While William was there, in Assyria, moving on his own journey, I, George Watson, was moving forward towards my next destination. That day after I sat in the car, the car moved from the different road, outside the capital and headed north, towards the glorious mountains, proudly standing on the north border, covered in snow.

'Leave the Capital today. I'll make the arrangements.' I still remember the words he said. 'Go to Mount Himi. I know someone who will let you stay there.'

After driving for almost four days, taking brakes to hide from the royal and noble soldiers, the driver pulled the brakes for the last time and the car slowly stopped, some distance away from the mountain area. The automatic windows were pulled down to reveal the group of glorious mountains standing in front of the car.

'George Watson, your achievements are quite impressive. And the incident in that area showed me, you are worthy of my trust, you care about others.' Steve's words echoed inside my mind. 'But, you don't possess any cursed energy. Which makes it really difficult if not impossible for you to stand against stronger curses and the ranks.'

The driver removed his hat and kept on the nearby seat, opened the door and got out of the car. He walked around to my side and opened the doors, by entering the lock combination from outside.

"I thought we were going for mount Himi?"

"We have arrived at the place, sir." he said.

"We are yet to reach the mountain range."

"I was told to drop you here," he said with a convincing tone. "And Mount Himi is not a particular mountain. It is the mountain range spread across both nations, the second biggest on the continent"

Did Steve do this on purpose? I thought, and said, "What should I do now?"

The driver rubbed his gloves covered palms to avoid the cold and looked around for a while. Looked back at me.

"There is a restaurant nearby," he said. "You can wait here till the sun shows up and ask someone the exact location of where the Director has told you to go."

Steve didn't say anything specific about the location I should visit, but there was no reason to tell him that. I stood silent for some time and then nodded my head looking at him. After waiting for a while, the driver gave me a casual smile and took my permission to leave.

I smiled back and allowed him. The car drove away from the place and I went and rested myself on the bench nearby, waiting for the restaurant to open.

Many thoughts and images rushed inside my mind. As if all the recent events flashed before my eyes in minutes. I looked back and forth two trees nearby to distract myself from the thoughts. I didn't know my next step, I had no idea what my next move will be.

Where exactly should I go without knowing the place. I asked myself. I can't travel the whole mountain range, finding the place. It's spread across two nations.

"You need something there, my friend?" a voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

I looked up to see a man, wrapped in winter clothes and a big trench coat. His old aged face with some wrinkles and covered in beard, and his genuine welcoming smile.

"Nobody comes so early here." He said, opening the lock on the bifolding glass door of the place.

"Black tea?"

"Sure," he said. "Come on in."

The door opened and the man entered inside. He pulled the small chains attached to the handle at the corner of the main area and the place was lit up with bright yellow lights. I followed him inside rubbing my both cold palms against each other.

The man turned around and pointed towards the chair arranged at the counter with his open palms, inviting me to have a seat. I smiled at him and walked towards the chair.

"Just give me some time," he said and wore his apron. "I will be back in no time with your steaming hot black tea."

"Even if it is cold, It won't be a problem."

"You are sitting next to the icy mountains, my friend," He said, rubbing his hands. "Steaming hot beverages will make you feel much better."

I smiled back and he walked inside his small kitchen. At first glance, the man felt much nicer and friendly. But, my past taught only one thing, the only time people are nice is when they want something in return. But my assumptions were proved wrong many times, so I , cautiously, relaxed myself on the comfy chair and leaned my body towards the counter, resting my cold hands on it.

After waiting for sometime, looking around the small restaurant and outside the door, the kitchen doors opened with a swing and the old looking man walked outside with the tray with two cups in it. He placed the tray in front of me and took a seat on the opposite side of the counter.

"There you go," he said. "Please, help yourself and enjoy your tea." He grabbed the other cup, filled with a beverage which looked like coffee.

I lifted the cup from the tray and poured the hot beverage down my throat. The hot drink slid inside my oesophagus, giving me shivers, making me feel much better.

