Chapter 5
Descending through dark and lonely staircases, where only the light emitted by a few torches mounted on the walls illuminated the surroundings, August, the king of Camelot, finds himself.
"Damned incompetents. As if losing wasn't enough, they let that wretched woman escape?"
At the end of the staircase and after passing through a small corridor, there was a massive brown door - a door without locks, a door without keys, a door only the king could open.
"Even if it goes against the rules, next time, I'll summon a pawn myself," said the king, placing both hands on the door.
Previously invisible lines, starting from where August's hands were, extended across the entire door to its edges. The lines weren't just for opening the door; from the beginning, the door itself was an enormous painting, not just any painting, but a painting carved by Camelot's first king, Arthur. When the lines finally finished enveloping the paths on the door, a beautiful image emerged—Arthur, the first king, alongside a woman facing a colossal enemy, a dragon.
Sighing, August opened the door and entered the room it guarded. A chair and a table with a strange round object emitting occasional glows at the center. That's all that's in the room. Four torches placed in the corners of each wall illuminate the space.
After closing the door again, August sat in the chair and placed one of his hands on the spherical object, causing a glow that consumed the entire sphere and did not fade. Then, after sighing, he said, "I will need more time before the next round."
"More time?" said the voice emanating from the glowing object. "Why would you need more time?"
August hesitated. He clenched his fist on the table and bit his lips until they bled.
"...My piece escaped."
An awkward silence enveloped the entire room. August simmered in anger, and this anger only escalated when the person communicating through the glowing object couldn't contain her laughter.
"HaHaHaHa...! You..." The continuous laughter prevented her from finishing her sentence, lasting for a few more minutes. "You lost your piece!? Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? So, you're telling me the 'heroine' of the people of Camelot simply ran away?"
"You shouldn't be so relaxed about it. Despite being your first summon, your current pawn is the strongest I've seen so far. What will you do if he betrays you?"
"Betray me? That boy will never do that to me, or rather, to them. After just a few months here, he has become attached to the demons to the point of considering them his own people."
"That's even worse. What if he wants to rule them in your place?"
"Ha! Are you trying to turn me against my own pawn so blatantly?"
"Of course not, I'm just warning you. After all, it happened to me before."
"It happened to you? Don't worry, we're not the same. Now, as for the time issue, I'll give you two more weeks. Find your piece and make your next move, or I will make mine."
With the end of the communication, the king stood up. His anger was at its limit, and with every step towards the door, the entire room trembled.
****
"Lord Ethan? Are you going to the Great Forest alone?" asked one of the guards at the Demon Kingdom gates.
"Perhaps... I need some time to think, but I'm not sure where I'll go... Do you have any suggestions?"
"That's a bit complicated..." said another guard, smiling. "Asking such questions to people like us who haven't even left the walls of the Kingdom... Instead of going out, why don't you go to the sea that bathes the edge of the demon lands? I heard it's beautiful and calm there, a good place to be alone."
"I went there last week, and it's indeed very beautiful. But I want to see other places, experience new things... Well, thank you anyway, and good luck, keep up the great work."
"Leave it to us, sir. No one will pass through this gate while we're here. And be careful with the beasts."
The Black Forest is quite silent, but it's not a place where someone would go to be alone and think, not even Ethan. So, is the Great Forest really the only alternative? Passing through the black trees, Ethan looked up for a moment—on one side, leaves of various colors from the trees of the Great Forest flew, on the other, the snow from the Frozen Peaks spread through the air, carried by the wind breeze.
The Frozen Peaks... Clovis had mentioned something about them before. A place where even the air carries an extreme cold, and survival for an extended period is nearly impossible unless you consume the monsters from there. The ground is completely frozen, so the only plants and trees that grow there are unique, literally made of ice. Monsters are accustomed to the environment, making them challenging to combat, even the weaker ones. White wolves, giant bears, and some other creatures dominate the food chain of all the mountains.
Among those closer to the top are the wendigos, humanoid creatures with a skeletal appearance, empty eyes, and extremely sharp claws. They are strong and very agile, even though they live in a place where everyone's mobility is limited.
Another creature that also rules the mountains is the yetis, bipedal monsters easily surpassing four meters. Their fur is thick enough to hinder the use of a sword, and they possess a peculiar ability to blow a freezing gust of wind capable of instantly freezing someone.
However, the one truly dominating the top of the food chain, the true legend of the mountains, was the ice dragon, a colossal creature with imposing wings, a massive body, and devastating claws. No one had seen this dominant being, but its existence was revered and feared. Its eyes had the power to paralyze any observer, while its mouth expelled a blue flame capable of freezing everything in its path, including entire realms. The ice dragon reigned not only over the Frozen Peaks but over all living beings, a legendary entity that haunted the tales and the brave minds that dared to venture into these icy lands.
"The Frozen Peaks..." murmured Ethan as he looked at the distant white mountains. "I haven't been there yet."
****
With her sword in hand, Elizabeth struggled to evade the relentless attacks of the creatures around her. Wolves actively lunged in her direction, while the snow around compromised the mobility of her feet. Dodging and defending, although she could easily dispatch the creatures, became her only response. The heroine went to the Frozen Peaks to become stronger, but is it really possible for someone who can't even wield her sword correctly in the face of an enemy?
The idea of killing those creatures had not even crossed her mind; she couldn't even execute a proper attack for fear of harming them. The moment she did, the snow around her would no longer remain so pristine, which she knew would shake her mind.
After the death of one of the wolves, the snow nearby turned red, and all the other wolves fled. But who did this? Elizabeth couldn't believe what her own eyes were showing her. With dead eyes and a skeletal, almost cadaverous appearance, a humanoid being was slowly circling around her, approaching little by little with each drag of its feet on the ice.
That's not a human. It can't be. Her hands trembled; the strength of her fist diminished even more. Why is that damned memory appearing now? People running, crying, and screaming, begging for their lives before her eyes while being killed one by one—how could she forget? How could she even sleep at night without their voices invading her dreams and turning them into terrible nightmares, where her body is slowly torn apart before her own eyes, with each person she saw that day taking a piece for themselves?
"Stay away!" exclaimed Elizabeth as the wendigo approached.
Six steps, that was the distance between them until the creature jumped and clashed its sharp claws against her sword. Elizabeth almost gave in as the strength struggle persisted, her sword being pushed back several times.
Using the momentum generated by the creature's strength, Elizabeth jumped to retreat. However, the wendigo did not back down, immediately charging in her direction and tearing her left arm.