When awakened journey somewhere on foot, one can rarely hear serious complains about the terrain, even rugged, even thoroughtly destroyed. The reason for this is simple, as they could always use own abilities to help themselves, or at least, thanks to powered by essence bodies, just push through, eventually reaching a chosen destination. If there is no unimaginable horror lurking somewhere along their path, of course.
And contrary to everyone's expectations, there was none, at least posing danger to the convoy, and at least for now, so their little mountain trip should have been by all means simple.
But it wasn't.
Unfortunately, they weren't just awakened on foot. Most of them were mundane, driving a pretty massive vehicles. So for the entire next day, survived part of the military convoy was wandering between the peaks.
They weren't moving blind, they knew where they needed to go, but the lack of proper roads, and various obstacles blocking their path, like already familiar landslides, or wide cracks leading into the abyss, were severely slowing them down. So, with no proper scout, absence of the connection to the military network, and a total discrepancy between the landscape and maps, they changed their course almost completely four times already.
But as it turned out, one piece of the local terrain apparently was still intact, and after more than twenty hours of winding ride, Rhino's crew found themselves before the lone but proud road sign. The sign was like the welcoming banner greeting everyone leaving the rocky labyrinth into the land of normality, as right behind it, an old, asphalted road was stretching down the slope. Though the 'banner' had no actual welcoming words on it, its content brought weak smiles on the faces of the tired team.
Lith and Sam jumped out of the APC and approached the sign.
"Erebus, hundred and twenty straight. Luster's choice was correct. I feel stupid now."
Samara glanced at the tall Ascended with a little smile.
"Don't be. The main thing, we found a way out of this crumbled mess of the mountain pass."
"Right. Now use your thing, and let's move."
Nodding, Irregular brought a small device to the metal plate. A faint red light projected the picture on the sign, and a second later, contours of the figure began to burn itself into the metal, creating bright sparks and lines of smoke.
"Thanks."
Sam didn't turn from the bright light.
"I'm not drawing by hand, you know. What are you thankful for?"
"Not about the signs, obviously, I could do it myself. It's about that you believe he's still alive."
Irregular contemplated for a couple seconds before answering.
"I don't really want to explain to Soul Reaper, where did we left the guy she personally vouched for. So I hope he is still alive, yes."
"Even if that is not the same guy?"
"Yep."
He looked at her silently for several moments.
"So that's the reason?"
"Yes…"
Redhead awakened lingered before adding.
"And I want a person, who protected me without even thinking, to survive."
She turned the thing off and put it in her bag.
"He's strong enough to survive 'some fucking ghosts', right?"
Lith chuckled and turned to walk to the carrier.
"Right. He'll catch up soon enough."
"Hope so. And you couldn't do it yourself, by the way. You don't have the laser."
Lith laughed in response, but the loud sound ended quickly, as another distant earthquake shook the ground.
***
Couple hours later they were moving through another pass, not destroyed one this time. The periodical rumblings ceased a while ago, but Lith was still silent, concerned mask never leaving his face. Most of the time, he was concentrated only on watching in front, through the windshield, searching for any signs of danger.
After they left another tunnel he came to the hatch to climb on the roof of the carrier. But as soon as it opened, a cold air brought a couple of black flakes into the cabin. Seeing that, Ascended closed his eyes with a grim expression, biting his lip.
For a while, after Lith climbed on the roof, nothing happened. Then suddenly, an angry voice could be heard, rapidly approaching the open hatch, spewing a whole tirade of muffled by the wind curses. As Irregulars turned to the entry, they saw jumping down in a hurry warrior.
"Stop the caravan, now!"
Luster immediately slammed on brakes and the APC stopped. There were sounds of other vehicles behind them seizing their movement, and a familiar tired voice asked from the speaker.
"Why did we stop? Is it danger in front of us?"
Lith taped the radio button.
"Something immensely massive is walking somewhere ahead. And I have a good idea what this is. We can't go that way."
Catching strange glances from Irregulars, Lith raised a finger, gesturing them to shut up, and listen. Before, the trembling of the earth felt like something enormous was breaking the ground far ahead, creating literal earthquakes each time. But there was no telling of what the exact source was. Now it was different.
With vehicles going silent, nothing prevented awakened from concentrating on the sounds, and soon most of them managed to hear distant massive stomps. What followed was a heavy crash, and everyone in the convoy felt the tremor of the ground, even more powerful than before.
Luster clenched his hands on the wheel and swallowed nervously.
"W-what the hell is this?"
"What do you think? A Titan."
There was a quiet somber laugh and Lith spoke again.
"Goliath is somewhere in front of us. I'd bet, near Erebus. I guess you realize what it means."
Looking at heavily paled members of Irregular cohort, Lith turned his eyes in the direction of the last impact, as though he could perceive the Titan through the mountains.
