"Don't let...close to you. If someone di…pears ...gain, report immediately …take their …sition."
Distorted orders were barely heard from inside the Rhino behind the periodical rapid fire of turrets, echoing along the mountain road. Archers were firing mostly blind in all directions, trying to bring down as many of these transparent things as possible. They hoped it was working, but there was no way to tell how many creatures were hiding in the mist.
Their convoy was in some kind of moving siege, unable to drive fast enough to escape the fog. And fog was not staying in some area, it was moving, certainly chasing them, as Brail understood by the subtle air currents. It was not clear if it was alive by itself, or the creatures attacking them were dispersing it, but it felt like a single entity.
From the moment it descended, they had no options except to push through. Entrenching to bring attackers down wasn't an option, as the landscape was not offering any kind of protection, and they were too widely spread, without an ability to form a defensive formation. And without capabilities to detect creatures farther then from a couple meters, it started to look like they were fighting ghosts.
'Technically, we are.'
Brail was kneeling near the open hatch on top of the Rhino, trying to spot approaching abominations. He still didn't kill a single one, as they were mostly choosing targets closer to the middle of procession. Seeing this, he tried to create an air tunnel for at least several front vehicles. This would push away the mist, and give them at least some kind of visibility, so they won't drive relying solely on sensors, this way increasing overall speed of the convoy.
But this was a futile attempt, as his abilities were only enough to cover a meter of the road ahead and half of the following APC. So now he focused on fending off these ghosts.
'Where are you, bastards?'
Sensing an 'alarm message' from Zeph, explorer turned his attention in the direction of the mountain slope. Several seconds later, swirling movements of the fog revealed flying directly at him creature. Brail made a shot to where he assumed the head would be, and sure enough, in the next moment he heard unsettling whisper.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Ethereal Catcher.]
[Your winds grow fiercer.]
Nightmare Creatures were dying easily, but were quick, elusive, and almost invisible. All tech was showing zero enemy marks, despite perfectly detecting everything else around them, and mist didn't let soldiers to see beyond the next couple of vehicles.
Ghosts were not trying to kill or wound anyone, they were trying to snatch them. And, apparently, to make a human disappear with them, they needed only to touch their target. Meaning, if somebody was slow to react on appearing in clubs of fog entities, and instantly shoot them down, they didn't have a chance to avoid a certain destiny.
So, yeah, fighting back was quite problematic.
After couple more minutes without obvious incidents, explorer heard a voice from his left wrist.
"Hey Brain, why did we stop?"
Brail touched a crystal on a white bracer.
"We didn't, what is going on your side?"
"Nothing, except occasional shooting, but at least several vehicles in front of me just stopped."
Brail immediately got his head into the hatch and shouted.
"Convoy's tail stopped just now. They don't know what's going on."
Kimmy instantly contacted Tei, and the next second dozens of voices were head shouting over each other through the open channel. Mostly it was Tei's distorted orders.
"What do you …an there is …ody there?"
"…pty com…tely."
"Check it …sonnaly and re…t back."
Brail clicked on the bracelet.
"It seems like one of the light vehicles blocked the chokepoint, and passengers are gone."
"Shit. These things are being strategic or what?"
Tei's nervous voice was heard once again from the radio.
"M-Seve…een, throw …own. We don't …ave …ime for this."
"They are dropping it down."
"I get it. Fuck these mechs are loud. What's on your side? And how long, till this serpentine ends?"
"Same as yours, invisible horrors trying to steal people. Luster told there is around twenty-five kilometers in straight line at this altitude, and around a hundred through the labyrinth below. So up here couple hours maybe, and I don't know how long through down there."
"And what will we do if something will block the road in there? We can get rid of transport or rocks here, but in the narrow gorge? It will be a fiasco."
"Being nervous and pessimistic is my job. Just protect the rear, and I'll do my part here. Hope fog will stop chasing us when we descend into the valley."
Brail pulled the bowstring again and shot into the mist.
***
Almost three hours later they finally descended to the gorge. At first, Catchers inhabiting the fog were chasing mechanized caravan with even more intensity. But as fog receded, Lith and others from the rear confirmed that there are no more signs of pursuit.
During the descend, Brail tried not to think much about what was happening the last half a day, and what could wait them in the valley. But as Rhino drove between two towering cliffs, he started trying to think of at least something to ease the flow of dark emotions.
Before anxiety could overtook him, explorer heard Lith's voice again.
"Hey, Brain, how was your armor called? Well, congratulations, we can now be officially named 'Fogwalker's Caravan'. Anyway, do you sense anything in front of us?"
"I see your sense of humor is back. I don't think I can feel a lot from the air, but there are no enemies in the vicinity. Tangible ones, at least. And I suppose we are soon will be entering the blizzard."
