Malantau Wight Barrens

[Chibi Pika]

It is said that centuries ago, the Kingdom of Malantau once existed to the far north. Now, all that remains is a vast, mostly-unexplored region of ice. The once well-traveled roads leading from Tyrrier lay buried under a layer of permafrost. Freak blizzards have a way of sweeping in from nowhere, no matter how calm and clear the sky might appear one moment.

It's also said that those unlucky enough to get stranded in the frozen wastes often report glimpses of mist-blanketed castle towers and banners waving gently no matter the wind's speed or direction. But it's never a good idea to put too much stock into sights borne from hypothermia.

<><><>​

The ship ride across the Tears was long. Very long. Looking at a map failed to convey the sheer, inexplicable scope of the lakes that went on for miles and miles in every direction, and sailing them felt like traversing a vast ocean with no hope of ever seeing land again. But the steamboat that Articuno had lent them kept up a good pace, and on the morning after the second night aboard, they did see land, in the form of a thin strip of white, clinging to the horizon.

The temperature had slowly crept lower and lower throughout the voyage, and now it was Definitely Cold. According to the ship's captain, it could've been a lot worse--the trip had been marked by clear skies and fair winds, which was a sign of good fortune to come ("Got the Aeons watchin' out for yer travels, eh?"). Though he was quick to add that it was just an expression.

Still, in Jade's opinion, it was little comfort that the weather was better than usual for this time of year, because it was still unreasonably cold, and it made her desperately long for Firestorm's tail-flame. Sure, everyone'd had time to prepare, they all had cloaks and scarves (and Jade was particularly grateful that she'd opted to wear moccasins). But as far as she was concerned, the sooner they finished the mission, the better.

They'd stopped in a old, abandoned fishing village to set up a base camp of sorts, where some of the Teardrop Station agents would keep watch over the Cipher admins. From there, the scouting party would head north, using dungeon orbs and other uncanny items to cover ground faster. There were supposed to be a bunch of dungeons scattered across the frozen wastes, so hopefully it wouldn't take too long to find one that would make a good Waypoint. Then they could warp back to Novelux or Frontier Town or any number of places that wasn't here, and try not to think about how they'd be returning soon enough for the raid on Terminal One.

Jade's moccasins crunched the snow underfoot as she squinted against the stark midday sun glaring off the frozen expanse. 'High noon' wasn't all that high— within an hour or two, the sun would sink back below the horizon.

"So, uh, Betel... which dungeons do you think would be easiest to aim for, anyway?" she wondered aloud.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Betel's quiet telepathic voice slipped through the winds of Malantau and into the scouting party's heads.

There are many mystery dungeons in this region, Jade! Some are natural formations in mountains and forests, while others seem to have been borne out of some past disaster... I will try to guide you as you draw nearer to any that lie ahead, provided the terrain permits.
​

Laura nodded, and shuddered at the cold. It was almost nostalgic, given how Circhester was always blanketed in snow, but she really should have bought some extra cold weather kit in Novelux... A scarf, a coat and some limb-warmers didn't really cut it in these subarctic conditions.

"You know, I've been trying to look up Malantau," she said, tightening her scarf. "Not much on it – hardly any archeologists or whoever will come here, 'cause of all the dungeons. I found out a few things – something about how even though it was a kingdom, it had a 'steward' or 'regent' for almost all its history. Apparently there was supposed to be some ancient king who'd return to the throne during a time of great danger. They were pretty big on, uh, tradition and cultural myth, that sort of thing..."

Obviously the ancient king had not returned to save them from whatever created the Rift.

 

[Inkedust]

It was at times like this where Bellatrix was glad to have a thick coat made to withstand the harshest winters, needing only a cloak to stave off the strongest winds.

"A shame," said Bellatrix, overhearing Laura. "I suppose we'll just have to be the first and hope that whoever was responsible for the Rift chooses not to say 'hello'. If they're still around, of course."

While the supposed history and legends of the former kingdom did mildly interest the zoroark, she had nothing to say on it for now. Instead, she chose to keep listening to see if the meowth would say any more.

