The next day Cirrus placed his stuff in his shadow and left his horse at the village as he and Nox go upstream.

Kata-Kata!

Kata-Kata!

‘There is a lot of death here.’ Nox said in Cirrus’s hood she was using it to filter the air.

“Well, we need to hurry, so get ready alright.”

‘Sure thing!’

Kata-Kata! Kata-Kata!

Kata-Kata! Kata-Kata!

Quickly running up the stream with his Ceryneian armor, he could only find more dead trees, grass, animals, and a few towns and villages in between, until eventually, they found the source.

“…Fuck me, it’s a poisonous swamp.”

‘I hope to fucking Christ I don’t see some weird goat men that jump at you… or Shrek.’

Sniff! Sniff!

“Shit, the poison is even in the fucking air. Nox, you need to fly way up.”

‘Throw me up there!’

Nox held her breath as Cirrus got her and threw her high in the air so she can breathe cleanly again and it also allows Cirrus to move with more room.

'… Hey Cirrus… this place is really… really bad.’

“How so?” Cirrus said, making his way through the swamp that was like deep thick feet of snow.

‘Well… the swamp is really, really massive, like as far as I can see, over the horizon big and there’s a purple and black haze covering the whole dam thing.’

“… Fuck… then is there any place that sticks out? If this is the source of the water, then the seal where it was locked in should be around here.”

‘I’ll keep an eye out and you should too, in case there are any dangerous monsters or even people remaining.’

“…” Cirrus looked around to see several dead fish bopping in the black murky poisonous water along with some birds. “Yeah…. I doubt any animals are still alive with this radical change in the environment.”

‘But what if it’s the Nuckelavee?’

“Doubt it when we heard of its destruction. It was far more on the western seaboard. Plus, I doubt it would want to hang around a place it was locked up in for hundreds of years.”

‘That is true… if it not for you I would have left the desert the moment I was free- hey wait a minute, I think I see a clearing?’

“Circle around it. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

Climbing up the dead trees, Cirrus runs along the dead branches quickly covering the ground to where Nox was circling in the air.

When he arrived, he found it to be a whole new level of poison. The bodies weren’t even burned, but brutally killed and even eaten. Blood is splattered across the whole place.

“God damn, this place is a massacre,” Cirrus said, looking around while covering his mouth. He finds a stone path with wood underneath it and odd markings on the pavement.

Clunk!

“?”

Cirrus looked down to find a mug.

‘This is…’

He picked it up and tasted some of it, using his finger quickly.

“… Wine…. why the hell would wine be- Crack!”

Cirrus looks too fine. He stepped on bones with rotten flesh still on them. He looked at the ground more closely and found more bones covered in the poisonous mist and the wilted grass.

“….”

Cirrus carefully picked all the bones he could and placed them onto the paved path and found some bones were smaller than others.

“Nox, do you see where I’m at?”

‘Barely but yes.’

“Can you check way in front of me to see if there was a village or town?”

‘Sure, did you find something to suggest to this?’

“Yeah… I found some mugs with wine in them and bones with rotten flesh… I think there might have even been some children here as well.”

‘Tch… are you up for another purification?’

“I am.”

After a while, Cirrus collected all the remains of the people there that he could. Nox contacted back finding an abandoned town.

By the time Cirrus arrived carrying all the bones in a crate to the town, it was already nighttime.

‘You ready Cirrus.’

“I am. Make sure you do it at the source. I’ll find us a good room.”

‘Hm, you better have found a good comfy bed! My wing is sore as hell!’

Cirrus sees Nox fly back to where the site was, and he went to the biggest home which was a mansion that reminded him of the mansion he had seen in the south with vines everywhere.

“… This will do.”

He went and opened the doors and found them rather empty. He closed the door and walked upstairs. He saw the room to the master bedroom, which was two large wooden doors, and entered it.

He found the room rather nice and quaint, minus the poison. He goes out to the balcony and looks out to see Nox far off in the distance.

A massive explosion of silent brightness encompassed a massive swath of the swamp.

“Ugh…” Cirrus holds onto the balcony. “That really drains a lot outta me.”

He comes back into the room and holds out his hand.

“(Nox).”

A magic circle appeared, and Nox appeared from it in her human form.

“You can rest in bed; here in case you don’t feel so well.”

“Thanks!” she said, getting into bed.

Cirrus hands her an antidote and goes downstairs and into the streets.

“… The air is still poisonous. (Exousía, Adorn: Stymphalian).”

With his armor, he flaps his arms as strong as he could with the wings, sending the poisonous wind off in another direction.

After the poison was now gone, Cirrus got the crate of bones and set them aside as he built a pyre.

After he built the pyre, Cirrus placed his hands together and gently said.

“May your death have been quick, and may you be with your loved ones…. do not worry, I will kill this abomination.”

He went back to Nox and took off his gear and went to sleep.

 

Off on the very edge of the swamp, some people saw the explosion of light and slowly begin making their way in.