Chapter 73: Chapter 72 – Haunts & wolves

When she opened her eyes again, Scarlett found herself at the top of a platform on the side of a mountain. Spread out before her were countless white peaks continuing for miles, jutting up towards the skies with deep, snow-filled canyons between them.

To her right, gazing above some of the lower mountaintops, she saw hints of grey highlands in the far distance. Facing forward, closer than the highlands but still only barely visible on the horizon, she saw a large area of discolored land, best described as a scar. Burnt and desolate, massive fissures ran along the ground for what had to be thousands of meters on end. It struck a stark contrast with the mountain range and its surroundings. She couldn’t fault them for calling it the Blasted Lands.

A light appeared next to Scarlett, and Garside materialized from thin air. The old man’s eyes darted around for a second before settling on her. “My Lady, please. I ask that you refrain from exposing yourself to unnecessary risk. Please allow me to investigate any dangerous unknowns first.”

“I understand your concern,” she said, finding his immediate reaction somewhat amusing. “And I dislike needlessly endangering myself as much as you. There was, however, no need for such worries this time. As you can see, it was completely safe.”

The butler didn’t look exactly pleased by her response, but he seemed to accept her words as he lowered his head. Scarlett turned her attention back to their surroundings. The platform was made of simple stone, but it seemed to have been cut out of the mountain itself somehow, creating a balcony sticking out of the mountainside. At its center stood an obelisk, like the one back in the crevice, with the same symbols carved onto its face.

Another light appeared, and Rosa emerged next to them. The bard opened and closed her eyes, gazing out across the mountain range stretching out before them.

“Wow... That’s some view,” she said, then hugged her arms close to her body. “But it sure is cold.”

Scarlett gestured to Garside. “Give her something warmer.”

The butler bowed and stepped up to Rosa, pulling out a thick coat from the [Bag of Juham] and handing it to the woman.

While the winds weren’t too bad at the moment, they’d likely grow worse at some point. The air up here was also a lot cooler than where they had been before. Breathing in, Scarlett found herself surprised at how much thinner it felt as well. How high up were they, actually? Now that she thought about it, shouldn’t her ears have popped or something along those lines from teleporting this high so suddenly? Or considering the difference in pressure at these heights, it might have been even worse.

…Maybe she should have been a bit more careful about touching that obelisk. Relying on some ancient civilization to always have thought about these things for her might not be the best way of approaching matters.

She accepted a thick coat from Garside as he pulled out another from the bag, pulling it tight around herself. While the cold here wasn’t unbearable, she found herself wishing some of the items she’d gathered up till now would have had frost resistance. [Mark of the Gale] was the only such item she’d found yet, so warm clothes were the only way of handling the cold she had at the moment.

Soon enough, two more flashes of light announced the appearance of Shin and Allyssa, who were also given clothes by Garside.

Fynn came walking over from the edge of the platform and pointed to a long stone path that continued up the mountain. “We’re going there next,” he said and began moving.

“Wait,” Allyssa called out. “Where exactly are we?”

He glanced back at her. “My home.”

She stared at him. “You live in these mountains?”

“I used to.”

Shin looked around. “Judging from the surroundings, I’m guessing we’re somewhere close to the center of Whitdown Mountains?”

“Yes. This is Grehazant,” Fynn said. “The second largest peak.”

Shin raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t know there was a name for it.”

“It has always had one. It means fang of the gale, or gale’s fang. I don’t think you in the empire use it, though.” Fynn gave them all one last look, then turned around. “Come. We have to go now.”

Scarlett and the others followed him as he started walking toward the path he’d pointed out, and soon they were climbing up the mountain. The path was rough, but it wasn’t too steep, and they continued for some time. The further they got from the platform, the more the winds began fluctuating in strength, and Scarlett regularly opened and pulled her coat closed to regulate the heat as they moved. Eventually, they reached a wide plateau where the path diverged.

In one direction was a stone staircase, leading into a low canyon too steep to see much from their current vantage point. It was guarded by a stone statue on each side, both depicting wolves howling up at the sky. Both had large cracks running through their fronts, though, and one had lost most of its back half.

Fynn ignored the staircase and followed the other path, that seemed to continue up the mountain.

Scarlett considered the statues as she trailed behind Fynn when she heard Allyssa’s voice from behind.

“Rosa? What’s wrong?”

Turning around, Scarlett saw Rosa standing completely frozen, staring at the statues.

Allyssa put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Rosa?”

The woman flinched, turning to Allyssa. For a moment, it didn’t seem like she was truly seeing the Shielder. After blinking a few times, Rosa’s focus seemed to return, and she shook her head with a smile. “Never mind me. I just thought I saw something over there. My mind’s just playing tricks on me.”

Allyssa squinted her eyes and looked toward the wolf statues. “What’s over there?” she asked, turning to Fynn.

He looked back at them. “…Nothing. Nothing at all. Not anymore.”

