Javier's black cloak fluttered as a gust of wind whistled past him, bringing with it the fresh air of the night. The Pale Son emotionlessly glanced at his surroundings, his left hand tightly holding his bow, the other ready to shoot an arrow at any moment's notice. He was currently standing guard on top of the highest-standing marble rock in the convoy's camp, letting him see the entirety of the area.

Suddenly, his fingers crisped up and his dark Aura flared up, covering the steel arrowhead. He effortlessly drew the bowstring to his shoulder, his breathing still and his eyes staring straight at his target. Time seemed to stop as Javier carefully aimed when a strange light appeared in his dead fish eyes. He lowered the bow, watching elsewhere. Where his gaze was previously staring were two figures treading through the dark forest, approaching the quarry.

"...You know you look kind of stupid, floating around?" Sahro suddenly blurted out as he pushed a bush out of the way.

"What—What do you mean I look stupid? No, I look cool, and you, you are simply jealous. And I'm not the stupid one, you are. You're the one who said you knew the way and all that. Fucking hours we've been walking..." Glenn replied with an outraged expression, his brows creased and his arms crossed. He casually hovered above the bust, avoiding it entirely.

"Oh yeah, completely. Ah, how much I desire just being a floating man...Hey, I bet that if you stay like this for your whole life, you'll transform into some kind of flying sludge. And it's not my fault if the trees all look alike in this damned place!" The Black Heir sneered, his sarcastic remarks hitting his friend in the perfect spot.

"...The fuck are you saying?" A vein popped on Glenn's forehead.

"Like, you know, a very fat man that's too lazy to walk,"

"I'm–I'm not lazy, my foot is broken!"

"Ah, wait, I think I'm listening to excuses here. Sorry, future fat man, I'll try to help as best as I can. Perhaps we'll begin with a more equilibrated diet, what do you think?"

"You–Do you think it's the time to joke around like that? Don't you remember we kind of – lost – our employer?"

"...Yeah. You can stop repeating it, now."

"...I mean, if you think about it, that might be for the best..."

"What?!"

"Hey, listen. Our debt was with Maron. But if our creditor is magically gone, doesn't that make our debt disappear?"

"This is horrible–wait... No, you're right. Shit, we might be good?"

"...I guess?"

Glenn and Sahro discussed passionately, one leading the way through the forest, and the other floating merrily behind. Their faces lightened up when they discovered the marble quarry after passing yet another pine tree. The Black Heir grinned and pointed at the quarry.

"See? That was the right way!"

Glenn snickered, shaking his head.

"...Yeah, it's not like it took us half the night to arrive here..." He worriedly raised an eyebrow, biting down his lower lip, "...I just wonder what we're going to tell people back at the camp."

Sahro scratched his chin as he proceeded toward the nearest slope that led down into the quarry.

"If there's one thing I learned by doing countless requests back in the Fringe, it was that if the questions don't ask any questions about it, then there are no problems. Let's hope they don't ask. If they do..."

Glenn sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"...We'll just tell them the truth directly, Sahro. No point withholding it since we'll have to tell them at some point anyway..."

The Black Heir shrugged, his hand resting on the pommel of his curved sword. The two young men continued silently, joining the camp under the cover of the night. The mercenaries standing guard tensed up when they saw the two approaching until they recognized them. Reed was among them, his blade half-unsheathed. The mercenary leader breathed out in relief when he realized they were allies. He smiled as he approached them, a smile that quickly disappeared once he realized that Maron wasn't with them.

"Reed." Glenn acknowledged the mercenary with a nod, noticing despite his best efforts the man's judgmental gaze at his floating posture.

"...Where the hell is Maron?"

Sahro grimaces, then turns and runs off quickly, leaving Glenn the honor to break the news. The young man silently swore at his friend, before rubbing his temples.

"Listen, Reed, one thing at a time. Firstly, how much time were we gone for, and secondly, were you attacked during that time? Your guys seemed much more on edge compared to usual," Glenn asked, lowering himself and sitting on a nearby carved-out stone. He massaged his foot painfully, trying to find a way to fix the damned thing. Reed looked away with an annoyed gaze, before fitting his thumbs in his belt and drawing a deep breath.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"...Sure. You were gone for a whole day, and no, we weren't attacked. But with you and Sahro's absence – and despite the deep respect I hold toward Sir Javier – no one felt safe without you two. Javier is a very strong guy, but he's just one man, while you're more like fifty. Sahro would probably count for a few dozen as well," Reed explained through clenched teeth, his anger evident.

"And now, you're telling me you didn't bring our employer back? But what was the point of disparaging our safety, risking the workers' and our own life, if it was for nothing?!?" The mercenary lead exploded, grabbing Glenn's tie violently and pulling it toward him. The young man glanced down with a cold, hard gaze, nothing like his usual self.

"...If you want to keep your hand, let go of me," Glenn threatened with a harsh tone.

