A hand put on his shoulder, jolting him back to reality. He was sitting on the ground, leaning against the broken stone statue of the ancient guard. He didn't remember when he sat down. Oral was sitting on the ground.
Bend down and look at him.
"Don't sleep," said the old soldier. "Nightmares, only nightmares here."
Sigvar got up. He had not thought of his old tribe for many years. The afterimages of the dream gradually faded, but Sigvar still felt deeply uneasy.
"The time has come," Hala said.
So they began the final descent. There was nothing below them, only madness, cold, darkness and despair.
What dwells below is waiting, it has been waiting for thousands of years.
The lower they descended, the darker the ice wall became. Black veins crawled within it, stretching out claws upwards. A vague crackling sound came from all around them, as if scratching Sigvar's brain. He
There were no signs of movement, but in his imagination, the sound came from black cables under the ice, trying to escape the cursed pit and crawl toward the surface.
Sigvar tried to push the sound out of his mind and began to chant silent prayers, concentrating on each toe kick and ice pick.
The ice surface here began to become less smooth, and was full of ridges and depressions that were difficult to climb. Sometimes, the three of them had to climb only with ice axes, and their feet could only hang on the bottomless abyss. Twice, they failed
They had to stop, unable to find a way to continue descending, and later they had to backtrack twice until Hala finally decided to open a new path.
The ice fog tightly surrounded them, so thick and oppressive that Sigvar could no longer see his companions below. The fog here also blocked all sounds, except for the incessant and heartbreaking scraping sound.
.
Finally, the icy ground appeared, abruptly interrupting the fog, and Sigvar was really surprised. Hala and Oral were waiting for him below, having already unloaded their bags, ropes and ice axes.
The silence was unbearable. Even the crackling in the ice stopped.
"Are we in the end?" Sigvar whispered. He shook off his equipment, and his breath immediately turned into mist.
"We only went down so far," Oral whispered. "But the abyss goes deeper."
The elder Frost Guard took him two steps forward and pointed downward. There was a cliff in front of them. Sigvar saw that the ice in front of him disappeared, and there was still no bottom below.
"How deep?" he whispered.
"No one knows. It may go all the way to the center of the world, and it may go even deeper. It may lead to the realm where the things that dwell below exist."
Sigvar kicked the spikes of one foot into the ice beneath his feet. "We almost missed this point. If we go another thirty feet in any direction, we will never reach the bottom."
"Hanbing Po will not lead you astray," Oral said, putting a hand on Sigvar's back and leading him to Hala.
Sigvar half-knelt on the ground and touched the ice through his gloves. The biting cold penetrated the layers of fabric and stung his hands. This was not just cold, the ice was radiating power.
"These are all... Zhen Bing?" He whispered, with awe shining in his eyes.
"All of them," Hala said. "Only a chosen few have seen it. The one eye is really watching you, the half-arrow. It's watching us. We are the blessed ones."
Zhenbing is part of the Frost Guard's faith. They regard Zhenbing as a sacred gift to the three sisters. Zhenbing, which contains the power of ancient elements, is harder than steel and will never melt. Even if it is placed in the hottest furnace, it will still be cold.
It's compelling. Even if only a part of the weapon is made of Zhenbing, such as Oral's war hammer Thunderson, or Hala's twin axes Blood Fang and Blood Claw - they are all of great honor and religious significance to the holder. Forging them
The techniques of perfect ice weapons have long been lost. All perfect ice weapons in the world are sacred relics, all inherited from ancient ice-born heroes. Sigvar prays that one day he will be qualified to hold such noble relics.
But for now, his short sword is enough. This sword was forged far beyond the frozen wasteland. It is a good weapon by any measure, and it has never failed him.
"We are almost there, thank you three sisters." Ha.
La said, "Let's go."
They strode down the canyon, like a pack of wolves, with Hala leading the way.
Although Sigvar had lived in the desolate frozen soil all his life, the temperature here was something he had never experienced before. Even through many layers of fur clothing, he still felt bone-chilling cold, and every breath was accompanied by pain.
