Right now, Chloe’s main priority was making sure the floating lantern stayed intact while she fought off all these creepy mountain monsters. Because Chloe was pretty confident she herself would survive even the nastiest injuries at this point, but the lantern? Yeah, she had absolutely no idea how durable that thing actually was. And considering it was apparently the only thing stopping her from getting hopelessly lost forever inside evil fog mountain, protecting it felt pretty important.
So the instant the first Miasmic Beast came charging toward her again, Chloe reacted immediately. Ice magic surged through her hand as she conjured a massive ice lance before hurling it straight at the creature’s face. The spear slammed directly through the beast’s skull hard enough to stagger the giant wolf mid-charge. Frost exploded across its head as the creature snarled.
Surprisingly, the attack actually seemed to work despite the thing being all weird and smoky. The monster stumbled for a second before violently shattering the ice lance apart with sheer brute force. But Chloe had already rushed forward by then. Oh no you don’t, ugly!
Before the beast could fully recover, Chloe jammed her fist straight into its open mouth and unleashed an absolutely ridiculous torrent of fireballs directly down its throat. Explosions erupted one after another from inside the creature as Chloe continuously blasted it with fire magic. The giant wolf-like monster visibly started swelling and bloating from the pressure building inside it while flames burst from between its teeth and cracks of glowing heat spread beneath its fur. And then the whole thing exploded.
The beast detonated in a violent blast of fire, smoke, and black miasma that scattered burning chunks of shadowy flesh. That was one down, just a couple more to go.
[You have killed: Greater Miasmic Beast (Level 93)]
[Experience Awarded]
Unfortunately for the remaining Miasmic Beasts, Chloe was far from being tired. Actually, she was feeling pretty great. There was nothing quite like testing out your new powers post evolution after all.
The glowing crimson eyes deeper inside the fog lunged toward her almost immediately after the first creature exploded apart. Chloe barely even looked worried though. Instead, she cracked her neck slightly before raising one hand toward the incoming monsters.
A massive arc of electricity exploded outward from Chloe’s hand with a deafening crack, slamming directly into the nearest beast hard enough to launch the giant creature sideways through the fog. The lightning immediately chained from monster to monster, violently jumping between every Miasmic Beast rushing toward her as the entire mountainside lit up bright blue-white for a split second.
The beasts howled as electricity ripped through their bodies, spasming violently. One creature slammed into a nearby cliffside while another collapsed mid-charge, skidding across the rocky ground in a smoking heap before dissolving.
Chloe immediately pointed at them dramatically. “CHAIN LIGHTNING, BABY!”
Chain lightning attacks were used all the time in games and movies, but Chloe had always thought they were awesome, and there was absolutely no way she was ever going to get tired of it. The silver lantern floating ahead of her bobbed slightly from the shockwaves of the attack, making Chloe immediately glance toward it just to make sure she hadn’t accidentally vaporized the one thing keeping her from getting lost. Thankfully, it looked like the lantern was still mostly fine.
That immediately became Chloe’s routine afterward. Fight horrible fog monsters, check lantern, then zap more horrible fog monsters, and of course she checked the lantern again after that.
At one point, two of the beasts tried circling around her through the miasma while another charged straight down the middle toward the floating lantern itself. Chloe’s eyes widened the instant she realized what the creature was aiming for.
The giant wolf-like beast lunged at the lantern with its jaws wide open. Chloe immediately thrust both hands forward.
A gigantic torrent of lightning exploded from her palms and slammed directly into the creature midair. The sheer force of the blast completely halted the monster’s charge before violently launching it backward through the fog while lightning continuously tore across its body in blinding flashes.
The beast let out a horrible screech as electricity ripped through it nonstop, its entire body convulsing violently before finally detonating apart into smoke and drifting miasma.
The mountain path briefly went quiet afterward except for the soft crackling of fading lightning. Chloe slowly lowered her hands before immediately whipping her head toward the lantern again.
The silver lantern wobbled slightly in the air. Then it steadied itself and continued floating calmly.
[You have killed: Miasmic Beast (Level 85)]
[You have killed: Miasmic Beast (Level 86)]
[You have killed: Miasmic Beast (Level 86)]
[...]
[You have killed: Miasmic Beast (Level 87)]
The rest of the trip honestly ended up being pretty straightforward after that. Chloe mostly just followed the floating lantern through the miasma while occasionally vaporizing any monsters dumb enough to jump her along the way. Every now and then some giant wolf thing or other weird shadow creature would burst out of the darkness trying to attack her or the lantern, and Chloe would immediately answer the problem with lightning.
Eventually though, the thick black miasma around her finally started thinning out. A few more steps later, Chloe fully emerged from the fog and arrived at what looked like the very top of the mountain.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
The summit itself was mostly flat, minus the big ancient gate in the middle of it all, though the ground was still filled with a lot of black rocks like the rest of the mountain. Near the center of the summit, a small camp had already been set up around a crackling bonfire whose orange flames stood out brightly against the otherwise gloomy landscape.
And sitting around that bonfire were Graham, Raenof, and Sierra. Chloe immediately spotted them eating what looked like some kind of soup from bowls while resting beside the fire. Sierra looked much calmer now compared to earlier, though she still stayed close to Raenof, while Graham looked as unbothered as always.
At first, Chloe perked up excitedly because she thought she might’ve actually been the first one out of the miasma. But before she could celebrate, she saw Iris and Z standing off to the side near the edge of the summit, casually talking to each other like they’d been there for a while already.
Chloe immediately pouted. She stomped over toward them with the most offended expression imaginable. “Okay wait, how did you two get out first?”
