The chaotic snow that circled them faded away and eventually left them with a battlefield devoid of any obstruction.
"Doesn't that thing look kinda ominous?"
March pointed to the cyclone gradually growing by absorbing the snow around it and couldn't help but frown. "We probably need to go up that mountain, right?"
"Based on the stories I've gotten from Serval, the answer is most likely yes."
Dan Heng placed his spear away and looked at the winds pulling in the snow from their surroundings.
"A storm is approaching…" Seele mumbled under breath and Yuuto who was next to her covered his mouth for a second.
Seele gave him a weird look but he held his breath as he thought of something funny despite the serious situation they found themselves in.
'Hold it in…' Yuuto knew that it wasn't the time but hearing Seele say those words felt oddly fitting. He caught his breath and switched his thoughts to what he had seen earlier.
Cocolia had begun to do something that he didn't recall doing in the game before and was probably due to his interference. 'Was it because Bronya didn't come up earlier..?' Yuuto thought of this possibly and couldn't help but lean towards this.
As she had come to the surface to confront Cocolia herself after learning the truth and being forced to hear the Stellaron's 'promise'.
But seeing as none of this happened, Yuuto guessed that something must have snapped within Cocolia. 'We should hurry. Who knows when she'll drop a meteor on us.'
As Yuuto was about to speak up, the sounds of boots crashing into the ground behind them grew louder. While faint hints of light grew brighter with each step they took.
"Squad 4! Circle the area and find any casualties. Squad 2 report any signs of a wave coming and send your message to the sentry."
"" YES COMMANDER!""
The soldiers immediately went to work and Bronya, who commanded them, eventually approached the group who saw her. Upon reaching them, she caught her breath and holstered her rifle behind her.
"I ran as fast as I could after seeing what happened to the snow."
"Bronya! You came at the right time." March smiled and brought her closer. "We were actually about to…" She looked at the others and guessing what she wanted to say, they nodded.
March herself felt glad that their thoughts matched and told Bronya their plan of walking up the mountain. Where the source of the storm was gathering.
"But before that, are the Silvermane Guards going to be alright with you here?" Seele glanced at the growing soldiers spreading through the flat land.
Since their original leader left them behind with no heads up, Bronya's position and leadership were extremely important to help keep their forces from scrambling all over the place.
"I already issued some orders before I got here and some help from the Underworld came up to the surface."
Bronya recalled Oleg, Luka, Natasha, and some other members of Wildfire who volunteered to join her. At first, she was worried about them leaving the Underworld considering the earthquake that happened.
But to her surprise, Natasha said that Svarog had commanded all his robots to help the people who were caught up in the earthquake. While also telling them that he will keep them safe.
"What a reliable ally."
Seele couldn't help but say and felt like that cold calculating robot was someone who could back up their words.
"We should probably hurry. I feel like the more we wait, the harder it will be to scale that mountain."
Yuuto quickly cut into their conversation as he noticed a surge of yellow energy mixing into the white storm and felt a disgusting gaze land on him. The probing eyes seemed to come from all directions and felt more intense compared to before.
"I agree. I'm starting to feel weird just standing here…" March shivered and rubbed her arm. feeling like some insects were crawling under her skin which didn't feel too pleasant.
Reaching a decision together, the six of them began to run towards the mountain. Yuuto led the way as they needed to enter the abandoned city border where hoards of monsters were.
As this was the only path that brought them to the foot of the mountain, they had no choice but to break through the crowd.
—VRMMMMM
"Ha Ha! I came back with some reinforcements!" Seeing the stone walls he was previously at, he quickly summoned his sword. "Let's see if you can gang up on me now."
Yuuto smiled and released a bout of moonlight that crashed into a group of monsters. Breaking a path for them to run in, the others also didn't hold back.
"Does he have a vendetta with these guys or something?" Seele couldn't help but ask, seeing Yuuto so keen on defeating the fragmentum monsters around him.
"Let him be. I can probably guess what happened." Dan Heng quickly said and swung his spear downwards.
The spear slammed into a Shadewalker's leg causing it to fall over. In the midst of falling, the spear's trajectory shifted and the spearhead pierced its body multiple times.
"Stelle catch!"
Yuuto swiped his sword and threads of moonlight coated his sword before flowing towards the monster in front of him.
The sharp moonlight caused slits to form all around its body before Yuuto delivered the final attack. Its body, devoid of any limbs, flew upwards and was struck in the chest by a strong backkick.
