Chapter 176: At The Mountain's Summit

Higher and higher it grew—until one couldn't see where the tree's leaves ended and where it met the sky. When the Priestesses from Mashiro Temple arrived at the same level from whence the tree sprouted, it had already been more than a day—far more time than what they had been afraid of.

"Are we sure that this man is still actually alive?" One of the Priestesses asked Mitsuko with a forlorn look on her face. "Who knows if he had died and was buried in the sno—"

"He is alive." Setsuko glared at this Priestess. She motioned to the unnatural tree that blossomed in the most freezing of blizzards and said, "He must have gone up there—"

"This journey has used up far more resources than we were prepared to use."

The Lady crossed her arms. "Then go back now if you wish to leave all by yourself."

"I'm not going down alone," the Priestess shared a look with several other women in their group. At least more than a half were willing to call off this search and sudden expedition, even with the fastest of giant beasts to get to here—there was no way that the man ascended all by himself and survived.

Already, a fourth of the women with them tended and nursed to injuries.

Mitsuko herself was silent and encumbered with her thoughts.

It was plausible that the man might have gone up a little, and if the others were to believe the rumors that the man was a master Swordsman, then they'd believe he'd vanquish some beasts or knew how to escape and evade those beyond his current skills. 

What was difficult for them to believe was that Li Yang had gone through several levels of the frozen mountains all by himself and was still alive. This was just a wild chase for someone who must have either been long gone or had returned to the Mashiro Temple when they were looking for him.

Only Setsuko and Mitsuko truly knew what the man was capable of. And even though both knew that the man was stronger than what everybody else deemed—staying all by himself was still a death wish. If anything, Mitsuko wished to confirm it herself.

And yet someone else spoke up. "We are now allowed to leave you be, Setsuko. If we're leaving then we cannot let you find the man all by yourself."

Setsuko placed a hand on her chest and laughed. Her hair flew wildly across the wind as she declared. "That's perfect, because I'm going up there!"

And so that sheer attitude turned the situation around. Setsuko found herself surrounded by the rest of the Priestesses who wanted to bring her down—each of them pointed their weapons at her.

Mitsuko stared at her for one moment, a silent look that aggravated both of them. She already knew her place, where she stood—no, even without the prompting of blood, the Priestess knocked back the closest Priestess beside her with a quick overpowering energy blast.

"MItsuko!" the others cried out, betrayed.

Priestess Mitsuko only smiled and shook her head. "Forgive me, but I have a blood contract I need to fulfill—Setsuko, get up there and find our man. I'll follow along."

If there was any time for a fight to break out between women, now really wasn't the time—Setsuko was startled at the switch in alliances, but then rushed up the tree.

.

.

.

A power source that could light up a miniature moon was an inaccurate statement. What lay before him was a garden of ice and crystals, and in the center of it all was a frozen bier. In the harshest of winters and as the night skies finally revealed itself in the top, was the presence of a woman submerged in a crystal-clear ice coffin.

The man stared at the woman and then at everything else at the peak. There didn't seem to be anything that was worth the trouble of getting all up here by himself. He had slew down Winged Wyverns that attacked with frosted breath attacks, charged past even more twisted amalgamations of ice—a spiked Snowflake Monster that shot spines of ice at him, but then he was only given a view of a woman asleep in the ice.

Perhaps it was because his [ Mental Fortitude ] Skill was at an all-time high. The spellbinding allure and mystical sight of ancient enchantments that preserved the woman in her frozen bier did nothing to affect a man. A man who some women considered had a heart of stone.

It was a fleeting memory that only came to him now. He temporarily pushed it away and focused on the present.

"So is it the woman herself that is the power source, or is it her surroundings?" Li Yang asked himself. He didn't want to approach the body at all, and yet here he was with nothing else to retrieve or stand for—

[ Ascension to the Peak ]

What was at the top of the mountain? Treasures unimaginable. Enemies of extreme vengeance. Power source enough to light a miniature moon.

Ascend to the peak and discover them all.

[ Reward: ??? ]

The CEO stared at the System's screen and wondered if it was buggy. He didn't want to say anything, and yet he still voiced his frustrations. "The only valuable thing I'm seeing is a woman frozen in a casket. I'm not touching that in a thousand years to unlock anything—"

But then everything suddenly clicked.

