As he stared at the impossible structure in front of him, Oscar wondered, how on earth did it get here? From the way this large piece of land seemed to be pierced by the large tree, he could only assume the tree suddenly sprang up from under and uprooted the earth, lifting the land with the fortress atop its tip, high into the sky. But how and why did that happen?

"Should we go in?" Austin asked as he stared at the fortress, feeling overwhelmed by its sheer size.

The same went for Oscar and Erik. The stone fortress's size was comparable to the fortress airship, perhaps even larger. Going inside and exploring its depths would take a lot of time.

Oscar turned around and beheld one of the most stunning views he had ever seen. Since he stood upon the top of the large tree, no leaves or branches hovered above to obscure parts of his view, allowing him to gaze upon a magnificent unobstructed scene. The secret realm of Ashen Grove had only one sun, a peculiar thing with a dim orange glow that was well in its descent, making the skies a mix of purple, pink, and indigo with the faint glimmering of the distant stars.

Everything below seemed so small, yet Oscar could see all the trees, rivers, and lakes swaying and waving along the breeze like a final chorus before the night's closing that silenced nature's lively dance. He smiled and got out a thin mattress, rolling it out on the grassy floor. "It's nighttime. We spent all day climbing the branches. Sleep and get refreshed. The fortress won't go anywhere. We can explore in the morning."

Oscar plopped onto his thin mattress, staring straight up at the endless number of stars. He heard the sounds of Erik and Austin getting on their beds, and Erik's snoring filled the serene air instantly, irking Oscar as his eyes twitched with each loud snore.

"So noisy," Austin said. "If it were in the army, he'd be tied up and beaten while hanging down."

"Haha!" Oscar laughed, feeling it in his ribs. "Maybe we can trick him into joining it in the future."

"This–" Austin tried to speak, but Erik's mouth released a rapid series of sounds as a long snore tried to escape his body.

Oscar and Austin remained quiet as they tossed and turned, annoyed at Erik's loud snoring. Eventually, they fell asleep from the day's exhaustion overwhelming the bothersome endless snores.

Hours later, the lone sun began its ascend from the other side of the horizon, piercing through the dark veil of night and covering the stars behind the blue sky. Oscar woke up to the morning breeze and yawned as he stretched his groggy body, wiping the drowsiness out of his eyes. Running his hand against his head, pulling the slightly outgrown obsidian hair back, Oscar stood up, took out some rations he procured from the base, and munched on a condensed ball of grain, the staple food of the army.

Feeling his stomach rumbling for more, Oscar looked around for any signs of animals but found nothing but them, grassy plains, and the fortress. Some noise from the side caught his attention, and he turned to see Austin had gotten up. Soon Erik was forced awake by Austin's forceful shaking.

"Everyone ready?" Oscar checked his bulwark for any nicks or scratches and nodded at its clean condition. Erik and Austin nodded to his question, so he led the way toward the massive fortress.

Seeing the vines and leaves covering what seemed to be the entrance to the stone fortress, Oscar gestured for Erik to begin. After a series of blazing infernos, the entrance revealed itself, a heavy set of metal doors three times higher than Oscar's height.

"That looks heavy." Austin tried to push it open, but it remained still. "It appears we can't just sneak in."

"Drink the defense and speed elixirs I handed earlier." Oscar downed two vials, feeling his skin contracting and a solid indomitable feeling permeating them, and his feet became very light. "If anyone comes out of that door, be ready."

Austin and Erik readied their armaments and anima for combat with a nod.

Oscar clenched his bulwark and lowered his stance, activating Adamasreis. Like a battering ram, he knocked his bulwark back and rushed in, hitting the metal gates with all his power. The Reis easily flowed through his Reis-forged bulwark, and his power retained its original potency.

'Shattering Wave'

The parts of the metal gate around his bulwark began to twist and crack until parts of it burst out. However, none of the exposed parts were large enough for them to slip through. After a short rest, Oscar redid his Adamasreis and landed another powerful blow on the gates, this time blowing it off its hinges, and the gate fell with a loud thud that echoed through the dark hallways of the fortress.

Oscar frowned and quickly put up his stance. If anything lurked within the fortress, it should be alerted by the sound. Ideally, he wanted to do it stealthily, but the damned gate had to be sturdy after an immemorial amount of years.

