The three set out towards the last of the Lot Thúrum mountains. They passed by the sinkhole, avoiding its edge like Atomu demanded, despite Chyuuichi reassuring them that nothing would happen this time.

Still, the road seemed very similar to the one that led them up the mountains in the first place. Silky smooth snow, and patches of trees here and there. Mount Aria only seemed to grow bigger with each step they took.

Nearing its high entrances, they encountered deer, which freely roamed around the environment, munching on some of the tasty grass that peeked its head out on the first day of Herbes. Up until then, the roaming wildlife relied on animals passing by, sometimes even on a demon's flesh, without eating it. They'd munch it around and then spew it somewhere into the open holes of the frozen lakes and watch it sink below, then disintegrate. Deer were strange creatures.

Even stranger was the fact that Chyuuichi seemed very keen on riding one, for whatever reason. Atomu begged and pleaded for him to back out but he was set. A few minutes later, as well as beatings later, Chyuuichi sat on its back, taking it by its horns and walking alongside the two. At first, he was a bit faster, treading the path that led forward. After a while, though, things went a bit haywire, and Atomu and Zuimu simply observed as chaos unfolded, with Chyuuichi repeatedly trying to manoeuvre his way out of bushes or tight gorges that only the slimmest of deer could fit into.

He abandoned the animal and vowed to never interact with the 'devil's brown creature' ever again. Zuimu rolled her eyes.

After a while, they made it up the snowy mountains that were out of their reach a bit earlier, safely making it up the first hills, sometimes sinking into the snow. Eventually, though, amongst the highest white-brown peaks, they followed a straight path carved in between heights left and right. The three trod down, before reaching the most sensical point to strike.

Atomu looked up.

"Oh, my." Atomu shook his head, putting his hand on his forehead.

"Amazing!" Chyuuichi added, clenching his fists. "Even though we're miles up, it only goes higher and higher from now on!"

"I can't see its peak," Atomu stated, putting his hands together. "Usually, that's a bad sign."

"Just clouds."

"Could be a storm. Let's think this through, okay?" Atomu blinked, pulling the two back.

"Mhh hmm!" Zuimu turned to him, angered.

"We can't just back out on our own words, eh?" Chyuuichi said. "We made a promise to that stupid Tributal!"

"No, not to Rowan!" Atomu moved further. "To Morio, and Jyuzou."

"Right. Jyuso was his name." Chyuuichi pointed. "Let's go, then!" he took out the elshuim from his backpack and looked at it, thinking for a moment. Dots connected. "Wait, we don't have enough. Your elshuim fell into the sinkhole!" he pointed to Atomu.

"P-Precisely the reason why we should go back!" Atomu smiled, putting his foot in the front.

"Naur," Chyuuichi said, putting his hand on his chin. "I have a better idea. We'll just swap around or... Zuimu! You could use that Demonear ability of yours!"

"Mm mnm a Mmmnm mmmmnh," she added, squinting her eyes.

"A demon's ability. It wasn't connected to her weapon." Atomu shook his head.

"Same thing!" Chyuuichi waved. "Just use it to get up there and into those holes!" he pointed. "There. Those holes, not the other ones. Now that I think about it, can't we do the same with our weapons?"

"We would've already done so by now." he sighed. "The same thing goes for Zuimu's abilities."

"MHM." she nodded.

"Man. You demons are complicated things!" he slapped his knee, while Atomu gulped. "Ah. I guess elshuim swapping it is. Unless we bite and try a thing or two with freezing rocks with my Morgana! Damn, why didn't I think of this in the sinkhole?!"

"I think in those moments of stress we don't guess stuff clearly," Atomu muttered.

"Your weapon does!" Chyuuichi raised a finger. "I'm still wondering what my Guardian Demon's abilities might be. My fear has yet to show itself. Not that I could name it. I forgot."

Zuimu started getting tired of Chyuuichi's shenanigans. She stuck her elshuim to the side of the mountain's brown wall and moved up, hanging onto the side and sticking it in again, now further up the tilt.

Chyuuichi looked at her for a moment, squinting his eyes. Atomu assumed that he was analyzing what Zuimu was doing, but actually, far from it. Chyuuichi was rather surprised to see Zuimu somehow easily operating the elshuim, even though no one taught her a thing beforehand. She seemed to be using a different technique than most people.

The Erans used to put the elshuim up, and then slide it upwards, digging through the stone, as far as their hand could reach. Mirillians were experts, adapting in a rather different way, by sticking it in the wall, and trusting their 'miner's instincts', taking a quick leap of faith without holding onto anything. Then again, there were lots of ways to use the elshuim, even ones that don't involve climbing. It was generally assumed that only the person who invented it knew the path up the mountain.

Chyuuichi was rather quick to realise that his methods wouldn't stick with Atomu's safe approach to things, and with one roll of his eyes, he stuck the elshuim into the wall, eyeing Zuimu.

"Well. I forgot that too." Chyuuichi muttered.

"What now?" Atomu asked.

"The way Mirillians used the elshuims. It was a little different." Chyuuichi moved the tool up, pushing his two hands and grabbing the side, turning left and signalling for Atomu to come.

"You, um..." he played with his hair. "You seem to forget lots of things lately," Atomu added, unsurely putting his shaky hand on the tool.

"Lately? Pff, Atomu, ya don't know me! This has always been a trait of mine!" Chyuuichi raised his voice, as Atomu followed, taking the elshuim out and passing it to the Mirillian, trusting that he was more experienced. But, then again, what if he forgets? Atomu squinted his eyes, but Chyuuichi already took on with his journey, jumping up a little.

"Well. I didn't learn anything about you." Atomu said.

"EH?" Chyuuichi looked down. "A bit louder!"

