Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband novel Chapter 128

Chapter 128: The Sacred Climb Pt2

The lock was huge. It was a circular array of stone rings, each covered in ancient Wolf runes. They were spinning slowly, out of sync.

"Okay," Primrose muttered, her breath coming in panicked gasps. "Okay. Think, Prim. It’s just like the ’Lock-Pick Minigame’ in Level 4."

She touched the stone. It was freezing.

The Wolf howls at the moon. The moon pulls the tide. The tide feeds the earth.

"Wolf. Moon. Tide. Earth," Primrose whispered.

She spun the outer ring. Click. A wolf symbol aligned at the top.

Behind her, the battle raged.

"HOLD THE LINE!" Konrad screamed.

Primrose’s hands shook. She spun the second ring. Click. A moon.

"Primrose!" Caspian called out. "Hurry!"

She spun the third ring. Click. A wave.

One more. The Earth.

She tried to turn the inner ring. It was stuck. Frozen solid.

"Come on," Primrose grunted, pushing with all her might. "Don’t be stubborn! Move!"

A shadow fell over her.

One of the corrupted guards had slipped past the line. He raised a black axe high above Primrose’s head.

"PRIMROSE!" Caspian screamed.

Primrose saw the shadow. She didn’t have a weapon. She had a bag of snacks.

She didn’t think. She swung the heavy bag of dried pork and hardtack like a flail.

THWACK.

She hit the zombie square in the face with five pounds of cured meat.

The zombie stumbled back, surprised by the sudden assault of protein.

That second gave her the adrenaline she needed. She slammed her shoulder into the frozen ring.

CRACK.

The ice broke. The ring spun. Click. The Earth symbol aligned.

RUMBLE.

The massive stone gates groaned. The runes flared gold, washing away the purple corruption.

The corrupted guards shrieked as the holy light hit them. They dissolved into dust, their souls finally freed.

"It’s open!" Primrose cheered, holding her snack bag like a victorious weapon.

Meanwhile, on the shortcut.

Astrid was regretting her life choices.

The Goat Path was less of a path and more of a suggestion. It was a narrow ledge, barely a foot wide, winding up the sheer face of the cliff.

"This is crazy," Orion wheezed from behind her.

He was clinging to the rock face like a barnacle. His face was blue. His tail, which had popped out due to stress, was dragging in the snow. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"Just... keep... moving," Astrid grunted. She was pulling him up by his scarf. "We’re almost... there."

"You said that... twenty minutes ago," Orion complained. "I can’t feel my toes. I think my tail is frozen to the rock."

"If you die, I’ll kill you," Astrid threatened. "Don’t you dare freeze on me, fish-boy."

Orion looked up. Through the swirling snow, he saw a glimmer of purple light coming from the rock face.

"Astrid," Orion whispered. "Look. There’s smoke."

Above them, carved into the cliff face, was an ancient steam grate. It was a narrow opening barred with heavy stone slats, used to vent the magical heat from the Shrine’s core. Warm, purple-tinted steam was hissing out of it.

"A steam grate!" Astrid gasped. "It leads inside!"

"I fit," Orion noted, looking at his small frame. "You... might get stuck. Your head is pretty big."

"Shut up and climb," Astrid growled.

They scrambled up the last few feet. Astrid kicked the stone slats. They were old and brittle from centuries of heat and cold. With a hard stomp, they crumbled inward.

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