic walked up to one of the broken columns and put his hand on it. The stone was cold to the touch, expected of it being in this environment. But it felt just like stone.

“Are these the remains of Kara’s old nest?” Yuuki put her hand on another column as she asked the question.

It wasn’t impossible. The columns were close to where the dragon currently lived. The spacing of the columns was also large enough to fit a large sleeping dragon within them.

“If only she had come up with us. We could’ve asked her.” Aria lamented the possibility as she looked closer at the columns.

Nic would come to regret hearing those words. An unknown prophetic sentence that was followed by the pressure of beating wings.

A thunderous roar rang out from above them as M’kara appeared in the skies above them. She landed with a viciousness that shook the mountain. Flames leaped from her mouth into the sky.

“Kara?!” Sarman shouted while stepping in front of Yuuki to protect her.

“All who enter the domain of the lord must face a trial to continue.” The voice echoed in their minds. It was M’kara, yet she had become furious in a manner of minutes. “The lord is kind, and so you will only have four fighters. Nic Verilo. Aria Towsend. Sarman Chapman. Yuuki Ito. You four will face this trial alone.”

M’kara had upped her intimidation factor. Her commanding presence forced those four to stillness. The other four members of the delegation cowered in fear from the overpowering aura of a dragon.

“Why do we have to fight?” Sarman tried to reason with M’kara. But there was no stopping the dragon. She had already set her eyes on her first target.

Nic couldn’t draw his sword in time. The dragon had flipped its tail around far too fast for him to see. The impact didn’t break any bones, at least as far as he could feel. But Nic was sent flying into the snow behind him. If it hadn’t been for the snow, he might have been flung off the mountain by the sheer force of the hit.

Standing back up, Nic’s chest tightened as he saw M’kara turn to Aria next. The Dragon unleashed the flames from its mouth on her. In a single blast, all the snow on that side of the peak melted. Only stone was left shining under the rising sun.

As the smoke disappeared, Aria was fine. She had created a barrier of wind in front of her that had split the surrounding flames. But using a barrier like that was costly. Aria had already begun to breathe heavily. Even Nic could see it from where he was.

Dragons were mythical creatures. There were only a handful left that were known to be alive. But each one held more power than a greater Spirit. It has long been thought that ancient dragons were as powerful as Spirit Progenitors in their prime.

Aria had not spent long mastering her connection with Aerial. The difference in their power was far too great. That meant that the difference in power between Nic and M’kara was even greater.

In this fight, he was barely more than an ant.

There was very little he could do. But he ran.

He ran at the claw coming towards Aria immediately after the fire.

He threw himself in front of Aria, his arms wrapping around her body. And in that instant, the claws hit his side. The force was just the same as the tail, if not greater. Nic couldn’t tell as he was flung through the air again. This time with Aria still clutched in his arms. He tried to angle his body so that he would be the one on the bottom when they hit the ground.

The blow from M’kara’s claw hadn’t been enough to knock him unconscious. But the blow from hitting one of the broken columns was.

Nic didn’t even feel the pain from the hit. His vision was already going as his body fell to the floor. He thought he heard Aria saying his name. He thought that until his consciousness faded away.

Sarman couldn’t understand. It all happened so quickly. Why was M’kara there? Who was this lord? Why did she have to attack them?

He was frozen as he watched Nic get slapped around without a sign of trouble from the Dragon. Aria was similarly unable to formulate any sort of defense against the dragon. Now Nic was lying on the ground, unmoving. Aria was desperately trying to wake him up.

And Sarman was standing there doing nothing. Why wasn’t he doing anything?

Sarman hated that he wasn’t doing anything. But his legs were trembling. They refused to move. He had grown up with stories of the dragon’s power. How could he ever compare to that strength?

“Die!” Unlike Sarman, Yuuki had grown enraged seeing her friends hurt. Even if she was scared, to her, it was more important to attack the dragon that had hurt the two of them.

Blind Rage.

Sarman shivered looking at her as she swung the katana towards M’kara’s foot.

The blade was sharp, and cut through a few scales, but it stopped only a few cer into the flesh. With a horrific snarl, M’kara swung her leg, dislodging the blade and sending both it, and its wielder, flying into a pile of snow.

“Why are you just standing there? Do something!” Salamander spoke directly into Sarman’s mind.

“I… can’t. She’s too powerful…”

“Like hell, you can’t! What did you make me promise? That I would protect Yuuki after you died next week, not today. So you are going to get your ass in motion and use all of my strength to beat that dragon.”

