"Wake who? There is no one els-"

"Shhh!"

Ma Jiang lunged forward, placing her hands over Hao Xuan's mouth to stop him from talking.

"-Mmhmmmhm."

He did not have another opportunity to finish the question before it got answered.

Ma Jiang closed her eyes and listened. Hao Xuan stopped trying to talk and followed her lead. He thought she still wasn't in the right state of mind but her actions proved otherwise.

She slowly removed her hands from Hao Xuan's mouth and placed them both on the stone platform, palms facing down. Neither of them made any moves or sounds for the next few seconds. When she was sure nothing was going to happen, she gestured for Hao Xuan to stand up.

He stayed silent and went along. Looking around he could see 8 more giant ridges coming down from 8 identical tunnels to the one he came from. They were all located along the same height, placed neatly in a circle.

Each of the icy ridges were identical too. Each incline and decline was evenly spaced. And it was also then that Hao Xuan realized why they looked so odd.

They were all coming down from the sides and stopping just before reaching the stone platform in the center. As if anchoring the platform to the mountain itself. But the stone platform did not look like it belonged here. At least he didn't have anything that looked like this in his mind palace.

He looked down towards Ma Jiang who was still in the same position, kneeling over the platform with her palms placed within the odd notches on its surface.

He lowered his a little and whispered, "Come on, let's get out of here."

But she shook her head resolutely, "No, I can't go. I used up too much mana. If I leave he will notice," she replied in the same hushed tone of voice.

Hao Xuan looked around but couldn't see anything nor could he feel anything out of place. Even the stupendous amount of spiritual sense that was trying to bore a hole into his skull was now gone so naturally, he thought she was still a bit delusional.

"Yes, you can. Come on get up, we are leaving together."

"No, I can't g- What are you doing?!"

Too tired to argue, Hao Xuan simply bent down and picked her up effortlessly.

"Let me go, you don't know what you're doing!!" she punched and kicked, flailing about in a futile attempt to break free from his grasp.

"Look around, nothing happened."

Hao Xuan gently spun about on the spot to show her that nothing had changed. Ma Jiang ceased her pointless struggle and relaxed, allowing him to do what he wanted.

Hao Xuan let out a breath of relief seeing her becoming placid so quickly. He turned to the ridge he came down from and started moving towards it.

Ma Jiang's fists were gripping Hao Xuan's shirt tightly. Her eyes were closed as she continuously mumbled what sounded like a prayer.

Hao Xuan paid no mind to her actions and increased his pace. He reached the end of the stone platform before pausing momentarily. Upon once again giving the surroundings another once-over and not finding anything out of place he continued forward and stepped onto the ridge.

Ma Jiang didn't even breathe while nuzzling her head deeper into Hao Xuan's embrace.

Hao Xuan was also more than a little nervous stepping onto the ridge but when there were no changes even after leaving the platform he relaxed considerably.

With a hollow chuckle, he nudged Ma Jiang who looked like a scared chick trying to bury its head in the ground.

"See? I told you there was nothing-"

*CRAAAAAAACK*

But his comment was cut short when a booming thunderclap emanated from the ground below, interrupting him.

The ridge shook and suddenly jerked forward. Hao Xuan almost fell off but managed to stay upright by some miracle. Ma Jiang quickly looked up and shouted, "BACK! GO BACK!"

All nine ridges moved again and the ground splintered into numerous tiny fragments. Hao Xuan pushed against the shaking ridge and managed to leap backwards, barely making it to the stone platform.

But even that place wasn't safe from the tremors. It felt like the entire world was turning upside down as the vibrations got stronger and stronger until no ice remained.

The ground opened up and swallowed chunks of frozen ground. Even the ridges continuously moved forward and slid into the openings. Suddenly, a wave of extreme heat burst forth from the ground, melting what little bit of frost that was still left hanging. Rays of bright yellow and red light followed right after, coming from somewhere below the platform.

Ma Jiang pushed the flabbergasted Hao Xuan away and sat cross-legged in the middle of the platform. She slit parts of her wrists with her sharpened nails and allowed the blood to fill all the various nooks and crannies etched within the platform's surface, creating a complex design.

She started shouting as loudly as she possibly could while running her fingers through the blood.

"O Spirits of the earth and the sky, lend me your power!"

*BOOOM*

A deafening boom sounded from somewhere below that shook the stone platform like a snowglobe. Hao Xuan fell to his knees while Ma Jiang continued chanting behind him.

Hao Xuan slowly crawled to the edge of the platform and peered into the depths below, at the source of all this chaos.

It was bright. Blindingly brilliant crimson and amber light filled his vision at first. Hao Xuan covered his eyes with his hands and peeked through a small opening to see what was causing it.

He noticed the ice ridges that were going straight down into the depths. As the ice melted their true appearance came into view, which was of thick metal chains. Only they were incredibly large.

Each link was at least 20-30 meters in width, created from a black metal. And there were nine such chains in total. They were all coming down from the side of the mountain and going down into a lake of lava.

At first that was all he could see, fire and lava crashing against the sides of the mountains that was much bigger than he thought.

"Lend me your authority, O great spirits of old! Allow me to be the vessel for your auspicious strength, so I can once again seal that which should not see the light of day!"

Ma Jiang slammed her palms in the central pools of blood, allowing it to cover her entirely.

And then, just as her chants echoed in Hao Xuan's ears, tongues of flames mixed and warped with one another for just an instant trying to break free from the lake, the surface of which was covered in the black chains.

The flames superimposed upon one another and took physical shape for a split second, allowing Hao Xuan to see a horned face staring up at him. Its eyes were closed making it appear asleep, but the sense of looming dread that it instilled within his heart was second to none.

***

Authors Notes:

All images are posted in the Official Discord.

Link: https://discord.gg/AHdSBFQ

___

Reference Image Link: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b8/ac/4e/b8ac4e216f72268a91f1ac4d1afc0ede.jpg

Shortened Image Link (case sensitive) : https://urlzs.com/FQi9K

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