’A city sitting in the sky... how would that even look? Was it similar to Veyr, since it also had most of its islands in the sky?

With everything he has seen so far in Stormfell, he really has no idea what to expect. It felt like a place unbound by rules, without anyone to tell it what to do. A world with its own rules.

How can you have two zones opposite of each other so close to each other?

Aether gritted his teeth as he put his hand in front of him, so he wouldn’t get any snow in his eyes.

How had they gone from a desert to a tundra? Sure, there was the forest in between, but it wasn’t nearly big enough to allow anything like this.

It made no sense.

The wind screamed across the tundra without pause.

Not normal wind.

But rather a blizzard.

Snow flew endlessly through the air, carried violently across the frozen landscape until it became impossible to tell where the ground ended, and the sky began, and well, it wasn’t like you could use your eyes that much, since they would get damaged by the constant snow flying with great speed into them.

The blizzard swallowed almost everything in white, reducing visibility to only a few meters ahead of them before the storm consumed the rest. If you were to look directly at the snow, you could probably get blinded by how white it was. Never had he seen snow like this, and he had spent a long time in a tundra in Frozen Crown.

But this was Stormfell; you can’t expect anything to have been done. Rather, everything is exaggerated to an unbelievable point.

Every step forward felt heavy. As if something had wrapped around his legs, pulling him down each time he lifted his foot. It made him want to stop, to just rest... was there more to it? Was this tundra actually cursed? Or was it just a normal effect that such an environment had on the people walking through it?

The snow reached up to their knees in certain places, slowing their movements while the freezing wind pushed directly against them as though trying to force them backward. Even breathing felt colder here.

For Aether, it wasn’t such a big deal, as surprisingly and happily, the mantle was doing its work, its ability was working, making it so he wasn’t freezing. However, Lucien and Kade didn’t have it so well. They were lucky the Beast Humans had given them some clothing after hearing the direction they were heading, but couldn’t they have told them that there would have been a big tundra, maybe that way they could have gone around it.

Though even if he wasn’t freezing, this place did make him relive memories; it was as if all his time in Frozen Crown had made back to him, finding all the bunkers with Elpis and Avrie, to think that it had all happened three years ago... just crazy.

’Ugh... I hate cold places.’

His hair moved wildly in the storm while snow gathered across his shoulders and boots. Even the pin from his father had gotten snow all over it. He had to say, he was scared that it might get blown away by the wind... so he decided to take it out and put it in his pocket, letting his long hair, the back reaching his shoulders. Now the wind carried it even more.

But at least the pin was safe.

It wasn’t a relic, so if he lost it... that was it. The only thing that he had to remind him of home and his dead mother was gone, to never be recovered. Since no one knew how long the wind would carry it. And it wasn’t like he could come back later.

If he lost it, and he finished the book, it would actually become impossible to get back.

And somehow...

The further they walked into the tundra, the colder it became. He knew this because the condition Kade and Lucien were in was getting worse.

It wasn’t natural.

Stormfell itself didn’t feel natural, and it wasn’t.

The desert heat from before still lingered in his memory. The burning sand. The dry air. The endless sun. It was as if he had felt it all yesterday.

Yet now all he could see was ice and snow stretching endlessly toward the horizon.

How could two places so opposite exist this close together... it was the second time he asked himself this question, and he still had no idea how it was possible. Stormfell had to have some rules; it was still bound to the real world... so what was with it?

It felt less like traveling through a continent and more like walking through entirely different worlds stitched together carelessly.

The frozen landscape itself looked dead.

Massive hills of snow stretched across the tundra while jagged rocks protruded from the ground like broken teeth. Some were entirely covered in ice, making them glisten faintly beneath the pale light hidden behind the storm clouds above.

There was no vegetation in this place, not even a speck of grass, nothing. Though he doubted anything could live in such a place, given how cold it seemed to be. Yet at the same time, even in that hot desert, there were things alive, so maybe he shouldn’t say such a thing. Plus, in the mountains, where it was actually colder, since his mantle couldn’t handle it, there were monsters, so maybe there were some here; he just didn’t have enough awareness to see them.

’I have been neglecting it.’

Occasionally, ruined structures appeared through the blizzard.

Or what remained of them.

Broken towers frozen solid.

Collapsed walls buried beneath layers of snow.

Half-destroyed buildings sticking out from the ice as though the tundra itself had swallowed entire civilizations whole. It made him wonder if, before this tundra, there used to be a place where humans used to live, since if not, how could these ruins exist? He doubted anyone was dumb and crazy enough to decide to build something here.

But let’s say that the tundra came after. What caused it to become what it is today? Why did a place that seems to have been perfectly livable before become what it is today?

Was Stormfell... normal before?

One structure looked almost like a fortress in the distance, though only the top portion remained visible above the snow. Giant chains hung frozen across its sides while shattered statues rested nearby, barely recognizable anymore beneath years of ice.

’How long has this place existed...?’

And just how big was this fortress? How did it go... such a mystery this place was... and no way to figure it out. He hated these kinds of situations, where he couldn’t do anything to learn things about such a place. And he was so curious.

Even the creatures here looked wrong...

’So there are things that live in this place... wonder if they always looked like this, or if they had to adapt to be able to live in a place like this.’

In the distance, large beasts slowly moved through the storm, their bodies covered in thick white fur that blended almost perfectly into the snow itself. One resembled a wolf, though it stood nearly twice the size of a horse, with massive horns curving backward from its skull.

...

’Probably not a good idea to get anywhere near it. If I had to say, that was definitely a monster, one a strong one. So we have to be careful.’

Still... he had to say, it was a beautiful beast, and just showed how much a wolf had to evolve to live in this place. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Another creature crawled across the ice using six elongated limbs before disappearing into the storm entirely. He couldn’t see what it was, but it was definitely not something from their world since he had never heard of a beast with as many legs living in a tundra.

And despite the violent blizzard...

The tundra remained silent.

Aether sighed. Looking back at Lucien, who had almost grown icicles on his face... which he couldn’t hold his laugh at.

"A-Any idea of how long we still got?" He said, while laughing.

The boy frowned, clearly not amused, and neither did Kade find the situation funny, and how could they? They were practically freezing while he just stood warm under his mantle.

"How am I supposed to know? I don’t know how big every zone is." He said, clearly grumpy.

Aether waved him off, irritating him even more. "Alright, you could have just said that you were going to be useless for the time being." He didn’t mean it; he was just doing it to tease the boy.

...

Plus, he doubted they had a long way left; they had been walking for a while.

...

And to their luck, it seemed as if his speculation was correct.

As they reach the end of the tundra... and finally,

Reached the city