Part 10

As the last preparations had ended, the convoy was ready to leave for Ryukahn Desert. In front of the full city they were escorted by the citizens as by then the nature of the mission was long leaked. Unfortunately, this did attract the attention of two ankhegs who thought they might have found some easy prey. In four clean moves the Warriors of Light had shown their prowess and were met by even bigger cheers. Finally, after all these distractions, they were able to leave the city. Expecting that their mission might take long due to vast territory that Ryukahn Desert has occupied, they were surprised to see that the levistone reacted immediately as soon as they went through the Lykion Pass. Using the hit-and-miss method, they were able to find the place after only 5 days of searching and the sight of it was worth everything they went through.

As soon as they reached the place, the Levistone, being held on the Sead's coach seat, started levitating in the air. As soon as everyone had seen this, the ground started shaking. In an amazing sight that you had to experience it to believe, the sand started parting ways as a large shape started rising from the ground. Everyone stood in shock as this mystical airship started operating the propellers that occupied space across its deck. Everyone believed that this thing was in horrible shape and needed extensive repairs. To think it could fly immediately was beyond anyone's imagination. And yet, a huge bronze airship was now staring at their gaping mouths, slowly descending to the ground. As soon as it landed, everyone went into frenzy trying to figure out how to get onboard. While some suggested climbing the ship's hull and others to improvise hooks with ropes to climb, the party went around ship, seeing if levistone would react. Their trust was verified when a set of stairs lowered from the port side. Hearing the sound of the stairs, everyone had rushed to see this. In the end they lined up behind the party, allowing them to climb first. Of course, this courtesy was only momentarily as soon as they were onboard, they went in frenzy trying to inspect each centimetre of this engineering marvel. Meanwhile, the party followed levistone to see where it would lead them. They ended up in this room full of strange machines that no one recognized. As soon as they entered, the levistone flew from Lewyn's hands into this small box that seemed perfect for it. The box then closed and slotted into the big machine. While only few machines were working before this, with this move every machine came to life as they started humming and moving its parts. While they were trying out what was going on, they were blinded by light that came out of nowhere. It seemed these glass things in rooms and hallways could produce artificial light. With this discovery everyone knew that this was beyond anything the modern world could produce. Everyone went immediately to work as the massive task to understand this ship from top to bottom won't be easy.

After a week of testing, cleaning and inspecting everything that the ship had and could do, the party, Lianna and the chief engineer of the expedition Masatoki Araya met in the captain's cabin to discuss the current state of the ship.

Kelin: "Chief Engineer, you can start with your report."

Masatoki: "To be frank, I have no idea where to even start with this."

Lewyn: "I expected someone well known from the Inventor's Guild to have a clue."

Masatoki: "Well, sir, after seeing this ship, I can honestly say that all my work until now looks like it was made by a child compared to thus thing of beauty. Those engines alone would take months of studying to fully understand them. But unfortunately, that would mean taking them apart."

Lewyn: "As I told you already, we will need this ship to travel easily to the northern continents."

Masatoki: "Well, I say, good luck on landing this thing anywhere. The only reason we are on the ground now is because I basically forced it to land after struggling for several minutes."

Kelin: "That's something we will have to figure out on the move. Let us start at the statistical side of this ship then."

Masatoki: "Alright. Now we weren't able to measure the size of the ships, but we think it is within range of something like a caravel. Judging from the size from the cargo bay and the door below it, it used to serve as a trading ship or a cargo vessel."

Kelin: "Really."

Rosch: "I can confirm that. The size of the cargo space and the arrangement of the ship's rooms are not preferred for any large passenger traffic, ignoring the indications we found around the ship."

Rosch: "Most likely it was used in a rushed evacuation which is why we have found so much personal effects."

Masatoki: "Shame we can't understand Sky People's language. We have difficult time understanding the gages and any papers they have left behind. We still don't understand why we have extremely hard time landing it. I basically forced it to land yesterday after flight tests."

Kelin: "Any clue why is that happening?"

Masatoki: "None. We are also having difficult time understanding how exactly the ship works. It seems it needs very little crew for the ship its size."

Kelin: "How about other information you have gathered?"

