CHAPTER 189: TUMULT OF THE TWO WEEKS: PART 1- GRAVEYARD OF CASTLES

"Here, we should be safe," Primrose said, out of breath.

Before them loomed colossal peaks of snow and ice. Their frozen faces glared down from dizzying heights. The landscape was ruthless, even more forbidding than when Asahi had first arrived. Jagged precipices stabbed at the sky. Stone towers either slumbered beneath thick ice or jutted defiantly above the drifts.

"Where are we?" Asahi said after going silent.

Trid cast a wary glance at the spires, strode through the narrow passage, and paused near the looming castles. He folded his arms and let out a low grunt, signaling his unease as they gathered their bearings in the unfamiliar terrain.

"Check your map. Speaks for itself."

He unrolled the map, revealing the words Tower Valley etched across its surface. With a quick motion, he snapped it shut and squeezed his eyes closed. He had thought he heard the voice of his sister.

"Aletha, where are you?"

But no one replied; there was just silence.

He pressed his lips together, sinking into despair that his sibling was now trapped inside the mark on his face. Whatever the case, Telos hadn’t uttered a word. Only his thoughts remained. Were they dormant? Or simply choosing silence? The very question pricked at his mind.

Regardless, the three pressed onward and soon reached their destination.

"Here it is, the graveyard of towers and castles," Trid said, his cyan eyes gleaming with the faint rays of sunlight.

"Graveyard?" Asahi questioned, retracing his words.

The name was enticing enough, but seeing the castles buried deep in the snow, he was left with his thoughts.

(These structures... they match...)

A vision flickered in his foresight. The grassy plains were filled with castles and spires. People of all kinds gathered in these beautiful castles, erected from the turmoil of hard-working hands. He then recollected the gigantic kingdom of Rulers, resting above the world like the moon. The ocean obeyed their command. This caused him to reel back in shock, saying aloud...

"These are... castles from... my old world."

"Old world? What are you talkin’ about, damn it!?" The grandpa hollered as he took a glass of straight whisky from the wagon.

"Nothing," Asahi said, eyes closed, sifting through a hazy memory. "I... remember... hearing my mom insist I stay in my room when the Ruler of Ice went berserk, unleashing torrents of enemies. Perhaps she was simply hiding the truth from me? Since I was meant to inherit that land. My father, on the other hand, quelled the chaos and..."

At the entrance to the entombed castles of ice and snow, Asahi paused, his heart weighed by regret as recent memories replayed in his mind.

"Yet he lost his life to the luminance. I don’t understand, were we not supposed to be powerful?"

"Quit your damn yapping and look in front of you," the grandpa said as he slapped Asahi straight in the face.

Of course, Asahi hadn’t reacted; he was too busy glaring at all the stone features of the castle entombed in ice.

"I shall stay here and keep watch," Trid said as he clutched a sword. "Primrose, follow the white-haired boy and see if there are any treasures left. I’ll stay here and fend off the monsters if they so choose to attack us."

After giving a signal, Primrose and Asahi sprinted into the corridor, searching for any prizes buried underneath the stone. They came up with only three wooden chests and a tierra entombed in ice. As they progressed onward, Asahi’s gaze fixed on the windows of the castle inhumed. The stained glass formed a picture—a white-haired boy holding onto a glowing, golden book. Primrose stopped by Asahi and said,

"Is that... you?"

Asahi could not doubt that it was him. The colors of his attire, from his glove to his metal arm, to his chest, and the fluffy scapular on his shoulder. It matched him perfectly. Primrose, weirded out by all this, questioned Asahi as she saw statues of him collapsed onto the floor.

"Wait... who are you exactly?"

Asahi remained silent, his gaze fixed on the several inscriptions emblazoned on the wall. Primrose pouted, hoping to get an answer from him, but he decided to remain silent.

As they progressed onward, they met a room filled with bookshelves. From the back and front, the walls were made of stone, wood, and a mixture of metal.

"This seems to be a library..."

In that instant, another memory flickered to life—

A bulky, white-haired man approached little Asahi, reaching for a book at the very top of the shelf.

"Dad!"

After giving the giant book to the child, he chuckled and said.

"Oh dear Asahi, if you ever want to learn our family’s history, just come here and grab a few books," He said, scratching the head of the little boy. "The Ruler of Books made this room specifically for you. Take it as a birthday gift. Don’t worry, you will learn someday."

The memory faded, returning Asahi to the present—

After the memory flickered back to reality, Asahi reeled back, shaking his head and speaking internally.

(Wait, is this the Great Library my father mentioned? How is it still here? This space is thousands of years old. Hadn’t it been several millennia? How has it not crumbled yet?) All these questions, but no answer came. Icy winds nipped at his shoulder as they slipped through the passage. The echo of croaks bounced off the stone walls. Primrose darted ahead, clutching Asahi’s hand, as the chorus of noise swelled around them.

