The Waverider Yae Miko had specially prepared was much faster than an ordinary fishing boat, and its hull was stable. It was a little cramped, but there was still enough room for two.
As they sat aboard, Lin En watched the islands of Inazuma gradually shrink and finally disappear beneath the horizon. He couldn't shake a bad feeling.
Halfway through the voyage, fog began to gather over the sea. At first, it was only a thin layer, but the farther south they went, the thicker it grew. In the end, the entire sea was swallowed by dense gray-white fog, and they couldn't even see where the bow was pointing.
The Waverider slowed, and its hull began to sway gently with the currents.
"This fog isn't right."
Lin En stood and gathered Anemo in his palm, trying to blow away the fog ahead. But his Anemo could only disperse a small patch of it. To clear so much dense fog, it would probably take Venti.
After they sailed for a while longer, land appeared ahead. If they hadn't made a mistake, it should be Tsurumi Island.
"We've reached Tsurumi Island!"
Lin En jumped out of the boat, and the seawater came up past his knees, cold enough to pierce his bones.
He pulled the boat up onto the beach so it would be easier to return, and Ronava followed behind him as they set foot on Tsurumi Island.
The fog was thicker than it had been over the sea. Standing there, Lin En could see no farther than a dozen meters or so. Everything beyond that had been swallowed by dense gray-white fog, making it hard to tell which way was which.
"Don't get separated."
Ronava said.
The two walked inland along the beach, the sand beneath their feet gradually giving way to pebbles, then to soft soil.
There were some fallen stone pillars and crumbling stone walls along the way, which looked as though they had been abandoned for a long time.
After they passed through a ruined stone gate, the fog suddenly thickened.
Visibility fell below five meters. Lin En held out his hand, and even his fingertips looked blurry. How come he didn't remember the fog being this thick in the game?
He stopped, intending to check where Ronava was. The next second, a hand reached out from beside him and clasped his.
Her palm was slightly cool, and her knuckles were well-defined.
"This way, we won't get separated as easily."
Ronava's voice came from beside him. Judging by her tone, she seemed to mean it.
"If we get separated, it'll be a lot of trouble for me to find you."
"Oh... oh, okay."
Lin En was momentarily stunned. His fingers tightened slightly, enclosing her cool fingers in his palm.
Holding hands, they felt their way forward through the thick fog. The path beneath their feet grew narrower, and earthenware jars and stone platforms began to appear on either side, scattered among the weeds.
The air was filled with a damp, rotten odor tinged with the fishy smell of the sea, enough to make anyone want to throw up.
After walking a little farther, they came upon an altar.
It was a circular stone platform about two meters across, rising one meter above the ground.
The platform was surrounded by pillars with indistinct beast-shaped patterns carved into their tops. Several earthenware jars lay scattered around it, their mouths sealed with clay and faded runes painted on their sides.
Ronava walked around the altar, then crouched to examine the patterns on the stone pillars and the grooves along the edge of the platform.
"Nothing wrong."
She stood up.
"At least not right now."
Lin En stood beside the altar, his gaze falling on the jars. He vaguely remembered that Tsurumi Island had some history connected to sacrificial rites, but his memory of the details was already hazy.
"These jars..."
"Better not touch them."
Ronava said.
Lin En accidentally knocked over the nearest jar with his foot. It rolled off the edge of the stone platform and shattered into several pieces on the ground.
The instant the clay seal broke, a powerful stench burst out, like rotting corpses mixed with dead fish. Thick red liquid flowed from the jar.
Sickened, Lin En stumbled back two steps. His stomach churned, and he nearly threw up everything he'd eaten that morning.
"I said not to touch them."
Ronava looked at the disgusting mess and the disgusting stench, but didn't seem bothered.
"I didn't mean to touch it. My foot bumped into it..."
Before he could finish, a voice came from deep within the fog.
"Who's there?"
The voice was very familiar, and Lin En froze for a moment.
A figure with blond hair and white clothes emerged from the fog. It was the Traveler again, with Paimon following behind her.
Lumine emerged from the fog holding the Sword of Descension, her golden eyes scanning her surroundings warily. Only when she saw Lin En and Ronava did her expression relax for an instant, but before long she grew wary again.
"Why is it you two again?"
Lumine put away her sword, but her gaze soon fell on their joined hands.
Paimon saw them too. She floated behind Lumine and hid. After all, Ronava had nearly recycled her, and she was still traumatized by it.
"Are you two here on vacation?"
At Lumine's words, Lin En blushed, withdrew his hand, and took a step back.
"No, we..."
Ronava's expression didn't change. She simply pulled her hand back and folded her arms.
"What a small world. What's it to you why we're here?"
She said. Then she took Lin En's hand again and declared forcefully,
"What are you afraid of? If you haven't done anything wrong, you don't have to fear a ghost knocking at your door. Let's go."
With that, she pulled Lin En deeper into the island. Ronava had no time to waste here with Lumine.
Seeing that the two had no intention of telling her, Lumine didn't press them further.
"Are you just going to let them go? What if they're involved in this?"
Paimon watched them walk away and let out a sigh of relief, then spoke to Lumine.
"Probably not, but it's too soon to say for certain. We need to investigate first."
With that, Lumine led Paimon deeper into the island as well.
After walking for a long while, Lin En and Ronava came upon a mountain. There was no path up it, so they had no choice but to go around.
The route was harder than they'd imagined. The mountainside was steep, with many changes in elevation, and the rock face was covered in slippery moss that made their feet slide whenever they stepped on it.
The fog had thinned somewhat at the foot of the mountain, as though the mountain were blocking it. Holding Ronava's hand, Lin En slowly made his way around.
What struck him as even stranger was the Elemental Energy. The deeper they went, the harder Lin En found it to breathe. It wasn't that he couldn't catch his breath, but that the power inside his body was slowly draining away.
He tried to summon Anemo, but the vortex in his palm dissipated after half a turn. It was less than half as strong as usual.
"My Elemental Energy is draining away."
He said.
"Mm. There's something strange about this place. Elemental Energy actually doesn't work here."
"Then you..."
"My power doesn't depend entirely on Elemental Energy, but your Anemo and Geo will be affected. Try not to use them, and save your strength."
Without the aid of Elemental Energy, the mountain path was even more strenuous, but fortunately, with Ronava pulling him along, they made much better time.
The two made their way more than halfway around the mountain's base. The mountain stretched on and on, with no end in sight through the fog, and they couldn't find any path up it.
Only after rounding a protruding rock formation did Lin En suddenly stop.
"Is that a cave?"
There was an opening in the rock face, more than three people tall and wide enough for several people to walk through side by side.
Vines and moss grew thickly around the entrance, as though no one had been there for many years.
But Lin En noticed a thin layer of gravel on the ground at the cave entrance. It formed a regular shape, as though something had pushed it out from inside.