“What do you think about what happened back there?” Nyx asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean, why do you think it happened?” he asked. “That young Kobold? Kidnapped? It doesn’t make sense. We’ve been around that young one. Why would the Dark Alliance want anything to do with him?”
“We don’t even know if it was the Dark Alliance that kidnapped him,” I said. “If betrayal runs deep, that man might have just been posing as a Knight of the Dark Alliance to throw us off.”
“That’s true,” Nyx said. “Ugh, so many complications.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered. “I can’t even begin to think of what this kidnapping might mean in the face of all the attacks we’ve had dealt to us recently. And it just gets worse when you realize the Lumina Knights have their quirky machine out there in the desert, sending pressure pulses out through the lands.”
“Yeaaaah,” Nyx said.
The image of the young Kobold lay heavy on my mind. He had been scared silly when that Knight had had him in his grasp. I could imagine the thoughts running in his mind as the crystal had broken into shards, and they weren’t comforting thoughts.
I hope nothing happens to Nazu.
“There’s nothing we can do for now,” Nyx said. “Freya and Ijyela are trying to analyze those shards, and there’s basically nothing you can do to help them at the moment. We’re just going to have to be on our own.”
“Yeah,” I muttered.
A few Knights walked past on the streets, and I realized Raffiel was the one leading them. I stepped forward, then hesitated.
“Are you thinking about talking to him about the kidnapping?” Nyx asked.
No. I shook my head. It’s about the previous attack.
“But I thought you didn’t want to ask him about that either.”
Well, I don’t think he’d know why the Dark Alliance attacked us. But as Freya mentioned before, it might not hurt to ask.
“Fine.”
I walked up to the small group of Knights, and on seeing me, they all knelt in an instant.
“You don’t have to do that every time.” I smiled.
“Apologies, my lord,” they all said and got up.
“Is there anything we can help you with, my lord?” Raffiel smiled as he stepped forward.
“Walk with me, Raffiel,” I said. “The rest of you may do whatever you wish.”
The others nodded and walked away while the Knight captain stood at my side, a little confused.
“Do not worry,” I said as we strode forward. “I just have a question I wish to ask you.”
“Anything, my lord,” he said. “Ask away and I will answer to the best of my abilities.”
“What do you know of why your Alliance attacked this village?” I asked.
“Ah,” he said, his tone telling me he’d already expected me to ask him this. “I actually question the decision even now. We were given no forewarning about the attack. My squadron and I were called upon in the middle of the night to head out and follow a group headed west. I was unsure of what we were even doing, but as a Knight in the Dark Alliance, you learn to follow orders and stop asking questions.”
“Do you know why Jelal, a man leading the Dark Alliance, would come here personally?”
“I was confused about that as well, my lord,” he said. “I am unsure of what the reason was. I was not told that the Dark Commander himself would be accompanying us and found out only when we left for the village.”
“Interesting,” I said. “It sounds like a lot of things were kept quiet for this attack. How many people do you think knew about this?”
“I would reckon not too many,” he said. “We were called upon past midnight, and I doubt a lot of people would have known of such an attack if our call to arms was at such an odd time.”
“He’s right,” Nyx said. “That’s quite an odd time to ask people to head out.”
It is. But it still doesn’t tell us why exactly they attacked the village.
“Were you aware that I was leader of this village?” I asked Raffiel.
He nodded. “We were briefed minutes before reaching here,” he said. “Only the captains and squadron leaders were told. They kept the information restricted for fear of a fallout in the mission if they found out we were facing the Phantom Lord.”
“So they knew we were here,” Nyx said. “Does that mean this was a personal attack against you?”
Maybe.
“There wasn’t much time between us claiming this village and them attacking us, though.”
Are you saying my claiming the village alerted them to my presence?
“It seems a very likely possibility. We’ve been in hiding for three months, and all of a sudden the Dark Alliance just happens to find us?”
“Zoran!” I heard a voice call out, and I turned around to see an ecstatic Freya running towards us.
“I will have to take your leave, Raffiel,” I said. “Thank you for your help.”
“Anytime, my lord.” He bowed and headed on his way.
I walked to Freya. “Did you find anything?” I asked.
She nodded. “You need to see this.”
I quirked my head to the side. That did not sound good, and the tone of her voice only intrigued me more. I quickly followed her back to the house she and Freya had settled in temporarily.
The elven witch rested in a chair, her green eyes focused on a pile of shards lying on the table before her.
“He’s here, Ijyela,” Freya said as we entered.
“Good.” She turned to see me, a cold expression in her eyes.
“What did you find?” I asked, walking up to her.
“Ulhur,” she said.
“What?”
“The Ulhur Mountains,” she said. “That’s where that teleportation shard was set to go.”
“Where’s that?” I asked.
“A few thousand miles north of here,” Freya said. “It’s an absolutely desolate mountain region. Barely anyone goes up there. In fact, it wouldn’t be too far off to say no one goes up there anymore.”
“And yet this Knight had a teleportation crystal that was preset to take him there.”
