They did not linger. Comfort had no place on the Forbidden Island, and hesitation felt dangerous in a way neither of them could properly explain. Somewhere ahead, Linoa and Lucien were still fighting to survive — and every delay felt like time stolen from them.
The mountains swallowed them once more.
Narrow paths carved through jagged stone guided their ascent along the island’s broken spine. With every step, the world seemed to grow harsher. The air thinned, warm despite the altitude, carrying a faint metallic taste that clung to the back of their throats. Scars marked the terrain everywhere — shattered ridges, gouges torn deep into the rock, entire slopes collapsed as if struck by forces far beyond anything the boys could imagine.
Distant cries echoed between the peaks.
Not calls of territory.
Not hunting signals.
Something closer to warnings.
Still, they pressed on.
Hours later, the path curved sharply downward before opening onto a natural stone balcony. Both boys stepped forward — and stopped.
Before them rose a mountain unlike anything they had ever seen.
The Mountain Rokh.
It dominated the horizon, a colossal pillar of dark stone piercing upward through the cavernous vault of the world. It did not merely rise higher than the surrounding peaks — it dwarfed them, its slopes vanishing into distant shadow where faint clusters of embedded Stars shimmered far above like frozen constellations.
The scale defied comprehension.
The air itself felt heavier here, pressing subtly against their chests, as if the mountain possessed a presence rather than mere mass.
Adlet swallowed slowly.
“…This has to be it.”
Polo nodded, unable to look away. “The Mountain Rokh… Back home, elders used to tell stories about peaks that nearly reached the Stars.” He exhaled quietly. “I thought they were exaggerating.”
They weren’t.
As they descended toward its immense base, an uneasy sensation crept over them — not fear exactly, but the feeling of approaching something ancient. Something aware.
And then the world changed.
At first, it was subtle.
The distant Apex cries faded. The oppressive pressure shifted. Movement appeared along the lower slopes — smaller shapes, quicker motions where none should have existed this high.
Adlet noticed it first.
A Granite Serpent slithered across their path, its rank unmistakable the moment its stony scales scraped against the gravel.
Rank 2.
Here?
The creature struck without hesitation.
Adlet reacted instinctively. Green Aura snapped outward, the Bind Lizard tail cracking through the air with sharp, explosive strikes. Stone fragments chipped away under repeated impacts as the serpent recoiled, hissing. When it lunged again, Adlet stepped inside its reach, Aura coiling tightly around his fists.
One decisive exchange.
A precise blow beneath its jaw shattered the core hidden under its armor, and the serpent collapsed in a spray of dust and broken stone.
Silence returned almost immediately.
Too quickly.
They continued upward, unease growing with every step.
A shadow swept overhead.
A Gliding Volt Condor dove from above, lightning sparking between its talons as it targeted Polo. He barely shifted aside before the first strike tore sparks from the rock. The second came faster — predatory, precise.
Blue Aura flared.
Tentacles unfurled and snapped outward, wrapping around the condor’s wings mid-flight. Momentum betrayed the creature as Polo twisted sharply, dragging it into a spiraling crash against the mountainside. The impact echoed across the cliffs.
Before it could recover, his Aura tightened.
A single controlled strike ended the fight.
The wind carried away the last crackle of fading electricity.
They stood still afterward.
Watching.
Farther along the slopes, other Apexes lingered — watching them from a distance. None approached. None challenged.
They simply withdrew.
Adlet wiped dust from his arm, breathing slowly. “Lower ranks… this close to the biggest mountain?”
Polo’s expression darkened as realization settled in.
“They’re not supposed to be here,” he said quietly. “They’re being pushed down. Forced out.”
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His gaze lifted toward the towering peak above them.
Which means…
He didn’t finish.
He didn’t need to.
Something stronger ruled the heights.
Something powerful enough to reshape the entire ecosystem around it.
The boys exchanged a silent look.
Then, without another word, they began the ascent toward the Mountain Rokh.
The climb up the Mountain Rokh was unlike anything they had faced before.
The path was barely a path at all — only a narrow ribbon of fractured stone clinging to the mountainside. On one side rose an endless wall of dark rock; on the other, open air plunged into a dizzying abyss swallowed by shadow.
The wind never stopped.
It tore at their clothes, screamed through the cracks in the stone, and rose in long, hollow moans that almost sounded like distant voices. Each step demanded absolute focus. Loose gravel shifted beneath their boots, skittering over the edge and vanishing soundlessly into the depths below.
There was nowhere to hide.
Nowhere to retreat.
And the higher they climbed, the stronger the feeling became.
They were not alone.
Adlet slowed slightly, eyes scanning the cliffs above.
“…Feels like something’s watching.”