"You think he is somewhere near us?"
"No. I don't think we will meet him soon. He must now be heading north. At least, I hope so."
Soldiers' communication and Tei's orders were now heard without interferences, so Brail started to listen. Status check revealed what losses the convoy endured, and even though, considering what they got themselves into, they were small, it was still unpleasant to hear. They lost two light vehicles completely, and one more was successfully raided, several soldiers were snatched from the turret nests on trucks, making their numbers lower on fifteen people, three of which were awakened.
But even more unsettling part of the reports was about another incident in the tail of the column. A scientist got infected and failed her trial. Nobody noticed, as it happened too quickly. As a result, her body transformed right in the middle of the truck, so there were four more casualties, and these were among civilians.
'Inhabitants. Of the Nightmare. They are not. Real. Focus.'
But emotions were swaying, tilting his thoughts in wrong direction, back to conversation with an old man.
***
The gorge was far more winding than the snake road up top, so despite almost no Nightmare Creatures and nothing obstructing visibility, except the cliffs, their speed fell tremendously. Convoy managed to exit the mountains only after almost a day of painfully slow crawling, now driving in acceptable pace through the slowly falling snow.
The road in front of them was clear, but lifeless. No enemies were trying to attack the procession, no birds were flying around, no people were left in the rare military buildings along their way. Except for roaring engines and heavy steps of MWP's, there was no even a single sound.
As the bridge to the small island, where Eleventh Base was located, become visible, Brail told Luster to slow Rhino down. For the last hour, explorer sensed two things: quickly dropping temperature of the air ahead, and that little spirit was clearly unsettled.
Walking closer to the dashboard, he tried to find the radio button. Belle, sitting in the front seat, pointed to certain panel.
"This one? Aha, got it… Mhm, this is Captain of Irregulars… Sunless, speaking. Ehmm… We, might have a problem."
Tei's mocking voice answered him from the speaker.
"What happened, 'Captain'?"
"Well, how do I put it, the station is already could be seen in front of us. But I don't think that somebody is there."
"You mean they already evacuated?"
"I'm not sure, but I doubt it."
What Brail was looking at, was half crumbled castle of ice.
***
The first thing they saw, approaching the fort, was a small gate on the surface of frozen strait, left side from the bridge. There, couple dozens of meters under the driving by convoy, were standing multiple abominations, encased in ice, like an open museum of horrific sculptures.
From the poses and direction, they were mostly facing, it was clear that creatures emerged right in time to face the coldest possible hell. So, they didn't try to attack the station, they were trying to run away from the many times more horrific entity. Brail knew what this entity is and heard about the scale of its powers. But now he could see with own eyes how terrifying Winter Beast could be, and also where it came from.
On the other side of the bridge, on a small, elevated island, was standing a basic looking kilometer wide military base. Well, it would look basic, if not for the chunks of ice all around the wall, and two-meter-high piles of snow. The gates were open, so they decided to check the state of the place from inside.
There were no signs of human-shaped sculptures, but from the one look it was evident what happened. The side, they entered from, as well as almost entire Eleventh Base, was mostly covered in snow, but the farthest part of the fort, was completely covered in the wide trail of ice. Winter Beast walked through the station, sensing a scent of humans, and finding none, headed north. But he came from the east, and there, far behind the frozen wall, high in the air, been seen a giant rift.
The Gates, Titan came from, were white, jagged, and still. Usually, Nightmare Gates, as Brail already learned, were of dark colors, fluctuations continued even after they are emerging into the reality. They look vile, but vivid, dangerous. But this one? It looked trapped in time, like an illusion or painting, with unmoving cracked lines and faint flower-like patterns around the fracture. It would be beautiful, if not so terrifying.
Entire convoy was enchanted by the sight, they were holding breaths, simultaneously in admiration and fear. For a while, they were frozen, as if like Beast himself was casting his unholy powers on them.
Getting to the center of the fort, convoy stopped. They would not place the tents here, but they needed to rest and figure out what exactly happened with soldiers from the garrison. Were they eaten, taken, evacuated? If latter, was that planned retreat, or they ran from the rift? Last option was almost improbable, but they needed to check every possibility for themselves.
Brail wanted only to get away from this place, even if he didn't see expected frozen people. In his 'heart targeted' state, anxiety and fear were growing by each second of being here. Cold cruel winds, he felt from the north were distant, but not so distant to feel safe.
Giant hand lowered on his shoulder and Brail heard a quiet deep voice.
"It would be better if you manage to calm down, Master Brail. We need your abilities to know of possible dangers."
"I'm working on it all the time. You don't need to remind me of my job."
He contemplated for a second and added.