“I can’t pinpoint exactly where in the region he was set to go to,” Ijyela said. “But I’m certain the mountains were where he was headed.”
“Why on earth would he take a Kobold to a place like that?” I mumbled softly.
“To meet a contact?” Nyx suggested.
Possible.
“What course of action do we take?” Freya asked.
“We follow,” I said. “I can take you with me to the mountain region. Ijyela, you stay here and guard the village. It should be easier than before, now that we’ve fended off one attack and obtained a small attack force as well.”
“Understood.” She nodded. “I’ll talk to Raffiel and set things up.”
“Good.” I turned to Freya. “When can you leave?”
“Anytime you want,” she said.
“Fine, let’s leave immediately,” I said. “I don’t want to waste any time.”
She nodded.
I put my hand in the air. “Hiestia,” I whispered. Darkness surged out of the ground and enveloped our bodies, plunging us into a world of darkness. When I could see again, I found myself on a solid pathway of black, just like before.
“What the heck?” a voice sounded next to me, and I turned to see Freya sitting on the ground, her eyes wide at the sight in front of her.
“You’ve never Shadow Traveled with me before, have you?”
“I mean, you’ve only done it like two times before this, sooooo…” Nyx chuckled.
Shut up. I rolled my eyes.
“This is my first time,” Freya said, watching the portals of shifting images floating all around us.
“Come on,” I said, giving her a hand up and leading her down the pathway. I formed a mental image of the word Ulhur and walked along, my mind calm. Ijyela had given
me quite a good idea of what this place looked like and where it was, and those were two very helpful factors in finding a portal to the place. A few seconds in, I could feel a presence far down the pathway, and I knew it was the one I wanted.
“Are each of these images a pathway to somewhere else?” Freya asked as we strode along.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Each one leads to a shadow being cast somewhere in the world.”
“So this basically lets you travel from shadow to shadow.”
“Basically,” I said.
“That’s such a trippy skill.”
“See? I said the same thing,” Nyx chuckled.
I never said you were wrong, now did I? I smiled.
A chill hit my spine and I immediately stopped. I closed my eyes, feeling for the presence once again, and found it somewhere close, to my right. I walked a few more steps forward and looked around. It didn’t take long to find what I was looking for.
A portal of pure white stood a few feet above the ground, as though it were a pool of milk.
“Is that it?” Freya asked.
I nodded. “Are you ready for a snowstorm?”
“Oh,” she said in a deadpan tone, showing she clearly hadn’t thought about the weather yet. “Well, I guess that makes sense.”
“Come on.” I held her hand and tugged her behind me as I ran into the portal.
“Ugh, I’m going to hate this,” she said.
One moment we were in darkness.
And the next we were not.
Shooting pains hit my skin immediately, as though a hundred tiny blades were piercing it. I heard a soft mumble, and a shield of translucent white appeared around us, forming a protective hemisphere. Freya had cast her shield from the Light Arts.
Sharp shots of snow hit the barrier, smudging into soft specks of white on impact, but I could tell those would hurt like hell if I let them hit me.
“I knew you said snowstorm, but this is much more than a normal snowstorm,” Freya said. “This is freak weather.”
“Sorry about that,” I said. “To be honest, I don’t know anything about this mountain range either.”
“To be fair, you’d have known nothing if I hadn’t told you what you know now,” Nyx said.
Yes, yes, I’m aware.
A rumbling sounded from above us, and when I glanced up, I saw a massive sheet of snow dropping down.
An avalanche.
The shield held strong for a second before giving way. The ground beneath us shook, and before I even figured out what was happening, I was falling. I glanced up at the crevice above us, watching it close as snow plastered it shut once again.
I caught sight of Freya next to me just as she grabbed my waist and chanted a spell from the Wind Arts. A heavy blast of wind shot from her palms, slowing us down as we came to a stop on the soft snow below.
“Well, that could have gone better,” Freya sighed as she let go of me.
“Thanks,” I said quietly, dusting the stray snow off my clothes. I looked up, making sure once again that the crevice above had indeed been sealed. I turned my attention to where we actually were, and my interest was immediately piqued.
Two large tunnels lay before us, each one as dark and mysterious as the other. Wind flowed out of them both, emitting an eerie howl that echoed through the chamber we were in.
“Should we go through?” Freya asked.
I thought about it for a moment. There was no reason for us to think we had to head into the tunnels, but this was easier than trying to head back up into the snowstorm. Also, from what I could tell, we were actually quite high up on one of the mountains from the Ulhur range. That meant my priority was to get down closer to ground level, and a tunnel wasn’t the worst way to go about doing that.
“We should take one of the tunnels down,” I said.
“Which one, though?” she asked.
I walked to the entrance of the first tunnel, letting the wind flowing from it hit my face, the chill stinging my skin. I moved to the other tunnel and my ears perked up immediately.
Voices, I realized.
“Let’s head down this one,” I said. “I can hear something deep inside.”
“Aren’t voices usually what you try to avoid, though?” Freya asked, a little concerned.