"But if we know where the bastard is, we can still evade it."
He leaned and pressed the comm again.
"Tei, we are turning on the next fork."
Slightly trembling voice answered him from the speaker.
"We are too late, aren't we?"
"Well… Is the city covered in ash constantly, like Ravenheart?"
"Shit. No."
"Then I should tell you that there was some of it in the air. So far I saw only rare flakes, but we are several dozen kilometers from the city, and the ash definetly came from that direction. And considering those stomps, the answer to your question is 'most likely'. I doubt our small group will interest Goliath enough to chase us, but we need to be careful."
The speaker was silent for a while.
"I see. So where do you… No. Just… lead the way."
From the stern commanding voice, Lith heard before, there was nothing left anymore. Tei was crushed morally after what happened. Each time one of his subordinates spoke instead of him, when they were planning. He dodged questions and was silent most of the times. Lith could understand the man, but he still thought that abandoning his duties was too much.
'Well, I already pretended to command those people before. Seems like it's time to do it for real.'
They remained in place for a while longer, listening to the distant steps. When the tremor ceased, remnants of the convoy moved forward again. The only known road they could switch to was also going around the Siege Capital, but not close enough for them to engage in anything happening inside the city.
With each minute the wall of snow, obscuring the view during their ride, was becoming more and more gray. Black flakes gradually mixed in the air with white ones, settling and smearing over the windshields of the moving vehicles.
At some point, a faint red glow appeared from behind the mountain before them. It resembled a slowly rising sun or hiding behind the snowy peaks aurora. Only the glow had too low altitude for the aurora, and the polar night should still be there for a while, so it couldn't be the sunrise either.
It was a fire. And Lith knew precisely where it was coming from.
***
Far from flying ash, earthquakes and glowing skies, a lone battered figure was climbing the slope of another mountain. Drowning in the snow Ascended was making his path despite his hurt body, and lack of rest. He was panting heavily, but despite how hard it was, he wasn't thinking to stop even for a moment.
'Two days left, so I need to do in one. There are only couple hundred kilometers. Should be doable. Even in my state.'
Even if his wounds still were threatening to open with each careless move, the blood already ceased to flow, so he was capable to proceed.
Even if the pain still was enveloping his whole body, compared to what he felt before, it subsided slightly, so he was capable to move.
Even if some of his bones were broken, it wasn't like he broke all of them. And his essence accumulated enough already, allowing him to rely on it first, instead of bones. So he was capable to climb further.
'One step at a time… One careful… s-shit.'
A small ledge he was grabbing suddenly cracked, and several rocks flew down the slope. Catching himself and hugging the surface of the mountain, Ascended followed the falling stone shards with his gaze. Several moments later a loud crash sounded throughout the snowy expanse, and in an almost complete silence, this noise was deafening like a thunder.
'Of course. Why will they fall silently in some pile of snow? The snow is only everywhere…'
Waiting for a while and sensing no approaching danger, Brail relaxed a little and continued his ascend.
From the side, it could look strange, that he didn't take a safer and easier path, considering there was several in somewhat close vicinity. But he wasn't pushing his poor body through this excuse of a mountain pass, especially this exact vertical section, without a reason. There was a couple, actually.
First, he already formed a plan, and was now following it. It wasn't some grandiose list of consecutive steps or set of ideas, leading him to the end of the Nightmare. To winning, surviving, and safety.
Or saving others. He already failed this part.
No, his 'plan' was simple. There was a single item in it. To pick a direction and travel there.
Brail already located where approximately he was. Sensing the air currents, he learned that not so far south from him was a giant chasm, stretching throughout the land. The damned Owl couldn't drag him too far, which meant the Terror brought him just across the canyon, north from their last stop. So technically, he was exactly where he initially wanted to be.
It's just that he wasn't supposed to be here alone.
'Let's not think about this.'
His idea was to move west to the Siege Capital. If he understood where he was with at least some semblance of accuracy, he was on the same latitude where Erebus stood. That was a good part of news, as even if the city was about to be destroyed, he still had a chance to get there fast enough to sail away.
Or at least join the one of the escaping military caravans if he was late. He knew there should be some.
The bad part of news, and the second and third reasons he was climbing instead of walking down the asphalted roads, was the state of the terrain here and the creatures crowding the roads that's left intact.
After several hours of traversing more or less good roads and passes, Brail stumbled on a broken mountain. Or maybe a range. He would only be certain once he crossed it and saw the next peak.
And when he crossed, he saw only more destructions.
Everything here was flipped upside down. Some peaks were just crumbled to dust. Some parts of the slopes from gentle became steep, like some unimaginable force erased the missing parts. Some chunks of the lowlands became even, well, lower, riddled with deep fissures.
