Chapter 290 290

Chapter 290 Chapter 290

Karl looked up the mountain. "There aren't many patrols, so let's keep going, with Remi's blizzard covering for us, it will be difficult to tell when we came through. Speed is our friend until we reach the caldera."

They kept moving, using the blowing snow as cover, both for their tracks, and to keep them from being noticed. It seemed to be working well enough, and they made it most of the way up the mountain without being intercepted again, but the closer they got to the top, the stronger the feeling that there was something seriously wrong grew.

[Rae, is there any sign that we're being tricked by an illusion?] Karl asked.

[No, it all looks good, not like that strange situation underground. This place just feels wrong, like something bad is about to happen to us, but I can't see anything that could cause us problems.] She insisted.

Then she paused. [Whatever is wrong, it is here.]

Remi stared out of her space at the same time. [Stop, there is something here.]

Karl signalled for everyone to pause. The beasts had senses they didn't, and a few moments to understand what they were sensing wouldn't hurt anything.

Karl closed his eyes, focusing on his mental space, the one he used for mediation, in hope that he would gain some understanding from the void.

As he focused on nothingness, he felt something staring back at him. The feeling made his skin crawl, as the sensation of attention grew.

They weren't joking, something was?really wrong with this place.

Then, the ground began to shake under their feet, and the Thermal Vision that Karl only paid minimal attention to during the day began to show him hot spots everywhere on the hillside, and even more potently above them. Nêww chapters will be fully updated at novelhall.com

"Oh shit. The volcano is about to erupt." He realized.

"U-turn, it's time to leave." Lotus announced, pointing back.

Ophelia was momentarily frozen, but when Thor began to turn around and run, she joined the group.

The first spout of hot gas vented only a few metres from their path as they ran, and the rumbling of the volcano got worse.

Thor and Tessa were glowing with golden Holy Light, which was unusual, as they would normally spread the effect to everyone. But, as most of the group was on Thor's back, it might be the best way to protect them from venting gas from below. Rae was doing a better job of dodging the vents, as she could see them coming, but Thor could feel the rumbling in the ground before they erupted, and he wove through the trees as he ran down the hill, struggling not to topple over forward.

An extra winter, when they were already in winter, seemed like it should be prohibited by some sort of rule. That was just too much winter in one place for Hawk to accept.

Remi thought about it for a while and then shook her head. [If there is an Overlord Rank Shaman, they could blow all of that back away from us, but I don't have that much power, I'm just a small snake.]

Remi was doing her best cute and innocent act, even curling the 'hood' of scales around her head to make it look like she was hugging herself. Hawk wasn't buying it, but Thor thought it was adorable.

However, neither opinion changed the fact that Remi simply didn't have the power to change the weather over hundreds of kilometres and blow the ash cloud away from the Golden Dragon Nation. But worse than that, the prevailing winds were blowing out of the Frost Giant Nation, and would be moving more of the ash into human territory, and after that, into Stone Giant territory, where Lotus knew it would stagnate as the air off the ocean halted its momentum.

The Stone Giants would not be happy, but this had to count as a Force of Nature, unstoppable and not preventable. It might not have happened right now if the Frost Giants hadn't either deliberately or inadvertently upset the Magma Dragon, but it would have risen from its slumber eventually and the result would have been the same.

"I hope your stamina is beyond impressive because both the lava flow and the ash cloud are gaining on us." Karl informed Ophelia as they reached the bottom of the hill, over half an hour later.

"It's good enough to run all day, but what way do we run?" She asked.

"Upwind. That will take us back over ground that we've already covered, and toward the first incident, but we know there is a force there, even if everyone is busy with the chaos." Karl explained.

"Does the wind even matter to that?" She asked, pointing upward at the mushroom shaped cloud.

"Honestly, I have no idea. Later it should blow the ash away, but it does kind of look like it doesn't care."

The volcano was making its own weather now, and the wind was blowing outward from the eruption, rapidly heating everything and melting the snow all around them into slush.

"Do we go for the main line?" Lotus shouted as they moved down into the open, hoping to make better time than they had through the hills and trees.

"No, go for the Dwarven Village." Karl called back.

That seemed safer, and if it wasn't for their barriers, the ash would be burning their clothes already.

There were spots on the trees that were already scorched, despite the snow which had built up on them, and to Karl, that meant there was likely to be a massive wildfire.

How to escape an erupting volcano had not been one of their school subjects.