"You don't look from here." the man said.

"How can you be sure about that?"

He looked down at my hands and back at me. "People here are used to this cold weather," He said. "Unlike you, their hands don't shiver."

"I came from the Capital," I said. "Travelling different places."

"I would have not recommended traveling north at this time of year," he calmly said. "But since you have already arrived. I'd recommend you to not go deep inside the mountains. Ciria, this town, also has some good places to visit."

While we continued talking, the main door opened, gingling the small bells at the entrance in the process. A small group of people entered the restaurant, grabbing the old man's attention.

"Nice talk my friend." the man said. "I should attend to the customers. You can sit at the corner, near the fireplace. You will feel better."

I returned him a small smile and stood up from the place, made my way towards the fireplace and rested myself on another comfy chair, turned around. "I will have another cup of Black tea."

"Sure, coming in no time."

While I quietly sat near the warm fireplace, looking out from the big window, many different thoughts rushed my mind. These recent days were the most uncomfortable and filled with most unnatural events. William confronts that entity, devil. He lost one of his legs. The incident at the area of slaves near industrial area. And the whole Zora village and Mary incident.

"There you go friend." came the voice of an old man, yet again snapping me back from my thoughts.

I glanced towards him. He placed two more cups of the black tea and had a seat beside me.

"I remember you said, you have a customer to attend."

"Oh, maybe you didn't realise," he said. "Other workers have arrived, I'm the owner, of course, I don't do all of the work."

The person had a genuine smile which still tempted me to question myself if he is really friendly, or if he wanted something from me. He rested his back against the soft cushion of his chair and took his coffee cup from the tray. We talked about some random topics, our lives and friends. I purposely avoided mentioning William, cause I didn't want to make any bad move.

"So," he asked. "How is life in The Capital?"

"It's good," I smiled. "less chillier than this place."

"Did someone say The Capital?" came a soft female voice from behind me. The aged restaurant owner turned around and a big smile appeared on his old face.

"Rize!" he said in amusement. "Long time no see."

I turned around to get a glance at the person. Our eyes met and I froze in my place. She was a fair skinned lady dressed in black winter clothes, had a small notebook in her hands and big circular glasses resting on her nose. From the looks of it, I assumed she was around 20-25 years in age.

"Did someone say The Capital?" she repeated the question.

"Yes," said the old restaurant owner. "This friend, what's your name again?"

"George."

"George is from the Capital."

The woman quickly turned her head towards me and greeted me with a smile.

"Pleasure to meet you," she said. "Call me Rize, I'm from the Capital."

"Pleasure is mine." I smiled back.

I kind of glanced towards the old man, just to notice a slight appearance of a teasing smile on his face. He sat quietly for some time and observed both of us, Rize and me, then stood up from his seat and picked up the tray with empty beverage cups.

"I will leave both of you here," he said. "If you need anything, say my name."

The lady, Rize, nodded at the old man while he left at his counter, then stood up from her place and sat on the chair near the fireplace, in front of me.

"You know, how hard it is to talk to people in Ciria?" she said in a low voice.

"Why is it hard?" I questioned. "The man sitting here earlier is from here, he was really friendly with me."

"Well," she paused. "Not everyone from this place is as friendly as the restaurant owner."

"Why so?"

"This place, Ciria, experiences cold weather all year," she said. "In winters, this place's weather gets more extreme. So, people don't really stay in a good mood normally."

"Is that why you were happy to see me?"

"Um...yeah," she paused. "oh, don't get me wrong...it just feels really nice to have someone to talk,"

"Well, can't deny that."

"So, what do you do in the Capital?" she asked.

"I actually travel to different places, write about them." I lied. I was not sure what person could be trusted. In the situation I was in, it was best for me to not reveal much things, including my identity.

The woman paused and went quiet for a moment. And with every passing second, my curiosity increased to know what she must be thinking about me. She, quietly, looked at me with her curious face for a while.

"That...sounds interesting."

"Does it?"

