DIVINE MOUNTAIN

"Nightfall approaches…" With such a cliche line Ivan peered through the leaves of a tree he sat in. It was difficult to get everyone else in the same tree so they spent their time apart, communicating using telepathy. He ignored the snickering of Claire and the stars in the eyes of Tio as he brought out a telescope-like device from his Treasure Trove. His normal eyes were capable of seeing the folk roaming on the mountain even with the current great distance but he wanted to be sure he got an accurate count of potential foes.

As such the telescope possessed a straightforward feature, thermal vision. It was currently night time and while people were roaming the mountain it was likely that most of the priests and nuns had turned in for the night. While it made an accurate count nigh impossible as the telescope didn't possess an x-ray, the fewer people awake the easier it would be to break through their defenses.

"I'm quite confident an alarm would be sounded the moment we break through the barrier. Our target is the tallest tower on the mountain, as cliche as it may be there's a good chance Aiko is being held captive there. I suspect they have numerous magical traps set in place to keep her there so I shall be the one to pursue. I ask that the rest of you hold your ground until I confirm that she is in my possession."

"Umu, rest assured that we have your back, master~! Yue and I shall form a barrier of our own around the tower while you attempt to locate her. In the meantime, Felis and Canis will be in charge of taking care of the priests and nuns that come to defend. Claire and Ari shall work their way up the tower from below to clear out any potential aid." Tio took the role of team captain for the duration while Ivan was gone.

"Alright, with that there's only one thing left to do." Ivan signaled toward Yue as she approached Tio. Tio only spread her arms open as Yue held her two hands right in front of her. While Yue was unfamiliar with support magic there were a few basic ones she was capable of casting, such as a decent barrier that protected her target from magical attacks, its limit being the threshold of damage it could withhold.

Thinking about it, it'd probably take only a few fireballs from adept mages to break it but having a shield was better than facing the full brunt of everything. Not that most magical attacks could even scratch the deep black scales of Tio's draconic body. It was more so that the range of the buff would spread around her like a bubble, protecting the group that sat on top of her body.

The Divine Mountain was completely unlit, the structures of the church that sat at the top had snuffed out their lights in preparation for bedtime. To accommodate for the darkness Ivan added another basic function to the faceless masks, night vision. The moon provided a bit of light to the area but the clouds signaled that soon it would be covered again.

It wouldn't work for Tio in her dragon form but once she swapped back it would equip her.

One by one they dove out of their hiding spots in the trees and each stood behind Tio. They'd await Ivan's countdown before proceeding to the next step. Ivan had forced them to do the basic gravity magic training so the least they could muster was a force that'd break their fall should they need to evacuate from Tio's back or dive into the scene ahead of time.

"On your marks... Get set—!" Ivan held one fist into the air. It arched up and was ready to fall like a hammer. He let the silence drag on to edge the anticipation of the others. The awkward shuffling of their feet brought a grin to his face. And just right when he felt they let their guard down—

"Go!!!"

Tio's eyes snapped forward as her body basked in bright light, within seconds the short-in stature black-haired beauty became enwrapped in scales and lost any semblance of humanity. Her cruel golden eyes gleamed as she stared headfast toward her target.

She only remained stationary for a few seconds before she felt several entities latch onto her back. The bubble defense she had cast on her earlier covered the figures swiftly. No roar, no show of pride, Tio only flapped opened her wings and skidded across the earth like a missile.

Moments before hitting the mountain she arched upward and climbed the scale of the mountain. The side of the mountain they ascended wasn't exposed to the moon, their silhouettes only became a blur. A full minute went by before the scenery changed. The tower was right there, standing arrogantly next to the church, proclaiming to the world as if only it was allowed to scratch the sky where god resided.

Ivan hurriedly ran to the snout of Tio's body, his right hand extending slightly in front of her as he prepared for any incoming barriers. He attempted with his best efforts to block any of the sparks erupting from his right arm, slightly worried that they may enter Tio's eyes.

Though if he could read her mind right now he would find that she was overjoyed because of two things: one, she was overjoyed at his concern for her well-being. Even if a few sparks entered her eyes at most it would tickle a bit or make her flinch. Two, the sparks that did enter her eyes felt pleasurable to her. She made a reminder in her mind to ask for such treatment again as a reward once they were done with this mission.

Such thoughts would have broken the concentration of her master, so for now she withheld them.

SHATTER!

