Chapter 19

They wanted to taunt Caleb? Fine. Let them laugh while they could. They wouldn’t find it quite so funny when he brought their mountain down on top of their heads.

It was time to end this. The coming fight would be his hardest yet; there was no doubt about that. But he didn’t have a choice. With the remainder of the monsters either dead or holed up inside the red mountain, there wouldn’t be anything left for him to train against. And unless he wanted to sit and meditate for hours, if not days or weeks, on end, this was the strongest he would be getting. Best to meet the challenge head-on.

Unfortunately, a surprise attack wasn’t even likely to be an option. His enemies knew exactly where he was. For all he knew, they were watching him right now at this moment, a husk spying from atop a distant peak, spiral eyes reporting back his every move.

It was all or nothing. He was either going to ascend to the challenge and come out stronger on the other end… or he’d fall, and that would be the end of it.

Just like always. Sometimes you have to leap into the air and trust that your hand will find something to catch.

***

As Caleb made his way toward Thrymm’s mountain, his thoughts drifted to Chloe and Tyler. Hopefully, they were all right. For a moment, he considered turning back to check on them – but what good would that do? Heading their way again would only risk drawing a husk to their hiding spot. No, it was better this way. As long as he kept the creatures focused on him, they’d stay safe.

Once this was over, once they escaped the Dungeon, they could rest. They could all be safe.

Until then, all he could do was trust that they were holding on. Without the gemstones, there was no way for them to reach him anymore. The line between them had been severed.

They were on their own now.

His thoughts also wandered to Lucas. When – not if, he reminded himself; think positive – he finally cleared the Dungeon, would they all be teleported out together? Same time, same place? That would make for one hell of an awkward reunion.

Of course, that was assuming Lucas was still alive.

That asshole. Caleb smirked. I almost hope he is just so I can see Chloe punch him in the face. Or better yet, Tyler.

The image made him chuckle under his breath. Then he shook his head, the faint smile fading as he pushed onward up the frozen path.

By the time Caleb neared the red mountain, the sun had already vanished beyond the horizon. The world had turned cold and colorless. Stone and ice painted in shades of silver beneath the faint starlight. The mountain loomed ahead, a jagged spire of frostbitten rock that glittered like broken glass. Its slopes were barren and lifeless, no trees or brush to soften the edges, just sheer cliffs and knife-like ridges.

Yeah, Caleb thought, this definitely screams ‘boss’s lair.’

Maybe it was just his imagination, but even the wind felt sharper here. The shadows pooled deeper between the rocks, stretching like something was watching him from within them. As he climbed higher, every gust, every crunch of snow underfoot made him half expect something to lunge out of the darkness.

Every couple of minutes, his suspicions were partially confirmed. Not from within the shadows, but from up above. He’d spy a glimpse of cerulean blue, watching him from above, waiting for him to finally arrive.

He picked up his pace. Both because he was starting to get that itch again – the one telling him he wanted to fight, and also because this place gave him the heebie-jeebies.

The rest of his climb was silent and uneventful. He rose higher and higher into the sky, the world dropping away beneath him with every step, every handhold.

But then, the clouds started to thicken, wind picking up as they rolled in, dark and angry. The top of the mountain became obscured behind a shroudy veil. Crackles of light burst within the roiling clouds, thunderclaps echoing down across the rock.

His hair whipped at his face, fingers digging furrows into the side of the mountain as he climbed. He tried to avoid using any unnecessary aether on his climb – he would need every bit for the coming fight.

A searing bolt of lightning struck down from the sky, impacting less than a hundred feet to Caleb’s right, shattering stone and sending chips flying away. He hunkered down, bracing for another to come and smite him, the smell of electricity singing the air.

He glared up into the storm that surrounded the mountain’s tip. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Thrymm was the storm titan, afterall.

He was approaching the peak, the upper edges scraping through the underside of the clouds. Caleb warily climbed his way there, still expecting an errant bolt to strike him in the back.

His hand found purchase on an outcropping and Caleb hefted himself up, taking a second to breath.

The summit of the red mountain was unlike any of the others. It wasn’t a peak at all. It was a crater. Steep walls of jagged rock rose on three sides like a crown of spiked stone, casting long shadows over the hollow basin below whenever lightning illuminated the clouds above. It looked as though some divine fist had slammed down from the heavens, crushing the mountaintop flat and leaving behind a perfect, waiting battlefield.

Caleb noticed with frustration that there was no roof above them. Nothing for him to send crashing down on his enemies.

The air hummed with Aether. Caleb could feel it thrumming against his skin, prickling along his forearms and raising the tiny hairs like static. Were this not the lair of the Dungeon’s final boss, it would have been the perfect place to sit, breathe, and let the energy wash through him.

But this was the boss’s lair.

The gathering storm above, the knife-edged rocks, the shrieking wind, the flashes of lightning – they all made that abundantly clear. And if that hadn’t been enough of a clue, the horde of enemies assembled on the opposite end of the crater certainly sealed it. It was too late to have second thoughts. Far too late.

Several hundred feet ahead, the welcoming party waited. Caleb counted tens of boggarts and wolves each, along with a handful of ice trolls scattered among them. Though, none of those concerned him. Not even the dozens of blinking cerulean eyes perched along the crater walls like mountain goats, silent and watching.

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What did concern him was Thrymm.

The giant stood at the center of the horde, a towering figure nearly twenty feet tall, skin the color of dried blood and clay. He looked almost human. Almost. His left arm was wrapped in crude armor, bands of leather stretched over fur that barely hid the thick cords of muscle beneath. His right arm, though, was something else entirely. It was longer, heavier, and carved from the same petrified material as the luminary husks, faint rings of light pulsing beneath its surface.