Jamal IV

PA 0 (4th month since arrival)

“That… is a big mountain.”

It had been over three months since the four of them had fled from the enemy Queen.

“I’ve seen bigger.”

It had been trying, at first. Learning how to get by in the wild was a difficult, and often painful experience for the transmigrated modern man. Even with help, he would have died a dozen times over were it not for his immortality.

“Have you really? Somehow I doubt that.”

Of course, without help he might have died regardless of his immortality. Luckily, Yue, Fei, and Ishi were competent caretakers of this incompetent man.

“In my dreams, yeah. Every night, I fly up above the clouds and into the heavens. There I see the tallest mountain in the world, where all the gods are throwing their divine parties. They beg me to join them, showering me with gifts and praises.”

Even if they were kind of idiots at times.

“So you haven’t, is what you’re saying?”

But they’d managed. They’d continued travelling west, following the edge of the southern swamps.

“Haven’t yet. Which means that I will one day, and since everything is always that means I already have.”

Eventually the swamps petered out, getting replaced by taller and taller plateaus.

“You—! That doesn’t even make any sense!”

Which led them to where they were now, standing on top of a massive plateau, staring up at the tallest mountain any of the natives had ever seen.

“Lay off him,” Jamal sighed. “You know Fei’s just trying to get a rise out of you.”

“Knowing that does not stop it from happening,” Yue hissed, glaring at him.

The unrepentant man just gave her a smug grin. A grin which quickly turned into a terrified look when she took a menacing step towards him.

Satisfied, Yue gave him a smirk before turning back to Jamal.

“Do you think we’ll be able to cross it?” she asked, gesturing to the mountain.

“You don’t know? You’re the most experienced traveler among us. What do you think?”

“It… probably wouldn’t be a good idea,” she shook her head. “I’ve never been this far west before. I didn’t even know mountains got this tall before we arrived here.”

“We could go around?” Ishi offered, pointing off to the side. “It’d probably be easier, y’know?”

“True, but we might run into another settlement down there. And they might have a God-King.”

All four of them grimaced at the thought. While they’d started off hiding Jamal from every village they came across, as the months flew by without incident they had slowly been growing more and more lax. That said, they weren’t that willing to risk it.

“I think it might be best if we skirt the edge,” Jamal offered slowly. “We’ll stay far enough up on the mountain to be hidden from any locals, but close enough to the valleys to easily collect water. And if it gets too steep, we’ll go down. That sound good?”

The others glanced at each other before shrugging in agreement, and soon the four of them set off towards the mountain.

--

Perspective could do funny things to your vision. When they’d first started walking, they’d expected to hit the mountain by sunset.

Instead, it was over a full day later, and the mountain seemed to loom larger with each advancing step.

“I didn’t think anything in this world could be so big!” Ishi whispered in hushed awe. “The gods themselves must live atop it!”

“Well, the mountain sits on the earth just like us, you know,” Jamal mused, staring at the foggy peak of the mountain with wonder. “And just like us, it’s dwarfed by the earth.”

“You… you’re right, aren’t you?” Ishi mumbled, turning to look down at the ground. “…the world’s a really big place, huh?”

“Well, it’s got to hold all of us on it, so it’d better be.”

“I don’t know what’s scarier. The thought that the world goes on forever, or the thought that something so massive ends.”

“That… is an odd way of thinking about it,” Jamal blinked. “…fuck, I think you just gave me an existential crisis. And I even know the answer to that question!”

--

“Hey, are we going to set up camp soon?” Fei asked, yawning exaggeratedly. “I’m getting pretty tired, y’know? We’ve been hiking for far too long.”

“We stop an hour before the sun sets,” Yue told him sternly. “No more, no less.”

“Yeah, but why though. Surely we can take a couple breaks here and there, y’know? It’s not like we’ve trying to get anywhere soon.”

“We’ll take a break in an hour, Fei,” Jamal sighed, turning to face him. “Is that good enough for… you…” he trailed off, staring past the other man. Fei’s response was lost to him as he looked past him, dumbstruck by the view behind them.

…When did they get so high up?

Jamal stared out from the ridge of the mountain. Ridges and valleys snaked through the landscape, as though some mad god had taken a chisel to the earth itself. There was little greenery—most of the trees had long lost their leaves for the winter, and most of the grass had died, painting the world below in browns and whites. Mist curled at the edges of valleys from where rivers diverged, and far in the distance he could see the faint lights of a tiny village, nestled in one of the valleys.

He'd been here before. Up on a mountain, looking down on the world. He climbed the Rockies a couple times over the years, and even the Appalachians at one point. He’d been on mountains taller than these. He’d been on plane flights, looking out the window to see only clouds below, and he’d seen videos of astronauts in space, of the whole Earth in a single picture. He knew what it was like to look down on the world.

And yet, somehow, it felt like he had never been higher in his life.

