Chapter XCI (91) - The Polar Glacier

“Did you also experience a vision?” Kizu asked Kumiho as they trudged across the tundra.

Anata, rode on his back while he trudged forward on his ice snowshoes. Without the blizzard raging all around him, he found the walk almost eerily calm. Even more so with the multicolored aurora overhead.

“Never. That was unexpected. Whoever your sister was, her divination skills must have been peerless. Harbingers tend to inherit and amplify their human parent’s strengths. Anata unconsciously took control of part of the aurora and used it to her own means.”

“And your father’s strengths?” Kizu asked, curious.

As a response, Kumiho raised her hand and blue lightning crackled between her fingers.

“Kitsune used to innately command lightning. But that was lost when we were exiled down into Sekai. I believe my father’s skill in that branch of elemental magic attracted my mother. She spoke very little about her reasoning for choosing to save his life. He was just a lost human delver.”

“Your daughter claimed Kitsune acted as a bridge between humanity. Why wouldn’t she help him?”

“Kitsune aren’t as vengeful as dragons. But they still held a deep grudge. It wasn’t until after my birth that the other races finally wised up and finally understood the prophecy of Harbingers. Now, my aunts and uncles are scrambling to find any humans.”

Kizu thought he was following. “Harbingers are all half-human, half-something else. Anata is half-Blood Lord. You’re half-Kitsune. And there are three others. One of which is…a dragon?” He hoped that he had misunderstood that last bit. But Kumiho nodded her head.

“I don’t understand why you don’t know these things already. Did Otochi not teach you anything when he handed Anata off to you?”

“I took Anata,” Kizu said bluntly. For now, he was choosing to trust Kumiho but still decided to only share information she could easily obtain by contacting Otochi. “I found her while tracking down my sister. She was being kept like a caged blood bag. In worse condition than an animal. So I decided to take her with me.”

“I…see,” Kumiho sounded skeptical. “And Otochii never retaliated?”

“How would he?”

“His servants drank Anata’s blood?”

“Yes.”

“Then he likely has a stockpile to allow them access to the surface. It wouldn’t work for himself, of course, but his spawn aren’t true children of the dungeon.”

“You think they could be on the surface?” Kiza asked, feeling a chill unrelated to the snow.

“It’s likely.”

“Why does he need Anata? If he could steal humans, couldn’t he just harvest them and use his servants on the surface to destroy any seal? What’s the point of Harbingers?”

“It requires fresh blood from one of us. The Ooze Harbinger was very close-lipped on the subject, but it’s clear that this isn’t a task that any crony can accomplish.”

At the very least, this expedition would show Kizu what to look for in regards to the seal. If it meant spitting in the aurora entities’ faces, he would let Kumiho release the Kitsune. But he had zero intention of allowing the Blood Lord out of its prison. That would lead only to utter disaster. Knowing what to keep Anata away from would be vital in preventing any accidents. The more information he gathered about the seal, the better.

After a couple hours of walking, fatigue started to set in, sleepiness weighing down his eyelids. He was a bit jealous of Anata snoozing on his back as they walked. He almost asked her for some blood to jolt him awake, but squashed the temptation with Kumiho here. Instead, he resolved to someday ask Ione to teach him how to summon one of those giant lizard mounts she liked to ride.

He wished Ione was with him now. Even beyond her utility as a summoner, he wished he had a friend with him. Anata was mute and speaking to Kumiho put him on edge. Talking with Ione was comfortable and relaxing. And he was certain she would have been ecstatic to see those yetis earlier.

Right when Kizu opened his mouth to request a bit of time for a nap, they hit the edge of the tundra. A slight dip signified the beginning of the snow covered beach. From there, it almost looked like the flat land of the tundra continued on, except, instead of ground, it was sheets of ice with fissures of ocean showing through. Further out, the mounds of ice grew out of the sea, creating what looked almost like jagged mountains.

“We accidently passed it, right?” Kizu asked, looking out at the frozen ocean with dread.

