The journey

-Flap -Flap

The group was flying high in the sky. It had been two days since they departed. Since then, they've made stops to camp and rest for the night.

That sat and ate sitting around a campfire. The girls slept in one tent, the boys in another.

As always, when morning came, Enki was the first to get up wearing nothing but a short. He went out for some light training and alchemy practice, making spikes and exploding the ground.

It was he and Lilly that always made breakfast for everyone to eat.

"Mn~ Delicious as always!" Hestia hummed, enjoying her pancake.

"I must say you are blessed with the culinary arts," Hermes also praised, enjoying his meal.

Although Artemis said nothing, she did nod in agreement.

After that, they gathered their equipment and took to the skies. Enki loved flying on a dragon's back, covering the vast skies and land each day.

'This must be how hiccup felt flying on toothless,' he breathed in.

"Lilly, can you hold on tight? I'm gonna do some tricks with the dragon if that's alright." He asked the girl, who nodded and held on tight.

"Alright, big guy, let's see what you can do." Enki pulled the leash hard, but not enough to upset the dragon.

He laughed, doing some barrel rolls, swirls and nose dives in the sky. Eventually, he came up with a useful idea.

"Can you stop now? I think I'm gonna hurl," Lilly said, holding her mouth in.

"Yeah," Enki answered.

"I see you are very fond of flying," Hermes said, chucking.

"Yup, I feel free as a bird up here, which gave me an idea for some alchemy symbols that I haven't put to use yet."

"Oho? And pray tell, what sort of alchemy might we witness in the future?" Hermes asked, with a mysterious glint in his eye.

"I'm calling it air boots, just a working theory. I could either freeze air beneath my feet to create a platform or compress it to become a solid I could step on, but the components of air are too scattered, so it's impossible to freeze it could work with my magic but I'll set that as a last effort." Enki stopped before humming in thought.

The others curious listened in by the prospect of walking on air.

"The first option seems possible, but I have another idea about it functioning like an air cannon blasting from my feet, but then I'd be kicking off air either way when we land. I've got some alchemy to figure out." Enki smiled excitedly about the prospect.

"You seem very intelligent," Artemis complimented.

"Thank you."

"Perhaps if it were earlier, your alchemy could've been useful in the monster subjugation," she said, looking ahead.

"I'm sorry?" Enki titled his head. He looked to Hermes, "where are we going anyway and how is the monster related to alchemy?"

Hermes glanced to the side before as if contemplating something before answering, "we will head to the end of the continent to a place known as the ruins of Elsos, a vast unexplored forest."

"Ruins of Elsos?" Enki said before he remembered reading about it in a book.

"I'm sure you wouldn't have heard of it because most, if not all, the written history of it was burned along with the previous alchemy familiar, but it was once the birthplace of the alchemy you use. Now turned into a forest when the inhabitants fled because of a disaster."

Hermes said being intentionally vague and Enki caught on.

"Is it because of the monster?" Bell asked.

"Oh no, the monster had arrived recently. It has nothing to do with this. It just took the ruins as its resting place," Hermes said.

"Uh huh," Enki squinted. It was a blatant lie, and he'll find out the truth once he gets there.

The rest of the journey was mostly the same, with Enki putting more of his time into creating the air boots he so desperately wanted.

He had the symbols and everything he just had to put it together. Five days have gone by and they were getting close to the ruins. And he would get his answers.

Right now, they stopped as night was falling. They sat around the campfire as Hermes was playing the guitar and everyone stared at the flames and Enki was working on a clipboard.

"Alright done trial number 17," he said, finishing his circle and tapping it with his finger.

Lightning traced the circled and extended upwards. The wind shifted for a moment, forming a ball before exploding in his face.

"Another failure?" Artemis said.

"Nope! The wind exploded. That's propulsion. I just need it to be strong enough to kick me off in a direction long enough for me to reuse it while in motion." Enki said.

"I'm surprised you smiling after so many failures," Artemis commented.

"Failure is success in progress," Enki said, looking between two sheets with similar alchemy circles drown on them. "You can't just give up if you hit a wall. You blast through it with bombs."

