Following the flow of spirit essence, Adam found himself flying higher and higher in the sky. Above even the clouds, they soared higher and higher! Adam was quite surprised by how high they had to go. He thought: 'This is higher than I have ever gone before. It's even starting to get difficult to even maintain flight! I hope we don't have to go much further up...'

Thankfully, they evened out shortly after. Evelyn was having a little more difficult a time than Adam was, but Adam had to go slowly in order to carefully follow the flow of spirit essence. She was able to keep up thanks to this.

Being up so high in the sky, the two shivered from the cold. Besides the flow of fire spirit essence they were following, the sky was nearly devoid of fire essence! If they did not have any proficiency with fire essence, Adam felt sure that ice would accumulate on their scales.

Slowly, Adam blindly followed the flow of spirit essence further south. They could not drop down and rest, as Adam might loose track of the flow of spirit essence they were trying to follow. After just a few days, Adam could tell why others would rarely seek out portal stones like this; it was pure torture! The difficulty of flying led to exhaustion and the cold bit away at them. Still, the two persevered.

Finally, after a couple weeks had passed, the flow of spirit essence started to descend! Adam eagerly followed, glad to drop down to where it was warmer. Down and down they went until the flow of fire essence started to spread out and diffuse into the area. They were finally there! Adam opened his eyes, no longer needing to follow the flow with his elemental sight. What greeted him was a common looking area. Some trees, vegetation, and a few mountains in the distance. The area was vast and the two would have to scour around and carefully look through hundreds of kilometers of land to find the portal stone. The first part of their journey had ended, but now it was time for the monotonous search for the portal stone!

Evelyn asked while flying beside Adam: “Have we arrived?”

Adam nodded: “The portal stone is somewhere in this area... I just can't pinpoint where.”

Evelyn looked a little disappointed. She had been hoping Adam's elemental sight would speed things up, but it seemed even it had limited use. In truth, Adam's elemental sight did help their initial flight. It was much easier for Adam to follow the flow of spirit essence at a faster pace. It would have likely taken an extra week or two to arrive here if he had not used his elemental sight.

There was nothing else to do but to just start searching. The portal stone would not be hovering somewhere in the air, so Adam and Evelyn flew down to the ground. For the first time in a long time, they didn't have to fly! Still, it was faster to walk around with their Dragon-Forms instead of their Human-Forms, so they stayed that way. Walking along, Adam closed his eyes to sense as far as he could with his elemental sight. He could probe down into the ground and see things they would not normally be able to with their eyes. Evelyn looked around with her eyes that could see further out than Adam could with his elemental sight. That way, if she saw anything odd, she could quickly direct Adam in that direction and he would be able to easily discern whether the portal stone was there or not.

As they were searching, Adam was constantly trying to think of a better way. After all, they were only two people to cover the vast area. Even if they were to walk everywhere in their search area, they would surely miss a lot. There had to be a better way!

After a few hours, Adam and Evelyn finally decided to stop and rest. After discovering this area, they had jumped straight into searching as they were excited that their cumbersome journey was finally over. That excitement quickly wore out and they felt sorely in need of a rest.

Adam and Evelyn sat around a fire in their Human-Forms. For the first time in the past few weeks, they were able to have a fairly decent meal. They had scrounged some berries up and hunted some small game.

As they ate, Adam spoke: “I think we should scour the area for the highest concentration of fire essence before continuing our search. Considering that the flow of spirit essence I followed was fire essence, it should be a fire portal stone, right? Wouldn't it likely exude fire essence?”

Evelyn nodded in agreement: “It sounds like a plan. But... it might not be that simple! Considering that many before us have tried hunting for portal stones with little success, I'm not sure that simply finding places with the highest concentration of spirit essence will be enough...”

Adam mulled over Evelyn's words: “Well, it's better than just blindly looking. Maybe we will get lucky.”

Evelyn could only tacitly agree as they continued with their meal. Afterwards, the two decided to just relax for the rest of the day. They were still quite weary from the journey.

The next day, Adam and Evelyn took to the skies and flew low over the land, searching for areas full of fire essence. Their search took them closer and closer to the nearby mountains. Adam noticed something with one of the mountains. The mountain itself was blackened and the vegetation there turned sparse and dry! One thought went through Adam's mind: 'It's a volcano!'

Adam quickly pointed it out to Evelyn as he sent: “Let's go over there. That looks like a volcano. The portal stone might possibly be there!”

