As the giant Yeti died, power surged through the glacier, flooding the entire valley. It was a wild mix of Astral Power, enough to turn visible to the naked eye, to say nothing of our special sight. Reaching out, we tried to take control of the power, to harness it for our own needs, only to realise that the flood was too wild and powerful. This was no tame pond, like the Grandmother had set up in Neyto, this was a riptide, strong enough to wash away any fortification trying to break the surge.

There was nothing for us to do but cling to Ylva as she carried us away, into the sky above and onto one of the mountains. There, we split apart, exhaustion and pain taking a toll on our body, the load lighten when it was distributed to two bodies.

“This was something,” I panted, looking down into the valley, where wild magic was surging, creating arcs of deadly power that lashed out, the few remaining Yeti either scattering or getting annihilated.

“We’ll need to set something up to deal with that, or we’ll get destroyed,” Lenore commented after hopping onto my shoulder and studying the magical mayhem below.

“Some sort of focus, akin to a staff?” I mused, not quite sure just how big a staff I’d need to channel and control that much power. Chuckling to myself, I realised that it wouldn’t really be a staff to carry around but more akin to a tower, standing here and controlling the power flooding from the nexus and into the environment.

Ideas flickered through my mind, potential ways to tame the Nexus and use it for myself. If I wanted to break the Soul Prison, I would have to harness the power but from the looks of it, that wouldn’t be easy. Every minute that we were watching, the Wild Magic grew more pronounced, making me wonder if the entire glacier would shatter or if we were just watching something akin to a volcanic eruption and once the pressure was alleviated, things would calm down.

Either way, it was fascinating to watch and I wanted to begin taming the nexus as soon as possible.

But before I could start with that, I had notifications to go through, we had killed a lot of Yeti after all and I had a feeling the big guy would give something nice, at least if the kill was credited to me and not the Nidhögg.

Looking at the messages, I wasn’t disappointed. Two levels, bringing me to 160 and multiple points in Ice, Darkness, Blood and Mind-Magic, bringing them to 93, 80, 84 and 40 respectively. Granted, the Giant Yeti had given almost no EXP, making me think that it had mostly been devoured by the Nidhögg, or maybe using what could be considered a Divine Artifact gave some sort of negative penalty to EXP-gain, either way, it was a little disappointing. But a good haul nonetheless.

Trying to rise, I noticed just how exhausted I was and decided otherwise. Both, Lenore and I, would need our full strength to deal with it and for that, we needed to rest. Just how to rest, out in the open on the slope of a mountain next to an incredibly volatile area of wild magic was another question, but I had an idea that might just solve the problem.

“Ylva, can you keep watch up here? I believe we should be reasonably safe here,” I asked, looking at my canine friend. If she stayed around, Lenore could retreat into her Hallow and then I could log out, leaving my Avatar safe while Lenore would be hidden by the same mechanic. She wasn’t a fan of that and I had no idea how the backlash of our Avatar-state would influence her while I was logged out, but it was worth a try. If she had to leave, she always could, at least according to prior tests.

I quickly explained my idea to the other two and while Lenore wasn’t overly happy to leave Ylva alone in the mountains, our canine friend was well-equipped to keep herself safe, while we recuperated.

And so, without even trying to deal with the mess in the valley below in our exhausted condition, I logged out and returned to my capsule space. While I couldn’t actually create magical formations there, the skills and attributes normally supporting that simply weren’t there, I could brainstorm before testing my ideas in the game.

But before doing so, I first went into my temple, sitting down in front of Sigmir’s statue, leaning my back against the pedestal, and telling her about the battle. It had been incredibly challenging and, in the privacy of my own mind, I had to admit that I had been incredibly lucky. The fight certainly was not one a single player, even with the support of two Spirit Beasts, had any business winning.

Not just the big Yeti in the end, which I only managed to kill thanks to literal Divine, or maybe primordial, intervention, but also the normal Yeti. Just their number would have overwhelmed me, if not for their weakness to Mind-Magic that tried to turn them against each other.

As I told Sigmir about the fight, I realised that I still wasn’t sure how the red aura had appeared around me, the familiar feeling of Sigmir’s embrace sheltering and helping me. Could it be some sort of side-effect of the Eternal Embrace she had used to transfer her strength to me, or something else?

Either way, I wanted to know and understand, simply so I could feel her arms sheltering me.

Wiping away a few stray tears, I moved over to my throne, pulling up the recording of my battle and even pulling a few images. Some of those could be used to hype Road to Purgatory and while Pantheon Entertainment didn’t quite promise me additional rewards if the impromptu-‘end-of-beta-event’ they had come up with was a success, it had been implied. So, creating a few good clips and maybe even a meme or two would hopefully help spread the word. For example, that moment the big Yeti sucked away all the mist, suddenly revealing itself and all its friends in their incredibly grotesque glory made for a good image, maybe captioned with something like ‘when the boss-music starts playing’.

After making sure that my location wouldn’t be easily deduced from the images, I put them into the forum, setting off yet another discussion about current events and whether or not I was a plant for the developers. It was bedlam and if there was one thing that generated hype, it was controversy. People arguing online could easily spread and generate interest.

But that hadn’t been why I had logged out n the first place. Instead, I pulled up the editor of my capsule-space and after making sure my current set-up wouldn’t be changed, I began creating anew. The setting was a desolate, frozen valley and as it just happened, I began designing with the idea in mind that I wanted to have a tower that could double as a magic staff. Trying to imagine how the power would flow gave me a massive headache, but I felt I was getting the right idea, at least until I started spacing out, my mind simply too exhausted to continue.

Back in my temple, I laid down in front of Sigmir’s statue, a blanket a mere thought away, and let myself drift off, sleep quickly claiming me.

“You’ve done well, love.” Hearing Sigmir compliment me lifted my spirit and I leaned back, into her embrace. For once, we were sitting a little higher up the mountain, I could feel the cold from the glacier behind us and yet, despite the frigid weather, I was feeling warm, my beloved’s embrace sheltering me.

“We were lucky,” I admitted, letting out a sigh.

“Some say luck is part of your skill. Others would call it fate and say that your fate hadn’t come to an end,” she reminded me, pulling me a little closer into her arms.

“But what about your fate? Would they say it’s over?” I asked, unwilling to accept such an arrangement. If there was such a thing as fate, I would find a way to break it.

“Do you think it’s over? Or are you still keeping me in your heart?” she asked, her words making me chuckle. That was a question not worth asking, she would always be in my heart.

“As long as I’m in your heart, my fate has not ended. It just has taken the road less travelled,” she added and I reached out, trying to caress her face. For a moment, I could feel that familiar, tanned skin a little coarse and rough but more comfortable than the smoothest silk. But only for a moment, before the sensation faded away, replaced by one of deep, aching loss.