His exposed face was quickly covered with a thin layer of ice, and the ice shattered every time he blinked. Oral's beard was completely frozen, and it would break immediately if it touched something. The frost was smooth.
As their boots spread upward, the ice on their soles tried to hold them back, making every step full of hardship.
Only the Iceborn can survive here. Having said that, Sigvar is not sure how long he can last here. One hour? Two hours of hard work? Any longer than that.
Hala led them to keep moving forward. To stop would be to die.
They finally came to the place where the gap narrowed, just wide enough for them to pass through one by one.
Hala went in first, and Oral motioned for Sigvar to follow her.
"Don't stare at it," Oral warned him. "It's not a good thing for the eyes."
"You mean...?" Sigvar asked.
Oral just shook his head and didn't elaborate further. Sigvar got into the narrow gap and tried to figure out what the old warrior meant.
The crack was very narrow, and his body was much wider than Hara's. He squeezed through the gap, and the ice burned him. He was sure that his cold frame could be shattered with just a hammer, but he continued to move forward.
, rubbing it inward inch by inch, and finally got it through.
On the other side of the slit is a huge cave with the bottom of a bowl. The ice under the feet here gradually changes from turbid to transparent. The ice bottom in the center of the cave is a perfect plane, like a black mirror. The center of the cave is flat and open.
The empty space is surrounded by a circle of huge and abrupt icicles. They look like pillars and are distributed in the middle of the open space along a circle, giving the entire cave a sense of solemnity like a lost god. There are nine icicles in total.
, Sigvar suddenly realized the meaning of this number after a while.
"The Hall of Nine Deities," he said with reverence.
Of course he knows about the Nine. They are like huge shackles, binding the things that live below. It is said that the magic that created them has long been lost. Some people say that the Yeti tribe made the Nine, but Sigvar no longer believes in this kind of thing.
The age of fairy tales.
He knew that they had reached their destination.
"Let's walk close to the edge of the center circle," Hala said to them when he saw Oral also turned around the slit. "Don't get close to the center of the ice bottom, and don't look below."
Sigvar knew that this was kind advice for him, and he nodded.
"Each of the nine statues must be inspected. I'll start from here and go this way," Hala said, gesturing to the nearest icicle and then pointing to the right of it. "Shi Fist, you start there and go that way.
.The child is left to you."
At any other time, Sigvar would have been furious to hear that he was called a child or even looked after. He had faced hordes of troll berserkers in the deepest winter without changing his expression and his heart was filled with ecstasy - but at this moment
, he was so grateful to be able to stay with Oral. A palpable tension hung in the air, like the sense of menace waiting for thunder after the lightning flash.
They walked towards the nearest icicle, and Sigvar deliberately kept his gaze upward. Once upon a time, this might have been a closed cave, but the top collapsed a long time ago. Sigvar felt that the collapse of the cave roof was caused by something huge.
Was thrown from above.
He didn't dare to look down, but even so, he could still see the dark shadow below from the corner of his eye. It was pulling on him, seeming to be pulling his attention...
"Don't look," Oral hissed, probably feeling the same pull.
Hala had reached the first piece of ice and began to slowly circle it, examining it carefully. Oral and Sigvar approached the second piece.
"What are we looking at?" Sigvar asked in a low voice, trying not to let his realization wander to the center of the ice.
"Any change," Oral said.
After getting closer, Sigvar could see the dark ropes sealed inside the Icicle. "We
How do you know something has changed?" he muttered quietly.
Oral did not answer at first. He squinted his eyes and scanned all sides of the ice pillar. Finally, he grunted and pointed to the top. "There are runes carved on the ice. A long time ago, the thing that lived under it just
When you were exiled, did you see this place?"
Sigvar took a step closer and saw thin lines carved on the surface of the icicles, forming runes. "What does it mean?" he asked.
"It means the ice has not melted. Come on, let's go see the next one."
They set off, clinging to the left wall of the cave and avoiding the open space in the middle.
