Beatitudes

Episode 72.

Isaac looked on blankly at Adam as his mind was turned upside down by the boatload of information that had been quickly and forcefully dumped into it.

It took a little while for the raging tempest in his mind to forcefully settle down as he digested the information,

Basically from what Adam had said, the beasts dwelling within these mountains could grow stronger constantly within the mountain and hence needed fighters of sufficient strength and tier to handle each mountain. But that wasn’t enough as it would always keep on respawning monsters in a way as it pulled them into the itself. The only two ways to end such a tedious cycle of constant clearing was either by thoroughly destroying the core of the mountain within, using massive strength usually beyond one’s limits to utterly crush the interior or by destroying the mountain from the outside with overwhelming strength while also pulverizing all other of such mountains in a certain radius distance to prevent it from healing and defending itself from the attack.

But none of these ways were exploitable as it was clear for all to know that it was monumental task of a large proportion and movements, which would need a major powerhouse figure to step out and do the deed from outside or an overwhelming monster to crash the mountain from the inside.

Very soon amidst a slightly awkward silence, the group had finally reached the base of the mountain they had been staring at for a while, they stared up as they realized the distance to it’s peak was actually pretty reachable with their current strength, not that they had climbed mountains before but just that a single look was now kind of enough for them to discern some things instinctually.

Adam stared at the mountain as an odd light flashed through his eyes, a few more seconds were passed in silence before he spoke up, his words directed at the other three.

“Are you ready?”

None answered immediately but their postures had already shown their readiness.

Isaac turned his head to look at Adam as he said,

“You can’t come in right? what are you going to do then…”

Adam smiled faintly as an odd light flashed in his eyes,

Like he had said earlier, the mountain would bar any fighter with a strength of three tiers above the level of the mountain itself, and any of them, even if they were blind, knew without being told that Adam was definitely above the criteria for entering this particular mountain

“There’s nothing else I can do since I can’t go in with you. I’ll be waiting right here till you come out, just make sure you don’t take too long.”

Isaac nodded slightly before turning to look at the mountain, looking from down to up then back down again, he looked all around the relatively large mountain but eventually stopped what he was doing as he turned to Adam, his lips parted slightly as he was about to ask a question. But Adam having already noticed his actions spoke before he could,

“The entrance to the mountain is right in front of you”

Isaac paused a bit when he realized his thoughts had been cleanly read, before he scrunched his brows slightly in confusion,

“Right in front?”

He turned his head to look straight ahead at the towering mountain right in front of them, to be honest, it was actually more of a hill than a mountain, what set it apart from the usual was the fact that it was significantly bigger than it should be, just not enough to reach the true height and imposingness of a mountain.

Harry and Hiya also turned to look straight at the mountain as they checked looked on with a careful gaze, but they couldn’t see anything that seemed like an opening… perhaps the this was the back of the mountain and they had to walk around it to see the entrance?

Adam who had undoubtedly become their exclusive guide could only choose to speak up again to explain, most of the times he felt too lazy to even open his mouth to speak whenever he was around others, but it was a different thing when it came to these few people, admittedly it was due to Isaac’s presence that he said more than he usually did, they’d spent a lifetime together and it wasn’t a casual bond that he treated as trivial. Since the charismatic and valiant leader that his good brother had once been had yet to resurface, he would have to be the guide to draw it back out.

Adam who had undoubtedly become their exclusive guide could only choose to speak up again to explain, most of the times he felt too lazy to even open his mouth to speak whenever he was around others, but it was a different thing when it came to these few people, admittedly it was due to Isaac’s presence that he said more than he usually did, they’d spent a lifetime together and it wasn’t a casual bond that he treated as trivial. Since the charismatic and valiant leader that his good brother had once been had yet to resurface, he would have to be the guide to draw it back out.

“You already have the intent to enter, you just need to get closer to it and walk right in, it doesn’t have a particular entrance…”

Following what he said, they moved closer to the mountain, Isaac being the one at the front stretched his hand slowly towards the surface of the mountain. When his hand came into contact with the mountain surface, an odd sound could be heard as Isaac witnessed a bewildering scene, when he laid his hand on the mountain, it actually didn’t feel like a solid surface, instead it was wholly unstable as his hand passed right through like he had dipped it into water instead.

He froze in his place as his hand on the mountain similarly paused, now it looked like his right hand had been mysteriously sliced off as the surface of the mountain rippled slightly to indicate the odd situation of the mountain.

Although he had been expecting something to happen since Adam had said to do so, he still couldn’t help but feel slightly out of sorts, he hurriedly pulled his arm back and sighed in relief as nothing seemed to be missing.

Those watching, other than Harry who also been surprised, rolled their eyes as they watched Isaac put his arm through what seemed to be a portal of sorts.

After a few more tests with other parts of his body, the trio were finally ready to go in as they walked in one at a time, the ripples spreading on the mountain surface akin to a vacuum like maw easily devouring the three.

Adam watched on till the last had gone through fully before lightly shrugging his shoulders and leaping through the air to land on the mountain. This time around, nothing of what had just been witnessed happened as he laid back on the hard surface, like nothing more than an ordinary mountain.

He would wait here with nothing else to do while they had a thrilling experience in their first mountain trial.