"We have to get out of here now--" Primrose’s warning was cut short as a glimmering blue orb shimmered behind a shadowy passage. Drawn to its glow, she dashed toward it, tuning out the croaks. But before she could grasp it, Asahi found himself stranded on the far side of the room as rocks thundered down, sealing the entrance.

"Asahi! Grab the orb, quick!" Primrose said as Asahi scratched his head.

In a rush, his fingers brushed the small sphere. Blue luminescent ribbons swirled around him, cocooning him in shimmering light. For an instant, it felt as if his soul soared free, then he slammed back to earth. His gray eyes blazed with blue light, the glow ebbing. Asahi, still dazed by the orb, pocketed it and darted toward the alternate passage, plunging into a forest of glittering icicles.

"Primrose?"

But she wasn’t there. In haste, Asahi raced back to the wagon, hoping to see if they were alright. Just as his foot touched down, he saw Primrose kneeling on the ground near a puddle of... crimson.

"What happened?"

Suddenly, seeing Primrose balling and tearing up, he slowly stepped further to see...

An icicle had pierced straight through Trid’s heart. Blood splattered all over, collapsing to the floor. As he was about to clench his fists, a deep voice resounded from the far side of the cliff.

"Oh, spare me the pity for this weak imbecile." The voice was supremely gritty and gravely, unlike anything Asahi had heard before. "You two just don’t know when to give it up." Asahi rushed to the wagon, but just as he reached for a soil canister.

(SWING)

"Not so fast. Look, I mean, you know harm. Just talk to me like a proper adult and stop running away like a child." He had long, red hair, sharp nails, and boots. He was exceedingly tall, standing at six feet seven inches. Asahi, taking this moment to grab Primrose, ran away, leaving..

(SWING)

"This is my second warning, idiots. Speak to me with your fists or try to scamper. I know what you have in your possession. I am not that stupid at your folly." His method of speech was rather hasty, speaking at a tempo so fast that you could barely recognize it. "Yes, the orb that you had touched... it’s..."

As Asahi stood in front of Primrose, he screamed at her.

"Primrose... leave... NOW!"

"But... you will be hurt," Primrose said.

"Do you want to die? Leave now! Trid is gone. We’ll speak later."

Primrose, after gritting her teeth and staring at Trid, the red-haired man, jumped up and revealed.

"How can someone so bothersome be so weak? Do you understand what that orb does, say... Asahi, Original Owner of the world?"

Asahi stood in silence, his jaw tight with fury. A storm of emotions surged within him, impossible to name. His fists tightened, and his gaze flickered from Trid to the old man, then finally to the red-haired stranger.

"Don’t you realize that you just touched the Orb of Immortality?" He said as he summoned yet another icicle on his palms.

Unaware of the sacred power he had awakened, Asahi bolted. An icicle pierced through him, yet a shimmering blue essence materialized before his eyes. The orb he carried blazed with a fierce, searing light. As he stood, the red-haired man threw fifty more icicles, each more powerful than the last. But that hadn’t affected him; his wounds closed in just mere seconds.

"It appears it’s too late." The man’s voice trembled as Asahi recoiled from him. "I am too late. My foolishness has caught up with me. I bid this a small farewell." In a flash, a knife materialized in his grip, and he lunged at Asahi one final time. Yet, as the blade met its mark, it rebounded harmlessly, springing away as if Asahi’s skin had turned to living rubber.

Whatever happened caused Asahi to become...

"Immortal?"

With Trid and Grandpa dead, it was only Primrose left.

In just two days, he had lost two companions, one of whom had become dear to him. Now, torn away by that vile, red-haired man, Asahi wandered alone, hollow and desperate, searching for Primrose. He slipped beneath the ancient stone archway and headed south, toward the misty Sleepy Serpent Shores. But as he drew near, a force stranger than anything in Astait swept in to block his path.

"How sad the threads of this little tragedy played out." A girl with long dark hair and hot pink eyes stared deep into the several corpses piled up and scattered through the street, holding onto a blood-covered sword. "Now speak, where is the Orb of Immortality?"

"I promise you, I don’t know what you’re--

"Wrong answer." In a heartbeat, the girl turned away from the woman and, with a flick of her blade, sent her remains tumbling across the icy shore. Asahi stood rooted to the spot, paralyzed, forced to witness the final moments as everyone around him perished. Innocent people. Stolen by this... girl.

"What... What is going on?"

Frostbite bit him through his toes. Then to his knees. Just when things couldn’t get worse, an avalanche thundered down to the house where he was hospitalized, crushing it and submerging all furniture in snow.

Asahi, breathless and desperate, threw himself against the raging forces with every ounce of strength he had.

But fate had already slipped through his fingers. Sprawled in the snow beneath a dead tree, the pink-haired girl who had first noticed him now lay motionless, her vibrant hair stained by the cruel fall of rocks. Asahi, clinging to the last threads of his sanity, sprang to his feet and cried out into the endless white silence...

"What do I do?! What did I do? What did I do?"

But only the whisper of snowflakes tumbling through the air replied to his desperate plea.