Chapter 34
Embraced by the darkness of the night and illuminated only by the moonlight, their hearts race uncontrollably, their hands tremble, and their minds panic as the tents pitched behind them slowly collapse to the ground. The knights find themselves utterly lost, and in the face of that scene, they are absolutely certain of one fact: fighting is no longer possible.
How foolish would they have to be to even consider the possibility of standing a chance against... that?
In their eyes, Ethan was no longer human. After that scene, they saw before them not a person but the greatest and most terrible monster that plagued that world, a being endowed with unmatched power and intelligence enough to make its own decisions based on its own concepts of right and wrong.
Monsters, no matter how powerful, can be minimally controlled, sometimes driven away, or sometimes even killed. After all, for the most part, they lack the prime factor that elevated humans to the top of the pyramid: intelligence.
Killing because they felt threatened, hunting because they are hungry, and eating for the same reason, nothing more. What drives them are purely their own instincts. Some possess astonishing instincts that seem unreal, indeed, but they still don't come close to what a thinking creature does.
But... that... What can be said of a being that, when looking at them, even from a distance, seems to be observing the inside of their bodies, looking directly into their souls?
Elizabeth doesn't understand why they are so different... why Ethan is so monstrously strong.
"The difference... was it really that great..?"
She is incomparably stronger than when she first found him, that is a fact. But still, even with all that, even after learning magic of an element with some mastery and being able to use her aura, she still can't see any prospect of victory when imagining facing him.
When their eyes met, her body trembled as her mind subtly panicked, her thoughts becoming disordered and she couldn't even formulate a complete idea while her body didn't follow her orders to move.
In such a state, she had no choice but to react with absolute astonishment and mental confusion when Ethan disappeared from her sight and the black wings appeared, then, before her eyes.
"Let's talk..." he said, sheathing his sword. "...Now."
Unlike Elizabeth, who couldn't achieve such a feat, the knights quickly rose, extremely trembling, without the strength or steadiness to even hold their weapons properly, they pointed their swords at Ethan, who didn't even bother to respond in any way.
The air trembled, and the tips of their swords fell towards the ground. Their swords were heavier, their bodies seemed heavier, causing them to yield to the pressure and fall to their knees on the cold ground. It was as if the gravity around them had suddenly increased, and as the knights struggled to even breathe, Ethan repeated;
"Let's talk."
Causing Elizabeth to finally realize that this was by no means a request.
***************
"Hmm... Are you sure this is where we should go?" questioned Aiden, as he followed Riley, who was flying towards the mountain that surrounds the demon realm on the right side.
"Almost..." replied Riley, looking around as if observing something invisible to the others. "At least, aside from the lake, this is the direction that the strange mana seems to be heading."
Aiden glanced back for a moment. The burned-down house stood exactly as Riley had left it, untouched by anyone, but he didn't even look in its direction.
Between wanting to talk about it and his inability to find words to do so, silence was all that was left to him.
Deserted and empty was the place they set foot on.
There seemed to be no kind of life on that dark and cold mountain, not even trees exist there. Aiden couldn't hear a single sound, and Riley felt no sign of life, they were alone.
"Can you feel this...?" Riley asked, astonished at how absurd the situation was in that place.
"Feel...? I can see..." replied Aiden, looking at the small cloud of white air coming out of his mouth with each word spoken.
He didn't need to hold his breath for a few moments, as Ethan had done before, and then release it to create such an effect. The simple act of speaking made it happen.
That place was not only too dark, despite being under the bright moons of the demon realm, but also colder than it should be possible in that realm.
It definitely couldn't be compared to the Frozen Peaks, but still, it was something that shouldn't happen there. Such intense cold... and the scariest thing is to think that it only intensified as Aiden and Riley continued to enter the mountain.
Climbing the mountain took a while, as, without haste, Riley wanted to analyze everything around, even if it was just rocks, after all, despite being in lower concentration, the icy mana is spread throughout that mountain.
"Hey, Riley..." called Aiden, standing next to a large hole that seemed to go all the way to the top of the mountain. "This river... is flowing upwards..., right..?"
A river flowing upward, contrary to nature's course, amidst a mountain completely devoid of life or the slightest sign of a lake. The eyes of the two followed one of the possible paths that river could be taking and were simply incredulous at the answer...
