Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

Having to answer their colleague's question, all the guards present beyond the fog spoke and Dag was able to detect their exact location and figure out their number.

"3 of them are out at the gate... along with these other 3 in front of us are 6. Two others are inside, as I suspected" he thought, no longer being able to express his remarks aloud for not being heard by the guards.

"Yes, it's all true! Their outposts are uninhabited now! Our recon teams checked it out this morning, there's no one left!" the guard who had gone to ask for confirmation said, returning to them. 

"Who tells me you don't just want to kill our leaders?" the man in armor asked again, turning to Dag and Kranus, who were on the front line.

"How could we achieve this goal in five people? Look at me... I'm just an old man, I wouldn't last a minute under your warriors' weapons. Let us through, we will report our message and we will go out again, returning to our city" Kranus replied, pretending to be a helpless old man, betting that none of his interlocutors linked his appearance to his true identity.

"The number doesn't count... you look like very strong warriors, not just a bunch of diplomats. Not so long ago, it was rumored that a single man was able to exterminate our troops in the Eastern camp entirely... since then we have learned not to underestimate anyone" the guard continued, making a clear reference to Dag, who after those words slowly lowered his gaze, hiding his purple eye and made sure that the hood was not moved by the wind.

"I don't think that's the case... look, there's also a woman with us. Freydis, step forward!" Kranus exclaimed, turning to the girl, who did not expect to be questioned and felt a stomach cramp due to fear.

Dag, without turning, moved his hand behind the horse's back and nodded to his woman, implicitly asking her to obey Kranus's request, knowing that he would never put her life at risk, otherwise he would have to face his fury.

"Take off your hood, show your face to these men!" the magician replied. 

Freydis executed the order and lowered her hood, showing off her long red hair that began to float in the wind.

Her angelic face for a moment deceived the three guards present, who could not hold back their amazement looking at that unexpected beauty.

"Why should we take such a young girl with us, if we had bad intentions? Let us in, please" Kranus said once again, who looked like an old beggar looking for a few cents, always asking for the same thing insistently.

When the effect of Freydis' beauty faded, the guards looked at each other and by a mutual agreement made a decision. 

One of them pointed his arm at the archers, who, as if nothing had happened, lowered the bows and silently returned inside their caves, as if they were part of the mountain.

"If you do any bullshit, the guards you'll find later on will not be as kind as we are and they will kill you instantly! Go, before I change my mind!" the guard exclaimed, moving his arm towards the door and giving the green light to the group of undercover warriors.

"Thank you, you have made a wise decision" Kranus replied coolly, trying to be kind, but without succeeding.

He, Dag, and the other three of them rode at a slow pace towards the wooden door, and only when they approached it did they notice that two rickety torches barely lit up the area, despite being in broad daylight and resisting who knows how to the strong wind to which that point was subjected, in correspondence of which the mountains of the massif opened.

Reluctantly, two men positioned next to the door opened it, letting the travelers pass by, who without hesitating for a moment and keeping their eyes down as a mark of respect, entered.

As Dag predicted, once they passed the door, two other guards were there, standing with their backs resting against the wall, peering at the newcomers from head to toe, making sure they weren't a danger.

The long furs that covered each of the team members, in addition to having the obvious cold protection function, also served to hide the equipment below, including weapons that were hung on their belts and tied somehow on their backs.

The only one leaking from behind the girl's neck was Freydis' spear, too long to be hidden.

After passing the first control of the main gate, Dag and Kranus knew that the most difficult part of the mission was yet to arrive, but were satisfied that they had managed to enter the mountain range.

"If something is about to go wrong by the moment, it would be the end for us because there would be no escape... so be very careful about what you do and what you say, try to keep a low profile" Kranus said in a low voice, continuing to ride forward, following the path that could barely be seen on the ground, partially covered by snow.

A slight climb after the wooden gate was followed by a short and steep descent, leading to the central depression of the Randt Massif, morphologically lower than the surface, as if the soil fabric, having been used by the mountains to rise to the sky, had been removed from the area between them, which had sunk downwards.

Trying not to get too far away admiring that geological wonder, Dag rode next to Kranus and when they were at the top of the small hill before the descent, they stopped gasping.

Despite the fog and menacing black clouds towering over the mountain range preventing sunlight from reaching their position, before their eyes, they saw what they never imagined.

An entire city, consisting of many small settlements and military bases built at the foot of the mountains, in the inner part of the ring, stretched for almost a kilometer and the proportions of the map that Atran and the others had consulted, were suddenly contradicted by the reality of the situation: what seemed to be the furthest mountain, on which it was supposed to be the underground city of wolf warriors, was actually a simple mountain like the others, whose peaks were unattainable and dangerous.