At the top of a mountain, it is said that the ice and cold was so strong even the flames of Iad would falter at its presence. A word passed down to warn the people of the treacherous weather that roamed mountains, in hopes of steering many out of such places. And Leo was doing the exact opposite of it now, behind him stood a raging mist that spared nothing. As he travelled painfully through the knee deep snow, after every two steps taken his path would have already been erased, filling his footsteps in with snow again.
This was nature's way of blocking the path backwards, perhaps deliberate, or perhaps just natural. But he had to keep his suspicions regardless, nothing about this was normal, after all, this wasn't any regular place. It was a painting he was walking inside of.
On a more serious note, the blizzard was digging through his skin, even though nothing was actually happening he could feel it deep within himself. Perhaps a side effect of the painting. That also just solidified his theory of a shared caster, the same exact thing happened while suspended in the air, he could sense every detail in time. That's also how he could tell no life was nearby in any direction for as far as he could see.
The ridge widened infront of him, almost like a chain of stone going across the land, connecting the large landmass behind to a towering peak. The snow mass he stood atop didn't fit in place, it looked like the blizzard went rouge and covered up some sort of bridge path to the real summit. It was no more than a huge valley of snow going to the top of the world.
Loads of rock formations protruded from the side of the mountain, mostly spiking stone hanging off the side, barely escaping the suffocating grasp of the blanket.
Climbing up the valley was no small achivement, the whole thing curved into an incredibly large basin and then shot right up to meet with the peak he sought. To the left of this was a direct path, he couldn't use that though, even from below it's standing Leo could observe the massive chunks of seracs anchoring it down ready to crack and fall at any moment. Infront of him stood the basin, but if he went through there and got stuck, who's to say he could make it back up.
That's why the right path was chosen, it was a long but clean ridge that gradually curved to the top of the mountain, one that wouldn't require him to strain his body anymore than it allowed him.
The snow still knee deep, perhaps even deeper as what he was stepping on was not the texture of rock, but that of stacked up snow. Even then, the slow rise of the sun slowly fought back, melting some of the snow – but not enough. The blizzard didn't take it standing down, it raged on even as the world was illuminated with the golden incandescence.
Leo's whole body was shaking, the air was very thin up here, his breathless wheezing only masked by the sound of the whirling wind.
As he advanced above the land, along the ridge, his feet slowly rose out of the hell that was. At the top of the mountain, the snow was merely a cover for the rock beneath – a mask ready to crack at any moment. The blizzard didn't dare reach so far up, it remained where it belonged, down where it could rule without worry.
The blazing sun hit him as he permeated the boundary between the two worlds. Instantly melting away the ice strung across his fingers and defrosting his tended eyelids.
'Ahh, that feels so nice...'
His body was melting under the sensation. Mantling the final few steps of thinly covered rock, Leo took his hands out from his pocket to verify movement, then with a guttural cough he wrapped up his inspection. After doing so, he excitedly gazed around, making sure the peak he stood on, was the peak he climbed for.
And sure enough, it was indeed.
'This it it!'
Leo took his hands and placed them on his bent knees as a sign of victory. Then looked back up in the direction of the sun, asking the question he'd been wanting for a while:
"Well? What now?"
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Leo called out the runes still embedded to his back, but they did not respond. Instead a much grander thing happened, leaving Leo overwhelmed imminently.
{Welcome, Leonidas, to the land of Glacialis, the land of dread.}
An omnipresent voice rung out, blasting away the icy winds from all directions. Leo's ears wanted to instantly explode, he couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. Even worse, it felt like it was speaking in his head! The voice was neither male or female, it felt neutral, sort of like an... instinctual voice. Leo's cheeks flushed red, the sudden voice blaring out scared the hell out of him. So much so that when he went to ask a question his voice stuttered like he had just been found guilty of a crime:
"U-uhm, excuse me! Are you the one talking to me through those writings?"
He stood with his feet planted in anticipation until the voice got back to him.
{Hmmm? You're but a mere child... you're no warrior.}
The voice leaked with a hint of disappointment, Leo didn't dare say another word as it ignored his question. For now he just had to assume this overwhelming feeling was also the casters doing.
{And by the looks of it... you're all but powerful, your architecture is pitiful, and your body incredibly frail... hmm.}
It sounded like the voice was inspecting him from somewhere, mumbling its way casually, all truthful things nonetheless. But Leo was a little shook at what he'd just heard.
'My architecture? But, how can it see it if I don't have a source... it should inactive, right?'
Leo's pitiful talent was mostly attributed to his architecture, his 'innate ability' that he was born with. Architectures are complex biological traits found in humans, defining people and who they would become by uniquely assigning them a 'role' – but of course not everyone was so lucky, sometimes it was a game of luck, sometimes youd have to pray it matured before you did, infact, most people lacked a functional architecture because of malnutrition. And after a person has matured, its impossible to activate its abilities for the rest of time.
For example, each Tez rank warrior and up would have their own unique ability, as required for entry, anyone without this basic thing would be treated worse than trash in a setting like that. Famously, the royal family passes down a special architecture called the 'Herlads Sun', being the sole wielders on the entire planet of the scorching flames that riddle the sky.
However, it wasnt that easy to be so powerful even with a functional architecture, otherwise Leo's story could've been much more prosperous. His architecture allowed him to mend precious gemstones to his will. Which if he wasn't so poor, probably would have earned him a pretty penny. Its also why Luna encouraged him to be a blacksmith, slaving away at her mercenary job to kickstart his career. But that's where everything stopped and 'sources' came into play, the sole reason why nobles even with the worst architectures of the worst could climb so high they could nearly see over the mountains and into the home of the demi gods.
In order to use architectures, or any magic for that matter, an exchange had to take place. This could be anything from a crumb of bread or sand to something like a diamond and all the way up and beyond the sun itself. Anything could act as a 'source', but the amount of a source used had to be proportionate to the magic activated and the quality of the source heavily altered the magic itself.
For an architecture, a source had to constantly feed the demanding biological structure otherwise it would shut down and strip the person of all its abilities.
Of course there were also the 'distributed architecture' scheme, people who would join mercenaries or private institutions or even the army would get acess to a shared architecture and a shared source. Allowing the people to use the same unique under the protection of the empire, while of course doing services to the empire in exchange.
So what was really strange in this case, even though he had no shared architecture, was the fact that it could see the unique, despite Leo lacking a source to power it.
The voice then sighed lightly and bellowed from all directions in an accepting manner.
{Very well, pitiful child... listen well to my proposition, for I, ~~~~~, offer you a contract. You must simply yield to my will , and in turn, I will save your dying sister.}
A part of the sentence went blurry in Leo's head, but that didn't bother him because the only thing he could hear was 'I will save your dying sister'. His eyes lit up and asked in excitement:
"Can you really?"
He out his hands over his mouth as he watched the sun moving across the sky, the poking across his body getting intense and discomforting, but he didn't care. He just wanted a confirmation.
{Once your contract is sealed, I am bound by my soul to obey the terms, and so are you. Now... your answer young one?}
Leo's eyes sparkled, but then he had to ask one final question before jumping into the tigers maw.
"What exactly do you mean by 'yield to my will'?"
The voice scoffed slightly before revealing to him something tragic.
{Leonidas, in exchange for saving your sister, and guiding you along with my will to strength...}
It paused for a second, worrying him slightly as to what the request might be.
{I want you to seek out and kill the queens and kings of the fifteen great contients.}