"Oh, my!" Atomu raised his voice. "Don't leave without me!" he went after Chyuuichi, taking big breaths each time he passed a bigger tilt, finally catching up.

"I didn't-" Atomu raised a finger, and Chyuuichi continued, without a word added. "I DIDN'T GET TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT YOU!" Atomu yelled out, looking up.

"HUH?! WHAT'S THERE TO LEARN ABOUT?" Chyuuichi asked.

Their conversation continued in yells. This annoyed Zuimu and the two didn't realise that they could simply stop, and talk next to each other. They screamed like they meant it.

"You know, your past?" Atomu asked.

"Oh! My past! No clue!"

"What- what do you mean no clue?! Don't you remember things?!"

"I meant it when I said that I've always been like this!"

"Well... uh. Do you know how we met?"

"Yeah! You pushed me down into that forest and that thing started chasing us!"

"Okay, no, rookie mistake. I didn't push you into that forest. You ran into me!"

"Nuh-uh! Nuh-uh!"

Zuimu threw a rock down from above, trying to silence them, but missed.

"Anyways," Atomu closed his eyes. "You said that the entrance to Mirillis is through the sinkhole!"

"Mhm!" Chyuuichi replied, nodding.

"Yeah, and I'm assuming you somehow forgot the way back home."

"No clue how I find myself in places, to begin with!"

"But you led us to the sinkhole without thinking, right?"

"Huh." Chyuuichi stopped.

"Hm?"

"I did. I did! So I do remember the way back home!" Chyuuichi raised his voice (even louder) and clenched his fist.

"Ah, ah..." Atomu finally managed to catch up, so now they didn't have to shout. "So. Is there a slim, even a tiny chance that you'll know the way through the caves?"

"Instinct-wise? Perhaps!" Chyuuichi waddled his finger. "No clue where I'll be heading, though," he added, before looking inside the small opening in between the wall. "It's pitch black as well."

"Oh great, just great," Atomu muttered. "Ugh, we should've taken our sweet time..."

"Can't back out now!" Chyuuichi said.

"If you're stubborn enough." Atomu pursed his lips.

"No, I mean it! It's either up or death, and we're almost to the caves!"

"Oh come on, how high can we-WOAAAH." Atomu looked back. "Aaah, aaah." he made a few noises, before calming down and hushing. His eyes shrank the longer he looked down. "Pretty high," he muttered, strangely.

"Nothing to worry about for you, Atomu! You got all those demonic powers that would make up for that potential fall." Chyuuichi assumed.

"D-Demonic powers? No, I'm not like Zuimu. There's no recovery if I fall." Atomu put his fingers close to his mouth. "I s-shut off everything devilish in me the day it happened. The best I can do is sharpen my nails to cut through things."

"You won't die, that's for certain!" Chyuuichi uttered. "Demons don't crumble so easily, eh? Well, unless we're talking about our weapons, of course."

"Only a demon can kill another demon. If I fall, I'll be killing myself!" Atomu closed his eyes for longer. "I don't want to test this limit."

"Ugh!" Chyuuichi seemed a little frustrated, and through all the snow that started falling around them, he shook his head and started heading up. "Then don't look down!" he squinted his eyes, trying to see through the white winds.

Atomu glanced up, a bit confused. "Is it snowing?"

"You're in Shimori!"

"But it's Herbes. They say it never snows in Herbes." Atomu mumbled.

Chyuuichi didn't reply, and Atomu furrowed his eyebrows.

All of a sudden, Zuimu's mumbles could be heard from above, echoing through the clouds and down to the two. She waved her hands around as if it was a warning.

"Wait." Chyuuichi suddenly stopped, gulping. "That's right. It never does snow in Herbes! If it did, the snow would come through to Mirillis! Which means..." he gulped again.

"Means what?" Atomu asked, closing one eye.

"We might be dead!" he announced.

***

In the depths of Shimori, a horse's stampede sounded, echoing through the nearby forest and carrying a person on its back. Atop, sat a blue-haired woman, holding a rope in her hands, which extended both towards the animal's mouth, as well as something wrapped beneath a cloth on her back.

She slowed down, looking up from her hood, before spotting something that caught her attention. With one swift swing, the stallion changed course and headed left.

She stepped off, fixed her gloves, and stopped for a moment, thinking with squinted eyes.

Before her, a hut was revealed, and its door was wide open, with the wind passing through the inner window, howling. She carefully moved in, putting her hands on the walls and crouching, looking at the stain on the floor. She moved even further down, smelling it, and closing her eyes.

She moved towards the broken table and noticed a big, metallic triangular bowl, now cracked open. Its insides were spilt, and again, she took a good sniff, as if she were analysing something and coming up with many conclusions.

Finally, her attention shifted to the bed above, sitting on the upper floor. She climbed the ladder and quickly jumped down.

"It took her out of bed," she muttered, before smelling the air. "She leapt from here, breaking the table below, landing near the dish full of soup. She chucked it right at the creature, which broke it and sent all of its contents flying around. Considering the damn thing didn't evaporate yet, it happened, give or take, a few hours ago." she glimpsed at the exit. "...and when all that failed, she was dragged out. The footsteps end right here." she mumbled, pointing.

The woman left the house, still glancing around. She searched for what seemed to be the last clues that would unearth the mystery that laid itself before her very eyes. She waddled over to the pen, seeing a few dead goats that lay quietly. Bloody marks stood where their horns once were. The woman squinted her eyes and jumped over, whiffing the blood. She twitched, stepping to the side, and putting her hands on the fence, feeling a different material than she expected. She turned, looking at the bronze plate.

Property of Lisa Pluton.

She squinted her eyes, before jumping back on her horse and heading towards the White Mountains.