"Yeah," she smiled back and her sight went from my face towards the fireplace, "meeting new people is fun."

She said and went quiet again, we both stared towards the fireplace, observed the furious red flames, engulfing the burning wood like they are wrapped around them, which made me remember the moment when William infused his arms with his dark energy.

His arms looked the same. His body was engulfed by those dark eerie-looking energies. Just like dark flames surrounding his body. He fought like a living form of a god, like a wicked warrier. His brain worked like a fast machine, he anticipated everything and everything was under his control...until that higher ranked showed up.

"Are you okay?" Rize said, snapping me back from my thoughts. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, um...I'm okay," my voice braked. "just some random thoughts."

"oh,"

"So, what do you do in the capital?" I asked.

"I am a researcher," she said with a smile. "I am from the Capital, but most of my work takes me to different places. And I too met many people."

"That's more interesting than just travelling around."

"Is it?"

"Yes," I replied. "At least, you have a reason to travel to different places. And, you know where you are going."

"I really appreciate the way you see that situation," she said in an amusing tone. "Most people think this profession as tiring with more efforts, less results."

"But knowing about different unexplained phenomena is what makes this profession more exciting," I said with a calm tone, to which she gave a genuine smile.

"So, what is your research about?" I asked, turning my chair towards her.

Rize tightened her warm clothes and turned her chair towards me.

"The research I am involved in right now is," she paused with a different expression. "a bit weird for the human mind to process."

"It won't be a problem for me." I said. "Trust me, I have witnessed some really strange, bizzare, non-ordinary situations lately."

The woman, Rize, stood up from her place and glanced towards the restaurant owner. She waited, standing, until the person looked at her.

"Two steaming hot coffee." she shouted as soon as the old man glanced back at her.

"I prefer black tea,"

"Make it one coffee and one black tea." she said, to which the man returned her a genuine smile and nodded his head. Rize took her seat back and her eyes revealed a feeling of comfortness and amusement.

"So, where should I begin?" she said, rubbing her hands for warmth.

"From the very first."

A glamorous charm appeared on her face. From the first look, she looked calm, and a person who really doesn't care about other people's business. She had that little talkative vibe in her tone, but not much for most to notice.

But on the other hand, It didn't took me long to notice, she was a sorcerer. At the time, I was really bad at distinguishing the energy manipulation arts and usage of Qi. But, her control over her Qi was not at its peak. She gave up her control for enough time that I would be able to predict her thinking ability.

One of the workers at the restaurant walked towards our place holding our orders. Placed those two cups on the small tea table beside our chairs. My eyes glanced towards the worker lady, just to notice a weird smile on her face while her eyes were stuck on me. She soon walked away and we took the cups.

"I know what those eyes wanted to say." Rize said with a teasing tone.

"You were saying something," I said, ignoring her words. "About your research?"

She quickly noticed how I, somehow, was able to change the conversation and she left the subject.

"Have you ever heard about the 'guardians'?" she asked.

"You mean the machines, which were discovered around thirty years ago?"

"Thirty-two years, to be precise." she corrected.

I appreciated her accuracy and her talking accent with a casual smile and said, "Yes, I know about them."

"Well, the records were misleading," she said, now with a slightly low voice. "Those were not discovered by humans. They somehow made their way to the surface and we have no idea how long they were inside."

"Then, who left them there?"

"Probably the last civilization," she casually said. "We don't know what the world was before the first Impact."

Hearing about the 'First Impact' made me even more curious about her. Not many people in this world, or at least in the continent, know about the genesis. Breaking my resting pose, my body subconsciously leaned forward, placing my right arm on the chair handle for support.

"You know about the genesis?"

"Why of course I do," she said. "As I said, I am a researcher."

She bent forward and grabbed her bag she was carrying. Opened the zippers, placing some papers aside, removed a descently old looking paper out from her diary. She looked around for some time and opened it in front of me.

"Look at this map," she said, placing the paper in my hand. "It took a lot of effort to get my hands on this."

