Chapter 11 – The Mountain that Remembers

Dawn broke over Mondstadt in pale silvers and quiet golds. At the southern gate, the crew gathered—cloaks drawn tight, breaths misting in the cold morning air. Frost clung to the cobblestones beneath their boots, and overhead, the sky stretched wide and still, as if the world itself was holding its breath.

Venti stood atop the gate's arch, hair tousled by the wind, humming an old melody as he watched them approach. "You're late," he called, leaping down with the grace of a leaf caught on the breeze. "The wind's been waiting."

"We're right on time," Noah replied calmly, tightening the strap of his frost-cloak. The lightsaber at his side pulsed once in answer, a faint hum buried beneath the wind.

Alice, striding beside him, gave Venti a sideways look. A Pyro Vision shimmered faintly on her belt, the crimson gem pulsing with quiet heat beneath the edge of her coat—subtle, but unmistakable. "Do all your prophecies run on bardic drama?"

"Only the fun ones," Venti said with a wink. Then, more quietly: "We'll need both wind and will today."

They left Mondstadt behind not long after, crossing frozen meadows and winding through icy pine groves as Dragonspine's jagged silhouette began to dominate the skyline. The road grew steeper, rougher. Snow thickened underfoot, and the sunlight dimmed as clouds gathered like ancient sentinels.

As they walked, Alice slowed, her fingers twitching at her sides. Her gaze drifted to the clouds above, then glazed slightly, her breath catching.

Noah noticed. "Alice?"

She blinked. Once. Twice.

Then her voice dropped, softer, distant. "I see... blood on frost. A shadow curled around a crystal heart. And something older than all of us... humming a lullaby no one should remember."

Venti stopped walking. He didn't joke.

"The mountain's trying to show her something," he said. "Sometimes, it reaches those who walk between memory and madness."

Alice exhaled slowly, the fog of her breath trembling in the air. "It's not just Durin. There's something underneath him. Watching him. Feeding on him."

The group said nothing for a moment.

By the time they reached the lower slopes, the path had vanished beneath layers of frost and wind-carved ice. The climb began in silence as the group made their way toward Dragonspine. Snow crunched beneath their steps, but otherwise, the mountain offered no welcome. The jagged silhouette of Dragonspine loomed ever closer with each step, its peaks cutting through the sky like broken fangs. The cold here was not natural—it seeped past cloaks and gloves and into the bones, as if the mountain itself resented their presence.

As they trudged upward, Venti turned to walk backward, facing them with an unusual seriousness in his gaze. "Listen closely. The corruption here is rooted in the leyline scars. They weren't just wounded—they were twisted by Durin's death and the Abyss's intrusion."

He swept his hand out toward the cliffs. "You'll see fractures in the ice—veins of red or black. They're anchors. Nodes where the mountain's memory is being leeched. If we sever them, we weaken whatever the Abyss is trying to wake."

Alice perked up beside him. "So, standard procedure: find creepy energy sources, plant unstable explosives, run like the wind?"

"No explosions," Venti said with a half-smile. "Not unless you want to wake the whole mountain. Subtlety first, chaos later."

Kiana grumbled, hoisting her bat across her shoulder, the metal polished with faint scuff marks from the last battle. "Tch. I vote for chaos now. My toes are already plotting mutiny."

"I've faced a Herrscher and stared down abyssal dragons," she muttered. "But frozen toes? That's just cruel."

Elysia chuckled, her bow glowing faintly as she adjusted her scarf. "The mountain has a sense of humor."

"No," Alice said, voice dry, "it has memory. And it's not feeling generous."

They pressed on, following Venti's lead through winding ridges and half-buried paths. He guided them with a strange certainty, every step like tracing a forgotten song. The snow deepened. The wind grew sharper.

Before they reached the first ruin, they spotted one of the energy anchors Venti described—veins of abyssal red glowing faintly beneath a cracked sheet of ice, pulsing like a heartbeat.

"Found one," Lumine said, already drawing her blades.

The moment they approached, the ice around it shattered with a shriek. From within burst corrupted wraiths—serpentine forms of frost and shadow, screeching with fragmented voices.

Noah moved first. His lightsaber ignited in a clean arc, slicing through one wraith mid-lunge. The others scattered, swarming in a spiral pattern.

