Chapter 122

Ian and his party quickly attempted to descend the mountain.

Now that they had confirmed that the Mountain King was hostile towards humans, staying on the holy mountain was dangerous.

The Phoenix would surely understand the situation.

'... It seems better to summon it quickly.'

Ian thought while stroking Winnie.

The Phoenix's spirit had babbled something only it understood in front of Ian.

What? There is an evil presence?

There was an ominous atmosphere around the mountain?

If the Phoenix had resurrected after destroying Winnie's body, its curiosity would have been satisfied.

But Ian was the one who postponed the Phoenix's resurrection...

For now, he had to set aside that curiosity.

[Ian, I think I understand the meaning of the warning. The Mountain King... is anxious.]

"Anxious? About what?"

[That...]

Winnie fell silent.

Ian sheepishly patted Winnie.

He didn't intend to keep it in suspense just to make it suffer.

"Sorry. I wanted to show you a great view."

[No, it's fine. As I said before, I'm very happy to spend time with you and Kira like this.]

Ian's party steadily descended the mountain.

Meanwhile, Pyra was tearing at his hair in agony.

"Ugh... The Grendels will come back. We should have wiped them all out earlier!"

"That was physically impossible."

Ian consoled Pyra.

Even if everyone here took up swords and charged, it would take ages to kill the Grendel horde.

Theoretically, yes, but in practice, it was even more impossible.

From the beginning, it was impossible to annihilate the Grendels.

"Soon we'll reach a narrow path. If we get attacked there, it will be really dangerous!"

"But there's no other way, right?"

"... The problem was coming in too deep from the start!"

Pyra hastily drew cards, eyes wide with desperation.

He wailed to himself.

"Ah...! This is ominous, very ominous!"

"..."

Ian began to understand why Ragnar didn't like Pyra much.

This guy had severe mood swings.

He also had a tendency to overly rely on divination.

"Shaman! Can you be quiet for a moment?!"

Even Takarion scolded him.

Ian was genuinely impressed.

Wow... it must be bad if Takarion spoke up!

"God watches over us, but humans create their destiny! Acting without shame according to the will of God! That is the role of a clergyman!"

"Oh."

Ian clapped his hands.

As expected from a writer, Takarion had a way with words.

More importantly, Takarion's words were true.

And it's hard to argue against the truth.

So, Pyra couldn't say anything and just hung his head.

"Yes... I must pull myself together."

Ian sighed as they approached the steep narrow path.

It was a path they had crossed slowly without much issue before.

But now, with enemies on their tails, it made his skin crawl.

However, there was no other option.

Whether they liked it or not, they had to cross the narrow path.

"Let's go."

But as Ian was halfway across the path, the silhouette of a monster appeared from the cliff above.

"... Damn it."

Ian immediately cursed the monster.

Such cunning bastards!

"Ambush!"

It was the Grendels, followers of the Mountain King.

The Grendels, having been wounded by Ian before, did not approach recklessly.

Instead, they used the terrain to their advantage.

"Screee!"

[Die, monster!]

"No, who's calling who a monster...!"

Ian was baffled by the Grendel's determination, but there was no time for idle thoughts.

Snowballs hurled by the Grendels were falling from above!

"Those frostbitten bastards!"

Pyra shouted angrily.

They weren't yetis, so they couldn't kill people just by throwing snowballs.

However, this was a snow-covered mountain.

The snowballs thrown diligently by the Grendels hit the piles of snow on the mountain, which soon turned into a massive wave that swept over Ian's party.

Rumble...!

"Avalanche!"

This was the Grendels' plan from the beginning.

They intended to bury Ian's party with an avalanche once their movements were slowed!

"Damn it...!"

If Ian were an ordinary traveler, spending his remaining time writing a will would be the best use of his time.

Generally, there is no way to survive an avalanche in the mountains.

But Ian was not an ordinary traveler.

"Ian!!!"

Hearing Belenka's tearing voice, Ian took a deep breath.

He calmly looked around.

An overwhelming amount of snow was pouring towards him.

If he could just deal with the snow...

He could survive!

'Hrundal, if you want me to come back on my two feet, please help me!'

Like the northern shamans, Ian prayed to the Ice God and drew a card.

[You drew an Arcana card...]

[You drew the Chariot card!]

Arcana magic had much in common with divine magic.

Both borrowed the power of gods...

And the results of the magic were random.

Rumble...!

Ian, looking at the pouring snow, had an intuition.

