mountain full of monsters

"This had better be good...I can't be just letting everyone off the hook all the time. Hurts my image. People will start saying 'Oh, the great Sage of the Clouds? He's not THAT great. He doesn't even kill anyone.' Pheh."

Eusevia hobbled slowly behind, barely acknowledging him. 

"Nobody would say such things, Sage. Part of why your legend persists is that people do not talk about you much anymore."

"Hey!" Rav yowled. "I'll have you know that in the Ferin Village west of Asteria, I'm something of a celebrity! They even pay my underlings just for a chance to bask in my glory! Ah...simpler times, honestly."

Eusevia stopped walking, pointing to a large vertical chasm in the stone. It was a thin path, but there was footing enough to walk inside the dark cave. It appeared to go quite deep.

Rav's teeth chattered. "Well, I'd love to go in there, but it seems quite cold," he said, blushing. "Can't you just tell me what's in there!?"

Eusevia coughed, laughing to herself. She had to take a drink of water before she spoke. 

"Sorry, 'Great Sage'. You being scared of a little dark cave made me laugh."

Rav crossed his arms and twisted his body away from Eusevia. "Some of us prefer heights is all!"

Eusevia shivered as she stared into the cave. "You'll want to see it yourself, I'm sure, but I can tell you. The woman who turned me into a Magician is using me to collect Encephalim. From all over the world, but also from here on this mountain. This is like a...barracks, for her. She controls the Encephalim. It's her private army."

Rav coughed in response, experiencing a genuine shock reaction. "People can do that!? What the hell Magician is she?"

Eusevia shook her head. "She's not a Magician at all. It is her eyes. She has them - the same eyes as an Encephalim. 

Rav curled his shoulders. "Eesh. Controlling Encephalim, that's some evil stuff. But you said she has nothing to do with the famine?"

Eusevia's eyes remained set on the darkness inside the dripping cave. "No. Think of the one causing the famine as a...rival, of hers."

"And what's this monster lady's name?"

"I do not know. I call her only by the name of the lady she controls. January Madera. Some dead Nephilim lady."

Rav is shocked silent for several moments. "January Madera, you say? Wouldn't it be the darndest coincidence if I knew someone named August Madera?"

'Damn it,' Rav thought. 'This situation is getting out of hand quickly. I need to get back to Bree and the others.'

"Aren't you going to go in?" Eusevia asked again. "To see the Encephalim?"

Rav took a deep breath. "Why do you want me to go in there so badly?"

Eusevia faltered. "You have to see the Encephalim. Please. Maybe then you will understand. I beg you."

Rav grinded his teeth together. "I swear to everything that is holy, Eusevia - if this is a trap, I'm going to kill you so violently they'll be talking about you for a hundred years because YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE I HATE CAVES!"

Rav stomped his feet over and over again, throwing a tantrum outside the cave. Eusevia finally said something.

"No trap. I'll walk in front or behind you. Whatever you prefer."

Rav reluctantly agreed to enter the cave. The moment they entered, the coolness of the cave was felt. It was a still, lingering cold. The kind that stuck to your skin and ran through your veins like ice. 

The floor was formed out of wood - Eusevia's magic from an earlier visit. It was flat, but covered in a sheet of ice from the dripping ceiling. Rav had stunning alacrity, but when it came to ice, he was a bit of a klutz. He also distinctly hated being underground.

"Are we there yet?" he whined after they'd walked a steep descent for some seven minutes. 

"Yes," Eusevia said.

"Wait, for real?"

She beckoned her arm and the two stepped through a narrow crack in the wall. It seemed to be some sort of sealing spell. The moment Rav stepped through it, he began to sense the overwhelming presence of the Encephalim within.

"Shit!" Rav screamed, throwing himself back out toward the safe side of the barrier. He lands on the ground, panting. Eusevia turns around, stepping toward Rav. 

Rav got on all fours, dry heaving. His sensory abilities of mana were not the greatest, but he was always talented at reading the 'feel' of mana. As such, as soon as he stepped into the Encephalim domain, it hit him like bricks. Such malevolence and dread. It was unthinkable. 

"How many?" Rav asked, climbing back to his feet. 

"Over a thousand."

"Holy...are those just fiends? Or Harbingers?"

"Over a hundred Harbingers. And one Calamity."

"In their cages, they are calm. Mostly," Eusevia said quietly. "But once she sets her eyes on them, the cages are like sandcastles to them. Especially the Calamity."

Rav thought to himself. He'd never fought against an Encephalim so powerful as a Calamity. Calamities were the types of things you heard about in legends but did not encounter. Rare enough were the Harbingers that popped up. 

Still, Rav thought, he defeated the God of Storms all those years ago. A Calamity might offer him a good challenge, but he doubted anything would ever present as much challenge as that battle did for him. 

Although, a Calamity, assisted by a hundred Harbingers? Rav didn't like his odds. Not at all.

"Screw it," Rav said. "I need to see this."

He plunged his body into the crevasse one more time. The sinking feeling hit him immediately, but this time he was ready for it. He burned some of his own mana around him, providing a small but comforting barrier against the sticky darkness.

The interior of the mountain seemed to be completely hollowed out - the room Rav found himself in was massive. It was high as well - He could look down as far as he could see, or all the way up - and everything was a labyrinth of wooden cages - and in each cage, an Encephalim.

Eusevia was correct - the Encephalim were calm. Too calm. Almost as if they had been sedated. But Rav believed any of them would be able to break free from the cages if they could. These were no small Encephalim - even the fiends were stocky, strong types. Rav recognized some species of Encephalim as being from continents away.

He turned his head. Everywhere he looked, yellow eyes stared back at him, unblinking and predatory. Some beady, some gaping. And as Rav scanned the room, he saw what he knew must be the Calamity. 

A single yellow eye the size of a whale opened up from the side of the cave wall. 

"This entire mountain is an Encephalim in disguise, huh? Well, ain't that a bitch."