Allyssa turned quiet, and Fynn started walking again.

Scarlett stayed back for a moment, regarding Rosa. “Is everything okay, Miss Hale?”

“Yeah. ‘Course it is. I’m fine.” The woman chuckled. “Fit as a fiddle, even. All this mysterious exploring just has me a bit too eager, that’s all. It’s not every day you get paid for climbing a mountain, you know?”

“...I am glad to hear that.”

While she said that, the woman’s smile didn’t seem as convincing as it usually did.

“I believe we should continue onwards,” Scarlett said. “We would not want to keep Fynn waiting.”

Rosa performed an exaggerated bow. “After you, my Lady.”

Scarlett clicked her tongue as she turned around, continuing after Fynn and the others. Soon they were back to climbing up the side of the mountain once more. The path now was a lot harsher than before, growing more and more irregular the longer they progressed. As did Scarlett’s breathing. Compared to before, this part was quickly pushing her limits as the ache in her legs was growing worse.

Even the others were starting to have a hard time—excluding Fynn—and it didn’t help that every breath eventually started feeling like it was filling one’s lungs with thin ice. Thankfully, Rosa eventually decided it wasn’t worth saving the mana and started playing short tunes on her klert that eased the worst of it and filled them all with energy. The magic only worked in bursts, but by spreading it out over longer intervals, and taking short water breaks now and then—during which Scarlett was incredibly thankful for her pyrokinesis—they managed to make good progress without Scarlett feeling like she would topple over and die at any moment.

After a few hours, the path leveled out as they reached a terrace of finely cut stone. It was situated on a large overhang, where a section of the mountain seemed to balance over a sharp precipice. The floor of the terrace was covered in the same markings that had been on the obelisk, cleanly carved into the stone. Furthest in on the terrace, cut into the face of the mountain, were several large stone protrusions. Each bore lifelike illustrations of wolves. Some of a wolf running at the forefront of a storm, while others depicted a giant wolf standing before a group of people. There was even one where a wolf stood atop the peak of a mountain, peering out at another mountain peak that had a humongous dragon nestled atop it.

“Wow...” a sound of awe left Allyssa’s mouth.

The quality of the carvings certainly was impressive. That, coupled with the view of the mountain range afforded to them, gave everything a certain grandeur to it. It had the makings of an epic fairytale.

Allyssa pointed at one of the other mountain peaks that towered above all of its neighbors. While their mountain also dwarfed most of the others nearby, this one stretched even higher. “Is that the same mountain as on that carving?” she asked.

Fynn stopped to look at where she was pointing. “It is. That is Haetrach,” he said.

“And what does that mean?” Shin asked. “If Grehazant was gale’s fang.”

Fynn’s expression distorted. “…It means grand dragon. But that’s not important now. We have to start the trial.”

Allyssa looked around. “Is this where the trial is?”

“No.” Fynn walked towards the middle of the stone protrusions, where there was an indentation in the stone, shaped like an arched door.

Scarlett looked on as he stopped in front of it and raised his right hand. The white ring on his finger took on a bright glow, and the frigid air around them surged up. The stone in front of Fynn started glowing to match his ring, growing brighter by the second. Finally, an explosion of light engulfed them as the stone disappeared and a torrent of wind rushed past them into the gap.

Fynn looked back at them. “It’s open.”

Garside stared into the entrance behind Fynn with a knitted forehead. His mustache trembled as he turned to look at Scarlett. ”My Lady, are you certain continuing here is wise? This is all very…unusual.”

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“I am certain, yes.” She understood that, from his perspective, all of this would seem incredibly strange. “There are few other alternatives at this point.”

Besides, wasn’t this a bit too late to start complaining about the unusualness of the situation?

Scarlett started walking, following Fynn as he went inside. They entered a spacious, unlit passage. She conjured a fire for some light. The space shared a lot of similarities with the old ruins she’d explored with Kat outside of Whistlecreek. Murals covered the walls with the same kind of symbols and illustrations as outside. It all spoke a lot of the people who’d gone to so much effort to create this place. Insane fools they were, creating trials like these.

At least there shouldn’t be any traps here, as far as Scarlett was aware.

“This place feels a little eerie,” Allyssa mumbled as she came in behind them.

Shin stepped in after her. “Who built it?” he asked, examining the murals.

“The ancestors,” Fynn said, his voice echoing off the walls as he moved ahead.

Shin ran his gauntleted hand over a picture of a wolf running through a field of grass. “And whose ancestors is that?”

“Mine?” Fynn answered. The young man stopped for a moment, looking back at them. “They’re getting impatient. We have to move faster.”

“I get that they’re antsy, being dead and all that, but a short rest couldn’t hurt, could it?” Rosa said. The woman wore an uncharacteristically tense face, as she seemed to avoid looking anywhere but straight ahead. “I’m in some real need of it, after using all that mana earlier.”

