Ve grunted as he dragged Koro's massive frame across the frozen dirt. The warrior's chest was covered in messy stitches that looked like they had been done in a frantic hurry, but the bleeding had finally stopped.
"See! I told you! My genius brain managed to save him!" Pippin chirped, trotting alongside them with a look of immense self-satisfaction.
"I still don't get how you did it with just a needle and some old herbs," Ve muttered, his breath hitching from the effort of pulling Koro.
"It's not just herbs, you uncultured brute! I used the weaving technique from the Tome of the Astral Thread! I read that book hundreds of years ago before I even got stuck in this miserable mountain. It explains how to stitch the spiritual essence back into the physical muscle using a cross-loop pattern. If I hadn't remembered page four hundred and twelve, Koro would be a rug by now!"
Ve wasn't really listening to the nerdy lecture. He stopped suddenly, his nose twitching. He sniffed the air, smelling something other than smoke and old blood.
"Wait. Do you hear that?" Ve whispered.
They moved toward a large, curved rib bone that stuck out from the ground like a wall.
Behind it, huddled together in the dark, were ten small, shivering children.
"Are those... the kids from the nursery ward?How did they get all the way out here?" Pippin asked, his eyes wide.
"They were supposed to be dead with them, but...." Ve said, stepping closer.
"Hey, it's okay. We're with the Leftovers. We aren't going to hurt you."
Before the kids could answer, a shadow moved from the other side of the pillar. Sissy stepped out, her eyes widening as she saw the familiar faces.
"Sissy?" Ve gasped.
"Pippin... and Ve... right?" she asked. Her voice was trembling.
"Yes! You're alive! Everyone said you fell into the abyss! They said you were gone for sure!" Pippin shouted, nearly jumping into the air.
"A lot of things happened," Sissy said, looking toward the path where she had just left Lemony.
"I'll explain everything later, I promise. But how are you two alive? And why is Koro on your back, Ve?"
Pippin puffed out his chest.
"I'm on a mission, Sissy!"
"I'm going to find Malphas. I need to find something biological, a weakness or a trait, and then I'm going to negotiate with him! He's an ancient beast, so he has to have some kind of logic we can use!"
Sissy stared at him like he had grown a second head.
"You're going to talk to that monster? Pippin, he's a god down there. He'll eat you before you say hello."
"I have to try! Do you know which way he is?"
Sissy hesitated, then pointed toward the dark descent Lemony had mentioned.
"That way. Down the throat of the mountain."
Pippin immediately jumped off Ve's shoulder and started to run.
"Wait! Pippin!" Ve called out, his voice full of panic.
"You have to stay, Ve! Protect the kids! Protect Koro and Sissy! I'm the only one who can talk his way out of this!"
Ve looked torn, but before he could chase after the small creature, a gloved hand reached out from behind a bone pillar and snagged Pippin by the scruff of his neck.
"Yo," a gravelly voice said.
"You're... you're the gunslinger!" Sissy exclaimed, stepping back.
The man in the duster coat didn't let go of Pippin. He looked tired, his hat pulled low over his eyes.
"I know where Malphas is. I was just heading that way myself."
"Why would you help us? You're a wanderer. You don't owe us anything." Sissy asked, her voice suspicious.
The gunslinger shrugged.
"I have things I need to do. Besides, I heard what you and that Manul were talking about earlier. About hope and living. It felt like something I had to help with."
Sissy's face turned bright red. Wait! He heard all of that? The crying? The hugging? Lemony, you idiot! Why didn't you check if we were alone!
The gunslinger didn't seem to care about her embarrassment. He looked toward the horizon, his expression darkening.
"Mara, my wife... she'd want me to do the right thing for once."
Suddenly, he flicked his wrist, and a swirling portal of blue energy tore open in the air. It hummed with a strange, static-like sound.
He tucked Pippin inside his heavy coat like he was carrying a loaf of bread and stepped into the light.
They entered a blue realm that felt like walking through water. There was no ground, just a shimmering path of light. Pippin poked his head out of the coat, his eyes darting around in confusion.
"Where are we? What is this place?" Pippin asked.
"Just cover your ears," the gunslinger said.
As they walked, the air began to vibrate with voices. They were high-pitched and ghostly, like a thousand children whispering at once.
"Zhan... my husband..."
"Zhan, my beloved... don't forget us..."
"Zhan, stay here..."
The voices were eerie, filled with a longing that made Pippin's skin crawl.
