Sky Island

Admiral Adams organized his men accordingly; the unawakened men stood in front, their large shields held firmly in front of them. Behind the unawakened tankers, purple headbands could be seen scattered in various positions, circling the behemoth emerald doors.

Yet still, behind the Awakened powerhouses of the militia stood one more group – the unawakened women equipped with bows aimed steadily between the helmets of their teammates; their arrows pointed steadfast at the goblet that kept the doors at bay.

And lastly, even further behind the militia's archers, Admiral Adams stood firm with his arms folded over one another, his gaze strictly placed on his subordinate squirming through the line of shield-men before finally approaching the green doors.

The young man shakily grabbed one of the torches beside the massive doors. He then turned his body towards the golden goblet where he immediately saw a reflection of himself perfectly cast in the golden sheen of the goblet's surface.

The boy suddenly shivered. The man he saw in the reflection did not look like him. His hair was long and knotted, unorganized patches of hair grew across his face, but most distinct of all, his demeanor shocked him.

At first, when he saw himself, he merely thought he looked a bit mad, ticked off so to say, most likely from being voluntold to light the goblet – but upon a more thorough inspection, his reflection suddenly sent shivers down his spine.

He felt dangerous even to himself. Entirely unrecognizable. He didn't know how to describe it perfectly, but he could tell the innocence he once had was gone, stripped and taken from him long ago at this point.

Shaking his head, the boy took a deep breath and dipped the lit torch into the golden goblet. Instantly the goblet roared crimson. Flames exploded towards the ceiling almost completely pulling the militia's attention away from the behemoth doors. Then, a sudden and ear-shattering 'click' sound shook the walls of the cavern and reverberated through the organs of the various men and women within it.

In conjunction with leading precedent, the green doors miraculously parted by themselves revealing an intense sliver of light that cut into the underground hall with haste. The golden light spread throughout the hall as the doors continued to open, but alongside the light, a violent torrent of wind erupted through the tight space.

The barrage of wind slammed into the shields of the men. Their feet slid across the stone floor, pushed back and unable to resist the strength of the incoming winds.

"Hold the line!" Admiral Adams roared above the howling winds, but his voice could barely reach the purple headbands, distorted by the clash of wind against the walls of the hall.

Luckily, the shield-men all dug deep within themselves, grasping and calling upon every available ounce of their might. They grit their teeth and steeled their resolve.

Digging their heels into the stone floor and firmly tightening their grip around their shields, the men advanced towards the still opening doors. It was then that a figure finally erupted from within the irradiant light.

The size of a small car, the creature barely fit between the parting doors and erupted into the air of the great hall. The beast possessed glossy, reptilian skin and various colors painted the scaly creature. Bright green and blue, the creature stretched its wings above the shield-men and took flight.

Widening its maw, the creature released integral screeches into the air. Soon, a wave of similar screeches shook the very air around them as countless other pterodactyl-like monsters tore into the hall's limited space.

Utterly shocked and unprepared for creatures of such magnitude, especially airborne ones, the scattered members of the militia stood in awe of their adversary, both unsure of what to do and unable to imagine a saving grace for themselves.

"Shields! Retreat! I want three shields on every member! Archers take aim!" Then the Admirals' voice broke his men out of their stupor, "Fire!"

A volley of arrows flurried across the open air. Thankfully, the violent gust of winds appeared to be a momentary phenomena. Perhaps due to some change in air pressure between the hall and area located beyond the doors.

The arrows quickly slammed into the glistening bodies of the winged reptiles and a resounding cry naturally followed suit. The pterodactyls suddenly shot up towards the ceiling, flying as high as they could go.

Then, as if it were a dance, they simultaneously spun in the air and dove down. Now plummeting towards the ground, the pterodactyls extended their claws and stretched their maws, greedily anticipating the succulent taste of warm blood against their pallets.

Before they could sink their claws into the flesh of their prey, however, one of the men with purple headbands shouted above the chaos that was about to ensue. With hands filled with some sort of glowing sand, the Awakened crazily tossed the shining sand all around the great hall.

The glowing sand danced along the minor winds that still passed through the hall and scattered across the life forms within it, man and beast alike. As the sand landed on various people, it's brilliant sheen momentarily faded and transferred to the body of the person instead. Now, the small militia themselves glowed golden!

And as the glow miraculously grew brighter across the bodies of various people, the purple headband wearing Awakened shouted above the chaos once more, "Jump!"

In immediate response to his command, all members of the militia, Adams included, bent their legs and leaped into the air. Their figures soared high above the hall, completely evading the plummeting monsters.

The militia soon reached the ceiling and spun their bodies around, placing their feet upon the ceiling as if it were the ground that once stood beneath them. Immediately, the archers prepared another volley of arrows and released them into the hall.

The arrows tore through the breeze and crashed into the scaly skin that adorned the winged reptilians. Blue blood painted the walls of the hall and dripped onto the floor like rain as the creatures continued to struggle in the air.

The winged beasts screamed once more and took flight towards the inverted militia who still glowed and stood amongst the hall's ceiling. While they advanced, the glowing that encapsulated the militia rapidly dimmed and soon they began to fall back to earth, plummeting much like their adversaries had moments ago!

As the shield-men carried more weight, they plummeted first. They maneuvered their shields beneath them and rode them like sleds! Unintelligent and ferocious, the winged creatures aggressively charged towards the barreling shield-men.

