Alain broke out of his stupor.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Theo jerked awake with a strangled yell. "WHAT WHAT WHAT—"
He flailed, slapped the tent pole, and immediately collapsed back into the blanket.
Kai'el nearly stabbed the fire out of reflex. "HEY, WHAT NOW—-"
Alain was in the middle of the floor, clutching his left hand like it had grown teeth.
"MY RUNE CHANGED!"
Silence.
Then all three of them started shouting at once.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT CHANGED?!" —Theo
"RUNES CAN'T DO THAT!" —Kai'el
"I KNOW THEY CAN'T, THAT'S WHY I'M SCREAMING!" —Alain
The tent instantly turned into chaos.
Theo tripped over his bedroll trying to see. Kai'el grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at Alain's hand for reasons even he couldn't explain. Alain screamed louder. The snow hissed into steam.
"IT'S ON FIRE!" Theo shouted.
"NO, IT'S FREEZING!" Kai'el yelled back.
"BOTH!" Alain shrieked. "WHY IS IT BOTH?!"
"WAIT!" Theo yelled.
They all froze in place.
"…Okay," he said carefully, eyes wide. "Let's all just… not touch anything."
A beat.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" they all screamed again.
In the midst of chaos, Alain looked back at his left hand again, unsure if what he was saying was even real.
< — Kenaz
He stood still and stared blankly.
"It's back…" Alain muttered.
...
"Phew…" They all breathed a sigh of relief and slowly settled back to where they once were.
"Sorry, I think… that was the effect of my third Rune." Alain said, rubbing his hand.
Kai'el immediately looked up at him, "You have more than one? That's sick."
Theo blinked. "Wait, third? You're considered lucky to even have one!"
Alain scratched his head, "Well, I thought I had two. Suddenly, when I was just sitting here, a weird message popped into my head."
Theo put a finger on his chin, thinking. "Was it...a system message?"
"Yeah," Alain nodded. "I thought it only existed within Revelations, but apparently not."
The other two looked at each other, before Kai'el finally replied.
"Beats me, but we have bigger fish to fry here."
Alain shook the thought away, "Right, forget about that. What's even happening right now? How did we even get here?"
No one answered immediately.
The air in the tent felt heavier now that the adrenaline had faded.
Theo rubbed his temples, muttering, "Yeah, obviously this is not a simulation. Something must've gone wrong."
"Great," Kai'el groaned. "I haven't even left a will yet…"
Alain stared into the fire, his reflection flickering in the glow.
"I'm not sure about this, but when we got teleported. I had felt this similar sensation before."
Theo looked over, tone wary. "You know what's happening?"
"I don't know," Alain said quietly. "But I've felt that ether before. Back at…the train accident."
"Back then and now, there was always a distinctive smell of foul or rotten ether in the air," he muttered.
The three of them fell silent again.
Outside, the wind howled once before dying out completely.
Theo nodded slowly. "Seems like we're trapped then."
"So…? What's our plan from now on?" Kai'el swallowed hard.
Theo exhaled through his nose, then reached into his ring. After digging around a while, he pulled out a small crystal pendant.
"This," he said. "My father gave it to me before I left. It's linked to our family's relay tower in Finn. If something goes wrong, it sends a distress signal back to him."
Kai'el's eyes brightened. "Then use it!"
"I already tried." Theo held it up, frowning as the light flickered weakly. "Signal's too faint. It's getting interrupted by the cold air as well as our low elevation."
Alain glanced toward the shadowy outline beyond the tent flap. Through the pale haze, he could see the jagged silhouette of a mountain crest, sharp and distant against the gray sky.
"You're thinking we climb that?" Alain asked.
Theo nodded. "It's the only thing that might break the interference."
Kai'el groaned. "Fantastic. We're stranded in a frozen wasteland, and your plan is… to go up?"
"You got a better one?" Theo shot back.
Kai'el thought for a second, then sighed. "...Nope."
