In the clearing beneath the pine trees, a patch of snow had been cleared away. Pine branches and thatch formed a bonfire, and atop the leaping flames sat a blackened iron pot. The pot hung over the fire on a simple frame of wooden sticks, with clear oil floating on the soup's surface, bubbling away.
The dried beef was thoroughly cooked in the boiling broth, unfolding into tender slices. The frozen berries thawed, their sweet juice creating red ripples in the oily soup. Thick white steam rose from the pot, swirling around, making the winter day feel even warmer.
Several plump fish were skewered on sharpened tree branches and stuck beside the bonfire to roast, occasionally sprinkled with a bit of fine salt. The fish scales gleamed like brilliant gold in the firelight, soon turning crispy brown, the enticing aroma of grilled fish drilling straight into the nostrils.
EeDechi grabbed a grilled fish with her left hand, opened her mouth, and bit off a small half, chewing the tender fish meat along with the snowy white bones to bits. In her right hand, she held a green ceramic bowl, occasionally sipping the delicious meat soup.
Barrett admired her strong teeth; he definitely wouldn't eat the fish bones. He took out a piece of soft wheat bread, dipped it in the meat soup to eat, used a small iron fork to roll up slices of beef and send them into his mouth, and deeply sipped the berry soup in his bowl. The warmth from the food spread from his stomach throughout his body, dispelling the deep winter chill.
The two were currently camped in a recessed area halfway up the mountain. They planned to cross over the mountain range and reach the wilderness on the other side.
They ate this meal with great satisfaction. After EeDechi wiped the ceramic bowl and soup pot clean with snow, she reached into the bonfire, stirring the charcoal and burning pine branches, creating a hollow to make the flames burn brighter. Barrett was checking the equipment in his spatial ring, carefully counting the ropes and rock spikes.
"There's a bad problem," Barrett said with a slight frown. "Our food reserves aren't enough to support a long trek."
This was a situation he had anticipated. When they set out originally, they hadn't expected to cross mountains, so they hadn't prepared for that. But now, it was impossible to go to the town at the foot of the mountain to buy food. Strangers persisting in travel during the heavy snowfalls of winter would be far too conspicuous.
"So what do we do?" EeDechi had no ideas either. She crushed a piece of red-hot charcoal between her fingers, sparks bursting like stars across the sky.
"ROAR!~" A deep, prolonged beastly roar shook the snow from the trees, heavy breaths blowing aside the pine needles.
Barrett and EeDechi turned to look. In the dense pine forest, a massive creature was approaching them. Its fur was dark brown, dotted here and there with white snowflakes. The giant beast opened its enormous maw, revealing a mouth full of vicious teeth, like two rows of neat steel spears set in its gums.
"Owlbear!" Barrett swallowed a gulp of saliva. "I clearly chose our campsite in a corner away from fierce beasts, and besides, owlbears should be hibernating in their dens during winter!"
The owlbear crashed through several pine trees, its eyes flashing with anger. Its four-limbed running steps suddenly quickened, charging straight toward their camp.
This giant bear clearly bypassed the more plump and meaty Barrett. The claws extending from its paws shattered the ground rocks, suddenly accelerating, aiming straight for EeDechi.
"Don't tell me," Barrett looked at EeDechi, "your Favorability Level dropping 66% affects beasts too?"
"It seems like it." EeDechi scratched her head, a bit embarrassed.
In the few short seconds they were chatting, the raging owlbear had already pounced right in front of them, its terrifying huge mouth wide open, sharp teeth and claws inches away. EeDechi could even smell the foul stench from the beast's mouth.
Barrett, watching the ferocious giant beast lunging at EeDechi, said:
"Actually, this isn't such a bad thing..."
BAM! EeDechi punched the owlbear flying, like a child swatting away an elephant.
"...At least we won't be short on food for now."
...
One month later, in Re-Estize, on a plain near the capital that was once marked on the map as "Lentwei Town."
The sun was shining brightly, with not a cloud in the sky, the heavens an endless expanse of azure blue—truly fine weather. But in the cold winter months filled with rain and snow, for such good weather to last a full month was undoubtedly far too eerie.
Beneath the blue sky lay a massive crater nearly three kilometers(1.864 miles) in diameter, its soil a scorched black, as if the gods had tossed it into a forge to melt into lava, then evenly spread it across the ground. The earth was harder than the permafrost of the frozen wastes; a swing of an axe would only scrape off a faint black mark.
"I heard there used to be a town here called Lentwei, with a few hundred households. Under that massive pillar of light piercing the heavens, it vanished in an instant."
The speaker was an old man wearing a deep green hood, riding a black horse as he slowly paced through the crater.