"Keep them away from the anchor!" Venti called, unleashing a gale that blew three of the creatures into the rocks.

Alice channeled her Pyro Vision, tossing an orb of compressed fire directly into the center of the swarm. It burst in midair, igniting several wraiths in a ring of searing flame.

Kiana surged forward, batting one of the creatures straight into the air with a brutal swing. "Like playing shadow baseball," she muttered.

Elysia fired precise arrows into the weakened leyline core, forcing a reaction. The red glow flickered, destabilized.

Lumine and Noah synchronized their attacks, delivering a final blow to the core with blade and saber. The pulse shattered—dissolving the remaining wraiths into ash and wind.

They paused only a moment, breath misting, the mountain rumbling faintly beneath them.

"One down," Noah said.

"And many more to go," Alice added with a grin.

Then, without another word, they continued upward.

Eventually, they reached it.

A ruin—frost-bitten, ancient, crowned with broken pillars and slanted stone. The remains of something sacred, twisted by time and cold. Etched into the stone were sigils half-lost beneath ice, and above them, the leylines pulsed like veins beneath thin skin.

"This is where the memory lingers strongest," Venti said, resting a hand against a cracked column. "Durin's essence slept here... until something began to wake it."

Noah stepped forward, gaze scanning the surroundings. The Force thrummed—uneven, watchful.

Kiana approached the center slowly. The rose Elysia had given her pulsed faintly beneath her coat, warm against the cold. She paused.

"I feel it," she whispered. "Like something under the ice is listening."

Then the air screamed.

The leylines ruptured with a sound like shattering glass. A massive claw tore through the snow—a skeletal limb of shadow and ice. The ground split open, and from the fissure rose the Fragment of Durin's Will, a beast of bone and black frost. Wings of cracked ley-crystal beat against the wind, and its eyes burned with abyssal hate.

Venti drew his lyre, his expression grim. "It's awake."

Noah's lightsaber ignited with a hiss, blue light flaring. "Form up."

Kiana swung her bat into both hands. "Finally."

Elysia leapt to higher ground, bow drawn, a rose-colored sigil blooming beneath her feet. Lumine flanked Noah, twin blades glowing with Anemo power. Alice spun a bomb into her palm—one laced with leyline destabilizers. As it left her hand, her Pyro Vision glowed, and the orb ignited mid-flight, laced with flickering fire.

The battle began with a roar.

The creature charged, smashing a claw into the snow. Elysia's arrows struck first, driving light into its exposed chest, but it barely flinched. Venti sang into the storm, his melody forming a barrier of wind that softened the impact of its breath attack. Noah moved forward with purpose, lightsaber carving arcs of molten light against its leg.

Lumine followed his lead, redirecting icy blasts with gusts of compressed air.

Kiana ducked beneath a tail swipe and slammed her bat into the beast's shin—an impact that cracked through ice and sent a tremor up the monster's spine.

The Fragment shrieked.

Spikes of shadow burst from its back, slicing through the wind like razors. Alice hurled another device—this one glowing red-hot from her Pyro Vision. The bomb exploded with a burst of searing flame, melting a section of ley-crystal and exposing the creature's core.

"It's drawing from the mountain!" Venti warned. "We need to disrupt the flow!"

"I'm on it," Alice called, already working to calibrate a new device.

The team fought as one, each movement a ripple in a growing storm. But the Fragment was relentless, regenerating shards of itself from nearby ruins.

Kiana stumbled, hearing a familiar voice whispering again—Let me take this burden. Let me end this.

She gritted her teeth. "Shut up," she hissed, driving her bat into the ground and pushing herself upright.

Elysia's voice rang out, clear and anchoring. "You're doing great, Kiana. Stay with us."

Kiana's eyes flared with determination. "I'm not going anywhere."

Noah surged forward with Lumine, striking the beast's leg in tandem. The lightsaber cleaved through corrupted bone while Lumine's Anemo blasts shredded the regeneration crystal.

Alice slammed her newly calibrated bomb into the ice—releasing a shockwave that stalled the leyline current, Pyro energy crackling across the fissure.

The Fragment howled.

Still, it stood.

The storm raged around them, wind screaming, snow blinding.

Venti, his breath ragged, raised his lyre once more. "Then we'll sing louder."

Noah's blade burned through the dark.

Kiana raised her bat once more.

The battle wasn't over.

It had only just begun.