God's Tree-Chapter 133: Whispers of the Hollow Bastion

The sky stretched endless and cold, the wind howling as it whipped around them.

Thae'Zirak flew swiftly, his massive wings slicing through the air, carrying them over the vast, ever changing terrain. Below them, the land shifted gradually growing darker, colder, and more unnatural with every passing mile.

The Hollow Bastion was still far away, but they were closing in on its reach.

Kaelred sat at the back of Thae'Zirak's shoulders, hunched against the cold, his arms folded tightly. His breath misted in the frigid air, and every so often, he stared down at the landscape below with increasing concern.

"Okay. This place is officially terrible," he muttered.

Argolaith, seated near the front, glanced back. "What do you see?"

Kaelred scowled. "A whole lot of nothing. But it's a weird kind of nothing."

He pointed down, and Argolaith followed his gaze.

Below them stretched an expanse of jagged, frozen earth, broken by sharp ridges of black ice and twisted remnants of forests that had long since died. Massive, frozen rivers curled through the valleys, their surfaces smooth as mirrors, reflecting the storm-gray sky like a second world trapped beneath the ice.

There were structures, too—half-buried ruins peeking out from beneath the snow, crumbling watchtowers, shattered bridges. Evidence of a time when life had once existed here… and then been erased.

But what stood out the most there were no people.

No villages.

No settlements.

Not even abandoned homes.

It was as if civilization had never even tried to claim this place.

Kaelred let out a slow breath. "I get it now. It's not just dead. It's forgotten. Like no one was ever supposed to be here in the first place."

Malakar's voice was calm, yet absolute. "Because they weren't."

Argolaith focused on the shifting landscape, feeling the growing weight of something unseen pressing against them.

The closer they got, the more he could feel the Hollow Bastion's presence.

Not like the trees.

Not like the lifeblood.

This was something else.

It wasn't just death, it was preserved stillness. A frozen pause in time that had no intention of moving forward.

Malakar's violet flames flickered as he studied the land. "Zolgrich's domain does not follow the same rules as the rest of the world. The Hollow Bastion is not simply a place, it is an extension of its master's will."

Kaelred groaned, rubbing his face. "Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?"

Thae'Zirak remained silent for a long while, his golden eyes locked on the horizon.

Then, at last, he spoke-

"We must know more about the lifeblood of the trees," Thae'Zirak said at last, his voice firm and deliberate.

Argolaith turned toward him slightly. "Why?"

Thae'Zirak adjusted his flight, wings tilting as he soared through an icy crosswind. "Because it is not simply power. They are what bring magic to beings that can't naturally use magic."

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Argolaith waited, sensing that there was more beneath those words.

Malakar's gaze remained locked on him, though he said nothing.

Kaelred, meanwhile, scoffed. "Great. So, what— the trees are actually some kind of cosmic experiment? That's fantastic news. I love that."

Thae'Zirak ignored him. "The lifeblood they hold is not simply strength. It is a choice. A bond that alters those who carry it. You are no longer the same as you were before you took it."

Argolaith knew this was true.

Ever since taking the second tree's lifeblood, he had felt it a shift in the way his body responded to the world.

Not a sudden, overwhelming power surge.

Not an immediate transformation.

But a slow, deep change happening beneath his skin.

Something waiting.

Something awakening.

Thae'Zirak's wings carried them higher, cutting through another freezing wind current. "Zolgrich has studied magic beyond mortal limits. He has seen things outside this world. If anyone understands the nature of the lifeblood, it will be him."

Argolaith narrowed his eyes. "And if he refuses to help?"

Thae'Zirak was silent for a moment—

"He will not refuse."

Kaelred raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Oh yeah? And why's that?"

The dragon hybrid glanced back at them, his golden eyes flashing slightly.

"Because I was his creation," he said. "And he never lets go of what is his."

The sky above them began to dim.

Not from time passing. No, the sun still hovered high, frozen in place.

But the further north they traveled, the more the light seemed to fade, swallowed by an unnatural twilight that cast long, distorted shadows across the icy terrain below.

Argolaith exhaled, watching as more strange figures appeared in the frozen wasteland.

Not humans. Not beasts.

Things.

