But no matter how much time passed, the Mutans never approached me.
The dozens of Mutans that had been chasing me so fiercely as if they would tear me to shreds at any moment stopped approaching as if by a lie, and the taut tension that had been weighing down on my entire body subsided as if it were a dream.
At the same time, the violent pain that felt like my entire body was being ripped apart, which I hadn't properly felt while frantically fleeing, and the biting cold that chilled me to the bone washed over me all at once.
*Whooooooosh-*
'Was it originally this cold here?'
Like the tingling sensation on the tongue after eating too many sweets, the unbearable extreme cold instead turned into a stinging, painful sensation that pricked my entire body.
Huddled like a curled-up insect, I barely lifted my head and looked towards the distant, towering summit of the mountain.
The frighteningly white and massive area near the summit was obscured by thick clouds, making it difficult to easily gauge its end.
Even though it was clearly much closer than when I had first seen it from afar before climbing the mountain, strangely, the distance felt even more distant and unreachable.
I roughly estimated the distance between the summit, my current location, and the base of the mountain with my eyes.
'It seems I barely crossed the halfway point just now... I can't stay here. I need to find a place where I can at least avoid the wind. It's so cold, so cold, it's really maddeningly cold.'
Carefully massaging my frozen, stiff neck, I slowly took a step towards the upper part of the mountain. With each step, my body, which had felt so light before – no, this terrible carcass – pressed down with an unimaginable heaviness.
*Whirr!*
The biting wind, like sharp blades, swept across my entire body, and the ice particles, stinging as if cutting into my skin, delivered a terrifying sensation as if tearing me to shreds.
I reached out a hand to barely grasp the frozen corner of the cliff, but my hand felt stiff and heavy, like a large lump, perhaps because the blood had frozen.
I swallowed incessantly, trying to force my frozen throat to thaw. My breath and voice barely returned, but the terrible foreign sensation pressing down on my throat did not easily disappear, and my throat grew increasingly parched.
I took out my water bottle to drink, but no water flowed out at all, perhaps because it was frozen solid inside.
Nervously, I squeezed the water bottle tightly and then finally threw it far away.
How much time had passed like that? The sensation in my fingertips gradually dulled, and finally, I felt no more pain.
As the pain vanished, strangely, my body no longer felt like my own.
It was a strange and bizarre sensation, as if I were controlling someone else's body. Like a shell with its soul departed, I lowered my head deeply and ceaselessly repeated the simple action of moving forward, like a machine.
*Crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch thud slip thump*
"Ah."
At some point, I tripped on something and collapsed powerlessly on the spot.
"Aaaah."
Hot tears flowed from my eyes. But before they could even run down my cheeks, they instantly froze, becoming cold, hard ice fragments embedded in my pale white skin.
"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!"
As if waking from a terrible nightmare, my empty, floating consciousness returned to reality and plummeted endlessly downwards.
Rolling up my sleeve, I faced the shocking sight reflected in my trembling pupils. It was my own flesh, frozen, turned red, and finally hardened into a pale white.
Even a slight tug on my skin felt like it would shatter into pieces like a brittle, dried cracker.
It was only now that I could finally grasp the terrifying truth of why those hideous Mutans had stopped chasing me.
This was a land where living things could not exist, should not exist – a land of death.
"What is this... what is this..."
I recalled the naive confidence I had when I first set foot on this mountain. With a flushed face, I had strode up the mountain, stubbornly ignoring the terrible dangers that might be lurking there.
"I'm scared... I don't want to go up... I don't want to die so meaninglessly... This... this isn't right!"
But I had been filled with a baseless, vague belief. That *I* could overcome any danger.
There must have been a valid reason for the deaths of the countless people who had died on this mountain until now.
Looking at reality coldly, I, who had nothing to boast about except for climbing mountains, didn't even have the right to conquer this mountain in the first place.
Because most of the people who had lost their lives on this mountain until now were very good climbers.
I needed to possess something more, something beyond them.
'This was something that didn't suit me from the start.'
Truly, I had been so foolish. Stepping foot here might have been a natural punishment for my disregard for death.
But I didn't want to die so futilely. I barely righted my fallen body and kicked away something that had been caught on my foot.
"Ugh... ugh... uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"
My eyes met that 'something'.
