The piercing wind swept flakes of snow through Ria’s half frozen raven hair. She pulled the fur coated hood higher, blocking as much of the wind as she could. Piercing ocean blue eyes peered out into the blizzard, curiosity alight in their irises.

“There’s nothing out here, princess!” Pierce called, his voice barely cutting through the blizzard winds.

“There’s something out here, I know it.” Ria’s voice was slightly muffled by the scarf wrapping around her face, her eyes the only thing visible below the thick layers. Despite the freezing wind and dense clouds of snow, her eyes shined.

A second figure emerged from the thick whirlwind of snow. The figure covered head to toe in thick gear made to fight against the freezing temperatures. “Even if there is something here, we’ll never find it in this storm.”

“Bah, you’ve always been a downer, old man.” Ria glanced at the figure standing above her crouched for before looking once more out into the storm of snow. “There is something out here. I can feel it.”

Pierce looked at the girl, but he didn’t speak. He just waited, silently watching over her.

Ria pulled a compass-like device out of the pocket of her thick jacket. Her gloved hands barely dexterous enough to open the small object. The winds raged around her as the small arrow spun, pointing forward.

Ria stood, repocketing the compass. “We’re close.”

Pierce sighed, but the sentiment was lost to the winds raging around the pair before it ever reached Ria’s ears. “Then we’d best get moving. I don’t feel like the storm is going to pass anytime soon.”

Ria glanced at him. He was unable to see her face below the thick layers of cloth, but he knew her well enough. He could feel the smile on her lips, could see the excitement in her eyes. It was the reason he was here after all.

Pierce shook his head as Ria slid her thick pack off her shoulders, unraveling a large cord of braided rope before anchoring one end to the ice they stood on. She smashed the stake deeper and deeper into the snow and hopefully sturdy ice beneath.

She wrapped the rope through a security harness built within her coat, handing him the rope after. Pierce secured himself to the dual lifeline and put as much weight onto the rope as he could. The stake seemed to hold. He looked over to Ria and nodded.

The girl returned his nod before slinging her large pack over her shoulder once more. She jumped over the edge of the frozen cliffs they stood upon, the rope tightening and pulling her against the ice. Ria’s feet hit first, the spikes on her boots driving into the ice wall as her gloves wrapped around the rope. Pierce shook his head. “She never changes.”

He followed her, carefully climbing over the edge and double checking the security of the rope and anchor before he too began rappelling down the cliffside.

“Always the critic!” Ria shouted from beneath him, the winds hardly allowing her voice to reach him at all. “Let’s get moving!”

He slightly shook his head as his gloves wrapped firmly around the rope, his body descending at a moderate pace. “Someone needs to keep you grounded!”

After half a minute, Pierce felt a strong pull form the rope beneath him. His attention snapped downward just in time to see the girl re-anchor herself to the ice. “There are some loose spots here! Careful where you brace!” Ria called above the raging winds.

They continued descending, both being careful around the loose and untrustworthy ice. There were several more times when the rope would grow taught as Ria readjusted herself onto the wall.

A loud crack sounded above them, Pierce looking up just in time to see a massive bolt of lightning crash into the ice above. His heart stopped and time seemed to slow as the massive chunks of ice and snow were ripped from the mountain side. “Brace!” Pierce roared above the winds and violent storms, his feet and pick crashing into the wall as he pushed his body close as he could get.

He felt the rope above slacken as the anchor was destroyed by the crushing weight of the ice, the ice it was embedded in falling together with the chunks.

“Dear god.”

The ice and snow impacted him, his grip not nearly enough to keep him attached to the climbing hooks. The weight was overwhelming, the force ripping him away from the wall and throwing him out to the blizzard. He felt an intense pain shoot through his foot before it was numbed. A large chunk of ice impacting his head as the world went black.

…

“Rce! Pierce!” Ria’s panicked voice came to him in the dark. “Pierce, godammit! Please! Come on, old man! Don’t be dead!”

Pierce felt the weight on his face lessen, the sounds of digging muffled in his ears.

“Come on, old man! Just groan if you’re still alive!”

