After climbing up to the cliff, Zich looked down. He couldn’t see the floor. White clouds hung around the middle of the cliff and covered the areas below. It was a rare dream-like scene that brought chills to its viewers. If he fell from here, it would be the same as flinging his body high up into the air. Zich gazed a bit upwards. A white blanket of clouds blanketed the sky like open plains, and several peaks shot through them. They were covered with ice caps and appeared white, matching the color of clouds so that it looked like he was in a world with only white plains and mountains.
Zich turned his head and looked behind him this time. Unlike the other peaks that barely managed to reach over the cloud, the peak behind him belonged to the tallest mountain in the world: Selockblum. It still maintained its massive figure and looked down on Zich.
‘I have to keep going up.’ He hung Windur, which pointed in the direction of Selockblum’s peak, and continued treading forward. Since he wasn’t on a cliff, there was no need for him to force his fingers into the cliff, but the slope and terrain remained difficult and rough. The high piles of snow kept pulling his ankles down, and sharp winds kept trying to rip apart his clothes. Then, the bright orange sky gradually turned brown. However, Zich continued walking. Even the rough mountain path of the world’s greatest peak couldn’t halt his feet. Some time later, Zich finally stood at the highest point in the world.
‘I can’t believe it made me go all the way to Selockblum’s peak.’
Although Zich hoped that Windur would guide him to a cave somewhere in the mid-region of Selockblum, Windur continued to guide him towards the mountain top.
‘Well, it’s a place worth seeing at least once.’
The only word that came to his mind was ‘marvelous’ as he looked at the sky that seemed to stretch to infinity and the view that existed below it. Even with his excellent eyesight, Zich couldn’t see any living creatures on the surface below him. There were also no mountain peaks standing alongside Zich. He was at the highest point in the world. The only thing that existed above him was the sky, clouds, and heavenly bodies. This fact made even Zich’s emotions stir. He had climbed up the mountain at the speed of lightning without resting because he was worried about Pialu. Now, as Zich sat on top of the peak’s boulder, he stared below him for a moment.
‘When the matter at Pialu settles down, I should bring the rest of the team here,’ he thought. It was a sight too marvelous for him to see alone.
Zich stared below him blankly and something passed his mind. He remembered something else he had promised to do and took out an object from the magic box. It was a small urn. Zich opened the urn’s lid and checked its contents. It was filled with ashes.
‘It was stored well.’
Zich placed his hand into the urn and took out handfuls of ashes. Then, he scattered the ashes into the air.
Whooosh!
The strong winds clutched the ashes and escaped into the sky. Zich continued pulling out and scattering the ashes from the urn, not caring what happened to them. The ashes quickly disappeared until the last fistful of ashes and an amount too tiny to be grasped inside the urn remained. Zich stared at the ashes in his hands and said, “Didn’t I promise you? I said I would scatter you in the highest place in the world.”
Zich scattered the last fistful of ashes. Then, he flipped the urn and emptied it. While looking at the ashes floating in the air, he said, “Goodbye, Trislowa. Don’t hold any resentment towards me for this since everything is your fault.”
Whooosh!
As if it were shuddering in rage, the ashes seemed to shake as they flew in the winds. Then, they dispersed until it looked like they had melted into the blue sky. Feeling that he had completed an important mission, Zich was filled with satisfaction and pride.
‘Yup, it’s important to keep promises.’
It wasn’t fitting for Zich to say since he had broken multiple promises while killing Trislowa, but no one was around to argue with him now. After dwelling in this emotional moment and finishing his last task involving Trislowa, Zich carried out the main reason for his visit to this peak. He took out Windur whose blades were curved. Unlike how it usually looked, Windur’s blade pointed to the area below his feet.
Zich rubbed the floor with his feet and pushed away high piles of snow. However, that didn’t last long. Soon, a completely frozen floor beneath him greeted him. It was clear that it wouldn’t break from a simple shock.
Zich stared at Windur, and it persistently pointed below Zich’s feet. ‘I guess I have to dig.’ Zich didn’t expect to be shoveling snow after coming all the way up to Selockblum. After complaining a bit, he turned Windur to the peak. Then, after he poured a large burst of mana into it, he stuck the ground below him hard.
Craaaaash! A gigantic collision whirled around Selockblum’s peak, and the immense amount snow piled up in the area reacted.
Craaaash! The peacefully sleeping snow erupted. It moved even the snow nearby and a cloud of white dust whirled until it fell below. Snow swept down the mountain peak, but Zich didn’t look concerned even though he had caused this massive disaster. Since the avalanche occurred in such a high place, he knew it wouldn’t harm the areas below the mountain. Zich simply continued to dig in the area that Windur pointed toward. Although the floor changed into an extremely hardened ice lump, it couldn’t block Windur after it was filled with mana.
