Ch.779There’s No Place Like Home

On the fourth morning, after getting enough rest, Demian and I finally set off toward the Celestial Mountains. We packed all the essentials—sleeping bags, pots, firewood, and dried rations.

“Take care, sister!”

Lena waved goodbye to us from in front of the mansion.

Since she started sleeping with me, her face had noticeably brightened. Though the chains were somewhat uncomfortable, I felt it was worth it for her to wear them while sleeping.

I hoped eventually she could sleep without the chains and without having nightmares. Though she only had a nightmare that first night, even without nightmares, sleeping with chains didn’t allow for comfortable rest. When she woke up the next day, her body was stiff and damp with sweat.

—-

Unlike the relatively tolerable area around the mansion, the Celestial Mountains remained a frigid hellscape that refused human footsteps.

The direction we were heading was particularly brutal, even by the mountains’ standards. So harsh that even Faelrun’s scouts and Werebeasts wouldn’t dare venture there.

“…Compared to the weather here, the hills where we fought Nidhogg were warm.”

Demian muttered complainingly as he shivered.

“…Indeed.”

Certainly, compared to this place, the hills were practically a warm spring meadow. Even I hadn’t anticipated such harsh conditions.

A blizzard raged all day, so thick you couldn’t see an inch ahead and so fierce it could sweep you away. Each exhaled breath instantly froze and scattered across the snow field.

All we could see was snow, ice, glaciers, and cliffs. Walking was impossible.

The snow was piled so thick that with each step, the ground would sink and bury your entire body. Frequently, the ground would collapse entirely, revealing crevasses hundreds of meters deep.

Demian and I could manage only because we could fly. Anyone without flight abilities would have died within a day of setting foot here.

Of course, even with flight, comfortable exploration wasn’t guaranteed. The cold in this treacherous part of the Celestial Mountains was beyond what living creatures could endure.

The extreme cold made even Rurik’s heat-generating hide freeze and crack. Our dried rations had turned to ice blocks that needed to be thawed over fire before we could even chew them.

Fortunately, I had removed all metal armor before departing. Had I come wrapped in metal as usual, I might have survived, but Demian would certainly have frozen to death.

[It’s a thousand blessings that the sorcery power you obtained generates fire.]

Even Hersella spoke with a tone of disgust at the conditions.

Torches would freeze before they could be lit, and even if lit, would quickly extinguish. Without my fire rune, we would have had to wander this frigid place without a hint of warmth.

—-

On our first day searching for the holy sword in the Celestial Mountains, when Demian asked where we should go, I pointed to the highest peak in the range.

The peak that imperial people call “Elpinel’s Fingertip” and other races call “The Horn of Earth”—the highest mountain peak in this world. That was our first destination.

Why first?

Because the holy sword wasn’t embedded at that peak.

Elpinel’s Fingertip was merely a landmark to guide us toward where the holy sword was located. The final destination was quite far from there.

You might think we could just fly directly to the final destination if we knew where it was… but unfortunately, that was impossible.

If it had been possible, I wouldn’t have called it a search. We wouldn’t have needed camping equipment either.

Think about it. Looking down from the sky, the entire Celestial Mountain range appears as the same white snowdrifts covered in blizzards. How could we pinpoint our destination in that?

This wasn’t a game with quest markers, nor did we have accurate satellite images or world maps. The map of the Celestial Mountains at Faelrun Castle only showed terrain that humans could somehow explore, without properly depicting the dangerous areas where human feet couldn’t reach.

So I had no choice but to recall my game memories of heading toward where the holy sword was embedded, following the same route I had taken then.

—-

Elpinel’s Fingertip was a distance I could reach in a few hours if flying at full speed, but in reality, half a day passed and night fell before we could even reach the peak.

It couldn’t be helped.

The further we went, the stronger the blizzard became, requiring twice my normal strength just to fly straight through it. Meanwhile, I also had to maintain a fire to keep Demian’s body temperature up.

Moreover, unlike me who could fly using the fire rune enhanced with the power of murder karma, Demian’s flight ability came from his Tale of Heros power, which couldn’t be maintained for extended periods.

If he flew until his karma power was completely depleted, we might somehow reach the vicinity of the peak, but it was clear that a body drained of karma power couldn’t withstand the harsh mountain environment.