Pierce heard the words and tried to oblige, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t move his body, couldn’t open his eyes. Everything was darkness, he began to panic as his lungs screamed for air, his returning lucidity bringing with it the need for oxygen. A sound escaped his chest, something between a muffled whimper and a groan.

“There he is!” Ria called, sounding slightly less panicked. “Hang in there, old man! I’m coming for ya!”

He felt as the weight on his face lessened more and more. When his body finally couldn’t help but gasp for breath, the final barrier over his face was pierced. Oxygen flowed into his lungs as he drew short rasped breaths, coughing several times.

“Oh, thank fucking god.” Ria sighed. “Come on, let’s get you outta there.”

The weight pinning down the rest of his body was gradually removed, allowing Pierce to move again. He sat up slightly before he was once more weighed down by a heavy weight impacting his chest. He heard muffled sobbing, feeling Ria’s arms wrap around his back, squeezing him tight. He returned the hug, patting her back gently.

They stayed silent for several moments, the girl’s sobs choking off as she gradually released him. Pierce felt her presence, but he could see nothing. Everything around was black. “Did I go blind, or is it just really dark?”

His questioned got a slightly choked giggle in response before a flare brightened their surroundings.

Pierce immediately surveyed the area, taking note of both his and Ria’s conditions. His focus was immediately drawn to both Ria’s blood stained face and her arm that hung limply at her side. Her scarf was wound tightly around the appendage, but the amount of blood that stained the cloth was concerning. His own body was certainly looking worse for wear. Everything ached, but most concerning was his foot. If he wasn’t staring at it, he would’ve had no idea it was even there.

The walls around them were stone, dark stone covered in patches of ice. The wind swept through the stone tunnel from the hole in the ceiling, high enough up to wonder how they had survived. His eyes searched as far as the flare’s light allowed, but everything was the same dark stone. The shadows danced at the edge of the light, joyous at their captured prey.

His and Ria’s eyes met at the same time, an exhausted smile tugging at her lips. “You look like shit.” She teased, leaning back against the wall.

Pierce snorted. “I feel like shit.” He fell back, groaning when an ache came from what he assumed were several bruised or possibly even broken ribs. “I’ve certainly felt better.”

She laughed but quickly cut off, the act sounding painful. “Yeah, same here. How the fuck did we even survive?”

Pierce noted that she sounded dazed, tired. He sat back up again, giving her a closer look. Her arm looked in worse shape than he originally thought, a trail of bleeding leading from where he assumed she initially fell. Blood covered the ice and snow he was surrounded by, the snow he was buried under. Her face was pale, her beautiful blue eyes tired.

“Bah, don’t look at me like that, old man. I’m alright. But when we get outta here, I’m taking the longest, warmest bath I’ve ever had.” She sighed, tired, leaning her head back against the dark stone.

“Haa…” Pierce let out a long breath. “You and me both, princess.”

The winds still whipped in through the hole in the stone above, the snow blowing into and around the dark tunnel. Pierce shivered, the cold seeping into his bones and settling. He felt dizzy, foggy. Something in the back of his mind telling him to sleep, to rest. That it’d be warm if he just lay down, closed his eyes.

“Can you walk?” He asked the girl sitting against the stone. “I think my left foot is pretty much useless.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Ria nodded. “Yeah, I can walk.”

“And your arm?”

“Well, I certainly won’t be doing any climbing.” Ria looked down at her bloodied arm, a look of concern flashing across her features before she pushed it away with a smile. “My mother would be mortified.”

Pierce snorted. “She’s been mortified since she popped you out.”

Ria laughed but it quickly devolved into a choking cough, her good arm wrapping around her side. She calmed herself, jokingly tossing a ball of snow at the collapsed Pierce. A smile stretched below the fabric covering his face from the wind.

He watched as Ria pushed herself up with some difficulty, huffing lightly before pushing off the wall and coming to his side. She fell down onto one knee beside him. “Wrap your arm around my shoulder, and please, don’t hit my arm.”