Salamander was right. Sarman knew his own future. He was going to die in six days. But the rest, they had to live. They had to live so that they could free this world.

“Arrrrrggghhhhhhh!” Sarman let out a guttural scream as he slapped himself in the face. This was no time for him to be scared; to refuse to fight. He was contracted with the Spirit Progenitor of fire. How many years had he spent working to control that power?

A decade and a half. He had the strength of fifteen years behind him. And Sarman wouldn’t let that go to waste.

The air around Sarman sizzled. He slowly took off his two topmost layers, leaving him in only a long sleeve shirt. Heat radiated off of his body in droves, melting the snow beneath his feet.

His hands burst into flames.

In a single leap, Sarman rocketed his body straight at M’kara’s face. Even if they were a dragon, a punch at this heat was sure to leave a lasting mark. With that idea in his head, Sarman threw his fist. As it connected, the flames that were covering them expanded.

Further and further. Hotter and hotter. An explosion of blue flames rocked the two of them.

For Sarman, it sent him flying back towards the ground. He landed on his feet, the impact numbing his legs.

On the other side, M’kara’s head had whipped back from the force. A low growl in pain echoed out as she tried to take off.

However, only a few mer off of the ground, vines sprouted from beneath her. They reached up and coiled themselves around M’kara’s legs, stopping her from fully taking to the skies.

“Don’t count me out just yet!” Kneeling where she had landed, Yuuki had plunged her sword into the ground, activating its magical ability.

The Katana had been forged with her mother’s magic infused into the blade. Manipulating the magic within it, Yuuki, someone who couldn’t use magic normally, was able to activate the sword’s ability.

The vines coiled around M’kara’s legs, pulling her down towards the ground. Even the powerful beating of the dragon’s mighty wings did little to combat the vines.

It was a perfect opening.

Sarman coalesced flames around his hands. They burned hotter and hotter, turning from orange to blue and finally a blinding white. The flames stretched, forming the shaft of a spear.

Most Spirits excelled in establishing their magic around one thing in their element. Creating buildings from an element, like Rust did, was one example. Creating weapons out of their elements were another. Spirit Progenitors were able to create anything. They stood as the epochal power of that element.

But that didn’t mean the same thing for those contracted with Spirit Progenitors. Most contractors tended to focus on one focus of creation. More often than not, that focus was combat oriented. For Sarman, his focus was the creation of weapons and armor made of fire. His favored weapon was a flaming spear.

He had spent fifteen years honing his ability to make flaming spears. He had learned how to condense the flames into a tangible weapon that he could throw. The flames naturally grew hotter the stronger that Sarman got as well.

In his hands, Sarman now held the peak of his power. The blindingly white flames heated up the entire peak of the mountain, melting snow all around the area. Smoke was rising from the stone directly beneath Sarman as it sizzled with energy.

This was one of the most powerful attacks that any human had ever created.

With a single stride forward, Sarman lifted the spear behind his head. All of his strength went into the single throw, launching the flaming spear at M’kara. Even if they were facing an elder dragon, Sarman knew that his spear would damage the dragon.

“Bwahahaha!” Sarman froze. No, his body couldn’t move. But it wasn’t just him. Sarman could tell he wasn’t the only one. The air itself had seemed to stop moving. The smoke that was rising around him had stopped floating up. There was no more breeze on the wind. The flaming spear had stopped mere cer in front of M’kara.

The only sound was M’kara’s laugh.

“It is time for you to learn the gulf between where your allies are now, and where they must become.”

In an effortless motion, M’kara used her wings to cut the vines trapping her down.

A single flap of her wings broke the spear. Sarman’s strongest attack was reduced to nothing in a second.

The world began to move again. In that instant, wind rushed past M’kara, blowing the white-hot remaining flames of the spear towards Yuuki. Sarman couldn’t do anything to stop it. He had to painfully watch as the flames passed over her body, coating the area directly behind her in its fiery presence.

Flames burned Yuuki’s jacket as she threw it off. Burns covered her face and her hair had singed from the heat.

But she still stood tall. Her sword trembled slightly at the power she was standing against. Sarman was amazed as he looked at her. He was doubting himself after seeing his spear be broken apart as easily as it was. But as he looked at Yuuki’s face, all he saw was a mad determination built on anger.

