What happens when a God dies.

Many years had passed, on a day of freezing winter, amidst the dense snowstorm, a group of climbers were scaling a large mountain, their names Dante, Agnes and Oona. 

This mountain had mysteriously appeared in the region of Yuk, a once sunny and warm climate that immediately turned to a dark, grim and cold landscape. 

The elders say that this mountain is a dead God, what other explanation would there be for a colossal creation like this to manifest itself out of thin air.

Oona and Agnes were researchers in the town of Yekona, while Dante was more of a helper that was assisting them navigate the mountain, their goal was to reach the top, from afar it's peak looked like a giant head, something that Agnes found a coincidence while Oona was a firm believer that the elders were right.

Both were determined to look for any possible explanations as to how this mountain formed and why is it affecting the weather the way it does, it's not just their curiosity and marvel for this formation that pushed them to go on this expedition, their town and the whole region of Yuk is suffering from the drastic effects that it's having to their environment.

While hiking up the slopes, a strong wind knocks Dante off balance and he starts tumbling down the steep mountain before his body slams against a big rock, both women turned their attention quickly and rushed to Dante. He was unconscious but alive. He must have hit his head and passed out, they thought, Oona spread out a thick woolen blanket right in front of the rock and rolled Dante carefully on it.

"We should camp here, we can't go any further, not to mention that this rock will help protect us from the wind, at least from one side" said Oona.

"Even if we wanted to go further we can't leave without Dante, I will set up the rest, you take care of him" answered Agnes.

After some time a small tent made of sticks, rope and animal hide that was in their backpacks was surrounding them. Dante had come about and luckily he seemed fine other than a temporary headache and a big bruise on his shoulder blade, he insisted on lighting the fire and melting some of the snow to replenish their water supply.

When all was ready they sat down close to the fire, warming up their extremities and discussing the route and precautions they should take to avoid any further mishaps.

"Thank Heavens for that rock, how far I would have tumbled had it not been there"

"It could be just my imagination but don't you think it's strange-" Oona paused mid sentence, reconsidering if she should mention what she was thinking.

"What's strange?" inquired Agnes.

"Well... I am certain that the rock Dante fell on wasn't there before".

"What are you saying"

"I'm saying it's as if the mountain is alive and decided to save him from falling any further"

"That can't be, you must have just not seen it, we can barely see each other while climbing and we keep a close distance, let alone a rock completely out of our way"

Oona didn't reply, she wouldn't change her mind, she had been thinking about this since the moment she saw Dante laying down unconscious on the base of this big rock. She stood up, said goodnight to those two and turned around to get inside the tent, but before going inside, she went closer to the rock and placed her hand on it, the rock felt almost warm to the touch and even she at first thought it was her imagination, but on her bare palm, the rocks surface almost felt like it was pulsating from within. Oona smiled to herself and went to bed for the night.

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The next day had come and the sun was up, its light grappling to pierce the thick gray clouds in the sky, but the wind had calmed down a bit. Dante was already awake thinking about what Oona said last night as he was packing things for the road and making some warm tea for the two women. He felt guilty for slowing down the expedition so he wanted to make up for it.

The researchers woke up not too long after, they had warm tea and some bread with butter for breakfast, and then were all ready to get back on the road.

They were all hiking slower today, they decided it was safer but also the mountain was getting steeper so they didn't really have a choice. Agnes was ahead of everyone and slowed her step as she turned around to make sure everyone was alright, she was sort of the leader on this mission so she felt responsible for everything that happened.

"How is your headache today" asked Agnes while facing forward, she wasn't really the type to show that she cares, but she did, deeply.

"I hadn't noticed but, now that you mention it I realized that I'm all better, my shoulder too feels like it was never hurt, it's like a miracle"

Oona didn't say anything but Agnes could already tell what she was thinking, she was starting to kind of let go of her skepticism and consider that this could be more than a bizarre natural phenomenon.

"Hey look we are almost at the peak" said Oona pointing up

"But what's that" replied Dante

He started walking fast towards something, the two women followed behind and soon they were standing in front of something that looked like two big stone gate doors. It was so beautifully decorated with all kinds of symbols and markings in a strange language.

"Can you understand the words, what does it say?"

Oona walked closer and started feeling the symbols with her hand, "It's an older version of our mother tongue, but I can still make out a few words"

"Sky..."

"Fallen…"

"It's not very clear, the other symbols don't make sense"

"Can you still tell what they say?" 

"The devil lives not within… but within all men..."

Oona was interrupted by a scraping sound coming from the heavy doors, she stepped back quickly but tripped and fell on her back as the massive gate slowly started to open.

Dante rushed to Oona and instinctively stood in front of her as if to protect her from whatever could be coming through those gate doors. But when the doors were wide open there was nothing awaiting them at the entrance like they expected.

"I don't like this, we can't go inside, whatever is going on here is out of our control" said Agnes as she approached closer.

"Come on stand up, we got to go" she continued.

Oona got up and thanked Dante who was staring intently into the darkness in front of him.

"What is it, what do you see"

He doesn't reply...

"Come on big guy, we have to leave" called out Agnes

"Dante?" 

As if in a trance Dante started walking towards the door,

"HEY"

“STOP”

He wouldn't listen, both women grabbed on to him and tried pulling him away but he pushed them both off and soon disappeared into the darkness.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HIM"

"Come Oona we have to go! We can't follow him inside, we will come back with more people"

"We can't just leave him here!"

"It's too dangerous, we don't know what's happening, we can't risk it, someone has to notify the townspeople"

"Fine you can go, I will go after him"

"For God's sake Oona calm down and don't be stupid, he already overpowered us once, what do you think is gonna happen if you try again alone, let's go already"

After some back and forth Agnes manages to convince her to come with her and they were to return as fast as possible with more people.

So they did, now on their way down the mountain going as fast as they can, this time Oona was the one ahead while Agnes followed behind, asking her to slow down every now and then to no avail.

The snow storm was now back, the two women could barely see two steps ahead of them so they sticked closer, when suddenly Agnes collapsed from exhaustion, she felt guilty for not being able to help Dante so she wanted to make it back as fast as possible but was too stubborn and pushed her body over the limit.

When she opened her eyes again there was a warm feeling beside her, Oona had set up camp and started the fire to keep them warm, Agnes felt embarrassed for slowing them down and just sat up silently,

"I'm sorry" 

"Don't apologize, It's my fault for rushing this fast, I wasn't thinking"

Both were now looking at each other with sad expressions on their faces, when out of nowhere they started hearing footsteps in the snow, unsure of if they should feel worried or relieved that maybe someone from the village had stumbled upon them, they looked around frantically but the storm was too thick, moments later the footsteps stopped and almost out of vision in the distance, a familiar silhouette could be made out in the storm.

"DANTE" yelled out Oona in excitement as she stood up rushing over.

"OONA WAIT".

It's sad, it's so sad that it had to end like that. 

Weeks later rescue groups from Yekona would search all over the mountain, but there was no one to be found...

Until…

"Hey, look over there, what is that"

"It looks like a big gate"

"It's open"

“Notify the others and we’ll look inside, there might be signs of them here"

And so the disappearances continued on this unnatural mountain, no one dares go near it now and we'll never really know what happens when a God dies.