53 Mountaineering

My feet sink into an inch of white snow as soon as I emerge from my portal. And from the look of things, it looks like a blizzard is headed my way.

Perfect, a snowstorm is just what I needed.

I look around, the grey sky and the impossibly high mountains are unlike anything I ever saw.

Maybe I'll be lucky and find a bundle of Roses not too far from here… nope, nothing at all. There's just snow and destroyed hope here.

*At this point, I should really stop expecting anything to go my way, it's a bad habit.*

But I shouldn't let it affect me. Thanks to my Rewinder and my Portal Gun I can cover a large amount of ground in what is effectively no time at all… at least for everyone else except me.

Great, I feel even more unmotivated now!

*Let's get this over with… I don't even know what kind of conditions is favored by the Roses, so I can't reduce my search area.*

I fire my Gun towards a steep area near me; my only goal right now is to outrun the blizzard.

But it's larger than I first thought, so I'm bound to endure it as long as I stay on those mountains. And I'm not really worried about the cold or the wind, even if snowstorms on this planet could be magnitudes more violent than the ones on Earth.

What I'm really worried about is the massive reduction in visibility caused by the snow. Finding the Roses is already almost impossible in a clear climate since they blend so well with the mountainous background.

Now add a snowstorm into the mix, and my already slim chances would be reduced to zero.

I observe my surroundings, but I find nothing besides snow and ice. There is some kind of weird, almost rock-like plants here and there, but the area is otherwise completely barren. It's a far cry from the massive hills from earlier, but at least I'm certain that I will not run into nasty beasts up here.

Or at least I hope so, with my luck I'll run into a giant half-dragon polar bear.

This area is devoid of the Frostcrystal Roses, so I teleport towards another spot that should be easy to walk on. I have to be careful, or I might trigger a massive avalanche. And been swept down a mountain that might reach the stratosphere doesn't sound very pleasant.

I emerge in a sort of mini-plateau that rapidly turns into a snaking path leading towards the top of the peaks.

Looking around doesn't yield anything, so I turn around and-

The snow crumbles under my feet and I fall head first into a crevasse.

My armor adapts to the sudden change in lighting, and I get a good view of the icy walls as I plummet down the large hole in the ground.

I slam into the icy ground, sending dirt and unknown shiny particles flying around. My shield dampened the fall so I don't even have a bruise. I briefly look around, maybe the roses are subterranean plants so I may find some nearby…

Sadly, I don't find anything other than weird blue mushrooms that are at the origin of the shiny particles filling the air.

There's nothing of interest here, so I Rewind and this time I avoid the area where the crevasse is before teleporting away.

Now, I'm on a small path covered in long-dead shrubs.

And, surprisingly enough, there's not a single Rose around.

I'm about to try my luck at another location when movement under the dead plants catches my attention. I reach for my Field Pistol and soon find the one responsible for the movement, a small short-eared white rabbit sniffing the ground.

*It's probably looking for food, but I can't let its appearance deceive me.*

I raise my Pistol, and it looks like my intuition was correct. Something bulges from under the creature's skin, and its head snaps in half. A long and thin screeching brown leech emerges from the newly formed hole, so I punt the carcass, with the leech still inside, off the mountain before it can emerge.

But it looks like my efforts were for naught since similar screeches soon echo from all around me. Long leeches similar to the one from before rises from the ground, and I'm rapidly surrounded by a forest of blood-sucking parasites.

Fuck this shit.

I Rewind before they can engulf me, and this time I stay clear of the brushes. So much for not facing any dangerous creatures, I think I understand why there's nothing on this mountain.

The leeches probably ate everything.

This planet is just too much… The idea of falling into a crevasse full of the disgusting things makes me shiver.

Note to self: Consider orbital bombardment.

Let's stop daydreaming and go back to work, this mountain is even more hostile than I thought so I want to get out of here as soon as possible. Because who knows what kind of ancient evil might be lurking here?

I arrive at a small valley between two massive rocks, at this point I'm already higher than the clouds but the mountains seem to continue forever.

*This thing is so tall that I would probably reach space if I scaled it completely.*

However, there shouldn't be any reason to go there. After all, nothing should be able to grow in a complete vacuum… right?

I swear that I'll burn this place to the ground if all the Roses are at the top.

Onto the next area, this one is a bit interesting since it is a large concave plateau with a small frozen lake in its center.

I narrow my eyes towards the lake, there seems to be something in its center, and-

Something moves and takes to the sky, a miniature snowstorm soon follows.