“Oh?” Sarman wasn’t the only one who noticed. M’kara, her wings beating ever so uniformly, had also noticed. She dropped onto the ground, her head moving around as she studied Yuuki’s position.

“What? Is this not a trial? Are you surprised that I’m still standing?” Yuuki held her sword aloft in front of the dragon, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

“A little. But I see now. You do have the strength to grow.”

“Huh?”

Yuuki let out a questioning sound while Sarman held his head in one of his hands to the side. M’kara had been testing them under the guise of a trial to pass her. But it was more than that. She had been showing them… No, she had been showing Sarman something in particular.

“You have passed this trial. But let me offer you this immediate reward.” M’kara gave her judgement before a bright light encompassed the Nic, Aria, Yuuki and Sarman. It only lasted a second, but once it was gone, everyone noticed what had happened.

Nic coughed harshly as he woke up. “What happened?”

“Are you alright?! You were slammed into the column.” Aria quickly began to check over Nic’s body, but was waved off by the man as he stood up. Sarman was surprised. That attack had knocked out his friend in an instant, yet here he was standing up like nothing had happened.

“The burns?” Sarman heard Yuuki exclaiming surprise herself and looked over. The burns she had just gotten had completely disappeared. Her hair was as pristine as it had been when they had left the cabin.

Sarman himself felt like he hadn’t used any magic at all. He was as rested as he had been that morning.

“I rewound time for your bodies. They are back how they were before the trial.”

M’kara’s statement caused a small uproar on the peak of the mountain. And it wasn’t just the fighters who raised their voices. All four of the other members of the delegation crowded around the dragon as well.

Time manipulation by a mortal creature like that had never been heard of before. In fact, time manipulation was long thought to be a simple dream of madmen.

“How can you manipulate time?” Aria excitedly asked what was on everyone’s mind.

“Each of my fellow eight elder dragons and I were created by mother Gaia to watch over the creations of father Kronus. The other eight were all assigned to the Spirit Progenitors that you know of, and as such held a similar dominion over those elements. I was assigned to another creation of Kronus’. One that held dominion over time. And so my dominion is also time.” M’kara relayed the story of the creation of the dragons to the eight standing around her.

The dragons were mirrors of the Spirits. Their strength and control over the dominions of elements was as strong as the original spirits. Dragons were meant to watch over and protect the Spirit Progenitors, but when the progenitors began to enter contracts with humans, the dragons felt that they were no longer needed. So they became wandering beasts that would protect large swaths of land.

“Salamander, do you know who M’kara was talking about being assigned to?” Sarman asked internally.

“I do. Father’s vassal. It was unexpectedly combined with a human’s soul to create an odd Elf during the first Irradiated Winter.”

This wasn’t the first time that Sarman had heard of a Spirit Progenitor turning into an Elf. Supposedly both Orpheus and Solus had as well. Sarman’s hand clenched into a fist as his mind began to lead towards those two.

“Is this Elf still alive?”

“No, they died recently.”

Sarman figured that would be the case. If the Elf had still been alive, they may have been able to learn more about Kronus from them. It would have been far too easy.

“Sarman?” Yuuki’s voice threw Sarman out of his own thinking. He had spent a while lost in thought, and now everyone else was already moving to walk down the other side of the mountain. Only he was left in front of M’kara.

“You guys go on ahead. I have something I need to ask M’kara.”

Yuuki hesitated for a second before turning around and catching up with the rest of the group. They quickly disappeared over the edge of the mountain's peak.

“That wasn’t a test at all.” Sarman looked up at the dragon.

“You’re right. I needed to show you how weak they all were now.”

Sarman sighed and moved his foot. A cracking sound came from beneath him.

Looking down, next to Sarman was a small circular patch of ice. The heat from his attacks had gotten rid of all the snow in the area. Had this one patch been unaffected? How did Yuuki, who had been standing next to him, not notice it?

“And I wanted to show you that.” The dragon noticed the ice as well. “Remember, you must die in a few days for those three to become strong enough to defeat someone who has the same strength as me.”

What did the ice have to do with their strength? Sarman couldn’t find that connection.

“I know. And if I don’t die, something far worse will occur?”

The dragon never answered.

Sarman closed his eyes and began to walk towards the side of the mountains that his companions had already begun to descend on.

He had forced his companions to not ask M’kara about their future. Sarman did it because he had already learned the truth. And if they knew that he was going to die in six days, Sarman was sure that they would try to change that future.