Chapter 373: Crushed Beneath Questions
Early Evening - Early Spring : The Scar
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- Elizabeth Valia ~
*Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* The sound of powdery snow crunching beneath my feet echoed through the forest as I braced myself on a colossal tree and paused to scan a small valley-like divot ahead of me.
"Hooh..." -This should be the place...- Idly glancing over my shoulder, I looked out through a gap in the trees to see the seemingly endless snowy forest covering the mountainside behind me like a blanket, stretching all the way down to the green fields on the horizon nearly a thousand kilometers away.
It was a vista so indescribably beautiful that a painting couldn't do it justice.
But at that point, I couldn't even appreciate it. -A warm bed would change my view on life right about now...-
As things were, I was well over forty kilometers above sea level on a seemingly endless mountainside, trekking through a forest capable of hiding giants over a hundred meters tall with ease.
Even compared to the other parts of the world, it felt alien.. and ethereal.. more than capable of contending for the title of the most beautiful place I had ever seen, but at the same time, it was unspeakably miserable. -I must have been hallucinating when I had a vision of a cabin in this place...-
With temperatures so cold they'd freeze you solid the moment you gave it the chance, and air so thin it was nearly impossible to breathe, the conditions were beyond what could be described as uninhabitable.
*Woosh* Even though I kept the wind off me with a thick wyvern hide blanket I made, I constantly needed magic to keep myself from freezing to death, and was forced to warm up the air before each breath so it wouldn't freeze my esophagus. -It's absurd that a place like this can even exist...-
But as if that weren't enough, I also had to deal with other, more apparent threats as well.
*thump* *Puff-Crunch* Instantly crouching down into the snow and covering myself with light magic, I looked over the valley again to see a colossal, puffy white bird, at least thirty meters tall, clinging to the top of a gently swaying tree. -Shit...-
It was a type of monster I had seen so many times that I gave them a name. -A Snow Whisper...-
Compared to wyverns, they weren't actually all that strong or even durable, but they more than made up for that with their speed, brains, and stealth.
Unlike wyverns, the only sound that could be used to identify a Snow Whisper from a distance was if you were lucky enough to hear them land on a tree before they spotted you. It made them feel like ghosts or hallucinations, and it made them far scarier than wyverns, to the point that I had to constantly be on edge, not sure whether I was being hunted or not at all times.
-The worst part is if I make the first move and fail to kill it, it'll wait for the perfect opening to attack...- Even if they had to stalk you for days to be presented with the opportunity. -It's like being stalked by a mountain lion that never rests.. and has claws bigger than my whole body...-
But it was indeed a beautiful creature, even if it was equally as horrifying.
Keeping a close eye on it while holding my breath and suppressing my presence as much as possible, I waited for it to eventually take off and kick up a cloud of snow before letting out a breath of relief. "Phew..." It was honestly more nerve-wracking than staring into the eyes of a dragon. -Hopefully though, this will be the last encounter I have with those persistent bastards...-
Quickly standing up again, not giving myself a moment to catch my breath, I pulled out the walking staff I made from a stick and several wyvern mana cores, and reactivated the runes engraved in it around my hand. *Vwoom*
Almost immediately, the air around me warmed and became more breathable. "Hooh..." It was time for me to finish the last leg of my journey.
Or at least.. the last leg of the first step…
Finally continuing over the ridge and down into the small valley, I weaved through several more huge trees before eventually coming up to a small unusually circular clearing, identical to the one I saw during my vision when leaving the Thunderbird's nest.
But unlike in the vision I had, it was.. completely empty... -What..? This is the right place.. right?-
Anxiously looking around, I checked for traces of any nearby monsters before cloaking myself with magic and walking straight out into the clearing. *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch*
But my confusion only grew. -W..where is it..?- The more I looked, the more clear it became that it was the same clearing I saw in my vision, but there was no trace of a cabin. -Did it rot away?-
Walking around the center of the clearing for a moment, I used several trees as landmarks to find exactly where the cabin should have been before lifting my staff to cast a spell to clear the snow and break the ground beneath me. -Maybe there will be something buried underground...-
*Woooooom-PUFF* But instead of smashing a hole in the ground, a huge plume of pure snow blew up around me, and I fell several meters only to land on more of it. *Puff* "H..Huh?!"
The snow I believed was only about a meter thick based on how it looked around the base of the trees turned out to be at least a dozen times that. -What the hell...- Finally pushing myself up, I raised my staff again to clear away the cloud of snow above me, only to find myself at the bottom of an eight-meter pit of pure, packed powder. -How has it not turned to ice at this depth...-
But while I was confused by it, it also sparked a pinch of hope in my chest. -Just maybe the cabin is just buried beneath it all...-
Pointing my staff at the ground again, I quickly readied and fired off the same spell, immediately causing the ground beneath me to disappear.
But this time, instead of landing on another bed of powdery snow, or the flat, solid ground... *Fwip-THUD* "OW!" I landed on a hard slope which swiped my feet out from under me and slammed me into it.