Alain stood up and gathered his things. A dagger given by Duke Finn, along with a small satchel of various gadgets.
"We should get going quickly. Before our supplies run out."
"Agreed," Theo added, starting to do the same.
Kai'el stayed frozen for a moment, still sitting by the fire as the other two started packing.
"We're really doing this?" he asked quietly. "We don't even know what's out there."
Theo didn't look up from his bag. "It's better than starving to death."
He stood, pulled a small silver ring from his gold band, and tossed it toward Alain.
Alain caught it, blinking. "What's this?"
"Storage ring," Theo said. "Father insisted I carry a few in case of emergencies."
He flicked his wrist, and a small ripple of light shimmered from the ring's rune. A shortsword unfolded from it in a trail of ether, the metal catching faint blue reflections from the fire.
"Figured you're more of a weapons guy than a bare-hands guy," Theo smirked.
Alain sighed. "I'll try not to set this one on fire."
***
The tent folded up quickly, and the group set off. There was not much dialogue as the three tried their best to stave off the cold.
Their boots crunched on snow-covered grass and other vegetation until they approached a clearing.
The temperature seemed to drop, indicated by the increasing amount of green that they could see.
They walked into what looked, at first glance, like a valley. The snow here was uneven—mounded, jagged, and streaked with faint color beneath the white.
Broken shapes littered the ground, most of them half-buried. Armor, maybe. Spears without shafts. A shield fused into the ice.
The air carried a faint metallic tang that stuck to the back of the throat. Each breath tasted of rust and smoke.
Theo slowed, scanning the ground. Kai'el kicked at something that clanged once, dull and hollow.
From where Alain stood, the basin stretched outward in a broad circle. The snow was tinted faintly green in some places, red in others.
Shattered terrain climbed toward the foot of the mountain, marked by blackened stone and the silhouettes of things that could have been barricades—or bodies.
A battlefield.
That was the only word that fit.
Alain exhaled, watching his breath scatter into the still air. "Hey," he said, voice low but steady. "Do you mind if I look at these for a bit?"
Theo turned halfway, following his gaze. "Stay close. "
Alain nodded. "I will."
Alain stepped away from them, boots crunching through the thin crust of snow. Up close, the faint colors became more apparent.
He crouched, brushing the frost aside.
There's… a lot of blood here.
That's definitely not normal.
He crouched, brushing a hand across the frozen surface. The red beneath wasn't paint or rust. It was clear, hard, glimmering faintly like glass.
What the hell is this? Dried blood? Hmm… seems like it coagulated into crystals from the cold.
He squinted at the way it pulsed faintly under the frost. The veins ran like roots, branching deeper into the field.
That's definitely blood. But this much… how many people does it take to stain the ground like that?
He stood slowly, his boot cracking a thin layer of glassy frost. The sound echoed once, sharp and hollow. He dusted his hands.
This wasn't a war… More like a massacre.
Alain followed the vein through the snow, the faint trail of indentations running beside it before ending abruptly in a shallow pit.
Seems like they died while trying to run away… Wait, why do I even care about this?
He crouched beside the shallow pit. A fragment of armor lay half-buried inside, the edges rusted black, the emblem long erased.
Probably no one even remembers who you were…
He sighed, dragging a few handfuls of snow and loose frost over the hollow. It wasn't much, barely a mound, but it felt wrong to just leave it open.
Ha…Alain, you don't even know these people or their names. Why are you doing this?
When he was done, he pressed his hand against the frozen earth.
He closed his eyes for a moment, not to pray to any god he believed in—just to give silence a shape. The cold bit through his gloves, seeping into his skin until it hurt.
But…at least someone witnessed this. Rest in peace.
He stood, brushing the frost from his hands. The field was quiet again.
Then a sharp and panicked voice cut through the stillness.
"Alain!"
He turned. The duo was sprinting toward him, snow spraying under their boots. Behind, the mist was moving—shifting like something alive beneath it.
"We're being attacked!"