"This mountain is much bigger than it looked from that temple." I complained as I hauled myself further up the rock face we were currently climbing. "Like...unnecessarily big. Also nearly completely vertical up the sides. What is this even for? Like nothing could possibly live up here? Unless it flies. Are there like, dragons up here?"

Callie snickered from her place hanging off my back. "Less talking, more climbing. Also this is a plateau, not a mountain. It's flat on top."

I glared over my shoulder. "First off, that's just being pedantic. Second of all, why am I climbing with you on my back? You have a higher might than I do? I should be riding on YOUR back." I paused and leapt for a crevice about a thousand feet up that I could barely see because of Eye of Revelation, which I missed. I pushed off the air with Ripple Running to course correct, snagging it and holding on while the others used the ropes to climb up to my last handhold.

This mountain was HUGE. There was some spatial bullshit going on with it, because once we got close it seemed to multiply in size. It SHOULD have been fine, but unfortunately we'd run into a problem with scaling it. The thing had been worn very nearly smooth and the rock was fucking F-rank stone and chipping through it took effort and energy. Making handholds up the side would have taken weeks.

In truth, i knew why I was climbing. State of Grace made any screwups irrelevant (important given the enhanced gravity and the absurd size of this thing) and Ripple Running let me catch myself if I missed, which even with Eye of Revelation I sometimes did. Callie poked me in the ribs. "Don't you know you aren't supposed to comment on a lady's weight? You're going to give me a complex."

Even as an F-ranker Callie wasn't that heavy, given I was the same rank and twice her size, but I still groaned and wobbled back and forth dramatically. "Can't. Breathe. Darkness. Closing in." Then I paused. "Speaking of darkness, why don't you just port us up there?"

She giggled at my dramatics, but when I asked the question looked genuinely ashamed. "It's too far. I think you're right about the spatial bullshit. It's hundreds of miles up this thing. If it helps, once we hit the curve of the fingers on the fist shape this becomes a normal mountain climbing trip. It's a slope not a straight climb from there."

I boggled. Hundreds of miles. That was...insane. "Did you ask Anna-Marie about this mountain? If it's warping space this badly there's no way it's normal."

She shrugged. "She didn't know anything. Probably predates the books she's using. This rock is...hard. Like, harder than the stuff the castle is made of. It's got to be old as shit. It's at LEAST F-rank. Might be half-step E-rank. Hard to tell because there's so damn much of it the Impact is overwhelming my senses. I think the gravity is even worse here too."

Nodding, I huffed out a laugh. "I didn't want to say anything, but yeah. This is winding me more than expected. Of course, the extra cargo isn't HELPING!" I bellowed pointedly down to the literal twenty people, four wolves, and giant BEAR hanging from the fucking ropes tied around my back and shoulders.

"Shut up you wuss!" Yelled back Benny, trying not to cackle in glee. "What's that giant lumbering ass of yours for if not to be a beast of burden? We don't pay you to think! Mush!"

"I will DROP you!" I yelled back, but he completely ignored me, giggling up a storm as I glared down at him. "I hate this place." I grumbled. "I can't wait til this bullshit is over and I can go meet my mom." I grinned through the mask at Callie. "I wonder if she's going to be as welcoming as your mom was. The thought of you two teaming up against me kind of fills me with dread. Like...in a good way."

"Ah yes." Callie said sagely. "Because mother-in-laws always get along with the wife." Her mouth snapped shut, and I felt mortification through the bond as I let out a gleeful cackle of my own. "Shut up!" She yelped before I could respond. "It's a turn of phrase. Don't say a word."

"Yes, dear." I drawled, grunting as she elbowed me in the ribs again. Worth it.

Identifying a new spot, I jumped again. Another one or two thousand feet, but unfortunately, this time it was mostly horizontal. Another big reason to have me in charge of climbing was the State of Grace could mitigate our falls if need be. Benny's density shift wouldn't be nearly enough.

"About your mom though." Callie said softly. "Just...don't have too many expectations? It's great that you might find her again, but she DID leave. Even if your dad made her, that's not...great."

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I sighed. "Yeah. I feel you. I'm trying to keep things low key. Hope for the best expect the worst and never be disappointed. I won't get ahead of myself." Some people might have taken it personally, might have assumed she was being negative, but I could feel the love and concern wrapping around me through the bond. Callie was terrified my mom would let me down, be just another bad parent to complete my set. She didn't WANT that. She wanted me to have a mom like hers, but she was still scared it would happen.

"Are we there yet!" Bellowed a bored voice from below us. I rolled my eyes. "Bethy! Don't make me turn this spelunking expedition around! We will TELL you when we get there! Also we won't be vertical anymore, so keep an eye out for that as a good indicator!"