What the hell is this guy even? Pippin thought, pulling his ears down and shivering. Is he a human or some kind of walking graveyard?
The blue haze of the spirit realm dissolved, and the ghostly whispers of the women claiming to be the gunslinger's wife faded into the biting howl of the wind. They stepped through the exit and back into reality. The air here was different. It was stale and smelled of ancient dust and ozone. They were deep within the snowy caves, standing at the very edge of the territory where the light didn't reach.
They were in the lair of Malphas.
"Why are you even doing this? Going into the house of a god is basically suicide. You don't look like a guy who wants to die."
The gunslinger didn't look back. He adjusted his hat, his fingers steady.
"I need to know about my wife. This place holds memories that the world forgot. Malphas is the gatekeeper of those memories."
His wife again, Pippin thought. This guy is a Rank 2 Scion. He could probably level a city if he wanted to, but he's obsessed with a ghost. Mysterious and dangerous is a bad combination.
Pippin straightened his vest and tried to look intimidating, even though he barely reached the man's knees.
"Listen, traveler. If you try any funny business or use me as bait, I'll put a curse on your bloodline that will last for seven generations. My words have weight, you know!"
The gunslinger let out a short, dry huff that might have been a laugh.
"Just walk, kid. I've been here once already today after the portal brought me in. The door was sealed tight. I couldn't find a way through the physical layer, but with you here, maybe we can find a biological bypass."
As they walked deeper, the gunslinger pointed at the strange, glowing inscriptions etched into the cavern floor.
"The news outside this realm from what I've read say Malphas isn't just a beast made to kill the sacrifices. The sacrifices aren't also to halt Malphas from any terror or destruction upon the kingdom. The real reason for this sealed place was to farm strands."
"I assume you were here before the scandal of corruption decades ago, right? If so, Malphas would kill the sacrifices and the Scavengers would actually Blazon these remaining bodies that Malphas didn't Blazoned and then they would sell them secretly to other high-ranks for items or slaves."
"I'm just telling you to this if we ever both head the same fate as those people."
Pippin felt a chill that had nothing to do with the snow. The world was a lot more messed up than he had realized. They turned a corner and both of them froze.
A massive, moss-covered rock creature was standing in the middle of the path.
The gunslinger's hand was a blur as he drew his pistol, the hammer clicking back with a lethal sound.
"Wait! Don't shoot!" the creature rumbled.
Fiji raised his heavy stone hands in a gesture of peace.
"You come from upper ? Have you seen Sissy? And the Manul?"
Pippin blinked, his jaw dropping.
"Wait, wait, wait! How do you know Sissy? Who are you? I've lived on this mountain for decades and I've never seen a talking mountain before!"
"I am Fiji," the golem said.
"I saved the girl in the abyss. But it was the cat creature who did the real work. That pathetic-looking Manul. Have you seen him? He should be at the base by now."
The Manul from the snow? The gunslinger thought. The one crying like a lost child?
"Do you know him?" the gunslinger asked Pippin.
"I've never seen him in my life! What do you mean he saved her? I haven't even seen you here too, let alone the cat!"
"He saved her from fall," Fiji insisted.
"More than that, he just fought Malphas. Right behind doors. We came from the throne room. He bit the god, took the hits, and walked out alive."
"But he ran and Fiji not know where he is."
The silence that followed was absolute.
The gunslinger dropped his aim, his eyes widening in genuine disbelief. He had read every record of the Great Beastiary, every legend of the Veridian heroes.
He fought Malphas? And survived?
The feat was statistically impossible. In all recorded history, there had never been a documented case of a lower-tier being engaging a Divine Tread and walking away with their soul intact. To survive an encounter with Malphas was to break the very laws of the world's power system. Even a Rank 4 to 7 would think twice before stepping into that room. The gunslinger felt a cold sweat on his neck. He was looking at a living miracle, or a monster wearing a cat's skin.
"You're lying," Pippin whispered.
"Nobody survives a god. Nobody."
"He did," Fiji said coldly.
The gunslinger and Pippin were about to flood the golem with questions when the sound of footsteps echoed from the tunnel behind them. It was a slow, rhythmic crunch of snow and gravel.
They turned around, their hearts racing.
Walking out of the shadows was a small, battered figure. His fur was matted with blood, his hand was a mess of ruined flesh, and his eyes were hollow with exhaustion. But he was walking.
The Pale-Mantle Manul who had looked death in the face and refused to blink stood before them.