It took the cohort a while to finally make it to the actual mountains, though, and especially find a way upwards.
By the time, they had finally found something high enough to spend the night, it had once again been dusk, and the dark sea would return soon.
Only, the dark sea seemed to be as wary of the mountains, as the coral-like patches had been, and instead kept a good distance, from the gigantic landmark. Meaning, they wouldn't have actually needed to look for a place high up, technically.
Nevertheless, in the safety of a small cave, which seemed just like a scar in the flesh of the mountain, they gathered around, talking about what they would do tomorrow.
It were, of course, mainly Nephis and Cassie, who spoke about what they would do, which involved following the steps the cohort of the first Lord, and eventually finding his remains, as well as the reason he was here in the first place.
For this, they would first need to find an enormous pit in the mountain, find an actual entrance into the mountain, before descending deeper and deeper into it.
Somewhere along the way, she said, would also come the reason Sunny had been specifically hired, as an extra mercenary, for this journey, but Cassie did not dwell too much on this topic, saying she would explain it, when the time came.
When a rough plan had been made, and the night watch order had been decided, everyone, besides Sunny, who took the first watch went to rest. The next days would be intense. That, they all knew.
---
The next morning, as they all were preparing for the search of the pit, mentioned the night before, Nephis stopped them.
She knelt on the floor, seemed to grab a stone, and crushed it, a few seconds later. Apparently, it took quite a bit of strength to do so, if her look was anything to speak by.
"...i know where we are." She said afterwards, as she looked gloomily outside, her gaze finding the peaks of the mountain chain, which were still veiled into some kind of mist.
Effie was the one who responded, what most were thinking, though not all. "We all know where we are, princess. We are at the southern edge of the forgotten shore, about 2000 kilometers away from the dark city, aren't we?"
Nephis shook her head, "That's not what I meant. I mean, I know where we are I the dream realm…"
"Well, that much was relatively obvious, wasn't it? We are in the hollow mountains. Or rather, in front of them. Most likely, north of them, since this place was never before mentioned on any map."
Most of the members were not too familiar with that term, so they turned to the who just spoke, Ray, in search for answers. Only two people present had a different expression, Nephis, who seemed simply surprised, and Caster, who's face grew a deathly pale.
Noticing the questioning gazes on him, Ray sighed and went on to explain what the hollow mountains were.
He explained how the hollow mountains were on of the currently two recorded, so-called 'death zones'. Areas in the dream realm that were deemed so dangerous that even Transcendent Champions, the very best of humanity, generally kept a distance to these Zones.
As Ray spoke, their faces slowly resembled Caster's more and more.
Though, to the end, he couldn't help but look at Nephis, with a similar manner to how the others had looked at him before, "Did you only realize this just now? The hollow mountains are one of the general landmarks in the dream realm, normally used to find out where on had been brought to, by the spell…"
Even Nephis, who had always kept up her act of bravado, seemed to be deep in thought for a moment, appearing to question herself, wether she had been too hopeful, or possibly even naive.
Nevertheless, a moment later, her expression hardened again, with resolve, and even more below that surface. "Even if we now know that we are going directly into a death zone, we need to do this! There is no other way to beat Gunlaug!"
While she had seemed to waver too, for just a moment, their de facto leader, had managed to gather herself, causing the others to slowly calm down, as well.
Not much later, all seven of them were already searching the mountain wall for the pit that Cassie spoke off.
They all felt something off. There were no nightmare creatures whatsoever.
Even then, the group did not allow themselves to let down their guard. They did not even risk sending their charming archer into the skies to scout, due to it simply being too dangerous, if something were to appear out of nowhere.
Therefore, all of them moved forward in a tight formation, eventually finding what they were looking for. Though, no one had expected the 'pit', to be this huge.
The 'pit', as Cassie had labeled it before, was actually a giant quarry of sorts. It seemed logically that this must've been, where the inhabitants of the dark city, had once gotten their materials for building the bright castle, and many more of the buildings, from.
Seeing it from so up close, was truly an experience.
Nevertheless, they needed to continue, and the only way forward, meant entering the workspace, of the long-dead population of the forgotten shore.
Before they could set a foot forward, though, Effie stopped them.
"Wait! Down there… is something, isn't there?"
Following her question, all of them strained their eyes to see, what she was referring to, and soon noticed what she meant.
Something was there.
But, that something wasn't moving. It also looked nearly identical to the natural stone surrounding it.
"We'll move forward. Be prepared." Changing Star ordered, her sword already in her hands, ready for anything that might ambush them.
When they were slowly descending the quarry, Ray noticed how their group had grown from seven to eight, once again. Sunny had apparently finally decided to summon his Echo.
With the Stone saint walking in the front, closely followed by Effie, the group advanced step by step, soon being able to see what that something was, clear enough to make out what it actually was.
That something, must've been a nightmare creature once. Now, though, it was long dead, as it seemed.
It looked like an amalgamation of multiple insects combined, the most apparent ones, being a rhinoceros beetle, and a praying mantis.
Also, noticing how there was a hole in the ground, not far from the cracked stone insect, the group were able to guess how this creature had ended here.
The closer they came, the more likely it was that this creature had died by the hands of humans. Well, the weapons of them.
"Those are sword marks, aren't they?"
"It's hard to tell from here. We need to get closer, and take a proper look."
It was a short exchange between Sunny and Nephis, but loud enough for all of them to hear.
As they all got closer to the corpse of the nightmare creature, Ray noticed something else in the corner of his eye. Deciding to check it out, rather than join the others with examining the dead insect.
To the side, about a dozen meters away from the stone creature, there was a pile of rocks.
Nothing too surprising in a quarry, actually. But, it did not seem like anything natural, and rather unfitting for this scene.
When he finally stood in front of it, Ray had more or less understood what this was; a grave.
Supposedly, a member of the first Bright Lord's cohort had died right here, due to the stone creature.
As Ray was in the motion to kneel down, wanting to at least pay his respects, since it seemed the right thing to do, he noticed something on one of the stones.
It took him a moment to make out what it was, but a few seconds later, he was able to read it.
"...her nightmare is over." he mumbled to himself.
The next moment, his vision changed and his comrades were nowhere to be seen.