Seven days later...
In Japan, central Hokkaido, at the Great Snow Mountain.
Although it was already May, this region was still blanketed by vast snowfields.
What is known as the Great Snow Mountain is actually the collective name for this entire range of volcanos.
The peaks that rise over two thousand meters are plentiful within the Great Snow Mountain, numbering as many as twenty.
And there are countless more of average height.
Amidst the stretching snowy mountains, atop a peak of grey-black stone,
stood a cluster of pure white structures, quietly towering amidst the surrounding expanse, as if they were naturally one with it.
Their existence, if not closely examined, could easily be overlooked.
A white-haired, white-bearded elder, dressed in a long white robe, accompanied by three or four young men in grey robes, walked on the snowy ground in front of these buildings.