"The lake...?"
They hurried towards the summit, reaching it at last.
The cold intensified astonishingly, and sometimes Aiden and Riley felt strange chills, as if a chilly wind were stealthily blowing on their backs.
Walking on the mountaintop, not even the river flowing backward could be seen anymore.
Riley sighed.
"I guess you were right, it seems it's not here. Let's descend the mountain again and... Aiden..?"
With Aiden's strange and sudden disappearance, Riley found himself confused and lost, his mind falling into chaos.
"Aiden?!"
And as he found himself alone on the dark and cold summit of that mountain, a question arose in his mind;
"Was I... left behind again...?"
A warm and comforting hand touches one of his shoulders, causing him to turn immediately. Aiden shuddered at the sight, his eyes... Riley was crying.
Clutching his fists tightly along with his teeth, he said nothing, couldn't say anything, instead, he asked him to follow.
What seemed to be the end of the mountain peak was not actually that. And crossing the boundaries of the demon realm, Aiden and Riley found themselves in a new place, or rather, a place where they had been before.
"The Frozen Peaks... I see..." said Riley, wiping tears from his face with the sleeve of his uniform. "..., so that's why it's cold on the mountain... But..."
The river flowed down the mountain they were on, slowly descending and pouring into the large lake at the center of the huge snowy field that lay before their eyes.
"Why is this connected to the kingdom's lake..?"
Approaching that bluish liquid flowing down the river, Riley also understood why the temperature in the demon realm probably kept dropping.
Even using aura to defend himself, it didn't matter, as he slowly approached the river, parts of his body that were closest to it began to freeze.
Riley stepped back in fright.
"Could this be what keeps the Frozen Peaks frozen...?" he wondered, while using high-intensity fire magic to melt the ice on his feet, legs, and hands. "...And the realm is surrounded by a whole lake of this same strange substance..."
Looking around, Riley noticed there were other rivers besides the one beside him, one even located in a place simply impossible, after all, that is the direction where the Golden Beach is.
"Let's go.." he said, returning to the demon realm area. "There's not much to see around here, and I don't think it would be good to stay in this place for too long."
"So, what do you think? Could the drop in temperature be caused by this connection with the Frozen Peaks?"
"I'm still not sure..." replied Riley, looking at the distant Golden Beach. "But it's strange, isn't it...?"
"Strange... you mean the connection between the two places?"
"Also, but it's not just that. The lake in the center of the realm has existed for centuries, so why did this only happen now..?"
"You said the mana in the Frozen Peaks is strange, right?" said Aiden, as he followed Riley towards the Golden Beach. "Maybe it took so long because it was trying to blend with the realm's mana."
Riley stopped walking for a moment and stared at Aiden for a few moments.
"What's up?" asked Aiden, irritated by the way he was looking at him.
"That was weird... I'd expect to hear that from Clovis or maybe from Ethan, perhaps even from Carlos... But from you..? It didn't sound like the Aiden I know."
"What?! Repeat what you said."
"Oh, sure..." said Riley, smiling as he continued to fly towards the beach. "..., now that's more like the Aiden I know."
"Seriously, repeat what you just said! You'd expect to hear that from Carlos, but not from me!? Are you kidding? He only knows how to train day and night, I'm not even sure if he eats regularly."
The trip to the Golden Beach was much more eventful than the journey to that mountain, without a doubt, because Aiden didn't stop talking for even a single second.
Walking on the golden sand, Riley saw that, unlike what happens with the mountain or the lake, there was no trace of icy mana in that place. At least not until they reached the end of the beach.
"And so..., do you have any more brilliant ideas to talk about this...?" questioned Riley.
"I don't know, ask Carlos. That is, if he hasn't been swallowed by a basilisk already." replied Aiden, sarcastically smiling.
As they crossed the end of the Golden Beach, a place no other demon had crossed before, and if they did, they didn't come back, Aiden and Riley found themselves stepping on an immense field of ice that stretched for hundreds of meters.
The mountain of the Frozen Peaks rose imposingly beside it, while the bluish liquid flowed from the sea on the left side and climbed that immense ice mass.