"Let's reach a home run this time." Stelle licked her lips and wiggled the bat in her hands a few times.
Bringing it backward, she kept her eye on the ball or target in this case before slamming her bat right in the middle. "That felt like a good one!"
Stelle whistled and saw how the body eventually disappeared into the dark sky and felt like she should be signed seeing how perfect her swing was.
–SWISH
"Oops?"
"Don't forget to watch your surroundings."
March lowered her bow after firing an arrow at the monster who was sneaking behind Stelle and reminded her. Stelle looked at the corpse that had an arrow in it and awkwardly rubbed her head.
After a few more minutes of fighting, the last few monsters finally fell after a conjoint effort from Yuuto, Seele, and Dan Heng.
In the end, they felt like combining their power was a good way to conserve their energy. By imagining what they would face at the top of the mountain, saving their energy was a wise thing to do.
Finally being in the abandoned city where the corrosion was the most potent, the six of them carefully navigated through the corridors. Hoping to avoid any remnants that may still be active.
"Wait." Yuuto raised his hand as he felt a few monsters ahead of him and hid behind a wall with the others. Pausing for a bit he gestured for them to move forwards after sensing them leave.
"Let's take a left right here and go through the alleyway."
"Should we enter the passage going to the center or…"
"Going to the edge should bring us closer."
Yuuto and Dan Heng took the lead at the front sensing the concentration of fragmentum growing stronger and tried to figure out a way to avoid running into an open space where they could be ambushed.
"But there's a surprising amount of Antimatter Legion goons around here."
March's eyes wandered seeing the number of minions encased in ice around them and felt like they were trying to escape from something.
"Could they still be alive…?"
"These should be the enemies the first Supreme Guardian fought right before she activated the Stellaron." Bronya took note of the horizontal icicles all pointing toward one direction.
After reading more into the diary Alexandra left behind, she learned more about the history that caused Jarilo-VI to fall into the predicament they were currently in.
She looked towards the growing storm brewing in the distance and thought about Cocolia who was most likely right in the middle of it.
"What are you thinking so seriously about?"
As they were walking March caught Stelle looking at the sculptures and had never seen such a serious face from her before. Stelle rubbed her chin and let out a faint whisper.
"March 8? Or maybe I should call them March 7.5?"
"...." March couldn't help but open her mouth in disbelief after hearing what she said.
"Yuuto what's a good name? March 8 or March 7.5?"
"Call it 'The ones who failed to escape their unfortunate fate brought upon by a disaster'."
"That is way too long and sounds too deep for my liking."
"Suit yourself. You just can't fathom such a profound naming sense from yours truly."
March turned to Yuuto who had his back turned and felt like he was way too willing to go along with Stelle's odd sense of words so quickly.
"We should be reaching the entrance of the mountain now." Dan Heng raised his head and after turning one more corner, the iron door that blocked their way was now in sight.
A sudden sense of nervousness overcame some of them as they anticipated that past this door was what decided the fate of Belobog and the Underworld.
"Wait…isn't that…?" Bronya pointed towards the edge of the door and saw a faint silhouette of a woman with blonde hair. "Mother…"
She was shocked to see Cocolia and took a step towards her but felt a hand on her shoulder.
Yuuto narrowed his eyes and saw through the silhouette. He felt the same energy from the echo he fought before and knew at that moment that it was an image created by the fragmentum.
He opened his palm, ready to summon his sword but saw that the brand-new echo just smiled at them before disappearing.
"..Is it taunting us?"
"Maybe?"
Yuuto was also confused with the others who just saw the echo disappear without doing anything. He couldn't wrap his head around what the echo's intentions were but felt like he should prepare for any potential sneak attacks.
"March, I'm going to create a shield around us so can you add yours as well. Just like how we did it during that fight against the Doomsday Beast."
"No problem!"
March agreed and after sensing a dome form around them, she pointed her finger towards the shield and a pink light escaped her finger.
"Let's go."
The six of them made their way past the iron door and climbed up the mountain that assaulted them with a sudden burst of snow.
As all of the snow was now being concentrated on this single mountain, the speeds at which the winds went by could possibly sweep them off their feet if they weren't ready.
"Can you hold on?"
"Yeah, but I need to concentrate a bit more this time."
Yuuto raised his hand alongside March who frowned, feeling like the layers she placed on the dome were chipping away from the intensity of the winds crashing into it.
The light pink that shattered was instantly replaced and the dome grew a brighter pink each time a layer was broken.
The others were worried for the two but they currently didn't have any way to assist them other than to speed up the pace they went by.
