Talos Asgar. A wizard who was one of the division commanders of the evil dragon subjugation team 20 years ago. Before coming to Maltaigne, Elaine saw that name on the list of the team members as well as in the body collection team that was linked to the Seveka incident.
It was one of the names she made a mental note to ask the Information Guild about. It was a name she never thought she would hear here.
Elaine couldn’t help but ask again, just to confirm.
“Really… Are you sure about the name?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I remember it down to the last syllable.”
Jody replied with confidence.
He’d already proven he had a great memory. Aside from that, it was a name he wouldn’t know without hearing it in person.
So, does this really mean that Charon is that same wizard? However, Talos Asgar was a high-ranking wizard employed by the royal family. He was also skilled enough to serve as a division commander in the subjugation war.
Why did he live in hiding in this remote area, even using the pseudonym Charon?
She also wondered how and why Walter had come to visit him.
Did Walter by any chance know Charon’s identity?
Several questions arose at once at the shocking information. Elaine was lost in thought with a complex expression, and Ash was muttering to himself.
“That’s his real name…”
He tapped his fingertips on the armrest and thought for a moment before asking another question.
“So, you didn’t find anything else in the cabin?”
“The pendant is all I found.”
Jody shook his head. After that, Ash asked Jody a few more questions. Elaine stopped thinking and focused on the conversation. Each time he was asked a question, Jody answered thoroughly.
Meanwhile, faint moonlight streamed in through the frosted window. After finishing the story, Elaine looked out the window and noticed that it was already nighttime.
Soon it was time for Jody to go to bed. Elaine and Ash left the room after telling Jody to get some rest. And then they walked down the hallway and got some distance from Jody’s room.
Ash spoke again.
“We need to investigate that man, Charon.”
As expected, she thought Ash was also probably suspicious of him. Living while hiding his real name. No matter how you look at it, isn’t this a typical red flag?
However, he seemed to be unaware that Charon, or rather Talos Asgar, was a royal wizard. Of course, Talos had moved to this village more than 10 years ago.
This means that even when Ash was young, he was no longer a royal wizard. It was highly unlikely that Ash had ever heard of his name.
But Elaine could not tell him what she knew, if she did, then she’d have to explain how she knew. If he went back and investigated anyway, he would soon find out about Talos.
At that time, Ash took a step forward and spoke.
“Jody said there was a cabin on Ghost Mountain where he lived.”
“Are you going to go?”
“That’s right.”
They asked Jody earlier about the location of the cabin where Talos lived.
Jody, who had been consistently answering the question so far, was hesitant this time, asking if they were going to ghost mountain. He told him no, and, though he was skeptical, he eventually told them. Of course, he’d been lying when he said he wasn’t going.
Of course they were going to go. Jody said there was nothing left in the cabin, but even so. There might be something he hadn’t noticed, and what seemed like nothing to the boy might be a clue to them.
The next morning, they left the inn just after dawn. A sharp breeze brushed their cheeks and brought white breath. Fluffy snowflakes blew across the frozen landscape. The hazy blue light of dawn gradually cleared, and the stars peeked out from their dense canopy.
They heard the bustle of activity in the houses as they turned toward Ghost Mountain.
“Aaaah!”
A scream ripped through the dawn.
It was coming from the direction of Ghost Mountain. They ran to where the sound came from and saw villagers gathered at the entrance of Ghost Mountain.
“Oh my god, isn’t Max’s father?”
“How did this happen…”
“I guess he went into ghost mountain.”
“Well, he said he was looking for his younger brother who disappeared a while ago…”
“Hey, honey…!”
“Dad!”
Among the crowd of people, they saw a woman and a child hugging a fallen man. They were shaking the man and crying. But the man did not move at all.
A stiff body and blue lips. The man had died without even closing his eyes and his expression was frozen in fear, as if he had been stuffed at the moment of his death.
Suddenly, they remembered what Jody and the villagers had said. People who enter Ghost Mountain have their souls stolen by the ghosts in the mountain. Is that man also one of the lives swallowed up by a ghosts?
Elaine looked up, her face grim. The mountain was shrouded in a chilly mist, and she wondered what lurked beneath.
