Chapter 103: The Path to You (3)
It felt like I had a strange dream.
Astrid woke up after a restless few hours of sleep, plagued by an inexplicable nightmare.
What made it worse was the nagging unease that lingered—she had clearly dreamed something unpleasant, something that left her with a bad feeling. But try as she might, she couldn’t recall what it was about.
Even after getting up, fetching breakfast, and sitting down to eat, the discomfort refused to fade.
“Why the long face, sister?”
“I had a dream, but I can’t remember what it was about.”
“Doesn’t that happen to everyone now and then? I get dreams like that sometimes too.”
Ashray’s idea of such dreams was probably something trivial—dreams that were meaningless and quickly forgotten.
Astrid glanced at him as he cheerfully shoved a forkful of salad into his mouth, then began picking out pieces of grilled meat instead.
“It’s probably not the same kind of dream you’re thinking about. This one felt sticky and unpleasant, but the moment I woke up, I couldn’t remember a thing.”
“What kind of dream could have been that bad? Nothing comes to mind at all?”
Ashray, now abandoning the salad altogether, focused solely on the roasted meat on his plate.
Sighing, Astrid grabbed more salad and a few pieces of meat from her own plate and transferred them onto Ashray’s.
“Not a single thing. Just this endless, uneasy feeling I can’t shake off.”
“It’s probably just a silly dream.”
“Maybe.”
“Definitely. Anyway, they said we’re leaving in two hours, so you should stretch and get your body ready. It’s another long march today.”
The exact distance of today’s walk was still unclear.
The tower’s location was... frustratingly ambiguous.
Even though it looked like it was in sight, gauging its actual distance was impossible.
The closer they walked, the farther it seemed to stretch away, as if mocking their progress.
“Got it.”
Astrid popped the last piece of meat into her mouth, stood up with her plate, and carried it off.
Ashray quickly followed, balancing his own plate as the two of them exited the tent.
***
“Is that it?”
“Yeah, can you see it?”
“I can see it clearly.”
“It’s grown bigger.”
Baizik squinted at the faint silhouette of the distant tower.
They called it a tower, though earlier it had supposedly been more like an altar. But now, it was undeniably a tower.
A massive structure, large enough for several people to climb at once.
Even at this distance, its silhouette loomed impressively—far too big to be called an altar.
“Are you sure that’s supposed to be an altar?”
“I told you, it’s grown since we last saw it.”
This was no ordinary phenomenon.
Both Wolfgang and Baizik wore grim expressions.
At first, Baizik had dismissed it as a trivial issue. Even if the so-called “growing tower” presented some challenges, he’d assumed a few blasts of magic would be enough to topple it.
He had been eager to tease Wolfgang for making a fuss over something so insignificant.
But now, seeing the tower for himself, Baizik realized he had been mistaken.
This wasn’t just an issue—it was a problem.
“How big was it originally, again?”
Astrid, who had been following behind, stepped forward and looked at the tower.
How could anyone call that an altar?
It was supposed to be altar-sized, but that description no longer fit.
Astrid narrowed her eyes, carefully studying the imposing structure.
Even from a distance, it looked monumental.
【“It looks familiar… somehow.”】
Her expression hardened at the unexpected comment from the real Astrid’s voice in her head.
‘Familiar? From where?’
【“I can’t remember. But I’m certain I’ve seen it before. That exact shape…”】
‘Then hurry up and remember! What is that thing?’
Meanwhile, the soldiers of the Miterien duchy who had marched with them thus far were visibly tense.
In just a few weeks, the supposed altar had transformed into a tower.
And not just any tower—a massive one at that.
The bizarre sight spread unease among the soldiers like ink staining white paper.
But for now, they held on.
It was a manageable fear, one they could suppress with courage.
“…Shall we get a little closer?”
“Yes, we should be able to get closer.”
Baizik and Wolfgang exchanged words and resumed their march.
Though they had already walked quite a distance, Baizik showed no signs of fatigue.
“Are you okay, sir? It’s been a long trek through the snow,” Ashray asked, stepping up to Baizik.
With a hearty laugh, Baizik clapped Ashray on the shoulder.
“I’m fine, Ashray. Walking this much doesn’t bother me. But thanks for asking—your concern is appreciated.”
