Above the fog.
Where winds and gusts tumble down.
The fog parts as the view of the tranquil ocean unfolds—sun glistening.
Upper Erisia looked similar to that of the lower regions of the drifting island. Yet, looking at its land from afar gives one a… tranquil feeling. A sense of calm. A plateau that stood overlooking the land.
Elis' serpentine eyes were fixated at the top of those cliffs.
"He calls himself the Duke of Erisia, which is… uhh… a little corny. Anyways, his manor's somewhere in Upper Erisia. It probably won't be hard to spot, though. It's a manor, after all…"
"Our cohort hasn't gotten the chance to explore upper Erisia. We never really had a need to."
"I'm scared of what could be up there."
The adventurers talked one by one—left to right—in a line like a rehearsed performance.
'If someone has it… damn.'
If someone already had the Forge of Sin, or was—at the very least—guarding it, that made Quies' job much more difficult. He wasn't the best negotiator in the world, and he also wasn't the best fighter…
But, then again, Evengarde simply told him to locate the Forge of Sin, not to secure or obtain it. In fact, Quies had practically located the Forge of Sin already with the information he received. If he wanted, he could go back to the Isle of Vigil and tell Evengarde what he had heard just now.
However, he wasn't sure how reliable the information from the adventurers were. They could by lying, for one, or they could just have false information all together. To truly confirm their statements, Quies figured he would have to go to Upper Erisia by himself and find the duke's manor.
'Hah, duke of Erisia. Who made him a duke in the first place? Himself? If that's the case, why not name yourself Great Divine Sovereign of the Eastern Erisian Isles? How humble of him…'
Quies looked back at the artifact, which was now glisteningly covered in a crimson coat.
"Looks snazzy."
"Get with the times, nobody uses that word" Elis replied to the sharp adventurer's comment.
"Says the one who uses 'get with the times'."
Elis frowned slightly with reliable annoyance.
The three adventurers stared at the artifact in unison. There was a slight look of astonishment from the warm adventurer, seeing Quies' capabilities with blood manipulation.
There were three, right?
Yes. Three, there were three.
"Who wants to push it down?" Quies offered to the adventurers.
"I don't."
"Me neither."
"Cleaning blood off of clothes isn't really an enjoyable task."
'Great.' Quies thought to himself.
Palm still on the edge of the artifact, Quies gave it a light push forward—in the direction that led down the ascent of rocks. The grass below parted—and was subsequently crushed—from the Forge Fragment's weight. Quies found himself having to use blood enhancement in his arm to push it with decent speed.
It wasn't a big deal though. Due to the loss of blood, Quies had to compensate for the lack of volume with rate. Currently, he used blood enhancement to manually circulate the blood around his body. He did so in an efficient manner—controlling only a segment of his blood to be used as a 'pump', rather than controlling all of his blood at once. He practically replaced the job of his heart. Though, it was also because of his real heart that he had to be careful with his manual circulation.
Soon, the edge of the artifact tipped over the crest of the ledge. Gravity took over Quies' job of pulling as he gave the artifact one final push-off.
Thud!
The artifact landed on one of the stones with a heavy impact. Dust scattered and flew into the air—smaller rock fragments did too. Quies backed up, and so did the other adventurers. He waved his hand in front of his face and squinted—trying not to get dust in his eyes.
Tha-thud!
The artifact tumbled down the next few steps of the rocky ascension. Any small rocks that just so happened to be in its path were unceremoniously split and crushed.
Thad-thu-thump!
Luckily, the sound of the artifact impacting on the stone surface was a dull thud rather than a piercing clang, which meant that, up until now, Quies' idea was working.
His mind was also working very, very hard. Each impact the heavy artifact had on the stone surface of the ascent had a mental tax on him, since he had to constantly reform the structure of the shell every time it was disturbed. The reason this had a greater toll on his mind compared to, say, swords clashing, was because of the size of the shell and the force it had to endure.
He was also trying his best to ignore the heartbeats of the adventurers, but that was the least of his concerns right now.
'If it weren't so heavy… Actually, if it weren't so heavy, then they'd just carry it down without me…'
Eventually, the artifact hit the bottom of the ascent with a loud, but satisfying, final thud as it rolled over grass once again. Feeling that the artifact was in a sound state, Quies let go of his mantra as his hand rubbed his aching temples. It felt like a band of pain was squeezing his brain from all sides. He was familiar with this pain, though, familiar didn't always mean uncomfortable.
After a moment of rest and worried stares from the adventurers, all four of them descended the rocky ascent.
"Yeah, no, on second thought, it would've been nearly impossible to carry the artifact down this way."
"Told you guys." Elis commented as the warm adventurer released his grip on a rather tall ledge.
"We still need to see if the artifact was protected or not."
"True."
Quies reached the bottom of the ascent first, given that he skipped the tedious process of carefully climbing down the ledges by… simply jumping off of them and reinforcing his legs with blood enhancement. His legs bent and absorbed the impacts like springs as to not damage his bones. That was one structure which blood enhancement couldn't affect that much—at least for now.
Pressing his palm into the, now colder, crimson coat, he began to absorb the liquid rapidly through the small opening in his thumb—the same rate at which he bled it out.
"W-wow."
"Not even a single scratch."
The adventurers studied the surface of the metal and glass intently, looking for any flaws that might present themselves. Yet, there were none—at least, no new ones. Quies himself also took a look at the artifact, marveling at his own mastery over bloodrend.
'Stay humble…'
Of course, the four were silent once more. And, as per usual, the sharp one was the first to speak.
"So… you're gonna head to upper Erisia?"
Quies met his eyes framed with golden markings.
"I guess. Where else would I go?"
He caught a glance from Elis, who promptly looked away a moment later. For now, that was the most feasible plan he had in mind—to head to Upper Erisia and explore for the time being.
"I am, no, we're grateful for your help, uhh… bloodrender."
He paused for a moment, hoping for Quies to introduce himself. He said nothing, though. His face turned genuine as he continued speaking.
"You know, someday, I hope we can meet again. Maybe then, I'll be able to pay you back in some way."
Quies looked at the sincere serpentine eyes of the warm adventurer. They had just met minutes ago, and yet he was acting so kind.
He paused before responding:
"I… hope so too."