“We can’t.” Fynn continued forward.

“Alright then.” Rosa’s murmur was barely audible. “Happy thoughts it is...”

“Would you care for a mana potion?” Scarlett asked.

The bard turned to her with a surprised look. “You have any?”

Scarlett nodded. “Allyssa prepared two of them.” She pulled out a dark vial from her [Pouch of Holding], handing it to the woman. A [Mana Potion].

She’d originally intended to have Allyssa prioritize making health potions in case something unexpected happened, but considering Fynn’s awakening, she had judged it good to have some mana potions as well. Unfortunately, Allyssa only had time to make two of them, one of which was a [Minor Mana Potion]. In addition, Scarlett didn’t know how much mana they restored, since she couldn’t afford to test them out before going here.

Rosa shook the vial delicately as she studied its contents. She pulled the cork off and sniffed it. “There’s no smell.” She took a short sip. A grimace formed on her face, but she still turned the vial upside down to drink the rest. “Tastes like sour cranberries.”

Allyssa reached out a hand to receive the empty vial from Rosa, putting it inside a pocket in her cloak. “I don’t know how to change the taste that much.”

“...Feels good though,” Rosa added after a moment. “You wouldn’t happen to be able to spare the last one?”

Scarlett glanced down at her pouch. She pulled out the other potion and handed it to Rosa as well. The second one was something she’d preferred to keep for herself, but Rosa’s abilities were more important for the group. Scarlett was also worried about what might happen otherwise, considering the signs the bard was showing.

Rosa downed the second mana potion quickly, and their group continued their delve deeper inside. It didn’t take long for them to reach a large oval chamber that split off into two different paths. One to the right, and one to the left.

Unlike many of the other dungeons in ‘Chronicle of Realms’, the Howling Gale’s Haunt was divided into three separate sections, and it was impossible to clear them all at the same time. Each section could only be unlocked if you both had Fynn with you, and he had reached a high enough level to have the relevant awakening. This also meant that the sections themselves were relatively short and lacked any real trash mobs like other dungeons might have.

Scarlett shifted her gaze from one path to the other, then pointed to the left one. “I believe it is best if we begin with that passage.”

“Is the other one wrong?” Allyssa asked.

“Not exactly, no. We will have to traverse both paths, but it is safer to begin with one.”

In the game, both passages had a mini-boss at their end, and you had to defeat both of them to unlock the way to the last boss.

Scarlett started moving towards the left opening.

“Wait,” Fynn called out. “They’re saying we should split up.”

Scarlett stopped, turning to him. “…What?”

“They’re saying one group should go to the left, and the other to the right.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “We will not be doing that.”

His brows deepened into a frown. “But they’re saying we should.”

Allyssa gave him a strange look. “You keep mentioning they. Who’s they?”

“The ancestors,” Fynn said.

“Wait, you mean they’re actually talking to you? Like, literally?”

“Yes,” Fynn nodded. “And they want us to split up.”

Scarlett crossed her arms. “What they want does not matter. We will not be separating.”

Fynn gave her a bewildered look. “But I have to pass the trial.”

“That is not part of the trial,” she said. “If we were to divide ourselves into two groups, it is unlikely that both groups will survive.”

Fynn’s expression deepened even further. He looked to the side as if he was listening to someone. “They’re...saying we’re too many. If you want to help with the trial, they want you to prove yourselves. So we have to split up.”

Scarlett scowled.

That didn’t even make sense. If they were too many, why would it be acceptable just because they proved themselves? That just meant things would be even easier during the boss itself. This couldn’t actually be a part of the trial, could it? Even if it was, she couldn’t accept it. It was far too dangerous. Failing the trial would be preferable to accepting such an enormous risk.

“We will move as a group, no matter what nonsensical thoughts they have regarding it.”

Things went quiet. Then Fynn’s eyes widened. “T-They say they can’t accept that.”

“That may be so,” Scarlett began. “But th—”

The wind swelled up around them and she froze as a cold aura filled the chamber.

She locked her gaze on Fynn. “What are you doing?”

He shook his head. “I-It’s not me.”

The ring on his finger turned a bright white and the wind suddenly intensified, rising into a violent tempest. Scarlett rushed to activate [Sidhe’s Flowing Garbs] just as a torrent of wind crashed into her. The cries of the others rang out as she slammed into the ground, and a terrifying cracking sound reverberated throughout the room. She stared up as several fractures formed on the ceiling above. The wind continued pressing against her, stopping her from getting up. A moment later, the entire chamber rumbled as the middle section of the ceiling tore off, a cascade of stone following.

Everything shook as a cloud of dust and darkness spread around her. She coughed heavily as the wind settled, hurrying to take out her enchanted glasses from the pouch and put them on. She saw Shin and Rosa lying near her, but there were no signs of the others. A mountain of stone now blocked the center of the room, closing off both the other end of the chamber and the exit.

They were stuck.

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