After checking out the vast majority of the area that they had access to, and they did everything from the waygates to the lighting of the pillars, the latter ending with discovering an ancient corpse that teleported them to an area to fight the spirit of the odd stag, which was more power for Tirek, Blaidd came to the conclusion that there was no way into Nokron from this area. Such a thing meant they had to return to the tower and head down to another one to visit Selivus, as he claimed that he knew the key that would help them find Nokron, though he was more of a prick and didn't like anyone else, to the point where it made one wonder why he was even serving Ranni in the first place. Tirek also asked about the third tower, as he had seen three in the area that Ranni had set her base in, where all he learned was that it was sealed and their Mistress might open it if someone proved themselves to her, but, as her Shadow, he was exempt from such a thing. Given the bond they had Blaidd explained that he was Ranni's sworn bodyguard and would do anything she asked of him, even if it meant leaving her side to track down Nokron for her, causing Tirek to wonder if the other Demigods had someone like Blaidd and most of them had been slain.
Once they knew the path they had to take Tirek warped them back to the tower and Blaidd lead the way down to Selivus' tower, where it was far too easy to find that the sorcerer in question was just wasting time in his tower, doing nothing but staring at the walls. Upon being asked about what he knew on the matter he instantly ridiculed the pair on not being able to do their job on their own, especially since they were ignoring the favor he wanted them to do for him, before sighing as he realized that neither Tirek or Blaidd were going to help him out. With that in mind he hastily wrote a letter and informed the pair that they needed to seek out Sellen in Limgrave, as she held the knowledge that should help them track down the city Ranni was searching for, causing Tirek to take the letter before departing. A few moments later the pair returned to the area that Sellen had set up her base in and she was surprised to see that Tirek was back, though she wasn't surprised to find that he was serving Ranni, as if many Tarnished did before disappearing, but she did hand over the information he required.
According to her the stars held the fate of Ranni's line and that the stars had been halted by General Radahn's power, for he had challenged the very stars and crushed them, and with his power he arrested their movements, so if someone were to take down the powerful Demigod they might be able to restore Ranni's fate.
"General Radahn... I recall that there's a festival, to fight the General himself." Blaidd said, speaking as they left Sellen to her own work, though at the same time Tirek was thankful that he had made the right move to serve Ranni, because it was leading him right to where another Demigod was hiding, "Only it's held in a castle that's on the southeastern portion of Caelid."
"Caelid... fuck that place..." Tirek remarked, as he knew the region in question and didn't like the idea of heading there, even if it meant tracking down one of the Shardbearers, before he sighed as he considered what needed to be done and pulled out his map so Blaidd could see it, "Sadly, I don't have a lot of information on the region... none of the maps, to be exact... and the one time I was there I teleported out as quickly as I could, so we'll have to start from the beginning and work our way towards the castle or fortress the festival is being held in."
Blaidd glanced at the map before nodding his understanding, in fact he couldn't fault Tirek for hating the region, since the fair majority of the Tarnished he knew hated Caelid, before they teleported over to the closest Grace he had to the cursed region and started the journey into the corrupted province. This time around Tirek didn't call on Torrent, mostly because he wanted to keep his steed safe in case they needed an escape route, though they were stopped at a church by one of the Invaders, a Tarnished who wanted nothing more than to soak the ground with their blood. Even though she was fast, at least faster than some of the other foes Tirek had encountered so far, Blaidd was faster and dealt some great damage to her, opening the way for Tirek to end her before she ended him, though all it gave him was a talisman that he added to his ever growing collection of trinkets. Once that was done they reached what appeared to be a rotted settlement with a fair number of shambling mud covered corpses marching off to the left, though Tirek focused on activating the Grace that was in front of them so they had an area to fall back to if they were overwhelmed.
There was even a little ledge for them to look out from, to see the rest of the region, and it didn't fill Tirek with confidence, as the terrible Rot seemed to be everywhere, corrupting the land, the sky, the water, the creatures, and possibly whatever else remained, meaning this place was one big death trap.
Tirek spotted what appeared to be the main road and assumed that it would lead them to their final destination, after a bit of time anyway, so he pointed it out to Blaidd before they departed from the small settlement, slashing and blasting through the mud zombies that were in the way. Such a thing allowed them to see that there were some transports ahead of them, downed ones by the looks of things, and that there were a few large decaying dogs chowing down on some of the corpses that were in the area, plus there was a large raven that seemed like it was pecking at something. Given the power of the enemies Tirek decided to pull them back one at a time, allowing him and Blaidd to deal with the target without the others being drawn in accidentally, so while it was slow progress it was better than being totally overwhelmed. It also gave him a chance to raid one of the locked chests, since the second one had been torn to shreds and the loot taken, and just found a greatsword inside it, one he stashed away as he and Blaidd moved towards what appeared to be a small ruin that was on fire.
The reason for the flames was due to the flame chariots that were wandering around, setting fire to corpses that actually got back up and would explode on someone if they got too close, as a few did try to take out the flame chariots and failed in the long run, but with all that going on the pair slipped by without wasting time.
Fortunately there was a Grace on the other side of the ruins and Tirek activated it, only to glance at the air and found that there were more scattered throughout Caelid itself, like whoever was in control of the Grace was shining a light to show him just how many safety zones there were. While Blaidd couldn't see any of them, a reminder that he wasn't one of the Tarnished like Tirek was, he listened to his report on where all of them were located and informed him of what he knew about the region they would be exploring, allowing him to fill in a mental map of sorts. Two areas interested him far more than the others, the first being that further down the road he would find the Cathedral of Dragon Communion, which was stronger than the ruined church, while the second was off to the left, the Dragonbarrows. It was an area of Caelid that had a number of dragons roaming around, where Blaidd guessed that they might find a few more dragon hearts for Tirek to gather before consuming them at the alter in the Cathedral, causing the gears to turn in his head as he considered why they had come to this region in the first place.
He gained more power by devouring the hearts and Runes of dragons, meaning that, since they were targeting one of the strongest Demigods in the world, heading into the Dragonbarrows first would be the correct course of action, to ensure he was ready for the battles ahead of them, and he was looking forward to devouring their power in the near future.