"Yeah, like when we thought monster rex I still can't believe that worked," Lilly said with a small laugh.

"Oh yeah, haha," Bell joined in the laughter.

"Was it a fun fight?" Artemis asked.

"No, it was just Enki's plan was so... so I can't say."

"Oh, what was his plan?" Hermes asked, "something daring and exciting?"

"Nope, the plan was to just trap it and beat it till it died, which worked, though I feel like I could've just drowned it in lava," Enki said, writing his 18th alchemy circle.

"Then we wouldn't grow from the fight," Bell chuckled.

"Yeah, but it would've been fun seeing it burn," Enki said with a smile.

"Alright, I think we should sleep. We're almost there after all," Hestia said, clapping her hands.

"I am feeling tired. I'll be practising with this circle tomorrow anyway," Enki said, finishing his 18th circle.

...

The next day, Enki woke up earlier than usual and went out for a light jog. He ran around the forest and open grasslands, basking in the early light of the sun and wind rushing past his ears.

Afterwards, he returned and practised with his glaive, thrusts, swings and back slashed, he stabbed it into the ground and an alchemy symbol he drew on the blade glowed creating earth spikes.

He jumped from spike to spike, spinning in the air and landing with a downward slash.

"Phew alright, now let's give this a try," Enki plopped moved back to the campfire and picked up some coal.

He removed his boots and copied his 18th alchemy circle on the bottom of the boots. It excited him to try this out and put the boots on.

Enki bent his knees, a little focus, and the alchemy circle glowed. The wind began gathering at the bottom of his feet. 'Up!' he jumped.

-Swish!

It boosted him higher than expected, at least 10 meters high in the air. 'So cool,' he grinned and focused again on the air gathering at his feet as he was in on the descent.

The air exploded from his boots and sent him back up in the air, but only by two-thirds of the distance, the first jump took, "okay I see now," he nodded and landed hard on his feet.

On the first jump, he reached 10 meters in height and fell 3 because of the time needed to gather the same amount of air to push him a further 8 meters.

-Thud.

"I take it you succeeded," Artemis spoke from behind him.

Enki jumped but sighed. He didn't see the goddess move, and she was suddenly behind him.

"Not really, but I have a way to fix that," he said, hurrying to the tent and bringing out his gloves.

"What's going on?" Lilly groaned, coming out of her tent, Hestia following behind.

"Is there a problem, Enki?" Bell asked, stepping out as well.

They all watched as he picked up some coal from the campfire and drew his alchemy circle on the inside of his gloves.

Enki put the gloves on and smirked, "prepare your eyes as you are about to see me take flight!"

Enki bent down in a jumping position. The circle glowed, and the wind formed on the back of his feet and his palms.

-Fwoosh!

His body soared straight up further than before, 20 meters up high! As he reached the peak and right before his descent. Another explosion of air sent him further up.

The same occurred again. This time, he pushed his hands forward and moved backwards in the air.

-Fwoosh!

'Gather one, two three.' Enki was counting, mentally gathering air to the bottom of his boots.

-Fwoosh!

He moved again, bringing higher in the air, another 10 meters. At that time, the air had condensed by his hands and he used that to propel himself higher, another 10.

Enki was carefully trying to control himself. 'I wonder if this would be easier with fire alchemy? Sort of like that guy from fire force with the feet.' He wondered, propelling himself down slowly.

-Thud.

He landed and everyone clapped for him, "thank you, very much I couldn't have done it without myself," he bowed.

"That was amazing Enki, you flew," Hestia cheered for him.

"Thanks, but I think there's I need to work on control a bit," Enki smiled.

Soon after, everyone got ready and took to the skies, "hey Lilly, take a hold of the leash will you."

Lilly did tilting her head, "what are going to do?" She asked.

"I believe he is planning to fall off the dragon and fly alongside us," Artemis commented.

"Yep, just some practise," Enki said and slid off the dragon plummeting.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds, letting the wind build up before he flipped and burst into the air. He rose beside the dragons and blasted off further.

He used his hands to propel him to the left and circled back over them. 'it's like I'm jumping from wall to wall.'

"I'm gonna get used to this," Enki said, flying by the others. They're almost there.