After hearing Dawn's plan, Rose walked over to his right and gently grabbed the hilt of his scorched sword.
Then, they both looked at Astor, who was standing at the very edge of the glacier, right behind them.
Alright... Astor took a step forward. But the moment his feet touched the surface again, he felt something strange on the back of his neck.
And in the next second, a chill ran down his spine. He slowly turned around and looked down at the foot of the glacier...
But he saw nothing — after all, it was practically impossible to see even a few meters ahead in the storm.
Surely it can't be... right? Astor thought as he kept on staring at the foot of the glacier.
The last time he had felt something like this was when he had first seen the wolf staring at him.
"What's wrong? See something I don't?" Dawn asked as he placed a hand on Astor's shoulder.
"No... It's nothing." Even if the wolf is somehow down there, there is no way it could climb the glacier and reach us. So right now, there is no reason to cause panic.
Astor reassured himself before taking a step and reaching to Dawn's left. He then extended his left arm forward and tightly grabbed onto Dawn's sword at the bottom of its hilt.
Dawn raised his sword. Pointing it in the direction of the golden thread. And in the next moment, the scorched surface of the blade began shifting, glowing ever so brightly as each second passed.
And as the radiance of the sword intensified, the winds lost their bite and the cold eased. And eventually, the cold disappeared completely.
This is what I'm talking about. Finally!... Astor took a deep breath just as Dawn took a step forward.
The three of them, Rose, Dawn, and Astor, had finally set out on their journey to the eye of the storm. However, once again, there was no time to celebrate, as they still had to first complete their journey.
Regulus wasn't the only monster on Borealis. It was probably one of the weaker ones.
Nobody knew what they might encounter on their treacherous path. So they had to be careful with each step they took.
Just keep walking... Astor kept repeating those words in his mind each time he took a step forward in synchronization with Dawn and Rose.
However, Astor finally had some time to think — he couldn't let it go to waste. But of course, all he did was overthink about what he would do if he were to encounter a beast in the next moment.
He had fighting experience. After all, from the part of the country where Astor was from, it was either fight or die.
But that experience was limited to wielding small knives and daggers and fighting ordinary humans, and maybe a few weak human gatebearers.
And now, he had been thrown into one of the deadliest places in the world with nothing but a Dormant Artifact, which didn't even work properly.
Normally, those who become Gatebearers have two sets of Attributes. Their Innate Attributes, provided to them by their Gate. And their Origin Attributes, provided to them by their Origin Artifact.
Unlike Innate Attributes, the number of your Origin Attributes does not change as the tier of your gate increases. You are granted a set number of them from the moment you become a Gatebearer.
The second difference was the fact that the Origin Attributes of no two people are the same. All gatebearers have a unique set of Origin Attributes.
But all this knowledge was useless as he had zero Origin Attributes... another achievement he had never heard of a human getting.
Well, at least I have a Dormant Attribute! Yeah! Most people don't have that... well, because most people aren't Gatebearers. Sigh.
However, he forgot that even his Dormant Attribute didn't work properly.
The unique thing about Dormant Gatebearers is that at that current stage, their Gate hasn't developed properly, and they can't actually manipulate the Fabric of Element.
Meaning, Dormant Attributes are passive effects, limited to oneself, that should be active at all times. However, his [Eyes of Wisdom] was clearly not active at all times.
It almost felt as if something was wrong with [Language of the World], as if a part of it was missing.
Perhaps the empty nine-sided polygon on the mount was meant for a jewel. But then, how is he supposed to find that jewel?
Well, that's just depressing... The Library of Artifacts deemed him broken and unworthy of becoming a Gatebearer. It made sense that his Origin Artifact would be something that suited him.
Astor sighed deeply before continuing to walk. And eventually, after walking for a long while, Dawn spoke up.
"We have arrived."
Looking north, Astor tried to see the golden thread; however, it had vanished — not a single trace of it remained.
It was now up to Dawn to lead them to the eye of the storm, which he suspected to be the source of the golden thread.
As they kept walking, the winds slowly began to calm down, their visibility increased, and a dim light began piercing through the white cover of the storm.
Eventually, they had completely made it out of the storm.
Is that it? Astor thought as he let go of Dawn's sword.
How beautiful... Astor was once again in awe as he witnessed what lay beyond the cover of the storm.
A magnificent pillar of light slowly came into view in front of him as he slowly stepped out of the storm.
A beacon of white light rising to the skies.
Right in front of him, exactly north, and perhaps where the golden thread had been leading him all this time, was a thin white column of light heading straight up, kilometers into the sky, and eventually splitting into a shimmering array of colours, in all directions like a budding flower which had just begun to bloom.
It was the source of the veil.
But it was still a few kilometers away, as whatever was producing the beacon of light was still hidden behind the horizon.
Dawn walked ahead first, traversing the bumpy and jagged surface of the glacier. Seeing this, Rose and Astor followed a few meters behind him.
And eventually, just as the eastern horizon began turning golden, and the first rays of light reached them, Dawn came to a slow stop. A smile appeared on his face as he did...
They had arrived at the source of the veil.