Masatoki: "Well, we still don't know from what exact steel alloy this ship was build from. It does seem that the bronze colour is painted across the hull to stop the corrosion. If this is true, then alchemists will have a field day trying to recreate it."

Rosch: "You haven't tried to remove the pieces of hull to test for the material?"

Masatoki: "No, we don't want to compromise the ship's hull, especially since it is in much better shape than anyone expected it to be. Now to say something that we are more certain in. Judging from the gages during the flight tests, this ship can achieve the speed of 150 kilometres per hour and can reach 2 kilometres in altitude. I don't want to test the engines too much until we know more about them."

Rosch: "Alright. So we should avoid flying through the mountain ranges at night. Now, with the tests done, we should decide on how we will man this ship."

Masatoki: "Well, the first decision is to choose who will take the lead of this ship."

Lianna: "That's where I come in. On the behalf on the Kingdom of Hoshido and the clan Marciano, I am hereby taking over the ship as its captain."

Lewyn: "Are you sure? You don't have any sailor experience."

Masatoki: "No one does in a ship like this. If that's what the clan leader of the territory decides, then I can't oppose it. At least without Queen's support."

Lianna: "That's alright. My first traveling orders would be to Sybaris to leave anyone who wants to disembark there and then go to the capital to see where we will go from there. Now as for you, Chief Engineer, I request that you serve as the ship's Executive Officer. Will that be alright with you?"

Masatoki: "I was perfectly fine with just staying onboard so I won't refuse."

Lianna: "Good. Draw up a number of engineers that will serve as the ship's crew. I don't think we need or carry this many people onboard as its crew."

Masatoki: "That will be a lot of disappointed faces, but it will be done."

Lianna: "Good. I guess this meeting is dismissed."

The people of Sybaris, hearing about the discovery of the airship, patiently waited for the return of the expedition as they wanted to see this mythical ship. Expecting it to be brought back in parts, they were very shocked to see that the approaching speck on the horizon was a fully-functioning airship. It was hard to contain excitement as the ship landed. Lianna had to call upon the city guard to keep the people from rushing onboard. The ship didn't stay there for too long. After some last-minute arrangements, the citizens have heard the news that their clan leader will be following the Warriors of Light while her Uncle Ren will serve as her regent in the meantime. Some locals who followed the expedition were left behind and, after resupplying the food and water stock, took off and went north for the capital.

The same event happened as soon as they landed at the field outside the city. The Royal Guard was summoned to guard the ship as Queen Iroha and the Twelve Sages arrived at the site to inspect this magnificent marvel of engineering. They were escorted across the ship to be shown everything that this ship could do. After that the party, the Chief Engineer, Sage Sadda and Queen Iroha met in the captain's cabin to discuss matters. From this meeting several decisions were made.

One, the ship was officially granted to clan Marciano as part of Kingdom of Hoshido and will remain in their ownership as long as they serve for Kingdom's interests. Two, the ship will serve for the Warriors of Light due to the current circumstances and will remain in their service as long as they needed it. Three, Lianna Marciano has been officially appointed as official Her Majesty's representative to the Warriors of Light in all matters and will serve as the ship's captain. Four, the Chief Engineer Masatoki Araya will serve as her executive officer and men and women under him will crew, observe and study the ship. Five, once the mission ends and the vessel returns under the authority of the Kingdom, it will return to Crescent Lake City where it will extensively studied and possibly taken apart. Six, in lieu of Kingdom of Cornelia's willingness to share such vital information as everything about nitro powder, the Kingdom will provide all of its airship research to other countries. And lastly, the ship will officially be named Sky Empress. That one was symbolic. Unlike queens and kings which ruled across the lands, the title and rank of emperors and empresses only existed in myths, legends and stories. So something like this ship deserved such a name. As one last favour to the Warriors of Light, the Queen had made an official order in which ship builders in Izumo were ordered to upgrade and fix the ship at the crown's expense. With this order they had their next destination.

