667. The Holy Land

The caravan had halted in a steep valley with the several dozen carriages in disarray. People who had not taken too well to the breach were emptying their stomachs, while others were looking in fascination in the direction they had come from.

The Oathguards disembarked their carriage, facing a complete change in environment. A weird orange light was shining from an almost clear sky and one wouldn't believe how much warmer it was compared to the frozen mountains they had traversed to get here.

Ortega was speechless, staring at a wall of wind and snow behind them. It was a perpetual storm and they were in its eye. The curtain of clouds ran from left to right as far as his eyes could see. From the briefing, they knew that it was similar to the one between the mountain range and the western desert. A phenomenon created by meteorology and natural mana.

It created a massive boundary, leading to a change in the climate. Outside raged a snowstorm, but the inside was calm and almost warm with a clear sky. Aside from the weird light, this place could almost be called verdant with moss and lichen growing here and there on the barren rocks.

"We will rest here shortly and use mounts for the rest of the way. We should be able to reach the camp by evening, " the caravan leader announced to the assembled army.

His words were met with cheers and sighs of relief. Everyone was happy that they did not need to stay inside the carriages anymore. Although the place was a little weird, the journey past the tree route was hard on the expedition members. Not because of the danger of the place, but because they had traveled stealthily.

Despite nobody in the expedition lacking the confidence to fight their way through the mountain range up to this point, it had been a decision made by the Adventurer Guild that they would try and avoid any fights along the route.

This was why they had been forced to stay cooped up in the small carriages enchanted with resistance against the elements and recognition inhibition. For many, this was a worse experience than simply fighting monsters in the snow.

Ortega kept staring at the orange-tinged sky. The air was cold and fresh, but he could not help to smell something he couldn't quite identify.

"What are you doing, Ortega? You should eat something and prepare. It will be a long ride," the guild's representative interrupted his thoughts as she was packing away the carriage in her inventory.

"Ah, sorry. I just... I thought I smelled something unfamiliar."

"Heh, probably the smell of blood? When we advanced through here the first time, we were being surrounded by enemies, with our backs to the storm. The whole valley was covered in blood. Even months later, the smell is still in the air," she commented reminiscent.

He did what she dais an took a break, but kept thinking of what she said. The smell of blood... No matter how he looked, he could see any trace of battle in the small valley. He couldn't help but to imagine the boulders and rocks covered in blood, the snow tinged red, the small creek flowing in the center turned into a river of blood.

Ortega lost his appetite and quickly grew a dislike to the area and became irrationally suspicious of the small clear creek in the center. He was glad when they heard the signal to assemble. He and the others from his carriage walked to the mouth of the valley where a huge crowd of people was still growing.

With their Lords, the three field teams, the 75 members of the Oathguard, and 60 Chimeras, Minas Mar made up the second biggest force in the expedition, only overshadowed by the force of the Adventurers Guild itself.

On the other hand, were two dozen teams of what was left of the elite from the guilds of Delta. The incident with the dungeon worm and the discovery of the disease in the north had been quite the scandal and had led to some power shuffle among the guilds.

Some guilds had lost their best people, and others had not sent their elites, but the loss still hit them hard. The Boulder Guild was the in-official winner of this catastrophe, as they had not only just sent their B-team but even their B-Team came back unharmed.

Even with all elites assembled and led by their guild Masters, the Boulder Guild was now obviously the strongest force among the guilds of Delta, if Minas Mar was excluded.

Looking at the obvious difference in the number and quality of equipment, Ortega couldn't help but puff up his chest a little, proud to be part of the Oathguard and Minas Mar. Although their armor and weapons may have looked plain compared to some of the fantastical items from the dungeons other teams flaunted, the difference in power was palpable, even without an appraisal still.

All teams assembled, according to their faction. When everyone was accounted for they summoned their mounts. There was a lot of chaos among guilds, as everyone had their individual mounts. Some were massive and imposing, others able to fly, and mixed among them were also quite a few ordinary ones.

Again, Ortega couldn't help but be a little proud as he summoned his mount. Most of them owned an Alpeka. Although Alpekas themselves were not anything special on their own, their's were cared for by the Champion of Husbandry and wore custom armor making them especially imposing.

From one moment to the other, the Oathguard had turned into a mounted cavalry. However, they were overshadowed by the Chimeras, led by Pardo the Orc-headed bear. They actually rode woolly rhinos that had been gifted to them by the people of Mount Agra. They shared their mounts with up to four people sitting on one.

Ortega looked forward to seeing Puffles, the pet of the Tower Master, steal everyone's show, but when he looked forward, he was faced with a completely different sight.

…

Seth had not brought out Puffles. Puffles had grown tremendously during the time he was out hunting with Python. The blacksmith didn't want to frighten anyone by mounting the massive centipede, also Puffles was his pet, not his mount.

Tatzel was his mount, but despite growing too, he was not big enough to ride on. Facing the problem, that Tatzel would also become really eye-catching once he grew, Seth chose a different route.

What appeared at the helm of Minas Mar's troops was a pair of massive, armored Griffins, with Mina and Seth on their backs. The blacksmith had created Vegr and Drejtim with the same method he had used for Asterion, using the chimeric souls and the bodies of the griffins Ceres hunted at Hyperborea.

Seth had gifted one to Mina as a mount, so they could ride with a partner look. Aside from acting as mounts, there were also powerful golems far stronger than when they were alive, even though they looked like ordinary griffins.

With the Oathguards and Chimeras exuding an overwhelming presence, the rest of the people from Minas Mar almost fell a little short when it came to mounts, although their mounts were individually more powerful.

Seth had not expected that something as objectively cute as an Alpeka could look so fierce if glad in a set of uncommon armor. It was Hoen who had come up with that idea and worked his butt off to equip all of the Oathguards' mounts.

It was a shame he couldn't get around to doing the same for the rhinos. Just how badass would they have looked with armor?

Once the chaos among the guilds had died down, the caravan leader spoke again and gave the signal to set off. Although many of the mounts assembled could fly, only a few lifted off. At the end of the day, they had to conform to the speed of the slowest mounts of the caravan, so flying ahead wasn't possible, except for the scouts.

Although they kept cautioning them about possible monster encounters, nobody in the caravan fought that day. As expected from a road maintained by the adventurer guild. The weird orange light inside the eye of the storm slowly grew darker, as the day went on.

In the twilight of this orange day, they finally saw the encampment of the adventurer guild and got a glimpse at the holy land. A massive landscape of canyons, as if a god smacked the planet with a giant hammer and caused a massive lighting bolt-shaped scar on the earth.