The dark specks of ash and snow that rained on the terrain below gripped the volcanic mountain chain in a cold, frozen embrace.
The surrounding landscape had long been shaped by the never-ending blizzard, bent pine branches heavy with snow. Hundreds of bare trees with black trunks stark against white.
The sun hung low, giving the snowy field a golden touch. The deep shadows of the colossal jagged peaks pooled blue between the drifts, broken only by the lightless regions of countless caves.
Aster, hidden deep within one of the countless cave systems, was buried under a mound of ash—with a striking beauty by his side.
Anyone else in his position would have been smitten by her, but still… he couldn't help himself from throwing dark glances in her direction from time to time.
'Even while buried under ash…my master still looks exceptional.'
Aster would have taken pride in something so unconcerning, that is if he wasn't buried under the same ash as her. Compared to her, his physical appearance looked greatly unappealing.
The combination of dust, sweat, and ash made him look like something that could have crawled out of a nightmare instead.
But still, he couldn't complain. Compared to the past places he had found himself—and was dragged into by his domineering master over the past year, a mound of ash sounded more like luxury.
Allowing his mind to drift away from the current situation, Aster recounted the events of the past year.
The death of a party leader by the guild's law automatically disbands the party. Thus, making its existing members…solo hunters.
His master's party had been disbanded after the death of its party leader. None of them wished to carry on the burden, or felt they didn't deserve to.
Since then, she had painstakingly thrown herself into completing mission after mission. No matter how dire it was, as far as it was within her capabilities she dove into its depths…and sadly, took him along with her.
The memory of their last mission resurfaced in his mind. A shudder ran down his spine just recalling it, causing him to throw her another dark glance.
'Hey kid, let's grow stronger together.'
If only he had known what he was getting into when she had said those words, an imaginary teardrop rolled down his cheek.
He sighed, his breath caught within the cold.
His mind focused back on their current mission, and the longest by far.
'The Tragedy of the Eastern Province.'
This was what people had begun to call the descent of the beast hordes and massacre of the countless townsfolk.
Aster hated the name, hated how people who hadn't been there to witness the tragedy of others made it sound like some mournful fairytale.
But now…silently, he prayed that the rumours flying around about what had led to the tragedy were a fairytale.
The migration of mana beasts had always been common. A change in climate, a struggle for natural resources, the migration of a stronger beast into the territory of weaker ones.
These were natural occurrences. But the beast horde…the horde wasn't natural in any way possible. Looking back, the beasts moved like creatures that had run in fear of a greater threat.
But how great of a threat was it, that creatures classified as sovereign beasts ran from its presence?
Aster wasn't willing to find out. The guild hall needed them to, and that was why they were here.
Adventuring parties that frequented the icy mountain range passed stories amongst themselves, strange tales of events that had begun months before the descent of the beast horde.
Sightings of strange mana beasts…beasts whose presence alone spelt doom for fully trained adventuring parties.
A feral-graded beast was the bottom of the food chain, consumed by its burning desire to devour anything weaker than itself.
These were beasts that operated purely on instinct…so having one stare at you from the deepest, darkest parts of a blizzard—unmoving, and not reacting on instinct—was greatly unnerving.
Thankfully, these woven tales of strange beasts had provided them with a flux of information, even though they had to take each tale with a grain of salt.
'I swear a party member of mine impaled one of these creatures through the heart with his spear, and it kept walking!'
Countless tales weren't much different from each other. Undying beasts that negated the concept of death, behaviour patterns that seemed different from normal…the only thing worth accounting for was that if one was spotted, then many more were close by.
The rest of the tales…well, he was about to find out.
Vivian's gaze, for the first time, shifted from the cave entrance to glance at the kid by her side. He had grown much since their first encounter. He didn't look as frail and small as before, although he still lacked some height.
After Elaine's death, she had thrown herself into every gruesome mission possible…and survived. Initially, she had been shocked to learn that the kid didn't possess a mana core and couldn't even perceive mana.
…And yet, he was very resilient. Diving into every hellish situation along with her—even though she mostly dragged him along.
The thought of him throwing dark glances at her with murderous thoughts in his mind put a small smile on her face.
They had been camping out in the cave systems for nearly two months now, and even though she didn't show it, she was worried about the brat.
Yes, he was resilient. But not as resilient as her.
So simple gestures like that seemed to calm her down, it showed her that he was far from broken.
The wind howled like a deranged beast, the blizzard responding with a more ferocious assault of frost, cold, and ash.
The world beyond the cave systems had become a blinding white hailstorm that obstructed all forms of sight. But the movements within that hailstorm didn't go unnoticed.
Hundreds of dark figures, large and small. Grotesque and indescribable by words moved within the icy domain.
A sense of doom washed over both Vivian and Aster. But they couldn't turn back now.
It was time to brave the storm and assess the beasts. And if the worst was to happen…
…Run from it.