Leon stared at Grandin and Aladir, nonplussed in the wake of Grandin’s effective declaration that he and his brother were ready to climb Kavad’s Lance. Aladir looked unsteady on his feet at best, and his aura was weak even for a first-tier mage. There was little doubt in Leon’s mind that Aladir had been stronger before being petrified, which meant he’d suffered severe injuries to his soul realm to lose so much power.

    In short, Leon didn’t believe for a moment that Aladir was in any way ready to climb a mountain that even post-Apotheosis mages had trouble with. And yet, Grandin looked as confident as he could be.

    “Hardly the response I was expecting...” Grandin murmured as the silence stretched uncomfortably long. “I thought you were all eager to get this climb over with.”

    “Your brother looks like a stiff breeze would knock him over,” Anna said. “You want him to brave the wind currents and monsters of the mountain?”

    Grandin glanced at Aladir before stating confidently, “We know the mountain and its paths better than anyone! It’ll be easy to get to the top now!”

    “It... will be difficult,” Aladir croaked, his voice sounding as smooth as sandpaper. “They are right, brother... I am not up to this climb...”

    Grandin grimaced and whispered back, “You could get to the summit blindfolded!”

    Aladir weakly chuckled before taking a moment to look around, his eyes lingering briefly on the blood, burns, and disturbed dirt and sand where the corpse of the monster that had petrified him had lain not long ago. With a visceral shiver, he made his way to the nearest relatively small boulder and almost collapsed onto it with all the grace of a sack of potatoes.

    “I’m barely able to hold myself up, Grandin,” he stated. “Climbing this mountain is beyond me.”

    “I’m not leaving you behind!” Grandin insisted.

    Leon sighed as the brothers continued bickering, an accord between the two seeming far off. Given the dangers already faced in their ascent, let alone any they may face as they continued upward where he presumed more dangerous creatures awaited them, protecting someone as vulnerable as Aladir was currently held little appeal. He wanted to move quickly, besides, and Aladir didn’t look able to stand up straight let alone climb a mountain thousands of feet tall.

    Leon opened his mouth to interject between the brothers, but his own brother beat him to the punch.

    “I can carry him, if needs be,” Anzu said, his offer directed more to Leon than to either Grandin or Aladir.

    Surprised, Leon turned to his closest friend, the griffin in whom he placed unconditional trust. When Anzu was younger, he’d been Leon’s war beast, but he hadn’t acted in that role since growing strong and intelligent enough to assume human form. Leon’s surprise was only intensified by visceral disgust at the idea of anyone riding Anzu but him. Brother though he claimed the griffin to be, he couldn’t deny feeling extremely protective and possessive of the griffin.

    As if sensing Leon’s feelings, Anzu set his face with seriousness and determination and said, “I don’t regard it as insulting. Not like he’ll be steering me like a horse. But I can protect him and keep him with us this way.”

    With a grimace of his own, Leon said, “Only if you’re comfortable with it, and not a second longer.”

    Anzu smiled and, in hardly a moment’s time, assumed griffin form.

    “Another Ascended Beast, huh?” Grandin muttered, his eye flitting between Anzu and Leon.

    “There a problem with that?” Leon defensively demanded.

    “No, no,” Grandin hurriedly responded. “If he’s willing to carry my brother up the mountain... then I can only offer my gratitude, and promise to take us on the safest route to the top that there is.”

    “No path is ever completely safe,” Aladir said as his focus shifted from the group to the mountain practically filling the horizon. “Thank you, noble griffin. I would not presume to ‘ride’ you, by any means... but to have you carry me... is an honor I can’t refuse, may the gods forgive me my hubris...”

    Anzu clicked his beak, clearly not that happy but willing nonetheless. He practically sauntered over to the boulder upon which Aladir sat, his bearing noble and proud. He held himself tall and upright, and when he stopped by the side of the boulder, a saddle appeared on his back, though without reins.

    “How do you propose we get through this?” Valeria asked Grandin as she readied her glaive, which already shed fine freezing mist as her magic filled the weapon.

    “With minimal bloodshed,” Grandin said. “These things won’t trouble us so long as we move quickly.”

    Without a moment’s hesitation, he threw himself into one of the dozens of wind currents roiling through the tunnel, and without much other choice, Leon’s party followed suit. It certainly helped their confidence that Grandin was leading by example, though Leon himself still had a few misgivings. He kept an eye on the centipedes moving over the frozen lightning bolts, and for a long few seconds, it seemed like Grandin was right, the centipedes left them alone.

    And then a tenth-tier example of the species shrieked as Leon’s party sped past so close to its bolt that Leon could’ve reached out and touched the insect, and it jumped into the current in their wake. Dozens of others followed its example, screeching and following Leon’s party, their mandibles clicking and crackling with lightning.

