by Aaron Oster
A low buzzing filled the small room, and Elyssa sat up a bit straighter. A moment later, the crystal began to glow, light shining down and forming into the familiar figures of the rulers of the respective races of Faeland.
“Finally,” Elyssa muttered, drawing herself up tall and brushing a lock of hair from her eyes.
She couldn’t seem happy to be here. That would ruin her image as a spoiled, rotten brat in the eyes of the others. She did have to admit that she was curious as to why they’d all been called with so little warning, though. It must have been pretty serious, and judging by the look on the gnome’s face, he didn’t have a lot of good news to report.
“Thank you all for gathering on such short notice,” Marcus said, the gnome fidgeting a bit with a sheaf of papers. “We’ve just gotten our first report, and I’m afraid to say that things are far worse than we could have imagined…”
28
Wind whipped at Morgan’s hair, flattening it against his head and making him all the more grateful for Grace’s haircut. Having shorter hair was definitely a boon while flying. The moon shone high overhead, full and bright, illuminating the ocean for miles around for someone with his keen sight. The soft rise and fall against his back told him that Grace was fast asleep. The small figure tied to his shoulder, tail twitching lightly, was also off in dreamland.
The only one who was awake now, in the vast and open world of water, was him. He was flying closer to the waves now, some eighty feet above the surface. The wind resistance was far greater out here than he’d realized, the open ocean having no buffers to break up its force. Still, he could manage about half-speed without making Grace too uncomfortable, and with the cloak pulled up over her head, he was sure the rushing wind wouldn’t hurt her ears.
There were a few things about flying with Grace that he hadn’t thought of, like when she’d needed to use the bathroom. He couldn’t exactly set her down, nor did she feel even remotely comfortable doing her business while he was holding her. So, Lumia had changed into her hybrid form and flown away, while he’d turned his back.
Altogether, their bathroom breaks had cost them over an hour over the course of the day. He’d spent his time educating her on everything he could manage, from combat situations to beasts and their respective power, to her status and how it worked. Tomorrow’s lessons would involve combining her cores, using her skills in tandem and working on combinations she could use once she could access them all at once.
There were other lessons he had planned as well, but those would be on survival. They were going to a strange land, and the two of them could be separated. He’d be unable to track her by her aura in Faeland, due to the ambient reiki, so learning basic survival skills, like how to find food, water, and shelter, would be important.
“Nice night for a trip, isn’t it?”
Morgan didn’t even flinch as Gold appeared out of thin air, standing with his arms crossed and flying right along with him.
“Yes. It is,” he replied, sparing the man a sidelong look. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
“Is that sarcasm I detect?” Gold asked.
When Morgan didn’t reply, the man rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion.
“I just came by to comment on what a spectacular show you put on last night.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Indeed! I mean, you could have ended that fight immediately and avoided all those horrible injuries had you simply used one of your more powerful Extra skills, but who am I to judge?”
“You do realize that our enemy spies were probably watching that fight, right?”
“I would assume so,” Gold said.
“Can’t exactly go letting them report my most powerful skills to the enemy, now can I? Not only did I have to minimize what I could do, but I had to appear weaker than I am.”
“That didn’t stop you from using Sunblast,” Gold retorted.
“At night,” Morgan replied. “I was out of good options by that point and was in serious danger of actually dying. Better to have them assume the skill’s power, and that I can use it any time, rather than kicking the bucket.”
“I see your point, though it was extremely reckless and stupid,” Gold said. “After all, you were fighting a Pinnacle beast.”
“And if it were even a single rank higher, I’d have had no choice. But, luckily for me, it was just under the rank 49 threshold.”
“You do realize that a beast of that power would have taken a literal army to stop, right? Rank 48 or not, that was still a Pinnacle beast!”
“I appreciate the concern and all, but I’m perfectly capable of making my own judgments. I know my own strengths better than anyone else, and I knew that I could take that beast down without showing too much.”
“Seems like you showed plenty,” Gold replied. “I mean, pretty much all of your regular skills were on display.”
Morgan shrugged.
“If I could have won without the use of any skills, I would have. As it was, people’s lives were at risk, and I wasn’t about to drag it out and risk having the beast change its target.”
“Ah! So why not use a single, more powerful skill instead, rather than show everything?”
“Because nothing short of Shooting star would have killed it outright, and if I were taking a risk like that, I would have used Massive Meteor instead. I wouldn’t want to show off a skill that powerful, nor did I want to enter Faeland with it still on cooldown.”
“Well, I do see your point there,” Gold admitted.
Massive Meteor was a powerful skill, but the ten-day cooldown was a hefty price to pay. Morgan had no idea how long he’d be in Faeland, so having a skill like that in reserve was essential.
“You could always use Continental Crush and simply wipe out a city or something,” Gold suggested.
“Yeah, no thanks,” Morgan replied. “As much as I’d like to end this war quickly, killing an entire city’s population will only bring Chaos closer, not chase him away. Besides, all I really need to do is kill his agents, right?”
“I mean, technically,” Gold replied. “But what’s a good battle without a little buildup and the tense atmosphere of a war?”
