Read Novel Full Chapter 488: Snow And Ruin [I]
Chapter 488: Snow And Ruin [I]
I’ll be strong… I’ll be strong…
Much like the Ivory Castle, the Ebony Castle was a high tower positioned at the top of a very tall cliff.
To get to it, you had two options. Either scale the cliff or drop down from the sky.
Casey Torr Snowrite chose the former.
After somehow getting away from Ivan in the Great Divide, she swam for hours upon hours, ignoring the constant sharp ache in her spine.
She traversed the thin tributaries branching off from the main river and rounded the two armies completely unnoticed.
Her limbs were numb from the cold, her head pounding like it was being split open, and her ribs now felt as though they were being hammered on an anvil.
In such condition, she reached the base of the cliff on which the Ebony Tower stood.
Then came the hard part.
She got here unnoticed, but now she needed to climb unnoticed as well.
How did she manage that?
Well, the cliff was situated at the very edge of the floating island. Meaning, while one face of the cliff overlooked the dense jungle of the Ebony Sector, the other face dropped off into the absolute nothingness of the endless sky.
Or, well, it certainly looked endless from so high up here.
Now, obviously, genius as she was, Casey chose the side that overlooked the sky. There were no Sentries on the lookout there, no Scouts on patrol either.
It was honestly a smart plan… which was exactly why it was so stupid.
Halfway up the climb, she pressed herself tight against the rough stone and looked upward. The Ebony Tower was still a long way above her. Hundreds of meters at least.
The cliff face was almost completely vertical here, with only occasional outcroppings of rock and tangled roots offering anything resembling handholds.
And Casey had no climbing equipment. No grappling hook or rope. She had packed those things in a spare Storage Card on her utility belt, but she lost the damn belt itself during Ivan’s ambush.
“I’m so dumb, I’m so dumb,” she cried, softly banging her forehead against the damp granite.
Little pebbles came loose and clattered into the bottomless white abyss below, disappearing between the clouds without making a single sound.
“Great. Perfect,” she muttered, her breath coming in shallow hitches. “Lost my gear, broke my ribs, and now I’m dangling off the edge of the world like an idiot.”
The wind howled past her back, a merciless vortex pulling at her soaked clothes, threatening to drag her down.
She could use some Cards… but then she would be found. Right now, a high-grade concealment relic that she had gotten from Thalia was in effect.
It was a locket. When active, its single enchantment allowed its wearer to hide their presence from nearly any low-ranked Scout by suppressing their smell, heat signature, and even Essence trace from those select few who could see Essence.
Thalia wasn’t sure if this relic would hide a person’s aura, but judging by the fact that Alexia Von Zynx had yet to rain down hellfire on this side of the mountain, the little trinket was doing its job frighteningly well.
The only problem was that if Casey summoned any Cards, the locket’s enchantment would automatically be deactivated.
She had no idea how far Alexia could see with her Aura sight, but she really didn’t want to risk it.
“Okay.” Her voice came out as little more than a hoarse whisper. She glanced down. There was nothing but an endless sea of clouds, floating far below the island.
If she fell from here, she wouldn’t die immediately.
She’d have several seconds to contemplate her life choices first.
Somehow, that was worse.
Surely the Instructors wouldn’t let her fall, right?
The rules didn’t say anything about getting rescued if you were just stupid enough to slip off the edge of the island.
Casey looked back up. “Okay.”
Her small hand dug into the jagged rock as she hauled her body up another foot, dragging her dead-weight leg onto a thumb-wide ledge.
A lightning-hot pain tore through her chest as her cracked ribs shifted against her lungs.
“Nnnph!” She locked her jaw, stopping the scream that threatened to burst from her throat. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, blurring the granite in front of her.
Then… she continued climbing.
She felt like crying at times, felt like stopping. The poison in her body was flaring, taking hold of her nerves. It was as if needles were stabbing into her skin.
But whenever she wanted to stop, whenever her physical condition deteriorated enough to make her want to give up, a voice echoed in her ears, repeating the same thing over and over again:
I’ll be strong… I’ll be strong…
Hours passed. The evening sky darkened into midnight. Casey could tell from the sounds that the two armies had started clashing.
The Mock War would soon end. Her duty to make sure it ended in the Ivory Crown’s favor.
Quietly sobbing, she pulled herself up one final handhold, her torn fingertips leaving a smear of dark blood on the mossy lip of the summit.
When her elbows finally hooked over the stone ledge, Casey rolled herself over onto her stomach, her cracked lips trembling to draw long, greedy gasps of the cold air.
The poison coursing through her veins chilled her blood, making her feel colder and colder until it felt like she was buried in ice. Every heartbeat throbbed behind her eyes like a war drum and her ribs may as well have been crushed to powder.
I’ll be strong…
She didn’t dare lie there for long.
Raising her chin from the mud, she looked up. The back wall of the Ebony Tower awaited her just a few meters ahead.
With quivering legs working to push her straight, Casey finally drew a few explosion Cards from her Deck, letting the concealment break.
•••
Terry was fidgeting. A lot. “Are you sure we shouldn’t go out there to help him, Lady Zynx?”
“Don’t call me that. My mother is Lady Zynx.” Alexia yawned, still draped over the throne. Her shoulder was still bound in a sling, hurting every now and again. “And he’ll be fine. Sam loves to put on a good show.”
King Terry was about to press his concern, but he was cut off by the sound of thunder that came from far too close for his comfort.
And it wasn’t just once. A couple more thunderclaps rumbled, each louder than the last, each signaling that Samael and Thalia’s fight was reaching its bloody peak somewhere in the marshlands.
Terry let out an anxious sigh.
He turned away from the doorway and began pacing back toward the elevated dais at the center of the throne room. “I just hope he doesn’t take too long. I don’t even get why he has to—”
Alexia stirred all of a sudden. Something… wasn’t right. She moved her head around, looking like she was trying to see something out of view.
Then her sightless eyes widened. She was on her feet at a moment’s notice, shouting, “Terry, move—!”
But before Terry could process her warning or even turn to look at her, the entire northeast wall of the throne room exploded.
—BOOM!!