As he anticipated, a blue barrier was the first of their obstacles. His hand only rested on it for less than a second before it exploded into thousands of magical residues. This was likely the alarm, or more accurately it definitely was the alarm. The moment it shattered a blaring noise erupted throughout the mountain.

Ivan was even sure that such a loud alarm would reach the kingdom that sat below. That only doubled the urgency he felt, things would only get troublesome if the heroes joined the Church's side. For now, he set his sights on the upcoming barrier, he had faith in Tio's speed. If anything his confidence in her was the backbone of this entire plan.

"The second barrier!" Since he could see the next barrier he went ahead and called out to the rest of the group to brace for potential impact. It seemed that breaking the first barrier triggered the appearance of two more, though he prepared on the off chance that there was a fourth. Unasked, those capable of creating mid-long-range attacks prepared to aid him in case he met resistance.

However, such worries were unfounded—

SHATTER!

The second barrier went down as fast as the first. Ivan stared at his palm for a few seconds before returning it to be the spearhead of this attack. That red barrier he went by was slightly different than the first. The first barrier served as an alarm and defense, the second was both defense and offense. What he felt from touching the second barrier was intense heat. His hand carried a trail of steam after his less than a second contact with it.

It hadn't burned any of his skin but it was terrifying nonetheless. Though it did confirm that they did hold a few powerful artifacts. As he was completely certain that such a barrier wasn't cast. He stared at the last barrier intensely.

This was seemingly the last one before they reached the peak. White in color, it was abysmally small to the point that it barely scathed the top of the tower. Ivan could make out the small figures dashing around the tower in horror. Rightfully so too, as the Divine Mountain never in its recorded history has ever faced an attack. Of course, the inhabitants that never worried about attacks in their lifetimes were completely caught off guard.

They cast aside all training and instruction and instead formed a disorganized defense strategy. Now, what was that strategy? Well, it seemed like the final barrier was one-way, as those within the barrier could attack people outside but the other way around didn't work. It was an attack they would have conducted regardless if they knew the final barrier had that feature.

To reiterate these barriers hadn't had a use in dozens of centuries, all inhabitants of the mountain never even saw the barrier before.

'Five seconds before impact…' He charged tons of mana for this one final break, in case it had other features he didn't want to get torn up. The shield Yue cast succeeded in defending them from the priests' pitiful attacks but soon it would break.

4

3

2

1

"Grhh!" This time Ivan felt resistance. The sparks collided with the white barrier before wrapping it with its red glow. From afar it seemed as though tentacles of red lightning clamped onto the side of the mountain.

SHATTER!

Compared to the other barriers this one had taken a full second of Ivan's time.

Tio's speed accelerated several times as now she was confident nothing stood in their way. In a matter of seconds they went from staring up at the mountain to staring down at it from the sky. 'Dive, dive, dive!' The group that saddled Tio's back nodded as they heard the transmission from Ivan.

The plan had changed suddenly but they adapted to it nonetheless. Ivan sent his new instructions to Tio, asking her to stay in her dragon form to decimate possible reinforcements. Yue should be capable of defending the tower alone using Hallowed Ground.

The girls rained from the sky like valkyries, landing softly on their feet as it seemed as though the air became a stepping stool to their steps. For seconds the priests stared in awe at them, briefly believing that they were apostles sent by god to validate their existence.

At least that was until—

BANG!

The priests turned their eyes in shock to the golden-haired beauty that stood above the others in the air, her finger pointed at their comrade who had become headless.

"We have come to end your existence…" She muttered aloud

==============================================================

If you want to support me please follow this link! There's a couple new links added~: https://linktr.ee/ardoaleister

Mountains are scary~ Then again I haven't gone to a mountain in at least a decade. My memories there are faint, I believe I was swimming in a popular lake before we had to evacuate as a rattle snake was spotted swimming in the water. The exaggeration of the matter was hilarious as minutes later a man ran in, grabbed it, and killed it all within two minutes. That was the first time I saw a wild snake so it was pretty cool. You guys should have seen how awesome it looked swimming through the water~!

That's it for story time. Thanks as always for reading today's chapter, I hope you all enjoyed. It was pretty fun. Have a great evening, and stay safe~!

If you want to support me and read ahead 10-15 chapters, you can check out my p.a.t.r.e.o.n right here: https://bit.ly/ardoaleister

Discord: https://discord.gg/tQ5TWbYd9t