Ch.70Eternal Night Mountain

After resting from the fatigue of our long walk and enjoying a good sleep until the Repellation Field’s duration ended, we officially began our climb up Mount Evernight.

“Oh, coming at night was definitely the right choice.”

“It’s somewhat better with the moon out. Did you expect it to be like this?”

“I only considered it as one of several possibilities. When we entered in the evening, the stars were still visible even though the sun had disappeared.”

I had several theories about the mechanism that maintained night on Mount Evernight:

The possibility that completely independent laws applied like in a dungeon,

The possibility that we were surrounded by something like an artificial curtain depicting night,

The possibility that time inside the mountain had been frozen,

Or perhaps it was simply “hiding the existence of the sun.”

If the only intention was to make people wander in darkness after climbing the mountain, it could have been wrapped in complete darkness without even starlight.

If that were the case, this mountain would have been known as a mountain shrouded in “darkness,” not “night.”

Yet it was known as “the mountain where night persists” and even named “Evernight,” which suggested that the scenery inside would be recognizable as a typical night—meaning a night sky with the moon and stars.

“What confirmed my theory was the night sky view of Mount Evernight that we saw in the evening.”

No moon, but stars were visible.

If darkness was the goal, stars would be unnecessary, and if depicting night was the intention, having a moon would be more natural.

This led me to think that the night sky spread across this mountain was likely established by “hiding the existence of the sun.” When I first entered Mount Evernight, the moon would have still been hidden below the eastern horizon.

“So the magic spread across this mountain hides the sun from view but doesn’t hide the moon or stars that reflect its light… that’s what we can assume, right?”

“Amazing… I’ve never thought about it that way before.”

“Will is incredible.”

“Hahaha, this time my guess just happened to be right. If whoever cast magic on this mountain simply disliked the moon but liked stars, leaving only stars behind, my theory would have been completely wrong.”

I was able to come up with the “sun-hiding” mechanism because I had once watched a documentary about total solar eclipses.

During a complete solar eclipse, even in the middle of the day, it becomes as dark as late evening.

With magical or fantastical elements involved, making it as dark as midnight wouldn’t be impossible.

“Anyway, even with moonlight, we still can’t let our guard down. Let’s turn on the lanterns and climb carefully.”

“Then as we decided earlier, I’ll take the lead with Seti.”

“I’ll take the rear… though I’m not sure if we can bring Ancestor up with us.”

“Let’s try to climb the mountain path as far as we can. If it doesn’t work, we can leave Ancestor somewhere visible or send him back down alone.”

Ancestor could understand and carry out simple commands like “go down the mountain and wait near where we rested earlier.”

Besides, I’ve rarely seen monsters or wild animals target Ancestor as their prey. If this is some kind of special ability, he shouldn’t be in much danger even if left around the mountain.

“Jessica, do you know where the ancient ruins were discovered?”

“I was told they could be seen after going around the place with two horn-like rocks on the middle of the mountain, but I’m not sure…”

“Two horn-like rocks… ah, I see them over there.”

“Eh? Where?”

“Over there. Though from where we’re standing now, they’re obscured by trees so they don’t look like horns. We’ll be able to see better once we climb a bit higher.”

All I could see where Phyllis pointed was the silhouette of a bizarrely twisted giant tree, but with her Night Vision ability to pierce through darkness, Phyllis could apparently distinguish the tree’s shape from the landscape beyond it.

We began climbing Mount Evernight in the direction Phyllis indicated.

The lantern Mina carried barely illuminated ten meters ahead, not performing at full capacity, but we couldn’t rely solely on Phyllis’s special ability, so we decided to use the lantern light to navigate the immediate terrain.

Phyllis was responsible for overall terrain assessment, determining the climbing route, and scouting.

“Monsters appearing 30 meters ahead on the ground. Humanoid, five of them.”

“Those silhouettes are probably zombies. They’re not particularly threatening monsters as long as we don’t let them get close.”

With Phyllis’s warning, the party moved in perfect coordination.

Phyllis took a kneeling position and aimed her rifle, while Seti moved forward, careful not to obstruct Phyllis’s line of fire.