As they got closer to the volcano, Adam was assaulted with a sudden sense of familiarity. During the flight over, Adam had pretty much lost sense of where he was. He hadn't even opened his eyes until they had arrived in this area. They could be anywhere in the world, but this place was still somehow familiar. If speaking of volcanoes, there was only one that Adam was familiar with. He couldn't help thinking: 'It couldn't possibly be... could it?'

As they got closer, Adam stopped looking for fire essence. Instead, he was looking for something else. It didn't take long for him to find it. Close to the base of the volcano, there was a domed hut made of earth. Adam landed close to the hut and stared at it as his memories continued to stir. He thought to himself: 'Is this just a coincidence?'

Evelyn landed not far away and had already noticed Adam's off behavior. She asked him: “Is there something with this hut?”

Adam shook his head: “I made this hut many years ago. I came here with Segen so that I could use this place to purify the death essence in my body with fire essence... At the time, I was still blind so I didn't recognize this place until now...”

As Adam was caught in his memories, Evelyn stared at the hut with slight wonder. Adam then suddenly remembered: 'I never told Segen about the war!'

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In his impatience, as soon as Adam had gotten back into the world after coming back from the sea of souls, he had directly went off to talk to spirits and then to the southern village to try and stop the war. He hadn't even thought of telling Segen to be careful of the dreadful war! Adam lamented in his shortsightedness. He mentally told himself: 'We need to quickly find this portal stone and then head to Frieden and talk to Segen!'

Adam shook himself out of his memories and his self reprimanding. He spread his elemental sight out as far as he could into the ground. If the portal stone was here, it was likely somewhere deep below hidden inside the churning magma under the volcano!

Adam was unable to find anything in his initial sweep. Adam and Evelyn trekked across the volcano as he searched for the portal stone. Compared to when he had first stayed at the volcano, Adam was far more resistant to heat in his Dragon-Form. He no longer had to worry about how hot the magma was. Evelyn was a fire dragon, so her resistance to heat was even greater than Adam's.

In the end, Adam decided to descend down the main shaft of the volcano at its top. That was where Adam would be able to get closest to the heart of the volcano to search for the portal stone! Adam drifted down and before long bubbling magma could be seen below. Adam sent his elemental sight out to scour below the magma. Far below, almost out of the reach of his elemental sight, Adam finally found it!

Excited, Adam exclaimed to Evelyn: “I see it!”

Evelyn also turned excited. They had found the stone on only their second day of searching! She quickly asked: “Really!?”

Adam nodded his head: “Yeah, only... it might be difficult to get to.”

Adam was staring down at the pool of magma below them. Adam was already starting to feel the scalding heat and doubted he would be able to last for very long if he directly submerged himself in the magma. Evelyn also noticed this detail. She said: “Do you think I would be able to get it? The magma is pretty hot, but I should be able to withstand it for a time...”

“You might be able to but... can you see in the magma?”

“...no.”

The little detail of being able to see had escaped Evelyn's train of thought. The portal stone was lodged in the wall of the shaft but Adam didn't want to disturb the structure of the volcano by using earth essence to bring the portal stone to the top. It was quite possible he could destabilize the volcano and cause an eruption, or at least cause a new flow of magma to escape. If there wasn't a town nearby, Adam might have risked it. However, the town of Korrin was indeed nearby.

After pondering over the problem for a while, Adam finally came up with an idea! “I will be your eyes! I can guide you from here and when you get close, I will use just a little bit of earth essence to dislodge the stone. All you have to do then is carry it up!”

Evelyn responded with a positive: “Let's do it!”

She was happy about Adam's suggestion. It allowed to actually become a substantial part of his plan. She wasn't just tagging along for the ride or only giving input, she was finally participating and helping Adam in his efforts to stop the war! For that alone, she was willing to risk diving into the magma to help.

After forming their plan, Evelyn dived into the magma! Searing heat was instantly transmitted through her scales! The heat to her was almost to the point of being scalding. It was just hot enough to bear, but almost too much for her to last very long.

Under Adam's direction, she swam through the magma. Their ability to communicate through spirit essence allowed it so that they could still talk like they were standing next to each other. Down, down, down she went. The deeper she went the hotter the magma got! Still, it was a gradual increase where she was able to acclimate to the change in heat before it increased some more. Still, there was a limit to this. Thankfully, she reached the portal stone before she hit her limit!