"If you think I'm happy with how things ended up, then you're really fucking dumb. Now, I also had a terrible day where I had to fight against some ungodly being, witness a man get tortured, all of that so I could end up flying in the air the Still Peak. The only good thing I got out of all of this was the fucking stunning view, which I couldn't even appreciate because of my fucking broken foot!" Glenn spat, poking Reed's chest sharply with his finger. The mercenary hurriedly let go of Glenn's tie, lifting his hands in surrender, a thick bead of sweat sliding down the side of his face.

Glenn sighed as he retightened his tie, calmly undoing and redoing the knot. Simply unsummoning and resummoning the tie would have done the trick, but he needed to keep his hands busy. He didn't lie for a single second when he said to Reed that this was a terrible day. They got nothing out of all this bullshit, not even a single piece of Blumar. Glenn's eyes widened and he suddenly slapped himself on the forehead.

"Shit, there was some back in that room! I could have put some in my dimensional bag had I been quicker. Damn it, that could have been worth a lot of money..." Glenn's head leaned forward as the young man rubbed tiredly. He looked at the ground thoughtlessly, staring at the white marble in the hope of finding a way to explain things and to get out of the inevitable predicament they were going to find themselves in when he saw something strange.

The white dust covering the marble was trembling, hovering above the ground with a few centimeters. Glenn squinted and passed his finger through the dust, finding it undisturbed by his intervention.

"What the—"

A loud explosion shook the ground, throwing everyone down. Glenn jumped to his feet, wincing when the pain of his broken foot shot through his body. He cursed Doyle in his mind once again before applying a new layer of Nitrogen over his foot.

'...At that point, that may be better to just replace the whole foot with an ice structure or something,' Diamanes remarked with a mocking tone, irritating Glenn even further. The young man clenched his teeth through the suffering and ran toward the source of the noise. He used Gravity Manipulation at the same time, and soon floated back into the air, letting him temporarily free from the torture of stepping on the ground.

After a few turns beyond some tents and marble walls, he found the problematic area. Sahro and Javier were already standing in front of it, the glint of the curved sword and the metal arrowhead glinting under the moonlight. A thick cloud of white dust was blocking their vision, making them unable to identify the threat. Glenn drew a breath, his right hand shooting forward as he expulsed Mana through it. The dust was blown away by the harmless shockwave, revealing some kind of stainless metal capsule.

It was fuming slightly, clouds of steam coming out of it from time to time. Glenn squinted, before gasping as he recognized the capsule.

It was the human-sized vat they found inside the bronze dome!

The one where they safely stashed Maron away!

Well, "safely" was relative. Maron was safe from the dangers of the structure, hopefully, but since this looked like a vat for experimentation, something weird might have happened to him. Glenn gulped as he approached the experimental vat, closely followed by Sahro and Javier. He hesitantly tried to grab the vat's door, at a loss as to how to open it. Glenn quickly checked the vat for any valve handle or anything like that that could serve as an opening button, but the vat had been stripped to the bare minimum, which was simply only the capsule.

Glenn rubbed the back of his head, before shrugging and grabbing the side of the door.

"Whatever, fuck it. Hmph!" His muscles bulged as he dug through the bronze, forcefully sliding the door open. Steam shot out in Glenn's face, forcing him to protect his eyes with his hand. He squinted through the cloud, distinguishing a human figure inside the vat. Glenn clenched his teeth and opened the rest of the door. Black sludge flowed out from the vat, falling on his boots and tainting them dark.

The young man took a step back, waiting for the steam and the sludge to get out of the vat. Sahro and Javier were also staring at the tank in silence, ready to slice and shoot at any moment. A little further away, Reed and the mercenaries were also watching, worried and curious. Suddenly, a dark, deep blue hand shot out of the vat, grabbing the edge and pulling itself out. Glenn's eyes widened and he took a step back, his Mana twirling in his right hand.

What he presumed was Maron slowly got out of the tank, stumbling on his feet. The figure kneeled on the ground, looking at his hands with awe.

"How...?" Glenn muttered, struggling to understand what he was seeing.

Maron was kneeling in front of him, with all his limbs. The merchant seemed as shocked as Glenn, staring at his hands as if he couldn't believe they were there. His left arm was made of living flesh, exactly as he remembered it to be, while his right arm was entirely made out of stone. And not any stones, no, it was of a dark-blue stone that seemed to swallow the moonlight hitting it.

Blumar.

Maron was half-human, half Blumar, as insane as it sounded. The merchant raised his head, letting Glenn see a diamond-like crystal encased where a left eye should be. Maron slowly pushed himself off the ground with a raspy breathing. His knees were shaking, but he took a step forward, toward Glenn and the others. The young man concentrated his Mana, just in case, but suddenly, the spell he prepared was dispelled away.

'...! The Blumar!'

Maron took another step and grabbed Glenn's shoulder. He opened his mouth slightly, drawing a deep, raspy breath, before finally talking.

"Why did you transform me into a rock?!"

"Why?!?"

Diamanes let out a surprised snort inside Glenn's mind, in awe.

'Shit, my man transformed into a🗿!'