Chapter 18 Beyond the Horizon Part 2
A ray of light coming from the dying ember of the bonfire pierced through the falling leaves and landed on Kael, stirring him awake from a deep slumber of peace.
Crackle… pop…
The warm sunlight of the morning brushed across his face as he stared at the dwindling flames. As the last embers of the bonfire faded, shhhhhh… Kael stood and began to stretch, letting the last remnants of sleep and sluggishness melt away from his body.
Rustle…
As his gaze shifted from sluggishness to eyes which was like an abyss, as he was gazing on his body to clean his mantle his eye fell on his hand where a serpent-like ring was resting, which was an obsidian-dark and glinting in the morning sunlight. The delicate coils of the ring shimmered where the sunlight touched them, like the scales of a living snake.
He stared at it for a moment before murmuring softly to himself, "Time to leave…."
Instead of manifesting his Gravewings, he lowered himself into a cross-legged position on the grass. Shff
Reaching into the storage vault within the serpent ring, hum… he retrieved the remnants of a land serpent. With tender hands, he began preparing his meal—lightly seasoning the meat with plant roots and other mashed herbs. Clink… mash…
With deep care, he cooked and ate his modest serpent tail for breakfast.
Crackle… hiss… sizzle…
Once finished, he stood, brushing dust from his coat. Fffft…
With a thought, he manifested his Gravewings, which bloomed on his back.
Fwhooom!
With those enormous black wings unfurled behind him, he rose into the sky, the forest shrinking beneath him as he ascended into the shining sky.
Whoooosh…
---
In the real world, a colossal, obsidian-black mothership hovered over the dark sky of the dim night. Inside that mothership, the atmosphere was cloaked in eerie stillness, filled with silence.
Hum… hum…
Blue energy veins pulsed across the interior, casting an ethereal glow on the polished walls. Golden engravings with royal insignias were etched with reverence, lining every surface—symbols of legacy and power forged through centuries.
The main hall of the mothership was vast and circular. In the center of the main hall was a small platform where many operators worked. Tap-tap-tap… beep…
The outer circular wall was filled with rows of identical seats arranged in a circular pattern, all equal in size and perfectly aligned. In these seats, all six Cloudpiercer knights and four Silent Gale were seated; a majestic throne hovered in the air.
The throne doesn't have any murals or gems. It was plain and Pitch black in colour, This was no ordinary seat as it looked ordinary. This seat was of the House Head, or the Commander-in-Charge of a mission. In short a seat for a person who possessed the highest authority.
And right now this throne was occupied.
By none other than
The Lady Elena Darksky,
The Matriarch of the Great House of Darksky.
She was still wearing her veil and dark cloak. Due to her tight black mask, her face was still hidden beneath—no eyes, no lips, no features visible.
Upon that throne, a hologram was floating.
Fzzzmm…
It was the Emblem of the Great House of Darksky, etched and glowing with a soft black-red light. It was a three-eyed dark raven with golden eyes which was hovering in the sky.
Similarly, holograms floated above the seated Cloudpiercer knights and Silent Gale.
Above the Cloudpiercer knights was a lone knight falling from the sky like a divine punishment, wielding a blood-red sword and clad in armor. This was the emblem of the Great House of Fallen. Above the Silent Gales floated a pitch-black hologram with countless daggers and slashes like a mark of a claw; this was the emblem of the Great House of Gale.
Wrrrmmm…
On the wall of the hall where manny murals but there was one thing which take the most attention which was the creed divine house of Strom Master of all House in sector 4:
[ Strike louder than thunder. Move quieter than death. ]
This was the unbreakable creed of the divine house of storm—where the wind carried steel, and silence was the deadliest storm.
A knight who was seated clad in an obsidian black armour suddenly touched his helmet's right side click and stood up and walked towards the hovering throne. Thump… thump…
And then he positioned himself towards the right side of the hovering throne and then the platform on which he was standing started to float, lifting him upward.
Vmmmmm…
He reached near the Matriarch and knelt. Clang…
And whispered in the ears of the lady, "Lady Elena," his voice firm and respectful, "we have gained official landing clearance from Sector 4 outer Sanctum awakening center — In less than ten seconds, we'll be landed and the young Master has not come out of the trial. We have to wait till you must came out of the trial."
"Surround the Awakening Centre. Not even a bird is allowed to fly through it," she ordered.
"This mission is for the safety of the Young Master. No errors."
As she said, a sound came out of the landing.
THOOOOOM…
But the hall was still filled with eerie stillness as the mothership landed.
All the knights and the Silent Gales stood up clink… clink… and walked towards the exit of the hall and the exit of the mothership. As they were heading towards that path, the hovering throne started to come down with the knight beside it.
Whirrrr…
---
While this mothership was landing in the trial world—
Kael's situation had become dire. Sweat was pouring down from his face, soaking through his mantle as the relentless heat of this dam forsaken world pushed him to the brink. His entire body felt as if water was being drained from him and drowned in water, but it wasn't water—it was his own sweat. It was like a sign that his body was failing to cope with the suffocating heat.
Drip… drip… drip…
As he was dwindling in the sky and slowly falling to the land, after a few seconds, Kaelvren muttered, "I can't go any further," his voice strained, before he collapsed onto the ground.
"I need to rest... Dam you filthy sun."
Thud.
With those words, he fell to the ground, but he didn't get injured because the distance between him and the ground was nearly one meter, so he didn't get hurt; but still, he fell from the sky.