Pierce glanced up at her exhausted and pale face, streaked with blood, her raven hair frozen and covered in snow. He could see her shivering, felt her body shaking as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

She’d probably be able to move faster without me, but the stubborn girl would never leave me behind. Pierce debated asking her anyway, pleading to leave him and survive, but that would never happen. She wouldn’t leave him–and he didn’t want her to.

With a lot of struggling and no small amount of pain, they were on their feet. Pierce’s arm wrapped around her shoulder, using her as a support for his uncooperative foot. It wasn’t only physical pain, his heart ached every time he glanced at Ria. Her body shaking, her teeth grit tight against the pain, the pain that his weight put on her. He knew she must have some injuries she hadn’t shared, but then again, so did he.

The duo hobbled down the dark hall, each step slow and difficult, painful. The only light coming from the flare in Ria’s gloved hand, fading with each step.

“You know.” Ria broke the monotonous sound of the wind racing through the tunnel, her voice strained and tired, but there was an excitement laced within, unable to be contained. “I told you there was something out here.”

Pierce glanced over at his partner. The young girl barely old enough to be an adult. A trail of blood ran down her cheek, vanishing into the thick coat beneath. But the somehow triumphant smile on her face was contagious.

Pierce smiled, shaking his head as he looked to the dark stone passing beneath their feet, every shuffling step bringing them closer to something, anything. Pierce saw Ria pull out the compass, the little device that she never moved without, the only companion more present than him.

The little arrow pointed, guiding them to a hall to their left. “We’re close. I’ve never felt like this before.”

“We need to figure out a way out, Ria. Not go deeper into our tomb.”

“Where’s your sense of adventure, old man? We are so close. Just a quick look and then we are gone.”

Pierce planned a retort, but his words were silenced when something moved within the ever-dimming light of the flare. A movement just on the boundary of the light, before the flare went dark.

Pierce felt his heart hammer in his chest, the world around him black. The wind continued to ravage the tunnels, blowing through with an unstoppable might, an ever-present whistle singing in the hidden tunnels.

Pierce strained his ears, his eyes, trying to see or hear something, anything besides the wind and the dark.

A light erupted as Ria lit a second flair, the dim red brightening the pitch black tunnel. Pierce turned to the girl, his body acting before his brain even registered anything. He shoved Ria away, making her cry out as her battered body impacted the freezing stone. He hardly registered the noise, throwing himself at the creature that now stood in her place.

Gray skin cracked and battered by frost. A dark chain hardly reflecting the light wrapped around its human-like body, chaining its arms against its sides. Dark robes covered its form, but they couldn’t hide the piercing blue orbs that glew in its skull. Like ice they shown, reflecting the red light of the flare.

Pierce’s shoulder impacted hard into the being, throwing it against the stone wall with a crack. The impact sent an inescapable agony across his being, tearing an agonized scream from his lungs.

The flare had fallen from Ria’s grasp, sending its light in terrible shadows from below. Pierce’s foot gave from beneath him, crumpling his form to the stone below. He hit hard, sending another wave of agony through his battered body. Darkness swam in his vision, unable to be banished by the dim flare.

He barely registered the form clambering over him, even as its terrible mouth opened, revealing the decaying fangs within. Every tooth was sharpened to a point, every tooth ready to tear him apart.

Run princess. Pierce’s final thought was of his treasure hunting partner. The daughter he’d never had. He wished that things were different. Wished that the maw closing in would never reach him.

With a sickening crack, his death was halted. In the shadowed corridor Pierce could hardly make out the climbing axe embedded in the creature’s icy eye.

The axe hit with enough force to send the being careening off of him, crashing it into the stone floor.

Pierce’s vision shifted from the fallen creature up to the girl standing over him. Her shoulders huffed with her labored breaths, the climbing axe in her hand slightly shaking.

The girl walked forward again, smashing the axe down onto the thing’s head with a sick crunch.

“What-“ Ria huffed. “What the fuck?” She seemed to catch herself as she spun back toward him. “You still kickin, old man?”

Pierce’s everything hurt, an ache ebbing from his core, but still he just grunted. “Once again, our lessons come in handy.”

