Chapter 62: Notorious Awakened.
Seris clapped her hands excitedly, her eyes practically sparkling.
Damien never understood why women found it so fascinating whenever someone was about to find true love. Personally, he would’ve hated to watch something that preposterous unfold right in front of him.
"That’s basically it. Now I’m trying to help him pull off a grand romantic gesture, but first we need information. What’s her favourite food, favourite flower, favourite fruit, hobbies, childhood memories... anything that might be useful."
Seris shook her head apologetically.
"I don’t really know Jessie that well. She hardly ever opens up to anyone and mostly keeps to herself. We only really talk whenever someone gets injured."
Just as Damien and Ryan were about to give up, Seris suddenly raised a finger, as though she had only just remembered something.
"Although I can’t really help you with information about Jessie... I do know a romantic gesture you could try. It’s something the high-level Awakened do for the people they love."
Both Damien and Ryan instinctively paused.
Ryan’s eyes lit up with hope, while Damien silently prepared himself for whatever absurd nonsense was about to come out of Seris’ mouth. The two of them gave her their full attention, but as she continued speaking, Damien’s expression gradually became more and more twisted.
"You could bring her Eternal Love Lilies. They’re really beautiful frozen flowers that only grow at the highest peak in camp. Ordinary Awakened can’t make it that far up, so over time, the stronger Awakened started giving them to their partners. They’ve kind of become a symbol of love... and strength. Since both of you are high-level Awakened, getting them should be twice as easy."
The corner of Damien’s eye twitched.
"This is exactly why I do my absolute best to avoid lovebirds... For the sake of the investigation... damn it, Vincent. You owe me one."
...
Damien brought his wheelchair to a slow stop.
Towering before them stood a mountain so impossibly tall that its peak disappeared completely into a sea of grey clouds. Jagged walls of black stone rose almost vertically into the heavens, ancient sheets of ice clinging stubbornly to its surface as though they had become part of the mountain itself. Even from the foot of it, the freezing wind rolling down the cliffs bit into exposed skin.
Damien slowly raised his head.
"So... this is the highest peak in camp."
His gaze continued climbing the mountain until it disappeared into the clouds.
The distance alone was enough to explain why ordinary Awakened never came here. Even without taking whatever creatures lurked higher up into consideration, simply reaching the summit would’ve been impossible for most people. It wasn’t a climb. It was a death sentence.
Damien quietly rubbed his forehead.
"You’ve got to be kidding me".
He glanced sideways at Ryan.
Ryan was casually standing beside him with an enormous boulder of ice resting across one shoulder. Embedded above it were hundreds of pale blue flowers, their crystalline petals frozen beneath layers of clear ice.
Ryan noticed Damien staring.
"I already went up, I wasn’t sure how many Eternal Love Lilies we’d need... so I just removed the peak and brought it down."
Damien stared at him for several long seconds.
"Well damn. There really is more to this guy’s Dormant Ability than blinding people and killing them... And why does everyone I meet have ridiculous physical strength? First Chad, then Leslie, now Ryan".
Damien slowly shook his head. At least that problem had solved itself.
He pushed his wheelchair forward again before finally glancing sideways at Ryan.
"Why are you covered in blood?"
Ryan, who had been casually walking beside him all this time with the massive ice boulder balanced on one shoulder, answered in the same plain tone.
"There was a man-bird creature up there."
"Oh." Damien responded lightly.
After a brief pause, Ryan spoke again.
"It’s the creature’s blood, by the way."
Damien didn’t even look at him.
"I figured, Ryan."
...
Damien rolled calmly through the snow as though nothing was out of the ordinary. Ryan walked quietly beside him with the same indifferentness. Resting on one shoulder, however, was an enormous chunk of frozen mountain, easily several times larger than a carriage.
People gradually stopped whatever they were doing.
Conversations died midway through. People carrying supplies instinctively stepped aside, their eyes drifting toward the impossible boulder balanced on Ryan’s shoulder. Even several members of the scouting parties stared blankly as the two calmly passed through camp, unable to understand why someone had apparently decided to relocate part of a mountain.
Before long, the familiar rows of medical tents came back into view.
Seris was just finishing wrapping fresh bandages around a young survivor’s arm when she noticed the two approaching. A cheerful smile immediately spread across her face, but the moment her eyes shifted past Damien and landed on Ryan.
Her smile froze.
Then her eyes slowly widened.
She stared at the enormous slab of mountain resting on Ryan’s shoulder before slowly looking back at the two of them.
Seris remained completely speechless.
She had expected Ryan to bring back a single Eternal Love Lily. Instead. They had apparently brought the mountain peak with them.
Her gaze drifted back toward the towering block of ice.
"I should’ve expected something like this with you around, Damien."
Damien almost jumped out of his wheelchair.
"What? How is this my fault?" He immediately pointed at Ryan. "He’s the freak of nature that decided to renovate an entire mountain in less than a second."
Ryan awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.
He had never been the type to flaunt his strength. Most of the time, he deliberately held himself back so he wouldn’t intimidate the people around him. But for some reason, Damien never seemed afraid of him. He spoke to Ryan the same way he spoke to everyone else, without the slightest hint of caution or reverence.
Without even realizing it, Ryan had gradually stopped restraining himself, after all. Damien was a notorious awakened himself.