Chapter 146: Breaking Rocks

The Mountain’s stone fist whistled past Grace’s ear, close enough to ruffle her hair and give her a preview of what getting punched by a statue would feel like.

Grace wanted to avoid that if she could.

[Okay, think. Last time I went into someone’s mind, I almost got brain-fried fighting the Tempest’s emotional baggage. Do I really want to dive into solid rock’s psyche?]

Grace ducked another swing, her newly acquired Earthshaker Gauntlets humming with divine energy. The Mountain was getting faster. Angrier.

Perfect.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Grace taunted, dancing backward across the cavern floor. “My grandma hits harder, and she’s been dead for years!”

“SILENCE.” The Mountain’s voice echoed off the walls like an avalanche.

“Make me! Oh wait, you can’t. Because that would require doing something different for once in your eternal existence!”

The Mountain charged. Grace rolled between her massive legs, came up behind her, and smacked her granite ass with the flat of her blade.

The sound echoed through the cavern like a church bell made of stone. Again, she wasn’t trying to do damage, but she was being as annoying as possible.

“Did you just—”

“Spank you? Yeah. Whatcha gonna do about it, huh?”

The Mountain’s face cycled through about seventeen different emotions. All of them variations of rage, but hey, at least she was feeling things.

[Perfect. Get mad. Get sloppy. Change.]

Grace’s gauntlets hummed as she deflected another strike. Each impact sent shockwaves through the cavern that made her teeth rattle. Stalactites crashed down around them like hail.

“You’re destroying your own home,” Grace pointed out, dodging a chunk of ceiling.

“It will be rebuilt. Exactly as it was.”

“That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s PERMANENT.”

Grace laughed. Actually laughed, despite her ribs screaming in protest from where that last hit had clipped her.

“You know what’s permanent? Death. Everything else? Negotiable!”

She darted in, scored another hit on that damaged knee she’d been working on. The Mountain stumbled. Just a little, but it was progress.

“You know what your problem is?” Grace continued, backstepping away from a grab that felt like if the Mountain had gotten her hands on Grace, she absolutely would’ve turned her into angel paste. “You’re boring!”

“I am eternal!”

“Eternally dull! Seriously, how does anyone stand talking to you? ’Oh, I’m the Mountain, I never change, blah blah blah, I’m basically living watching paint dry.’ Get a hobby!”

“I don’t need—”

“A personality? Yeah, I noticed that about five minutes into this conversation.”

The Mountain screamed. Raw frustration given granite voice. She slammed both fists down hard enough to crack the cavern floor.

The entire mountain shook. Grace barely kept her footing as the ground split beneath her feet.

[Whoa whoa whoa!]

“Feel better?” Grace asked sweetly, hopping over a new crevice.

“I HATE YOU.”

“Now that’s new! Hate wasn’t there five minutes ago. Look at you, growing!”

The Mountain’s attacks came faster now. Wilder. Less calculated, more emotional. Her stone fists left craters where Grace had been standing milliseconds before.

Grace grinned through split lips, tasting blood.

“What else you got buried in there? Jealousy? Loneliness? Sexual frustration?”

“I am STONE. I don’t have—”

“Oh please. You’re literally made from Eternia’s emotions. Bet you’ve got all kinds of feelings locked up in that rocky chest of yours.”

A fist grazed her shoulder. Even a glancing blow from the Mountain felt like getting hit by a meteor. Grace spun with the impact, came up swinging. Her gauntleted punch actually cracked the Mountain’s jaw.

Stone chips scattered across the cavern floor.

“See? You’re already different than when we started. Moving faster, hitting harder. Adapting to the situation instead of just standing there like a statue.”

“Shut up shut up SHUT UP!”

The Mountain’s form began to shift. Not the flowing, controlled movement from before. This was unstable. Chaotic. Like she couldn’t decide what shape to hold and was trying them all at once.

“No,” the Mountain whispered, her voice cracking like breaking bedrock. “No, I am permanent, I am unchanging, I am—”

“Changing right now. Right in front of me.”

“This isn’t supposed to happen!”

“Yeah, well, lot of that going around lately.” Grace pressed her advantage, striking at every opening she could find.

The Mountain’s stone began to crack. Not from Grace’s attacks, but from inside. Golden light leaked through the fissures like molten metal.

“What’s happening to me?”

