"Let's start from the beginning, how much do you know about the holy war?"
Ray contemplated at the tailor's question. He did know of the holy war, that was because people from earth also participated in that war. Though what he knew of the war was only limited to what general public knew. Most of the stuff related to history of the other world were only taught to the awakened.
"What I know is this war was caused due to an sudden invasion of devil, I heard a lot of cities were invaded in this period but I am unaware of the specifics"
The tailor nodded.
"Holy war was indeed very harsh battle, The whole world was in chaos and most of the habitable zones were attacked by devils including this one."
He paused for a second.
" At that time this city was ruled by Saint Luxiel, when the invasion occurred she led the warriors of this city to defend against the devils at the everfrost peak"
As Ray listened he became quite intrigued by the story.
"So, did they win?"
Ray thought so as this city wasn't destroyed so it must mean they had survived the battle against devils... But the tailor's next words made Ray surprised.
"No"
The tailor said with a solemn face. Ray waited for him to continue as he knew their was something more to this story.
"We were far from winning, infact we were highly outnumbered by the devils. This war made us lose most of the warriors in our city in a single night"
The tailor sighed, remembering his sad past, he gathered his words.
"At that time I was just a 10 years old kid, my father was one of the warrior that fought for our survival"
This time the tailor soke with so hint of pride in his eyes and continued.
"But we knew that doom was nearing but all we could do was sit around hopeless waiting for our death."
The tailor's face went pale as if he could still feel that fear.
"As we were thinking everything was over something happened."
The tailor stayed silent for a while. Ray became confused by the sudden stop.
"... And?"
The tailor glanced at Ray with a mysterious expression.
"It's almost time"
Ray got even more confused.
"... For what?"
The tailor grabbed his jacket started walking towards the door.
"Come with me, we will continue this outside"
Ray was still looking at the tailor with bewildered expression but still followed him.
As they got out of the tailor's store Ray suddenly realized that he hadn't asked for the name of the tailor yet.
"What shall I call you?"
The tailor looked at Ray with an expression which shouted 'you remember to ask for my name now?'.
"Julius, You can call be uncle Julius though"
Julius finally had a slight smile on his place. The idea of someone calling him uncle seemed to make him happy.
"So uncle Julius, where are we going?"
Julius smile got even wider.
"Just follow me, the festival is about to start"
***------***
After a while of walking Ray was back at the city square. Looking around Ray found the entire square were filled with people. Everyone seemed to be looking at one direction, as Ray followed their gaze he saw the familiar stage which was now filled with young women wearing ceremonial dresses.
"You wanna know what happened, right?"
Ray nodded at the no brainer question.
Julius remained silent and looked at one particular direction, Ray followed his gaze and his eyes almost popped out. A spot which was empty was now shimmering with light and something seemed to be forming beneath the light.
"That day the the sky became dazzling with holy brilliance, reflected on people's eyes were the rays of hope and salvation. Then everything went quite"
"We were confused, the furious sounds of war and the creeping sounds of devil's crying were gone as if nothing had ever existed. It wasn't until the first rays of sun fell we were finally out of our stupor"
"What was scary though was the disappearance of entire everfrost peak. An entire mountain.. was gone.. so we decided to form a small group to see what really happened."
As the story was reaching it climax Ray wanted to hear what was found at the everfrost as soon as possible. But alas the dance performance seemed to start as everyone went quiet.
The young women started their dance, what was intriguing was they seem to not have any instruments or music to accomplish their dance but something holy seemed to be their. As they started moving the golden rays started to match their rhythm and some sort of holy hymn started reverberating from that empty spot.
Their dance wasn't graceful as he thought it would have been rather it looked unpredictable and as if they were moving according to the will of the world. As the dance continued the reverberation intensified and the shape of mountain became clear.
The dance ended when the mountain fully formed. People started cheering after seeing the mountain. The festival seemed to have finally started.
[You have observed The Dance of Everfrost you gained a broken memory]
[Do you want to absorb it]
'..huh?'
Ray was clueless about what a broken memory was. He had never come across that term.
"Well we went to where the mountain was.."
Ray put aside the broken memory for then and concentrated on what Julius was saying.
"We found two frozen sculptures of two angels dancing a strange dance"
Ray found the two angels familiar. As if noticing what Ray was thinking Julius added.
"Yes they are the ones placed at the entrance of the Frostholm gates."
Realization hit Ray, Indeed the statues looked so lifelike infact they were so because they were one of the moving sculptures.
"From then on every year the angels danced the same dance and made their way to the mountains"
"They search for the lost souls and turn them into ice sculptures"
Ray realized the reason for the festival as everything came clear, but their was one thing that didn't make sense.
"Why are the young women dancing instead of those angel sculptures"
Ray asked this didn't make any sense.
"Well.. the dance can be initialized by anyone and just two angels take a lot of time to reveal the everfrost, days even so this is more efficient"
'So that's why'
Everything finally came to place maybe except for the trials.. and the reason for the disappearance of the mountain.. and for the reason of appearance of angel ice sculptures.. He was clueless as he was.
"Tomorrow we are going to the everfrost peak to retrieve the statues, do you want to come?"
Julius looked at Ray with hopeful expression.
"Sure"
Their was no need to refuse his offer and maybe some of his questions would be answered their.
After chatting with Julius for a while he went to a nearby inn and registered a room.
Finally after a busy day he got to relaxed. While lying in his bed he glanced at his terminal.
[You have observed The Dance of Everfrost you gained a broken memory]
[Do you want to absorb it]