*Fuck, I can't see anything! What's the-*

An eagle-like scream causes cracks to appear on the surface of my helmet, and my Shield Glove empties its magazine in the blink of an eye.

An immense pressure forces me to my knees and my armor groans while my robes start to shine a little.

This happened before when I faced the pseudo-Spirit. But this feels stronger, and I'm almost sinking into the ground. Those robes are way more protective than I thought, but-

*HoW DaRe ThEy DaMagE uS! KILL!*

And I thought you wouldn't show up. As usual, you're very helpful and rational.

The culprit finally shows its face, it's a massive eagle-like creature that's completely white. Its glowing yellow eyes glance at me, and it puts even more pressure on my armor, which somehow stays in one piece, and causes my body to bend in rather unnatural ways.

The eagle has trails of deep blue flames on its wings and on the top of its head, its black beak also looks like it splits the air around it while it descends towards me. The creature's talons are surrounded by the same blue flames, and they look impossibly sharp.

There's no mistake possible, this is a fully-fledged Spirit.

Fighting it is a futile endeavor, it's impossibly fast and flying so there's no way I can teleport it away, unless…

I glance over what looks like to be the Spirit's nest in the middle of the frozen lake. If I remember correctly, it was resting here before it sensed me, so maybe I can use that to my advantage.

The Spirit is rather large this time, so I hope I'll be able to transport it through my portals.

But first, I need the coordinates of that nest. I glance at the screen of my Portal Gun, which is covered in cracks, and grit my teeth before teleporting near the nest, causing the Spirit to screech again. This sonic attack nearly shatters my helmet, so I memorize the coordinates just as the Spirit causes a sonic boom when it suddenly changes direction while charging towards me.

I Rewind just in time to avoid its beak, and I'm back to before I teleported into that Spirit's territory. I glance at the list of available waypoints on my Portal Gun and smirk before setting up a new program. It should transfer the big frozen chicken nugget in the middle of a certain village full of nice people.

I'm sure they'll appreciate my gift!

I hold the trigger of my Gun for as long as I can, and only release it when the vibrations reach a dangerous level.

Surprised yelps echoes in the mountain and cracks appear on the surface of my helmet. I wait for a few seconds before risking teleporting back to the Spirit's nest. The chicken nugget is nowhere to be found, so I either successfully teleported it or it flew away.

Either way, the next seconds will decide if I succeeded or not. If I didn't then I can expect an angry Spirit to dive towards me at Mach five. Otherwise, I should be fine.

I just hope Spirits can't teleport, or I'm going to be in trouble.

A tense minute passes, and the flying Spirit is nowhere to be found. Tension leaves my body and I explore the area, maybe the Spirit would have interesting items in its nest.

I tap the ice sheet with my foot, and it doesn't react, so it should be safe to walk towards the nest. As I get closer to it, I realize that it's bigger than I previously thought. A few family cars could easily fit inside of the large mystical construct.

The nest looks like a typical bird's nest, expect it's made with slightly glowing transparent ice crystals, some even contain what looks like blackened wood. I can't climb into it, so I teleport in the middle of the nest, and find…absolutely nothing of value.

*Great, what a waste of time!*

There's nothing interesting in the nest, it's completely barren save for weirdly shaped animal skeletons here and there. I am about to leave when a particularly strong gust of wind knocks a skeleton to the side, and my jaw drops when I realize what it just revealed.

A patch of five blooming Roses was hiding right under my nose!

I kneel next to the plants and try to uproot them, a thin film of frost forms around my armored hands as soon as I touch a Rose. I pull with all my strength, but it just won't come out!

The tug of war between the stubborn plant and me continues for a few minutes until it finally gives out, and I quickly put it into a secure container.

I explore the rest of the nest as thoroughly as possible to make sure that I don't miss any, but I can't find more Roses.

*It's a shame, but at least I'm closer to my goal now. From what I can see, the Roses only exist in very extreme climates, so going up might help me find more. I just hope they aren't only growing in Spirit nests, or I'm going to be here for a while.*

I take a deep breath and keep searching for more Roses outside of the nest, but my luck seems to have run out.

Teleporting and Rewinding around the mountain for close to an hour only yields me one Rose. I keep going higher and higher, a brief look downward reveals that the clouds are way below me, and the sky is quickly losing its color.

*How is this even possible? This mountain is somehow higher than the atmosphere of this planet.*

At least finding the Roses, if there are any left, should be easier since there's little to no snow left on the ground and all the vegetation is gone.

