the forests that blanketed kavad’s lance weren’t quite like what leon was used to. they were narrow, broken, and rocky, though still grew quite thickly. animal and bird calls still filled the air, as did the clicking of giant insects that watched them from the shadows of more thick-canopied trees, but the forest itself was rather narrow, not even a quarter mile wide. this made sense to leon given the geography, but this also meant that this far down the lance, grandin’s path was one fairly well-trodden, almost carving a path right down the middle of the forest.

    leon’s practiced eye picked out numerous tracks as they moved through the forest, noting some fairly familiar and mundane tracks to some that were quite alien. he was also rather amused to see hidden snares and traps just off the path, though none had been sprung. he wondered how many he missed given the general rustiness of his ranging skills.

    the party moved in relative silence, falling into much the same routine as they had when davin had taken them through the redspark forest. grandin, however, set a much faster pace, and he didn’t bother to explain much as they moved through the forest.

    it wasn’t until they reached the end of the short forest that he spoke again.

    “we’re going to start climbing again,” he said as the trees seemed to just end at a jagged incline, though many ferns and flowers continued growing in the incline’s stone cracks. “before we reach the top, we’re going to start feeling the wind. stay steady, don’t rush.”

    with that, he scrambled up a boulder so fast that it seemed the easiest thing in the world.

    “not a patient guide, is he?” valeria groused.

    “patience is for those who have time, my lady!” he called back down. “i’ve been led to believe that you don’t have much, do you?! or are you here as a tourist?”

    valeria rolled her eyes.

    leon brushed his fingers against hers and gave her a consoling look.

    [this isn’t too strenuous, so let’s deal with it for now. keep an eye on him, though.]

    his silver-haired wife nodded, sending a narrow glare back up the incline.

    with that, leon’s party spread out across the incline, though it was narrower than the cliff they’d previously ascended. leon was sure-footed and scaled the incline with ease, though some of his other followers had a bit more trouble. in all, it took about half an hour for everyone to get up the three-hundred-foot or so incline.

    once at the top, they found themselves at the foot of a smooth, unclimbable cliff. a narrow ledge led around the mountain on one side, but an equally narrow cave was open right in front of them, from which leon could sense some rather malevolent magic.

    “and here we have our first pathing decision,” grandin said once they were all up the incline. “this first step of the mountain is fairly easy—the beasts closer to the foot have learned to fear the approach of man, not to mention some of the more dangerous creatures have been hunted to extinction. we’re getting to the parts of the mountain where the denizens are more powerful and less fearful. which leads us to our choice.”

    grandin indicated the narrow ledge leading around the mountain.

    “this is the ‘safer’ route, for lack of a better term. this ledge gets so narrow in places that we have to sidle across, our backs pressed against the cliff. we’ll have to pass through several rocky passes between some of the mountain’s rocky pillars, and the wind rushing through them is brutal enough to rip you right off the ledge if you’re not careful. that’s our first option.”

    grandin then turned his attention to the cave.

    “here, we find our second option. this cave is the faster route, and we wouldn’t have to deal with the wind, but it''s infested by bent-mind spiders. their queen is as strong as a tenth-tier mage and as large as a wyvern, but the spiders themselves are generally small and weak. physically weak, at least—they are strong with darkness magic, and are more than capable of working together to break the minds of lesser men.”

    maia scoffed. [more darkness magic. we are used to such dangers.]

    “that’s good to hear, i suppose,” grandin responded, not sounding at all impressed. “my recommendation is the cave. it’s faster.”

    “is that the only reason you’re recommending it?” leon asked.

    “need there be more?” grandin responded, some emotion leon couldn’t identify crossing his face. “i just want to get to the subject of this hunt. that’s all.”

    “so you lead us into danger just to save some time?” valeria pressed, her eyes narrowing again in suspicion.

    grandin glared right back at her. “i want that thing dead, got it? i want it dead now. yesterday. a thousand fucking years ago. i want that thing fucking dead. look no further than that, you won’t find anything.”

    angrily, he turned back to leon and waited for his decision.

    leon frowned slightly, then glanced up the cliff. the rock face was smooth, and if grandin could be believed, resistant enough to earth magic that he wouldn’t be able to make handholds.

    “jumping up is out of the question?” he asked.

    grandin’s cooling anger was immediately replaced with a look of abject horror. “don’t even try, don’t even think of trying,” he implored leon.no?v(el)b\\jnn

    with a sigh, leon nodded. “fine. then i’ll agree with you: the faster route is better.” he cast his gaze over to anna. “what do you have that might work against spiders?”

    “i’ve never heard of ‘bent-mind’ spiders before, but i have some aromas that might work... maybe a powder or two...”

    the wind hit them harder than the surprise at being in the middle of a cloud did, though, as it whipped violently around the platform, threatening to pick them up and carry them away.

    grandin seemed unfazed, however, and he ran to the lip of the ledge before halting and throwing a small glass orb filled with red gas into the cloud. a moment later, there was a flash, and a tunnel through the cloud was formed, leading up and into a section of clear air between cloud layers.

    as the shaking behind them continued growing more violent and leon could sense assaults beginning on his mental defenses, weak though they were, he asked grandin, “where to now?!” there were no other ways off the platform other than back the way they’d come, or taking the express route back down.