So what choice did we have? We had to ascend gradually to prevent his karma power from being depleted.

“Let’s rest here for today.”

As the sun completely set and darkness descended upon the mountains, I stopped flying and landed on a mountain slope. Demian, apparently also judging it unwise to continue, landed beside me without protest.

Once night had fallen, going further was far too dangerous.

The frigid climate, already difficult to breathe in, would transform into a deadly cold that could freeze your lungs the moment you inhaled.

With moonlight and starlight blocked by the blizzard, we could barely see ahead.

“…Haaa… rest here…?”

Demian responded in an exhausted voice, glancing around at the slope where there was barely enough space to stand, let alone lie down.

“…You’re not suggesting we sleep hanging here, are you?”

“Of course not.”

I couldn’t help but smile at Demian’s absurd concern.

Southern rock climbers might hang sleeping bags on cliffs to sleep, but attempting such a feat here would mean death by freezing, even for one of the Great’s Twelve Knights.

“We need at least some space to shelter from the blizzard.”

“…How? It seems too late to find something like a cave.”

“Who needs to find one?”

I firmly planted my feet on the slope, spread my right hand wide, and raised the corner of my mouth.

“Why not just make our own cave?”

Praise be to the fire rune.

With that thought, I placed my right hand against the massive mountainside before us and recited the rune’s activation word.

– Whoosh!

Flames erupted from my palm, evaporating the snow and ice, then melting the rock and soil beneath.

About thirty minutes passed.

After I melted the rock and soil while Demian scooped it out with his greatsword and threw it outside, we finally succeeded in creating a cave in the middle of the mountainside where we could sleep sheltered from the blizzard.

The cave interior, which had been hot enough to melt soil and rock, cooled down quickly enough for people to enter.

We walked into the cave, stacked soil to create pillars so the entrance wouldn’t collapse, and lit a campfire inside.

“Phew… finally feeling alive again. This should be enough to last the night.”

“…Indeed.”

I melted some dried rations over the fire, ate them, and massaged my stiff limbs.

With the heat from the campfire added to the warmth of Rurik’s hide, my body finally felt cozy.

Though it was still winter-level cold… but that was nothing compared to the hell-frozen wasteland we’d been in before.

I was in a better situation since my flight itself generated heat, but Demian was sitting across from me, shivering uncontrollably while desperately warming himself by the fire.

He looked truly pitiful.

If we had come searching for some family heirloom as I had claimed, rather than for a holy sword for him, I might have felt guilty for bringing him along.

After finishing our simple meal and indulging in the cigarette I’d been craving, I slipped into the sleeping bag I’d laid out beside the campfire.

“I’ll sleep first, wake me in three hours.”

I advised Demian, who was stuck to the flames like some fire spirit, to keep the campfire burning for the next four hours.

Three hours later.

Demian, looking much better than before, nudged me awake, then lay down in his own sleeping bag and fell asleep.

I sat by the campfire, smoking cigarettes or sipping tea made with boiled water and tea leaves, letting time pass.

For about five hours.

I had told Demian we would take turns watching the campfire for three hours each, but seeing him sleeping so deeply with an exhausted face, I decided it was better to let him sleep two more hours.

Well, unlike Demian who would have had to just watch the campfire, I wasn’t particularly bored sitting still for five hours.

I could just chat with Hersella.

Five hours later, as the rising sun began to cast bright light at the cave entrance.

Thinking Demian had rested enough by now, I stretched with a yawn and headed toward his sleeping bag to wake him.

“……”

Demian was sleeping with his eyes closed, breathing softly.

I looked him over to check his condition.

Thanks to the warmth in the cave, color had returned to his previously pale face, and his body had stopped shivering completely.

He seemed to have recovered perfectly… wait, hold on.

As my gaze moved down his body, past his torso hidden by the sleeping bag, it stopped abruptly around his waist.

A new mountain peak had suddenly appeared there.

“……”

Uh… well… I can see why Millia is so crazy about him.

I clicked my tongue and turned away, feeling an inexplicable sense of defeat.

Even half-pressed down by the thick sleeping bag, it looked one and a half times bigger than when I was a man.

This bastard carries two greatswords, not just one.