"But I'm BORED!" She wailed. "And Donuts is hungry! He says the razor taloned eagles that nest on this mountain taste terrible!"

I froze, looking down at her. "WHAT RAZOR TALONED EAGLES?"

Even from dozens of feet up, I could see the look of confusion on her face as she pointed. "Those razor taloned eagles!" I turned to look over my shoulder, past Callie, as a MASSIVE bird whose talons appeared to be LITERAL steel razors silently swept down on us.

I tensed and readied myself to attack, but I stopped as a massive hand materialized and slapped the bird out of the air. It fell about a hundred feet and then caught itself, eyeing us angrily as it circled away, staying within range but steering cleer. I looked down to see Abel shaking out his hand.

"How many more times can you do that?" I called down to him. I wasn't sure how much good it had done, but it seemed to have at least deterred the beast.

"A bunch!" He yelled back. "But it's not really going to hurt them. Airborn enemies are more vulnerable to a stable attack like that, but it's more jarring than damaging. We need to hurry up and get to the curvature! Once more of those things show up we're screwed."

Glancing to Callie, I made a sound of consideration. "So...how durable is this rope do you think? Like, could I swing it around without it breaking? Because I feel like a bear on a rope is a good counter to eagles." It WAS an F-rank rope, but there was a lot of F-ranked PEOPLE on it, and it could get cut or something by the talons.

A chorus of voices echoed up from below as every member of my team started screaming at me NOT to use them as a bludgeon to attack flying apex predators. Wimps.

"Honey." Said Callie slowly. "That's a REALLY bad idea. We're dozens of miles off the ground next to a gravity warping super mountain. If the rope gets cut they'd all fall to their deaths."

Sighing, I nodded. "I KNOW. I just figured I'd bring it up. How often do you have a giant bear on a rope? My question is why haven't we seen more of them. You think they might be nocturnal? Because if so Abel is right and we need to hurry up. I don't want to get swarmed in the dark."

"Maybe." She grimaced. "How long do you think it'll take if you push? To get us up to the curvature?"

"I could...probably manage it in an hour if I'm willing to fry myself." I said hesitantly. "If I spam Ripple Running I could just jump us right up the side one step at a time. My head will be mush by the time we hit the top though, I'd be useless for hours."

I really DIDN'T want to do that. The extra gravity meant the jumps would be even less effective, and it seemed to be increasing the higher we went. That last jump hadn't been quite a thousand feet, even horizontally. I COULD get us to the top, but it was going to SUCK.

Grimacing at my upcoming pain, I sighed. "Can you do a pair of shadow wings, Cal? Combined with State of Grace is should increase hang time a little and reduce drag." If it had just been us I wouldn't have been as worried, but speed blitzing up hundreds of miles of mountain stepping on midair with literal tons of F-ranker hanging off me was...intimidating. Anything I could do to make it easier would be preferable.

"Of course." She said with a slow nod. Closing her eyes, a pair of massive shadowy bat wings unfolded from behind her, and she clung to me. "If you start getting too out of it tell me. We can look for another handhold and give you a rest. It's more important that you're ok than that we get to the top fast. We can always fight off some birds."

I nodded, swallowing hard. "Alright!" I called down to the others. "We're taking the express elevator here, folks, so hold on!" I waited until I got agreements from all of them, then I pushed off backwards to get some room. There were screams at the abrupt motion, but with the wings and warning nothing too bad. I still had a few steps left of Ripple Running. I planted my feet on the air, bent my knees, and pushed off HARD.

Two hundred fifty might goes a long way, even with tons of animal and human hanging off you and enhanced gravity. I felt a jerk as the pressure shot us upward, aided by State of Grace. When I felt myself begin to fall, I stepped again, another powerful shove with my legs. Then a third. I mapped the distances in my head, and I could feel myself going just a bit less far with each jump.

After four jumps I ran out of Ripple Running and triggered the skill again, bouncing once more off the air to carry us up. I felt my legs begin to burn a bit, but I wasn't worried. I triggered a heal burst, flooding my body with energy, and it easily countered the strain. I jumped again, and again. The world became a blur around us as I carried us up, one jump at a time, scaling the mountain.

This was going to take a long time, I could tell, but that wasn't a problem. It would be ages before using Ripple Running would start to effect my soul. It was just a normal skill, after all. I felt Callie clinging to my back, wings folded, spreading them at the apex of each jump to slow us down. I just hoped there was a decent amount of hiking to do once we hit the curvature, this conclave was going to be a big deal, and I wanted to be at my best. Wouldn't do for everyone to know how out of my depth I was here.