14

The three simultaneously looked up, the source of the roar seemed to originate from the colossal mountain. The mountain was accompanied by a mystifying feeling, accompanied by the growing ominous aura. 

"Ahhh, such a pain. I assume that whatever creature is up there, has probably noticed us, and I don't think it will let us leave."

"Well what should we do then?" Amera hummed. Her gaze shifting towards him.

"Well we could assault it in hopes to defeat it. But because of the overwhelming aura it emitted, I am not sure if we would win. From what we saw just now, it has an ability related to ice, it was capable of instantly obliterating the scorches. If that was an ordinary attack.. then there is a big chance we could lose." Carefully scanning through the current information, Zen calculated the chances of them winning.

He placed his fingers on his chin and thought deeply. "Even with you being able to stop its movement, we don't know what it is capable of doing. Thus it puts us at a disadvantage. Above that, this is it's territory, which places us at an even bigger disadvantage. We would need to climb the mountain to fight it, while it can attack us from the top. I could try to obliterate the mountain completely, using a high level destructive gun. Although that could cause unexpected danger." 

"We could use my ability to quickly reach the top and fight it head on, but because the higher we go the steeper it becomes, I am not sure if it's a good idea." 

"Ahhh, Making strategies is boring, so let's just go with the good ol' tactic; confront it head on and blast it to smithereens." He smirked.

Amera nodded in agreement. "What's the fun in making strategies?" 

"Alright then, let's get going." Zen smiled before glancing at Hisato. "Good to see you t-"

"Where did the brat go?" He confusedly looked at Amera who frowned in response. 

"What do you mean he is right there… where did he go?" She looked around, with a stupefied expression. He was there a moment ago, but suddenly vanished? Kuro had disappeared along with him.

"Maybe he decided to fight the creature alone." Zen jokingly said while slightly chuckling. To which Amera responded by abruptly grabbing his shoulders. 

"He might have actually done that." She said in a worried tone, and looked Zen in the eyes with a hint of concern. In the time she was with Hisato, she learned to know him. He was an apathetic, calm, rather cynical and lazy kid. He doesn't talk often but does when needed. So you wouldn't expect this from him, but when it comes to some stuff. He was surprisingly curious. Thus she thought he might have actually gone to the mountain.

"Well that's a plot twist." He awkwardly laughed, before looking at the eyes of his wife. 'I guess I hit a trigger." He thought. 

A shroud of fear began to form in Zen as he looked into those demonic eyes. "We should follow him then." He hastily said, and activated his gun boots and leapt forward. Amera hummed before following him.

---

"Never was anything great achieved without danger."

---

Hisato looked down. The big dead trees seemed tiny. Back when the creature roared, Hisato felt a strange feeling. It was as if it wanted him to go to the source. While the two were having a lovers quarrel, he decided to go to the source. Kuro of course followed him.

Right now, he was pretty high up. For some reason, the world below seemed to have shrunk. The temperature had drastically decreased, and the weather worsened. Although the view was majestic, the dangers that came along with it were something to be wary of.

He was already halfway up the mountain. It barely took him any effort, and simply jumped from rock to rock. Although the higher he went, the steeper it got. He groaned in annoyance, but steadily continued his climb.

He looked above, as a snowflake dropped on his nose. It wouldn't take long before the weather would no longer hinder him. Once he was above the clouds, one of the problems would be gone. There was still one thing that hindered him. It was too quiet. The being was able to notice them when they were on the ground and could even kill the scorches from the peak, but why hasn't it done anything about him climbing the mountain. It could only garner suspicion and raise his guard.

Jumping once more, He managed to get above the clouds. Just like before, the view was fantastic. In the distance, white clouds spread out to the horizon. While the clouds around the mountains were dark ones.

Hisato took a small break and petted Kuro as he stared at the view, before yawning and looking up. To his surprise, the sky above was filled with aquamarine coloured balls. Each of them gave of blue particles and aimlessly wandered around. 

Hisato narrowed his eyes and sighed. A hint of suspicion flashed through his eyes, before he once again began climbing.

Suddenly, one of the balls nearby, soared towards him and shot out multiple icicles directed at him. 

Hisato couldn't be bothered and jumped upwards, dodging the icicles with ease. He continued climbing, paying no heed to the balls.

...

Noticing that the human in front of it, ignored it. The ball appeared to be getting more irritated and began shooting more icicles to it, but to no avail. As the beast went higher, more and more of it's fellow balls began chasing the human, but for some reason they were unable to land a single hit. Some of the balls accidentally hit each other and began to fight among themselves. The ball that initiated the first attack was still competitively assaulting the human with all it's might, yet he hadn't hit the human at all!

When it looked around, it noticed that the other balls had gone back. It snorted while thinking they were cowards. It continued to launch icicles at the human. Abruptly, the human jumped on a flat surface. The ball took this chance to launch an attack. It shot it's icicles at the human and inwardly laughed.

To it's surprise, the human simply stepped to the side and dodged them. This made the ball infuriated, and when it almost wanted to attack again, it realized why the others stopped the pursuit. 

This was the top of the mountain! It was a ferocious place where 𝗶𝘁 lived. It immediately backed off, and tactically retreated.

…

Hisato yawned as he saw the last ball fly off. He quickly scanned his surroundings. It was a big flat surface with few pointy ice boulders. He walked forward, carefully taking his steps and ready to fight at all times. Soon, he stopped. 

A big crater appeared within his view. A cold smoke radiated from within and small glaciers covered the sides. 

Suddenly, the loud roar once again erupted. This time louder than before, and slightly pushed Hisato back. He looked at the source of the roar.

A terrifying being appeared in front of Hisato...