Stretching their maws, the monsters attempted to swallow the falling men whole! But due to the height of their fall and the rapid ascent on behalf of the vibrant creatures, when the shields and beasts collided, the monster's razor sharp teeth instantly shattered.

The shield-men, plummeting to earth like a failed rocket, obliterated the approaching monsters and tore through their jaws and gums. Impacting the ground, the beast's corpses nearly exploded underneath the pressure. Blue blood and guts now scattered across the hall's floor, depicting a truly unruly and voracious means of annihilation.

Landing delicately on the ground, the glow empowering the militia diminished and the Awakened who conjured the mythical dust collapsed to the ground; sweat dripped from his body as he gripped his chest in agony. Heavy breaths assaulted the young man while he dealt with the repercussions of mana exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Admiral Adams smirked as a barrage of messages assaulted his senses – messages from the Status, of course.

"Banshees. . ." The Admiral muttered aloud.

Delegating the members of his militia to their posts, the Admiral approached the now fully open doors. Unlike before, where countless corpses marred the gates to the Land of Frost, the Admiral walked straight towards the emerald gates with no obstruction.

Reaching their embrace and peering through, all the Admiral could see was the sky.

Clouds of miraculous colors painted the horizon. Pastel blues, yellows, purples, and oranges filled the air. In the distance, a radiant sun dipped beneath the skyline. Looking around, the Admiral finally noticed a spire of rock floating above him.

To his right too, an island of magnificent proportion glided through the sky. Alongside it, a waterfall poured over its edge – falling endlessly into the mirage of clouds that seemed to carpet this world.

On that island to his right, the Admiral also noticed an amalgamation of sticks and twigs carefully sorted around multiple cherry-red spheres. The island was no larger than a football stadium, so relatively small, and appeared with similar properties to that of a glacier. Meaning, the island's shape pointed down as if it were dipped into molten stone and left out to dry.

This particular island, though, possessed an abundant amount of flora. Hundreds of alien plants and flowers scattered across the island's surface. The alien plants, although various in color, primarily appeared turquoise with accents of neon orange. Also, the blue-green island neither flew nearer nor further from the emerald gates the Admiral stood between even though he could clearly see that the island wasn't tethered to anything.

"Leon!" The Admiral shouted back into the hall.

Picking himself up off the floor, the mana depleted and dead-tired young adult responded to his commander's summons and rushed to the Admiral's side.

"Yes sir!" He strained through bated breaths.

"How long until you have enough mana to take a small squadron to the island over there?" The Admiral posed his question while pointing towards the luscious island to his right.

Two hours later. . .

Leon dipped his hands into his pockets. While squeezing his palms, the mythical golden sand appeared between his fingertips – it was an odd rule, to say the least; Leon's Ability |Fairy Dust| possessed a stipulation that required him to literally pull the |Fairy Dust| from a container of somesort: he could not just summon it willy-nilly.

With the sand in his hand regardless, Leon tossed the mythical substance into the air and allowed it to coat himself and his four compadres. Waiting patiently for the magical glow to shift from the dust to the person, Leon extended his arm into the open sky revealed before him.

Feeling the wind move, he waited for an opening.

Catching a good breeze, Leon naturally stepped off the edge of the emerald gates and plummeted off the side into the endless sky below. Moments later, however, and with bated breaths, his four temporary exploration members watched as Leon steadily fluttered through the sky. Riding the wind like a skateboard, he descended towards the island and very quickly stepped onto its surface.

With a wide grin plastered across his face, Leon turned back and looked up. Suddenly able to see the gates from an outside perspective, Leon noticed that the emerald gates stood atop a spire of crystal.

A transparent and blue crystal tore through the clouds beneath and exploded into the sky. Placed haphazardly at its peak, the emerald gates overlooked the world.

Thankfully, while inspecting the gate's situation, Leon's four teammates managed to pull enough confidence together to freefall into the open winds.

Luckily, and with a little manipulation on Leon's part, the four safely stepped onto the floating island beside him.

Hours passed on the island's surface.

First, Leon spread his |Fairy Dust| across the red eggs left behind by the Banshees. As their glow eventually burned radiant, Leon carefully tossed the eggs back up towards the emerald gates where the Admiral stood, ready to intercept the levitating spheres.

Once that was finished, Leon and his team simply explored the island. They scouted its perimeter taking note of any waterfalls that soared off the edge or any foliage that straddled the island's side.

Then, they slowly advanced inwards. And after hours of searching, the single nest of Banshees ended up being the only dangerous species inhabiting the island. In addition to the Banshees, however, the makeshift cohort also discovered luminescent frogs in many of the ponds and found lizards with wings gliding between the dense population of trees that crowded around.

After finding various other reptiles, Leon also discovered mint green snails and purple ants that burrowed not into the ground, but into the many clusters of pink mushrooms that grew along the bark of the island's trees.

Slaying one of each, Leon expertly ran his dagger's blade across the throats of the many lifeforms that lived on the island. It was their cohort's primary objective to determine which species were natural wildlife and which were monsters – a distinction thankfully made on the Status's behalf.

Collecting the corpses of every slain creature, the cohort returned to the edge of the island and graciously awaited their |Fairy Dust| shower. Floating into the grand hall and through the emerald gates, the militia packed their bags and prepared to leave.

All in a day's work, as they say.

(Also shoutout romance_guy for the power stone)