Cease the Suffering - Etrian Odyssey II (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 35

AN: Thank you so, so much SakuraiYoake, Deathneessxxx and Irish_Moon_Dreamer for reviewing the previous chapter! This chapter was a bit of a pain to write, so I hope you’ll enjoy reading!

Also I've added a YouTube link to the Etrian Odyssey II OST - Woodland of Frozen Flowers! It's the background music for this stratum. Be sure to listen to it!

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Chapter 35:

Stepping onto the Third Stratum, Lynus wasn’t expecting such a drastic change. The orange and golden hues of autumn, the warm but still crisp air were replaced by bitter cold and pure white. The atmospheric differences between floor 10 and 11 were simply intense.

“Is this…snow?” Lynus murmured as he looked around in awe. White as far as the eye could see. Mounds of snow and chucks of ice surrounded bare trees and stone pillows that were icy blue in colour. Flakes of snow drifted around them slowly. Where the snow was coming from, he had no idea.

He had never seen snow before. He had read about it in his books (especially in regards the medical complications and physical restrictions), but had never encountered such a natural event before. He knew that snow was cold. It was flakes of ice, after all. He just wasn’t expecting it to be this cold. Despite the fact that he had been advised to dress warmly, he was shivering, his breath coming out in short puffs of mist.

Lynus folded his hands into the sleeves of his coat and unconsciously moved closer to Axel, who in turn slipped an arm around him in offer of some warmth.

“So this is why you three were acting vague the other day,” Axel said as he looked around him in the same awe as Lynus.

“Somewhat unbelievable, yes?” Jhon commented with a knowing smile. “It’s hard to believe the temperature could change so much.”

It really was remarkable how different this stratum was compared to the first too.

“We most certainly weren’t expecting this…” Tobyn murmured as he pulled his scarf up further on his face to push back the bitter cold.

“Yup. It’s still freezing!” Macerio grumbled as he wrapped his arms around himself.

“You can understand why we had to turn back rather quickly,” Jhon said as they began to trek through the snow, taking it slowly that Tobyn could scribble on his parchment, making notes on their paths. “Shen, in particular.”

“Wouldn’t be difficult to get frostbite, that’s for sure,” Axel commented, still looking at their surroundings, assessing for any possible threats. “Have you encountered any monsters?”

“No, not yet,” Tobyn answered, glancing up from the map to look around. “But it’s highly likely we haven’t encountered any of them before.”

“True enough.”

“There isn’t much colour here, but it’s still very beautiful,” Lynus couldn’t help but comment as they left the area where the Geomagnetic Field was located, taking a thin path.

“What the hell?” Macerio suddenly bellowed as they encountered a wall made of chucks of ice. He pointed over it, a look of annoyance on his face. “The stairs to the next floor are right there!”

Immediately turning their attention in the direction that Macerio was pointing in, the other four members of their party were intensely surprised to see that, he was right. There was indeed a set of ascending stairs just a few feet away, on the other side of the wall. A wall that wasn’t exactly tall or unpassable.

“Well,” Axel murmured as he eyed of the staircase with a great sense of distrust. “That’s a little suspicious.”

“It might be easy to access,” Jhon said as he eyed off the large chucks of ice, no doubt noting that it should be hard to clumber over. “But we shouldn’t move on without mapping this floor.”