Behind him, a line of wagons stopped at the crater's edge, their worn white canvas covers hiding the cargo completely. A dozen men in hooded robes were tending to the wagons, while several merchant-like figures rode horses of various colors, galloping through the crater. At the other end of the pit, a few dark silhouettes squatted by the edge, gesturing wildly as they talked.
They looked like just an ordinary traveling merchant caravan, happening upon this place and entering the crater out of curiosity to investigate.
But if a knight from Re-Estize overheard how they addressed each other, he'd be chilled to the bone, cursing his country's border troops as a bunch of useless idiots for letting such dangerous people cross the border.
"Your Eminence, Cardinal," a young man riding a brown horse spurred his mount to catch up to the black horse elder. He whispered, "The Black Scripture has checked all around; aside from a few nosy bystanders, there are no suspicious trackers. The mages from the Windflower Scripture are mapping the residual magic fluctuations in the air."
The old man nodded lightly. Beneath his robe's hood was a face weathered by the elements, his silver-white hair neatly combed. In the sunlight, his face was etched with the marks of age.
He whispered, "Proceed with everything as planned. Our people from the Clearwater Scripture can't slack off either. Have the reports from the eyewitnesses around the town been collected?"
"All collected and organized. According to the eyewitnesses, on that day, the sky-piercing pillar of light could be seen from thousands of miles away, the magical booms like the earth's wailing cry. Gods battled gods in the heavens, and if an ordinary person snuck a peek, they'd be doomed for all eternity."
Black Scripture, Windflower Scripture, Clearwater Scripture—the three elite forces of the Slane Theocracy. They had come for the crater, lurking around the edges of Re-Estize's capital.
After the young man finished his report, he tugged on the reins and rode off. The old man kept strolling through the crater, soon coming face to face with an old woman riding a gray-maned pony.
A spark of wonder flashed in the old woman's eyes. She halted, gazing into the distance at the black fissures in the crater's center, and sighed, "It's identical to the ruins of the War of the Gods described in ancient texts from five hundred years ago."
"Yeah, never thought I'd live to witness a divine miracle with my own eyes." The old man pulled his horse to a stop too, his expert riding skills not at all like those of some frail old timer.
"Could that girl named 'EeDechi' be the Divine Envoy foretold in the Ashendust Scripture?" the old woman murmured to herself. "The divine realm sends an envoy, with unmatched power to lead us and find light in the endless night."
"Those old geezers in the Ashendust Scripture—their prophecy actually came true for once."
"A prophecy isn't like a gold coin tucked into a pie at a feast." The old woman smiled. "Alphonse, don't forget, you're 160 years old yourself."
"To be precise, 158. I'm still in my prime."
The old man's tone suddenly turned serious and low, "At this perfect moment, the Divine Envoy appears, and more than half of the Sorcerer Kingdom's watchers have left our country, all off searching for the Divine Envoy. Our Plan can begin."
The old woman nodded and rode away. The old man known as "Alphonse" gave a light kick to his horse's belly, and the black steed clattered into the central area of the crater.
Dozens of slender black cracks hung suspended in mid-air, like strips of spilled black ink frozen in place. The rifts were dark and profound; even under the bright sunlight, the cracks remained incredibly deep, as if they could swallow everything.
One crack was especially wide, just barely big enough for a person to tumble into. A month ago, EeDechi had leaped into this spatial rift, vanishing from the sight of the group from the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
If you didn't jump in on purpose, who would ever know these black fissures were spatial rifts?
Hardly anyone dared to go deep into this place; ordinary folks standing near the black rifts would feel an unspeakable dread. The black horse the old man rode stopped too, neighing restlessly.
A young boy with pale golden hair rode up to the old man; the boy looked about seventeen or eighteen. He reported in a low voice, "Your Eminence, I've completed the task you assigned me."
The old man nodded in approval. The boy tugged on his reins to back away a step from the black rift, then asked curiously: "What are these black cracks in the sky?"
"They are the world's wounds." The old man said, offering a rather philosophical, yet pointless answer.
"They match exactly the ruins of the 'War of the Gods' described in the ancient texts." A touch of awe flickered in the boy's eyes. "Will these black cracks keep expanding forever? Or will they slowly fade away?"
The boy was deeply worried that these dozens of slender, twisted, space-eroding black fissures would grow without end, until they devoured the whole world.
"If you'd actually studied The Heavenly Scriptures seriously instead of slacking off," the old man said casually, "you'd remember that after the showdown between the God of Death and the Eight Greed Kings, the black marks that appeared in the sky shrank over a month and a half, then vanished completely."
"But, master," the boy switched his title, handing over a clear crystal ball. Inside the ball, the blue sky reflected along with the weird black cracks.
"This is a magical recording made by our spies in Re-Estize right after the War of the Gods ended a month ago. Now a full month later, the black cracks haven't shrunk at all!"