Jamal took a deep breath, and turned to look up. He craned his neck, higher and higher, squinting against the blinding sunlight. He looked up at the peak of the mountain.

And then he took another step, his foot crunching in the snow, only one thought on his mind.

‘I want to look at the world from the peak.’

--

Day eventually turned into night. The group had set up camp, their single tent pitched under an outcropping of rock, while a fire burned merrily in front of them.

“So, who’s turn is it to lead the storytelling tonight?” Jamal grunted, plopping himself down by the fire.

“Well, it was Ishi’s turn last time, so this time it would be… ugh, Fei’s turn.”

“What’s that ugh for!?”

“Aw, come on!” Ishi groaned. “Why’s it got to be Fei? Why couldn’t it have been Jamal? He’s always got the best stories!”

“Hey! My tales are amazing, you little brat!” Fei shouted back angrily.

“Your tales are tall, is what you mean!”

“Bah! Go lick some yellow snow, why don’t you!”

Yue rolled her eyes at their bickering, leaning back beside Jamal. “You’re sure you don’t want to go? I wouldn’t mind skipping him to give you another turn.”

“And take this away from Fei!?” Jamal gasped, pretending to be scandalized. “I could never do something so cruel to him!”

Yue chuckled, settling in as Fei began to tell his story. Like always, it was embellished to high hell, with each progressive telling getting more and more outlandish with its hero, ‘The Magnificent, Glorious, Godly, Beautiful, Unstoppable, Invincible, Charismatic, Jade King Bù,’ who spent his days defeating his enemies in glorious combat and amassing a harem (Yue glared at Fei) a loving family of mutually supportive friends who all just so happened to be women.

Jamal normally started tuning him out after the first couple sentences.

“…You all don’t have to follow me up there, you know,” he muttered quietly to Yue.

The woman snorted. “We told you we’d follow you anywhere. Even up to the heavens, if that’s your wish.”

“But you don’t have to follow me everywhere,” he stressed. “This will be dangerous—I’m immortal. If I fall or run out of food, I’ll live. You three won’t.”

“If something happens, something happens,” she shrugged. “But still, I didn’t expect you to be so selfish.”

“Selfish?” Jamal asked, confused.

“Of course,” she grinned at him, eyes glittering with amusement. “I want to look out from the peak of the mountain too. But if you think it’s too dangerous, I guess I can leave you here with the tent.”

Jamal stared at her, shocked… before he smiled, chuckling quietly at her resolve. “I guess we’re doing this then, huh?”

“Of course. Don’t worry, if you get tired, I’ll carry you the rest of the way.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

--

The next morning they packed up their bags and began their march for the peak.

At first it was like any other day. A lot of walking, with as many breaks as needed. They weren’t in a rush—they had dried meats and enough water between the four of them to last a week. The goal was to get to the top, and however long that took was up to them.

No, the real challenge began at noon, about halfway up the mountain.

“That looks… dangerous,” Ishi commented, staring at the ridge in front of them. It was a thin, curvy path, with small clumps of vegetation growing every few feet.

A goat was standing further along the ridge. It ‘baaed’ at them, before plodding down the cliff face at practically a ninety-degree angle.

Fucking goats, man.

But this was an issue, and one that he had realized they would eventually come across. This wasn’t like back in his own world, where even the tallest summits had been conquered, and every mountain trail had a four-star rating on TripAdvisor. This was an empty world—there were no mountain paths here, no trails or bridges. It was entirely possible they were the first people to try and reach the summit of this mountain.

It was a heavy thought. Back home, every summit had been defeated long before he was born. Here, he could be the first on top of them all.

And all he had to do was cross this unstable looking ridge.

It was decided that Ishi would go first—he was the smallest, and could get through the easiest. After that he’d help the others get across.

Next was Fei, followed by Yue, the two of them slowly shuffling along without incident.

Finally Jamal, being the biggest, began carefully shuffling across the ridge. He slowly put one foot in front of the other, relaxing a bit as he managed to get halfway across without incident.

Of course, that just meant the universe was setting him up for failure, as with his next step the ground crumbled underneath his feet, sending him sliding down the cliff face. He felt his stomach jump into his throat, and on instinct he lashed out, only managing to grab onto the ridge with his right hand.

“SHIT!” he hissed as he felt something dislocate, before wincing again at the feeling of it forcefully relocating.

“Jamal!” the others yelled, trying to get closer to him.

“No!” he shouted. “I’ll be fine! I can’t die, remember! Just get to the other side, I’ll catch up later!”

“We aren’t—!” Yue began to shout.

“No!” he cut her off. “This is the smart play. It’ll hurt like hell, but I’ll live if I fall down. You will not. Now get to the other side already!”

They hesitated, clearly wanting to rush forward to help him, but slowly, they turned around and started shuffling their way to the other side of the ridge to safety.