As they used near Izumo, they were used to the people's reactions by now so they waited patiently until the local patrol teams made the citizens settle down. After that they went to work. Kelin, Lewyn, Lianna and Masatoki went to the local ship builders to see what they could do. After confirming the Queen's orders, the master shipwright assembled a legion of other ship builders and to inspect Sky Empress. After some negotiations between the crew and the ship builders, the course of action was decided. The next week was spent on various upgrades and repairs. The food pantry was expanded and cleared any rats it might have had. A proper water tank was installed to insure that the ship won't need constant landings to collect fresh water. The lower cargo door was inspected and the cargo space cleared so that Sead's wagon could easily climb onboard and disembark the ship. Areas for proper item, weapon and money storages were designated and built around. Other than the repairs, the crew spent time showing the ship builders everything that they have discovered about the airship. The ship builders were grateful about this.

Meanwhile Rosch and Mari went to Sea Queen to address the sad fact. Due to the lack of proper ports in the northern continents, they will have to use the airship in further adventures which meant that Sea Queen had to be left behind. Many of the crew were saddened by the fact that no longer would the famed heroes sail on their ship. Rosch made a beautiful speech to them thanking them for their continued service. For now he was appointing his executive officer Kelsey Besson as the acting captain and ordered him to return to Pravoka to serve the City Council until Rosch's return. As one last parting gift, Rosch had gifted every crew member 4 thousand gil as one-time gift for their service. Everyone was surprised by this. Between all the adventures that the party have taken up, they have gathered up a large sum of money and were slowly turning into some of the richest people on the continent. Even twith this gift, the party wealth was still above 300 thousand gil, a long cry from the time they only had 500 to their name. With this everyone had a great night as they spent drinking and praising their captain. Soon enough they went their separate ways. The Sea Queen followed their orders and left Pravoka. Meanwhile, Sky Empress had their first mission in front. According to the reports from the west, there was something brewing in an abandoned shrine in Drakenguard Mountains in Cornelia so the party decided that would be their first place to visit with their new airship.

It seemed Sky Empress would attract attention wherever it travelled. Another huge crowd went to see this mysterious airship as soon as it landed. As soon as they saw the Warriors of Light on the deck, they cheered on as they realized that this ship belonged to them. The Royal Guard escorted the royal family to the sight. King Franz, Queen Jayne and the young princess Margaret were excited to see this magnificent ship. Meanwhile Princess Sarah seemed distracted, as if something was on her mind. While she smiled with the rest of her family, it was clear to Rosch and Kelin that that was a slightly forced smile. They agreed that for now they wouldn't court her. Besides they would soon have a new job to do. After the initial excitement and the showcase of the ship they soon went down to business. According to the scouting reports, something awakened in the abandoned shrine at the foothill of the Drakenguard Mountains. That drew the attention of every remaining Red Sky goblin who scrambled to get there as fast as they could. Worried that there might be something happening there, they wanted to request the services of the Warriors to investigate. Everyone gladly accepted this. After a short trip to acquire more antidotes, Sky Empress departed for Drakenguard Mountains.

No one knew the history behind the Earthgift Shrine. By all estimates it was built long before the existence of human civilization itself, maybe even during the Age of Chaos. The two known features about it were the stench that permeated across the entire shrine as well as a statue of this imposing being at the end of it. If the party had seen the statue, they would have recognized as the Fiend of Earth Lich. However, to everyone's surprise, these features were missing when they arrived there. The air was clean and the statue at the end of it was missing. The only live thing in there was a dwarf scout who investigated the shrine. He gave his report as well as the warning to the party. "The stink went away, sae Ah took a keek inside. It was lippin ower with gruesome monsters! Ah'd stay oot if Ah were ye." The party thanked him for the report and decided to press on, unaware of the surprise that waited just behind the close doors.

As soon as they passed through the door, they ended up unexpectedly in this vast forest. Curious at why they haven't been warned about this, they wanted to return back only to discover there was no door behind them. Only trees as far as eyes could see. While trying to look around to find those doors again, they were ambushed by a group of unusual goblins. While most goblins were brown and wore green clothes and orange caps, these were black goblins that wore red clothes and black iron helmet. While they expected a difficult fight, the truth was that they overestimated them as even Mari could easily dispatch them. So they easily won. Being left alone, they again tried to find the door and failed much to their chagrin. However, they were hopeful that they would find another exist in this weird dark pink forest. After all, they just had similar situation in Cavern of Ice. And so with the hope in their hearts, they went to explore this mysterious place.