 

[Phoenixsong]

There was winter cold, and there was Mt. Silver cold, and then there was whatever this was. Winter was fine, great even, Leaf loved the snow, no notes really. Mt. Silver was basically just winter until you hit the heights for real, and then yeah, sure, that was kinda intense, she didn't get why Red back home, not here was so fond of it but sometimes people were just weird, whatever. This was Not either of those things, and what it was instead was Terrible, Actually, and anyway the point was that it sure would've been neat to be a Kanto rapidash right about now.

But she wasn't, and they had to do this anyway, so Leaf had opted for the alternative of just powering through the cold. Don't stop moving, offer to carry the heavier tack, keep the muscles working at all times, listen to the conversation instead of the howling of the wind or the voice saying You could have stayed back. You could have let the others handle this and waited for the waypoint to be ready. You did this to yourself.

A disappearing ancient king, huh. Missing even though they were expecting some catastrophic danger. Sounded familiar. "You think maybe the king was some kinda saint? One who never found a replacement?" Maybe one of the dungeons out here had a relic in it. (Just had to hope that Cipher or Whatshisfaces hadn't found it first.) "Or... maybe an offworlder, even?"

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

The concept of snow was just that to most people from Hoenn: a concept. The closest they got was the ash from Mt. Chimney, but the similarities started and ended with "a fluffy blanked made of flakes falling from the sky." Thankfully, Steven was well traveled, and had visited Sinnoh plenty of times to know what a true winter was like. (Bundled up to his eyeballs in a scarf, overcoat, gloves, hat, and plenty of warm layers beneath.) However, this was beyond anything he'd experienced before. Snow, snow, and more snow, and nary a rock or tree to break up the landscape.

It was a minor miracle he had no need for winter garments in this body, though it left him looking a bit underdressed next to most of his warm-blooded companions, save for Leaf. (Were Galarian Rapidash as adept at staying warm as Kantonian ones?)

He almost couldn't feel the cold. Almost... His limbs were a bit sluggish, and some of the windblown snow liked to collect in the crevacies of his joints and face, but nothing too hindering. He flicked loose a small icicle that had started to form on the tip of his nose.

"I recall one of Nolan's associates, Monferno Dakota, mentioned he'd heard stories of Shadow pokemon from a local guide in this region."

He glanced around the empty, seemingly lifeless tundra.

"Ah, I don't suppose we know where these locals might be?"

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura chuckled nervously. It was weird being on a mission with Bellatrix – they'd avoided each other pretty thoroughly for weeks, now. At least the rest of the team were at least sorta friends.

"The 'king' could have just been an imported cultural myth from the old world, or a real and totally mundane 'mon, but... if he was a Saint then that would explain the 'return' thing. He wouldn't be returning in person, just... finally being replaced by whoever found his Relic, I guess."

She scratched her head, trying to remember if she'd met Monferno Dakota. That was a while back, but had she bumped into him briefly in town...? Pretty unassuming bloke, as she recalled.

"Well, the population who fled as refugees could have settled in northern Tyrrier," she ventured. "Maybe some longer-lived 'mon originally from Malantau know the region from living memory? Or if there are Shadow 'mon – from the dungeon, or because of Cipher – then they might be menacing border villages..."

Either way, if the fishing village was anything to go by, there were no more 'locals' in Malantau any more, save perhaps some survivalist hermits, somewhere. Or passers-through, explorers, and fools. Like them.

Laura cupped her paws over her mouth and tried to warm them with her breath. Her lungs were cold...

"Anyway, uh, it wasn't a very populous country when it existed, by all accounts. They relied on things like whaling, fur trapping, pretty subsistence herding and fishing. Not a lot of trade with Tyrrier, or anywhere else. It's, uh, easy to imagine one big disaster just kinda deleting the entire kingdom off the map, if it was that fragile to begin with."

Laura's abortive economics degree she flunked out of after a few months stirred unpleasantly in her skull, like some swamp creature. Low economic diversification, it said. Dependent on extractive primary sector industries. No buffer against potential systemic shocks.