Kumiho continued walking out onto the ice.

“Watch your step. It’s not far.”

Kizu deeply regretted his decision to follow her here. As he walked out onto the ice field, he kept his eyes only on two places. Where Kumiho set her feet, and where he set his own. Nothing else mattered.

The worst moments were when he felt the ice shift under his weight and heard it popping. It only happened when leaping over to smaller sheets, but each time caused his heart to plummet.

Mort felt his anxiety and answered it with his own. Despite Kizu petting him, he couldn’t sooth the monkey’s worries with their emotions directly linked. Mort felt every pang of fear Kizu felt and Kizu felt every fear of Mort’s. It was an endless cycle. At least somehow Anata still soundly slept.

“Where did you find that circlet?” Kumiho asked.

“Circle?” Kizu said, scrambling up the lip of ice. He wobbled slightly as he scanned the ice looking for something circular.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“On your niece’s head.”

“Oh, that? I found it at a shop full of magical trinkets. I know it’s too big for her, I just thought it looked nice.”

“It affects her soul. Stabilizes it.”

“Yes.”

“Let me know if you find another. It looks remarkably useful.”

Kizu glanced up from his feet to look behind himself at Anata slouched over his shoulders. The circlet lay slanted on her head, covering one of her eyes. It glittered green in the aurora’s light. As far as he could tell, she only wore the circlet because it was a gift. The same reason as to why she currently held a stuffed purple bat plushie under her chin. He didn’t think she actively used the enchantment for anything. In fact, he doubted Anata even knew the enchantment existed.

“I’ll let you know if I come across anything.”

“Thank you. It would make me feel much more confident about allowing my children more independence.” She stopped suddenly on a large sheet of ice and pointed forward over the ocean. “That is what Anata showed us in her vision.”

Kizu narrowly avoided stepping on her tail as he careened forward. Instead, he stumbled to the side and fell to a knee. He looked up at a cliffside of ice splitting through the ice fields.

He watched in horror as a massive chunk split from it and fell a hundred meters before smashing into the ocean below. The boom of ice colliding with water sent a shockwave through the air followed by a surge in the sea.

Kizu tensed and dug his fingers into the ice flow below him as it rose with the surge and dipped back down. The following ripples still rocked the ice, but didn’t risk toppling him over. Even after the sea stilled, Mort continued to pull on Kizu’s hair, clinging to the back of his neck.

“What is it?” Kizu asked, staring up at the wall of ice.

“Polar Glacier. The gateway into the most inhospitable land in the entire world. Even Sekai doesn’t reach beyond it. And it is our current destination according to your niece’s vision.”

“And it’s named that because it’s so cold?” Kizu asked.

“Of course not. It’s named for the bears that crawl all over it.”

Polar bears. He recalled the warning from Ione as he’d arrived in Tross.

“At least they’re not magical,” Kizu grumbled.

“I wouldn’t be certain. Strange things happen over here. Normal bears would be in hibernation this time of year. I should have suspected that the glacier hid the seal’s location. A cursory glance revealed nothing though and I dismissed it as an option.”

Kumiho continued to hop between ice flows until she reached the edge of the icy cliff. The ice sheets closer to the wall were now wet from the recent wave and Kizu struggled to maintain his balance with Anata on his back. His bad leg gave out and slid into the ocean and he scrambled back onto the ice with his bare hands.

“What’s wrong with your leg?” Kumiho asked, seeming to notice it for the first time.

“It healed wrong.”

“And you can’t get it fixed?”

Kizu didn’t want to get into the specifics of explaining the complications of excess bone growth so he just grunted.

“You should cut it off and get a new one.”

The naivety of the statement showed her resemblance to her daughter. She really didn’t understand how things worked outside the World Dungeon. Sure, Arclight had apparently found a powerful prosthetic down there, but that wasn’t exactly commonplace elsewhere.

