The next day, Sunny and his cohort separated from the battered division. The mass of vehicles and soldiers marched down the broad highway, heading to a large city that was situated behind the mountain peaks to the east. The Rhino, meanwhile, continued south.
"Four hundred kilometers… how long do you think it will take us to reach the research installation?"
Sunny was currently in the cabin of the APC, leaning on a bulkhead as he looked ahead. Luster glanced at him from the pilot's seat and shrugged hesitantly.
"Hard to say, sir. The terrain here is really rough, and we'll need to climb over many mountains before reaching the coastal plain. There are some old roads here and there, with tunnels that can serve as convenient shortcuts. But since no one took care of them for half a century, it's mostly a stone labyrinth. So… several days at the least.
Maybe even a week if we want to be really careful and lower the risk of stumbling into a horde of Nightmare Creatures."
He hesitated for a few moments, and then added:
"Of course, I can get us there in a day if we leave the mountains and drive along the coastal thoroughfare."
Since most of the Antarctic Center was mountainous in nature, moving across its expanse with speed was somewhat of a problem. It would have been much faster by air, but no one was suicidal enough to use an aircraft in these circumstances.
The reason was very simple… it was impossible to load enough armor on a flying vehicle. Not only would its electronics and navigation be swiftly fried by the interference of the Gates, but even worse than that, countless Nightmare Creatures in a hundred-kilometer radius would be able to see and take the aircraft down.
Since very few Awakened could fight effectively in the air, being swarmed by winged abominations or taken down by a hail of ranged attacks from the ground was their worst nightmare.
Still, that did not mean that there were no means of traversing the Antarctic Center quickly. Since the terrain was much more flat near the coast, there was a convenient highway running along the shore of the cold ocean. It's just that traveling by it was not exactly safe, especially these days.
The ocean, too, was overflowing with Nightmare Creatures. All kinds of horrors hid beneath its restless surface.
Sunny sighed.
"...No, let's not go anywhere near the coast. Avoid those old tunnels, too. Just take your time and take us over the mountains, Luster. Dorn needs time to recover, anyway."
The young man smiled.
"Yes, sir! Will do, sir!"
Sunny gave him a bleak look and shook his head. Ever since the revelation of his identity as Mongrel, Luster had been acting as an overly enthusiastic sycophant. It was honestly a bit bothersome.
"Well… alright then…"
He walked back to the back of the Rhino and sat down to meditate. In the past month, the importance of replenishing one's essence had become painfully clear to all Awakened in Antarctica. There were just too many Nightmares Creatures around and too many battles that had to be fought… maintaining one's reserves was often the difference between life and death.
It was also an inescapable restriction that defined how often and how well one could fight.
Sunny's essence capacity was roughly four times as vast as that of almost any other Master, but the rate at which his soul restored it was only twice as fast. As a result, he needed three to four days to fully replenish it. Sleep, rest, and meditation helped… but who had time to rest in Antarctica?
All of them had to get accustomed to fighting while suffering from a dire deficit of essence. That was another reason why the campaign grew harder as days went by, and why everyone was exhausted. His cohort was in a much better spot than most thanks to Luster, but Sunny himself had not been able to make use of the young man's extraordinary Aspect.
…Luckily, they were not supposed to fight any serious battles in the next few days. That was already a blessing.
Keeping his eyes closed, Sunny rested as his shadows scouted the route ahead.
The Rhino climbed the steep slopes of the mountain chain with agility that was surprising for a machine of that size. The Aurora Australis shimmered with ethereal lights in the black sky above it, but the mountains themselves were shrouded in darkness.
Driving a heavy APC up and down the treacherous slopes at night was not for the faint of heart, since one small mistake could send it plummeting down from a deadly height. Still, Luster seemed to be doing fine. He even had his lucky charm summoned, rubbing it from time to time with a nervous look.
Everything seemed calm.
Slowly but surely, they were moving toward their destination. Sunny made an effort to memorize as much of the landscape as he could, knowing that they might be coming back the same way after picking up the VIP at the research installation. The southern edge of the Transantarctic Mountains was, indeed, a real labyrinth.
Tall peaks rose into the sky, with remnants of broken roads clinging to their slopes. Dark maws of tunnels that had been burrowed through the mass of stone appeared from time to time, filling him with a sense of alarm.
The roads, as well as the tunnels, had been constructed long before he was born, during the Dark Times. Back then, humanity had been busy destroying itself in a series of devastating wars as the world fell apart around it. Then, the Nightmare Spell came, and many things changed. The old roads were now abandoned and in a state of disrepair, but the Rhino could still make use of them.
The progress was slow, however, and it was only made slower by the need to avoid active Gates and prowling swarms of Nightmare Creatures.
In the end, it took them almost four days to traverse the mountains and descend to the coastal plain at the southern edge of the Antarctic Center. From here, they could proceed to the destination at full speed. As the Rhino accelerated and flew across the plain, a powerful blizzard enveloped it, reducing the visibility almost to zero.
…That was when things started to go wrong.