Every time Zich swung Windur, ice chunks that were bigger than a human jumped out. After some time passed—
Bam! A sharp sound rang out from beneath the ice. This was completely different from when Windur simply slammed against the ice. In the first place, ice that could push Windur back with mana did not exist.
‘Found it!’ Zich fused a large amount of mana in his foot and raised it.
Craaackkk!
The ice underneath his feet completely broke. Zich cleaned up the shattered ice, and a hard metal appeared underneath. First, the metal that let out cold air was not an ordinary piece of metal at all. However, Zich was not interested in different types of metal; his gaze was stuck on the long crack that appeared between the metal. Zich inserted Windur into that crack.
Click! He heard something click from the inside. Zich turned Windur, and the crack began turning with Windur at its center.
Clank!
When Windur turned a full circle, Zich heard the sound of metal clanking.
Crrccccck!
As Selockblum shook, the spaces beside the crack slowly began pushing to the side. After a while, a hole big enough for one person to go inside appeared in front of Zich.
‘It’s here.’ Anyone could tell that this place was related to Clowon. Zich ordered Windur to point towards the location of the tree. However, Windur didn’t change at all.
‘Does it think it doesn’t need to lead me anymore?’ Windur really did whatever it wanted to. Zich clicked his tongue and tied Windur on his back. Then, he looked down into the hole where he could see a long staircase that stretched down.
‘What should I do?’ Zich pondered a bit. He had found what he wanted, and there was probably another tree underneath this hole. ‘Do I have to bring the others?’
Whenever they found a tree, it never ended easily for Zich and his companions so far. For the Tree of Fire, they were swept into a tribal war between elves, and for the Tree of Water, there was an experimental monster that tried to steal Lyla’s memories. For the Tree of Earth, they had to battle Marilyn and the defense system in a tomb.
‘However, I can’t be certain that it’ll be the same for this place.’
In the best-case scenario, there might be no obstacles at all for this tree, and his concerns would have all been naught. Zich couldn’t be certain of anything right now in this situation, but his concern did not last long.
‘I’m going down.’
As long as Til and Glen Zenard were in the city, he needed someone he trusted to also stay in Pialu for his heart to feel relieved. Moreover, regardless of how dangerous the situation was, Zich was confident that he’d at least be able to escape. Zich put his feet on the staircase, and when his body fully disappeared beneath the hole, the door closed again. As if it had been doing this for a very long time, the hole fell into silence. Once again, only the noisy sound of wind flowed around Selockblum.
* * *
It was dark inside the hole. However, the darkness was unable to cover Zich’s sight. Zich moved on with ease as if a large light source was only cast upon him. The staircase spiraled, stretched out below, and continued on until it reached Selockblum’s center. However, regardless of how long the staircase went on, there was still an end. Zich put his feet at the bottom of the staircase and he noticed that his surroundings were quite wide. Light shined from the ceiling like the Emperor’s tomb, so it was bright. One thing caught Zich’s eye below the lights.
‘Is it a house? No, judging by how it looks, is it a temple?’ Since it was a building built a long time ago, it might be a completely different place than what Zich expected, but regardless of what it was, it looked like a temple to Zich.
Zich walked towards the building. Considering how large this space was, the building was also considerably large. After walking up smooth staircases, large pillars welcomed Zich. Heavy roofs were placed on top. Since it was a building inside a city, it didn’t need a roof, but that was probably the architectural style. However, unlike its massive size, the inside of the building was very simple. There were no walls; only pillars supported the roofs on top so the inside was clear. The most noticeable feature of the building was the large altar and a statue on top of it.
‘It’s the first emperor of the Clowon Empire.’ He had already seen this face in the Emperors’ tomb. ‘It’s Lyla’s dad.’
Zich took out Windur. It was a statue of a figure that moved by itself in the Emperor’s tomb and freely attacked Zich like crazy. There was no assurance that this statue wouldn’t also do the same thing. However, even when Zich approached the statue, it didn’t move. Zich continued to keep his guard against it.
‘The statues in the tomb also began moving only after it was triggered.’ While keeping his guard up against the statue, Zich scanned his surroundings. Nothing looked very special to him. He only saw things that looked like preparations for some kind of ritual.
‘Is the object of worship the first Emperor?’
This was not very surprising. The first Emperor was the one who created the basic framework of Clowon. This was enough for his predecessors to serve him as a god. However, it didn’t matter how much the people in Clowon sincerely worshiped their first Emperor. ‘There’s nothing much for me to see here.’
Zich searched the area around the temple and found a hole behind the Emperor’s statue. A long staircase stretched out from below the hole like last time. Zich descended down the stairs, and the staircase was also very long this time. When Zich reached the bottom of the staircase, he was able to see it— there was an enormous tree covered in extremely thick chains floating in the air.