Sigvar could never explain what happened next. He remembered that he had been following Oral closely, heading towards the next icicle. He remembered that there was a heavy pressure in his head, and then he felt
There was something moving in his peripheral vision. The weight of silence pressed up, making him breathless. Then everything seemed to become blurry, as if a thick fog suddenly rose around him, blocking all senses.
Then he found himself standing in the center of the ice bottom, staring down.
A huge single eye stared back at him, unblinking.
Sigvar's soul was shrinking, and his heart was screaming, but he could not turn his gaze away, completely enslaved to that huge, breathtaking, single eye without double eyelids.
There was about twenty feet of ice between him and the black shadow beast. This distance was not close enough. It was impossible to see clearly, but Sigvar felt that the giant eye was surrounded by darkness and curled up.
, tentacle-like limbs. Any sea monster wandering in the abyss under the ice cap is dwarfed by it. A creature of such a large size simply cannot exist.
It is not dead. There is life in that gaze, and vast, unfathomable wisdom.
It saw him. Its gaze seeped into him, penetrated him, and he felt his sanity begin to fray, like a spool being thrown into the night. Sigvar felt his stomach twist into a ball, the edges of his vision
It began to be surrounded by black shadows, squirming and meandering, as if to--
A hand grabbed his back collar and dragged him backwards. He staggered, his boots stamped randomly on the ice. He was dragged out of the center circle, and was unceremoniously still on the outside ice.
.He climbed up, shadows and curling shapes still wandering in his mind.
In the darkness, Sigvar recognized Oral standing in front of him, clutching his fur coat tightly with one fist. Hala knelt beside him, praying in panic.
The rolling black shadows were still swimming in the corners of his eyes, and he felt dizzy, as if he had been filled with a suffocating thick fog. Unwisely, he moved his eyes to the center of the ice bottom again, returning to where he had just been -
—
Oral punched him on the chin and knocked his head back sharply. "Don't look at it."
Sigvar blinked, his mind clearing, and then he nodded.
"Hala, he's not strong enough," Oral said, still clenching his fists. At this moment, the humor in his eyes was gone, replaced by harsh, ruthless coldness. "He should be allowed to go back."
"No!" Sigvar said. "I...I'm fine."
"He should be allowed to go back," Olar repeated and looked at Hala. She ended her hurried prayer, then got up and looked at Sigvar suspiciously.
"I'm fine. I can hold on." He assured the two of them.
"If he falters again, kill him," Hala said. "Go. Check the icicles."
She walked to the next one, ice crunching beneath her feet.
"Don't force me," Oral growled at Sigvar. "I don't want to carry your body up there."
No corpses are allowed down here for fear of being used to cause the growth of things that live below. No matter the situation is good or bad, the climb back up is extremely difficult, and Sigvar cannot imagine how a person can climb back with a corpse on his back.
Oral had climbed up with two corpses on his back several times before. Thinking of this, his respect for the old warrior doubled.
"I won't look," Sigvar vowed, his eyes always fixed on Oral. "Let's go.
.”
Oral grunted, then motioned for Sigvar to walk ahead.
They found the runes on the next pillar almost immediately. "Here," Oral pointed with his finger.
The edges of the mark are so sharp that it looks like it was carved an hour ago rather than thousands of years ago. That's a good thing. It means it hasn't melted at all in all this time.
"This one's yours," Oral said as they approached the next big icicle, cutting out of the ice at a sharp angle. "I'll go check out the next one. Don't let me down, boy."
Sigvar nodded, and the old warrior left himself next to the icicle. It was almost completely black. When he looked at the icicle, the black shadow at the edge of his vision seemed to be back, looking like something
Things are swimming in the ice.
He shook his head and walked around the icicle, scanning up and down, looking for traces of runes, but found none. Each facade was completely flat. He frowned and began to circle around for the second time. This time
Slowed down the pace.
Still haven't found anything.
He glanced at the other two people, and he saw that Hala and Oral had almost met, and they were only missing the last two icicles.
