Finding something interesting in the mountains proved to be difficult. Sure, Lenore and I managed to spot a couple monsters that might be powerful enough to put up a fight, one or two that would require the whole party to work together, but just finding them from the air didn’t mean we actually could actually fight them.

When we finally found a monster that was accessible enough, a massive, slate-coloured bear that was living in a valley, Lenore and I decided to try our hand at fighting it. As trying to go into melee with a bear the size of a small car seemed to be an exceedingly bad idea, Lenore had carried me onto a large boulder, further up on the slope, where we had carefully prepared the battlefield. My studies into the connecting patterns for Ice-Runes had born a bit more fruit, allowing me to create thin sheets of Ice that I could float into position with my Ice-Magic before channelling Astral Power into them, to rapidly spread Ice on the ground around them, creating a smooth and slick surface. Unless one was a very proficient Ice-Dancer, trying to run across such a surface would almost certainly end up in hilarity, making it a very efficient trap, especially when deployed on a slope.

Once we had a few of those spread out and a path to retreat off a cliff was ascertained, Lenore and I were ready to battle. Knowing that the first strike might be the most important, I carefully crafted a large runic formation, packing a lot of Astral Power into the creation of an Ice-Spear, only to have the bear notice me. Attacking before I was quite ready, the spear wasn’t as powerful as I may have been able to make it, but powerful nonetheless. Trailing silvery light, it shot out, striking towards the massive bear, when a wall of grey stone rose, my spear crashing into it.

Ready to react to the bear’s counter-attack, I used my Ice-Magic to prepare a few slabs of Ice, which I planned to move in the path of incoming projectiles while creating a Formation of Darkness-Runes to unleash a beam of magic-devouring radiance. I wasn’t quite in the mental territory that required the use of bullet-time, but the prospect of a serious fight made my heart race, my body chilled and a smile on my face.

The beautiful glow of my Dark Radiance lanced out, my own power contesting with the power that had shaped the stone into shape, quickly breaking it, returning the stone to the ground, giving me an open path to the bear behind. Only that the bear wasn’t behind any longer. Instead of a fearsome monster, ready to throw down in a battle to the death, what I saw was a furry butt, scurrying into a cave.

“Erm?” I mentally stumbled, not quite sure how to deal with the sudden lack of opponent.

“That’s one way to win a fight.” Lenore laughed, focusing on the distant cave-entrance. “We really don’t want to go in there.” she added, her voice suddenly very sober. Thanks to our connection, I was able to see what she saw, namely the various layers of magic that surrounded the cave-entrance, interlinked in a rather impressive display of arcane ability, especially given that we were dealing with a bear.

“We could break that magic.” I replied, looking closely at what she was seeing, only to realise that while we would be able to do so, it wouldn’t really help. While it was difficult to understand foreign magic, I could make some relatively educated guesses. In this case, the way the magic was threaded through the rock above the cave made me think that the magic was stabilising at least some of the rock above, keeping the cave from collapsing. In other words, if I destroyed the magical traps in the cave-opening, it would collapse the cave-opening, unless I managed to only dismantle the trap-parts, a task that required precision that was beyond my ability. I couldn’t even say what the various parts really did, let alone unravel which I could destroy without impacting the whole thing.

“Or maybe not.” I admitted, realising that there was no real way to advance. It didn’t help that it felt wrong to push into the bear’s home in an attempt to hunt it down, reminding me of the centaurs’ attack on the winter wolves. It might even have cubs in its den, and if so, I’d rather pet the cubs than try to kill them all.

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“Let’s leave.” Lenore suggested, having felt my desire to fight fade away.

“Yeah, let’s.” I agreed but decided that just leaving didn’t sit right with me. Reaching into my bag, I pulled out two of the fish that I had caught earlier, still frozen and supposed to be dinner. Gripping the Ice around them with my magic, I let them float over, setting them some ten meters away from the cave and called out, deliberately trying to make myself understood with the ability my bond with Lenore had bestowed upon me.

“We apologize for the disturbance and will leave now.” I called out, before magically breaking the Ice I had placed around the fish. I had no idea if the bear actually understood or if it had any inclination to trust me, and it really didn’t matter. Turning around, I took a few steps towards the rock-ledge, jumping off the mountain while pushing myself into my Hallow. Lenore took over, flapping her wings and controlling our flight, gaining some altitude to look down, into the valley we had just left.

We circled above for a couple of minutes, but the bear remained in its den and the fish was never touched.

“Let’s look for some bandits?” Lenore asked, sounding as unmotivated to look for more furry monsters to murder as I felt.

“I could get behind that. Or maybe some insects or something creepy and crawly. Maybe those would even be vulnerable to the cold, who knows.” I agreed, the idea to kill off some scummy orcs, dwarves or other two legged vermin a lot more palatable than murdering some fuzzy critter.

With unspoken agreement, Lenore turned back south a little, getting back towards the lower forests that were between the hills and the ancient road, the area where bandits were more likely to dwell. After all, they needed to have relatively easy access to the road, or there wouldn’t be any travellers to attack.

We kept flying and looking around for the rest of the day, unable to spot anything that caught our interest. Part of it was likely due to the altitude we kept above the trees, high enough to be out of danger in case there was some sort of predator with a taste for raven hiding in the trees, or it was the simple fact that there was nothing to find.

Finally, when the sun started to set, we started to look for a nice position to spend the night. Our needs were simple, even if I had to reject the idea of spending another night in a tree, as I wanted to perform some magical experiments after resting for most of the day. I was itching to actually do more than be a passenger in my Hallow.

Due to that itching, Lenore landed on a narrow ledge, in the middle of a cragged cliff of grey stone. While climbing it was undoubtedly possible, trying to do so in the middle of the night was a foolish, dangerous proposition, something only someone with a pressing need would do. Without anyone knowing where I was, I should be reasonably secure. At least as long as I didn’t fall down.

To prevent that, and remembering just how disoriented and out of sorts I had been the last couple of times when experimenting with that sort of Darkness-Magic, to the point of falling out of trees, I set up my Throne, positioning it in such a way to look down upon the darkening world.

The view touched a deep, primal part within me, watching how shadows covered the land, while the sun was setting behind distant mountains, the slow but unavoidable advance of darkness, it was inspiring. It made me want to add my own power into the mix, to spread my own darkness outwards, cloaking the world. It was a mad thought, even in a game that prided itself on player-freedom like Road to Purgatory did, the idea seemed preposterous. But nonetheless, it was something I wanted to reach, if only for a short moment.

A smile on my face, I leaned back on my throne and closed my eyes, the dark world vivid in my mind. Calming my breathing, I reached out to the Astral River all around me, gently dipping into the stream, while waiting for the accursed sun to vanish, so that I could soar upwards, to reach for the Darkness of the Void. I had no idea what I would detect there, for once not trying to shoot for the moon.

But to stare into the Void.