Chapter 189: The Climb

We arrived at the mountain the next morning. If it were just me, I would have arrived in less than a couple of hours via flight, but since Rina and Alex were with me, we had to make our way there on foot.

"I don't see any massive golden pillars reaching to the sky." Alex said. Being the only one of us who had no magic, she naturally couldn't be of much help.

"I sense it." Rina said after a moment's hesitation. "Faintly." She glanced at me. "Don't you?"

I shook my head. Even after concentrating, I couldn't feel a thing. 

"They probably did something to hide its presence from demons." Rina mumbled as her gaze swept the mountain range. "Which now also includes you." An almost childish smile appeared on her face. "Good thing we came with, right?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, I guess so." What else could I say? I couldn't say that I had conflicted feelings about them right now, could I?

"Where is it?" Alex asked after a moment. Rina pondered. "Somewhere above us is all I can say. We're too far away."

I glanced at the mountain. "The summit?" I asked. It made sense – it would be easy to protect since there would be less ways to access the area.

"Maybe. It could also be inside the mountain." Rina glanced at me. "You said you found footprints in that cave, right? Maybe we should try and see if that cavern leads anywhere else."

"Sure, we can try that." I wasn't exactly looking forward to going back into that awful smelling place, but if it meant finding the god damned Divine Pillar, enduring the smell would be worth it.

"Let's go." Alex said impatiently. It seemed as if she was bothered by something, but the vibe she gave off made me decide not to pry. 

We headed to the cave and once again stepped into the dark. The smell of blood and rot invaded my nostrils as we quickly covered out mouths and noses with pieces of cloth. Only once we could breathe somewhat better did we head further inside.

And then, another issue presented itself. Neither Alex, nor Rina could see properly in this deep darkness while I could see just as clearly as I did outside, if not better. So, when Alex created a ball of light with her magic, I had to walk around squinting because the bright light hurt my overly sensitive eyes.

We followed the trail of now completely dried blood to the large cavern where the giant snake's body was. 

"I feel sick…" Rina mumbled as the smell of a decaying body added to the already rather disgusting mix. I nodded. Alex seemed too pale and disgusted to even react.

"We have to go up, hurry or I'll vomit." Rina said and quickly made her way to the nearest tunnel leading up. It took us nearly half an hour to get away from the awful smell. Or we had gotten used to it – I wasn't sure anymore.

We walked in the dark, narrow, damp tunnels only illuminated my Rina's light. If this were in the past, I would have been worried about getting lost and being unable to leave, but now with the rift at my disposal, I knew I could get us out of here in case something happened. At least that knowledge gave me a little comfort.

"Wait." Rina said as we arrived at a fork in the tunnel. "Do you feel that?" She asked, glancing at me. I shook my head. I still had no clue as to what kind of feeling she was talking about.

"We're getting closer." She whispered. Che closed her eyes focused, probably trying to find out which path we needed to take. A few minutes past like this until she sighed. "I think we have to go… left?" She phrased her words like a question.

"Yeah, that's not reassuring at all, Rina." Alex shook her head. "Do we really not have a better way to get this done?"

"Nope," I said as I glanced at the fork leading left. "Hey Rina," I suddenly said as a thought crossed my mind. "Cast a spell. Or like… let your magic go that way a bit."

The green haired wizard shot me a confused look. "Ok…" 

My gaze shifted between the tunnels and Rina.

"Is this enough?" She asked, moments later. She stopped – I think – when I nodded. "What was that about?" She asked with curiosity in her eyes. "Yeah, did you figure something out?" Alex chimed in. It was clear from her voice – she was quite nervous.

I nodded. "Yeah – that I'm completely useless here." I made a vague gesture. "I have the ability to see the flow of magic – not just sense it, but actually visually notice it. Ever since we stepped foot in this mountain though, I have been completely unable to see it." I glanced at the ceiling. "Whatever the Ereth did must be suppressing my ability somehow."

Alex's eyes widened while Rina's expression darkened with concern. "But they don't know you're alive." The green haired wizard said. "Why would they even bother taking precautions against you?"

I shrugged. "I doubt it's just against me. It's probably got something to do with not letting demons sense the pillar. This might just be a side effect." At least that was my hope. If they were aware of my survival, our whole plan would be foiled. At my current state, I'd stand no chance against any Ereth Divines, let alone the whole, united power of Baile Chailce.

Because I had to admit – what I was doing was no different than terrorism. I was destroying infrastructure vital to their society. 

But then again, this was a game, they were the oppressors and wouldn't hesitate to kill me – or worse – if they got the chance.

"You're probably right." Rina mumbled before glancing to the other forks. "Let's try the leftmost path first." 

We did as she suggested only to walk along a very narrow, damp, moss covered tunnel. After about ten minutes, Alex began having some trouble because she was too tall for this place. Accompanied by her never ceasing grumbling, we finally emerged from the tunnel, only to see a large cavern with a lake.

"Wait." Alex said as she looked around. "I see no pillar here."

"It's not always visible to the naked eye." I chimed in. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to distract her as she continued. "And there's no other path leading out of here either!" 

"Uhh…" Rina scrambled to find something to say while I chose to ignore their bickering. Instead, I walked around the cavern, made sure there was nothing important and then returned to the tunnel we first came through.

"Alright, let's head back." I said grabbing them both by their arms and pulling them back to the tunnel. Rina seemed somewhat relieved while Alex just sighed in defeat. "I hate being this tall…" She mumbled.

We made our way back to the fork and after some more guessing and bickering, tried the middle path. It wasn't as narrow or low, so Alex didn't have any trouble walking. This path went on for quite some time and became steeper as we went. 

The steepness gave me hope – perhaps this one really did lead up to where the Divine Pillar probably was. Yet soon, it crushed my hopes as well, but in a different way.

It became too steep. So much that we couldn't climb. 

"Ok, what the bloody hell is this?" Alex grumbled as we stood and looked at the nearly completely right angle of the so called 'ground'. "How are we supposed to climb this?"

There wasn't enough space in the tunnel to use my wings. I pondered – did we really need Asher for this? His flight spell would have solved this issue within seconds.

We pondered a while before I sighed. "I'll try something. Do you have a rope?" 

Alex nodded. I took the rope and put it in my inventory, the used Soul's Aspect to fuse with the Corrupted Demon.

Rina gasped as my body took Dorith's form. I glanced at my claws – they were strong and sturdy enough to kill someone with a single swing. I could only hope they were strong enough to grab onto the cracks on the surface.

"Wait – you're not going to…"

"Worth a try." I said with a grin. I leapt up and grabbed on to the highest spot I could. I felt my claws dig into the stone. The feeling of my claws scratching against the hard stone surface gave me goosebumps. 

"I hate this." I hissed through my gritted teeth and reached up.

Slowly but surely, I could climb. Leaving claw marks on the stone surface, I slowly made my way to the top and only now realised how useful my tail was. I didn't have to worry about losing my balance thanks to it.

Once I reached to the top, I threw one end of the rope down, tied the other end somewhere sturdy and waited for the other two to join me. Having undone my transformation, I checked my fingers. How I hadn't broken all of my nails was beyond me, but I decided not to question it.

"Oh, light! Look," Rina pointed behind me, to where the tunnel seemed to lead to the summit. Or at least, I hoped so.

"Let's go!" Alex said. Whatever had been getting on her nerves seemed to have disappear.

"Yeah, let's get this done." I wasn't as cheerful as them. Having no idea what awaited us at the summit, I couldn't help but feel anxious.