"Fuck off," she muttered to her own miserable fucking brain.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade listened to Laura's slightly-muffled musings through the thick hood she'd pulled tight over her ears to shut out the cold. Every so often she fidgeted with the map she was carrying, furling and unfurling it. It was a crude copy of a map from an old atlas, which meant the original had probably been made ages ago. Super outdated, in other words. Didn't even have any dungeons marked on it, which could have either meant that the region's dungeons hadn't been explored yet, or that they didn't even exist when the map was made.

In any case, Jade wasn't the greatest at reading maps—she was more used to surveying from the back of a flying Pokemon, back home. She was pretty sure they'd been heading west for a bit before rounding that ridge there and turning north. The flat expanse they were crossing here seemed to line up...

Jade squinted at the horizon, and the hazy silhouette of a mountain peak breaking up the otherwise terrain. She glanced back down at the map, but couldn't find it on there. Maybe she was reading it wrong. Or the map had been copied wrong. Or any number of other things.

Or maybe the mountain hadn't been there when the map was made.

"Hey uh," Jade began, coughing slightly to warm her throat, "I can't find that mountain on the map. Maybe it's a dungeon?" She held it out for the others to see.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura peered at the map, then up at the mountain. Everything was so bright and pale. Her eyes tightened to a squint.

"Aren't natural dungeons usually formed where there are already mountains and forests and whatever?" she asked.

That is true, Laura. However, strong enough dungeon activity can have unpredictable effects on the natural world. Some divine dungeons, for instance, can and do affect weather patterns and landforms... like the Timeless Oasis, which has a discontinuous existence in the material plane. Eremus Rift alone is an especially potent dungeon...
​

Laura blew a plume of vapour. "Alright... I guess we can try heading there."

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven's gaze fell momentarily at Laura's mention of disaster and the fate of the kingdom. He couldn't help but wonder if something made that mountain, and in doing so left no one behind to update the map... Hopefully, if that was the case, whatever created it didn't stick around once the deed was done.

"Seems as good a destination as any," he agreed, holding up two claws to create a narrow viewing slit between. With the glare reduced, it was easier to see. Map or not, there definitely was a mountain there now.

 

[Inkedust]

Bellatrix studied the map intently. "Dungeon, or a powerful illusion. Based on what we've been told, we have never encountered distortions this powerful so there is no telling what it could be," she reasoned. "Still, it's a lead and I'm certain we will be able to find something of interest there in the worse case scenario."

She crossed her arms, thinking of Cipher, Alexander and the terrain before her. "It's no wonder that this world is so vulnerable when you have something like this just sitting out in the open." She sounded both baffled and impressed. "Honestly, it's a miracle that Forlas hasn't been completely torn by the seams at this point," she added with a mutter.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Jade nodded along with the others, and they pressed on. It was basically in the same direction they'd already been going, maybe veering a little to the northeast. The sun was thoroughly behind them, clinging to the southern horizon like it was afraid to stray too far from it. The snowdrifts were painted with the orange strokes of twilight already. Felt like they'd barely gotten any day at all.

Once of twice, Jade somehow managed to lose sight of their destination somehow, but then she'd rub her eyes, and it'd be there, a faint mountain peak through a haze of low-lying cloud. Faint whistling caught her ear here and there, and she jerked her head upward to catch a flicker of blue amidst the gently drifting snowflakes. Gone as soon as she blinked. Maybe it hadn't been there at all.

Jade pulled her cloak tight around herself. The sooner they found a dungeon, the better.

The air had grown still.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Laura could see the vanishing mountain, too. Pointed it out, remarked on how wild it was, how fantastical, how dreamlike. Mount Olympus, she thought to herself. An otherworldly peak...

They reached it sooner than she could have expected. Maybe that shouldn't be so surprising, given that it was literally a space-time distortion, a rift in reality, but she wasn't sure if she was grateful or unnerved by how abrupt the transition was between distant landform and looming slope right before her.

The cold felt charged, like her blood chilled when she cast Icy Wind.

"The dungeon," she muttered, "I think we've found it."

She put a paw to her eyes to shield them from snowblinding whiteness, and tried to find a landmark...

 

[Chibi Pika]

The sun had left them behind. The further north they walked, the more a thick, hazy soup of cloud cover had lazily drifted in, and the residual sunlight creeping through and bouncing off the snow made the landscape feel otherworldly, lit by everything and nothing at once.