Ria snorted, picking the flare up from the floor. The girl wandered, holding the flare over the fallen creature. From his position, Pierce had no way of seeing the details.

“Fuck. What is this thing? It looks like some sort of iced-out zombie.” Ria spun the light toward Pierce, tucking it into her harness as she helped him to his feet, well foot.

Pierce took a glance at the creature as Ria guided him past. It looked vaguely human, but it was different. Its skin was an icy blue and its mouth was still showing terrible fangs. Black blood clotted like molasses in its destroyed eye socket.

Everything about it sent a shiver down Pierce’s spine. “What have we gotten ourselves into?”

Ria didn’t respond, but he could feel her grip tightening on the climbing axe.

He stole a glance at her face. She was so pale, trembling through the thick fabrics of her coat. But still, she grit her teeth and carried on, all but hauling him with her.

They stumbled through the dark tunnel, shivering and shaking with cold, strain, and blood loss. There were two more of the strange zombie creatures, but Ria smashed their skulls through with a ruthless efficiency. He couldn’t help but feel proud of her, but he more felt a devastating sense of loss. She was trying her hardest, pushing through pain and death, but he knew it was lost.

In his distraction, Pierce almost missed Ria’s sudden shout. “Down!”

He released his grip on her, falling away to the stones. He felt useless as Ria once more stepped forward, swinging the climbing axe into another skull. Another sickening crunch sounded, like the axe was shattering ice, and the creature crumpled.

Pierce saw Ria stumble, her body shaking with exhaustion. He could hardly keep himself awake, he couldn’t imagine what Ria felt, how exhausted the poor girl was.

More shambling drew his attention, but all he could do was call a warning. “Incoming!” 

Ria rose again, stepping forward to meet the coming creature. The axe blurred in the shadows as another body dropped, but still, the sounds of scraping boots continued.

“Fuck.” He heard Ria whimper with a gasp of air. That one word conveyed all of her pain and exhaustion.

“Leave me.” Pierce advised. Without him weighing her down, Ria stood a chance. The constant ache in his body was numbing, the cold creeping through his veins. I’m already lost. He sorrowfully remarked.

Then Ria was at his side, grabbing his arm and trying to haul him up. “Quiet, old man. Until I’m dead, I’ll haul your ass around.”

Pierce sighed, “Ar-“

“Shut it.” She growled through gritted teeth. “I’m not arguing, Pierce. If we die, we’ll do it together.”

Pierce faltered for a moment but caught himself quickly. He couldn’t stop a slightly grim smile from crossing his lips. “Alright, princess. Then we’d better not die. Your sister would never let me hear the end of it.”

Ria choked a pained sobbing laugh. “Yeah. She’d revive us, just to kill us herself.”

Then, they were moving. The shambling sound of steps closing in around them never faded, but they were barely able to keep pace, keeping them safe. The shadows of the creatures danced at the edges of the flare’s light.

They fled down a hall, wrapping through the different corridors with purpose. It almost seemed like Ria had a destination. Her grandfather’s compass. Pierce thought. The strange device had never worked right, never pointing north, always seeming to point in random directions, but still, Ria followed it like a scripture.

Now, he was glad for the guidance, a sense of purpose in this frozen tomb. Pierce knew instinctively that it was what drove Ria on. Without the guidance he doubted she would’ve had the strength to move forward.

They took another corner, crossing into a wide room.

The second they entered, a rumble sounded like an earthquake in the stone. Blue lights flickering to life in the sconces along the walls, casting a chilling ethereal light around the massive room.

The room itself was massive. The ceiling rose up fifty meters above them, the room doubling that in length. Half the room was covered in dark water, like a giant swimming pool of ink. The lights gave form to the many shapes risen from the dark stone surrounding the pool.

“Coffins.” Ria whispered beside him.

The room was an archeologist's wet dream, and, despite the pain, he could feel his blood pumping faster. He knew Ria was feeling much the same way.

The sound of shambling bodies behind them broke Pierce from his reverie. “They’re here.”

