With the battle over, the group continued their journey, and time quickly passed by. By dawn, the desert was still smoldering from the night before.

The dunes around the carriages had hardened into black glass from the inferno that began to pop up the closer and closer the group moved towards The Heartforge, and faint curls of smoke rose from the cracks.

The air shimmered with residual mana, the scent of scorched sand and ozone hanging heavy.

The convoy continued to move again at first light. The spectral horses trotted soundlessly, their eyes glowing faintly beneath the pale horizon. The carriages glided over the uneven terrain, the blue wards around their rims shimmering in rhythm with the steady pulse of magic.

Most of the students spent times doing their own things, Albedo continued his own training, while most of the others either slept out of exhaustion or chatted with the others, some asking Lilian about The Heartforge and what they should expect.

Even Zeus, usually loud and restless, stared silently out the window, his fingers tracing idle patterns of lightning along the air. Elara leaned against the glass, half asleep, her hair glowing faintly green with residual mana from the night's healing spells.

Miranda sat cross-legged beside her, her hands resting on her lap, eyes closed, humming softly to herself as she meditated while Lilian was chatting to some of the other students about the HeartForge, telling them whatever she knew about it.

As time passed, the environment around the traveling group grew harsher. The dunes began to harden, and the sand began to become tinged with something darker, a rust red and obsidian black tint visible wherever they look.

The air shimmered with heat that didn't seem natural, as if the desert itself was beginning to burn from within. They passed carcasses turned to glass, the skeletons of massive beasts half-buried in molten pits.

Occasionally, faint plumes of flame rose from cracks in the ground, and the spectral horses had to veer wide around them.

Small attacks still came occasionally, but the group easily handled them. First were packs of Ash Hounds, their fur trailing embers as they tried to ambush the carriages from the ridges, but they were easily dispatched without slowing down the group's speed too much.

One bark from Zeus and a flash of golden lightning was all it took to scatter a-lot of these Ash Hounds to ash.

When a Sand Drake lunged from beneath a dune, Miranda caught it midair with a sphere of starlight, freezing it long enough for Lira's summoned beast to tear it apart. It was hardly a battle, more like a test of awareness of the group.

No one let their guard down, but there was a quiet confidence now. A sense that, even if the world threw monsters at them, they could survive very easily. By the time the sun began to descend, the land had transformed entirely.

The sand was fully gone at this point, and the air was molten. The carriages now rolled across scorched rock veined with glowing magma.

Fissures opened and closed like wounds, exhaling smoke and ash. Rivers of molten fire cut through the landscape, slow and heavy, their glow reflecting across the horizon like a sea of blood.

The sky darkened not because of clouds, but because the heat warped everything, blurring the edges of reality itself. It was an intense heat that was all around them that burned away a-lot in the environment.

All of this pointed to one sign, they were nearing The HeartForge.

It wasn't visible yet, not directly, but they could feel it. The heartbeat of the land. A deep, rhythmic pulse that resonated through their bones, like a giant heart buried beneath the crust of the world.

Every beat sent a faint tremor through the ground, every exhale of magma a breath from the forge of gods.

Even the spectral horses began to flicker from the heat. Their forms wavered, their ghostly manes catching stray embers as they ran. The protective wards along the carriages burned brighter, barely holding back the searing air.

"By the gods…" Elara whispered, sweat evaporating the instant it formed, "It's like the world itself is burning."

Lilian, who had visited this place once before, responded with a face marked with sweat, "This is the outer boundary, it's actually one of the cooler areas in The HeartForge," she said, which caused a few eyebrow raises from other students.

"But don't worry, there'll be protective enchantments all around to stop us from burning to death, so we're still safe. The Heartforge draws from the world's core, every step closer, and we're walking into the veins of creation itself."

"Can't say it feels too welcoming," Zeus muttered, wiping his forehead. His shirt had already scorched at the edges.

The group pressed onward, crossing black plains that glowed from below. Occasionally, a geyser of molten flame erupted from the ground, showering the sky with sparks. The carriages would sway, the wards flaring brighter, but Ysvara's control over the runes steadied them each time.

"How close are we?" Elara asked softly after a while.

Ysvara tilted her head slightly, "Close enough to feel the Forge's call. Not close enough to see it yet. When you do… you'll understand why so few return unchanged."

When the night came, they stopped briefly to rest atop a ridge of black stone overlooking a vast field of molten rivers. The air shimmered with waves of light, and the sky above burned in crimson twilight.

Some of the students gathered near the edge, mesmerized by the beauty of it. The magma below pulsed like veins, and with every heartbeat, the glow seemed to breathe.

"Beautiful," Elara whispered.

"Terrifying," Miranda corrected softly. "Beauty and destruction share the same fire."

Lilian stood beside them, silent for once, her expression unreadable. Her crimson eyes flicked toward Albedo, who stood a few meters ahead, gazing out over the molten horizon. His platinum blonde hair glowed faintly in the firelight, his silhouette stark against the chaos below.

By morning, the heat had grown so intense that the horizon itself seemed to melt.

The air was a blur of color and flame, every breath tasting of iron and ash. The carriages' metal frames hissed faintly as the wards shimmered with pale light, deflecting the waves of molten air that rolled across the plains.

Even so, the students could feel the pressure, an invisible weight pressing down on their bones, on their very souls.

Under the shimmering veil of Ysvara's runes, the unbearable heat became tolerable, almost distant, like standing beside a fire rather than within it. Yet even through the protection, Albedo could feel it, the raw, crushing divinity that radiated from the land ahead.

He looked out the window as the carriages crested a black ridge, and then he saw it.

The Heartforge.

It wasn't a city. Nor a temple. It was a mountain, vast and alive, carved from obsidian and glowing veins of magma that flowed like arteries through its surface.

The peak was crowned with a halo of flame, and every few seconds, a jet of molten fire shot skyward like a volcanic breath.

Lightning crawled through the smoke, crimson and gold, twisting around the structure in arcs that pulsed with ancient rhythm. The entire mountain beat, not metaphorically, but physically.

Albedo could feel each thrum of that colossal heart through his chest, vibrating through his bones like a drumbeat that reached into his soul.

The closer they came, the clearer the sound grew, a deep, slow rhythm, as though the world itself had a pulse.

Students leaned out their windows in awe. Some whispered prayers. Others simply stared, wide-eyed, as if gazing at the face of a god.

Miranda's calm voice broke the silence. "How incredible,"

"This place is alive, and it's blood is Magma," Ysvara said, "Soon, we'll enter the core area and meet the Infernus Smiths, remember to be on your best behaviour,"

Everyone nodded and soon, the carriages slowed to a halt on a plateau of black stone overlooking the Heartforge's outer ring.

Rivers of lava cascaded down its sides like molten waterfalls, and the heat that emanated from them was so intense that the air distorted like liquid glass.

Ysvara raised her hand, and the enchantments expanded outward, forming a barrier of translucent flame around the entire convoy. The world dimmed slightly within its safety, the overwhelming radiance fading to a manageable glow.

"Welcome," she said, her tone echoing faintly across the burning valley, "to the Heartforge."

For a long moment, no one spoke.

The students stepped out one by one, boots crunching against black glass, eyes wide as they took in the sight before them. The air was alive with sound, the bubbling of molten rock, the hiss of vapor, the low, rhythmic pulse that came from deep below.

Elara shielded her face from the glare, her voice hushed. "How can anything even survive here?"

"The natives evolved in this environment, so they're used to it. Aside from that, you must either have enough strength like myself, special protective equipment, or be under protection from someone like myself, which is what I'm doing for you all," Ysvara explained.

"Now, let's meet the Smiths," Ysvara said.

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