Well, at the moment I can say for certain that my muscles want to leave my body and go die in a ditch somewhere. Isn't the cold supposed to numb pain like this, how the fuck am I feeling it even more intensely now. It feels like somebody is pulling my muscles out of me and wringing it like a cloth.

Cold and pain have defined my being for the last couple of hours. Right now we are climbing what can be considered to be one of the steepest paths that I have ever seen in my life. (I am a child of the hex mountain. We know steep paths when we see one.)

Well, I have discovered that there exist mountains in the truelands and that the blood tribe makes these mountains their home. They can move through the narrow paths of this mountain like a goat. I am sure even the soldiers of the legion would be surprised about this capability of theirs.

I have experience in climbing the largest mountain in the continent (the hex mountain is much steeper than this place). Compared to that the hex mountain, this place is a tiny hill with a gentle slope.

Well, the fact that it exists is just as impressive as the hexmountain in my eyes. If the hex mountain is a sword standing unsheathed to its full glory, the mountain here is a sword well used, broken to its hilt and still used to stab someone in the eye as it's final defiance.

Right now, I am one of the two people that is struggling to deal with this ascent. The other person is cloak. All the other soldiers are climbing up the mountain like clock work. It literally feels as if all of them are controlled by one person. (Such coordination is rare to see in an army. They must be a pretty strong fighting force.)

Before my fellow soldiers of the legion begin their teasing, My problem with climbing this mountain is the weather. If it was cold down there, then it is freezing up here. I can feel the chill (the normal kind) even through the protection that cloak has placed over me and the protection that the blood tribe has provided us all. I can feel my body growing numb in this weather. Well, I honestly appreciate the numbness. My muscles feel like somebody has been crushing it into a paste for the last couple of hours now. (I mostly blame the cold for this.)

I struggle to keep moving, feeling my body steadily lose heat. At the moment I am envious of the soldiers of the blood tribe. They are wearing some kind of a fur skin that is kind of like the coat that I am wearing right now. (well, I had worn it while going to the frozen peak. How was I supposed to know that I would be going to a place even colder where it would be useless.) It also works to isolate the person wearing it from the surrounding ice mana. It is way better at it though, then even the coat that I am wearing now. They look downright comfortable in their skins, while I feel like I have taken a bath in a block of ice.

Well, if my problem is with the temperature, cloak struggles with the climbing.

The man is like a blind bull charging up the mountain, often slipping. Where he should be still the man moves and where he is supposed to move like his life depends on it the man simply refuses to move. Twice, the man has simply slipped and fell down the mountain. A less powerful man would have broken every bone of their body. The man is not even harmed though. (More importantly, the cold seems to be barely affecting the man as well.)

I can see why the blood tribe can afford to piss off all the other tribes. If even a man like cloak (I am sure that other weaker beings will have even less control over their body and certainly way less durability.) is struggling to climb these mountain then they can hold these paths with a fraction of the force that the enemy needs to field here. At the moment I am actually debating if they really need anybody watching these paths. It is such a torture to climb this place that I wonder if anybody would be willing to do it.

Well, I guess that I should begin this with how we even ended up in this damn place. Well, the instant that the second meeting of the council happened, we rushed out of the place.

The blood tribe and their soldiers escorted us across the lands of the truelands since. It began on flat ground, which we covered in the matter of a few hours.

We travelled across the plain on caravans made up of some kind of a rock like wood. The only reason that the caravans are even able to travel across the chaotic weather of the truelands is due to that totem of theirs.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

It is a statue, made up of a blood red rock. I think it is supposed to be showing a man stabbing some kind of a bird through its heart. Based on what I can tell, it is supposed to be some kind of an eagle (or a phoenix. I can't really tell those two apart). The statue itself is kind of commonfare. (When every village has a hero that has killed such a terrible beast, such statues are really common. A bit too common.) The really unique thing about the man is that he isn't the usual hero type.

Most people tend to depict their heros as the soldierly kind. Muscular, well armoured and often with a massive sword.

Here they have depicted the man as a scholar. He is dressed in scholarly robes that would better suit a court mage than a hero. And even his weapon is a staff that looks like it should be snapping under the weight of the beast. Heck, even the man looks ancient compared to the usual idea of a hero.