My eyes ran all over the map, trying to make some sense out of it. She, realising that it went over my head, dragged her chair forward and explained the paper.

"This is an old map, probably centuries old," she said. "This map was unlabeled and landforms were different, except this mountain range. These mountains are labelled 'Himalayas' which, if seen geographically, totally resembles Mount Himi. Maybe that was their previous name."

"What are you trying to imply?"

"I traced this map on the current map of our continent and found all the locations which were scratched on this paper." she said, "and guess what, two of the places were found with these machines."

"So, you mean, one of the places mentioned here is on this mountain?" I asked. "And let me guess, you are here to find that place"

"I am," she said, "the town bus will--"

Before she completed her statement, there was a hooter sound from back followed by a bit of irritating engine sound, roaring in my ears. I turned back to have a look and noticed the blue and white coloured old bus arrived and stood before the place.

"The bus has arrived," she said. "You can join if you want. You came to travel anyways.'

"I should be fine here," I said and soon a thought licked my mind. We don't know the exact place where Steve wanted us to go. What if joining her makes the way for me?

I snapped myself back from thoughts, just to see that she was gone. I looked towards the town bus, and noticed her silently sitting by the window. I stood up from the seat and removed some currency slips from my jacket.

"Keep the change," I placed those on the counter and ran towards the bus. Not sooner had I entered the bus, the bus moved and with a jolt, I was pushed inside. I, balancing myself in the weirdly moving bus, walked inside towards her seat.

She looked at me with slightly angry expressions. "Thought you were willing to stay at the restaurant."

"I thought joining you would be fun," I answered. "Glad no one took the seat beside you."

"As I said, people from here are not very friendly with outlanders."

"You sound a little angry," I said. "everything okay?"

"Just felt down," Rize said. "when you denied the offer for the first time when I invited you to join me."

"Oh," I paused in embarrassment. "That's on me. I am terrible at reading people's feelings."

Rize looked a little annoyed at my statement. She sat quite and her sight directed on the road ahead and the scenery around it. She kind of reminded me of my Wife, Mary. By that time, after the Zora village incident, I learned to move on from her passing away. If only I was able to reach her in time. This one thought bugged me most of my life.

The old town bus went ahead, travelled throughout the town, showing different places in Ciria. I observed the town carefully, thinking about Steve's words. I noticed Rize glanced at me with a side eye, her eyes went back and forth between my face and the places outside the bus window. She tried not to get noticed so I pretended like I didn't see her actions.

Rize rested her head on my shoulders, which made me a little nervous. The vehicle took many stops in the way. Old passengers got off at their stops, new people entered the old travelling box. After a few more stops, Rize and I were the only people left in the bus. The ticket collector walked back and announced the next stop -- gates of himi.

"Not many people travel to mountains eh?" I said, breaking the silence.

"No one comes to the mountains," she said, sitting back straight on her seat. "Not in these winter days."

Rize stood up from the place and took her bag off the luggage compartment above the seats. She tightened her warm suit and rubbed her hands to warm up.

"I have an extra sweater if you want," she said. "I could have given my warm suit, but it will be small for you."

"No, I am fine in my clothes," I said. "My trench coat works surprisingly well in these conditions."

She smiled back to my reply and looked ahead towards the road. Soon, the town bus stopped with a jerk indicating we had arrived at our destination, the last stop on the bus list. We checked out our tickets and got off the bus. Soon, the bus turned around and drove away from the place.

"I remember the ticket person saying some kind of gate." I said, standing beside Rize.

"You see the broad spacious passage between the two exactly vertical sides of the mountains?" Rize pointed towards the mountains in front. "That is called the gate of Himi."

"Is it because the place looks like a broad and long naturally formed gate?"

"Exactly," she said and started walking ahead. "Come on, we should stay close and keep moving, or the weather will freeze us to death."

She walked forward and, according to her orders, I followed her, staying close to her. I assumed she came here before. I observed her taking all the precautions while keeping every single step forward. She was calm the whole time, studying and observing the whole time.

