The desert surrendered to jagged, wind-carved canyons, and the canyons rose into formidable, snow-dusted peaks. The air grew thin and sharp, tasting of stone and ice. Elara's shard-compass, which had pulsed steadily across the wastes, now throbbed with an almost frantic intensity, pointing like a divining rod toward the highest, most forbidding ridge.
And there, impossibly, was the castle. It wasn't a fairy-tale spire, it was a fortress hewn from the mountain's own bones, its walls rising seamlessly from the cliff face, its banners, depicting a stylized, stoic mountain goat, snapping in the gale. It was a declaration of power and isolation.
Getting there required leaving the hoverboard at a guarded outpost and ascending a narrow, treacherous switchback path. Zhèn led, his mountain-born balance making the climb look easy. Blitz zipped ahead, scouting perches, then zipping back with reports. Elara, gritting her teeth against the altitude and the cold, followed, her pack of shards humming against her back like a hive of anxious bees.
They were met at the colossal iron gates not by robots, but by grim-faced guards in fur-lined armor, carrying halberds tipped with polished obsidian. Word of their approach had clearly been sent ahead.
The throne room was a cavernous space, warmed by massive fireplaces and lit by flickering torchlight. At its far end, on a throne carved from a single block of smoky quartz, sat the Mountain King. He was a man as formidable as his domain, with a beard like a snowdrift threaded with black ice, and eyes that held the patient, measuring weight of glaciers. His gaze swept over them, lingering not on Elara or the vibrating pack, but on the hoverboard Zhèn carried respectfully at his side.
The King leaned forward, his voice a low rumble that filled the hall. "That device you carry, boy. The grav-board. Did you get it from Kael Jin?"
Zhèn blinked, surprised. He bowed. "Yes, sir. He gave it to me. As a gift, for helping him."
A booming laugh erupted from the King, shaking dust from the rafters. "Hahaha! Well, I'll be a stone-giant's uncle!" He slapped the arm of his throne. "Kael is my father! The old fox, giving away my daughter's things!" The laughter softened into a warm, proud smile. "So, what brings Hanzo's boy and his... unusual friends... to my doorstep?"
Elara stepped forward, emboldened. "We're searching for Celestial Shards, your majesty. And our guide," she held up the softly pulsing shard in her hand, "says the next one is here. Inside your castle."
The Mountain King's bushy eyebrows rose. He gestured, and a servant brought forth a small, iron-bound chest. The King opened it. Inside, nestled on raw silk, was another shard, its light a cool, steady white, like starlight on snow. "This? Been in the vault for centuries. A family heirloom. Said to be a piece of the mountain's heart." He looked from the shard to Elara's determined face, to Zhèn's honest eyes. "My father owes you his life. That is a debt this mountain repays. The shard is yours. Take it."
Elara and Zhèn retrieved the shard with quiet thanks. In a side chamber, as it joined the others in her pack, Elara counted softly. "Five. We have five. He has the Stone and at least one..."
The King wouldn't hear of them leaving. "Night falls fast and cruel on the peaks. You'll stay. Feast. Rest. You've earned the hospitality of Stonehaven."
The feast was a hearty, noisy affair, roasted meats, root vegetables, dark bread. Zhèn, unused to such a crowd, ate quietly but earnestly. It was then that a side door opened, and a young woman entered. She was around Zhèn's age, with dark hair braided intricately and eyes the color of the mountain twilight. This was Mei-Li, the King's granddaughter, the original owner of the hoverboard.
Her gaze found Zhèn immediately. She saw the quiet strength in his posture, the respectful way he listened to her grandfather, the humble power that had drawn Kael Jin's trust. She saw him not as a weapon or a tool, but as a steady, unmovable force a quality utterly foreign in the political scheming of mountain holds. As their eyes met across the hall, a faint, surprised blush touched her cheeks, and she quickly looked away, a secret smile playing on her lips. For Mei-Li, raised among posturing warriors and tedious diplomats, the boy from the hidden temple was something entirely new, and her heart, with the sudden, certain force of an avalanche, decided it was fascinated.
Far from the firelit halls of Stonehaven, in the sterile, angular heart of his flying command carrier, Dr. Victor Circuit studied his own array of glowing shards. Two new ones had joined his collection, acquired through ruthless, remote strikes on isolated monasteries and shielded vaults his drones had pinpointed. They pulsed on the display before him: one, his original prize from the lake, another a deep emerald green, the last a fiery orange. Beside them, the main Celestial Stone glowed with a greedy, hungry light.
His smile was no longer one of smug superiority, but of cold, calculated patience. His monitors showed the energy signatures of five shards, clustered together, moving slowly through the mountain range. The girl and her brute were collecting them with irritating efficiency.
"Five for them. Three for me, plus the core," he mused, stroking the Stone. "Chasing them across the globe is inefficient. They are drawn to the shards. And the final shard..." He pulled up a map, zooming in on a location buzzing with catastrophic energy readings. "The final shard is in the one place no one in their right mind would go. The Stormguard Depths."
He leaned back, steepling his fingers. Let them wear themselves out gathering the pieces. Let them brave the horrors of the Depths to retrieve the last fragment. All he had to do was wait at the finish line, where the leylines converged at the Black Zenith Spire, the only place where the Stone could be made whole again. He would be the spider at the center of the web, rested, prepared, while they arrived battered and exhausted.
"It's easier to let the mice bring the cheese to the trap," he said to the empty room, his reflection smiling back at him from the dark glass. He began deploying his remaining forces not to hunt, but to herd, to subtly nudge the troublesome group towards their final, fatal destination. The game had entered its final stage, and Dr. Circuit was content to let his opponents do the hard work, right before he took everything from them.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOMSXkdcffV
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