At the base of the ridge, the ice cracked beneath their feet.
Sharp. Hollow. Like something long buried stirring beneath the silence.
Lyne reached out, catching Sightless's sleeve.
Her voice barely rose above the wind:
"Look… something's inside."
---
Beneath the translucent blue—
an Odachi lay still.
Long as she was tall.
Its blade silver-white, frozen like moonlight on still water.
Sharper than steel.
Still as the mountain itself.
---
Sightless narrowed his eyes.
"That sword could cleave this mountain in two."
A pause.
"But blades like this don't wait, frozen and free.
They do not sleep.
They test."
---
Lyne stepped closer. Her breath fogged the ice.
Her voice was calm—unnaturally so.
"I swear.
This blade will spill blood only for justice."
---
Sightless gave a single nod.
"Then shatter the ice."
---
She raised her arm and struck.
The ice broke like glass under pressure—
splinters dancing in the cold air.
A soft light pulsed outward.
The Odachi gleamed in the wake of its release, as if exhaling after centuries in slumber.
---
A whisper curled through the frost:
[You have acquired a counterfeit forgotten Odachi.]
---
Lyne's eyes narrowed. "You knew it was false?"
Sightless didn't flinch.
"No true weapon waits like ripe fruit on a tree.
The real Odachi does not reveal itself to the first hand that reaches."
---
Before she could speak again—
the wind stopped.
As if the mountain held its breath.
---
From the edge of shadow, something moved.
A white serpent, colossal and coiled, emerged.
Its scales shimmered like untouched snow.
Its eyes glinted with frozen knowing—
not malice, not hunger.
Judgment.
---
Lyne stepped back. Her pulse quickened.
But Sightless stood still.
Unflinching. Unblinking.
---
His voice rang low.
"I will walk this forgotten mountain.
Slither away… or be forgotten."
---
The serpent's head tilted—
recognition passing like a flicker of lightning beneath its gaze.
Then, with regal silence, it turned and vanished into the snow.
---
The air shifted.
The blade in Lyne's hands… changed.
---
A second whisper followed:
[You have acquired the true forgotten Odachi.]
---
She held it close—not with pride, but reverence.
Not all truths are earned through strength.
Some demand resolve.