Scattered across the land below were statues, carved from stone and ice, depicting humanoid figures twisted into unnatural poses, some frozen mid-scream, others with their arms reaching toward the sky, faces contorted in eternal agony.

Kaelred visibly shuddered. "I don't like this. I don't like this at all."

Argolaith's expression was unreadable. "What are they?"

Malakar's voice was quiet. "Not statues."

Kaelred turned sharply. "Excuse me?"

Malakar's violet flames flickered as he gazed downward. "They were people."

Silence followed.

Thae'Zirak said nothing, but his wings angled slightly, shifting them away from the frozen figures below.

Kaelred swallowed hard. "Okay. Nope. Nope, I am officially filing a complaint. This is the worst place ever."

Argolaith's grip tightened on his cloak. The Hollow Bastion was still miles away.

And already, its presence was unmistakable.

They pressed onward, the landscape beneath them growing colder, darker, more unnatural with every mile.

The wind howled against them, sharper now—a frozen blade cutting through the sky.

Thae'Zirak's wings carried them further north, pushing through the growing storm as the world below grew darker, colder, and stranger.

They were still miles away from the Hollow Bastion. But its presence was already touching the land.

And the deeper they flew into its domain, the more unnatural the world became.

Kaelred was silent for once, his usual grumbling replaced by an uneasy stare at the ground below.

Argolaith glanced back at him. "What do you see?"

Kaelred didn't answer right away. Then, after a long pause.

"It's… wrong."

Argolaith turned his gaze downward.

What had once been scattered frozen ruins and dead forests had now become something else.

The rivers were still frozen, but now the ice was blackened, jagged like broken glass. The trees had lost their shape entirely, their trunks twisting like skeletal arms, their branches curved inward as if recoiling from something unseen.

And the statues, those frozen figures locked in expressions of fear.

There were more of them now.

Hundreds. Thousands.

Not scattered ruins, but rows.

Formations of frozen bodies lined the land, standing like soldiers in a battlefield long lost to time.

Kaelred exhaled, shaking his head. "It's like they were lined up for war… and then just… stopped."

Malakar, ever still, studied them closely. "Not war. Punishment."

Thae'Zirak's deep voice rumbled against the wind. "Zolgrich's land does not tolerate the unworthy."

Kaelred scoffed, though there was no humor in his voice. "Right. Because this place was so welcoming before."

The sky above them darkened further, not with night, but with something heavier.

Mist coiled along the ground below, moving against the wind, curling between the frozen statues like fingers searching for something lost.

It wasn't natural mist. It wasn't even magic.

It was watching.

Argolaith felt it deep in his chest, like a pulse against the lifeblood he carried.

This land recognized him.

And it was waiting.

As they flew further, a shadow began to rise on the horizon.

Distant,but massive.

A fortress, unlike anything Argolaith had ever seen.

Not built. Not crafted. But shaped.

Carved directly into the frozen cliffs of the land, the Hollow Bastion loomed like a wound in the world, a structure formed from both ice and stone, its towers twisting unnaturally against the gray sky.

It was still far away.

But its presence was unmistakable.

Kaelred squinted. "That's it, isn't it?"

Thae'Zirak's wings shifted slightly. "Yes."

Kaelred let out a slow breath. "Yeah. That looks… exactly as bad as I thought it would."

They had been flying for hours without stopping.

But now, something changed.

Malakar turned his head sharply. "Something is approaching."

Thae'Zirak's golden eyes flickered with awareness. "I know."

Kaelred tensed. "From where?"

Argolaith narrowed his eyes. He didn't see anything yet—

Then, the mist below shifted.

And figures began to rise.

At first, they were just shapes.

Tall. Unmoving.

But as the mist peeled away, they became clearer.

Bodies, twisted and elongated, their forms both human and inhuman, their limbs stretched unnaturally as if pulled apart by unseen forces.

Their faces were voids, empty and featureless, but still somehow aware.

And they were watching.

Kaelred immediately reached for his daggers. "Nope. I don't like that. I don't like that at all."

Malakar remained unreadable. "They are not attacking."

Argolaith kept his gaze locked on them, feeling the weight of their presence. They weren't just standing there.

They were guarding something.

Thae'Zirak's wings adjusted. "They will not interfere unless provoked. But they are waiting for us."

Argolaith clenched his jaw. "Then let's not waste time."