'A Mutans!?!?'
I fell backward as if repelled, uncontrollably rolling down the mountain. While my surroundings spun wildly and my consciousness grew hazy, I thankfully got caught on something below, barely stopping my fall.
"Ugh-ahhh."
Barely regaining my senses, I turned my head to look around. Just then, I felt a light pressure on my shoulder and casually shifted my gaze towards it.
A human hand was resting precariously on my shoulder. I froze on the spot, unable to move.
'This must be my hand, right?'
No, it wasn't.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
I desperately twisted my body and struggled. Then, with a *thud*, like a bone breaking, the hand that had been on my shoulder fell limply to the side.
Covered in cold ice particles, that hand was so delicate and beautiful that, if not for this horrific situation, I might have thought it was exquisitely formed.
I barely took a shallow breath and carefully pulled on the protruding forearm. Then, a chillingly familiar frozen corpse came into view.
She was a mountaineer and herbalist known for her cheerful personality in the village. She had proudly said that her mountain climbing skills had improved significantly, but after heading to this terrible Devil's Fangs three years ago, she had never sent news to anyone and had never returned.
And yet, the woman before my eyes now, thanks to the mountain's bitter cold, hadn't decomposed at all, frozen in place as if it were the last time I had seen her.
"Then..."
My whole body trembling, I slowly took a step towards the terrible place where I had just met eyes with that gruesome Mutans.
I desperately didn't want to confirm it with my own eyes, but I couldn't stop my feet.
Carefully brushing away the bulging mound with my hand, another corpse with a familiar face, someone I had encountered a few times in the mountains before, came into view.
"Ah."
Finally, trembling with fear, I lifted my head and slowly, meticulously looked around. What entered my eyes was a horrifying sight: gruesome, frozen corpses, like snowmen, scattered sparsely in all directions.
"Ah... ah... eugh!"
This was not a hiking trail. It was a nightmare, a graveyard of people. I staggered to my feet and, as if possessed, fled the place with a distorted face, running madly.
'I'll become like them soon... frozen solid, with white snow powder meaninglessly piling up on top, eventually becoming a snowman, forever trapped on this mountain. And later, another climber will find this place, discover my corpse, and be horrified. And that climber will also freeze, and everyone, everyone will die, forever, forever trapped on this mountain.'
All the emotions that had remained in my heart were horribly twisted and shattered into pieces, and now only a chilling cold and fear that seeped into my bones filled their place.
"Please save me... I don't want to die... back..."
My feet wouldn't move. As if my breath was caught in my throat, the next words wouldn't come out.
'What... what nonsense am I talking now? Where am I supposed to go back to?'
I abandoned the place I could return to myself and crawled into this terrible land of death. The precious people who cherished and valued me more than anyone, I threw them away with my own hands.
I miss her... desperately... so desperately... I even had the illusion that her warm smile and strong embrace were enveloping my entire body.
Only after losing something precious do you truly realize how precious it was – I was now feeling that truth to the marrow of my bones.
"There's no way I can go back alive now anyway... but if, just if, really just if, I were to go back like this..."
[I will return from the mountain and collapse near you... in a considerably serious condition, so much so that my life would be in danger if left alone. Then, would you really abandon me?]
In this terrible state, I would only inflict more pain on her. The current me is no different from thoroughly mocking her and cruelly humiliating her.
'Then, what on earth can I do now?'
I tightly hugged my cold, frozen body with both arms and crouched there motionlessly like a huddled corpse. But, more intensely than ever before, a burning will to live was igniting my entire being.
'Just one last time, even if it's just for a moment, I want to see her again, Lea, with a healthy and bright face.'
I finally solidified my resolute will and stood up. Then, I once again looked around slowly and meticulously.
'First, I absolutely have to raise my body temperature somehow.'
I first carefully approached the closest corpse and meticulously searched its bag and clothes for anything useful.
'It's been a while. I'll only take what I need.'
Inside the bag, I felt a sensation like a sloshing wave, as if it contained some kind of liquid, so I reached in and pulled it out.
"Liquor?"
What I took out of the bag was an old liquor bottle. It must have been incredibly strong liquor, as it hadn't frozen at all in this cold weather and remained in a liquid state.