I thought good sleep in a comfortable soft bed would be enough to drain most of my tiredness away. However, this was far from the truth. I woke up feeling sore all over my body.

I was just feeling my calves tired and rather numb when I went to bed, but today they were hurting before I’d even put the least bit of pressure on them. The same was true for my abs and my back. I guess my body had been lying to me over the past days in telling me everything was fine, but now I could see the truth of how much I had overexerted myself.

Yet one good rest would have to do for now. We were almost at the end of our quest and knowing that made want to carry on for a bit more.

Heading down the stairs outside the room I slept in on the first floor of the inn, I realized that I was the first one to wake up. I was unsure of the time but estimated that it was a little later than midnight.

I took a seat at one of the smaller empty tables and looked out of the window of the dining area. There were only a few hints of light outside, which meant the giant light-emitting orbs were at their dimmest, signifying the beginning of a new day.

I was being served a midnight breakfast by a slim young man who looked like he did not appreciate this particular shift, when I saw Kard climbing down the stairs, his dagger-flicking as lively as ever. Soon after, Krysha arrived as well, her wide-brimmed conical hat in her hand and her long dark hair pulled back in a bun.

Seika and Man were the last to join us, but we made sure everyone was full before departing. Man took care of paying for the services provided to us and we finally left the inn to walk southward.

Heading south proved to be a bigger challenge than we thought, as figuring out the cardinal directions was difficult without the sun or the stars. Determining where south was while underground, especially after having walked through numerous twists, turns, and tunnels, was nearly impossible.

Once more, we relied on asking the locals to point out the right path to us. Interestingly, whenever we asked directions to the south, nobody ever mentioned the monastery at the End of the World. All of them assumed that we wanted to go to the temple of the God of the Forge.

After a series of tunnels and corridors, which made us realize how much bigger Snjokomu really was, we arrived at an opening similar to the one where we’d initially stated the purpose of our visit. The officers occupying the very few desks here looked much more formally dressed and their questions and answers were very short.

After stating that we were going to visit the monastery at the End of the World, they made sure to notify two guards that we should be guided outside but not allowed to enter the temple. Seeing the place where the God of the Forge was actually worshiped was not in our plans, but I still felt a little annoyed that we were banned from entering at all.

Once the quick process of release was over, we were advised to be careful of the place where the areas controlled by the different gods overlapped. We quizzically agreed and the guards followed their instructions to lead us up another long series of stairs until we were finally above ground again.

I had gotten used to the warmth of the underground city and the heat emanating from the lava rivers so much that I faltered the moment we stepped out into the freezing cold again. Despite the fact that the snow had started to thaw, we were warned it was still deep.

The guards informed us that the land above was stuck in a state of perpetual dawn but I could not have believed it had I not seen it for myself. Even though it was only an hour after midnight, it looked like the sun was about to make its appearance.

In front of us was a giant structure which was almost hidden by the massive amounts of steam it generated.

The God of the Forge apparently kept the temple hot, even though the blizzard was strong enough to freeze water in midair. The building itself looked like it was made of stone in a rectangular shape with metal spikes protruding from its top. The pathway leading to the entrance was laid with the same stones the temple was made of, save for the occasional metal strips.

What was beyond comprehension for me was the fact that the metal strips were glowing from heat, which meant the whole structure was hot enough to almost melt metal. Yet right at the entrance of the temple, I could see two sturdy dwarf guards, holding battle-hammers with banners of the God of the Forge strapped on their backs.

I had seen the priests of the Jungle God in Yubna and heard of the powers of Gaia in Fenira, but never had I seen a first-hand display of power from the disciples of another god. Yet these two guards were standing unmoving on the stone which was probably as hot as the underbelly of a volcano.

I only realized that I had stopped walking to stare at the temple guards when Kard stumbled into me because he was also looking while moving forward. I quickly gathered myself and resumed following our guides who were now taking us around the path leading to the entrance of the temple. Once we had done almost half a circle around the steaming structure, the guards stood and saluted after showing us a path among the mountain walls and left us.

The trail we were supposed to walk upon did indeed look like it had been left unattended as we were warned, but was not impossible to follow. After all, the mountain walls did not leave much room for getting lost. We would simply have to walk through the narrow gorge until we reached the monastery.

The snow was high enough to make traveling on horses extremely slow, even with our magical ones, so we decided to go on foot for the rest of the way. Luckily, the narrow path didn’t allow much of the blizzard to reach us, and the only danger was sudden gusts of wind that could bring down big chunks of ice and snow on top of us, but this was nothing our protective gear wouldn’t be able to handle.

Thirty minutes into traveling through the gorge, we came across a small clearing and saw what at first glance looked like a blizzard in the place where the corridor continued. Upon closer inspection, we understood this was where the area of influence of the God of the Forge ended and The Divine’s began.

The snow in this corridor was shuffling around in unpredictable patterns but the blizzard was mixed with what looked like whips made of pure energy lashing the air. The walls and the ground looked like they were polished, which meant this power struggle had probably been taking place for a long time.

“The powers of the gods look as though they’re clashing for quite some distance,” Seika said, trying to figure out a way through.

“Won’t we be protected by our necklaces?” asked Man.

“The magic involved here is much too strong for the level of protection offered by the orbs in our necklaces,” she replied.

“What if we charge through it?” Kard took his turn in asking.

“We could try, but we don’t know how far this magical blizzard goes,” my sister continued, “and there is no way to fly over it or dig under it.”

“Well, this can’t be the end, right?” I protested, frustrated by our helplessness.

“I think I have a plan, but it’s risky and I will need your help,” Seika said.

“Whatever you need,” I replied immediately, without waiting for her to explain.

“I can create a magic-nullifying bubble around me,” my sister explained. “If you stay close to me, you will also be inside this bubble and thus protected by the effects of the magical blizzard.”

“But if you nullify mana, that would mean—” Krysha interjected, only to be interrupted by my sister again.

“Exactly… We’ll have no magical protection ourselves. Our orbs, our charms, and magical items will not work. We will feel the cold and there will be no protective barrier to hold things off of us.”