Chapter 2.3

The sight that filled his vision was the sky itself being torn asunder. From the ground, a massive pillar of light rose upwards into that torn sky, the land beneath that pillar cracking and broiling as fire spewed from the rapidly expanding ravines formed of the carnage.

The sundered sky was filled with the roars of beasts that soared in the air, those roars only matched by the weaponry firing at them in time to their roars and blasts of elemental might.

As he ran through the streets of the city, the air howled with chaotic, burning winds that seared his face, nothing but this chaos surrounded him. He ran and ran through it all, ignoring rallying cries or pleas that couldn’t hope to be aided no matter how much he wished it so. Soldiers cried out as they fired their weapons or slung spells, laying into the beasts that descended upon them with all the fury of a careless storm.

He himself was no safer, the sword in his hands flashing at those beasts that lunged for him, severing them into wisps of ether if a spell flying from his free hand didn’t do a similar job.

He continued to run without stopping, desperate to find some path away from the chaos as that sundered sky rained fire and brimstone. And then, amid it all, a roar that drowned out all other sounds cut through the air itself. A large airship came barreling above the skyscrapers, flames trailing from its hull as it lilted downwards.

And then something else followed.

Not one of the maddened beasts assaulting the city. Something grander, far more ancient than even he and his fellows could lay claim too. The titanic body made even the burning airship seem miniscule, rolling through the air through massive, feather and scale wings that blotted out the sundered sky.

Its titanic body was regal, elegant and yet terrifyingly fierce in visage, scales shimmering in brilliant whites and golds, obsidian talons raking through the buildings below the body with little care. The head angular and sharp, golden horns arching from its crest and forming a shape not unlike a crown as azure eyes burned with nothing but contempt and fury for all within their vision.

“Jormungandr…” his voice said the name with a shudder, his jaw tightening as his hands clenched. “Why?! What sparked this battle between us, old friend?! What has led the sky itself to sunder in our wake?!”

But his desperate cries for an answer fell on deaf ears as the regal titan above him paid no mind, its claws slamming into the burning ship and cresting below all view as bolts of blue pelted that body or regal white, once more allowing the chaos above to dominate the attention of all others.

“Is this the world’s answer? Is this… is this a punishment for my fellows stepping into a realm they should not? Against all warnings, all caution… is this what we deserve for trying to peer beyond the horizon?”

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A sharp gasp split the air in the room, Soren shooting upright with a start. He put a hand to his head as his breaths came out in heavy, sparse huffs. Managing to gather himself, he dragged his hand down his face, letting his hand flop into his lap as he felt cold beads of sweat drop from his face.

A quick glance towards his room’s window revealed not a hint of sunlight, only the scant lights from other buildings. His clock said while it was morning, it was still a couple hours before the sun would rise.

“That damned dream again… and this time I heard things… that’s a first,” he muttered, licking his dry lips as he slid out of his bed and stepped into the washroom. Cranking the cold-water handle for the sink, as it began to fill, he looked up into the mirror, staring into his eyes and focusing on his irises.

They had always been the feature most people took note of. Their bright, crystalline shade of blue was unlike most any other race, even for the colors expected of someone of Alfish descent like himself. More unusual, vibrant colors of the hair and eyes were an expectation.

But that particular color? He didn’t even know where it came from aside from possible rumors. Most assumed it had something to do with his attunement to ether, which years of practice had taught him was naturally strong even without the practice.

But there was another theory as to why his eyes shined like that. A theory connected to something far, far older.

“Hah… wonder if running into Syr has anything to do with this… an Alf who wants to dig into the secrets of the Ascians, hm? Maybe fate really does have a way about things.”

Turning the sink off and splashing his face a few times, Soren started about his normal morning routines as he left the washroom. A few sets of pushups, sit ups, and pull ups using the room’s furnishings to help with it.

After that, grabbing a wooden practice sword from beside his set aside equipment and starting basic, repeated swings. He continued with the repetitions until he saw the sun beginning to rise. As it did, while setting the wooden sword aside he threw open the curtains and opened the window.

And the first thing he did was look at the sky. Beginning to be painted from dark blue to amber from the rising sun, Soren’s eyes fell to the stars that still dotted it even with the coming morning. And brighter than those glimmers of light were several more objects.

First were the three discs of silver that hung in the brightening sky, the Triplet Moons, all in their differing phases fitting for the season. One a partial crescent, one full, and the other waning. And closer than even those moons were the gleaming rings of dust and debris from who knows what time that arced across the sky, even more omnipresent than the celestial bodies it reflected the light of.

“And yet…” And then, Soren’s eyes focused on a small yet still visible shape near the rings. It wasn’t like the bodies hanging above their world. More like a blot, a dark spot… something that shifted in and out of view with the clouds passing underneath it. “One of those damned cities, eh? Something’s gotta be in those things. And if not… then why are they still hanging above us?”