After Ethan was healed by the elves, he was amazed at how comprehensive their healing magic actually was. While the healer restored his vision and even helped to reduce the strain on his mana channels the healer even regenerated the missing fingers he lost during his aura experiments. With his body now restored to a more favorable condition he thanked the exhausted looking healer who just waved him off with a smile. "No need to thank me, I'm glad I could help." she answered before walking away, swaying a bit from the amount of mana she used.

Ethan looked worried but Lorena pulled him aside to discuss their next steps. It seems taking their time to kill the necromancer was out of the question now, whatever that thing was it needed to be stopped now rather than later. Once they reached the scout party the others were already discussing what to do now.

With the upper half of the necromancer scattered and gone there was no way they could locate each piece and destroy them separately. Freezing or burning entire parts of the jungle sounded even more unreasonable so it boiled down to actually scaling the mountain. Not alone or as a small team but all of the elves that were currently hiding in ambush locations around the mountain.

The decision, which was actually more a forced necessity at this point, was to climb the mountains in small teams to not attract too much attention. The teams on the ground guarding the ones climbing. While Lorena coordinated with the other teams using some magic he couldn't really understand, Ethan walked over to Pale and mounted the large white wolf.

Soon they were off, riding from one team to the next, some of them mounting their wolves while others had their own animal companions or just traveled through the trees instead. Ethan was surprised how quiet it was, the elves and their animals couldn't be heard even during their mad dash through the jungle. In silence they reached the foot of the mountain, a few teams were already there, only coming out of hiding when the others stopped in front of the imposing wall of black rock.

Ethan jumped from pale with the two elves he picked up in the beginning. He had to crane his neck to actually see the top of the mountain. Nora doing the same, with her having the benefit of being a lot more flexible as a snake. She tapped the tip of her tail against his neck.

Can you feel that Ethan? There is strong magic here and I don't think we will have an easy time reaching the top…

He furrowed his brow and slowly nodded. The mountain was basically dead but the further he extended his senses he felt an aura of cold death pressing against his own.

It seems the guardian is stronger than expected, the aura surrounds most of that mountain, the question is how would the necromancer reach the top?

Nora didn't answer, as she didn't know. It seems the closer they got to the end the more uncertain was the entire situation for them. Ethan sighed and looked around him, all those people that would soon see their divine guardian up close, with the hope they won't be killed by it.

While the others were discussing, mostly Lorena and other team leaders, Ethan decided on a more direct approach. The cold aura drew him towards that mountain and so he created a snow cloud and just floated upwards. He noticed how the discussions stopped but he didn't care, he wanted to feel that aura and soon he reached its outskirts, extending his arms he felt the tingling sensation of it. While others might scream in pain from frostbite, to him it was just cold, even that surprised him because usually the cold didn't affect him at all.

Ethan spent another five minutes immersing himself in the aura that surrounded his arm, a serene smile on his face as he slowly pulled away from the guardian. He made his way down to the ground again, that smile still still on his face. The moment his feet touched the ground again he was instantly surrounded by the elves who wanted to know what he did and more precisely why he did it.

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While he could explain it he first had to test a theory, he gestured for Lorena to come closer to him and repeated the same thing, this time with her next to him. Ethan focused on the edge of the aura and said. "I can touch the aura of the guardian, the question is if your people can too. If the guardian truly sees you as allies nothing should happen. Still before we try to go up the mountain we should make sure." he smiled and when they reached the edge of the aura both of them extended their arms, while Ethan felt the same as before Lorena seemed to have a different reaction.

"It's warm and comfortable, like a freshly washed blanket you dried near the oven and crawled under while it was still warm. It's comforting…" she closed her eyes, visibly relaxing from the aura. Before she got too comfortable Ethan floated down again and gave Lorena a moment to come back to her senses. Once it was clear that they could scale the mountain without getting harmed by the aura the preparation finished quickly.

The moment everybody was ready Ethan suggested an alternative way up, at least for the beginning of their journey. He slammed his staff into the ground and erected a massive platform that would fit him, the elves and their animal companions comfortably. Lorena knew what he planned and instructed all of them to walk into the platform in orderly fashion. Ethan waited patiently and once everybody was on he froze their feet, paws, hooves or claws to the ground.

With his staff ready he channeled his magic through it, the gem on top glowing in a brilliant pale blue. Slowly the earth shook and the massive platform started to rise, growing into the sky held by a single sturdy pillar which extended from below. For Ethan it took a lot of concentration to get it right as he had to make the pillar rise at a steady pace so nobody was shook off accidentally.

For a while they moved upwards, sweat dropped from Ethan's forehead as tiny frozen pearls from the strain he put on himself, compared to his usual exploits it was still rather tame. The higher the rose the stronger the aura pushed against him, while the elves felt ecstatic because of it he had to drop down to one knee, the cold started to affect him and his arms and legs began to tremble, his breath coming in puffs of cold air.

When they reached around a third of the mountain's height he had to stop expanding the pillar. His ice won't break but the strong winds made it hard for the elves to keep their balance even with their feet locked in place, instead of going further up Ethan extended the platform until it touched the side of the mountain, he made it wider so everybody could stand more comfortably without being pressed against each other.

"That's it…" he yelled so everybody could hear him over the rushing wind. "...I'm done for now, we have to climb the rest of the mountain without my magic." he took a deep breath and managed to stand back up again after a while, using the staff to stay on his feet. He unfroze the elves and with military precision they started to approach the wall.

Ethan stays back, Lorena coming over and holding his arm while they watch the elves climb the mountain. He was amazed how efficient they worked. The more nimble ones climbed first and looked for suitable paths while the ones after them were stronger and usually mages focused on strengthening their bodies. Connected with a rope were the rest of each time, following the mage that acted as an anchor should one of them fall.

After a while they first scouts vanished into the clouds while the last teams started their climb up the mountain.

Ethan and Lorena, together with their team, approached the wall. The others started to climb and Ethan got handed a rope, he wrapped it around his waist and made sure it was tight, he didn't need help with the knot from one of the team members before he could actually climb the mountain.

The first few meters were child's play but after that he focused on climbing the mountain, blending everything else out. His breathing was quick and heavy, his hands and feet hurt from grabbing the rough rock with his bare hands, even after he applied a thin film of ice on his hands he could still feel the rough texture.

Still, this was the only way to reach the guardian's nest.

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