Evelyn positioned herself right underneath the portal stone. Adam sent to her: “Are you ready? I'm about to dislodge the stone!”

“Yeah, do it!”

With a small rumble, the rock around the portal stone suddenly broke and crumbled away! The portal stone fell out as well and slowly fell through the magma. Evelyn was down below and ready to catch it! She felt the giant stone pass by her claws and she instantly closed them and grabbed the portal stone!

The stone's height was around ten meters, so it was almost as big as Evelyn was! After she grabbed it, Evelyn started descending with the stone. At the same time, intense heat was transmitted through the stone into her hands! It was as though she was holding a hot coal! Evelyn almost let go from the sudden pain, but she turned the instinct around and only gripped the stone harder. She thought to herself: 'I can't let it go! This is the turning point. If I can bring it up, our plan will succeed! If I don't... this is Adam's last plan to stop the war, it has to succeed!'

Gripping the stone even tighter, Evelyn put her all into swimming back up. Even though her hands were occupied with holding the portal stone, she had wings with which to help propel her through the magma. However, Evelyn was significantly slower ascending than she was descending. All the while, the portal stone was searing itself into her hands...

Slowly, the pain Evelyn felt increased. With his elemental sight, Adam could see Evelyn's distress as she approached closer, he could finally see more detail with his elemental sight and could see what was going on. He quickly sent: “Evelyn, your hands are burning! Just drop the stone! It will fall so deep, no one will find it! If any ghouls try to come through, the magma will just burn them to a crisp!”

Evelyn gently shook her head: “If I can't handle it, I will drop it. Until then, I will continue! Besides, we both know that there are demonic beasts that can withstand this magma. They could survive coming through and they are the ones we absolutely have to stop from coming through!”

Despite the pain and distress from her burning hands, Evelyn determination only grew. She appreciated Adam's concern, but she didn't need it right now! She wanted to prove that she was his equal!

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity for them both, Evelyn breached the surface of the magma. Adam instantly raced down and grabbed the faintly glowing red portal stone from Evelyn's hands before shooting his way straight up and out of the main shaft. With the momentum of his sudden flight, Adam flung the portal stone away before firing a bolt of lightning straight at it! Blue lightning crackled across the portal stone as cracks crisscrossed their way on its surface. Then, the portal stone exploded in a shower of fire essence! Adam quickly controlled the raging fire essence and poured it back into the land safely.

Evelyn came flying up from the main shaft after Adam, exhausted. After Adam was done dispersing the fire essence from the exploded portal stone, he looked back at Evelyn. The first thing he saw were her burnt hands. Adam quickly told her: “Follow me.”

The two flew down to the domed hut and Human-Formed. Adam quickly took Evelyn's hands into his own. Her hands were burned badly. The damage from her Dragon-Form was also transferred to her Human-Form. Adam's own hands were slightly burnt, but not nearly as bad as Evelyn's.

Evelyn slightly grimaced in pain as Adam held her hands. Adam chided: “Why were you so reckless?”

Evelyn responded back: “You've done far more reckless things than this.”

Adam didn't have any words to refute Evelyn's claim. Risking his life and dying twice only to come back from the dead, what was more reckless than that? Adam could only shake his head as he started to control the meager amount of water essence that existed in the area. Coolness washed over both their hands. The coolness felt very good to Evelyn. The heat lingering in the air had been causing her burns to throb. Now, the pain was slightly ebbing away.

After a moment, Evelyn suddenly said: “Well... we did it!”

Adam blinked for a second before his mind caught up. He gave Evelyn a small smile: “I guess we did, didn't we? Still... the process is slow.”

Evelyn nodded her head. By the time they would get back to the northern village from here, a month will have passed since they first journeyed out. At most, that meant they could destroy twelve portal stones in a year. At that rate, it would take decades for them to clear out a single spirit plane's portal stones while there were a total of six planes! Adam wasn't even sure they had a single decade before the war would escalate beyond control. Even though they proved their plan could be done, time would not allow it. What else were they to do, though?

Adam thew those hard thoughts to the back of his mind. Instead, he said: “Come, let's rest here for a bit before heading back out.”

That night, Adam only rested, but did not sleep. He decided to continually control water essence while Evelyn was sleeping to help keep her hands cool. It helped Evelyn to have a more comfortable sleep. The next morning, Adam and Evelyn set out. Before returning to the village, their first destination was the city of Frieden where Segen lived.