Crossing the mountains

The next couple of days, Helena works on growing out our horns every time she has replenished enough mana. This usually happens while we are at camp, in either the morning or the evening, and also when Helena is not masturbating. There are only 2 of us that are giving Helena some issues, Kiara and Merlara. In the case of Kiara, it’s because Helena can’t work on Kiara’s horns when Kiara is hiding her face. Either with her hood or with a [Glamor]. She has to show her real face, which activates her anxiety. Fortunately, Helena is aware of Kiara’s condition and so is sympathetic. Also, the months in which Kiara has been intentionally exposing her face to Amelia and myself are bearing fruit. As long as one of us is with her, Kiara has a better grip on her anxiety and can keep it under control. Though it requires some concentration. Merlara is a bit different

Merlara has always worn her helmet in public. Like she is almost afraid of revealing her face. I think I recall Ryul mentioning he thinks Merlara has a nasty scar on her face, or maybe her nose got cut off. Hence the reason why she’s always wearing that helmet.

“Can’t we just tell those demons I lost my horns in combat?” Merlara suggests as a way to excuse herself from having to take her helmet off and letting Helena work on her.

“For demons, horns are like a mark of pride. It distinguishes us from the other races.” Livia explains. “When someone loses their horns, they are considered less demon and more human. When a demon is sold into slavery, their horns are sawed off and if they are lost in battle, it is considered a mark of shame.”

Merlara sighed defeated after that and unwilling to let the demons mock her everywhere she goes, she takes off her helmet to let Helena give her some horns. To my surprise, Merlara has no scars on her face whatsoever. She is in fact quite beautiful. But that just makes me even more confused why she would want to hide her face.

By the time we are at the mountains, each of us have their horns. Due to the lack of mirrors, many of us ask Kiara to [Glamor] herself to look like us so we can see what we look like. The girls tend to see their horns as an accessory and compliment each other on how pretty their horns are. I must say, Helena did a good job on some of them. She very specifically gave Kiara horns that curl first up and then down, follow the curve of her head and allowing to points to stick out at about the same height of her chin. That way, Kiara can easily pull her hood up and hide her face like usual with the horns not getting in the way.

With Helena’s job finished, we suggest it would be best for her to head back. To some human village, and from there back to Riledo.

“Alright. You kids keep safe and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Helena says before she leaves.

“We won’t even be doing things you would do.” Kiara remarks with a smile.

After a good laugh from everyone, Helena spurs her horse and she is off.

Our journey through the mountains is easier than I thought would be. Livia regularly flies up to scout ahead, accompanied by Lilith in her demon-form. When we come to a passage that is hard to cross, Shalia uses her earth magic to reshape the ground into a walkable path and if it would take too much mana for Shalia to do that, Kiara simply uses her [Shadow Manipulation] to join Livia and Lilith in flight and also uses her [Glamor] to give another one of us wings. With 4 of us then being able to fly, we easily carry everyone across.

“Hey Livia.” I ask after we flew over a wide ravine. “Wouldn’t it be faster if we just fly across the mountains in 1 go?”

“Perhaps now it seems like these mountains are safe for flight, but once you reach the peaks you will be hit by powerful winds.” Livia answers. “Not only that, but the winds up there are quite cold as well. I had it easy because I have a skill that won’t make me feel cold, and even I decided to walk amongst those peaks because of how dangerous it was to fly.”

“Right. Good call.” I reply. “I’ve never been this high up in a mountain range, so I wouldn’t know.”

Livia points up to some of the peaks and says, “You see that white stuff up there? That’s snow.”

“Snow?” I ask. “But it’s summer. Why would there be snow in summer.”

“The mountains here are glaciers.” Shalia tells me. “Have you never heard about glaciers?”

“I’ve read about them once.” I tell Shalia. “I found it rather hard to believe back then. But I guess I am going to experience it soon.”

It still takes a another day until we get to the actual peak of the mountain. Like Livia said, the white stuff is indeed snow. Which frankly confounds me even more. The sun is shining bright, it is so hot I have to take off my brigandine, yet despite how warm it is, there is snow.”

“That’s because at night, it is so cold here that the moisture in the air freezes and the snow replenishes.” Livia explains.

“And by day, it melts again, forming small rivers that flow down and are used to irrigate the farmlands of Oidao.” Shalia adds.

“But don’t forget to be careful.” Livia says. “The snow makes these mountains treacherous.”

I raise an eyebrow and ask, “Treacherous how?”

Livia points at a large pile of snow higher up the mountain and asks, “Does that look like a spot large enough for us to make camp?”

“Yeah, I guess.” I answer. “Why?”

Livia spreads her wings and flies up, towards a large pile of snow she just pointed at. On her way up there, I feel a breeze pass by. But when it hits Livia she suddenly took a dive. No wonder she warned us to walk instead of fly. When she gets up on the pile of snow, she lands on it and stomps her feet until eventually the whole pile comes loose and starts falling down. Being a demon with wings, Livia can easily fly up and away, leaving us to watch a huge pile of snow fall down and form a small avalanche.

After returning to us, Livia walks up to me and says, “If we had actually made camp on that pile, most of us would be dead now.”

“Damn.” I reply. “That snow looked pretty solid from where I was looking.”

“Snow is never solid.” Livia answers. “Earth is solid. The snow that is resting on the mountain itself is safe to build a camp on. The snow that rests on other snow is unstable and dangerous.”

“I guess that means it is best for us to find a valley or some other safe spot between the mountains.” Amelia suggests.

“Even in a place like, we still have to be careful.” Livia continues. “Imagine an avalange were to happen in the middle of the night and bury the camp with us in it.”

“Alright, alright.” I say, getting tired of hearing all the ways we can die. “I get it. There is a reason why the demon army won’t ever cross these mountains. Only fools like us apparently.”

Fortunately, we are able to find a part where the mountain goes almost straight down, preventing any snow from sticking to its side. Shalia used some earth magic to dig a hole in the side, big enough for us to set up camp, and just to be safe, she also shaped some rocks to create a roof over us. And I used some ice magic to dig us in and prevent the cold wind from blowing inside. So, we were pretty safe for that night.

The next day, we continue on and after a long day we finally make it past the snow. We are finally in the demon kingdom. We made it. But just because we are past the mountains, doesn’t mean we are safe. According to Livia, the monsters here are more dangerous. We also weren’t able to take any money with us. Whatever gold we took from Count Earl was passed on to Helena and take back home. If we had taken golden coins with the head of queen Zara on it, it would’ve been a dead giveaway that we are foreigners. We are going to have to earn our own money here. Livia’s suggestion is to find some wild animals and kill them for their meat or fur, then sell that.

The monster we find over here just so happens to be a Manticore. A creature with the body of a lion, but also the wings of a bat and the stinger of a scorpion.

It is a difficult battle. The manticore is fast and jumps around a lot, his mobility augmented by his wings. I tried casting a [Water Spear] at him, but he was too fast. It is only after Amelia used [Paralyze] on him that he stood still enough for us to slay him.

With the manticore dead, Livia cut off his tail and started collecting the venom sac from the stinger. Apparently there are demon alchemists that pay good money for it.

Leona and Merlara work at skinning it and getting the fur, while Ari and Lilith start cutting up the meat. Shalia and Ryul decide to go collect some firewood and the rest of us set up the tents.