    “a current will pick up here soon!” grandin responded. “another floating mountain will pass by here every ten or fifteen minutes, and we can jump over to it, carried by that current!”

    “so we have to wait until that island passes by?” leon confirmed, his tone low and colored by annoyance.

    “yes,” grandin responded without turning.

    silent expletives filled leon’s mind as he turned around and pushed his way past his followers until he was standing in front of their formation, between them and the cave. it was still shaking, large amounts of dust now falling from the ceiling and blanketing the ground. anna, after a moment’s thought, took the stick of red incense out of her burner and threw it back into the cave. despite about a third of the stick remaining by this point, it was quickly subsumed by a wall of advancing darkness, halting it for only a moment as leon heard more squeals from behind it.

    this wall of darkness filled the passageway, blocking off any potential ways through it. it radiated hate and malice, and leon’s magic senses bounced right off of it when he tried to see what was behind it. it surged through the passage, and he almost thought it was going to spill out onto the platform, but it halted at the edge of the cave.

    for a moment, the cave went still, and leon thought that might just be the end of it.

    and then a chitinous leg passed through the shiny black wall, as long as leon was tall and darker even than the wall. light seemed to bend around and be devoured by it, and after a moment, it was joined by another ten feet away. the legs tensed, pulling the rest of the enormous body through the black wall, revealing a spider’s head covered in glowing red eyes, a bulbous body, and three more pairs of legs. dozens more spiders came through beneath this giant, each one similar in appearance but much smaller and weaker than the vicious-looking tenth-tier monster now glaring balefully at leon, its body covered in chitinous armor that devoured all light around it.

    as soon as it made eye contact with leon, the tenth-tier spider shrieked, and leon felt an enormous weight fall upon his mental defenses. he shouted in surprise as his defenses almost collapsed, and for a moment, he stood in a great black void, nothing around him save for the judgmental eyes of artorias, trajan, the thunderbird, and so many others. then he called upon the thunderbird’s power, and with a surge of silver-blue lightning, this briefest of visions was torn asunder, leaving him sparking with power before his party.

    those behind him, however, had a harder time dealing with this mental assault, with several tempest knights already unconscious, one screaming like he’s been set on fire, and another screaming as she frantically brushed her body as if hundreds of spiders were crawling all over her.

    leon’s friends and family, strong as they were, were largely unaffected, though it took a couple seconds more for them to right themselves. with a gentle, though wide-reaching, blast of silver-blue lightning, leon freed the rest of his affected party, too.

    “on your feet!” anzu shouted as the affected tempest knights ceased writhing. he even picked one up off the ground who’d fallen next to him. “get ready for a fight!”

    the spiders had halted when leon freed himself from their mental attack, though now they surged again, spilling out from beneath their matriarch even as leon called upon his power again and let loose.

    hundreds of spiders were cooked immediately, and hundreds more as the rest of his party opened up with their power. their magic hammered the side of the mountain with tremendous power, shaking the area worse than the spiders’ advance had.

    it was all over in less than ten brutal seconds. with leon’s magic and their own mental fortifications, the spiders’ main method of attack—darkness magic—was rendered almost ineffective. his party’s attacks in turn left only the matriarch and several larger spiders standing at the cave mouth, bloodied and with great rents torn into their chitin.

    the matriarch shrieked again, glaring hatefully at leon, before retreating behind the black wall, along with the rest of the remaining spiders. the black wall then began to fall back down the passage.

    anzu smirked and stalked forward, apparently intending to pursue the spiders, but leon held up a hand and caught the griffin-in-human-form.

    “no,” he said.

    anzu only sighed, but otherwise acknowledged leon’s order.

    “what timing this is!” grandin shouted from the ledge. “the current is picking up! we’ll be able to jump to the next mountain in a few seconds! we’ll have to hurry before it drifts out of range and the current dies down again!”

    leon nodded and ordered his followers into two files. he’d be the last to leave the platform, just in case. it had been utterly blackened by the force of power from his party, but not a single crack could be seen in the rock face, to his surprise.

    ‘seems this mountain’s as tough as advertised,’ he thought.

    with his magic senses fixed on the passages behind them in case the spiders tried to hit them in the back, he watched as grandin led his party in jumping off the ledge. instead of falling, however, he was borne aloft by a strong current of wind, and taken through the tunnel he’d bored through the cloud all around them. the powerful wind that whipped around the ledge had no effect on him once he entered the current, speeding him away from the ledge.

    two by two, leon’s party followed their guide, little hesitation to be seen in any of them. they were all used to flight, so even jumping off this ledge didn’t seem to faze anyone.

    it wasn’t long before only leon and anzu remained on the ledge.

    “race you there!” anzu shouted as he gleefully leaped into the current, and leon only shook his head before jumping after him. the wind caught him, lifting him away from the ledge.

    after a moment, however, leon shook a little as the wind whipping around the current brushed against his hair. he noticed that the current was carrying him slower than it carried anzu, and his feet began to brush against the cloud around him.

    he silently cursed, realizing that he was at the tail end of the current, and he was already slowing down. if he didn’t do something, the current would die, and he wouldn’t reach the next mountain with the rest of his party...