“If you can’t handle this cold, what makes you think that you will be able to get your skinny ass near that sword?”
“I will use my shield to protect me, once we are close enough. But for now, I must conserve my strength for when we get there.”
“I think you are going to kill us both.”
“If you really think that, then why are you helping me?”
“I got nothing better to do. Besides, what is the point of living in a world that will have no one else to fuck with?”
And for the first time, Arius felt that he could trust the words coming out of the Outsider’s mouth, for they were not driven by desire over killing or possessing something, but by the most simple of instincts, self-preservation.
The prince got back on his feet and, responding to Korgat’s words with a nod, he began walking again.
“What’s wrong? I thought you were hungry.”
“Shut up and keep walking.”
Korgat simply smiled and started walking north again.
They walked for over a week, barely even stopping to eat or rest, as the freezing cold was worse if they remained still. But at last, after a long and boring journey through what seemed an endless snowstorm, they made it to the entrance of a small cave.
The cave was most likely made out of rocks, but it was impossible to tell, as its walls were covered by a thick layer of ice. And from inside, an unimaginable wind current emerged.
The winds were so strong that the mighty Korgat had trouble moving forward against them, but nonetheless the powerful Outsider endured and pressed on until he fulfilled his end of the bargain and got Arius within a hundred feet of the entrance of the cave.
“Well, this is as far as I’m going. From here on, you are on your own, sweet little prince.”
“You’re really not going to come down with me, after all this walking?”
“Yup, there is nothing but death down there. And I am in no rush to find mine.”
“I thought you weren’t scared of death?”
“I’m not, but that doesn’t mean that I want to die. So I will give you a day. After that, I’ll leave without you.”
“Well, I guess I should get going then.”
By then the air was so cold that Arius was not able to stand without using holy energy around his body to shield himself from it, but this was not enough to fight against the gushing wind. Without the might of Korgat to break the winds in front of him, Arius was now forced to rely exclusively on his power to advance.
So the prince took a step forward as the glow over his entire body intensified, giving him the strength his legs need it to withstand the wind current. And slowly but surely Arius began his move through the cave.
As he entered the frozen cave, he was immediately greeted by the sight of hundreds of corpses frozen solid to the walls, probably the remains of others who tried to get the sword before him. But as he slowly walked down the cave, the amount of corpses quickly reduced, as if no one had actually managed to make it very far.
Arius worked hard for every step, as the force of the wind seemed to increase as he approached the location of the sword.
But the prince was determined to continue, as he knew this sword could be the only chance that the world would have against Xandraf. So as the air got colder and the winds grew fiercer, so did Arius’s light power grow in order to maintain his pace.
It was not long before the prince realized why the former king of the Outsiders refused to enter the cave, as every breath of air became nothing more than a stabbing pain in his chest.
Arius grabbed on with one hand to an ice spike on the left wall of the cave and, holding his hammer with his right hand, he began to channel a huge amount of energy, retaining the aura surrounding him and casting his holy shield at the same time as a bubble to protect him from the wind current. The air had enough space to increase its temperature between the two layers of protection. He then intensified the amount of energy he was using to shield himself with the aura, using it as a source of heat for the air.
It took a few minutes, but eventually the air got just warm enough to be breathable and the chest pains disappeared. Now all that remained was to find the sword before his energies were depleted.
Outside of the cave, an hour had passed and Korgat wondered if he should really wait a day. In his mind, the princess was already dead, frozen solid in one of the cave’s walls, forever adorning it with his golden hair and shiny armor.
But Korgat soon understood that it was not his interest in self-preservation that guided his thoughts, but his inherit necessity to rebel against everything. The former king of the Outsiders had spent a century rebelling against everything that resembled order or structure; he had renounced his comfortable life in Logrant city and his prestigious position in the Human army and fought his way to leadership of a godforsaken place, just so no one could tell him what to do.
Many times, Korgat thought about using the powers he had obtained to return to Logrant city, not as the broken warrior he was when he left, but as a mighty conqueror reclaiming what he thought he deserved.
Yet as much as the mighty Korgat longed for revenge against the White Knight family, never did he order his outsiders to march towards Logrant city. Deep down, he thought that his unwillingness to invade the city was due to the fear of losing the battle and being shackled once again.
But since his loss against Arius back at Blood Howl village, a familiar pleasant sensation returned to his mind. It was not the fact of being told what to do what made Korgat happy, but the sense of purpose that came with the orders and the quest. For the first time in a hundred years, he felt that his life had meaning, as even the mighty Korgat had grown bored due to the lack of a proper challenge.
So even when it was against his very nature to accept subjugation and answer to someone else’s orders, the mighty Korgat the Gore Blade would play along…at least until he found something more interesting to do.
“I said I would give him a day; what harm can come from keeping my word?”
So the mighty Korgat remained there, watching the exit of the cave, waiting for the impossible to happen and the winds to subside.
