Chapter 17—City Buried in Frost

Echidna exhaled, her breath misting in the frigid air. Her silver eyes roamed the impossible sight before them, taking in the sprawling city of towering buildings and frozen bridges which was bathed in the eerie glow of the twin moons. It stood etched into mountains quite a distance away from them.

"Where on the Primordial Seas are we?" she muttered under her breath, her voice filled with something between awe and unease.

Chael remained silent.

Because he had no answer. Growing up he had been taught the geography of Mirelia as that knowledge was one of the foundations of being a clan chieftain. He knew of almost all cities and major settlements within Mirelia, but this - this was completely foreign to him.

"We might not even be in the Silver Expanse anymore." Chael sucked in a breath of cold air as he looked at the twin moons. The last time he saw twin moons was in that weird purple realm where in which he inherited the Blind Prophet's Legacy.

"How peculiar." Echinda followed his gaze to the twin moons with narrowed eyes, "I'll take it a step further and say we might not even be in Mirelia anymore."

"A sky with twin moons and a vast city buried in frost..." Chael muttered thoughtfully as he looked at the city that stretched out far beyond what their eyes could see, layer upon layer of ancient structures, interconnected streets, and towering statues half-buried in frost. The sheer scale of it was staggering. The city almost looked alive and yet utterly lifeless at the same time.

"Did we accidentally enter some kind of portal?" Echinda said thoughtfully, "I thought those things were mythical."

Chael didn't respond, his gaze drifting beyond the edge of the stone path. Below, which was at least a fall of several kilometres, was another immense city sprawled across a white sheet of snow. He had almost not noticed due to just how far down it was.

It had towering spires and ancient structures etched against the pale void. But even from this distance up, Chael could see a rolling white fog which seemed unusually thick and unnatural surging through the streets like a living thing and swallowing buildings and bridges in its relentless advance. 

Shadows flickered within the mist. They were distant movements, or perhaps tricks of the light, before vanishing into the choking whiteness. Within moments, the city was fading, consumed by the creeping shroud, leaving only silence and an eerie sense of something unseen watching from the depths.

Chael's grip tightened around the spearhead.

"No way, it's another city." Echinda exhaled.

"...Yeah, I see it."

They walked forward with their steps slow and careful. The path beneath them was carved from smooth, pale stone, winding along the mountainside which led them deeper into the heart of the unknown. The silence was absolute and there was no wind, no rustling movement and no signs of life.

Just then, a shift in the reflection of his spear caught his perspective.

Chael turned fast instinctively, his body already reacting before his mind fully processed what he had seen.

Echidna noticed immediately as well.

But there was nothing.

Or rather, the tunnel they had come from was gone, as if it had never been there.

Echidna took a sharp step back. "What?"

Chael's expression darkened. "It's gone."

Echidna stared at the spot where their only way back had been, her lips parting slightly in disbelief.

"That's not…" She stepped forward, running a gloved hand along the stone frozen stone. There were no cracks and no indication that there had ever been an entrance here at all. "That's not possible."

Chael's fists clenched at his side. It didn't matter if it was possible or not. It was real.

Echidna turned toward him, her jaw tight. "Tell me you have some explanation for this."

"That veil fog that we came through on our way here... might've been a portal after all." Chael said. He then shifted his grip on the broken spear and faced forward. "Or it might've happened earlier than that. At any rate, forward is the only way."

Echidna took off her tricorn hat and dragged a hand through her tangled silver hair before she sat it back on her head. "Yeah. Figures."

They continued walking for a while along the frozen pathway. Everything was so still and silent but for some reason Chael was much more anxious here than when he had hunted in frozen wastelands of the Silver Expanse.

Chael's grip was right on the spearhead. He wasn't the only one feeling like this. The further they traversed into this place, the more unbearable the silence became for Echinda.

After a while, Echidna's frown deepened.

"This place…" Her voice was lower now and much more uneasy. "I'm getting a really bad feeling about it."

Chael's head tilted slightly at that.

She also had a premonition back at the cave, right before the dog-thing had appeared in the pitfall.

He narrowed his eyes but didn't press the subject. Not yet, at least.

They walked in silence.

Every step forward felt heavier, as if the air itself was pressing down on them. The weight of something ancient settled over them like a curse.

Not to mention the silence. Chael had spent his life in the frozen wilderness of the Silver Expanse, where blizzards howled and the wind was never truly still. But this was different.

This was unnatural.

It was the kind of silence that made the world feel dead.

Echidna's breath came out shaky, her arms wrapping tighter around herself.

Then, a sound cut through the silence. It was low and barely perceptible at first but it grew.

A distant, eerie screech that cut through the dead air echoed across the vastness of the frozen region.

Chael and Echidna both stopped dead in their tracks and their bodies tensed instinctively as the sound grew louder and louder until it was almost deafening.

Soon, they saw it. A massive shadow swept from over the city below and blotted out the light of the twin moons.

Chael's grip on his spear tightened as his breath caught in his throat and Echidna stiffened completely, eyes wide.

A white dragon.

It soared past up past them and through the air, its enormous wings beating with such force that the sheer pressure of it sent gusts of frigid wind rushing down frozen landscape below. Its pale, armoured body stretched impossibly long, its scales glistening with the reflection of the moonlight.

It was enormous.

Chael had encountered his share of beasts before, but this was something else entirely.

The dragon's body moved with an unnatural grace and its presence was so overwhelming that every instinct in his body screamed at him to run.

Echinda was stood completely paralysed and her face was deathly pale.

Chael gritted his teeth.

This thing… this was no ordinary beast.

It was powerful. Far beyond anything he had ever faced.

If he had to rank it - it had to be at least a very high-ranked Ascended Harbinger - the kind of monster that entire armies would struggle to kill.

They were standing directly in its path. The dragon let out another piercing shriek, but it did not descend. It didn't even seem to notice them.

Instead, its massive form continued in it's path and disappeared beyond the rocky cliffs.

The weight in Chael's chest did not lift.

He and Echidna remained frozen, both of them staring at the place where the creature had vanished.

A long silence followed.

Then, Echidna let out a sharp breath and laughed weakly.

"…Alright," she muttered with her voice shaky. "What a time to be alive."