Chapter 803: The Mountain's Peak
Chapter 803: The Mountain's Peak
Eisen stood up from his chair after closing the tab at the bar. The kids had eaten plenty and were happy, and even Kiron managed to calm down and relax for a little while. Usually, he would be particularly stressed out in a place like this, filled with so many different people. Not to mention, the giants that were walking around right below them.
Kiron always kept in mind his duty as Eisen's knight, and it was easy for him to feel overwhelmed in situations like this.
However, over this whole trip, there has been more than just one situation where Eisen has shown to Kiron that there was no need to worry about any of this. It was easy enough to avoid trouble in places like this, and that wasn't even considering that Eisen was a lot more powerful than the average person and could handle himself.
This allowed the half-dragon to learn to at least let loose every once in a while, especially when Eisen promised him that everything was fine.
While this old man did have the tendency to be a bit tricky with his words for his own benefit, if he ever said something clearly and straightforward, and especially if he ever promised something, then that was something that Eisen adhered to to the best of his ability.
However, now, they were going to get to a different point, one that made not only Kiron, but even Eisen slightly nervous. There wasn't long left before the start of the council meeting, and Eisen had a lot that he wanted to get out of the way and learn about before it happened. This being the country that he was born and raised in, there were a lot of new things for him to learn about his past.
Either traces of his involvement in the creation of so many places, clues that he had left for his future self, or even regrets that slowly surfaced once Eisen came to remembering about his past actions. And if there was something as grand as this, the most enormous statue in this world? There was no way that there was nothing left behind here for Eisen to discover.
Not to mention the fact that there was a whole cult dedicated to the belief that the God of the Mountain was alive, and not a statue that someone created at all.
"Alright, are you all ready to go?" Eisen asked them all. As they were eating, Eisen had promised them not to go alone, and to bring the others along. He obviously wouldn't bring everyone, since it would be more than just threatening to show up with a dozen people in tow, but bringing three kids and a half-dragon should be fine.
And if it came down to it and things should get violent, it was still always better for Eisen to not be alone. While he knew how to handle himself, at the end of the day, Eisen still was just a craftsman. In an organization capable of getting through the protective barriers around the God of the Mountain, there had to be some people that could be a threat to him.
Kiron nodded his head, swiping his hand through the air. He had been using the system-extension given to Knights to message the other half-dragon knights, informing them of what was happening. He told them to stay calm and do their own thing, but to be prepared to be summoned into action should something go wrong.
Eisen stepped off the platform and increased his size enough to pick the others up, starting to carry them out of the pub and through the streets. There should be some quieter spots around here where Eisen could properly transform into his demonic form to fly them all to where the 'cult' was supposed to be. And it didn't take him long to find it either.
It wasn't much of a surprise, but there were plenty of dark spots in a city with a mountain's peak as its roof. He did shrink down a bit and disabled his flames so that he wouldn't stick out just as much, staying only big enough so that he would still be able to carry Kiron, Caria, Melissa and Sal, even if it was a bit more uncomfortable for them as it usually would be.
Eisen quickly flew them all out of the city without being spotted, and then started rushing up instead, as the cult's base was supposed to be at the peak of the mountain.
Considering the sheer size of this mountain and the fact that it was just so, so much more massive than any mountain that existed on earth, it still took quite a while even for Eisen, especially because he had to consider just how cold it would be on the way up there.
Before long, Eisen did reach the place that he was flying toward, the peak of the Capital City's mountain. The air up here was thin, to the point that Eisen was starting to get even more nervous. While the races of this world did manage to acclimate to different situations, such as extreme climates or underwater, from what he heard, this 'cult' was just as multi-cultural as the capital city itself.
That meant that they had access to magic tools that allowed them to stay up here without worry. Luckily, Eisen also made his own, and handed them out to Kiron and the kids. They were small plates that stuck to the roof of their mouth so that they were able to breathe anywhere with at least a little air, and their clothes were already protecting them against extreme temperatures like up here.
Still, once he landed, Eisen handed out some few coats to the kids that he had placed into his storage. Kiron said he was fine, and being a half-dragon, Eisen figured that it made sense, but warned him not to hide it if he was getting cold after all.
Even Eisen was feeling chilly. He was far more used to extreme heat rather than extreme cold, but he could handle either to some extent. Even then, he still put on a coat, and then used his magical element, the 'Blazing Core of the Mountain' magic, to heat up the air around them.
"Now to find the people in question," Eisen pointed out. It was the middle of the night, even if there was at least the moon illuminating them right now. A few of the plants also seemed to have some luminescence to them, and if needed, Eisen could use some of his flames to light up the path around them.
The issue was just that this would also open them up to being spotted by the members of the 'cult', and he wanted to avoid that as much as possible. He wanted to be in full control of this situation considering how dangerous these people might be. So instead, they made use of another tactic.
Melissa held forward her arms, and soon, out of the sleeves of her coat, a swarm of small bees started crawling out. They looked like they were made of ice and glittered in the faint moonlight. Quickly, they spread out and before long, Eisen could no longer spot them. As Melissa closed her eyes to concentrate on talking to her bees, the others just had to wait for a while.
"Take your time, we're not in a rush~," Caria soon said with a light whistle, hugging her younger sister from behind, practically squeezing her. She knew that Melissa got nervous pretty quickly, especially when she was under pressure like in situations like this. Melissa let out a quiet sigh and nodded her head, and before long, raised her arm and pointed in a specific direction.
"There," she said, and Eisen smiled lightly as he patted the girl's head, "Thank you very much."
Melissa quickly started guiding the group, with Kiron and Eisen at the back to make sure they had everything in their view.
"Are you positive this is a good idea?" the half-dragon asked, "Wouldn't they just be hostile? Or at least, not willing to talk to complete strangers?"
Eisen shrugged lightly, "Who really knows? They'll definitely be wary of us, but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't talk to us. We'll just have to see what happens and improvise as we go."
Kiron slowly nodded, though clearly worried about who or what they were going to encounter. The only thing they had heard about these people is that they were maniacs that tried to destroy the statue, but from what Kiron could tell, Eisen was clearly uncertain if that was actually the truth behind the situation. Really, anything could happen, but it definitely wouldn't be easy for them.