Polo didn’t answer immediately. His gaze remained fixed upward, tense.
“…Not just watching,” he said at last. “Waiting.”
The words lingered between them.
Time stretched. Minutes blurred into hours. The mountain offered no sound but wind and stone — yet the silence felt deliberate, oppressive, like held breath.
Then—
GRRRRRRMMMBLE.
The vibration came through their feet first.
A deep grinding tremor rolled through the mountainside, low and immense. Pebbles began to jump. Dust trickled downward from above.
Adlet looked up.
And the sky disappeared.
A colossal boulder loomed overhead, its massive bulk slowly tipping past the cliff’s edge. It hung there for one impossible heartbeat — balanced, motionless.
Not falling.
Waiting.
Then gravity claimed it.
Adlet and Polo locked eyes.
No words.
Aura erupted.
Scarlet light exploded outward as Adlet thrust both hands upward. A Ruby Turtle carapace surged into existence before them — larger than ever before, crystalline plates locking together in a radiant shield that burned beneath the dim glow of the Stars.
Polo moved instantly.
Four massive blue Aura tentacles slammed into the stone around them, anchoring deep into cracks, coiling around the shield to brace it.
And then—
IMPACT.
BOOOOOM—!!
The world detonated.
The boulder crashed into their defense with catastrophic force. Shockwaves tore through the cliffside. Dust and shattered fragments blasted outward, stealing the air from their lungs.
The shield screamed.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the ruby surface.
Stone beneath their feet fractured.
Adlet’s arms shook violently as unbearable weight drove downward. Pain surged through his shoulders.
“N—not enough—!”
“Switch! NOW!” Polo shouted.
The red Aura shattered away.
Black erupted in its place.
The Scarab’s power flooded Adlet’s body — dense, brutal strength roaring through muscle and bone. He planted his feet and pushed upward with everything he had left.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the boulder shifted.
A fraction.
Polo reacted instantly, tentacles wrenching sideways, redirecting the momentum.
The massive stone rolled.
Tilted.
And finally tipped over the edge, vanishing into the abyss below with a thunder that faded into nothingness.
Silence crashed down afterward.
Only the wind remained.
Both boys stood frozen, breathing hard, arms trembling from strain.
Polo wiped sweat from his brow with a shaking hand.
“…If every climb is like this, I’m asking for new legs when we get home.”
Adlet let out a breathless laugh. “If the mountain wants us dead… it’ll have to try harder.”
Polo raised an eyebrow. “Pretty sure it just did.”
For a fleeting second, the tension eased.
Then the sky screamed.
A piercing cry cut through the wind — sharp enough to freeze the blood in Adlet’s veins.
Both boys slowly looked up.
At first, he saw only white.
A massive head leaned over the cliff above them — feathers pure as frost, eyes pale and piercing, impossibly intelligent. It watched them without hostility.
Without urgency.
Only curiosity.
Then the creature unfolded.
Wings spread.
And spread again.
Three elegant pairs unfurled one after another, vast arcs of white spanning nearly twelve meters across. Feathers shimmered faintly beneath the distant Stars, each movement impossibly graceful for something so enormous.
The air itself seemed to bow around it.
It had never hidden.
It had been there the entire time.
Watching.
Judging.
The Rokh Falcon tilted its head slightly, studying them — the same way one might examine an unfamiliar tool.
Or prey worth remembering.
Then, with a single powerful beat of its wings, it launched skyward. Wind exploded downward as it ascended in a spiraling climb along the mountain’s flank, vanishing into higher layers of stone and shadow.
Only the echo of its cry remained.
Adlet realized he had stopped breathing.
“…That thing…”
“A Rokh Falcon,” Polo whispered. Awe and dread mixed in his voice. “A young one.”
Adlet blinked. “Young?”
Polo nodded slowly, eyes still fixed upward.
“Only juveniles behave like that. Curious. Playful.”
His gaze dropped toward the abyss where the boulder had fallen.
“…The rock wasn’t random.”
Understanding settled heavily between them.
It had tested them.
Adlet swallowed. “If that was curiosity… I don’t want to meet the parent.”
Polo let out a weak laugh. “At least now we know one thing.”
“What?”
“We’re going the right way.”
Adlet stared toward the impossible heights still waiting above them. The climb suddenly felt different — not just dangerous, but deliberate.
As if the mountain itself had acknowledged their presence.
He clenched his fists.
“Then we keep going.”
Polo nodded.
Together, they resumed the ascent — two small figures climbing toward a domain ruled by creatures that measured strength not by survival…
…but by worth.
The path ahead was steep.
Treacherous.
Unforgiving.
And neither of them hesitated.
This was the climb that would decide everything.
Every voice echoes through the stone, shaping the secrets it holds.
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