*Note for the reader, we might actually be close to the end.
Chapter 8
The Foggy Summit
Vels and his team climbed up the mountain. He noticed Jen talking to the others, mainly Jeph and Kert. Dernom, however, remained quiet. Fenris would occasionally start conversations and would mainly just listen. Vels himself remained quiet. They had been climbing for about an hour. They had little trouble finding the mountain path, for it was rather large, and had been on it since. At first, Vels was worried that they wouldn't reached the summit of the mountain, for it was hidden in the clouds and the path seemed to be extremely steep. But, as they walked up, Vels noticed that it just remained a casual incline, and yet they could now see the hills and the forest and the jagged mountains that marked its boundaries. Then he could see past the mountains and couldn't see any thing, no land or sea, just air. Vels thought about this as they casually and yet swiftly climbed the odd mountain, where an even odder man awaited them.
While Vels was on the mountain, Lembert reached the caves. However, it wasn't inviting. There was trails of blood leading out of the cave, or in. There were strange liquids coating the rocks at the entrance. In the cave was total darkness, only the rocks at the entrance were visible. Then there was the faint sound of a sick kind of breathing. Whatever was in there, it definitely didn't sound pleasant. Mern looked at Lembert and noticed him paling. Mern chuckled, "well fearless leader," he said mockingly, "lead us into that putrid cave of safety." Lembert seem paralyzed, then he slowly started to walk in. The cave was wet, yet there was no life, no bats, no bugs, not even moss. It had smells of decay and rot, but there wasn't a single carcass. But, there was the sickening evidence of live, from feces to the strange liquids. The smell was also a strong indicator, and it was too strong. Aden, who was a foot behind from Lembert and Mern, started to vomit. "I can't take this," said Aden after finishing, "this isn't safety, this is death." Mern helped him up, "oh shut up, we are here anyways, and the only other options is sitting in the forest or trying to catch up with the Captain."
After the 2nd hour, they had reached fog. Unem grinned, "we are almost there." Then the 3rd hour passed by, then the 4th. "Is it possible we are going in circles?" asked Jen. "No," said Vels, "we are still going up." Fenris stopped, "how can you be sure? I say we stop until we figure it out. The summit was in the clouds, so we should have been there by now. We should probably back-track, we probably went on another path instead of following the right one." Vels was thinking about it, then Dernom just said, "if there was another path, someone would have seen it," then continued. Vels shrugged and followed, and so did everyone else, including Fenris, who now started to worry even more. Then, after 5 minutes of walking, they reached the top.
The first thing they saw was the crystalline palace, which was followed by the stone statue guarding it, it was a statue of a human man, with blank features and standing straight. The palace itself was composed three building that looked like spires of water shooting up and had gotten frozen, The buildings came together at the base. Yet that was all, no more. The ground was barren and everything was obscured by fog. They all looked at the statue, it was humanoid but had no distinction except for the fact that it was featureless. However, what they found the most odd was that it wasn't made that way, but that all the features were removed.