"Who are you?"
Outside of the cetery, an elf with the appearance of a middle-aged man erged, eyeing Noen and his companions warily.
Noen turned his head, and upon seeing a true elf, he imdiately felt uneasy.
On the contrary, Casas, who was once the son of a Pri Minister, was the first to recover.
"We are... the Three-eyed Ape People."
Casas bowed.
"I am Casas from Ibia, and we have co from the distant land of Ajia, solely to pay homage to the Holy Mountain."
Casas’s courteous deanor quickly won the favor of the elf.
The elf scrutinized the group; their accent sounded very strange, quite different from the standard Logos accent, but he could still make out what they were saying.
His pointed ears twitched, and then with so surprise, he said:
"You are the Three-eyed Ape People? I am Lan Boxi, pleased to et you."
"Yes, you... are really an elf?"
Casas asked.
The others, both shocked and curious, sized up the middle-aged elf before them.
Although the Stone Slaves had elf blood flowing through their veins, they had never before seen a true elf.
Lan Boxi shrugged his shoulders and nodded:
"Yes, we are indeed elves, and this is our Holy Land."
"Holy Land?"
"We stopped settling here a long ti ago."
Lan Boxi looked around at everyone and then slowly said:
"Most of us live in Nus now, and only a very few Logos people remain here. And I have been tending to my family’s cetery for years."
At this point, Noen asked:
"Are you... a descendant of Dorias?"
Lan Boxi nodded:
"Yes, you are Three-eyed Ape People, so you must have heard of my ancestors."
Everyone nodded in agreent.
Lan Boxi pointed towards the mountain not far away and asked:
"Are you going up the mountain to make sacrifices?
However, I have never seen Three-eyed Ape People who co here on pilgrimage."
Noen, of course, knew why.
Those who worshipped the Lord among the Three-eyed Ape People were already few, and besides, according to what Slaier had said, the hidden God and Prophetic God Kagawus obscured the existence of the Ancient Elf Kingdom.
However, Noen did not offer an explanation and simply said:
"Please lead us over to the mountain."
Lan Boxi did not ask further and led the group straight to the mountain.
Along the way, Noen and his companions saw more elves, curiously eyeing the appearance of these elves, while the elves likewise curiously scrutinized their Eye of Prophecy.
Under Lan Boxi’s guidance, they arrived at the foot of the great mountain.
Noen slowly approached the ancient altar halfway up the mountain.
With signs of flaked stone and delicate scratches marking the passage of ti, Noen walked closer, and when the altar was fully before him, the young man knelt down, hands pressed together.
The Stone Slaves who had followed the path knelt down, hands pressed together as well, praying softly.
After a while, Noen slowly rose from the ground, his mouth agape, breathlessly drawing in the frigid mountain air.
He looked towards the side of the altar, where there was an ancient mural.
The painting had many similarities to the murals in the Great Temple of the Ajia Kingdom. The figure in the painting was naturally the Prophet Al, which Noen recognized.
After praying in front of the altar and observing the mural, Noen suddenly felt a wave of confusion.
He had returned to his lost holand, rediscovered his faith, and everything he had hoped for had been fulfilled; he should have felt complete.
Yet, he still felt as if sothing were missing.
Noen turned his head, and for so reason, his gaze fell upon the mountaintop.
There was light on the mountaintop.
Noen held his breath.
All at once, the environnt around him seed to slow down, becoming eerily quiet; even the freely flowing wind seed to stagnate, as Noen stared intently at the brilliance atop the mountain.
At a certain mont,
Noen seed to hear the calling of God.
"My child, co up the mountain."
The voice was indistinct, almost fleeting like a vague attempt to grasp at the wind, yet it erected a temple of faith in Noen’s mind that would never be destroyed and invoked a tide of devotion day and night.
Without realizing it, Noen slowly made his way to the path leading up the mountain.
The young man had just taken a few steps.
When an Elf Priest by the altar stepped forward and grabbed him.
"What are you doing? You can’t go up the mountain."
Noen turned around, temporarily suppressing his excitent.
"Guest, only the Prophet and the King are allowed up the mountain,"
the Elf Priest stated with precision,
"It is our sacred elf tradition."
"Um... um..."
Noen responded noncommittally, slowly backing away, his eyes lingering on the mountaintop.
..................
When night fell, the Elves arranged temporary accommodations for Noen and his companions.
Noen tossed and turned on a carpet of straw, struggling to fall asleep.
When darkness deepened to its utmost, Noen slowly rose from the ground.
He stealthily exited the dwelling, then gazed toward the distant high mountain.
Noen stared long at the summit of that high mountain, its glow sacred amidst the solitary night.
He rembered the fleeting call he had heard standing at the altar.
"Noen."
It was Casas’s voice.
Noen turned and spoke,
"You scared , young master."
Casas smiled, walking up beside him and pointing toward the distant mountain.
"Do you want to go up the mountain?"
At the mid-mountain altar, Casas had already guessed the young man’s intention from Noen’s distracted gaze.
Noen nodded earnestly.
"I want to go up the mountain, I think... I’ve heard the calling of God."
Casas asked,
"It’s not an illusion or an auditory hallucination?"
Noen slowly said,
"No, I think... it was truly God, I couldn’t have misheard."
Casas said,
"Alright then, let’s go together, let’s not alert anyone else, or it would startle the Elves."
Noen nodded, Casas was right.
So, the two set off towards the high mountain in the deep of early morning.
Noen and Casas had long been accustod to the hardships of the desert, highly sensitive to the littlest rustlings, so they easily slipped past the night watch Elves and arrived silently at the foot of the lofty mountain.
Together they looked up, the towering high mountain stood before them, its boundaries blurred in the night.
A burst of cold wind struck from the slope, making them shiver.
It seed not to be a good ti to climb, with fierce winds cutting through the mountains like blades.
Casas glanced hesitantly at Noen.
Noen’s hands trembled, and he slowly said,
"We must go up today... I can’t wait any longer."
Casas did not stop him but resolutely followed Noen.
Ignoring the ravaging cold wind, they began an ascent of the mountain.
At this very mont,
It was like once before when Prophet Al and the sage sought answers about death in their climb.
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