Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 176

Thinking back now we were lucky to have chosen that gate, new and young and still small and nothing compared to the gigantic one in the mountain, with a demon at the front to boot, this one could only allow smaller creatures out and did not have a lot of space inside, otherwise we may have gotten lost and wasted a lot of time, if not being fried to death too that is.

I don’t want to even start describing the place, but one for sure is that it is the completely opposite of my late home in the woods, it is not inviting at all and it is really, really hot, almost as if someone had built these structures inside an active volcano.

Although not big, the interior would be enough to fry someone alive very quickly, so I have to use my own magic to create a protection shield around us against the environment, which only adds to the pressure as I can feel the heat pulsating on the edges of my barrier.

The image around us is twisting and spinning from the hot gases and the shear heat in the place, the effect stronger the closer the air gets to the river of lava around, looking like the inside of a cave’s close up structure with cascading and pouring lava from the stones on the side, flowing blazingly down into a huge lake of thick magma where an impossible to be at structure that was doomed to be consumed by the heat just by the place it had been built is at, with some decay already showing as the many stone bridges that formed a star pattern around it had already fallen here and there.

I fly over it all. We are not here to take the scenarios, nor to explore the many breaching caves that connected to this massive thick tower in the middle.

And yet, as I kept a sharp eye for movement and anything unpredictable, I see that, amongst the red bright slow moving magma, are Ethan’s brothers and sisters, the poor souls doomed to an early death and forced undead eternity of servitude, slowly advancing through the lava, their bodies made of fire and flame and fury spreading through the paths, probably trying to find the exact same entry we have just pass by to the outside.

I just hope they get lost in this labyrinth of tunnels forever, otherwise Lewis will be easily overwhelmed by the sheer amount of them.

We find the exit soon after, and with it an even more reason to keep going instead of worrying about the outside, because soon as I find the red door peeking over from inside the halls of the tower, shinning out of its glassless tall and short windows, I have to duck out of danger, dodging it by instinct even before I can see what it is, by reflex turning away from the movement I glance from the corner of my eye.

And there, what I thought to be just one more river of lava flowing down towards the bottom of the cave, is actually a gigantic monster that could barely fit inside this large cave, its body completely made of bright lava but somehow resembling the shape of a humanoid demon, the hollow eyes and mouth denting the lava shaped head in an almost imperceptive way, especially if looked from the front.

And there is when I see it, when I realize that there was no other option than winning against the Demon Lord, as all the waterfalls of lava start turning around, their huge bodies slowly moving out.

There is no way to win against an army like that, and if the other gates were filled with creatures like this, or even worse types, then I’m afraid that the years the Demon Lord had to prepare for this war were very fruitful, even if coming from the most despicable way possible.

But there is another thing as well, I wondered as I focus on making myself scarce as I dive in towards the entryway of the tower, is that keeping so many places up and so many creatures alive and under his control and power must have a cost on him, and if what I heard thus far from the Demon Lord is truth than he does not seem the kind of guy to trust anyone with such an important task, having an undead blindly loyal army for once instead of simple demons.

So we could hope that all of this comes from the cost of his own powers.

And that we may have a chance of winning because of it.

With renewed focus I land on one of the stone bridges that lead to the double heavy stone doors, not made of other materials since wood would not survive this place, but they were thankfully left slightly ajar with enough room for us to pass since it seems to weight a tone, with barely enough space for me to pass in my griffin form, carrying Ethan around even then to keep my protection afloat.

We pass through the opening and a grand hall unfolds right before us, far bigger than it should be, tall and round and letting the many long thin glassless windows cover all sides of the circle, crevices and highlights bringing the stone back and forth in so many places and in so many spaces that the vision is full of details and reverence, a well crafted throne tall room.

Ethan snickers before saying: "How self-centered must he be to have a copy of his throne room inside these gates? Really now."

After he says it when I see it, the big stone square throne, with its back going up almost half way towards the dome, so crude and grotesque that shows how monumental it is, coming from another time, another owner, staying true to the ancient time it was made, the crude stones carrying the weight of the stories that passed over the many years here, and coated in the dampness of the victims it took with it.

I walk past it, close to see the massive blocks that made it, stacked and full of marks, cuts and incisions, stories lost with time that left their mark in these ancient stones, in this overbearing room. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The darkness grew deeper the stronger the light shined, and the shadows seem to grow thicker than normal the more we approached the front of the red portal gate at the end of the room.

We could not guess that would be on the other side, we could not guess the outcome of this battle, but I was sure we did not have more time or choice as our hand was forced to move, and we were put on the spot with his moving army.

Because now, we all are willing to die fighting for our freedom.

And if we lose... we condemn us all to eternal slavery.