Read the following passage and questions, then choose the right answer from options, the answer should be one of A, B, C, D.

<passage>:
failed. Var felt Neena beside him, and drew her close. As she sobbed her relief, he continued to look down absently at the dead man. When at last he The ice-wind blew from the glacier, but Var's love was round her as a warming cloak, a cloak that glowed softly golden in the deepening twilight, even as her love was about him. Var said, "The Watcher's cave should be three miles beyond this pass." He stood rigid, trying to catch an echo of the Watcher's thoughts, but there was nothing. Perhaps the old man was resting. From the other "Hurry," said Neena. "They're closer than they were an hour ago." She was beautiful and defiant, facing the red sunset and the black mountain. Var sensed her fear, and the love that had conquered it. He felt a wave of tenderness and bitterness. For him she had come to this. follow him. Now, if her father and his kinsmen overtook them, it would be death for Var, and for Neena living shame. Which of the two was worse was no longer a simple problem to Var, who had grown much older in the last days. Var sighed, shaking his head. "It won't hold them for long, but it's the best I can do now. Come on." There was no path. Now they were descending the steeper face of the one alone might never have won through. It was starry night already when they saw the light from the Watcher's but neither had been here before. But this was no time for shyness. Var eyed the ice-curtain closely to "You were asleep!" said Var. Shock made his thought accusing, though he had not meant to be. The old man grinned toothlessly. "Never fear. Asleep or awake, I watch. turned questioningly to the young pair. "We need a little rest out of the cold," said Var. "And food, if you can spare it. We're pursued." Warming to the old man now, Var sketched his and Neena's history briefly. "We should have been safe among my people by now. And before very long, I'm sure, I would have performed some deed which Groz would "A pity, indeed. I would like to help you—but, you understand, I am the Mountain Watcher. I must be above feuds and families." Var nodded somberly, thinking that an old recluse would in any case be able to do little for them against Groz and his violent kinsfolk. "And what will you do now?" Var grinned mirthlessly. "We haven't much choice, since they're overtaking us. I have only one idea left: we can go where Groz may fear to follow us." "To the mountain, you mean." "And into it, if need be." The Watcher was broodingly silent his eyes shifted to Neena, where she nestled by Var's side. He asked, "And you—are you willing to follow your lover in this?" Var, and her lips curled with a proud and tender mockery. "Follow? Why, I will lead, if his courage should fail him." The old man said, "It is no part of my duty to dissuade you from this and the city burned and burned.... vision of such scope and reality as Var had never seen—no, lived through—before. With deep respect now he gazed upon the bent old man who was the Mountain Watcher. "Some of the Ryzgas took flight to the stars, and some perished on Earth. But there was a group of them who believed that their time to mind as it groped for his there was a confusion of horror and pity. Var looked grimly at the Watcher, and would have spoken but the Watcher seemed suddenly a very long way off, and Var could no longer feel his own limbs, his face was a numb mask. Dully he heard the old man say, "You are tired. Best sleep until morning." Var strove to cry out that there was no time, that Groz was near and that sleep was for infants and the aged, but his intention sank and Var woke. Daylight glimmered through the ice of the cave mouth. He had been unconscious, helpless, for hours! At the thought of that, panic gripped him. He had not slept since childhood, and he had forgotten how Neena sat up and stifled a cry of fright. Var growled, "Who are you? Where's the Watcher?" were all night chasing elusive dreams on the high ridges, miles away." Var passed a hand across bewildered eyes. Neena said softly, "Thank you, Watcher." "Don't thank me. I take no sides in your valley feuds. But now you are rested, your minds are clear. Do you still mean to go on to the Ryzga mountain?" Not looking at the Watcher, Var muttered unsteadily, "We have no alternative." dashed from rock to rock in its struggle toward the plain, but the curling fog hid everything. "You have an alternative," said the Watcher crisply. The two took their eyes from the black mountain and gazed at him in sudden hope, but his face was unsmiling. "It is this. You, Var, can flee up the canyon to the north, by a way I will show you, disguising your thoughts and masking direction, southward, without seeking to conceal herself. Your pursuers will be deceived and follow her, and by the time they catch her it will be too late for them to overtake Var." Quickly, he impressed on them what he had learned of the structure of the mountain and of its guardian machines. Var closed his eyes, a little dizzied by the rapid flood of detail. "You are ready to go," said the Watcher. He spoke aloud, and his voice was cracked and harsh. Var opened his eyes in surprise, and saw that the Watcher had become again the hoary ancient of last night. Var felt a twinge of unfamiliar emotion only by its echo in Neena's river, crept hand in hand, sharing their strength, across unstable dream bridges from crag to crag. Groz and his pack, in their numbers, would cross the gorge more surely and swiftly. When Var and Neena set foot at last on the cindery slope of the great volcanic cone, they sensed that the pursuit already halved their lead. the face of a lava cliff, closed only by an intangible curtain—so little had the Ryzgas feared those who might assail them in their sleep. Var sent his thoughts probing beyond the curtain, listened intently, head thrown back, to their echoes that returned. The tunnel beyond slanted steeply downward. Var's hands moved, molding a radiant globe caught you now!" Behind Groz the figures of his followers loomed up as striding shadows. Neena's hand tightened on Var's. Var sent a thought of defiance: "Go back! Or you'll drive us to enter the mountain!" mountain's black shoulder hung inverted above them and the dizzy gulf of sky was beneath. Var fought for footing with his balance gone, feeling Ready ... ready.... The sun-globe floated behind them, casting light before them down the featureless tunnel that sloped always toward the mountain's heart. Var made it only this far. It was farther than the Watcher had gone into these uncharted regions, and only the utmost alertness of mind and sense had saved them from death in traps like this. But as yet the way was not Stop! —before you go too far!" Var faced that way and thought coldly: "Only if you return and let us go free." In the black reaches of the shaft his will groped for and locked with knew with finality that the other's stubbornness matched his own—that neither would yield, though the mountain above them and the world closed down on all his motor nerves. Holding that grip, Var strode across the floor and looked straight into

<question>:
What is ironic about the conclusion of the story?

<options>:
A The slave masters of the Ryzgas were ultimately eradicated by their own slaves
B Humans seem to feel they have no other alternative than to kill and cause suffering before they can establish peace
C Var will likely be killed or imprisoned for life, and Neena will bear the mark of shame for eternity
D Despite the Watcher's message, Var continued his journey to the mountain in pursuit of personal gain

<answer>:

A