Mina basically maintained her position riding on Ancestor while holding the lantern high, and Jessica and I remained vigilant for new enemies while adapting to the situation.

“Flame Lance… Break Enchant!”

Before the full-scale battle began, Jessica used a fire attribute enchantment spell.

Fire attribute enchantment magic is usually avoided outdoors due to fire hazards, but on Mount Evernight with few trees or grass, it could be effectively utilized as a means of firepower enhancement.

“Bang!”

The first to launch an attack was Phyllis with her rifle.

While her rifle also serves as a medium for magic, there’s a several-minute interval after firing a powerful attack spell.

Therefore, if such powerful firepower isn’t deemed necessary, using it as a conventional rifle is the standard approach.

“Thwack!”

“!!”

The red magical bullet from Phyllis’s rifle blew off the head of one zombie, but even with its jaw completely gone, the zombie merely fell backward before quickly getting up and shambling forward again.

“It’s still moving!?”

“Zombies and skeletons don’t have weak points. You need to keep dealing damage to cut off the flow of dark magic circulating inside them.”

“Really… I thought they’d go down if you just blew off their heads.”

“That works for undead with remaining intelligence like ghouls or liches. But since undead monsters are often difficult to distinguish by appearance alone, we shouldn’t make assumptions.”

While listening to Jessica’s explanation, I fired my revolver at the headless zombie’s body. After the fourth red magical bullet hit, the zombie collapsed forward and didn’t rise again.

Four zombies remained. Their movement speed was slow, but the visual of them shambling forward despite having their heads blown off and holes in their bodies was quite disturbing.

As I was reloading my revolver to fire at the surprisingly tough zombies, Seti turned back with a tense expression and shouted:

“Wing-flapping sounds from the rock wall on the left! Something’s approaching.”

“Those look like… large bats. Three of them, approaching us.”

“Phyllis and Will, take care of the bats! Seti, please handle the zombies!”

“Got it. I’ll move forward.”

As instructed by Jessica, Seti rushed forward to deal with the four zombies, while Phyllis and I, having finished reloading, turned toward the direction Seti indicated to intercept the bats approaching from the sky.

Moments later, when three bats the size of an adult man’s upper body appeared in the sky above the left rock wall with glowing red eyes, a fireball flew from Jessica’s fingertips.

“Flame Lance!”

The spear of fire that illuminated the night sky hit one of the large bats, causing a small explosion that clearly revealed the bats’ appearance.

“Bang!”

Phyllis’s rifle pierced through the body of another bat that was staggering from the Flame Lance explosion.

Even without her ultimate magic, the power of the large-caliber rifle’s magical bullet was in a different league compared to revolvers or single-shot pistols.

“I won’t be outdone.”

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

I raised my revolver and calmly fired one shot at a time to take down the remaining bat.

Fan-firing all six shots wouldn’t be suitable for targeting enemies above, and emptying the magazine recklessly during combat when reinforcements might appear would be dangerous.

“Good, we’ve dealt with the bats…”

“Bang!”

As I turned to support Seti with my remaining three bullets, Mina’s single-shot pistol fired with a loud noise.

The red magical bullet from her pistol blew a large hole in the thigh of one zombie targeting Seti. The zombie lost balance and fell sideways, then stopped moving after being hit by the three magical bullets I fired.

“Grrrr~”

“Swoosh!”

The remaining zombies tried to swing their fists at Seti or bite him, but their sluggish movements were no match for him, and with the support of our guns and magic, they were quickly dispatched.

“The bats that appeared midway gave me a bit of a scare, but the zombies themselves weren’t much except for their toughness.”

“They’re the weakest type among low-level undead monsters.”

“Just asking to be sure, but if you get bitten by a zombie, do you become one too…?”

“Many people think that, but zombies don’t have such abilities. There was a popular novel once about ghoul commanders infecting people that way, but in reality, commanding undead can’t turn living people into monsters like in that novel, so don’t worry.”

It seems we won’t have to face scenarios where someone gets scratched by a zombie on their arm or leg and meets their end at the hands of a loved one…

With no risk of infection and zombies that can’t even run, we can take them down easily.