We prepared for our departure the next morning well before we turned in for the night. Our packs got repacked. Leaving anything non essential here lightened our load considerably. The only thing we really stocked up on was water. Moving at our best sustainable speed all day we would need it. Xue handed us some carefully wrapped cubes as well after rummaging through her medical supplies for a little while. They consisted mostly of salt and other minerals we would need. Plain water was not all the body needed after working up a good sweat after all. Some of these very same nutrient cubes went into the stew that evening as well, making it a little more salty than usual.

It was a good thing we had spent the day working hard. I might not have been able to sleep otherwise. As it was the pleasant exhaustion of a hard day's work claimed me before long though. Just as well. The next morning came soon enough anyway. After one last meal together Gash'zur and I got ready to leave. Some of our companions still looked as if they wanted to protest but in the end they kept their thoughts to themselves. They knew or at least suspected what we would be up against and they still wanted to come. It was almost too much for me. I flashed them one last smile. “Keep a light on for us, so we'll find out way back.”

There were some solemn nods and I turned to face my sole companion for the rest of this adventure. She looked solemn as well. I started building the matrices for the spells we would need. Cat's Grace, Bear's Endurance and Leviathan's Lungs. It was a combination that worked pretty well. I wasn't the first to come up with it either. It was especially popular among the royal couriers. I would have to maintain the spells on both of us instead of just on me though.

It was a good thing that I had a chance to get a better feel for just how much Mana I could channel during my time in Hearth Forge under the tutelage of the Arcanist. Thus I knew exactly how much power I could channel in each of the spells I had to maintain. I could feel the effects snap into place as I finished casting and the same was probably true for the giantess at my side.

I took the first step. Then another and with every step I sped up a little until I reached what felt like a speed I would be able to maintain all day. I took great care to keep my breathing even as well. Thanks to the Leviathan's Lungs spell it wasn't too hard though. Gash'zur matched my pace, keeping to my left and a little behind me. Together we ran in silence. Every step took us a little further from our friends and a little closer to the challenges that still lay ahead of us.

I had been afraid a little about keeping the right direction initially. That fear was unfounded. Sadly not for a good reason though. That sickly green glow in the north had gotten worse yet again over night. By now we could make it out even during daytime without too much trouble. It felt a little like we were on a quite literal deadline. I didn't like that feeling. Not one bit. Thankfully maintaining our magical enhancements and just putting one foot in front of the other at a steady pace took up pretty much all of my mental capacity. Keeping busy was a good way to keep from worrying.

Despite our preparations we couldn't just keep running like this without the occasional break though. We had to at least slow down for a drink of water every once in a while. We never stopped completely. The water skins we would use up first were not in our packs. These we carried at our belts instead. Thus we kept going at a slightly more sedate pace even as we refreshed ourselves. Gash'zur took care of the timekeeping for us. She used the method she had introduced to me while we were on our own in the Deep Dark. Instead of measuring the length of a watch she measured the length in between our drinking breaks though.

Eventually, after we slowed down to drink for the third time, our target came into sight. The ziggurat at the heart of the ruins ahead of us was impossible to miss. The same was true for the dragon that had wrapped itself around the topmost step of structure. The sick, green glow emanated from the platform at the top of the weird step pyramid as well as the black blob that had started forming above it.

It wasn't just black. It was of a black so deep that I had a hard time making out its actual shape. At the same time it somehow emanated that green glow. Just thinking about it made my head hurt thus I decided not to think about it too hard. I couldn't make out what was happening up there but I could see that we weren't the only ones heading there. I could see clouds of dust moving towards the ziggurat both from the west and the east and I could just barely make out the line of people ascending the steep stairs of the structure.

We still were a ways off though. It took us another two hours to reach the outskirts of the ruins. Only as we got closer did I realize that the smaller ruined structures were made of the same impossible black stuff as that blob that was forming above the central step pyramid. Just looking at the ruined structures hurt my eyes. It didn't get better as night finally fell either as I now could make out the faint glow the ruins were giving off. It was the same as the blob or possibly sphere up there, just weaker.

We finally stopped when we were maybe half an hour at a more sedate pace away from our target. We were starting to feel the exhaustion that had piled up during the day. And, almost more important, we almost ran into a patrol, if you wanted to call a group of mindless shambling ghouls a patrol. We quickly dispatched them before they even had a chance to react.

For the first time I had a chance to use my new weapon in actual combat and it performed well above any expectations I could have head. I beheaded three of the unquiet dead with my first strike. As Gash'zur brought her hammer down on another I disabled the rest of the group with another swing, pretty much bisecting them at hip height. After that finishing them off was easy and quick work. Well, to be honest, maybe these shambling monsters were several orders of magnitude below what my new weapon was designed to handle. We had come upon them like a storm as well, our bodies still enhanced by the spells that had kept us running all day.

The important thing was though, that they had not been able to raise an alarm. I couldn't help but worry anyway. Were these ghouls just shambling around the ruins at random? Or were they on an organized patrol? Would they eventually be missed? I couldn't rule out that possibility. As I stood there sucking in big gulps of air I watched Gash'zur smash the last one's head with her hammer. She didn't even empower it with fire this time around. Just as well. Things were much quieter this way. As she finished I pointed at an arched doorway a little ways off. She nodded, breathing just as heavy as I did.

We obscured our tracks the best we could, hoping that the wind would take care of the rest before anyone started missing the group of unquiet dead we had obliterated. The interior of the building was as eerie as the outside had suggested. That nasty dust was piled high inside as well. In the end we explored for a bit until we found a stairway leading up. On the floor above it was slightly better, at least regarding the dust. The rest was just as bad. It would have to do though. We needed to rest up before getting any closer to the heart of this mess.

In the end we settled for a room with windows facing away from the ziggurat and a single doorway leading towards the stairs. That way we didn't have to keep watch over too many approaches while still having a second way out if things went bad. There we huddled up in a corner under the protection of our enchanted chameleon cloaks. Curiously enough the garments even managed to mimic the weird glow of the equally weird stone in our back. It wasn't an exact reproduction but it would be good enough to fool anyone not looking too closely.

Our evening meal was sparse in comparison to what we had the last days but it was still welcome. We didn't even need any dishes. I just heated the water in the water skins to make us tea and a broth that was much thinner than what the goblins used to cook up, despite the fact that I used the mineral supplement provided by Xue to spice it up even further. This way of cooking had the additional benefit that none of the nasty dust could get into our food either.

After wards sleep came surprisingly easy despite the less than hospitable environs. Being cuddled up closely to the giantess under our cloaks might have helped. Waking up and staying awake for my watch in turn proved much harder but I managed. Several times I heard what I imagined to be groups of ghouls slurping by outside but they never made an effort to actually search for us. If they came across the dead patrol they probably didn't care. In the end the next morning came surprisingly quickly though.