“It’s complicated,” Kizu said. “It has to do with the soul’s image of the body. I don’t fully understand it myself. But it won’t be an issue for the climb, I have a leg brace.”

Kumiho frowned in distaste but said nothing else. Instead, she transformed.

In front of Kizu now stood a brilliant red fox the size of a small bear. She looked back at him and nodded once before leaping at the wall of ice. Digging her claws into it, she climbed.

Kizu reached into his bag and pulled out his Enchanting C midterm project. A pair of gloves designed specifically for climbing vertical surfaces. He also took out three of his academy uniform belts and linked them, cinching Anata to his back in a makeshift harness. If he had known they would be ice-climbing glaciers, he would have left her with Mae.

Anata, now awake again, clung to him as he began his ascent. Even with his baggage and leg, the climb was easy with the enchantment sticking him to the cliff’s surface. He and Mort used to spend days just climbing trees this same size. In fact, as they rose, he felt Mort relax slightly.

He heaved his elbows over the edge and stared at the sight before him. Kumiho, still in her fox form, stood down a polar bear. The glow of the aurora illuminated its yellowish fur and massive set of bared teeth.

A breeze whipped up a dusting of snow and silt that scattered across the glacier’s plateau.

Before Kizu pulled himself up all the way, the bear stood up on its back paws, standing nearly three meters in height, and roared. It hurled its weight down at Kumiho.

Nimbly, Kumiho dived under its strike. As it smashed down onto the ice, Kumiho nipped at it. Kizu saw the slight flash of lightning as she managed to bite its shoulder. Unfortunately, not enough power to even make the massive beast flinch.

Despite its large frame, the beast whipped its head around to catch Kumiho’s back leg as she moved to retreat. As the creature bit down on her, her fur sparked with electricity and the jolt zapped its mouth. That gave the beast more pause as it retreated back and shook its snout vigorously.

Though Kumiho hadn’t left the exchange free of wounds either. A streak of blood ran down her back leg from where it scraped against the bear’s teeth. Blood smeared across the ice red with every step as she circled her enemy, looking for an opportunity. Her hair stood on end, static electricity crackled between her fur like an angry storm. Her eyes glowed a menacing scarlet. Even Kizu felt his body start to tingle in anticipation. Anata gripped the back of his shirt and Mort burrowed back under her sweater. The next attack obviously wouldn’t be just another minor zap.

Kizu decided now might be a decent time to interfere. The last thing they needed was a bolt of lightning to break apart the ice shelf they currently stood upon. While the bear had definitely noticed him earlier, it had dismissed him as a threat. It stood still, eyes locked on Kumiho’s light display. Big mistake.

Kizu jumped and buried his fist into the back of the bear’s skull. He fell forward on the bear’s back as it slouched to the ground, dead. Kizu yanked his fist free with a sickening squelch and wiped it on the bear’s coarse, yellow hair. The brain matter still stuck between his fingernails no matter how much snow and ice he scrubbed his hand with.

“You should lead with that,” Kumiho commented, licking her wound. All traces of lightning completely faded without a trace.

“It only works if I can predict the target’s movements. Its focus was on you so it was easy. A charging enemy is another matter entirely.”

“Fine, fine.” She waved a paw dismissively, “Anata, dear, can you please point me in the direction of the seal?”

Anata squirmed on his back and Kizu saw in his peripheral vision a small, sweatered arm point out from beside his head towards a crevasse a stone’s throw away.

They walked over to the giant gash in the glacier and stared down into it. The ice reflected a light blue glow, but the drop twisted, obscuring the bottom from sight.

A sudden roar almost caused Kizu to lose his balance. He looked up quickly and saw two more polar bears dashing at them from across the glacier’s surface. The massive creatures were still at least two hundred meters off but closing the distance fast.

“Time to go,” Kumiho said, standing beside him in her humanoid form.

Kizu felt her shove her palm into his lower back, knocking him off balance. He pinwheeled his arms forward, but before he had the presence of mind to jump, he fell.