After conversing for a time, Artemis retreated outside of the ruins, promising to return. He struck his blade against a patch of rocks outside the ruins, sending sparks flying into a handful of twigs he had collected from inside on his way out. Soon, a fire had sprouted in his palm, which he quickly dropped to the ground before beginning to feed it, taking wood from the fallen structure beside him.
And in the flames, meat was quickly charred.
But he had not killed any manner of beast that could be consumed. He had only fought against the Daemon Knight, which remained a broken suit of armour on the ground not too far away.
Only one living creature had experienced the carving of flesh.
It was himself.
He had a grim expression as he spun his severed arm around in the flames slowly, charring the skin and cooking the flesh underneath. The flames bit at what was once his own fingertips, fat rolling off of the surface before dripping down into the bout of flames, causing them to crackle and roar upwards.
The Sons of Lunastre were pragmatic, violently and brutally so. They had been raised with the methodology of ascertaining and observing the situations they were in, making any necessary preparations and sacrifices to survive or obtain victory. This was what made them brilliant fighters, and although Artemis paled in comparison to his older brother, August, he too was of the same mindset.
The thought of eating his own flesh, should it come to that, was... a strange mixture of feelings. On the one hand, he felt that it was quite disgusting, a little perverted, and even a cornerstone of having become a true abomination. But at the same time... it might have turned out quite hilarious. He was all for odd situations, after all.
The meat would only remain edible, barely, for a short amount of time, but he hoped to use that time to grow closer to the Ivory Tree in the distance. If a tree could support itself in that place beyond the Cradle, then there must have been some other source of food they could obtain.
And the reason he had left Cia behind to do this was the fact that she was already hungry. Her stomach had rumbled the moment they met. She hadn't been able to find anything to eat in the ruins, and the Cradle itself was barren.
He had already decided that he would take the girl with him, as long as she didn't have any opposition to it, which he didn't imagine she would. But he couldn't have a frail, starving girl weighing him down as he traversed the sea of ash, and so he would need her to eat the cooked flesh at some point in their journey, could they not find a better source of food. Were he his father, he might have abandoned the girl, or even killed her to procure a larger source of meat...
...but he was not his father, and he was not such a cruel monster. At least, he was not the cruel part.
It all felt... well, far too immoral. But all of the other options were either a true danger to the both of them, or outright villainous. So he ignored his own feelings about the matter and proceeded.
He soon after returned to Cia after burying the bones left behind, several strips of charred flesh tucked neatly in his jacket, wrapped in a sheet of cloth he had torn from his clothing.
Artemis raised a single strip to the weakened women, beckoning for her to take it. She accepted it with curious eyes, glancing up towards him.
"What is this?
Trying to keep his expression from twisting as he lied through his teeth, he replied with a smile. "I slayed a monster on my way here. Actually, it's how I lost my arm. Are you averse to eating monster meat?
She shook her head.
"No... right now, anything will do..."
After biting into a strip of meat, she made a light but noticeably sour expression before reaching into her jacket and procuring a black booklet that had been stuffed to the brim with loose sheets of parchment. She pulled a capsule pen filled with stark-black ink out as well, and began jotting notes at a rapid pace.
"What kind of monster did it come from...?" She muttered in his direction.
"Ah..." He hadn't thought up any details past its origin having been from a monster. And he was not such a good liar in the first place. "It had wings. And it was hairy?"
She nodded her head as she continued writing, lost in her own thoughts.
Curious, Artemis leaned forward, peering over her shoulder at the contents within. To his surprise, she had managed to scrawl out a fairly detailed sketch of the strip of his flesh in only a few seconds. Afterwards, she tried to imagine a hairy, winged beast, twisting out the shape of several question marks next to a drawing of it.
"You are... cataloguing this?"
She nodded her head without turning away from her work, beginning to note the distinct taste and texture of the meat, before adding her personal thoughts on how it made her feel after the fact. Every single minute detail that could have been drawn from the experience ended up in that booklet.
"I tend to... try and keep track of things. At least, I think I do. It's one of the only things I can remember... before coming here."
"You don't remember anything?"
"No... just my name, and how I would record things."
She paused for a moment, looking back towards him, and then up at the sky.
"The real problem is a certain entry contained near the front of my booklet." Her face had twisted a bit, her calm demeanor uprooted by anxiety.
"What is it?"
"That fog. I've written about that fog before."
He found his eyes floating up towards the sea of greyness in the sky. It seemed... closer than before. Like it was either approaching them slowly, burgeoning outwards in greater size, or... both at the same time.
"And that entry... it talks about how wonderful and safe this fog is? How if it reaches us, we'll experience only blessings and joy?"
She shook her head plainly in response.
"It talks about how it comes from outside the Land above the Cliff. How it is anything but safe-- a Compendium of Horrors. There are thousands of monsters hiding within it, and that part approaching us might only contain a portion of them, but it certainly won't be a less-than-lethal obstacle..."
Artemis had already drawn his blade from its sheathe, grimacing.
"And you didn't think to mention this before?"
She glanced away furtively, pursing her lips as she shrugged.
"It was dinnertime, and you looked quite pleased... I didn't wish to disturb you with this."
The fog drew closer.
Thunder crashed along the Cradle, flashes of brilliant lightning illuminating the mass of grey. It highlighted the jagged and coruscating edges of the roaming sea, and of the silhouettes, vile and terrible, which hid inside of it. They floated along with it, carried by its thick undulating movements.
Artemis grabbed Cia's hand and led her quickly out of the room.
They had to get away as fast as possible!
A loud whirring, like a torrent of calamity boomed overhead.
And those terrible screams continued. Agonious, filled with malice, pain, and sorrow. They wrenched his heart. The shadow of the fog cast itself over the Cradle, the air growing cold and bitter, and although they had already left the ruins and begun to head in the direction of the Ivory Tree, it was no longer visible.
The lightning flashed once more, and the monstrous silhouettes he had seen in the sky before now touched down on the sea of ash.
Artemis grimaced, looking back at Cia. Thinking for a moment, he suddenly crouched down in front of her, and gesturing, spoke through gritted teeth, "climb on my back."
Her eyebrows raised in surprise. "On your back? You want me to ride atop you? Like a horse?"
"Just do it, damn it! There's a large chance of us getting separated, and I don't exactly have an extra hand for you to hold!"
And I don't intend to fight, I'm going to sprint us out of here.
His hands gripped the hilt of the silver blade tightly, almost painfully.
But if I have to, I need her close by to guard her...
Nodding her head in understanding, she climbed on top of his back. Although they were similar in height, his stature was bolstered by the stamina and strength of the Daemon, and so carrying her wasn't too difficult. She wrapped her arms over his shoulders, her legs locking around his waist. It hampered his movement slightly, but he only intended to run straight forward...
Artemis felt himself sucking in a deep breath instinctively, weighing down his lungs as the endless sea of stormy grey enveloped them.
More than screams, now roars and cries echoed around them. Illusory whispers and shouts in an incomprehensible language entered his ears, causing his head to spin, and he could hear the skittering of creatures deep within the darkness.
Horror had descended on the Cradle of Ash.