    In response, the centipedes pressuring the other party further down ceased their assault as that party vanished into a lower passage—without leaving anyone behind, which brought a smile to Leon’s face—and turned their attention upward. There wasn’t even a moment of thought; those centipedes leaped with deceptive agility and control in the air from current to current until they were set to follow Leon’s party.

    “We’re attracting attention!” Valeria shouted, though given what he could sense from their magic senses, Leon guessed everyone already knew that.

    He heard Grandin quietly curse ahead of them, but he responded to Valeria, “We’ll maintain our distance in this current! Keep going!”

    Leon frowned, not liking to remain idle when murderous insects were pursuing his party. He drew Iron Pride and summoned his lightning magic. Silver-blue lightning sparked across the blade, and Leon reveled for a moment in the power. He could sense the static charge of the frozen bolts all around them, which the centipedes seemed to use for nesting and transportation. With his skill and power, he felt like disrupting these bolts would’ve been easy.

    With the Iron Needle in hand, it was trivial.

    With a single slash as he sped through the wind current, a section of the nearest frozen lightning bolt shattered like glass, spilling countless sparks down the tunnel that vanished as they cooled. The rest of the lightning bolt dissipated quickly, sending centipedes scattering through the air in the hundreds.

    “By the Great Current!” Grandin shouted in alarm. “Don’t do that too—” He wasn’t able to finish before the current they were riding wavered, nearly dropping the entire party. Fortunately, it steadied out a moment later, but not before giving everyone quite the scare. “The bolts sustain the currents!” Grandin finished. “Don’t disturb them unless necessary!”

    Leon clicked his tongue in disappointment, but he could feel a slight increase in the ambient charge that had his hair starting to stand on end within the tunnel as the bolt finished dissipating. This charge didn’t continue rising before reaching another equilibrium, but it was clear enough to him that if he destroyed too many of the frozen bolts, new bolts would start filling the tunnel.

    Thankfully, despite this brief disturbance to their wind current, the centipedes didn’t gain any distance on them, and neither did his party lose any speed. It took less than a minute to reach the top, with the current practically throwing them off onto another ledge only a dozen feet or so below the ceiling.

    Grandin hit the floor on his feet and immediately began ushering them into the tunnel beyond. “Hurry! We don’t want to overstay our welcome!” As Leon’s party was ejected from the current, bolts of purple lightning began striking around the tunnel ledge, courtesy of their insectoid pursuers. Leon swung his blade again, but instead of slashing through one of the frozen bolts, he sent the purple lightning rebounding back into the centipedes that spat them.

    Once Leon’s entire party entered the next tunnel, Grandin pushed them onward without a moment’s rest, while Leon brought up the rear. The centipedes followed them as far as the ledge, halting at the entrance to the tunnel. Whether he’d successfully intimidated them or they had other reasons for not pursuing further, the effect was the same, and Leon’s party lost their tail as they vanished into the tunnel.

    “Woo! Ha!” Grandin shouted as he led them over thick roots breaking through the walls of the tunnel and between jagged pillar-like boulders. “Just like old times, Ala!”

    Aladir looked pale from all the excitement, and if he weren’t tied into Anzu’s saddle, Leon was certain he would’ve fallen out by this point. He didn’t respond to his brother’s enthusiasm and looked like if he opened his mouth, he would vomit.

    This tunnel spat the party out into another heavily-forest part of the mountain, but this area was marginally flatter. Moss-covered stones as tall as the giant surrounded them, while relatively stubby trees shaded them. Beyond, however, Leon could see that they were now in between cloud layers, leaving them with a spectacular view of the Origin Spark-lit clouds above, and another sea of clouds below. Beyond this lower cloud sea, however, he could see the Nexus as it extended north. The northeasternmost corner of the King’s Ocean stretched out before him, and hundreds of miles away, he could see the shores of the Burning Lands.

    He didn’t get much of a chance to admire the view as Grandin spurred the party to keep moving. This far up the mountain, it seemed, they couldn’t stop for long without attracting attention of the wrong sort. Thankfully, they remained undisturbed as they continued their ascent, this time not in tunnels but by physically climbing over boulders and up cliffs, sometimes even climbing over trees that bridged gaps.

    Their progress was rapid enough to be satisfying, and though a few creatures poked their heads out at them as they ascended, none were interested enough in them to risk Leon’s wrath—especially after his killing intent flickered in response to the weight of their gazes. Finally, they reached the second cloud layer, and Grandin said, “We just have to get past these clouds, and we’ll basically be at the top. The Lance doesn’t rise much past the upper edge of this layer.”

    Leon smiled. They’d almost reached the top. The Origin Spark hadn’t even darkened into its facsimile of a moon. Not even half a day had passed, and this little journey had almost reached its end.

    The lance at the top of the Lance, however, he guessed would be the mountain’s most dangerous obstacle. But for Artorion, it was an obstacle he wouldn’t hesitate to surmount.