“A dream come true,” Morgan muttered.
“Ah, well. Too bad we don’t live in a world where those happen,” Gold sighed wistfully.
“You don’t even technically live here,” Morgan shot back. “What world do you call home anyway?”
Gold waggled his finger, giving Morgan a faux stern look.
“None of that now. You know I can’t tell you anything.”
“Look, can you just get to the point of why you’re here?” Morgan said. “In case you haven’t noticed, I have a sleeping and very unaware young girl with me, and our conversation might wake her up.”
“What, don’t you wanna introduce the kid to Uncle Gold?”
Morgan gave him a flat look at that, one that conveyed exactly what he thought of ‘Uncle’ Gold.
“Fine, spoilsport,” Gold said with an eye-roll. “Just came by to let you know that you’ll be hitting the barrier soon. You might have to fly around a bit to find a crack, so try not to get turned around. Also, the other side will be a bit, shall we say, disorienting.”
“That’s all?”
“Yup! I hope you’re keeping up with your training, and don’t forget to say hi to the smith for me. Ta ta!”
That said, Gold vanished into thin air, leaving Morgan to wonder if the god’s sanity might finally be slipping. His attention soon pulled from that line of thought as he finally beheld the barrier for the first time.
Morgan had pictured the barrier as a massive, translucent wall. Perhaps some sort of dome or invisible force that would keep him from going any further. But whenever he pictured the barrier, it was a clear shield, through which he could see the continuing ocean on the other side. What he hadn’t expected to see was the black void standing before him.
It stretched in all directions as far a
s the eye could see, marking the presumable end of the world. The ocean’s waves lapped up against it, contained by the blackness. Nothing passed through, not the water, not air, not even the light of the moon. It was just a void. He now understood why Gold had come to warn him.
This barrier completely blocked off the other parts of the world, sealing the Five Kingdoms in. It wasn’t a dome, just a towering wall that stretched endlessly into the sky until it was lost from sight. His eyes scanned over the blackness, looking for some way through, but he found none, which in his opinion, was a good thing. If there weren’t any obvious ways in, that meant that they probably had more time than he’d thought.
Morgan angled to his left, stopping a few hundred yards from the barrier and flying parallel to search for an opening. It was a very disconcerting experience, flying along that wall and staring into nothingness. The entire time he flew, he continuously had to fight the sensation to turn back, that he was in the wrong place and that he should go somewhere else. He had a feeling that as he drew closer, the feeling would only grow stronger.
It took him nearly an hour to find the first crack, a small, jagged line in the otherwise black void. It stood out, simply because of its coloration. It was a rainbow-colored tear, stretching perhaps five feet in a jagged pattern. Smaller cracks branched off the larger one, and though it was some three-hundred feet in the air, Morgan could see how the barrier would eventually fail.
Still, this was a way in, and the first he’d spotted so far. Grace would begin to suffer adverse effects if he stayed up there too long, so he’d have to be quick. Morgan sped up, angling his body upward for a gradual climb, rather than a steep one. The feeling that he should turn back intensified as he neared, growing stronger by the second and compounding many times over.
His heart began to race uncontrollably as his mind became filled with the certainty that he was in mortal danger. He’d closed within a hundred feet by now, the rainbow-colored tear standing out even brighter against the blackness of the void. He could feel his body begin to tremble, and even shutting off his response to fear didn’t help.
More than once, he almost stopped, the compulsion to turn back growing so strong that he feared immediate death upon touching the barrier. Yet he pushed on, fighting down the fear as the tear grew wider before him. Fifty feet, forty, thirty, twenty… His heart seized up for a moment, core spasming and pain wracking his chest. Then, as he was scared for it to be any worse, he was through.
Morgan sped through the rainbow-crack and emerged into a completely different landscape. He blinked a few times, feeling the fear recede as he sped away from the barrier, already dropping from his height to where Grace would be safe. Shockingly enough, neither she nor Lumia had so much as stirred, both remaining out cold for the entire ordeal. He was grateful for that, as he doubted Grace would have had the fortitude to remain still as he approached, and he’d likely have been forced to knock her out.
He wasn’t sure how Lumia would have reacted, seeing as she was a beast and all, but he was glad he didn’t have to find out. The sight that greeted him on the other side was not what he would have expected. And, once again, he was glad Gold had come to warn him.
The ocean still stretched out before him, vanishing far into the distance on the horizon, but instead of being the dark blue he’d expected, the ocean was glowing. A bright phosphorescent green shone from below, lighting up the world in an eerie caste. The moon in the sky above wasn’t the white he was used to, but instead, shone a brilliant emerald green. It was quite a bit larger as well, appearing about half again as large as the moon he was used to seeing.
None of this should have made sense. He was still on the same planet. It wasn’t as though he’d left Somerset and gone somewhere else. All he’d done was pass through a barrier.
Could it be that this was how the world really was, and that the Five Kingdoms were just cut off? Morgan decided that he’d have to ask Gold the next time he saw him. For now, though, he’d simply enjoy the new sights. It was already becoming painful to keep his Aura Sense on, the violet mist rising from the water below practically blinding him with its brilliance.