“We don’t really have the option of shying away right now,” I said. “We have to be on the offensive the entire time. Whether the voices are friendly or not, they might give us an insight into what we need to do to find Nazu.”
“Fine,” she said. She didn’t sound completely convinced, but convinced enough for me to feel okay about the decision.
We walked into the second tunnel, bearing the chilling winds that came through. It’d probably have been a good idea to get some cold weather clothing before coming here, but everything had been done on the spur of the moment.
The wind around us howled as it flew past the walls of the tunnel, echoing through the darkness. Freya quickly summoned her ball of light, illuminating the path before us and softening the shades of black around. We’d walked about a hundred yards when we noticed the tunnel suddenly stopped.
I initially thought it had dead-ended but quickly realized that there was in fact a straight drop at the end of our path. We walked up to it and peered through, at the ice walls that went almost straight down. It seemed like a smooth slide, but that didn’t mean it would be any fun.
“What do you think?” I asked Freya.
“Well, we’ve come this far, might as well take it,” she said.
“I’ll go down, and you can follow right after,” I said.
She nodded in agreement. I sat on the edge of the drop and then pushed myself off. My body hit the icy surface and I slid down fast, squeaking assaulting my ears as I surged through.
“Well, this is fun,” Nyx said.
I raised my head a little and noticed a spot of light a few yards away.
The end of the tunnel.
I tightened my limbs and braced for impact. In seconds, I shot out of the tunnel and slid onto rough floor. I let myself roll a few times and came to a hard stop. I felt soft mud on my cheek and realized the chamber I was in actually had damp mud covering it.
That’s interesting, I thought, intrigued that I’d found a damp surface in a chamber this high up on a snowy mountain.
I heard a quiet growl to one side, and before I could turn, I felt something dig into my shoulder. A sharp pain struck my arm, and I could feel that side of my body go numb. I swiped my free hand at whatever had attacked me and pulled it off.
I felt the cold sensation of ice on my fingers as I pulled hurled my attacker at the wall. I heard a shattering sound, but my mind didn’t register it properly in light of the pain bursting in my shoulder. I felt around my skin and found something like an icicle still sticking into it. I quickly grabbed it and pulled it out, just as I heard another growl from behind me.
Luckily for me, Freya came down just then, her handy ball of light already summoned.
And with it, she showed me everything I’d failed to see when I had come down here.
A small group of ice imps stood around, their bodies made of pure blue ice, glaring at us with their dark yellow eyes. A rumbling sounded from behind them, sending vibrations through the cave. A part of the wall broke down, revealing a tunnel on the other side. From within it emerged a massive beast made entirely out of ice, his heavy steps sending chunks of rock falling from the ceiling as he walked over to us. He beat his chest and let out an explosive growl, sending shuddering tremors through the ground.
“Well, that can’t be good.”
***
CHAPTER ELEVEN
At no point in your life do you want to be in a cramped chamber made of ice, facing off an army of ice imps and their giant ice leader.
And that’s exactly what I was doing.
Then I remembered that I could use the Fire Arts.
My thought process worked on autopilot the moment I realized that. I thrust my han
d into the air as I always did, and the words left my mouth with no effort at all.
“Erkiela!” I yelled, and a surge of fire spread out from me, the wave of flaming fury sinking into the ice the way light does into the darkness. The ice imps in front of me immediately collapsed to the ground, dead. The ice giant stumbled from the attack and fell as well, a part of his shoulder shattering to pieces on impact, his health almost depleted.
However, I’d forgotten one tiny detail. I was a Level 521 who’d used a fire spell within a cave of ice. The moment my flames touched the icy walls, the ice melted into water, and rumbling immediately thundered through the cave, rocks and ice falling down from the ceiling.
“Run down!” I yelled at Freya, pointing to the only opening in the chamber, a dark tunnel that led further down the mountain.
Freya hesitated but headed down the tunnel anyway, and I charged in after her.
Or at least I was going to.
At the last moment, something caught my leg, and I stumbled to the ground, where I was stuck fast. I turned around and saw the giant holding me tight with his one good hand. His body had already melted quite a bit from the previous heat burst, but he was still going strong. I could see the angry glare within his yellow eyes.
I’m sorry, I thought as I put my palm forward. “Oskis,” I said. A beam of red flames shot right at the beast, burning through it in a flash. Ice and snow condensed to water, and the grip on my leg existed no longer.
However, the additional attack accelerated the collapse of the cave, and big chunks of rock and ice started raining down on the chamber. I hastened my movements, picking myself up and heading down the tunnel just as a large boulder struck the ground, blocking the tunnel mouth and preventing anyone else from entering it after us.
“Zoran?” Freya’s voice came from a little further ahead.
“I’m here,” I said and walked forward. A familiar ball of white light showed up a second later, and I was welcomed by Freya’s worrisome eyes.
“Thank God you’re okay,” she said. “I was just about to come back for you. What happened?”
“Just a small hiccup. Nothing to worry about.”
She looked at me but asked no questions. She turned her attention to the dark tunnel we were in. “Where do we go now?” she asked.
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