Villain's Second Heart: Trapped in A Fantasy Novel (BL)-Chapter 122: The Mountain Calamity

When Ezra’s eyes flicked open and saw the morning light spilling through his inn room window, he leapt to his feet instantly. It took him only a few moments to gather his belongings and rush out the door, and he stepped next door to the room Bree was staying in.

He knocked a few times in soft desperation, each knock louder and louder.

’I’m coming, Oby,’ he chanted over and over in his head. It was an obsessive thought and it dominated him wholly.

"I’m awake," came Bree’s sweet sing-song voice after a while. "Meet me outside in fifteen minutes?"

"You got it," Ezra replied, his voice as soft as hers. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

The morning air was thinner and colder than the day before, but Ezra barely noticed. His eyes were fixed on the mountain above, the towering and distant peak etched in cloud and shadow.

The mountain was an Encephalim - a monster itself. Something alive, voracious...

And if it were anything like the other Encephalim he’d encountered, it might want to eat Ezra alive.

And yet, despite the ominous air that coiled around the mountain, he felt like it called to him. A beacon - something pulling him forward with acute intensity.

If nothing else, that’s where he believed Oberyn to be. And before the day was done, he would see his love again.

"Ready?"

The voice came from Bree behind him, startling him. He hadn’t heard her approach - he’d been too transfixed on the mountain peak.

"I’m ready."

She stepped in front of him and lowered herself, turning her head toward him as her wings spread out in an arc.

"Well, hop on."

He clumsily mounted her in an attempt to mitigate awkwardness, only to make it even more awkward. He blushed as he wrapped himself around her waist.

He was bigger than her, and he could feel how she slouched from his weight.

"Sorry," he said."

"It’s nothing I can’t handle, Ezra. Now, hold on tight!"

Hher great feathered wings spread wide, and they took to the skies.

Between flying on Bree yesterday, and riding around with Rav as often as he did, Ezra was quite used to flying at this point. Even as the wind whipped against his face, tangling his hair and stinging his eyes, it only sharpened his focus. He clutched Bree tighter.

"I’m coming, Oberyn," he whispered, his breath lost to the winds.

They ascended through drifting banks of ice-laced fog, carving their way up the mountain with steady resolve. Bree, strong and elegant, said nothing as she carried them both, her eyes locked on the summit.

When they broke through the last veil of mist, the summit stretched before them: jagged, flat, and bathed in morning light. Snow clung to the edges, but the center was scorched black. Something had happened here. Something big.

And there, standing at the center of a complex glyph marked with ash and bone, was Oberyn.

Ezra’s heart stopped. He couldn’t breathe for a moment. There he was, shirtless, his hair windswept and wild. His eyes shimmered with unstable magic, golden and bright even in the cold morning sun. A woman unknown to Ezra stood next to him, still steadying herself from the power they had just conjured. The ritual was complete - they were just beginning to move away from atop the Encephalim.

"Bree, down there!" Ezra pointed.

She nodded but did not respond - quickly she fell into a dive and began to plummet to the ground toward the Nephilim.

"Oberyn!" Ezra shouted, voice cracking.

Oberyn turned slowly, as if unsure whether it was a dream. But the moment their eyes met, all uncertainty shattered. Oberyn bolted forward. Ezra leapt from Bree’s arms before she even touched the ground.

They collided in the center of the platform, arms wrapping around each other with desperate force. Oberyn buried his face into Ezra’s shoulder, trembling.

"Ezra," he choked. "Ez... it’s really you."

Ezra held him tighter. "I said I’d find you."

"I tried to keep calm," Oberyn said through a stuttering breath. "I kept telling myself you were okay, but gods, I was so scared..."

Ezra kissed his cheek. Then his jaw. "I’m here. I’m really here."

For a long moment, they forgot the cold, the mountain, even the woman standing just behind them. Jan’s breathing slowed, her fingers twitching slightly.

Jan cleared her throat. "That’s... quite the reunion. But if you are who I think you are..." She narrowed her eyes. "You must be the Harbinger."

Ezra froze. Oberyn instinctively stepped in front of him.

"Jan, don’t worry about that," Oberyn said, palms raised. "He’s not our enemy. He’s not like Alcor."

"He has the Apocalypse Engine inside of him," Jan replied, her face turning into a smug smile. "That makes him dangerous."

"I’m dangerous to people who try to hurt the ones I love," Ezra replied firmly. "Who is this lady, anyway?"

