On the other side of the city, far away from Avarice, the man Kino feared was riding atop a giant wolf. It was the mount that Joe had, and since Arthur couldn’t teleport near a fissure, the two had to ride it and go to Mountain Range Rovero.
“I missed this feeling,” said Arthur to the bartender, who laughed and asked his mount to go faster. “So, you say you could hear Kira’s howls?”
“Every night of the full moon,” said Joe. “I would visit the forest every two weeks to find him, but there is usually nothing there. Then, I found a fissure there the night before Avarice was broken through.”
“What about the other person you mentioned, Alexie,” said Arthur, feigning ignorance. “You said there was an incident with Kira.”
“Kira lived in the mountain range for the most part, and it played with Molly occasionally, so I knew it was fine. Then, after a while, I saw it with the Explorer, Alexie, who came to visit it every month. Then, I no longer saw the wolf after a while, so I asked him about it.”
p-a- n-d-a-n-0-v-e-l、(c)om “And what did he tell you?” asked Arthur with intrigue. This must be the previous Arthur, disguised as Alexie while studying in Jerano.
“Alexie Linan said that he sent Kira on a mission somewhere and that it would be back one day to this mountain range. Then, he offered to give me money to report on the situation. If he didn’t, I would have assumed he kidnapped Kira.”
“No, don’t worry,” assured Arthur as he brooded over it. “Alexie was a friend of mine, and we agreed on what to do about Kira. I’ll pay what he owes you for the past few months.”
“Don’t do that, Mr. Silvera,” said Joe with a shake of his hand. “I never did it for the money. Lord Linan kept sending the money even after I asked him to stop. I refurbished the building with it, making it as big as a three stars hotel, and installed a protection array against monsters.”
“You did well for yourself,” said Arthur with a smile as the wolf leaped over the river. “Loyalty and discretion shouldn’t go unrewarded. Ascent will reward you if you send those reports to me.”
“…let me do it for free, sir.”
“Drop the formalities, Joe. You didn’t ask for money the first time you helped me in this mountain range. I never forget a debt. Live comfortably and build stronger arrays to protect yourself.”
After hearing his words, Joe nodded without saying anything more. The two men reached the pub, where Joe kept Molly on a leash and switched to traveling on foot. Arthur understood what the bartender meant as they traveled deeper into the mountain range.
Space started twisting around certain areas, and giant cracks spread along the space-time fabric. The phenomenon was unlike anything Arthur had seen before, even when he saw the two timelines merge.
“These are new, Arthur,” said Joe, growing more casual after Arthur reassured him that nothing had changed between them. “The last time I’ve been here was when I discovered the fissure. Unfortunately, however, it seems to have grown bigger.”
“Fissures don’t grow bigger unless they turn into a dungeon,” said Arthur as he stared at the space-time fabric. “This is something else. It might be safer if you leave this mountain range, Joe.”
“This is my home ever since my wife died,” said Joe with a sigh. “I would rather defend it than run away when it grows unstable. This mountain range has never been kind, and no one reached the other end.”
“There is nothing but the Lesser Blood Ocean, no matter how poetic you make it sound,” said Arthur as he reached out toward a spatial crack, touching it with his fingers. His fingers passed through it, and Arthur’s skin was scorched for the briefest second.
Thermal energy is already passing through these spatial cracks, so it means something is on the other side. The flames were hot enough to scorch Arthur, making him grow apprehensive.
“Be careful, Joe. These cracks can rip a normal man apart.”
“Ah, I’m as normal as the word goes,” said Joe while shrinking behind Arthur. “We are not far from the fissure. You can see it from here as soon as light reaches the mountain range.”
Arthur stared at the sky, which was starting to peel off into a shade of orange. The first days of light made their way into the mountain range as the two men explored its rich forests. When they reached a clearing at the foot of a mountain, Arthur had a sense of déjà vu.
“This is the place I killed a monster for the first time,” said Arthur with amazement, staring at the mountain. “That cave is where I met Kira, wounded and pained.”
“It has been almost two years now, right?” asked Joe as he stopped to admire the scene. “Time is a frightening thing. Whether you are happy or sad, it doesn’t care. It marches on.”
“Therefore, we treasure our happy moments because we know they will vanish, and endure our sadness because it will end. That must be….”
Arthur stared at the summit of the mountain, where the light couldn’t reach. It was a dark crack in space shaped like an irregular piece of glass, as if a kid broke it, but the rest had yet to collapse.
“That’s the fissure from which I heard the howls. It might be too dangerous to get close, Arthur. Space is unstable as it is.”
“Indeed,” Arthur said before turning around and patting the man. “Go back to your pub, and start ordering food for this place. If you wish to stay here, it might be best to treat it as a shelter. I will investigate further.”
Joe seemed hesitant about leaving him but nodded in the end and left. Arthur turned around and started climbing the mountain, where the unusual energy was strongest. This place brought terrible memories to Arthur since he fought the hybrid here.
As he climbed further, the scenery began to distort, as if someone was pulling at its seams to tear it apart. The road behind him twirled into a pool of eerie colors while the road ahead elongated beyond the horizon.
Arthur climbed forward, uncaring about these sightings. He knew that such visual disturbances happened because light became twisted in these parts, and its reflection teleported from one place to the other.
After he climbed for another thirty minutes, Arthur found himself in complete darkness. The fissure has reached this place, and Arthur walked into it without his knowledge. It allowed no light inside, so when Arthur caught a sheen in the distance, he knew it didn’t belong to this world.
“These are Chains of Order,” muttered Arthur with confusion as he caught sight of the chains in the distance. “Is there something happening here that goes against the natural order of this world?”
Arthur figured out what it was soon enough. The Chains of Order were fighting a new world being built, slowly crawling from within the fissure toward Mountain Range Rovero.
“Is this an ancient city?” Arthur asked as he stared at the buildings being formed. The road was being built slowly, but after a few seconds, he realized a few irregularities.
Some of the roads had trees, while others had potholes. Arthur stood at the end of his street and the beginning of this city and watched as it crawled toward him. It was being teleported here.
“…I get it now,” said Arthur after a few minutes of being dazed. “This is not a fissure… this is the same phenomenon happening again, but this time it is connecting to our world.”
Second Holy Crown Trial.
It was the beginning, and Arthur was one of the first to know about this. However, as the fissure grows, more mercenaries are bound to discover this.
Arthur knew the man behind it as soon as he realized what it was. Seref Silvera, the Vessel of the Scholar Guardian, and his father. This was his new plan after his failure with Amelio, and it might be a method to restore the original timeline.
“What is your new goal, Seref?” asked Arthur with both helplessness and wrath. His teeth gnashed against each other as the black lightning started crawling over his skin. “No, he is not here.”
Arthur tried to calm down instead of losing control of this place. Even though he sealed Eragon within him, he couldn’t prevent some of his emotions from seeping out. But, in the end, he managed to calm down and reason.
Even if Seref was behind this, the Second Holy Crown Trial was bound to happen. This was one of the strongest artifacts, and whoever obtained it would wield a strength that might rival the powers of creation.
A legacy, an Isotox, and a crown are the three that Jizo created before the Battle of Gods. If Seref wanted to balance their odds, he would go after the crown. However, the question was how.
