Infinite Classes in the Apocalypse

Chapter 70: Black Mountain

Two days before the plan to capture the Citadel was to take place.

The last three and a half weeks had been extremely busy for Damon’s group.

They just left their twenty-first rift, and now they were heading straight for the next one.

’We still have two days, may as well make them last,’ Damon reasoned to himself.

Beside him walked Nyla. She was currently at level 34 and wore both the metal chestpiece and the metal boots she had crafted herself, but alongside those two, she also wore countless bracelets, rings and necklaces, each one a relic she made herself.

She was the strongest of the group, by a large margin. Her ability to craft relics turned out to be only better with time, and now, with all the relics she had, the second strongest of the group, Elias, who was already at level 33, could not compete with her in any stat.

Speaking of which, Elias became a very capable member of the team. If Damon needed someone to take leadership of the group while he engaged the most dangerous threats, he was the man he turned to.

Behind Damon and walking beside Elias, were the twins. Both were at level 30, and their shield abilities improved just like Damon needed them to, enough so to make him confident in blocking the initial barrage of arrows when they finally siege the Citadel.

Walking half a step behind them was Amber. Her class was as confusing to Damon as it was to her enemies, but it lacked one thing, offensive capability, which resulted in her lower level when compared to the rest of the group. She was at level 27.

They already knew where they were going as they spotted the rift they were headed towards a few days ago. But because it was a C-Rank and the twins were recovering from their injuries, they opted out of taking on a D-Rank rift first and let them recover.

"Boss, I think it looks bigger than last time," Nyla commented as they approached.

Damon, of course, had already noticed it, and so did Kitsune, who sat on his shoulder in her fox form.

He hesitated for a moment.

It was clear to him what that meant, the rift was close to expanding and evolving to a higher rank.

’What do you think?’ Damon asked Kitsune through their connection.

"I’d say it has about a day."

One day. Their time was already limited, and with no other rifts nearby, that would mean heading back to the Central Station two days earlier.

’We can close it in time,’ Damon thought to himself before glancing back toward his group.

"Let’s go,"

In an instant, everyone’s expression changed into pure resolve as they followed Damon into the rift.

The change of environment felt oddly slower this time, the void between it lasted for a few moments rather than being an instantaneous change.

Dark jagged peaks were the first thing Damon came to see, followed by patches of ash-grey and black snow, followed by gales of wind that howled like tortured souls. The landscape stretched before them like a nightmare made manifest, all sharp edges and unnatural darkness.

The cold bit a moment later, terribly freezing, but there was also something familiar about that coldness, something Damon had felt before.

Around him, his group arrived.

"Brrr! It’s so cold!" Nyla exclaimed, shivering the moment she arrived.

After taking a quick glance at her, there was no wonder why the girl was cold. Her chestpiece armour, shorts and a pair of long metal boots left plenty of her golden brown skin exposed to the biting wind.

Though Damon doubted the change of attire would have changed much, as the others, although better dressed and wearing multiple layers of clothing, also shivered at the unnatural cold.

Through heavy patches of black snow, Damon could clearly see the broken lines scattered across the sky and coalescing in the direction the rift core was. The fractures in reality itself pointed the way like a twisted compass.

’At least there won’t be a problem locating the core,’ he thought.

The loud howls of the wind sounded like screams, the way it crashed against the black mountain was like a shriek of a dying animal.

Despite the artificial daytime, the black snow and ice seemed to almost devour the light. Looking down at their surroundings, it was hard to tell whether it was day or night. The darkness clung to everything, refusing to be dispelled.

After taking a quick glance at his group and confirming they were there, Damon already began moving. Every second counted now.

The sky offered a clear direction toward the rift core, and he wasn’t about it waste it.

They squeezed through the winding mountain passages, stuck between the ice-covered rocks on one side and a treacherous slope with a fall so deep they couldn’t see the bottom on the other. One wrong step would send them plummeting into an abyss that seemed to have no end.

The first twenty minutes were peaceful, until now.

Damon frowned.

Despite nobody in the group talking, a low whisper seemed to hang between them, an unmistakable sound of someone, or something, speaking. The words were incomprehensible, but the malice behind them was crystal clear.

It became louder with each step before it suddenly stopped.

The silence that followed was worse than the whispers.

"Behind!" Damon called out, feeling a presence appear behind them.

Everyone ducked just in time to avoid the black, shadowy figure that tore through the air where they had stood just a second ago.

WHOOSH!

It dashed past them, stopping a few meters ahead of them. Its black, half-translucent body floated above the black mountain path. It had no legs, just long twisted arms that ended in claws of frozen darkness and a face of complete darkness with no eye sockets or any features other than a mouth filled with jagged black ice-like teeth.

Despite its lack of eyes, it watched them for a moment, its eyeless gaze somehow more terrifying than if it had actually had them.

Then it let out a deafening shriek and charged forward.