As it later turned out, this forest was only the first floor of the shrine mostly occupied by black goblin camps and bands of roving gloom widows, skuldiers and desertpedes. Other than antidotes and a lot of money, the camps held nothing special other than a hi-potion and a spider silk which, after properly refined by an alchemist, could be used to slow down enemies. Antidotes did end up being useful as poor Lewyn kept getting poisoned by widow and desertpede attacks. After some time of exploring around they have found a set of stairs. Following them down had somehow transported them in the middle of an endless desert with no sign of those stairs anywhere. Unnerved at the sight of this, they still pressed on with Lewyn taking charge due to his experience in the Ryukahn Desert. Following the trail of palm trees and destroying several desertpede hives, they found a small oasis with another set of stairs guarded by a lone gloom widow who didn't see them coming. After taking those stairs, they finally found more familiar ground as they ended up in a cave where another black goblin was set up. After quickly dispatching them and their animal companions, the so-called wild nakks, they explored what they had in their storage. Other than more money, potions and antidotes, they also found these two interesting alchemical potions. Lewyn was quite interested into these ones. As it turned out, he actually knew what these were and who sold them. They were potions capable of temporary raising strength in different areas, agility and defence in these ones. Lewyn told them as soon as they went north to Onrac, he could bring them to that seller if they were interested. Soon enough they found the stairs to the next floor. That one only held two chests with ether and red fang in them. This was just a stop gap to what would turn out to be the last floor of this place.

As soon as they climbed down the last set of stairs, they found themselves in a room full of hallways with doors in some of them leading up to unknown rooms. Realizing that it seemed that there were no patrolling enemies around, they decided to take 20 minute break to rest up and heal any wound they might have had. After that they decided to go through one of these doors to see what's behind them. They ended up going through the bottom left ones. As soon as they saw the room, it seemed familiar to them. It had the same set up as Crystal rooms, but instead of Fiends and their balls, a blue flame was standing in its place. As soon as they approached it, the flame spoke. "So, you've managed to reach these depths. I commend you. But your journey ends here, I'm afraid." As soon as it said that, it started transforming, while the party got into their fighting stance. The thing transformed into the mythical beast Cerberus. While Rosch was casting Haste and Mari Invisra, Kelin and Lewyn charged in. Cerberus meanwhile casted Thunderbolt on everyone, causing excruciating pain. After only one attack, they were feeling horrible. Mari, realizing that this will be a horrible fight for them, immediately h casting Healara and continued to do so throughout the fight. While Rosch finished buffing both of their attackers, Kelin and Lewyn tried everything to prevent Cerberus from casting more Thunderbolts. The bites that the three heads produced were far less painful than that spell. Cerverus realized that so in hopes in finishing this fight soon he started only casting that. Mari couldn't keep up and soon enough Lewyn and Rosch collapsed from the attacks. While Mari was trying to revive Lewyn with Phoenix Down, Kelin went for a last-ditch attack. As Cerberus was finishing casting the spell, Kelin went straight for his heart. In a blinding light, he used his Ice Brand to freeze Cerberus's body, finally killing it. After it disappeared into the mist, Kelin was starting feeling the recoil from this as he started coughing blood. After she used the Phoenix Down to revive Lewyn and then Rosch, she casted few more Healaras so that they could at least walk and finish. After finding a sword stashed in that room, they stepped into the teleporting circle, thinking it would lead them outside. Instead, they found themselves in another room with another circle. Hoping that one was the real one, they again stepped through. Finally they were outside. After the adrenaline went away, they were hit with such exhaustion and pain, they collapsed on the spot and passed out.

When they finally woke up, they found themselves back at the shrine surrounded by some airship crew and Lianna.

Lianna: "What in the world happened to you all? You look like you went through a thunderstorm."

Rosch: "That damn dog kept spamming those lightnings at us. I still feel sore from them."

Lianna: "What dog?"

Lewyn: "The one at the bottom of this place. I hope Kelin's last attack was enough to kill him for good. I don't want to fight it again."

Kelin: "I hope so too."