"The elixirs only last for thirty minutes; we should cover as much ground as possible." Austin kept track of the time.

"You're right." Oscar moved in with a lowered stance and closed feet, facing his bulwark to different angles constantly to watch out for traps. He entered with Erik providing light from its flames and Austin lurking to check the dark places. Despite being covered in plants, the inside of the fortress was untouched by nature and had a hot, dry air contrasting with the cool breezy air outside.

Erik had his gauntlet anima float around with flames in their hands, hovering around to light up more.

"This must be the main hall," Oscar saw they were in a large long hallway with many doors on each side. Most of the doors were stairs that led downstairs and upstairs except for three rooms, one at the end of the hallway and one in the center door of each side. Inside each room was nothing but a collection of dust and furniture, nothing worth taking. "How is it so empty?"

"We can head downstairs. A vault should be in the basement." Austin pointed toward one of the stairs that led downstairs. As they came over to the door, Erik willed his anima to levitate down, but they saw nothing to be wary of.

The basement itself was a large maze, and they cleared through each room with more haste because of their elixir's time limit. Oscar trusted Austin's timekeeping and noted that five minutes remained. To use an elixir without letting its effects show itself did not agree with Oscar, who didn't like wasting items and saw elixirs as the precious works of alchemists, who, like fabricators, wanted their work to shine.

Though the speed elixir worked for them to clear out the main hallway and most of the basement, the defense elixir had been neglected.

As if hearing his woes, a shadow quickly moved to pierce Oscar from behind. Sparks illuminated parts of the dark hallway, revealing Austin, who had moved from the shadows to protect Oscar and a strange figure in rusty old armor. Oscar and Erik stared in shock at this unusual attacker.

Fully clad in rusted armor from the head down to the toes, the strange knight nimbly moved while swinging its broadsword in the wide basement corridor. Somehow it kept up with Austin, who had speed and darkness on his side, even stopping Austin's hidden darkness spells.

Oscar and Erik wanted to move in to help but stopped upon hearing heavy footsteps coming from the other side. Turning his head like a chicken, Oscar saw four other rusted knights approaching and frowned. One was enough to hold back Austin, but now they had to face four more.

"Erik, use your flames to obscure their vision. I'll rush in and separate one out for you. I'll handle the rest." Oscar said as the knights rushed toward them.

Unable to offer any other opinion in time, Erik quickly bombarded the corridor with his fireballs and rushed his gauntlet animas to spread the flames.

Oscar rushed in through the flames, which were not powerful because Erik only used them to block the knights' vision, and was not burned thanks to his defense elixir, which easily helped him withstand weak flames. He found one of the knights and rotated around, kicking it toward Erik as the other three slashed toward him.

"Good," Oscar used 'Silver Sheen' to block all three swords, but his eyes widened in shock as cracks and cuts formed from their blades. The blades would have cut into him if they had more power and Ein. Seeing the rusted knights raise their arms once again, Oscar canceled his spell and summoned his deer anima.

His bulwark blocked one of the swords while his deer anima blocked the other two. Suddenly, the blades flashed, and Oscar cursed, falling back as fast as possible. Bright lights flew out in an arc, slashing across the corridor.

"Brilliant Slash? No, they're more powerful." Oscar charged ahead.

'Flowing Mountain'

In a chain of flowing and increasing Reis from the slashes of light, Oscar shattered the lights and swung his bulwark at one of the rusted knights with the combined Reis from the continuous 'Flowing Mountain', and Ein. Before the other two knights could assist, his deer anima rushed in and swung its antlers upward to knock them off balance.

Oscar's bulwark continued undisturbed at the rusted knight who tried to dodge, but Oscar's Prinstyct showed him that intent, and he adjusted properly. With a booming sound that echoed through the hallway, Oscar punched the rusted knight, knocking it like a ball bouncing off the walls.

"Guh!" Oscar felt pain as his deer anima suffered cuts from the other rusted knights. Their blades were enough to get through his anima's natural metallic coat. He tried to move toward them, but a sudden flash of light forced him to halt. "Seriously?"

The rusted knight he knocked away had gotten back up with dents all over its body, the large one in his chest from Oscar's blow.

"What frightening toughness." Oscar felt a sweat drip down his cheek.