But the sky remained choked.
A heavy lid of grey dust clamped tightly over the ruins of Zone C. The air tasted of pungent sulfur and wet ash—the scent of granite pulverized instantly by fifty thousand tons of force, mixed with the stale odor of ice. Breathing felt like swallowing rough sandpaper.
Fine powder drifted down endlessly.
The dust coated the survivors' armor, smoothed the jagged edges of the ruins, and dyed the once-shadowed depths of Silvermoon Gorge into a lifeless, uniform grey. The natural colors of the stone and the sparse valley scrub were gone, buried under a heavy blanket of pulverized mountain.
I sat on a fractured precast slab, mechanically pouring the last half-mouthful of strong, harsh liquor from a flask scavenged from a dead Wolf soldier into my throat.
"Are the numbers in?"
Ron approached. The Cat-kin Archer Captain, usually with his tail held high, now let it drag listlessly in the muddy water. A piece of his ear was missing, and thick bandages wrapped his arms.
"The count is done, My Lord."
Ursine Heavy Infantry: 142 KIA.
Cat-kin Archers: 78 KIA.
Vulpine Sappers: Minor casualties, morale broken.
Total Casualty Rate: 40%.
"We won." Zayla walked over, sitting not far away. She was wiping dust from her face with a wet rag, revealing pale but determined skin underneath.
"Yeah."
I gave a bitter laugh, tipping my head back to drain the last drop. The spicy liquid burned my throat, dispelling a fraction of the chill.
I stood up, swaying slightly.
A gust of wind blew past, thinning the grey mist in front of us.
The massive new peak, piled up by fifty thousand tons of rock, finally revealed its hideous full face.
A hundred-meter-high mound of chaotic stone lay across the land like the corpse of a giant beast.
"Ron." I pointed at the mountain.
"Sir."
"Clear the area. Then notify Sarak... never mind, notify the backup foreman."
"This pile of rocks is the best foundation. Since the old fortress is destroyed, we will build a new one on this 'Grave'."
"A real factory. I want to put chimneys on top of this and burn a hole through this damn permafrost."
"Build a factory on a grave?" Ron paused, obviously unaccustomed to this line of thought. "But buried underneath..."
"Buried underneath is the Old Era."
I interrupted him.
I turned around, back to the stone mountain, preparing to walk to the survivor camp. I desperately needed a cup of hot coffee and a good sleep. I firmly believed Physics had done its job.
However.
Before I had taken ten steps.
The wind changed.
It didn't whistle or howl. It simply stripped the warmth from the air in an instant.
I stopped. I instinctively tightened the collar of my tattered coat.
"Why is it suddenly so cold?"
It should have been muggy from the heat generated by the impact, but now, the temperature was plummeting at an abnormal rate.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
It was a bone-piercing, damp chill.
Like someone suddenly opened the door to a deep freezer inside a sauna.
"Brad! Why did the fire go out?"
An Ursine warrior's complaint came from the distance.
I looked up sharply.
The campfire, which had been burning vigorously, was now dim. The flames turned a weird blue-purple and shrank rapidly, as if the oxygen in the air was being sucked away by something invisible.
Even the eyebrows of the people warming themselves by the fire began to frost over with white ice.
"Something's wrong."
Zayla stood up abruptly, ignoring the dirt on her face, gripping her broken blade. Her sharp, beast pupils stared dead in the direction behind me, shrinking into thin slits.
"Alex... do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
I frowned, tilting my head to listen.
At first, it was deathly silent. The dust absorbed most environmental noise.
But because of that, the sound stood out so starkly.
A faint, sharp grinding noise drifted from the silence. It sounded like fingernails slowly dragging across a slate, or bones snapping as they grew at an accelerated rate.
The sound came from underground.
A dull, heavy thud resonated from inside the mountain.
The earth trembled slightly.
That sound felt like it knocked directly against my heart valve.
The system panel in my vision, which had been reporting errors, suddenly went mad with popups. Red warning boxes obscured my sight like snowflakes.
And the last line of text that froze made the blood of this engineer, who believed in physics, freeze instantly.
"No..."
I looked at the slightly trembling mountain. My lenses reflected the blinding, eerie blue light seeping out from the cracks in the rocks.
That light was no longer the ice blue from before, but a deeper, crazier dark blue.
"This isn't scientific..."
I took a step back, boots crunching on gravel.
The explosion that followed had no sound at first, only a shockwave of pure energy.
A massive pillar of blue light blasted through a hundred meters of rock layer, shooting straight into the sky, instantly tearing apart the sky-filling dust cloud.
The newly formed, towering stone mountain split open.
Magic filed an appeal.
Ironfang isn't done. And now, he's angry.
Question of the Day: Phase 2 has started. What is Alex's best move?
(Click to update the strategy)
?? A) Run (Again).
Result: The Cardio Check. Valid idea, except for the giant magical barrier usually locking the boss arena. You can't kiting forever, and your stamina bar is blinking red. Escape: Failed.
?? B) Build a bigger trap.
Result: Resource Shortage. We just dropped a literal mountain on him. Unless Alex has a spare moon in his inventory to throw (à la Thanos), we are officially out of heavy rocks.
?? C) Accept that Newton has left the chat.
Result: Reality Check. Sir Isaac Newton is currently spinning in his grave fast enough to power a turbine. Physics has rage-quit. It's time to stop calculating and start screaming.
Follow and Rate. The true final boss fight begins now.