The Marsh of Remembrance was close to Lostfon County, but it was a real shame that they wouldn’t be visiting the county. On the way there, Dia had spotted quite a few mercenary groups heading the same way, and it was with a rather restless atmosphere that the Seekers of Life arrived at the marsh itself.

Mud squelched under their boots as Dia and the others stopped at the edge of the marsh.

“Interesting, isn’t it?” Nero asked. “Apparently, anywhere the Celestia Ruins drift to turns into marshland. Even cities, built up of stone and bricks. And of course, you get weird red rectangles floating around.”

“Mhm.” Dia consulted the notes that Claud and Lily had left behind. However, their visit there started at some place called the ISV Carpark or whatever, which was apparently a graveyard for metal coffins. These metal coffins were also massive dangers; metal coffins moving at fast speeds would tear through the roads and the streets of the ruins, killing all they rammed into.

There were other dangers they needed to look out for too, but there was one major problem with their notes. The lovebirds’ foray did not use the conventional method, which was through the passageways, so…

“Now we need to figure out how to find a passageway.” Schwarz, who was oblivious to Dia’s concerns, stated the thoughts in her mind perfectly. “Fortunately, I’ve already done my homework. Follow me.”

“What did you find?” Farah asked. “And how?”

“I checked using the key tool of the Profiteers, the Trading Board,” Schwarz replied. “Brought some information by exchanging it with stuff written down in Claud’s notes.”

“Did Claud allow you to do that?” Farah asked. “You know, permissions and everything.”

“He scribbled it down,” Schwarz replied. “And Lily added something about copyright fees. I swear, these two are just bouncing fun ideas off each other, because Claud promptly added something else in the margins.”

“What did he add?”

“Something about a usage fee.” Schwarz sighed. “It’s like we’re renting his little notebook. It’s funny, I suppose, and to top it off, he wants us to pay him one very good round of drinks from me. It’s as if he doesn’t drink them for free, shockingly enough.”

Everyone else laughed, and the merry atmosphere persisted for a few minutes. However, even at the edge of the marsh, Dia could already see three separate teams of mercenaries scouring the place and vanishing into the muddy undergrowth. The passages to the Celestia Ruins were said to be found deep in the marshlands, and only existed for three or so minutes before falling apart. Looking for them was one thing; stepping through them was an entirely different thing in terms of difficulty…

“Anyway,” said Schwarz, “I’ll brief you guys on what to expect first. These rectangles will bring us to a weird room. When you reappear, you’ll be standing on red platforms, enclosed in a metal bird cage. There’s a door leading outside; step through them immediately.”

“Okay,” Nero replied. “And?”

“That’s it,” Schwarz replied. “Get off that platform. We’ll all appear in the same room, but if we dally on that platform, there’s a chance that someone else would be sent up here. Two bodies in the same space…you might be able to guess what happens next.”

His hands closed up into a ball, before splaying over in a fairly graphic description of what would happen.

“Yikes,” Nero muttered. “But I feel like trying that out for some reason…”

“Yeah, no, I think not. If you don’t value your life,” said Farah, “you can consider selling yourself into my service as a dedicated protector of Farah County. That’s going be a better use of your life, if you really feel like throwing it away.”

“I’ll think about that.”

“Alright, enough. You guys, check that you have at least three barriers up,” Schwarz directed. “Nero, you take point. Farah, Dia, bring up the rearguard and look for red splotches of light. I’ll focus on discovering any mercenaries who may have other ideas.”

With the division of labour settled, Dia took up her position next to Farah and followed the others into the marshlands proper. Nero, who was brandishing his weapon randomly, tore a path through the undergrowth, one wide enough for three people holding hands to walk through. Animals fled at his approach, and fallen brambles lined the path around them.

“See?” Schwarz said. “So much more convenient. Once Nero is tired, we’ll swap over and over again. Let’s hope that we find the stupid passage first, though.”

A burst of red light caught Dia’s attention a moment later, and she pointed at it. “There!”

“Nero, you’re up!”

Mana gushed out of the Black God’s Holy Son a moment later, and the ground shook as a storm of mana barrelled in the direction of the red light. Dirt flew, churned up by the sheer violence behind Nero’s movements, and without any further urging, Dia and the others charged towards the passageway.

Shadows flickered at the same time, and multiple clusters of mana flared up, each of them representing a mercenary group. It was a means of intimidation, and if the receiving party was weaker…

Unfortunately for everyone else present, the Seekers of Life were at least tetra-folders.

Schwarz cackled. “Everyone, it’s time to show off. Drive your mana circuits!”

The air rippled as Dia called on her full might, and the multiple teams, who were made up of tri-folders or below, withdrew their presences a heartbeat later. In that moment of respite, Dia and the others plunged into the red rectangle, and the air around them howled triumphantly.

Something soft wrapped around Dia a moment later, and with a sensation of being plucked out by some gardener, she reappeared in a weird room. Standing on a weird, red platform, Dia looked at the metal cage with an open door that surrounded the elevated platform, before stepping through the gap hurriedly.

Schwarz’s little demonstration of what happened when someone was teleported into someone else was a bit too graphic for her liking, after all.

“Excellent.” Schwarz made a noise in his throat. “We’re still in safe territory, so relax a bit. I’ve obtained a small map of the place, and we’re going to piece it together with the map that Lily drew up too.”

“And what do we do in the meantime?” Farah asked. “Can we help somehow?”

“I’ll tell you guys more about it once we find a room,” he replied, before nodding to himself.

With a single gesture, Schwarz led everyone out of the room. From the looks of it, they seemed to be in some kind of facility dedicated to rooms housing those elevated platforms, and as they walked down the main hallway, another group walked out of one such room.

Tension filled the air for a moment as Dia and the others regarded the newcomers, and in some silent accord, both groups moved away from each other. The other side was a group of fellows wearing metal armour, a total of three people, and their faces were covered.

Despite the difference in demeanour, Dia knew that Schwarz had no intention of causing conflict where possible. Judging from the other side’s equipment, Dia was fairly certain that they were weaker in terms of mana circuits and overall artefacts, and the numbers difference made it clear. However, Schwarz had made it clear beforehand — even the weakest team, when placed at the right spot, could do a lot of damage.

He didn’t have any desire to be tripped up by his own actions, something that Dia heartily agreed with.

After a few more tense moments, the other party gestured for them to leave first. Dia nodded at them, along with the rest, and they continued on down the hallway. Fortunately, there weren’t anymore such incidents after that little incident, and Dia soon found herself in a fairly huge hall. At the end of the hall was the entrance out, but there were also multiple rooms that were joined to the hall itself.

“Let’s occupy one room first. Dia, Nero, you two won’t be doing anything in the first few minutes, so set up the defences. Farah, you’re probably someone who has a lot of experience reading maps, so use one of Risti’s Skyward Eye skillstrips and sketch the locality. Nero, you will compare the map Farah draws with the one in my hand now and see if there’s any difference. Dia, you’ll handle defences; if anyone walks inside, kill them.”

Dia drew her sword. “Got it.”

“Let’s get down to the defences first then,” Nero muttered. “Pass me that Divider…”

After pulling out a bunch of Dome Shields to make her life easy, Dia sat down next to the doorway, weapon at hand. Everyone was being extra-cautious due to the presence of so many competing teams; if they had visited earlier…

She glanced at the others, who were already working on things, and then remembered that one’s Status in the Celestia Ruins would change. It was quite fascinating, apparently, and without much ado, Dia opened her Status page.

The changes were…quite surprising, if nothing else.