Preparing for the Quest

For several days, Melisandre remained within the manor that Valkorion owned in the Cartharys, as she wasn't leaving the premises of the manor at all.

She wasn't doing much as she was living in his manor; most of her days were spent either praying or pondering over the Quest that was issued to her by her God.

She was rather dedicated to the matter; that was something that he had to give to her because she was doing everything in order to achieve and fulfill the Quest that her Lord gave her. 

Their game of observing and testing of each other, didn't evaporate even after several days, as they still continued in this. Both of them were still teasing each other with hidden remarks and provocations while they were also observing each other from a safe distance to learn about each other as much as possible.

It was like a game of chess where both of them were doing their moves one after another, observing the results and especially the reactions they made to each other when they carried out their provocations, remarks, or any other chess moves.

For Valkorion, Melisandre was still not a trustworthy person, but he realized that she could be trusted to a certain degree. At least when they were on this mission, she would do everything in her power to ensure their success.

The Quest issued by her God was the most important thing for her right now.

Thus Valkorion focused more on the topic of preparing for the Quest within the Orange Shores and the Undead Asylum Catacombs. He spent some parts of the day studying the Undead, their weakness, and strong sides, and practically everything.

When he started searching for information about the Undeads, he was rather surprised that the library within the Tenebraenys Manor had many books on the topic of the Undeads and even on the Beyonder Pathways that were using the Undeads as their first choice for a fight.

Learning about the Undeads was something that was rather useful because Valkorion didn't know much about the Undeads, and before this Quest into the Undead Asylum Catacombs, he never bothered by learning about the Undeads.

Though he shouldn't be that surprised about that, because Valyrian Freehold had many Necromancers, Beyonders of the various Pathways that deal with darkest Magic and Dark Spells.

Even among the 40 Dragonlord Families, there were many who dealt with the Dark Spells and even Necromancy, even though it was generally frowned upon by fellow members of the Dragonlord Families.

While the Dark Magic and the Beyonder Pathways that widely dealt in it gave rather fearsome power, such people had a far higher possibility of losing control than the average Beyonder.

Better said, if the chance of the average Beyonder losing control is numbered with a coefficient of 1, then the ones that were dealing and periodically using the Dark Spells was around 5.

Sometimes, it was even higher, depending on the branch of the Dark Magic that the Beyonder was using.

There was nothing such as a free lunch in the world.

The things that were giving its users great power would also have a very steep price to pay to access such power. Valkorion naturally disdained such method to gain powerful, because they were not really worth of it.

Even for the average Beyonder, the possibility of losing control was relatively high, not to mention for Beyonder, whose psyche and mind are being corroded by his very own powers from the Dark Magic.

It seemed that the ancestors of the House Tenebraenys held special disdain towards the users of the Dark Magic, Dark Spells and the Necromancy because it was self-destructing. 

According to the history books, it seemed that almost zero to none of the Beyonders that were using the Dark Magic or Necromancy as their main weapon didn't really have a good ending, as most either went crazy or were killed by others when they went crazy.

Aside from researching the Undeads, he also spent some time studying the materials that Melisadnre gave him, as she was gracious enough to show him the information that was gathered by the Red Temple on the Firelink Shrine and Undead Asylum Catacombs as it was called currently.

He could already predict that moving through the Catacombs would be highly problematic, but nothing impossible. However, that would seriously depend on the accuracy of the map and on the state of the Catacombs. 

It was highly possible that no one had visited the previous place of Pyromancers of Izalith for several millennia, but that was just his educated guess.

Or perhaps it was just something that he hoped for, but if such wasn't the case, then the Red Temple would for sure know about the reality if someone managed to unseal and enter the Undead Asylum Catacombs.

Hopefully enough, the thing that they needed to obtain was still there. 

'He' was seriously interested in this, and it was clear that 'He' wouldn't allow for any mishap to happen. Valkorion knew how important was the ascension of 'Him' to the King of Angels because, in turn, that was paramount for the Astral.

For that, he was rather confident, at least partially.

Melisandre also spent some time conversing with him about the history of the Pyromancers of Izalith, as they were one of the factions on whose legacy the Red Temple was built today because they were all walkers of the same Pathway.

Both the Pyromancers of the Izalith and clergy of the Red Temple were using the Fire Abilities that stemmed from the Hunter Pathway, or by the name of Sequence 0, the Lord of Light Pathway.

Due to that, the Red Temple sought to obtain as many legacies from the Beyonder Organziatzios that followed the same Pathway as them to increase their power. He could understand the sentiment, as they were seeking the Spells and methods of usage of their Fire Abilities and such.

From what he understood about the Pyromancers of Izalith, they were able to create a really particular and unique branch of Pyromancy that was absolutely unique to their organization, and it was something that nobody managed to replicate, including those of the Red Temple.

***

Valkorion was walking through the merchant district happily, as he was buying the supplies that he would potentially need for the mission in the Orange Shores and against the Undead Asylum Catacombs.

Right now, he was heading towards the store of the Clan Ferros as he made there some request about the methods of combatting the Undead and told Camille that he would need some equipment or perhaps something that would increase his lethality against the Undeads.

Their journey to the Orange Shores would take around two to three months, even if they took the fast carriage according to what the red witch told him. Unfortunately for them, the Orange Shores were far away from the Cartharys, though if they would take the Iron-Headed Bulls as their mount for their carriage, the journey would be faster.

Through the extensive network of the Clan Ferros, Valkorion managed to order some things that were especially effective against the Undeads. While his sword was good, due to the passive effects of Excalibur against the Dark-Attributed beings, he didn't want to depend on it entirely.