As I quickly rushed to clear out the snow above me though, the mix of anger and pain in my expression vanished. *Vwoom-Fwoosh*
The slope I was laying on turned out to be a bed of petrified wooden planks that felt like stone. -The cabin!-
Quickly using several more spells to clear a path down to the ground, I slid off the roof and landed on a pile of old firewood before more carefully continuing down to an old cobblestone platform several meters below.
Almost immediately, a mix of old sensations, as if stemming from lost memories, filled my mind, and in a mix of nervous excitement, I used magic to walk around the perimeter of the cabin, eventually finding a door that was firmly shut. -It's locked...-
Quickly overtaken with a mix of warmth and nostalgia, I eventually decided to use small amounts of earth magic to break the lock and hinges before jumping to the side as the absurdly heavy door fell outward. *Thunk-Woosh* It was the most gentle way I could break in.
But before I could move again, a wave of dry, stale air carrying the scent of aged wood blew over me.
It was a smell I should have expected, the smell of an old cabin left isolated from the elements for eons…
But somehow, the moment it entered my nostrils, tears welled in my eyes, and a more detailed vision of the cabin came to mind, playing a faint, blurry memory of a hand laying several of the stones I was standing on...
But it wasn't just any hand…
It was my hand, aged and weathered, shivering as it laid large stones on a lake of ice.
Immediately cupping my hand over my mouth, a tear rolled off my cheek, crystallizing before shattering on the ground.
With every passing instant, more vague, blurry memories of me building a structure I had never touched, in a place I had never been, returned. -W..what.. is this place...-
*Th-Thunk* Shakily dropping my staff, I continued up to the door and looked inside.
It was tiny, less than twenty square meters, but contained a beautiful stone fireplace, a desk lined with books and artifacts, a kitchen reminiscent of those on Earth, and a raised feather mattress, with the countless old, faded artworks depicting humans, dragons, birds, and gods lining the walls.
The more I looked around, the more things felt familiar, and the more it felt like home.
But as if my feet had a mind of their own, before I could even think of organizing my thoughts, I made my way inside and walked straight up to the desk, where I found an old leather-cover book centered on a small, beautifully embroidered cloth.
They were the only two items in the entire place I had a vivid memory of, as I could easily recall them being given to me by the blurry figure of a man.
But as I stood in front of them, peering over the chair tucked beneath the desk less than an arm's length away, I couldn't move.
The book was a diary.
My diary.
But as tears continued to stream down my face, I couldn't even reach for it. -I.. I can't...- I couldn't muster the courage to look beyond its cover.
Up until that point, I had simply continued relentlessly pushing forward, ignoring the warnings and uncertainties in the back of my mind, using curiosity to fuel my determination.
Even as I found the cabin, I simply ignored the countless familiar images and sensations that popped into my mind, seemingly out of nothing. After all, it could have been explained as the influence of something guiding me.
But I could no longer do that.
Facing reality was impossible, like looking up into the night sky as a meteor hurtled toward the planet.
Upon realizing the weight of my own existence, I simply couldn't look fate in the face. As a cloud of uncertainty covered my sense of being, I couldn't even think straight...
*thump* Falling to my knees, my thoughts raced in every direction, tying knots that made it impossible for me to think, and forced a sensation of anxiety to embed itself in the deepest parts of my being.
But as seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into days, my mind slowly ran out of fuel, and found its way to an equilibrium.
Sitting against the wall adjacent to the desk, I hopelessly held my knees close to my chest, looking around the room with dry eyes as the feeling of hunger alleviated the burden on my mind.
It had been at least three days since I entered the cabin at that point, and I almost hadn't moved at all, but after all the vague sensations and memories finished surfacing, my mind felt like it had become numb, as if coming to terms with everything.
The life I was living on Delphi was not my first, and the possibility that my memories of Earth were planted there artificially was more real than ever.
But I no longer had the energy to let that burden me.
After coming to terms with my decision to accept lord Vasilias's offer, I had no choice but to deal with the crushing pain of endless unanswered questions and take the next step, as it was the only thing that could bring my mind solace.
But the next step was to open the diary.
I was still afraid.. so much so that I could feel my soul.. the very essence of my being ache...
But I didn't have a choice...
*Pat-brush* Finally standing up with some lethargy, I anxiously reached out and detached the chair from the floor, pulling it out from under the desk and sitting down in it.
*Pat* The cushion was as hard as a rock, but my mind was in such chaos that I didn't even notice.
"Hooh..." But as I let out a deep, foggy breath and finally reached out and touched the book, the chaos in my mind went silent, and as I opened the cover, a string of words on the page echoed through my mind like an empty, endless tunnel.
"This diary is under the protection of the Holy Kingdom. Possession by anyone other than the eyes of the dearest, Elizabeth Valia will result in execution.
May this diary serve as her recount of heroism, and bravery. To etch her noble name into the endless history of this world."
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