Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 70 - Mora

The temperature began dropping as they flew north. Ice crystals formed on the ship’s rails, and so the crew broke out heavy cloaks. Mora was a frigid region, easily averaging below zero at this time of year. "There." Valeria called out. "Mora."

The island was mostly white, due to the ever-present snowfall. It was roughly shaped like the letter ’C’, with countless glaciers and smaller pieces of land floating within the gap. Several patches of snowy forest could be spotted despite the frost, and the northern end was jagged with sudden vertical rises. Various structures dotted the landscape, mostly concentrated within a town towards the bottom left end.

"Beautiful." Jin breathed.

"Cold." Elara corrected.

"Both," Valeria said firmly. "But the cold won’t be a problem for us. Right?"

"Right." Elara gave a small nod of agreement.

The ship descended toward Amumu, the only town on Mora. As they prepared to dock, Lumi pulled up his interface to check messages. A new one from Lena made him smile.

[Lena: Alright, I internalized what you said! Ready to be the best disaster this world has ever seen! But like, a helpful disaster! A disaster for evil! Gonna follow the quests you told me to. Don’t worry, I’m a good girl. I do the right things, get the right results! Right? Right! Anyways, fairy academy, here I come!]

He sent back a quick reply.

[Lumi: That’s an easy one. Even without my info, you’d be able to do it, easily. All you have to do is not be racist against humans. Which like, obviously you aren’t.]

[Lena: Sir yes sir! Thank you for the praise! It’s a bit harder than what you said but I’ll do it easy! It’s kinda funny because the fairies are racist! Who would have ever thought of that?

Racist fairies? It’s kinda funny.

Hey, but they are pretty cute! Good thing I know the truth. If I was still thinking like before, well.. players do messed up things, don’t they?]

"What happened?" Marcus asked, noticing Lumi’s smile.

"Just thinking of my girlfriend."

"Ah, young love." Jin sighed dramatically. "I remember my first slime. We didn’t last. I was lightning, it was water. You can imagine how that went."

"Please don’t romanticize slimes." Zara requested quietly. "It’s disturbing."

"Everything’s disturbing to you, Shadow Lady."

"Yes. Everything you do is disturbing. That’s why I hide in the shadows. To avoid disturbing things. Like you."

Their banter continued as they docked, but Lumi’s mind was already racing ahead. Somewhere in Mora’s frozen wastes, everything awaited.

Everything.

Rena didn’t share her story exactly. Or if she did, he didn’t hear about it all.

But as far as he knew...

Rena was sealed deep inside a cursed ice, one the size of a glacier.

The curse rendered it hard, so hard that a dent could barely be made in it. A group of penguins had been working on mining it. Not because they knew Rena was inside, but because within that ice, on the shallower ends of it, were several powerful artifacts.

If that was all, nothing would be so complicated. Unfortunately...

Lumi closed his eyes. He shuddered as he began to remember the past. He had seen it himself. The fall of Mora. Countless had seen it, not because they were there, but because Rena had forced the memory upon hundreds of thousands so that the population grew enraged and ready for war!

Visions of countless slaughtered seals flashed through his mind. Visions of penguins burning at the stake. The citizens of Mora paraded around on pikes...

"Mommy help!" A young seal begged for salvation as she ran away.

Bang!

A fireball exploded near them, severely injuring them.

"No!" The mother seal desperately held on to their child, only for them to suddenly experience a sharp pain as they were kicked to the ground and their child ripped from their flippers.

A cruel man, wearing a Wings of Darkness Officer’s uniform stood above her, crushing her into the ground underneath his boot. He gave a cruel smile. "Oh, sorry, was this your disgusting seal spawn?"

In a sudden flash of light, he had cut the young seal’s head off. He stared down into the seal mothers eyes, watching the unadulterated sorrow and despair as she realized her child was dead.

He licked his lips.

... 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Lumi shuddered as he forced himself to stop reliving the memory, then he composed himself. He narrowed his eyes. This time, he would personally make sure that future would not come to pass.

The ship landed on a small port on the bottom right of the island, a little ways away from Amumu. Although it was a nautical port, Herene’s airships could still sail the way actual ships could.

Lumi took his first step out onto the frigid landscape. Looking around, it was white all around, with other colors in the direction of the city.

Veleria joined him next. "We are here. Where to now?"

Lumi gestured towards the town. "First, to town. Then, there is someone we must find."

The team made their way through the snow-covered paths toward Amumu, their boots crunching against the endless snow with each step.

The cold was biting, but it was just that.

It didn’t take too many levels to be resistant to the elements, as long as the elements were relatively normal. As they crested a small hill, the town came into view, and Lumi heard several of his companions draw in surprised breaths.

Although Marcus may have been used to it, Amumu was unlike any settlement the others had seen before. While the architecture bore clear human influences such as wooden buildings with steep roofs designed to shed snow, and smoke rising from countless chimneys, the streets were filled with an unusual sight.

Penguins waddled between market stalls, conducting business with the same seriousness as any human merchant. There were seals lounged near the harbor, engaged in animated discussions. All throughout, humans mingled freely with these talking animals as if it were the most natural thing in the world.