Ria grunted, hauling him up and moving toward the pool. The closer they came to the inky darkness, the more it looked like, well, exactly like that, ink. A dark void cut in the world. It gave Pierce a grave sense of danger, of wrong. 

Ria placed Pierce onto the stone, leaning him against one of the coffins surrounding the pool. “Just sit tight while I take care of our entourage.”

Pierce wanted to complain, wanted to tell her to rest, but more than anything, he wanted to help the girl. He knew he couldn’t. His entire leg was completely useless, and as they’d traveled he’d begun feeling the many other injuries that plagued his broken body. The bitter touch of the cold was so terrifying, so unrelenting, so very tempting.

He grabbed Ria’s hand as she stood to face the approaching creatures.

She turned, crouching in front of him. Behind her scarfed face, he could easily make out the crippling pain and sorrow in her eyes as she looked at him, but he only smiled. “Arienna. I need you to know how proud I am of you. How happy I am to have met you. I’ve loved you like my own daughter. Your-“ Pierce’s voice broke. His grip on the girl’s hand faltering.

“I’m here, Pierce.” He felt her hand wrap back over his, but her warmth couldn’t press through the cold. Her shining eyes couldn’t banish the encroaching darkness. He heard her choked sobs. “I’m right here, Pierce. Please… please, don’t leave me alone.”

“C-closer.” Pierce wheezed out. His vision was fading fast, his time short. Arienna’s face came close, her forehead pressing against his as she supported his back with her hood arm.

“You… you found it. Y-you’re… father, would be… proud.” His words hardly finished before the light faded completely, his final glimpse of those glowing green eyes. Beautiful.

…

Arienna sobbed, her choking gasps sending waves of agony through her shattered body. “We found it, old man. We found it. Open your eyes, dammit. Please, Pierce.” Her sobs shook her. She wrapped her working hand behind his head, pressing his forehead against her own. “I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry.” She whispered it now. Her voice not strong enough for anything more. The agony came in waves, ripping her heart and body as one. The exhaustion she’d been fighting crashed into her like a tidal wave. Her body screamed for release, her mind screaming for rest, for death.

She pushed back against the dark, pulling away from Pierce. She pulled off his thick hat, revealing his messy and blood-caked black hair. She closed her eyes, feeling the tears fall as she pressed her whispering lips against the clammy and cold skin of his forehead. “In peace, may you leave this shore. In love, may you find the next. Sleep well, my dearest friend. May we meet again.”

Her whispers faded as she kissed his forehead, staying locked in eternity as she wished him away.

It was only a fierce pain that broke her eternal moment, yet she didn’t scream. She was so tired, so broken.

Her gaze floated to the zombie-like creature whose jaws clamber onto her bicep, its fangs piercing through her thick coat like it was nothing. This creature, the one that had interrupted her mourning.

Rage boiled in her chest, a red-hot fire igniting her blood. “You beast!” She cried. Grabbing its neck with her crippled arm, pain be damned. An agony unlike any before wracked her mind as she forced her destroyed limb to move, but she didn’t care. She willed her body to move. She wanted to attack the creature, wanted, needed it to hurt, to die. But, she’d dropped the ice axe too far away. She couldn’t reach it, and her limp arm wasn’t enough to truly hurt it, not with her injuries.

“Fuck! Off!” She screamed, a cry fueled by all the rage, the pain, the agony, she felt. She leaned her head forward and, without any more thought, she bit it. Her teeth crunched into the flesh of its neck like she was crushing ice. A thick and revolting sludge filled her mouth, exploding from the wound. But Ria didn’t care, she was so far beyond caring. She swallowed to give her mouth room to take another bite at the creature’s neck.

Only when the thick and rancid ichor filled her again, did she snap out of her rage-filled haze. An agony that felt like it came from her very soul assaulted her. She wanted, needed, to scream, but her lungs couldn’t gather the air for it. A wet gurgle escaped her as she faltered, stumbling backward, her world fading away as the pain dulled.

The final thing she remembered was slipping, her body becoming weightless.

Before she crashed into the pool of ink.