Oberyn turned back to Ezra, holding his hands and smiling even as a flicker of uncertainty crossed his lips. "This is my aunt, Ezra. She’s a Nephilim, just like me. Her name is Jan."

"Your...aunt? I didn’t know you had family down here."

Ezra looked past Oberyn and eyed the woman suspiciously.

"He’s a Harbinger, Oberyn. His Apocalypse Engine must be subdued."

"He’s been helping me," Oberyn responded, his voice growing defiant. "I wouldn’t have survived this long without him, without that ’Apocalypse Engine’. It’s powerful."

Jan’s lips pressed into a thin line. "Then you understand why I must act. Once we extract that Apocalypse Engine, we’ll still be able to use it to help you. Now, Oberyn. Cut him with the axe."

Oberyn looked down at his hip, where he had clipped the axe of red light Jan manifested for him the day before. An axe that could incapacitate anyone it struck, even without causing bodily harm.

But Oberyn could not get behind such a request.

"Absolutely not," Oberyn snapped, his voice shaking with anger. "I won’t raise my weapon against him. Even if it’s one like this."

"You promised you’d do what needed to be done," Jan said, her voice low and cool.

"This isn’t needed, Jan," he said, obviously frustrated. "Ezra is my ally. He’s my..."

Hesitation in the air. It stunned all of them.

"He’s the one I love."

Ezra’s heart soared high above the heavens. They were the words he always wanted to hear - from the person he wanted to hear them from most.

Love.

Oberyn loved him.

But it wasn’t the time to get mushy. Jan didn’t look like someone about to back down.

"I must strike him down, Oberyn. He is a Harbinger."

"Then strike me too," Oberyn said, holding Ezra tighter. "Because if you try to hurt him, I’ll defend him. With everything I’ve got."

Bree stepped forward, her bow flexing between her wings.

"I won’t let either of these young men be struck down," the Ave said, defiance alight in her voice. "So we can push that aside right now. It’s three against one, woman."

Jan’s hands flexed, and for a breath, it looked like she might attack. Ezra felt his pulse race. He’d fight, even against someone Oberyn trusted. Even against someone who’d helped him.

"Enough."

A rolling cloud tore through the edge of the summit. Rav descended on a dense swirl of white, his feet landing softly on the ground, his arms outstretched.

"Whoa, now. Did I miss the invitation to the duel?" he asked, his fan cracking open.

Jan took one look at him and stiffened. "You’re..."

"You can call me Rav. Sage of Clouds. Though I don’t believe we’ve met properly, darling. Are you the January Madera I’ve heard so much about?"

Jan faltered. Her eyes darted between Rav and the pair in front of her. Her instincts screamed that she was outmatched. The mana rolling off Rav was suffocating.

"I see. So you must have found Eusevia, did you? Well, did you kill her?"

"Not yet," Rav quipped. "But give it time. It’s early in the morning, and I gave her the ultimatum of a lifetime."

Jan hissed under her breath. She stepped back toward the glyph.

"You fools have no idea what you meddle with," she said, her voice dark. The yellow eyes signature of her clan, reminiscent of the Encephalim, shimmerered with otherworldly light.

"Jan, stop it!" Oberyn pleaded. "These are all my allies, there’s no need for us to fight!"

"Oh, you sweet little innocent and delusional Nephilim," Rav purred. "That’s not your aunt. A little birdie told me that’s nothing but an Encephalim monster wearing your aunt like some kind of...exoskeletal suit."

"Wh-what!?" Oberyn exclaimed. "No, that can’t be! It really is her!"

"I’ll be watching," she warned, and suddenly she began to melt into the ground, sinking into the stone. Rav jolted toward her to stop her, but he wasn’t quick enough - in just moments she was swallowed whole into the rocks.

The mountain trembled.

Rav’s expression dropped. "Oh, shit."

The sigils carved into the ground lit up - glowing a fiery red. What little snow remained at the mountain’s edge began to melt, and the ground rumbled.

From the cliff face, a low groan echoed outward. Stone split. Molten light flickered behind black rock.

"What’s happening?" Ezra cried, grabbing Oberyn’s arm.

Rav didn’t answer immediately. He was focused on the mountain, his pupils narrowing.

"She activated it," he said. "The seal. Lavoshe is waking up."

Oberyn paled.

The mountain beneath them moved.

And so awakened a Calamity that Magicians had labored for a thousand years to keep sealed.