Five hours passed and Arius was so deep underground that he would not be able to see anything if it was not for the light that emanated from his body. But this light made it harder for him to know which direction to go, as it bounced against the icy walls of the cave, almost blinding him. Reducing the intensity of his shield or his aura would mean death, so the Human prince awkwardly stumbled his way through the cave, as he fought against the wind and his lack of vision. But Arius was making progress. He almost seemed to be accustomed to the situation, until he took a false step and slipped on the icy floor.
He fell face first and began to slide down the cave, gaining speed with every passing moment. The prince fought to hang on to something, as his decent became more uncontrolled. But despite all his efforts, he was unable to retain a grip on anything on the slippery surface, as he had already accumulated too much momentum.
The prince was diving headfirst through the unknown cave, when he saw a giant crevice up ahead, at least fifteen feet wide.
Arius had to do something before he found himself falling into the unknown depths of the cave, so he tried to reach his hammer that was strapped on his back, but the speed at which he was moving made it difficult for him to concentrate.
In a desperate attempt to survive, he struggled to hold on to an ice spike on the floor with his left hand. His grip wasn’t strong enough to withstand the force of his momentum, and his body flipped, now sliding feet first into the crevice, hurting his left shoulder, but slowing down in the process.
The injured Arius used his right hand to reach for his hammer and without any hesitation he slammed it against the ice behind him as hard as he possibly could. The hammer managed to crack the surface, just enough to get stuck and serve as an anchor to stop his descent.
But stopping all of his momentum with one hand d
id not come without a cost, as the prince dislocated both his right wrist and elbow in the process. But despite the horrible pain, Arius managed to hold on, stopping no more than five feet from the edge.
Still encased in his golden bubble, the prince rested for a second. As he lay on the floor, a sense of uncertainty began to creep over him.
Arius then stood up and carefully walked to the edge. But as he looked down, he saw nothing but a pitch black pit as the darkness of the depths swallowed the light emanating from him.
Arius could not continue moving without first taking care of his wounds, but he was already spending a huge amount of energy just maintaining the shield and aura around him. He contemplated his options, as losing one of the shields could mean freezing to death.
But staying there too long would mean starvation. Besides, Korgat said that he would only wait for a day. And it was impossible to know how much time had passed since the two of them had separated.
So risking his life, Arius used his left hand to channel a healing spell on his right wrist.
The pain began to disappear, as the spell moved his bones back into place and healed his wound. But at the same time, the air around him began to get colder as the energy in the shield began to diminish.
Arius knew he could not rush this, for taking too much energy out of the shield would mean death. So he endured the cold for as long as he could, until he finished healing his wrist. Then he moved to his right shoulder. But by then, the stabbing pain in his chest had returned, as the air was getting colder despite the fact that Arius had managed to maintain the shield.
The prince did his best to stay calm through the pain and the cold, as the freezing winds slammed against his holy shield. But the process was taking too long and breathing was getting harder with each passing moment.
The pain in his chest became stronger and Arius felt as if his heart was about to stop pumping.
The prince realized he had no options but to stop healing himself and just as he was about to, he felt how his connection to the light grew stronger and a surge of power managed to fortify the holy shield protecting him, as he finished healing his shoulder.
Arius was unsure about what had just happened. And it was then when he heard his father’s voice in his head.
“This is not the place for you to die, my son.”
“Father, is that you?”
“Yes, I have never stopped watching over you.”
“I am sorry father, for I am not strong enough,” Arius said with a heavy heart, as he felt ashamed that even on his deathbed his father still had to look over him.
“Nothing but the opposite is truth, my son. For you have the noblest heart I have ever seen, and your devotion to the light cannot be questioned,” Sabras said.
“Yes, but none of those things can help me right now.”
“That is where you are wrong, my son. For you have more than enough power to complete this task; all you need to do is embrace the light. Let it enter your heart completely and become the king you were always destined to be.”
“I would rather die here, than sacrifice the life of my father just to gain power.”
“Don’t be foolish, my son, my days on this world are few, but you still have so much more to live. Embrace the power that is your birthright and fulfill your destiny.”
“No, if I take your life to gain power, then I am no better than the monsters from which I swore to defend this world. I thank you for the offer, Father, but I will do this my way.”
“Very well, my son, but I fear that the time will come when you no longer have an option.”
“Perhaps it will and if it does, then I shall deal with it. But for now, I will walk my own path.”
The prince stood there for a few seconds staring at the precipice that lay in front of him, as the cruel freezing winds crashed against his holy shield, waiting for his father’s answer, but to his surprise, King Sabras respected his decision and said nothing else.
Arius still had an injured left shoulder, but he could not risk fixing it after what had just happened. So the prince did his best to ignore the pain, as he thought of a way to cross to the other side of the crevice.