The still air made it easy to hear every stray sound. Jade's ears flicked to the right, even under her hood. Something like... footsteps? The heavy crunch of snow in an even rhythm...

Spoiler: Something...

 

[Jackie Cat]

"What the fuck is that?" hissed Laura, under her breath.

It looked... equine? Vaguely familiar, like she recognised it from her world... but she'd never seen a Rapidash that looked like that...

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

Steven squinted through the dusk-touched landscape, drifting up, then down, trying to get a sense of depth in the increasingly ethereal light. Just like the mountain, there was definitely something there. Something he'd never seen before. Was it following them? If so, how long had it trailed them, hanging just out of view? A small part of him wanted to peek and see if Leaf was playing an elaborate prank on them to break up the monotony of the trek, but he didn't want to look away.

"I'm not sure," he murmured in response to Laura.

Friend? Foe? Ambivalent force? Or defense mechanism? His eyes never left the figure in the haze, even as he began to drift in the direction of the base of the mountain. Something prickled in the back of his mind, memories of the Timeless Oasis, of the layers of confusing defenses that tested them-- judged them-- on the way to the heart of the dungeon. Was this more of the same?

"We should keep moving, see if we can reach the dungeon."

At least then it would tell them if the unknown presence wanted them there or not.

 

[Inkedust]

Bellatrix's mane wavered crackled with illusionary power in response. Stupid instincts, she thought forcing herself to still so she could size up their potential foe.

"I wish I could say I knew for myself but I myself am unfamiliar with what stands there." She drummed her claws against her arms in thought, turning to the others as they discussed how they wished to proceed.

"Or... we can ask what it wants ourselves," Bellatrix said in response to Steven, keeping her eyes on the icy equine. "If it's just there to watch, then it will just let us pass. If it's here to stop us from moving further, then we could sneak past it with my illusions."

With how bright and foggy everything was, hiding the group with a thicker cloud should be simple for her. Assuming that there were no countermeasures in play, of course.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Leaf had tried to compare what she'd seen of the map with the terrain around the peak looming ahead of them. She wasn't bad with maps, in theory, it was part of what you were supposed to learn if you were planning on journeying, but that wasn't much help when the map was so old a whole entire-ass mountain had sprung up between then and now. Who knew what grand new vistas and other exciting geological jumpscares were waiting for them out here?

But it was as good a lead as anything else, surrounded by all this nothing, so that was that and off they went. At least it'd been an okay extra distraction from the temperature. Enough of one that she hadn't really noticed how the constant whistling of the wind had fallen away, how it'd gotten easier to hear her companions' conversation, how the sound of heavy footfalls crunching through the snow was stark and clear.

Huh. That was... huh. She stopped her own relentless march and stared at the hazy shape in the distance. Were there ice rapidash, too? Was that a thing? Why couldn't she have been that thing right now? Just pressing on was probably a good call, she figured, so she followed the others' lead, but she had a hard time taking her eyes off it. She pushed forward—keep moving—and, subconsciously, held herself a little taller in spite of the intense desire to huddle up and stay warm. It looked kinda big; well, she was also big. (Bigger than everyone here, anyway, close enough.) Don't mess with us.

 

[Chibi Pika]

The four-legged shape eyed them, watching, waiting. The group pressed on, and Jade did her best to avoid looking at it. Something about it gave her the creeps. Still, she couldn't help stealing a glace back at the icy creature, half-expecting it to have vanished, like it wasn't even real...

But no—it was marching toward them now.

Quickly.

Alarmingly quickly.

 

[Jackie Cat]

"We should back off," said Laura, stepping back. "We gotta scarper."

She felt certain. Why? Snow horse, ice horse... ice unicorn? Glastrier. Of course it was a fucking Galarian legendary.

"It's a bloody Saint."

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

The insistent prickling intensified; it wasn't the cold turning to needles, spiking in time with the rapid footfalls growing closer.

Foe foe foe foe--

Steven froze. They weren't going to be able to retreat in time.

"Too late for that illusion, Bellatrix?"