For the first time since the fight started, Grace slowed down. She felt she could afford to, for now.

“You’re… shedding what Eternia dumped inside you,” Grace muttered, as much a revelation to her as it was to the Mountain.

“I don’t want to change!”

[… Nobody does, really, right?]

The Mountain fell to her knees. The impact shook the entire cavern. Chunks of stone fell away from her body, revealing something underneath. Not quite light, not quite flesh. Something in between.

“I… I…” she whispered, trailing off.

Grace lowered her blade.

[Is it done?]

“Changing is… frightening.”

[Ain’t that the truth?]

More stone fell away. The Mountain was smaller now. More person-shaped, less walking geological marvel. Grace could actually see her face clearly for the first time.

She looked terrified.

The last of the stone shell cracked and fell away. Underneath was still the Mountain, but softer now.

[QUEST COMPLETE]

The Mountain has been freed from stagnation!

WARNING: Leave. Now.

Grace blinked at the notification.

[Leave? Why would I need to—]

The Mountain’s eyes snapped open. Not stone anymore. They blazed with inner fire.

“You.”

[Eh?]

“Me?”

“You made me FEEL things.”

[What’s happening right now? What’s going on?]

“Uh, you’re welcome?”

The cavern shook. Harder than before.

“Centuries of peace. Centuries of blessed quiet…” The Mountain’s eyes narrowed. “And you ruined it in MINUTES.”

Grace took a step back.

“W-Well, I’d really argue I improved it, but-”

A hand shot out. Not stone anymore, but not quite flesh either. It grabbed Grace by the throat and lifted her off the ground.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done? The dam you’ve broken?”

Grace tried to speak. Couldn’t. The grip was strong enough to crush her windpipe.

[Oh fuck.]

“All those emotions. All that change. Flooding back at once.” The Mountain’s face was inches from hers. “Centuries of feelings I buried. And now they’re all screaming at me at the same time.”

The Mountain’s grip tightened. Grace’s vision started to go spotty. Her eyes were bulging out of their sockets.

“I’m going to break you for this. Slowly. Carefully. With my bare hands.”

[Okay maybe therapy wasn’t the best idea. Note to self: some people don’t want to be helped.]

Grace brought her gauntlets up, channeled divine energy through them. The Earthshaker Gauntlets lived up to their name, sending shockwaves through the Mountain’s arm. She dropped Grace with a startled yelp.

Grace hit the ground gasping.

“Look, I know you’re processing a lot right now—”

“PROCESSING?”

The entire mountain shook. No, not just shook. Moved. Like it was waking up after a very long nap.

[Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit.]

“You need to go,” the Mountain said. Her voice was layered now. Stone and flesh and something else. Something primal. “Before I decide to process my feelings all over your corpse.”

Grace didn’t need to be told twice. She turned and ran.

Behind her, the Mountain screamed. Not pain. Not anger.

Joy. Terrible, overwhelming joy at feeling something other than nothing for the first time in millennia.

The cavern began to collapse. Grace pumped divine energy into her legs, ran faster than she’d ever run before. Rocks crashed down from above. The path ahead crumbled with each step.

[Almost there almost there come on Grace you can do this—]

A boulder the size of a house dropped right in front of her. Grace didn’t slow down. She punched it with her gauntlets, shattering it into gravel, and kept running through the debris cloud.

The exit was right there. Twenty feet. Fifteen. Ten.

She burst from the cave mouth just as the entire entrance collapsed behind her. Rolled down the mountainside, came up in a crouch covered in dust and small rocks.

The mountain was trembling. Trees fell. Boulders dislodged and rolled down.

And from deep inside, she could hear laughter. Manic, delighted laughter that echoed across the valleys.

Grace stood up, brushing dirt off her clothes. She looked back at the mountain, which was now doing some kind of geological dance.

[Holy crap.] She chuckled in disbelief, then broke into full laughter. [Holy crap, I actually did it!]

She’d freed another Pillar. Sure, this one seemed significantly more unhinged than the others, but still. Mission accomplished.

Her gauntlets were warm against her hands, humming with residual energy. The Earthshaker Gauntlets were definitely going to come in handy for future fights. Assuming she survived long enough to have future fights.

[Five down, two to go. At this rate, I’ll either save the world or drive myself completely insane trying.]

Behind her, the Mountain let out another whoop of joy that triggered a small avalanche.

[Probably both.]

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