Now, all he had to do was—

The rock he was holding onto shifted, and the ledge he was holding on to crumbled, sending him falling down the mountain to the terrified screams of his companions.

It was a blur of color and pain, screaming and fear, until he finally got stuck on a tree jutting out of the cliff face.

He sat there for a few minutes, dazed by his near death—no, it was just a very painful experience, wasn’t it. He was never in any real danger. His body slowly healed itself as he laid there, skin regrowing and bones resetting as he contemplated his life choices. Then, once his body was fully healed, there was only one thing left to do.

With a resolved whimper, he set about getting out of the tree.

It turns out he was right, the fall did indeed hurt like hell.

The two hour climb to get back up was arguably worse, though.

The looks of relief on his companions faces when he met back up with them almost made up for it, though. Almost.

--

That night, they stopped to camp near the peak. They hadn’t reached it yet—it was at least another hour or two hike, and none of them were willing to risk the climb in the dark.

The place they’d stopped was small and cramped. It was barely big enough for the four of them, much less the tent. So instead they’d set up a small fire and set out the bedrolls. It was too cold to sleep alone, so they huddled together in a big pile next to the fire.

Jamal had decided to stay up—he always took the worst watches, since he didn’t need to sleep. Sometimes, he just didn’t wake up anyone else and just spent the whole night on watch, alone with his thoughts.

Even though they didn’t expect to get attacked by anything tonight, they needed someone to keep the fire going and make sure nobody rolled off the cliff in their sleep.

Jamal shivered as another cold wind blasted the side of the mountain. If he’d known it would get this cold, he never would have come up here in the first place.

Okay, he probably would have, but he’d still complain about it.

He grumbled in annoyance at the fire as it flickered dangerously low, mentally cursing the wind for existing. If the fire went out it would be hell to light it back up in these conditions.

Ishi shuffled in his sleep, rolling over with a quiet grunt. Jamal sighed and rolled him back into his original position, away from the cliff’s edge.

Just another seven hours of this to look forward to. Joy.

Jamal sighed, settling in for a long, cold night.

--

When the sun finally rose above the horizon, Jamal almost burst into tears.

With the rising sun came warmth and light, and the awakening of the rest of his companions. Standing up, Jamal cracked his back, sighing in relief at the rapid ‘pops.’ The rest of them groggily came too, tired and cold from the poor night’s sleep. They grabbed their morning meals of dried meat and nuts and drank as much melted snow as they could stomach. Soon enough breakfast was over, and they set about getting ready for the last leg of the climb.

Getting together their supplies, they set out for the summit.

It was easier than the past few days. The snow was deep, but it didn’t pile up so much this high up. The snow was still blinding, but the warmth of the sun made up for it. It was steep, but was beginning to peter out. The end was soon upon them.

“It is… it’s getting kind of hard to breathe,” Ishi gasped, looking winded as he took another staggering step.

“Fuck,” Fei agreed.

“We’ll take a break here, then,” Jamal told them, forcing them to sit down. “Just focus on breathing for a bit. The air gets thinner the higher you go, and it gets hard to breathe. We need to give our bodies some time to adjust. I doubt we’re high enough up for it to get dangerous, but if you find yourself unable to breath properly, tell me and we’ll go back down. Your lives are more important than this.”

They nodded at his words, and the four of them spent the next hour resting just below the summit.

Once they recollected themselves, they continued up the mountain, stepping over unstable boulders and climbing up crumbling handholds.

It had gotten much more dangerous the higher they went up, but they were almost done. He could see the peak, the sunlight reflecting off the snowy ground making it almost blindingly bright.

Just one step in front of the other. Just one step, and another, and another…

And as he reached the top, and stared out over the summit of the mountain, he saw—!

Another mountain. No, a dozen more, each taller and steeper than the last. Each towering over the other, each making this long and harrowing accomplishment feel worth less and less. Like a child who had just learned to crawl, only to discover he still had to learn to walk.

Suddenly, despite standing on top of the world, he felt very small.

“Oh, wow!” Yue exclaimed, her voice startling him. “This is incredible!”

Jamal blinked, shaking away those thoughts. Instead, he turned to look at his three friends who had followed him up the mountain.

Each one of them was staring out at the world with undisguised awe.

Yue looked out, her eyes sparkling as she stared at the distant mountains, their slopes both gentle and harsh. Ishi looked down, his eyes trailing down the many tiny rivers so far below. And Fei stared up at the clouds, his hand outstretched as though he could just reach out and touch them.

…Jamal smiled, his expression softening into something warm.

Even if this wasn’t what he was expecting—even if it felt like he hadn’t accomplished anything at all, he understood. This trip wasn’t a waste.

“Yeah,” Jamal whispered, turning to stare at those distant peaks, each higher than the last. “Yeah, it really is.”

9,931 God-Kings Remain