Much as he hated to do so, Morgan was forced to pull his Aura Sense back, maintaining a field of only five feet in any direction. It made him feel blind, but he’d already been anticipating this loss of sight, so he’d been prepared for it. He knew it would take some getting used to, and once he actually reached land, his Aura Sense would have to be further constrained to just a few inches.
Going into enemy territory was risky enough, but going in blind was even worse. Morgan would do it anyway. He had a promise to keep, and nothing would get in his way.
29
“We think we saw something up ahead!”
Morgan turned to see Lumia flying back towards him, Grace clutched in her arms. It was early morning on their third day, their journey having taken longer due to their need to keep a reduced pace. Despite that, they’d been making good time, and the extra travel time gave Morgan a chance to teach her more.
“Did you now?” Morgan asked as he turned to allow Grace to climb back into the harness.
“Yeah!” the girl said excitedly as she pulled at the straps up on her shoulders. “Lumia pointed out a smudge on the horizon, and we think it might be land!”
“I said that I think so,” Lumia said, shrinking down to land on his shoulder. “But I could be wrong. This odd-colored water is messing with my sense of vision.”
Whereas the water had glowed green during the night, the day brought about a pale-yellow color the water. This, combined with the sky, which was thankfully still blue, was messing with Lumia’s eyes, though Morgan wasn’t having the same issue. They were all dressed more lightly, Grace having detached the sleeves on her uniform and stowed the cloak, while he had simply removed his shirt.
Grace had been a bit embarrassed at first but had grown used to it, just like the flying. The shedding of clothes had been in response to the temperature change. While it had always been pleasant in the East Kingdom and warm over the ocean, the temperature had changed when the sun had risen on their first day on the other side of the barrier.
It had to be close to a hundred degrees, and while Morgan didn’t actually mind all that much, it bothered Grace a great deal. It wasn’t that he couldn’t feel the heat, as he’d taken his shirt off to be more comfortable, it was just that it didn’t bother him nearly as much. And while Grace might devolve into a ‘sweaty mess’ as she’d put it, he’d remained perfectly fine.
“Well, I say we head in the direction of where the smudge is and see if it really is land.”
“I hope it is,” Grace said. “Because I could really use a bath.”
Though Grace hadn’t uttered so much as a word of complaint on their trip, something Morgan was sure Sarah would have done, he knew she was growing antsy. She wanted to be back on land, to have solid footing beneath her once more, and he could understand the feeling. As much as he enjoyed the flight, he really wanted a bit of a break.
While not physically straining, three days of no sleep and constant flight was beginning to wear on him mentally. He could probably keep going for quite some time before he hit his limit, likely a lot longer than some might think, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed it.
So it was, that when a direction was pointed out, he took off just a little faster than Grace was used to and nearly gave her whiplash.
“Sorry,” he called back. “It’s hard to remember to constrain myself sometimes.”
“It’s okay,” Grace called, clutching at the back of her suddenly sore neck. “I’m fine.”
They flew on in silence for the next couple of minutes, Morgan’s eyes intent on finding the speck of land that they may or may not have spotted. His eyes scanned back and forth across the horizon, trying to pick out even the smallest hint of land. He hesitated for a moment as his eyes traveled over a small disturbance in the sea of yellow and blue.
Narrowing his eyes, Morgan focus
ed, and as they drew closer, the small disturbance in the seascape turned into a little spec. He couldn’t be sure that it was land, but if Lumia had spotted it all the way out here, then her eyesight had to be better than he’d realized. They all remained silent, though Morgan could feel Grace squirming around as she tried to get a good view over his shoulder.
After just a few more minutes, the spec had grown into a wide line and was widening by the second. By this point, it was safe to say that they had indeed found land. Morgan began to descend then, drifting down until he was barely above the waves. Someone might be looking out towards the ocean, and a single spec was far more visible up high than down low.
He flew as low as he could manage without having to constantly bob with the motion of the rippling waves. The landmass began to come into focus within an hour, spreading out from horizon to horizon. Distant mountains rose, towering high into the sky, their peaks hidden by banks of clouds floating above the landscape.
“I’ve never seen a forest like that before,” Grace said, craning her head over his shoulder and staring out over the ocean.
Up ahead, a massive, sprawling forest was growing closer, trees towering hundreds of feet into the air. Morgan had never seen trees this large in all his life and never would have imagined that someplace like this could even exist.
“Here, have a look at this and tell me if you can see any landmarks from here,” Morgan said, reaching into his pack and handing Grace the poor excuse of a map that Gold had provided.
“This doesn’t really look like anything,” Grace’s confused voice said just a moment later.
“Keep looking,” he replied. “I’m sure you’ll be able to pick something out.”
They continued closing in on the landmass, the trees rising higher and higher into the sky. They all looked to be of the same general type. They all had dark maroon trunks with thick, craggy bark, and dark blue leaves. The space between each tree was quite substantial, leaving plenty of space to navigate without becoming lost. The trees rose so high that Morgan couldn’t even reach the top using his flight skill.