'Ride it...?'

It was an absurd intuition, but it was a kind of divine revelation.

Hrundal had given Ian an answer. Whether to follow it was up to Ian.

There wasn't much time to think.

Ian made a quick decision.

"Everyone! Around me!"

Pyra, Kira, and even Belenka quickly gathered around Ian.

The problem was Takarion.

As Takarion hurried towards Ian, he tripped and fell!

"That idiot...!"

Ian suppressed his urge to curse with superhuman patience.

There was no time to revel in his accomplishment.

A tremendous wave of snow was pouring from the sky.

Takarion, lying on the ground, looked at Ian with teary eyes...

"S-Sorry, Ian!"

He buried his head in the ground.

'Why are you apologizing?'

Ian gritted his teeth.

Takarion was the one who would die, not Ian.

Yet he apologized...

It must be because he felt guilty for being a burden.

Such a pitiful human.

Saying sorry instead of asking for help.

Ian stared directly at Takarion.

They had found the elixir, and there was no longer a risk of being devoured.

But dying like this would be too futile.

Ian drew an Arcana card and threw it at Takarion.

"Survive! Takarion!"

"..."

"When we meet again, I'll make sure to send you back to the empire!"

May Hrundal's blessing be with him.

Ian couldn't hear Takarion's response.

Because the avalanche had hit.

Ian shouted to his companions.

"Everyone! Ride the avalanche!"

"???"

Ian drew the card first so Pyra left the magic to him.

As with all spells, repeating them multiple times diminishes their effectiveness.

So Pyra trusted Ian's magic...

"R-Ride it?"

It was a situation that could cause brain freeze.

But Pyra was the only one flustered.

Belenka and Kira were calmly preparing to jump onto the avalanche.

"Don't try to understand Ian, shaman. Just accept it."

While Pyra was bewildered, Ian leaped onto the avalanche.

Belenka and Kira followed Ian, jumping onto the avalanche.

"Damn it!"

Despite his words, Pyra moved his body.

Ian's party lightly climbed onto the oncoming avalanche as if stepping onto a cushion.

The snow's mystery accepted the humans.

It was the result of Arcana magic.

"Screeee! Screeee!"

[Boss! Look at those guys!]

"Screeee!"

[Aren't they crazy?!]

Pyra was also flustered, suddenly snowboarding out of nowhere.

But the Grendels watching from above were even more bewildered.

No, they sent the avalanche to crush them!

And they just rode on top of it!

"Screeee!"

[We failed again... What now?]

"Screeee..."

[I don't know. I want to die.]

The Grendels slumped their shoulders and moved to come up with the next plan.

Ian thought he had lost consciousness for a moment.

But it was a misconception.

'... It's dazzling.'

The brilliantly shining sun hurt Ian's eyes.

He rubbed his eyes and looked ahead.

What he saw was a clear blue sky.

The cold wind whipped against Ian's cheeks.

Ian was now standing on top of the avalanche.

Rumble...!

Together with his companions, Ian was riding the avalanche down the mountain as if on the back of a giant beast!

'This feels amazing.'

All complicated thoughts vanished from his mind.

It felt like being on the world's greatest ride, filled with thrilling excitement.

Ian couldn't help but shout out loud.

Wow!

His voice was drowned out by the noise of the avalanche.

Swish...

As the snow piled up and came to a stop, Ian carefully stepped onto the ground.

"Pyra! Where are we?"

"... I don't know. It seems we've come deeper in..."

Ian frowned.

So, they had slid further into the mountain rather than out.

To return to the village, they would have to make a wide detour to escape...

'What a pain.'

Ian and his companions were all safe.

Everyone started to assess the situation.

"Ian. Over here for a moment."

The purpose of their search was, of course, to find a way out.

But as Belenka was surveying the surroundings, she spotted something strange and called Ian over.

"Do you know what this is?"

"..."

Ian couldn't say anything.

He had no idea what it was.

"A grave...?"

A massive valley.

At its bottom, countless beast corpses were piled up.

These were the creatures known to the northerners as 'Yagon.'

"A grave..."

Belenka didn't agree with Ian's thought.

In fact, Ian didn't think it was a grave either.

It looked more like a dumping ground than a grave.

"Oh, Hrundal..."

Even Pyra sighed upon seeing the eerie site.

This was clearly the cause of the Great Hunt's failure.

The prey that the Northerners were supposed to hunt had frozen solid, piled up in the deep ravines of the holy mountain.