The Ascension

7: The gang has a brush with death

 The good thing about the mountain beginning to shake was that, while the wind did not cease, everything else became searingly hot. Shivers were soon replaced with sweat, but Aster and Wren were too practical to toss aside their coats.

They didn't have time to take off their coats anyways, as the shaking of the mountain left little time for worries such as overheating. The mountain was shaking. Their top priority was getting off the breaking peak and to somewhere they wouldn't feel like they were about to fall off the side.

There was another loud crack as a jagged line instantly drew itself along the length of the peak. Aster grabbed Wren's hand for security and began to walk slowly towards the route down.

There was another crack, and she fell to the ground, dragging Wren along with her. She began to crawl until she reached the narrow path down the mountain path, and it wasn't until they were a good way down that she stood up again.

The sides of the mountain were more secure than the peak, but still seemed flush with heat and the occasional rumble.

"Is this connected to us?" Wren asked. The question was on both their minds.

"I don't think so. We stood there for a while before this happened, and if Ikina truly was testing us here, they wouldn't have waited."

"What is it then?" Wren asked, even though he knew she didn't know.

They gazed up at the steep hill that led to the peak. The sound of breaking rocks was getting more frequent, as was the rumbling. There was something else, like metal on metal, that seemed to be echoing from somewhere too. A hot gust of wind came down the mountain top, and a light came with it.

But Aster and Wren did not care to investigate this phenomenon- instead they found themselves a small crook of a cave and huddled, carefully, together.

A light on a breaking mountaintop is the sort of thing one might hope to see investigated, but, mind, Ae-en was currently a dangerous place to walk on. Aster and Wren were wise to seek shelter.

Anyways, it didn't matter that they weren't around to witness any further events. Someone else was-

Well, many people were, to tell the truth. Ae-en was a very large mountain, and earthquakes were rarely ignored. People in the nearby towns and cities all played observer to the following events- and then, after them, there would be many others who would carry the tale to further reaches, until perhaps a three days later, Aster's own father would hear the news.

The best witness to the scene, and thus the best person to focus on at the moment, was Senya. Surprisingly, or not, he had not fled to Aen-sa with Wren's supplies. He had fled to Ae-en, not taking the same route Wren and Aster had but instead one through the core of the mountain- the caves, the thin narrow tunnels that they were, led to the heart of the mountain.

And they him to where he was now, the heart of Ae-en: an altar of fire. The mountain itself didn't seem, on first appearance, to be a volcano. This is because it was not. The lava was not there from the mantle of the earth. It was there for one purpose: to keep the vessel of the land alive.

It may be good now to take a step back, explain a few things and all that. But Senya didn't have that luxury of time, to explain a thing. He was starting to burn.

There was a good reason this quest was called immolation.

He had some water still, and he swallowed half of it and poured a little on his face. He was drenched in sweat, but knew if he took off his clothes he'd only risk more severe burns. The lava had almost been cool when he had entered this grand chamber, but as the creature within awoke, everything began to feel like it was on fire. The rumbling of the cave did not help either, as rocks of all sizes were dislodging from the chamber's ceiling and falling down.

The entrance he had used to get in here, a steep and skinny tunnel, seemed at risk of collapsing at any second. It was maybe seven feet off the ground, and he had to jump to get a grip on the bottom of the tunnel. Just touching the rock seemed hot enough to burn his hand if he hadn't been wearing gloves- but despite his protection, it still hurt.

He threw his weight wildly, jumping and forcing himself far beyond his ability to climb up. Only when he was fully in the nook did he rest to let his adrenaline rush die down.

Seeing as he was in a cave, it was too dark to see much. The lava, unconvincingly real, added an off-red touch of color and gave off a small amount of light. But most of what could be seen was silhouettes of dark shapes.

There was something that might have been a creature in there. But it might have been a rock. Something about it was moving though, as steadily he saw beams of light cut themselves on the ceiling- apertures to the outside. He had to get moving before the roof fully collapsed and his tunnel became overrun with dust.

He crawled for his life. The tunnels here were thin, and often too tight to navigate comfortably. He had left Wren's backpack in a chamber some ways back, taking with him only the sword and water bottle, and now he struggled to find his way back.

The vibrations on the floor caused Senya to often bump his head on he ceiling. He couldn't focus on the route he had taken in, and the narrow passages branched off like capillaries. He eventually found himself in rooms he definitely did not recognize, and soon changed his goal to simple escape.

He followed the sound of wind the best he could, but truthfully he was utterly lost in the darkness. He had put aside his feelings of claustrophobia best he could many years ago, but between the deafening shaking and the repetitive and dark rooms, his heart was picking up an irregular heartbeat.

Finally, he found the heat subsiding and the wind, buried under everything else, slowing becoming louder. He about threw himself onto the dusty rock outside and took a minute to just breathe.

But there was still shaking, and he still had a job to do, so after a moment he began to fast walk- and then run- up the mountain. He passed Wren and Aster in doing so, actually, but they were lucky not to notice.

Considering he had entered the cave system near the base of the mountain, it was some good chance that he emerged near the top. Otherwise there was no possible way he would have made it to the peak in time to see a few things.

And experience a few others.

Senya climbed closer to the plateau of the peak, waiting. The light continued to hover, and despite the clamor of the breaking mountain, everything was quite boring.

Then there was another crack- yes, another- but it was slightly different from the rest. It echoed into the expanse of the sky, and the rumbling stopped. Then, hundreds of fissures splinted across the shell of rock Senya was standing on. He ran to solid ground, leaping off of breaking shards that crumbled under his feet, and fell onto dirt. Then he spun around, and watched the suddenly very silent night.