I teleport to another section of the narrowing peak, I'm seeing the top of the mountain so it shouldn't take too long before I reach the top.

A blue shimmer catches my attention, and what I see boggles my mind: A Frostcrystal Rose is growing on top of a rock, and it produces a small puddle of frost near its thin stalk.

*How can these plants grow in what's effectively a vacuum?*

I shake my head and head towards the rare plant. My short journey allows me to notice that each of my steps slightly propel me upwards, a sign that gravity is losing its grip on me.

This makes me see the massive peak from a different angle. If it was ordinary then it wouldn't be able to be that high and resist the pull of the planet's rotation.

*There's no way that's natural, especially considering it's placement that provides an almost perfect wall around the capital…*

But the mysteries behind this mountain are of no concern to me, so I-

A rock in front of me suddenly explodes and it's sent flying into lower orbit at an insane velocity. I turn my head around and realize what's happening: The mountain, while strong, isn't unscathed by the forces it has to endure. So sometimes pieces break off, and they increase in velocity…

And turn into deadly micro-meteors.

A cosmic shotgun blast pelts my position and turns the rocky surface where I was just a second ago into Swiss cheese. My heartbeat increases, if I'm hit by even a small pebble flying at this kind of speed then there's no way of telling if my Glove will be able to handle it.

*I need to get out of here or I might be torn to shreds before I can even understand what's happening.*

Teleporting away from the general area proves to be the correct decision since a rather large cloud of debris, varying from the size of a water droplet to a fist-sized chunk, smash into the mountain. The impact causes a powerful shockwave that almost sends me flying.

It takes a few seconds for me to recover from the shockwave, and the results of that collision leave me speechless.

The previously intact area has been completely pulverized, and the collision formed another large cloud of debris.

*It's no wonder that this place looks a lot more ragged and sharp than the base of the mountain.*

The collisions will keep happening, causing even more debris that causes even more collision… This cycle will eventually completely destroy the top of this peak.

And I don't want to be here when it happens, so I need to hurry up!

I realize that worrying about a natural disaster that will take hundreds, if not thousands of years to occur is a bit silly.

But past events have proven that I'm a magnet for disasters.

I teleport around and find two Roses growing into a large crater in the side of a black rock. The repeated impacts must've weakened it since I easily pulled the Roses out of the rock, which crumbled into dust once I applied a bit of force.

I observe my surroundings with my Interdimensional Phone, and the device's amazing camera doesn't disappoint.

A large field of blue plants was hidden in the middle of a crater-shaped valley!

I teleport in the middle of the field and confirm that it's really Frostcrystal Roses. There must be hundreds of specimens in here, so I kneel and grab onto the nearest one before pulling as hard as I can. However, this area was probably spared by the bombardments since the plant won't come out no matter how hard I pull.

I grit my teeth and exert as much force as my body is capable of producing, but it's no use. The Roses were probably here for quite some time so their roots must be deeply embedded into the soil… At least that's how I can explain why I can't pull them out.

But I'm not one to give up easily, so I save the coordinates of the field and teleport back home, more precisely near one of the secondary Printers. I look into the database and find what I'm looking for, the digitalized plans of one of my failed Portal Gun prototypes.

I print a handful of them and teleport back to the mountain. The area, while in a better shape compared to the rest of the mountain, is still quite damaged. So it still sports some rather deep craters randomly scattered around the plateau.

I jab the first metal cube into the depths of one of those craters before activating it and teleporting away. It doesn't take long before the failed artifact detonates, causing large cracks to appear in the rocky ground.

*Now onto the next one…*

A couple detonations later and I created a rough outline around a large part of the field of Roses. If my intuition is correct, then placing the last one here should work.

The cube explodes and propels the field a few feet into the air. I teleport onto the crumbling field and stuff as many Roses as possible in my containers before they drift into the vast emptiness of space. I only stop my frantic collecting when the container is filled to the brim and take one last look towards the now destroyed field of Roses.

A few of the plants still remain stuck into the rocks, but the majority has been blown away by the explosions.

*It's a shame to waste such rare resources, so I hope I won't have to get more in the future, or I-*

The distinctive noise of a gas leaks takes me out of thoughts, and I realize that it's coming from my hand!

I Rewind and teleport away from the area, the remains of the plateau are soon struck by all sorts of meteors.

*That was close! These meteors are no joke; they pierced all my layers of armor in the blink of an eye.*

My thoughts are put to an end when something suddenly blots out the sun.