“Is that truly important at the moment?” Z asked.
“Yes,” Chloe said. “It totally is.”
Iris chuckled. “If it makes you feel any better, Z arrived first by quite a large margin. I suspect she likely did not even require the lantern. Meanwhile, I discarded my own lantern midway through the journey once I reached a point where I already knew the route.”
Chloe stared at both of them in complete disbelief. She seriously considered accusing Iris of intentionally making her take the slow route while the two of them basically speedran the mountain. Honestly, it really did feel like she’d gotten scammed a little.
But after thinking about it for another second, Chloe just groaned dramatically and decided to let it go. Mostly because she was pretty sure complaining wouldn’t actually change anything.
“So then what do we do now?” Chloe asked instead.
“You should speak with Graham first, Z and I will prepare the remaining components necessary to power the gate.” Iris explained.
“Kaaay.”
Chloe walked over toward the campfire. Graham, Raenof, and Sierra looked up at her approach. Raenof’s eyes immediately moved over Chloe for a moment before he smiled. “Well, well, you look different."
Chloe immediately grinned proudly and placed both hands on her hips. “Duh. I evolved.”
Sierra smiled shyly from beside the fire, looking noticeably relieved to see Chloe again. “Congratulations Chloe, that’s… really amazing.”
Chloe dramatically placed one hand over her chest. “Thank you, thank you, I know,” she said before immediately plopping herself down beside Sierra on the log near the fire.
Then she leaned forward slightly and looked at the pot hanging above the flames. “Anyway, can I get some soup too?”
Graham slowly looked over at her. “I do not recall you requiring normal food in order to sustain yourself.”
“That’s true, but also, everybody else is eating soup and I feel left out.”
Raenof snorted quietly into his bowl while Sierra tried not to laugh. Graham simply shook his head. “More importantly, do you possess the dragon’s heart?”
“Oh yeah, I got the things, hang on a sec.”
She hopped back off the log and stepped away from the campfire a little before patting the front of Cloaky gently. “Alright Cloaky, can you please take out the black crystal thingy and put it over there?”
Suddenly, Cloaky began expanding outward unnaturally. The fabric stretched and widened as shadowy hands slowly pushed their way out from beneath the cloak. Graham, Sierra, and Raenof all watched as dozens of the shadowy hands reached back inside Cloaky before grabbing onto something massive inside.
A gigantic black crystal slowly emerged from inside the cloak, dark energy rolling off its surface in thick waves as the enormous object was dragged out. The crystal was nearly as tall as Chloe herself, and the shadowy hands carefully lowered the massive object onto the rocky ground beside her with a heavy thump that shook loose bits of stone across the summit.
Once the crystal was fully outside, Cloaky immediately shrank back down to normal size while the shadowy arms slipped back beneath the fabric one by one until they completely vanished.
Chloe proudly gestured toward the giant crystal afterward. “Ta-da!”
Graham stared at the massive black crystal for a few moments. Then, after what felt like a dramatic amount of silence, he finally placed his empty soup bowl down beside the fire and stood up. “Well, it appears we can proceed after all.”
The second he said that, Raenof and Sierra immediately hurried to put their own bowls down too before standing up beside the campfire. Sierra still looked a little nervous, though honestly that was pretty understandable considering they were apparently about to open some ancient magical gate.
Raenof folded his arms afterward and looked toward Graham. “Would you mind reminding us of the plan again?”
“Understandable,” Graham replied with a nod.
He walked toward the giant black crystal while speaking. “Using the broken sword we acquired previously in combination with the dragon’s heart, I should be capable of temporarily opening the gate leading to the other side.”
Chloe immediately perked up a little at that. Oh right, the weird broken sword thing. Honestly she’d almost forgotten about that part because there had been way too many giant monsters and magical nonsense happening lately.
“Once the gate is open,” Graham continued, “the only remaining question becomes who exactly will enter it.”
Chloe immediately raised one hand into the air before he even finished speaking.“Ooh! Me! Me! I’m definitely going in.”
“Yes,” Graham said. “You were always intended to be among the first entrants. I would also strongly prefer for Zenaida to accompany you if possible."
“Zenaida? Ohhh, wait, you mean Z.”
Honestly, she sometimes forgot that Z had a full actual name. “Z” just felt way easier. But anyway, Graham ignored that completely and continued speaking. “As for the rest of you, Raenof and Sierra are free to follow afterward if you so choose. However, due to the instability of the gate itself, it would be extremely unwise to send more than two individuals through simultaneously.”
Raenof frowned. “I see. Does that mean we’ll become separated from Chloe once we cross over?”
“Most likely, in fact, there is a very high probability you may arrive extremely far apart from one another entirely. You should prepare yourselves for that possibility.”
Well that sounded inconvenient. Chloe didn’t really love the idea of everybody getting scattered randomly across who-knew-where. Especially Sierra.
Apparently Sierra herself had similar concerns because she nervously raised one hand slightly. “Um… is there maybe some kind of item we could use to find each other afterward?”
“To ensure we can regroup more easily, I assume,” Graham said.
Sierra nodded. "Yes."
Thankfully, Graham actually looked mildly pleased by the question instead of annoyed. “I anticipated this issue already.”
He then walked to the tent set up beside the campfire. Chloe watched curiously while he disappeared inside for a few moments before eventually returning carrying something small in one hand. Actually, several small somethings.Graham stepped back toward the group before opening his hand to reveal four metallic rings resting across his palm.
“These rings are linked to one another,” Graham explained while holding them up. “Once activated, they should allow each wearer to roughly track the locations of the others.”