The wind blew through the fog surrounding the mountains. The sound of the wind mixed with the sound of wailing was strange. Like the cry of a ghost.
* * *
While people were busy moving the corpse, Elaine and Ash went straight to Ghost Mountain.
The man who was found frozen earlier had died after entering this mountain. Other than that man, many others disappeared or were found dead. Of course, they could have died after being caught in an avalanche or blizzard, but Ghost Mountain wasn’t the only place where it snowed here.
People continued to die on Ghost Mountain for several years, making it difficult to believe that it was an accident caused by a simple natural phenomenon.
“There is something lurking somewhere on this mountain.”
Elaine said as she climbed the mountain in the blizzard. Ash nodded.
“I don’t know if it’s really a ghost or not, but we’ll have to check it out.”
Although neither of them believed in ghosts, they were certain that something on the mountain was causing the people’s deaths. They were on their way to find out the truth.
Of course, they hadn’t forgotten their original purpose of investigating the cabin, but they couldn’t let people continue dying like this, so they decided to investigate the cabin first and then deal with the ghost or whatever it was.
They set off in search of the cabin, following Jody’s directions. As they climbed the mountain, the blizzard grew stronger and stronger. As they continued on through the blinding blizzard, they came to a deserted clearing.
A vacant lot surrounded by bare trees. There was a collapsing cabin in the center. The wooden part had been burned away, and only the cornerstone and the outer walls barely remained. The building that had been engulfed by the flames was as black as charcoal. Even though the snow was piled up and frozen, the traces of the fire could not be erased.
“It’s over there.”
She said softly. Elaine and Ash walked towards the broken cabin. The abandoned house, standing in a hazy snowstorm, had a gloomy atmosphere. The closer they got, the more intense the atmosphere became. Was it because of the gloomy atmosphere that they had a strangely ominous feeling?
The cabin was on the verge of collapsing at any moment. All that was visible beyond the missing door was pitch black darkness. They stepped inside cautiously.
The inside was as cold as the outside. A cold wind blew in through the gaps in the walls, and the snow covering the ground was frozen solid. The abandoned house, which had not been visited by anyone for a long time, was quiet. There wasn’t a single sign of anything in the dark space. Or so they thought.
They walked slowly, looking around the inside, but stopped after taking a few steps. It was an instinctive action. The both turned around at the same time.
A dark corner where shadows seems to be piled high. A red glow was visible in the pitch-black darkness.
“…!”
Ash drew his sword. Elaine also immediately tried to draw hers as well. It was then that she felt a chilling sensation.
Outside, an eerie aura suddenly enveloped the entire cabin. Shadows crawled past the gaping windows.
As Elaine hurriedly glanced back at Ash, a strong snowstorm and wind blew. Her windblown hair obscured her vision.
It was only for a moment, but when she roughly brushed back her hair and turned her head, there was no one there.
“…Your Grace?”
She opened her mouth, dumbfounded. Like he’d never even been there in the first place, Ash was nowhere to be seen. Her voice rang hollowly in the empty cabin.
“Your Grace!”
Elaine looked around frantically, biting her lip as she stormed out of the cabin.
‘It’s a hallucination.’
The bright red glowing eye she saw in the darkness in the corner a little while ago. The moment she saw it, she’d known what it was. In addition, the shadows fluttering outside the window and the current phenomenon. The one thing they all point to is…
Elaine continued thinking as she stepped outside. At that moment, the area became dark and all light disappeared. Then the cabin behind her roared and burst into flames.
A scorching heat passing over her skin. When she looked back, what came into view was the burning Royal Palace.
A chilling blue flame, the ruins of the palace. When Elaine saw the person standing in the center, she froze in a daze.
“Be, Bella…?”
The woman was smiling at her. With empty eyes, she approached, pointing her sword at Elaine.
Elaine’s eyes shook violently. Even though she saw the blade getting closer, she couldn’t move. She just stared blankly into the purple eyes beyond the blade.
A face she’d never forgotten, not even for a moment. At the same time, it was the most horrifying moment of her life. Gradually, her breathing quickened. Blue flames leapt up from the ground. The flames enveloped her, suffocating her.
Once again, the nightmare of that day was coming back to life.
Whoaaa what a way to cliffhang me😩