Chapter 104- The Frozen Plains (Part 1)
The duo's journey continued smoothly. The wind returned to the sea and the temperature also went down drastically in a short period of time.
However, Kai and Eva didn't mind that coldness as they were wearing heavy clothes and using their powers to keep their bodies well-protected and warm in this snowy realm.
After a few hours of pure silence, they finally were able to see something on the horizon that wasn't an expanse of the blue sea. The two looked at it with apprehensive expressions on their faces.
'The frozen plains… I never had the opportunity to visit it myself but I did hear it was a place of mystery.' Eva thought as she remembered the rumors she heard about the area.
It was certainly one of the more bizarre places in the world that people didn't quite understand. Rumors about it being a place where extraterrestrial beings live or rumors that it had a gate that led to another world. They were certainly silly at first look but the truth was still unknown itself.
Now that Eva saw with her own eyes what was lurking in the sea near this place, she had completely disregarded her previous assumptions about the frozen plains.
As for Kai, he simply was focusing on another detail he noticed the moment he saw the frozen plains. 'It's colder than I remember.' He thought.
A few years back, he did go on a mission to the frozen plains and he could clearly remember that it was rather warmer than now although still extremely cold compared to other regions of the world.
This change might seem insignificant but considering how bizarre this place was, Kai could only get even more alerted. He will have to keep an eye on everything around him from the very moment they step into that place.
As the two were having such thoughts, the boat eventually reached the frozen plains. Since the place was basically a huge piece of ice floating in the sea, the edges of it were uneven and even sharp in some areas.
So, Kai docked the ship near one of the more even areas before the two jumped on the place.
"It's really cold, huh? Even my powers aren't completely nullifying the weather." Eva said as she covered her head with her thick coat.
"Don't put your guard down. We aren't in a safe place." Kai said as he adjusted his hair. Finally, for the first time, his rather long hair came in handy to keep his eyes covered from the snow that was falling on them. It was a good protection barrier.
"How are we going to find Kaya?" Eva asked as the two started walking into the endless icy wasteland.
"We will head to the last location we know of her phone. If she isn't there. We will try to sense her presence around the area."
"I see… Well, I still can't wrap my head around the reason why she went to such a place. What's there to find in this place? It's just an expanse of ice and horrible weather. Unless…" Eva knew that Kaya wasn't dumb enough to go to such a place for no reason. There must've been a goal in mind.
"Hmm, can you feel it?"
"Feel what?"
"The Origin in the Air. It's extremely dense and pure. Way above the normal levels." Kai explained as he closed his eyes for a second, feeling the sheer amount of natural Origin powers covering every inch of this place.
Since Origin is a natural energy created by the world itself, its existence relied on the nature of the area it was in. For example, in a giant metropolitan city, the level of Origin in the air is usually very low and the reason for that is the impure nature of the atmosphere there.
However, in a place as desolate and as untouched as the frozen plains, the atmosphere was extremely pure and natural so Origin finds a place to thrive and increase in density and purity through a process that takes hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. Other places where Origin could thrive are the deepest parts of the sea, the highest peaks in the world, and also extremely thick jungles and forests.
"I can feel it. This is quite unusual. Even in Origin rooms back in my house, it never reaches such a density."
Since Origin users can't simply go to such extreme places just to find pure Origin for their training, they had to find a way of making that pure Origin come to them and that's how 'Origin Rooms' were created. They simply were places specifically made to allow for Origin to remain pure and dense when imported there.
However, such places were extremely expensive to build so only the richest of rich people could afford that luxury. Others could only do with the little Origin in the world around them.
"The more we walk deeper into the frozen plains, the colder it gets and the more pure the Origin becomes. My bet is that whatever Kaya's reason was to come here, it has to do with this."
'It's already different from years ago…. But, what could she do here?'
As the two continued walking, the wind grew stronger and the snowfall became even heavier. Their visions of the path ahead became blurry because of the storm. But, the two didn't care as they continued to walk.
If it was a normal human, they would've died by now.
"Hmm?" Taking a step forward, Eva suddenly stumbled upon something. Her eyes went down and she noticed a weird bulge in the snow that didn't look normal at all.
"Kai, come take a look at this." She said as she crouched down and looked at the bulge.
She didn't want to touch it carelessly as she didn't know what the hell was under that snow. It could be another creepy monster for all she knew.
'My senses didn't pick up on it… Odd… The only things that my senses don't pick up on are…' Realizing what it could be, Kai crouched down and dug some snow away, easily revealing what was lying under the snow.
Immediately, the two frowned slightly.
The thing that they found was shockingly a dead corpse of a human. It was completely frozen and so it didn't decompose. Looking closer at it, the corpse belonged to a rather young man, probably in his 20s. He wore thick attire like they did but from the lack of injuries that Kai could see on the surface of his body, he most likely died from cold.
"What is a corpse doing here?" Eva murmured with a confused expression. "Has it been here for a very long time perhaps?"
"No. It's not buried that deep under snow. The corpse hasn't been here for long. A few days at most." Kai said with a thoughtful expression.
From the look on the man's face, it seemed he had died a very horrible death. His terrified, tired eyes tell a long story of his suffering. Dying from the cold wasn't a nice thing.
As Kai was about to stand up, he noticed something hiding under the man's coat. Extending his hand, he picked it up and his eyes squinted.
Eva approached him and took a look before her eyes widened slightly. The thing in Kai's hand was an identity card. However, it wasn't a normal identity card. This ID belonged to a particular system that the two of them recognized immediately.
"A Divinity identification card… Kai, this man came here along with Kaya…" Eva voiced her shock.