After a long period of keeping their shield up, the six finally reach the eye of this very storm. Yuuto kept his shield up and scanned the area.
His senses caught an abnormal amount of energy pulsating in the middle of the mountain and saw Cocolia floating in the air with a calm look on her face.
Seeing Cocolia in the air, the six brandished their weapons and got ready to fight.
"{So you finally arrived.}"
"Mother…"
Bronya clenched her rifle and looked at Cocolia with a serious look.
"{Bronya…}" Cocolia's eyes flickered with emotion as she saw her daughter. "{If you're here it must mean you know of the truth this world has attempted to hide.}"
Bronya was silent at first but eventually spoke up. "Case 13175. As Supreme Guardian you must know of this task."
"{Interesting… So you learned of that task.}"
"Yes! That's why—"
"{So what?}"
Before Bronya can say anything, Cocolia swiftly shuts her down.
"{The common will and promise that the Stellaron provides is the best way to bring upon the promised future made for Belobog.}"
"But that means handing our future to this seed of ruin."
"{However this very seed is what will bring upon a future where the Preservation failed to provide us. The future that the Architect's tried to show us is nothing but a mere illusion.}"
Cocolia's cold voice echoed through the space that the mountain had and shook the air.
"{Countless changes but what did they amount to? Only chaos.}" Remembering her efforts, Cocolia was convinced. "{However, with the power given by the Stellaron. We can finally go—}"
"NO!"
A loud shout stopped Cocolia who held her words and saw Bronya look at her with a sincere look.
"Our duty as guardians is to protect the world built by humanity and preserve the path built by us."
Bronya recalled her experiences in the Underworld and how they worked together to build a better future. Even if their situation looks bleak without any way of knowing where it leads.
"But you.. Mother.. You wish to crush that path and hand our fate to this disaster." Her eyes didn't sway and expressed her heartfelt wishes.
"A future that we as humanity carved and paved ourselves is one that we must follow. Even if that very path is bitter and bleak. That is why I must stop you."
"{....}"
Cocolia was silent as she digested Bronya's words and gradually dropped from the sky.
Comparing the image of her daughter who was a little girl before to the beautiful woman in front of her, she felt time had gone too fast.
However, these feelings eventually faded away.
"{How unfortunate.}" Cocolia raised the lance beside her and pointed it towards the six people in front of her.
"{It's a pity that you failed to escape the shackles of your mind but that's fine.}"
—TREMBLE
"{You must break the old to build the new.}"
The mountain began to shake and the snow around them began to grow stronger every second that passed.
"{But I must say, there are a few bugs that seem to prevent me from moving forward.}"
Cocolia glanced at the large robot sitting beside her and felt a hint of annoyance seeing that her control over the machine was blocked for some reason.
She tried to think of various reasons but she didn't dwell on it too much. Since the machine was insignificant compared to the new world she wanted to build.
"{Thankfully the Stellaron has promised me more than what I bargained for.}"
"H-Hey. That looks pretty dangerous doesn't it!?"
March pointed towards the bright yellow energy glowing within Cocolia's palm and how lines began to run down her arm.
Her deep purple eyes had a hint of madness staring at the power in her hands and brought it closer to her chest.
A dense layer of ice began to cover her arm and an ominous yellow and black aura covered her entire body.
"{You will become the foundation of the new–}" Cocolia smiled as she walked forward but suddenly felt an odd sense of resistance from her foot. "{What is—}"
She looked down and saw that a bit of white mist was wrapped around both her feet and raised her eyebrows at this.
—BOOOOOOOM
"{UGH}"
However before she could speak out loud, a powerful force crashed into her chest and felt her body fly into the icy hill just a few meters away from her.
"Thank god she didn't notice…"
Yuuto lowered his fist which was covered in a deep red hue and relaxed his wrist.
"....."
"....."
"....."
"What..?"
An eerie silence enveloped the mountain as Yuuto noticed that the people behind him were looking at him with strange looks.
"You.."
"What? She was about to transform into something dangerous so I just hit her in the middle of all that."
"Oi, that's a taboo!?" March pointed at Yuuto. "The rules are you can't attack an enemy when they're in the middle of a transformation!!!"
"Screw that." Yuuto scoffed before putting on a bright smile. "Rules are meant to be broken."
***
Everyone follow along… HEADS UP! THE WHEELS ARE SPINNING. ACROSS THE PLAINS IN VALLEYS DEEP!
Peakcony has arrived.