The land was covered in snow as far as the eye could see, painting a picturesque scenery that one could relish. Mountains as tall as the sky, draped in a blanket of snow, looked majestic.
This land was situated in the northern hemisphere of the globe and was one of the uninhabited zones called the Northern Dragon Maw, named so because from afar it looked like a dragon with its mouth open, breathing flames.
If one wasn't careful, losing your way would be easy, and the dreaded terrain would prove fatal.
The hero party, however, walked unimpeded by any of these factors: the hero Raymond, the saintess Freya, the Arch Magus Svetlana, the tank Gaimut, and the support Sieghart.The hero party traversed the Northern Dragon Maw, conversing merrily.
They were in high spirits, having defeated the Demon King's right-hand man, Vlotaz Aldmir, the Flame Demon who was the second strongest in the demon army, just yesterday.
They were closer to their goal of defeating the Demon King than any other hero of the past.
"Tap, tap, tap."
They walked neither too fast nor too slow, their pace carrying a happy sway clearly indicative of their recent accomplishment and jovial mood."I think it would take us two more days to reach the closest town. What do you think, Sieghart?" asked Raymond.
"Hmmm, well, if nothing goes wrong, we should be able to arrive at Forstvill in two days," replied Sieghart, who oddly enough didn't look too sure about his statement.With almond-colored hair, an athletic build, and sharp facial features, Sieghart was a striking personality at first glance, but his tone of speaking never really matched his physical traits.
"You don't have to jinx it, okay!" Svetlana looked a little angry at Sieghart, clearly in a hurry to reach the border town.Her hair was auburn, her eyes blue, and her countenance graceful. Svetlana was known throughout the world for her looks, and beautiful she was.
"It's alright, we will reach in time. You won't miss your niece's birthday, Svetlana," said Raymond, reassuring Svetlana. He had black hair, brown eyes, average facial features, but the way he carried himself was different, carrying an air of dominance, bravery that struck through people's hearts – it was the Hero Raymond.
An icy wind blew, carrying away the conversation with its screech.
They had reached the hardest part of the Northern Dragon Maw to pass – 'the Corpse Tunnel.'Their faces became serious, for this tunnel was known to have taken many lives. Crossing it was one of the hardest parts of the journey. One side of the tunnel was an abyss whose bottom was unknown, and there was a saying that whoever tried looking at the bottom of the cliff would always meet a bad end.
They walked steadily, not engaging in idle talk. It looked almost as if even the hero team was afraid of the tunnel itself. There was haze everywhere, so the visibility was naturally low; you couldn't see past twenty meters.
As they reached halfway, they saw another 'person' walking from the other end. Alarm flashed in their eyes, as the only location this place led to was uninhabitable for humans, and a 'human' was walking straight towards that direction. From the looks of it, he seemed powerless, at least his mana signature indicated that, which made their vigilance even higher.
They crossed each other rather uneventfully, but as they grew five meters apart, suddenly Sieghart turned his head towards that 'person's' direction and spoke, "Are you sure you are going in the right direction, Mister?"
As he spoke, he took a closer look at that person. His clothes were white, his hair silver, his eyes were silver, and just his pupils were golden. Just from looks alone, that guy looked majestic and pure, but Sieghart strangely felt a sense of terror emanating from those golden eyes.
"Oh! You are brave, aren't you? Yeah, don't worry, I never get lost," the man's reply was a little strange for Sieghart to understand, and the man didn't stop and continued his walk.
This answer, though, put the entire hero squad on alert. Looking into each other's eyes, a silent communication took place. Years of fighting together had built a strong amount of coordination and trust.They suddenly took a battle stance, forming a semicircular formation around the man.This prompted the man to turn around, revealing his complete visage to everyone.
This time, the gazes of the hero party were filled with wariness as they analyzed the guy. He stood still, now slowly turning around, he faced the hero party.
But the moment his eyes captured all their faces, one particular face among them caused his eyelids to tremble, though the tremble was brief enough not to be noticed by the hero party.
"Ahh, now now, why are you guys surrounding me?" the man spoke, his voice sounding a little tired.
"Identify yourself," announced the Hero Raymond, taking command. Their wariness was at its limits, knowing full well no ordinary human could survive in this part of the world, meaning this guy was no ordinary human and might be associated with the Demon King!
"How rude! Didn't anybody teach you manners that you should introduce yourself first?" replied the man, sounding a little annoyed.
"You don't know who we are?" The hero party was well known throughout the whole world, but this man replied as if he had never even heard of them.Taking a graceful stance forward, the saintess Freya introduced their party.
"We are the current generation of heroes party, on a mission to vanquish the immortal Demon King."
"See? That's how you talk to someone!" he said while looking at Raymond. "Well, my sweet lady, I am Odin ~pleased to meet yo-" he seemed to get suddenly too friendly as he stepped forward to take the hand of the saintess for a kiss on the knuckle, but before he could do so, the saintess took a step back, and the hero party stepped forward; they seemed ready to fight.
"Odin? Just Odin? No family name? You can't be kidding me. Someone with as distinguished a personality as you doesn't belong to a family? I do not believe that!" Gaimut was suspicious.
"Yeah, just plain Odin. What's wrong with not having a family name when I don't even belong to any such family?""Your words are suspicious. Please show us your kingdom identity pass," said Freya, clearly looking tense.A kingdom identity Pass was proof that a citizen belonged to a particular country, a standard followed throughout every kingdom.
"I have no such thing," the silver-haired man replied, his tone slowly becoming less languid.
"On the account of not being able to identify yourself, we will have to take you into custody, mister," said the hero Raymond. He moved forward, taking a pair of handcuffs out from his space ring and swiftly grabbed the hand of the silver-haired man. But the next second, the hero realized that no matter how much strength he applied, he couldn't make the man's hand budge. A sudden chill crept through his spine, and he jumped back to his party.
Raymond was in disbelief, as the only people he deemed stronger than him in brute strength were Gaimut and the immortal Demon King, but this guy in front of him was someone with no identity!
But the others were not as clueless as Gaimut; they clearly saw what happened, and their danger senses were blaring.
They all suddenly took out their weapons.
Following suit, Gaimut also took out his shield and asked, "Guys, what's happening?"
But before any of them could reply, the silver-haired man - Odin - said,"You guys had to go out of your way to make things hard, didn't you? Alright, if a fight is what you want, a fight is what you shall get!"
A quiet wind blew, its sound palpable in the tense atmosphere. Odin also took something out of his spatial ring, but at one glance, Raymond reckoned it was just an ordinary wooden sword.