The Lone Mountain

Nero arrived to the village near Lone Mountain to gather some information. He stopped at the local pub which seemed to be in state of collapsing, walls were missing plank's and the windows were shattered. Oddly enough the pub had customers drinking ale and eating. Nero asked bartender if he had any information about the mountain, bartender asked him to order something if he wished to have some knowledge. Nero had some doubts ordering anything from such a shady place, but as there were others drinking and eating, it could not be that bad, right? After ordering ale, he asked again if the bartender had any information, this time the bartender pointed towards a group of people sitting in the corner of the pub. He grabbed his ale and sat next to the men ''Hello, i'm Nero and i heard that you might have some information about the Lone mountain.''

Men looked at Nero and back to each other and started laughing ''Did you hear that? Another fool is interested to know about Lone Mountain, what is wrong with these kids nowdays? Are they so eager to go and have a meaningless death?''

''Listen kid... I don't care what rank adventurer you are, but the moment you start climbing that mountain, you will notice very quickly why it was such a bad idea. There are countless of bodies frozen in place.'' Said one of the men who was missing couple of teeth.

''Yeah yeah yeah, i have heard it all... What i'm interested to know is the sounds that mountain make. I heard there has been a sound of a man screaming in agony carrying down from that mountain for thousands of years now.'' Nero asked while explaining himself.

''Ice demon, that's what the locals call it. Have you heard the legend which caused the snowstorm appear on top of the lone mountain?'' The men suggested Nero to buy them more ale before they continue their story.

Nero pointed finger at the bartender and soon there were 4 large tankards of ale. ''Tell me more about this legend?'' Nero hurried them to continue the story.

First man started gulping down his ale and burped while slamming the empty tankard to the table ''The legend says that great battle took place in that mountain peak and it was soaked with blood, God himself intervened and struck curse down to that mountain to prevent people from seeing what has taken place there. Maybe demons were manifesting in the mountain peak and God had to intervene, but ever since the curse was laid upon that mountain... A man's voice could be heard screaming in agony. People started to call it an ice demon which was luring people to try rescue the screaming person, they say it is just a trap.''

''Interesting... I have to go take look at it myself, to see wether is is truly a demon or a person screaming for help.'' Nero replied.

''You don't really think there is an actual person screaming for help, do you?'' One of the man said while staring at Nero like he is an idiot.

''Either way, i will resolve this mystery.'' Nero told the men and head outside the pub, as he was outside a young blond woman stopped her. ''I heard you asking the men inside about lone mountain, are you going to go investigate it?'' She asked.

''Not just to investigate, but resolve the mystery behind it.'' Nero replied.

''My party went missing couple weeks ago in that mountain, if it is possible... Could you try find out what happened to them? I can't go back home without being certain of their fate.'' She begged Nero.

Nero agreed and she described her teammates to him, after gathering all the information he headed towards the lone mountain. Strong cold winds rushed down from the snowy mountain and the voice of a screaming man with it. ''It truly sounds like someone is in trouble'' Nero thought to himself before ascending the mountain.

As he got higher, a snowstorm appeared and blocked his vision allowing him to barely see where he was stepping. He chanted something in ancient language and a layer appeared on him which caused all snow to be melted upon hitting him. ''Ah, now it's warm...'' Nero thought outloud.

Soon he stumbled upon odd looking sculptures, as he was passing them he noticed that these were not sculptures but people frozen in place in various positions. Infact there were hundreds of them, some were crawling, some were walking forward, some were hugging each other. He started to inspect every single one of them if they happened to be the girls lost team, but none matched the description. He continued the path up and less and less sculptures he met the higher he got.

Some of the statuettes were so old that they did not resemble a living person anymore, but a mummified corpse. As Nero was getting higher, the screaming of a man become louder.

Soon he started to makeup some words trough the screams which said ''AAAAARRRGGGHHH!!! THE PAIN, THE PAIN NEVER ENDS! CURSE YOUUUU!!!!'' and this was repeated over and over again.

Nero started running towards the source of the voice and soon he was at the top of the mountain, there he saw nothing. Only snow everywhere, as he tried to watch down from the peak, he only saw clouds beneath him blocking the vision to see the village he came from.

''This is odd, i could have sworn the voice came from here'' Nero thought to himself while scratching his head. As he said that the screaming was coming behind him. He turned around to and watched a wall that was covered in ice and snow, something was sticking out of the ice wall though.

Nero rushed towards the wall and tried to brush away the snow to see what was stuck there, soon beneath all the clear ice a man impaled with a huge sword was visible. It had a small hole going trough the ice to his mouth and the mouth was moving and a scream came trough the small hole ''AAAARRRRGGGHHH!! THE PAIN, THE PAIN NEVER ENDS! CURSE YOUUUUU!!!!'' and this shocked Nero as he took few steps away from the sight.

''There really was a man screaming!'' he thought to himself. He started chanting something in ancient language and a massive fire ball appeared in his hand, he pushed the fireball against the wall of ice and it started melting really fast. Soon the trapped man's head was out of the ice and he opened his eyes to see Nero ''AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!! SOMEONE FINALLY CAME!?''.

Nero rushed to melt all the ice around the man until only the giant sword plunged trough the man was helding him up. When Nero tried to touch the sword a sudden violent electricity current rushed trough his body knocking him out cold. The man who was just freed from ice started shouting ''NO! NO!!! NO!!!!!! DON'T YOU DARE TO DIE!!!''.