"And I can manage my... state. It's just that I don't like it here."
"Nobody likes it here, but mundanes need rest. Awakened too, even if we can't sleep here. Three trucks need maintenance, and we need to decide on the future route."
"You mean ride to Port Talos or not? I'd prefer to take a gap. Siege Capital is right at the path of Winter Beast. You received information about that bastard almost two weeks ago. So, I say the city is obviously gone."
"We will think of the route later. For now, we all have some work to do."
Nodding, Brail headed to the closest watchtower, to observe everything from the high point. But instead of the watch duty, all his attention was turned to the rift. Both he and Zeph were looking at the eerie fracture in the reality for a good half an hour.
'What this abomination has to do with flowers? And how it even possible to freeze these patterns in air?'
But he already knew the answer. The air itself was frozen, he felt no movement of it around the Gates whatsoever, and winds were trapped within, creating this otherworldly image. He was born in the Dream Realm, and saw remnants of many worlds, but even for him, that sight was mind-boggling.
'If Beast was of Great or Cursed rank, it would be understandable, with their Wills and other powers. But to create this, being a mere Corrupted creature? It's some astonishing achievement.'
Brail just hoped, he would not become a part of other his achievements.
***
Returning to the Rhino, Brail found two scientists and only one Irregular. Quentin was checking on Miss Bethany's health, and when explorer got near them, nodded to both and headed out of APC. Obel traced moving away figure and sighed.
"He says, Beth is okay. But she still didn't open her eyes."
"I think she will soon. Do you want to eat something? I'm dying from starvation."
"Yes, a bit, but…"
"Zeph will look after her."
Scientist nodded and they both exited the captain's room, going to the dinning zone. Professor searched in several cabinets, until found two packages, dropping them into the box where Irregulars were heating their food.
"I wonder."
"Yes?"
"How different is food in your time?"
Brail took a minute to think. It's not like he could really compare a quality of dishes from both worlds. Considering he didn't try anything except obvious military rations here, with maybe some toppings.
"Hmm. I heard that your food is mostly artificially grown or synthetic. That there is nothing natural on the old Earth. But we grow everything mostly in the fields, just like people of War Realm did for a long time."
"Old Earth, War Realm… That's some interesting names. I hope you will tell me about it later. But yes, it's almost true. Natural food is pretty rare in our time, so we substitute it how we can. You ever heard of synthpaste?"
"Oh no. I did, in fact. I'll tell you more, I even tried it once. When I was Awakened, I once guarded the food factory, and there was an old warehouse, like fifty years old or something. Two creatures sneaked in, and while we got rid of them, they ransacked a lot of stuff, including a room with antient packages of synthpaste. Boss decided to joke a bit and rewarded us with several tubes of this crap. Of course we tried it out. I was regretting all my life decisions."
Professor started laughing and continued for a while.
"Ha..ha.. Just so you know, haa… These tubes can be stored some for ten years, some longer. But not for half a century."
"I figured."
They were conversing for several more minutes, until food was ready, brewed some coffee, to Brail's delight, and continued discussing differences in food industry of two worlds, dealing with their meals. At some point there was a rustling sound from the back of the carrier and they both expectantly looked in that direction.
Obel put his cup on the table and quickly got up from the seat to check on his assistant, but the second after they both heard a strange hoarse yelp.
Rushing to the captain's room, they witnessed an amusing scene. Beth froze in the crawling away motion, pressing herself against the wall, almost falling from the bed. From the other side of a pillow in the gusts of smoke was loafing gray cat with deadpan expression, as if asking the seriousness of this situation.
They both simultaneously turned to look at visitors.
"What, you never saw a cat before?"
"I did but. Uhhh, can I have some water?"
Professor was already at her side, adjusting her position and offering the glass. Beth was feeling fine, but didn't want to speak about what happened, obviously. Brail spent a few more minutes with them and decided to leave them alone.
***
After a day of winter camping, and collecting information, they figured that there were no casualties at Eleventh Base. Apparently, garrison left the station not in hurry, so they gathered all important stuff here, leaving nothing behind. The next question was, could people of Port Talos be capable of doing the same or not. Brail convinced them that the city is gone, but they still decided to check, to make sure there was no refugees.
Brail didn't like the idea of expanding their caravan more, they were already a big juicy chunk of Flames for any Nightmare Creature. So, increasing their numbers will only make chances of luring the hordes of them closer bigger. But of course, nobody agreed with him on that matter.
They confirmed their route and decided to continue moving north, past the nearest Siege Capital, and then west to the Erebus Field. Brail knew approximate day of 'event' there, so he wasn't too nervous yet. But what he was worrying about, is that their path will for a while be the same with the fiend from the flowery gate.