Looking at the statue I am left wondering of the story behind it. Well, I will have to smother my curiosity for now. The curiosity of someone from the black mountain is the thing that will most likely get him killed here. That too in a land where men of the legion can drive the men of that land into a bloody frenzy. (It is usually the kings that have reason to fear the presence of the legion not the commonfolk.)

Anyway, where was I. Yeah, the only reason that we are able to travel in this land is due to this blood red statue. It is like a totem which emanates a massive bubble protecting us from the storms. In this bubble, the storms of this place are almost non existent. There is still a leakage of ice mana here but that is quite manageable. After all, I can still manage even with this coat. It just leaves me very miserable.

Without it, we would have already fallen to the storms of this place. Even now the only thing that is visible beyond the boundary is the grey of a storm.

I am sure that if I were to take a step beyond this boundary the only thing that will be left of me is a block of ice.

The magic that is being used by the blood tribe is actually very fascinating to me.

As far as I can tell, this magic seems to be a portable version of the magic that is maintained by the council. Just like that bit of magic, I have no idea how this works.

All I know is that this magic of theirs is very closely related to tattoo magic and is at the same time very different from it. For one thing, it is way more mana intensive. This must be something that is unique to the blood tribe. This idea is more instinct than logic though so don't ask me to justify it.

Each of the lord presiding over my trial have been powering the statue in shifts. While I am not even able to tell how they are powering the device (they are just sitting in front of the statue, meditating.), they are releasing ridiculous amounts of mana which is being consumed like a wildfire.

Well, it would be wrong to call it ridiculous. I would say that it is somewhere between the mana being emitted by a snowlord and the mana being emitted by cloak. Still, it is very mana intensive. Even the lords, who must be equivalent to third steps at least are only able to power the thing for two hours at a time before running out.

Soon the plains of this place gave way to the rocks of the mountain that we are climbing right now. Our travelling speed has greatly reduced after that.

The main reason for that is cloak actually. I am actually able to somewhat keep up with the blood tribe soldiers. (What can I say, even I am surprised. I was sure that I would struggle climbing this mountain. I guess you climb one mountain you have climbed them all.) The only problem with me is that I am forced to take frequent breaks due to the cold.

As I have said, the climbing speed of cloak is atrocious. Without him, it would be quite easy for us to double our speed. Right now, the man is being assisted by a group of soldiers who are helping the man climb. Even they seem to be struggling at doing it though.

Without them, the man wouldn't even have an idea of how he is supposed to be climbing the place. Well, not that he is doing any better with their help. After all he has still slipped and fallen about twice since the beginning of this journey.

Both times, the man slipped beyond the boundary of the statue. Any other person would have already become a frozen statue. Thankfully, cloak is durable at the very least.

Both times that he fell the man ended up taking at least a couple of hours to return.

Well, part of the reason that he is so bad at it is how much he is being rushed. We could be actually taking it a bit easier and we would make the same time.

I think that the people here do not seem to be realising that. I don't think at the moment they are even realising that they are rushing so much.

I think they are expecting somebody to attack them. I am not actually sure about this though. After all, the blood tribe soldiers are quite disciplined. I don't think I have yet to see them express any emotion. (Except frustration from trying to help cloak climb the mountain. You can guess how annoying it is to them.)

Similarly, the only thing that can really be said about cloak is that the man is frustrated. That is due to his inability to climb. I am sure that the man is not used to being so slow. After all, on the plains the man won't even need a few hours to cover the distance that took us nearly a day.

Instead, I am basing my judgement on small actions of theirs. The way the soldiers are cutting their rest short even though they are not that well rested. The way that the lords have been expending more and more of their mana, trying to keep the statue active for longer even though it would not really give them any benefits.

I am starting to feel as if even cloak has begun to hurry up, forcing himself to move faster and faster.

Not that it is really helping them. If anything it will end up slowing them down. We have made pretty decent progress and we should be at our target soon enough.

That is what is causing me to worry about it so much. What can cause such seasoned soldiers to worry about something at such a basic level that they do not even realise it this close to their homes.

Well, recording this log has only caused my worry to grow now. Sometimes I wonder why I do this to myself.