And that was only what Brail saw himself. How much of the territory actually changed he didn't know. What he did know, though, is that these changes of local terrain heavily affected his speed, as the majority of roads were now either slightly unavailable, putting it mildly, or nowhere to be seen at all.
So there were two variants: to walk survived the Saints-Titan battle roads or to take one of the destroyed ones, periodically scaling sheer cliffs. And as taking the seemingly easier path would certainly lead him directly to the horrible death, he had no other option beside climbing again and again in his sorry state.
For now, he was successfully evading any unwanted encounters, but he knew it wouldn't last long. Only one mistake, one wrong turn, or one unnecessary sound, like these damned rocks falling, and he might easily be trapped between the packs of abominations. So he was as subtle as he could possibly be.
Brail was muting all sounds around his body, erasing his scent, and covering trails he left on the snow. He even unsummoned the belt, so the blue won't stand out in front of the mass of white and grey colors. He was detecting Nightmare Creatures from afar, carefully listening for distant noises and constantly absorbing the sensations of the flowing wind currents. This way he could always increase the distance between his route and approaching monsters in time.
Though, what helped him the most, was his new Charm Memory the Aspect Legacy granted him. It was consuming a good amount of essence each time, and now, with his feeble reserves, even a single use was draining him almost fully.
But the effect.
To say it was worth the effort would be an understatement, especially in the situation he was currently in. He wasn't even certain, if he knew what he will receive from the Owl, who would be the attacker initially. Brail was pretty sure that, as soon as he learned what the prize would be, he would have rushed into the mist without a second thought.
Because this mist was exactly what he received. The same mist ghostly bird used.
And it was very effective.
First time Brail decided to use it in the beginning of the journey, and he totally wasn't dissatisfied. After he descended to the foothills, he stumbled several times, and almost fell. He thought he was quiet, but several six-legged crawlers still heard his clumsy attempts to walk straight from somewhere nearby, and decided to check who was lurking around their pack.
Explorer poured all available essence into his new Memory, and as soon as enchantment activated, several dozens of meters around him were instantly covered by the dark impenetrable fog.
Dark and impenetrable for the monsters that is. For Brail it was different.
He saw everything almost exactly as back when the Terror stole him. In his eyes, the mist was not completely invisible, but not as scary and blinding as before. Faint starry dots, unseen previously, were floating in translucent clouds, gathering around, and illuminating living things. Some insects were highlighted, as well as some far trees. From behind the nearby hill was seen a wide line of glowing stars, hanging on the edge of the cloud, clearly indicating a small horde, but beyond it, those little stars were nowhere to be seen.
And of course the brightest clusters of starry dots illuminated three abominations several meters in front of him. Focusing, explorer saw as monsters huddled together, standing back to back, covering each other, and sniffing the air. Crawlers were disoriented, and after several long seconds scurried back to their little horde. And Ascended continued his walk, this time concealing himself with the familiar wind powers, which consumed significantly lower amount of his reserves.
During his tiresome hike, Brail experimented with Grey Nebula almost each time he got enough essence. He learned several interesting things, such as him being also partially transparent, as he was during the kidnaping. He wasn't in phase state like the bird, which meant he could still be attacked easily. But only if he was found, and within the mist it was practically impossible without a strong detection ability or Memory.
His own detection, on the other hand, thanks to the starry things, increased manyfold inside the fog, and with his already decent reconnaissance skills, he now had an option to sense probably almost anything in a pretty wide radius.
The temperature granted by the fog was pleasant too. While he was in it, he could regulate the temperature, defaulting from the comfort he felt with pendant's passive enchantment, to the Godgrave-high and Ravenheart-low options. The best part is that his own ability, which he frequently used the same way, was working in tandem with the fog, increasing the effect significantly around him. He even could freeze specific parts of the cloud, while being warm himself.
All in all, new charm was great.
'If it could additionally produce food, it would be invaluable…'
Food wasn't a problem for now. As a Master he could live for a while without it. But if he found nobody in or near Erebus Field and was forced to march to Falcon Scott on foot, he would have to procure meat from the Nightmare Creatures. And in this weak state, that was barely an option, given that monsters don't roam around Antarctica one by one.
But that was the problem for another day. For now he needed to search for anything to increase his speed.
'Safe tunnel, survived the groundbreaking battle, without scary monsters inside maybe? A flying transport? A plane, they were called planes. Or at least any landmark to adjust the route? Spell, throw something in, please…'
There were not many landmarks around, but after he climbed down another ridge, landed on a wide stone, protruding from the slope, and gazed in the distance, he found something that possibly could help him. Without his little assistant it was much harder to locate things in the distance, but chunks of metal glittering from the barely visible northern lights, still attracted his attention the most. And now he was looking at one right in front of him, by the road crossing his path a kilometer further down.