Her feets followed a pattern of steps while walking forward or even backward. I asked her and she explained me the technique of walking and the reason for walking in that way.

'There are enormous beasts, giant Ice Panthers, in this area and have developed a strong sensing ability, better than any human trained in reading Qi.' she had said to me. 'This technique of walking helps one to blend its life force with the natural moment of wind, so the energy emission gets close to zero, and does not alarm those beasts.'

'I don't possess any energy.' I had said to her once she was done.

She didn't respond to my words and we walked forward in silence, performing the particular pattern of steps. It was hard but my body, soon, got used to the movement.

"You are a sorcerer, aren't you?" I said, breaking the silence.

"And you did not come here to travel, right?"

"Um...don't get me wrong," I said, "I am fine with you being a sorcerer. I just wanted to hear it from you."

Rize sighed and stood quiet in her place. I stood in my place to not break our movement pattern and looked around. She turned back.

"Yes, I am a sorcerer, but still, it is the truth that I came here for research." She said, trying to keep her voice calm and Qi in control. "This is my last job for the organisation."

"You possess the mixture of cursed and dark energy," I said. "And, I won't be wrong if I assume you work for Steve Tradis, part of his secret spies which not many know about."

"You guessed it already huh?" She smiled back at me and the weight of the growing uncomfortableness felt like it vanished from my body. There was a moment of relief as the exchange of friendly smiles continued. "What about you?"

"I was admitted to EVA with my friend William," I confessed. "Steve ordered me to visit Mount Himi, not sure about the exact location."

"Good to know you are one of us," She said and, again, started walking forward. I followed her with the same movement pattern to blend in the natural energy flow.

Something about the place was strange. Rize and I walked this place for hours, but my body didn't feel the weakness or hunger or tiredness. Is it because of this place, or is it Rize's energy manipulation? I wondered. I looked around to see the exquisite view of the Ice capped marvelous mountain ranges, stretched as far as my sight could go.

"So," I said. "What do you think about this Icy world?"

"In brief, or in detail?"

"However you feel comfortable."

"Well," she began. "This icy world is spread across two countries, or kingdoms as most people call that. The temperature at night drops 90 degrees below normal body temperature. It's vast, terrifying, chilly...but undenyingly beautiful place. It's hard for me to get my eyes off this place when I come visit Ciria."

"Interesting how exquisitely you describe this cold, dangerous place."

With a small chuckling sound, she slid her arms in her warm suit pocket and walked forward. I kept thinking about her words, realised how this place, while being terrifying, is truly a nature's masterpiece. Even normal frozen trees looked like shining jewels.

"There is a cliff ahead at the end of this lake," she said. "There is a small pathway to descend down to the ground. There is the place we are searching for."

She said, and I, without saying a word, followed her behind. She casually walked ahead on the frozen water of the lake. I first hesitated, but looking at Rize, went forward and walked behind her. The frozen lake was yet another piece of art created by nature. Frozen clear water made it look like a big sheet of clean glass, and the bubbles trapped below the surface of water looked like the diamonds trapped in that glass.

"About the ancient machines," Rize said. "Those are not normal machines. They look like ancient humanoids with a fire breathing face."

"Fire breathing face?"

"Yes, the humanoids found in previous places had their head slots hollow from inside," she said. "One of them was awakened and went on rampage, the horizontal gaps on its face shone bright red and folded inside revealing some lava-like substance inside. Which, it released like a flame beam towards the research equipment."

"Then how did you stop them?"

"I did not," she said. "I was lucky, Steve arrived in time and broke the humanoid into pieces with his divine energy. But he also said, 'the material these machines are made from does not exist on the elements table, their existence is unknown and they have extreme explosive strength'."

"How strong?"

"Strong enough to destroy a country, if they went on rampage." she said. "According to him, they were placed at particular locations throughout the continent to guard the Dimensional seal."