Lewyn: "Anyway, what are all of you doing here?"

Lianna: That dwarf that was scouting here came to us when you all disappeared. I wanted to see if we could launch a rescue party when we found you outside laying unconscious. I must say I am shocked-"

Rosch: Don't use that adjective, please. I don't want to hear a faint thunder sound for now."

Lianna: "Okay? I was surprised to see you all beaten up like this. I thought Mari could alleviate any danger."

Mari: "You kidding me? I couldn't even keep up with the healing. Just how powerful was he? I feel so useless."

Kelin: "Let's just hope we had some bad luck and he was alone."

???: "You would be mistaken."

As soon as that voice echoed through the cave, the party stood up and took up fighting stance while being in great pain. Knowing this, Lianna stood in front of them in case of a fight.

Kelin: "Who goes there?"

At this an illusion of a dragon's head appeared in front of everyone.

Dragon: I am afraid I can't do anything to you when you are up here.

Kelin: "Who are you?"

Dragon: "My master never gave us the names so you may call me just dragon if you want."

Rosch: "What are you?"

Dragon: "A prisoner of this forsaken place. And you are our tickets out."

Mari: "Like we would want to help you get out of here."

Dragon: "When you get tricked and trapped here for 2000 years, you will take anything, even a death. Anything is really better than this."

Kelin: "What do you mean?"

Dragon: "When we were slain while trying to achieve our master's plan, we still wanted to remain in our master's service so Lich appeared in front of us to make a deal. In exchange for his help to revive our master that had fallen by that time too, we would assist him. And if it weren't for that meddling goddess, we could have achieved our plans already by now. Instead, all we do is waste away in this damn prison. Forced to suffer each day. Back at our old home in the World of Darkness we had no concept of time. We just simply didn't need it. Here, we are forced to endure every single day. Quenching an endless thirst, satisfying the eternally empty belly and sleeping through the endless days. And then you went and killed our benefactor."

Lewyn: "Oh, that's why we can access this place properly now."

Dragon: Yes. We created the Limberry Forest and Dharm Desert while this place was sealed in order to have anything to do. Now that you defeated Lich and unsealed us, now we have a chance to do something. These goblins have proven themselves quite nice for an army building. Shame that you defeated a large group of them already, but that's not a problem in the long run. Goblins need somewhere where they won't be interrupted in their training so they can take up residence here. Plus they even brought along some tamed monsters that we can alter too. All that is left is time to train them all.

Mari: "You think that we will let you do that?"

Dragon: "Well, you will either destroy us or let us to try and conquer the world. Either way I win."

Mari: "Why do you win if we destroy you? Besides, why are you so chatty with your plans?"

Dragon: "Do you know how it feels being trapped in one place and forced to endure every day in it? That, right there, is what you call a hell. Now try to endure that with two heads. Eventually something has to break and that's how I was created and why I am willing to talk with you idiots. I am more surprised Cerberus managed to remain himself for all this time."

Rosch: "Do you hit as hard as him though?"

Dragon: "Of course. Who do you think I am? Unfortunately I feel ashamed knowing that you 4 are clearly weaker than the heroes that defeated us and still managed to defeat Cerberus. You might actually be lucky enough to defeat the rest of us then. Not to mention the others."

Mari: "Others? You mean there are others like you trapped out there?"

Dragon: "Oh, yes. Each Fiend had their own group that they were working with. Not to mention there are still the three of us left."

At this revelation everyone's faces dropped. One of those things was enough to really rough the Warriors of Light. To think that there were more of them out there was beyond anyone's imagination.

Dragon: "I see I hit a nerve there. Well, from what I see you have two options here. Either defeat us or let us conquer the world. Either way I would win. I hope I will see you later, cowards."

After this the illusion disappeared. Silence prevailed across the room as the heavy mood made everyone speechless. Finally, Lianna piped up.

Lianna: "Judging from your reaction, this is really bad news, right?"

Lewyn: "Oh, yes. We will need to be much stronger if we want to have a shot at this."

Kelin: "I agree. But right now we have two objectives: report this to the king and sleep an entire day. Anyone objecting?"

With no objections, everyone hobbled out of the shrine with the crew's help towards Sky Empress.