After surviving the night, morning finally arrived.
The blizzard had stopped. The howling wind had faded to a gentle breeze, and pale light filtered through the cave entrance, or what remained of it.
Previously, the snow had completely covered the opening, sealing them inside like a tomb. Moon and Selene worked together to clear it, using fire magic to melt through the packed snow and physically digging out the rest. It took some work before they finally broke through.
When they emerged into the morning light, they stopped and stared.
The mountain had transformed.
The avalanche hadn't just passed by their cave; it had fundamentally altered the entire landscape around them. The path they'd climbed yesterday was gone, buried under meters of snow and ice. Entire sections of the mountainside had been reshaped, creating new slopes, new cliffs, new obstacles that hadn't existed before.
"We can't go back the way we came," Selene said quietly, surveying the destruction. "That route doesn't exist anymore."
Moon nodded grimly.
They were committed now; the only way was up. Then Selene's hand shot out, gripping his arm. "Moon, look!"
She pointed upward, and Moon followed her gaze.
The blizzard had cleared completely, leaving the sky that strange swirling blue-white color that passed for daylight in this realm. And there, carved into the upper reaches of the mountain, barely visible through wisps of remaining cloud, were stone structures.
Massive pillars that rose like fingers of giants, their surfaces covered in frost.
Before them stood the temple.
They were closer than they'd realised. The blizzard and avalanche had actually pushed them nearer to their destination, cutting away the long approach they would have needed to make.
"We're almost there," Moon breathed, a mixture of hope and dread settling in his chest.
Selene continued staring upward, her body tense. "Moon... I saw something. Just for a moment."
"What?" Moon's eyes scanned the area around the temple pillars.
"A silhouette. Moving between the pillars. Human-shaped, I think, but..." She squinted, leaning forward. "It's gone now."
Moon looked where she'd indicated, his eyes looking for anything. He saw nothing but stone and ice and the ever-present snow.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"I..." Selene hesitated, doubt creeping into her voice. "I thought I did. But maybe it was just a shadow, or the clouds moving."
Moon continued watching for another full minute, but nothing appeared. Still, Selene wasn't the type to imagine things, especially not after a week of constant vigilance had honed her instincts to razor sharpness.
"We stay alert," he said finally. "If there's someone up there, we'll find out soon enough."
Selene nodded, though her hand remained tight on her staff.
The climb was treacherous. The avalanche had created unstable snow fields that could give way without warning. Ice sheets clung to rock faces at angles that seemed to defy physics.
More than once, Moon had to use his earth magic to create handholds, or Selene had to melt a path through ice too thick to break manually.
But they climbed.
The temple pillars grew larger as they approached, revealing details that hadn't been visible from below.
The frost patterns weren't natural; they were carvings depicting scenes Moon couldn't quite make sense of. He squinted at the nearest pillar as they drew closer, trying to understand what the craftsmen had been trying to convey.
Figures that might have been human, or might have been something else, were carved in procession along the stone surface. They were stylised, their proportions slightly wrong, as if the sculptor had been working from memory rather than life. Each figure appeared to be carrying objects held high above their heads as they marched toward a central point in the carving.
Moon's eyes followed the procession to where it led.
A massive throne carved with excessive detail that stood out even among the drawings covering the rest of the pillar. And seated upon that throne was a being that made Moon's skin crawl despite being nothing more than carved stone.
It was humanoid with odd proportions; it had two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head. It was really tall, very thin, with limbs that bent at angles that shouldn't be possible. The head was crowned with something that might have been ice, or horns, or both. And even in stone, even weathered by perhaps uncountable years of frozen wind, there was something in the carving's posture that radiated dominance.
Before this throne, at its base, was an altar. The procession of figures appeared to be placing their offerings upon it, one by one, their carved faces turned upward toward the seated being as if in supplication or terror.
Moon shifted his attention to the next pillar and found similar scenes. Different figures, different offerings, but always the same throne.
"Sacrifices," Selene whispered, coming to stand beside him. She'd been examining a different pillar but had clearly reached the same conclusion. "They're offering sacrifices to whatever that thing is."
Moon nodded slowly.
This had been happening for a very, very long time.
"The heart of winter," Moon said quietly, his eyes returning to the carved being on the throne. "I think we're looking at it."
Selene's face had gone pale. "If that's what we have to face to get out of here..."
Between the pillars, barely visible in the shadows cast by the massive stone structures, was an entrance. A doorway leading into darkness, its threshold marked by more of those intricate frost carvings.
Whatever answers they sought, whatever horrors awaited them, lay beyond that entrance.
After a short climb, they were at the entrance of the temple.
Tap! Tap!
Sounds of boots striking the floor echoed from inside the temple, making Selene and Moon tense immediately.
They hadn't expected to hear sounds of boots that most definitely would come from humans from inside the temple.
"There are people inside this place…" Moon whispered to Selene beside him. From their current point, it was difficult to tell who was inside because all they could see was a dark corridor leading to what appeared to be a room without a door; the sounds were presumably coming from that room that they could barely see inside.
Selene nodded her head. "Should we go in?"
After a moment of contemplation, Moon responded. "We don't have a choice, do we?"
With pounding hearts and tense bodies, they entered the temple, ready to face whatever was inside, whether evil or good.
They slowly walked through the temple, afraid of making any sounds, wanting to get a hint of who was inside before making any move themselves.
When they arrived at the end of the corridor, the sight that greeted them inside the room shocked them to their core.
"John?! Elara?" Selene whispered, her eyes wide in shock. The last people she expected to see inside the temple were the two teammates who they had thought were dead by now.