We crossed the frozen lake and Rize walked under a non-frozen tree nearby. She looked a little exhausted, I was able to sense her breath reducing and her body falling for the cold. She rested her back against the dry bark of the tree and I took a seat beside her.

"So," I asked. "What is dimensional seal?"

"oh...okay," she calmed herself. "During the genesis, when laylines were disturbed, some places acted like a hotspot of energy emission, connecting many different realities at a single point. Old records say, that's how these dark entities entered this reality."

"oh."

"And then," she paused, exhaling her breath, "these humanoids appeared out of nowhere and stood around those hotspots. So, we assumed they are there to guard the Dimensional seal from open again."

Rize stood up from her place and started walking, her legs trembled in the cold and she crouched. I stood up and held her tight to her shoulders.

"I can walk."

"No you can't," I protested, "and we both know that."

I removed my small bag out of my trench coat and removed a syringe out of it.

"What are you doing?"

"I was an army doctor before joining EVA," I said. "Trust me I know what I am doing."

I used the syringe on her arm and kept the empty tube inside, threw away the used needle. I grabbed her back with one arm and her legs with the other to lift her up.

"There was no need of doing this," she said. "some rest and I would have been just fine."

"I remember you said, we can't stop in one place." I replied. "The place we are looking for is near, I'll carry you there."

I softly grabbed her close to me and started moving towards the edge of the cliff. That was the place where we would get a better view of the whole humanoid resting place. My heart thumped in excitement as the cliff was getting closer.

As we approached the edge of the cliff, my excitement changed in the shock as my eyes showed fear in them. Rize's eyes widened looking down, towards the place.

That day, we found those deadly machines-- humanoids made of unknown material. Except...those machines would no longer function, or even protect the dimensional seal. All the humanoids, those around 40 feets large deadly machines, were lifted in the air. White coloured massive sword-like-structures were stabbed in their human-shaped body, piercing their bodies. They were massacred with these giant white swords.

"Who...how can this happen?" Rize said in shock.

"Maybe some higher rank did..."

"These are humanoids, destroyer machines with alien technology," Rize protested. "Each one of them individually has the potential to annihilate the whole country. It's not possible to kill them, even for higher ranks. Steve was lucky to, somehow, temporarily turn off that machine that day."

While she explained to me their potential, my eyes went over the whole situation. There was a gigantic circular flower-like structure carved on the land, and a big stone tablet stood in the very middle.

Is that what they call a 'dimension seal'? I asked myself.

I kept her down on the ground and removed a hologram recorder from my small bag. Tightened my trench coat and waistcoat inside it. And looked in Rize's eyes.

"Do not leave this place," I said. "and record the whole image projection."

"Don't go close to that seal."

"We won't know the situation otherwise."

"Then I should be the one to go." she protested back. "This was a job assigned to me."

"I would have allowed you if your health was okay," I lied. "The syringe will take around two hours to show recovery. I will be the one to go."

I said and turned my face. I heard her shouting my name from the back but I didn't stop. This kind of destruction was impossible even for the higher ranks. I wanted to get at the bottom of this. And the only potential way was to observe that dimensional seal.

As I approached the border of the giant flower, carved on ground. I noticed a small amount of light emitting from the ancient words, carved on the seal. An intense spark ran over my body and Rize quickly started the hologram recorder in her hand, facing the lens toward the site. The shine on the words carved on the mural slightly increased as the natural flow of the wind changed. And there appeared a strange sinister voice :

"Childrens of Genesis... divine vessels of the Genesis born with silver-white hairs," The voice said. "all they care about is the cycle of genesis. The cost we have to pay for it means nothing in their eyes. So this is my vow in the name of my dead family... All the divine vessels will die." the voice roared all over the place haunting every part of me.

The glow of the carving on the stone tablet faded as the words roared in the sinister voice stopped. The wind currents went back to normal and everything went calm.

My eyes widened and my body shivered in fear. Goosebumps appeared all over the body as I tried to process what just happened.

The intensity, rage and weight of that voice?! I said to myself, "They are not resurrecting anymore...they are already here."