Maybe it was from the way that the System worded it that made him confused at the start. But if he had already attributed that the power source was the woman in the coffin—then it wasn't too strange that she was both the treasure and the enemy as well. 

As for his reward—

A scream echoed. "Yang!" a voice reached his ears despite the blizzard. It was so soft that he might have not almost heard it, save for the bond that partnered the two of them together. Li Yang stared once back at the coffin and then turned his back on it as he ran off to find her.

Setsuko's throat was raw and her fingers dug heavily into the mountain, it cracked and split her fingernails. And yet on the other hand, she was grasping and keeping a hold of the Priestess Mitsuko from falling down. 

It was as if the wind had chased her out, and Setsuko saved the woman from the precipice of death—and yet she had overestimated her strength. Sestuko nearly got dragged down with Mitsuko and only clung to the edge of the mountain. 

"Can you quit shouting and conserve your strength—it's impossible for him to find us," Mitsuko said harshly. The fight with the Priestesses earlier had already drained her energy, and if she attempted for another quick blast then it might just end up making Setsuko lose her grip.

"Nonono—he'll find us," Setsuko said. And yet when had it happened that she started depending wholly on him? Somehow, Mitsuko's words pierced through some recesses of her mind. Hadn't the man once told her that he liked her because she was capable?

It wouldn't do her any good to be a hindrance and to keep being this weak. The reason why she had allowed herself to be awoken by the man was to gain power—and she needed to tap  back into that.

At first there were barely any noticeable changes that Mitsuko paid attention to. The Priestess was actually looking for any spots where she could fall and not plunge to her death—and yet the air around her vibrated with a powerful blast of Ao that nearly knocked her unconscious.

It took a couple of seconds for her to blink back and then notice something soft brushing her face. The Priestess looked up and saw several soft white tails that gathered together and then parted to give the appearance of someone she didn't recognize at first.

"I'm throwing you," Setsuko said. Her now-red eyes bore down on Mitsuko's face.

"What?"

"One, two—"

"Wait!" Mitsuko felt the change in direction and the sudden quick movements in Setsuko's throw and she soon crashed against the compact snow. It wasn't as soft as one might imagine it to be, but Mitsuko promptly shoved herself up to her feet. 

When she arrived at the edge of the mountain, she promptly stuck her hand out to Setsuko who had already begun to scale up the mountain all by herself. There was an absurd amount of energy that flew and radiated through the girl that now it made sense as to why the High Priestess had been so worried about her.

Mitsuko wordlessly helped the other woman up.

While the two of them didn't exactly harbor the most friendliest emotions with one another—and Setsuko have yet to question Mitsuko for calling Yang 'our man' as if the two of them had shared him, the demi-human fox looked up at once and felt the presence emerge through the blinding fog and mists.

"Yang!"

"Setsuko, you're alright." Li Yang stared at the changed form of Setsuko and then his gaze flickered back to the other woman accompanying her. "Priestess Mitsuko." 

Mitsuko only met his gaze once and then looked away. "I've only helped her find you in accordance with the blood contract." Even though she had done it before the compulsion struck her at all.

The two of them were here and managed to chase him down despite the circumstances. He cleared his throat, a bit unsure of what to say. He didn't want to say something stupid like time slipped him by—it was his decision to scour up to the top, uninhibited by it all.

And yet he didn't even need to say another word. 

One moment, Setsuko was a couple feet away, but like an arctic fox, she bounced and ran towards him. The two of them landed in the snow as she laughed and hugged him in relief. Her tails provided an extra layer of warmth as she squeezed him. "Thank the Goddess Aurora you're safe!"

He rested a hand on top of her head and then relaxed back on the snow. He shook his head and sighed, "I thought you were in danger."

—-—-

Author's Note: It's official! I'm in need of a serious break and will go on hiatus in June ;-; Thank you to Maian and Draverius who responded to the last chapter! It's the last Win-Win (promotional event) before the new version comes out, so I'll finish this May! I'll try posting in the auxiliary chapters the summary of each arc/related chapters if that also helps keep track, as well as the Personal Status page of the MC. Thank you for reading!