Chapter 105- The Frozen Plains (Part 2)
Kai stood silent for a second as if he was trying to absorb all the information from the identification card. From what he can see, the card had the man's name, picture, birthday, and also his rank in Divinity which was a Level 4 Ascender.
The highest level cap an ascender could reach is Level 5 and then they can either stay there or officially challenge one of the higher ranks for a fight to get their position. This man over here wasn't there yet but he was certainly a strong individual.
"Kaya didn't come here alone. She came along with a group of people." He said as he put down the ID card before he stood up again.
"So it's an expedition?" Eva's eyes trailed her beloved as he turned around to look at the path ahead of them.
"More or less. It seems Divinity had really wanted whatever existed here for them to send Level 4 Ascenders and an Archangel."
"Let's continue…"
Looking one last time at the dead man, Eva could only shake her head. This man will be staying in this place for eternity, buried under meters and meters of snow. His body won't even decompose because of the coldness. Such a thing was dawning to think about it.
Being buried in such a desolate place, alone and hundreds of miles away from any person. Eva was sure that she never wants to experience that in her life. If her time to die comes, she wants to be surrounded by the people she loves. That's her wish and her goal. Her eyes instinctively looked at Kai as her tense expression relaxed visibly.
'Maybe when I die, our children would be around my deathbed?' She asked in her head.
It was a rather happy thought to think about. But, her mind quickly came back to reality when she realized that Kai had stopped again a few minutes later.
"Another corpse…" He said with a sharp look in his eyes.
The corpse he found this time was that of an older yet still strong-looking woman. She had the same terrified expression that the young man had albeit she seemed more accepting of her death than he was.
Rummaging through her clothes, he found her ID, and much to his surprise, she was a Level 5 Ascender.
'Tsk, even this one couldn't handle the weather? Even at its current condition, it should be impossible for her to die from hypothermia.' Kai was confused.
The Level 4 Ascender guy could certainly die from this weather but a Level 5 Ascender was simply way stronger than a Level 4 so the fact that she died meant that the weather a few days ago was even worse than now!
"What is going on…" Kai murmured as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Something isn't making sense… This place had a drastic change in the past few years."
"The weird sea monster, the extremely cold weather, the dead bodies… Kai, I think we're walking into something completely different from what we anticipated."
"Tsk… I know. Just be careful."
The two then started walking again. After that, every 10 or so minutes, they would stumble across another corpse. The number went from 2 to 14 in a matter of two hours or so. The corpses belonged to Level 4 and 5 Ascenders. Each one of them had the same death from hypothermia because of the weather.
'How many died? This is insane.' Eva could only rub her temple at the sheer number of deaths this expedition sustained. Just imagining what the leader of this expedition had to do was dawning on her. For the first time since she met Kaya, Eva actually felt a slight sympathy for the woman.
Eva was almost certain Eva was the leader of this group considering her position.
'Although I don't like her. I don't wish for her to face such a horrible situation and then die.' She thought to herself.
As for Kai, he simply stayed silent as he walked slightly ahead of Eva just to be sure to look around him freely.
"We're close to the location of the phone," Kai said as he looked at the map on his phone. The place where the phone was seemed to be some kind of mountain.
His eyes then shifted to the path ahead of them and truth behold, there was a rather big mountain standing imposingly on the horizon amidst the vast lands of snow. Its white attire and rocky surface made it especially intimidating for those who look at it. Like a giant monster looming over an ancient realm, daring travelers to try and move past him.
"That's our destination," Kai said.
The two approached the foothill of the mountain slowly but carefully before they looked around them. Kai's eyes searched the area for any small clues about Kaya or anything related to her bizarre expedition.
"Kai, isn't that…" Eva suddenly pointed at her far right. There, she could almost see what seemed to be a hole in the mountain.
"It's a cave. Let's go."
Immediately, the two rushed toward the weird sighting. There, they found a huge entrance to what seemed to be a dark, rocky cave.
"Is the phone perhaps inside?" She asked.
"We will see…" Walking inside the cave, the duo felt the horrible winds of the blizzard calm down which was a great feeling.
'The group most likely hid here because they couldn't continue anymore.' Kai's eyes scanned the cave. It was certainly very deep as he couldn't even see the end of it from here.
As they walked inside the cave, Kai's senses finally picked up on something. Instantly, he moved like a flash, appearing beside it.
"Kaya's phone…" Kai murmured as he looked at the small phone thrown on the ground. Weirdly enough, the phone was still working normally. Which meant that the moment Kaya called him almost a day ago, she was definitely still here.
'Even if she left, she shouldn't be that far away considering the weather.'
As Kai was thinking of what could've transpired inside this place, Eva carefully picked up the phone before she stored it.
The two then continued walking deeper and deeper inside the cave. The weather was certainly getting hotter and hotter the more they walked inside. However, that didn't make them any more relaxed.
Suddenly, Kai heard a sound coming from ahead. His eyes squinted as he peered through the cave.
"Let's hurry." He said as the two started running toward the source of the noise. Eventually, they found it.
In one of the corners of the cave, the two saw a huge, black bole tucked carefully against the wall. The ball was fleshy but didn't seem to be anything animalistic or human.
"What the fuck is this?" Eva murmured to herself with a rather unpleasant expression.
However, Kai didn't share the same reaction. Instead, he quickly approached the ball before he slit it open with a simple move of his right hand.
Immediately, something spilled out of the ball. Seeing what it was, Eva's face widened in pure shock.
"Kaya?!"
She didn't comprehend what was going on yet somehow, Kaya was just exerted from inside that fleshy ball. What the fuck is actually going on?!
However, Kai had no time to answer her question as he quickly checked Kaya's condition and his face frowned visibly.
'I can sense her pulse.' He thought; however, that didn't make his face look any better.
Kaya was, for the lack of a better word, in a horrid state. Calling her injuries inhuman was an understatement. This was by far the worst condition Kai had seen a human in his entire life.