"Quickly, Go!"
Falcia turned and began to trudge through the snow, and the other quickly began after her. The snow was deeper than their knees already, and rising slowly.
"Dammit, why did it have to be Clyde!"
Falcia led the way through the snow, and they suddenly appeared at a large towering structure. Lukas darts forward.
"This is the tower! I know where we are, Falcia!"
He quickly pointed to the right of where they were currently standing.
"The city on the lake is a few miles that way!"
Falcia nods quickly, and they change direction. Corrin noted how she immediately trusted his sense of direction.
For a few minutes, all they hear is the crunching of the snow below them and the jingle of objects in their packs.
"Have we lost them?"
Mary said as they walked, falling behind slightly. Falcia pants ahead of her.
"Not likely."
She tries to pull up the compass again, but it's already spun out of control.
"Whoever that man was, he attacked swiftly and with incredible precision. Be ready for anything."
Suddenly, the ground began to shake violently, breaking apart in cracks. All of them lost their balance and fell into the snow.
"What's happening!?"
Janis, one of the soldiers of the Information Division they had met earlier, yelled over the sound of the rumbles. The earth then began to bend upwards like a mountain in one location, and all of the snow began to slide off the sides. The rising mountain quickly broke apart, and they all fell in different directions.
"I don't know!"
Corrin and Lukas break off from the group as the earthen slide breaks in two. Both of them fall and bang into the ground with a large thud. Suddenly, the earth stops breaking apart and falls downward all at the same time, creating a huge crashing sound.
Lukas holds his head, blood dripping from above his eye, and he slowly gets up. Corrin sits up and brushes the snow off himself.
They both look around for a moment. In the distance, barely visible due to the fog, is the tower. The earth that had been uprooted was now in a small mound next to them, and the snow had piled around it in great heaps.
Corrin began to get up, but they heard someone speaking, and both he and Lukas jumped down and hid beside the mound. They listened intently.
"You idiot, we could have lost the shards!"
Corrin recognized the voice as Nevarii's.
"I was trying to pull them our way, it's not my fault the stupid dirt didn't want to listen!"
Corrin's heart froze.
"Well, next time, don't uproot the ground with metal!"
Corrin brought his hand to his mouth. He knew that voice. It was about to speak again, but it stopped.
"Wait, hold on."
Chains flew up and over the mound, crashing down on Corrin and Lukas. Both of them quickly parried the attacks with their Black Steel swords and made a run for it. They both instinctively run for the only thing they can see: the tower. They hoped and prayed somebody else had done the same.
They quickly made it to the tower, and Lukas ran to get inside, but Corrin stopped.
"Wait a minute, which way would the ruined city be?"
Lukas looked up at the tower, trying to figure out its alignment, then he turned and pointed behind them, back towards where Nevarii and the other man had been.
"Then we need to go that way, we can go around them, but we need to do so quickly!"
Lukas nods, and they both run diagonally around the large mound of dirt.
"Why didn't the chains break from being hit by the black steel?"
Corrin wondered as they ran.
"The main reason your sword broke before was that it was battered and bruised! Most iron weapons aren't cut through like butter, you know! It takes more than that!"
Ahead of them, they saw a thin tree line. They dove for cover in the trees, both of them panting heavily.
Above them, the sky began to twinkle as the snow stopped and the stars became noticeable. They sat in silence for a few moments, making sure they weren't followed. Soon, they turned back and rested on the tree trunks.
Corrin took a deep breath.
"Okay, what do we do now?"
"Should we go to the ruined city, you think?"
Corrin looks in the direction of the ruined city on the lake. He didn't know the exact location, but it seemed like their only choice.
"Yeah, that sounds good."
The two set off quickly and quietly. Their fears of being followed quickly die off after walking for a few hours.
"It's like they knew that we'd be there. How did they know?"
Corrin was walking to the right of Lukas, the snow wet on his knees. He hadn't taken his hand off of his katana's hilt, just in case.
"I don't know."
As they walked, the stars began to show themselves, one of the few times Corrin had seen the sky since his time here. Mostly, it was cloudy and snowing.
"We're probably still a few miles out, it'll take a few hours to get there, and I'm getting really tired of walking."
Lukas agreed, and they found themselves a spot to stay near a few trees. They created a snow barricade so their silhouettes were hidden and rifled through their bags for food. Luckily, they found some hardtacks. Tough, rock-like crackers that don't spoil and taste horrible. Corrin remembered that he had hardly eaten any when he was with the Hidden Vanguard; it was Vesterii who usually made them stew or the like.
Their meal was bland, but fulfilling. They soon turned over to sleep. Corrin found that he couldn't shake off who the man could have been from before. He had recognized the voice, but it couldn't have been who the voice belonged to. He must have misheard it.
But Corrin found that thinking about it was far too exhausting, and he soon fell asleep.
He awoke abruptly to Lukas kicking him.
"Ugh- Wh-"
Lukas covers Corrin's mouth and points over the barricade. Lukas then makes a 'quiet' gesture with his finger over his mouth. Corrin pulls Lukas's hand away and looks over the barricade.
Creatures Corrin could only describe as pure nightmares walked in a pack of three. Their heads were those of a black bird, but their beaks were abnormally long. Their eyes were dim, sitting atop long necks that were easily Corrin's length alone. They had a body like a spider, and two claws like a crab. Their legs reached down into the snow, dragging their abnormal body above it slowly.
They hissed like snakes, yet they seemed to have small wings that looked as though no effort they put in could have lifted such a creature off the ground.
Corrin dove back down into the snow and looked at Lukas. They didn't need words to describe what they were thinking: What the HELL are those things?
They sat for a few minutes and only spoke when they were sure those things were gone. Corrin took one final look to make sure they were gone, and he was glad they were.
"What, in all the realms, were those?"
Lukas took a deep breath, still shaking slightly from the fear those creatures had evoked.
"Those are the beasts everybody has been telling you about. You're lucky, those are some of the friendlier-looking ones. I've seen worse before."
Corrin nods his head. He holds his ears for a second, warming them. The cold was nipping at any exposed skin he had.
"Is it even morning yet?"
"I think so."
The clouds were back, and snow was falling yet again, albeit slower and lighter than the previous night. The two of them ate a bit of hardtack for breakfast and went on their way, being much more alert for any more of the nightmarish creatures they might bump into.
The snow began to seep into their boots, wetting their socks. Their core became weak from constantly pushing through the thick snow. Eventually, however, despite the pain, they saw the lakeside in the distance.
They quickly rushed forward and fell to their knees on the beach. Corrin didn't know what to expect, but he hadn't expected to see a lake entirely frozen, even through the temperatures. Though it made sense to him now that he saw it.
Corrin then found himself wondering about the smaller man next to Nevarii. The thought seemed to drown him. Could it really be who he thought it was, had he really betrayed them?
Corrin couldn't imagine that Edwin ever could.