The prince backtracked a few feet looking for something in the icy cave that could help him across the gap, but the only thing he could think of was a pillar of ice that was barely long enough to cover the gap.
Arius could not spare the holy energy to cut it down, so using his only good arm to swing his hammer; the prince began to hit the base of the pillar.
The ice of the pillar was ancient and it had been hardened by ages of freezing winds, so the impact provided by Arius’s hammer did little to break it. But this did not discourage the prince, as he continued swinging his hammer against the base of the pillar and little by little what seemed to be a small crack in the smooth surface of the ice began to grow.
It took several minutes and by the time the crack had made his way all the way through the base of the ice pillar, Arius was completely exhausted. But he had managed to conserve his holy energy, for when he finally found the sword.
It took one more hit, but finally the ice pillar tumbled down like the trunk of a giant tree. Arius took a step back, as the massive ice pillar hit the floor, then, without warning, the pillar began to slide down the cave towards the edge of the precipice.
Arius could not do anything to stop it, so he simply watched, as his only hope of crossing the gap slid towards oblivion. The tip of the pillar began to fall as it reached the precipice, but the momentum of the massive ice structure prevented it from completely falling under the cruel grasp of gravity, as the pillar made his way to the other side of the precipice jamming itself against the opposite wall, while its base still remained on the side where Arius stood.
Arius saw this and thanked the light for this fortunate event; he then walked towards the ledge and, after strapping the hammer to his back, he placed his right hand on the pillar, as he tried his best to shake it in order to make sure that it was safe to use as a bridge.
The pillar did not budge an inch, reassuring Arius that it was safe to use. The prince then climbed on top of it and carefully began to make his way across.
The pillar was not more than two feet wide and its icy surface was slippery, but Arius slowly continued to move forward despite this, as he tried his best not to look down into the dark precipice below him.
He was halfway across when a violent gust of wind made him lose his balance. Arius tripped and fell on top of the pillar using his both arms and legs to grab it. But the impact of his body against the pillar made the ice beneath the tip of the pillar on the other side move; Arius felt a rush of adrenaline, as he saw how the pillar began to drift down as it lost its friction against the ice wall.
Forgetting about the pain of his shoulder or how slippery the pillar was, the prince quickly got back on his feet and began to run towards the other side. Arius felt the ground beneath his feet begin to collapse. The pillar had cracked it the middle and broken in two, leaving Arius to fall to his death.
The prince did his best to jump off the pillar towards the wall.
Arius closed his eyes for a moment, as he thought about every decision that had led him to this moment, as he fell to his certain death.
Every choice of his life flashed before his eyes in an instant and he remembered who he was.
He was a man who never gave up.
So the prince opened his eyes and removed the outer holy shield as he tried his best to reach for anything to grab a hold on, as he finally made contact with the opposite wall on his way down.
The first try was unsuccessful, as Arius’s first touch with the wall was not smooth. But as the prince fell down he managed to get a grip on a sharp ice spike that stood out of the wall. If it was not for the golden aura of light that still protected his body, the ice would have cut the leather on Arius’s glove along with the skin of his hand.
Arius looked up to the edge of the cliff just a few feet above him and
wondered how to reach it, as he found himself hanging from his only good arm.
The weight of his armor and hammer felt like a heavy anchor, as they slowly began to affect his grip. The prince knew he could not stay like this; he had to climb up and use his holy shield to protect him from the cold, before he fell to his death.
Fortunately for Arius the gusting wind seemed to go over the precipice, allowing him an easier climb and guarding him from the cold.
The prince did his best to think about his father and his people to take his mind off the pain, as he began to move his left arm up. It was not easy and Arius let out a scream powerful enough to be heard despite the strong winds that ran through the cave. But at last the prince managed to get hold of another spike of ice with his left hand.
It took several minutes for Arius to climb just a few feet of the ice wall, but eventually he made it to the top.
But as soon as his fingers made it to the top they found themselves at the mercy of the freezing winds, for not even the golden aura of light energy could protect him.
The bones in his hand began to ache, as the cold made its way through his hand.
Motivated by the pain, Arius made the final push and finished climbing the wall. He then rolled on the floor of the cave away from the edge, so that the strong winds wouldn’t throw him over the edge.
And without even trying to get up, Arius began to channel all the energy he could to reestablish the holy shield, as he could already feel the pain that the cold wind was inflicting all over his body.
Arius did his best to hold his breath for as long as he could, in order to not breathe the cold air.
The prince waited for a few seconds inside the new holy shield for the air to become warm enough for him to breathe properly. Once the air inside the shield was warm enough, the prince resumed his journey.
It took almost two hours for Arius to advance three hundred feet more and reach what seemed to be the end of the cave. He stood in front of a huge wall of ice with a four feet crack on its base. All of the wind inside the cave came from this one crack.
Scorched Kingdom Page 24