“And that’s coming from someone covered head to toe in lightweight artifact enhancements,” Wolfgang muttered, clearly unimpressed.
As a man of pure physical prowess, Wolfgang found it hard to appreciate Baizik’s reliance on magical artifacts to enhance his physical capabilities.
“Anyway, let’s move closer. My magic doesn’t have the range to reach it from here.”
“Fair enough. How close do we need to get?”
“You know the drill. We need to gauge the target’s size and determine how far its influence spreads. You can’t figure that out from this distance.”
“Useless.”
“Better than being a land-bound grunt who can’t even approach it.”
The two men bickered like they were in their youth, but they walked side by side all the same.
Following behind them were Astrid, Ashray, and the rest of the soldiers.
***
Two hours later, they were still walking.
Walking through snow consumed far more energy than expected.
Each step sank into the snow, and even with snowshoes, it was much harder than walking on solid ground.
They took occasional breaks to recover, but it had been a grueling two hours.
Though they had left early in the morning, it was already nearing lunchtime.
And still, the tower loomed in the distance, only slightly closer than it had seemed before.
【“This is so strange. I’ve definitely seen it before… but I still can’t remember where.”】
‘You still can’t remember?’ Astrid thought, frustrated.
The same refrain had been repeating the entire time.
As they walked, the real Astrid’s voice in my head kept muttering, I’ve seen it somewhere… I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere…
“Alright, let’s move a bit closer now,” Wolfgang’s booming voice cut through the cold air.
Beside him, Baizik looked visibly fatigued, his earlier energy now waning.
“Ugh, I can’t figure out what’s going on. Maybe I should just try blasting it from here.”
“Go ahead,” Wolfgang replied with a nod, as if he’d been waiting for that suggestion.
Baizik shot Wolfgang a sideways glare before stroking his beard and clearing his throat.
“Alright… let’s see here.”
The landscape around them was a vast expanse of white, punctuated only by the occasional jagged rocks poking out from the snow. Baizik found a relatively flat and stable rock and climbed onto it.
“This should do. Now, let’s see…”
Standing atop the stone, Baizik raised both hands high into the air.
Zuuuuuuung…
‘…What is that?’
Between Baizik’s outstretched palms, a circular red ring appeared, seemingly from nowhere.
From within the ring, the silhouette of a curved brown staff began to emerge.
As he slowly parted his hands, the staff fully materialized, as though it had been conjured out of thin air.
Grasping the staff firmly, Baizik closed his eyes.
“Behold, an ignorant foe stands before me, defying my will. Let their misguided courage be struck down here and now. By my will, I cry out to the sanctum of mana—answer my call.”
As the incantation began, a red orb appeared at the head of the staff, growing larger and more intense with each word Baizik spoke.
The glowing orb, now the size of the sun, radiated intense heat, its surface swirling with flames that crackled and flared.
“Ah… the warmth…”
The soldiers nearby, drawn by the heat, began unconsciously gathering around Baizik as the snow melted away from the rock on which he stood.
Finally, Baizik’s voice rang out:
“Here, I bring punishment! Go forth—Prominence!”
The enormous orb of fire, resembling a second sun, ascended into the sky.
The blazing sphere, known as Prominence, soared high into the heavens, as if two suns now hung in the sky. It lingered for a moment before hurtling toward the distant tower with ferocious speed.
BOOM!
But the attack never reached the tower.
Prominence, splitting the sky with its fiery descent, crashed into the ground far from its target, erupting in a devastating explosion.
The resulting shockwave rippled through the air, incinerating nearby trees and leaving a massive crater in its wake—a crater so large that it was visible even from this distance.
“No matter how many times I see it, it’s such a brute-force display of power,” Wolfgang muttered as he watched the aftermath of the explosion.
Turning his gaze to Baizik, he smirked.
Baizik returned the look, a grin spreading across his face.
“Impressive, isn’t it?”
“Sure, the power is undeniable… if only it had hit the target.”
“What was that?”
Just as the two older men began squaring off for yet another round of bickering, Ashray’s panicked voice cut through the tension.
“S-sister! Where are you?! Sister?!”
The spot where Astrid had been standing was now empty.
Only her footprints remained, an isolated trail in the snow, the only sign that she had ever been there.
She was gone.