Taking several good inhales, he readied his tired body, enveloped himself in whirlwind, and stepped off the cliff.
***
The closer winding road was bringing the convoy to the Siege Capital, the less abominations they met. Which was paradoxical, considering the number of gates they saw, and the mess that should be unraveling around the city. But that exact mess was also the reason, why the hordes left the frozen planes and ridges.
They all were besieging Erebus Field. And the bright red glow, encompassing now half of the night sky, was only proving the disaster happening there.
It didn't take long after their sudden stop, to drive to the high point, from which the city was seen. What was left of the city, at least.
The hordes, they expected to see around the protective barrier, were mostly inside the walls, tearing the city from within.
The gunfire, they expected to be loud, was rare and distant. Only one or two shots were heard from time to time. And none from the giant kinetic weapons on the walls.
Enormous facilities, created to utilize the energy of the volcano and hold the lava at bay, were destroyed. Said lava was the main reason of the glow, flowing slowly from the absent northern wall of the caldera, preventing the city-wide fire from dying down.
The whole convoy, over a hundred men, was staying on the edge of the cliff, looking down on the fall of the giant Siege Capital. Nobody spoke, nobody even moved for a long time, watching the catastrophe beneath. The only emotions shown on their faces was fear, shock, and despair.
Lith told several times he liked to see things burn, but he never meant things like this. This was too much, even if he knew what would happen.
Turning his eyes away from the destroyed stronghold of humanity, he realized that one person was not watching the fires of Erebus Field. Instead, Kimmy was peering somewhere in the direction of the cliff half a kilometer below them.
"What do you see?"
Irregular's voice cracked, as if she hadn't had a drink in ages.
"I don't see clearly, but something is there. People most likely. Sam?"
Samara raised her rifle and zeroed on the spot her colleague was pointing at.
"Two light armored vehicles, seven soldiers."
She took of the comm from the chest and tuned it to the open channel, but stopped herself before speaking, and silently handed the device to Lith. Ascended glanced at her somberly but took it. Throwing a look at Tei's blank face and contemplating for a second, he pressed the button.
"This is message from Master Verne, commander of the LO49 division convoy. Can anybody hear me?"
He repeated the same transmission several times, but the only response he got back was a crackling static.
After another try, Sam, still watching through the scope, aimed the barrel of her giant rifle slightly to the side and made a shot. Moment after Lith saw a tiny explosion. It briefly illuminated standing on the distant cliff armored PTVs, and several soldiers, quickly taking their positions behind the vehicles, pointing their guns in the direction where their convoy stood.
Irregular dropped her rifle, took a flashlight from the belt, covered it with hand, directing the light, and began blinking rapidly. The answer came right after she finished signaling.
"…dash, dot, dash, dash. Copy? I'm not very familiar with Morse."
"Yes. I told them to wait for us."
Throwing the last quick glance back on the ravaged city, Ascended nodded and turned away.
"Everyone, get back to the carriers. Let's fetch those soldiers. We have nothing to do here anymore."
Ten minutes later they descended the slope and met seven battered and sullen men. They were waiting them by the road with bags and on foot, vehicles were seen a hundred meters behind, still on the edge of the cliff.
Getting out of the Rhino, Lith headed towards the group of soldiers. Looking at their vacant and tired faces, Ascended spoke to the one standing in the center.
"I'm Master Verne. Are you from the city?"
The man he approached made a step forward and straightened a little.
"I'm Sergeant Gere, sir. We are from the garrison of the local settlement, not far from here. We lead the convoy of civilians to the Erebus, but…"
"I see. We were late too. You didn't receive my transmission?"
"No, sir. Sorry, sir. Our transport is done. And all devices too. There is the gate right beneath the spot we chose to park. Everything broke as soon as we stopped."
Lith looked behind the Sergeant, trying to feel the Call. Well, he certainly felt it, but couldn't focus on that specific Gate, considering how many of them was around. Before Ascended could say something else, soldier spoke again.
"I'm so glad you found us, sir. Do… do you have place for us?"
"For you seven, yes. But if your convoy have malfunctioning transport, we can only try to fix it. Where did you left the civilians?"
Gere's gaze darkened even more, as he lowered his eyes. After a long while, soldier answered in a quiet and broken voice.
"Behind, sir. There are no civilians anymore. Stone giant took them all."
They stayed silent for a bit, and after a long and tired sigh, Lith turned back to the APCs.
"I'm sorry to hear that. Let's go, Sergeant. Your people can take seats in third and fourth carrier, and you will go with me. I have a couple more questions, and I think, it would be better if we speak while driving away from here."
Though, before they could get inside the Rhino, a small black creature descended from the skies and landed on the railing at the carrier's roof, looking directly in Lith's eyes.
"Caw! Caw!"