Chương 260: (255) 4.34. In the Arms of An… Angel?

When gravity finally equaled out their upward momentum, in that split second where the four of them hung there in the air above the sky, with dozens of icy clouds spread out across the horizon, Vin felt strangely at peace. It was awful that three of his friends would end up perishing alongside him, but at least Alka and Lumel were safe.

As the invisible hand of gravity tugging at their bodies finally started to drag them back down to their deaths, Vin caught the two most wonderful words he'd ever heard in his entire life." Dimensional Lockdown!" Suddenly, they froze. And not in a 'they were so terrified that they couldn't move' sort of way, but in completely literal sense. Vin subconsciously struggled as his entire body felt like it was restrained in an invisible cast of steel.

Other than taking the occasional shallow breath and blinking, he couldn't move so much as a muscle.

"There! They're over there!" Vin happened to be frozen in the perfect position to see one of the larger nearby clouds explode without warning as a good dozen members of a race he'd never seen before shot through it, revealing Lumel at the helm. She was dangling from the leader's talons, desperately pointing and straining as she tried to maintain her spell. According to Common Ally, the winged-people flying right at them were called avisul.

They were a scrawny, remarkably lightweight race that didn't look a thing like what Vin had expected. Rather than being covered in feathers with wings for arms, they were almost more like humanoid bats. They had large, thin membranes connecting their arms down to their sides, which they somehow used to fly, and legs that ended in wicked-looking talons. Their ears were larger and even more pointy than the elves of the Sacred Forest, and they had small mouths filled with needle-like teeth.

Vin took all that in in an instant, practically weeping at the sight of Lumel and the avisul. It looked as if the effort took just about her entire mana pool, but Lumel managed to hold onto the spell for the few seconds it took the rescue squad to reach them. When they suddenly found themselves free once more, they only fell for a fraction of a second before powerful, secure talons wrapped around their wrists and snatched them out of the sky.

"We've got you!" the lead avisul said, its voice shrieky in a way that would have grated on Vin's ears any other day of the week. At the moment, it sounded like the voice of an angel. As they turned and began making their way back toward the distant village, Vin's body was wracked with emotions as it suddenly hit him that they were going to be okay.

He wanted to cry, sleep, scream, and laugh all at the same time, and in the end, his body must have looked like it short circuited for a moment as he attempted to do just that.

"Are you okay!?" Lumel called out to him, her own avisul slowing down slightly to bring them side to side. Relief, concern, and guilt appeared be fighting a three-way war within the pulmon, no doubt tearing her up from the inside from having left them all to their fates, even if it was to go get help.

"I'm sorry! I came as fast as I could, but we couldn't find you! We've been flying around for hours looking!"

"It's okay!" he said, laughing perhaps just a tad too crazily as a few tears slipped from the corner of his eyes.

"We're okay!" Shia, Scule, and Reginald appeared to be in slightly better shape than he was, but that was to be expected. Not only had he drained himself of mana, which was always an incredibly unpleasant experience, they hadn't seen Beyond the Veil like he had. They'd only noticed the massive clump of darkness approaching. Had only been vaguely aware that something was coming for them. They hadn't locked eyes with the enormous monster and felt its hunger.

Curiously, the avisul seemed to have realized something was wrong, as the one dragging Lumel pulled back to the front once more, calling out for the others to increase their speed. Vin spent the rest of the trip laughing and crying, wondering what in the world was stopping the behemoths that lived down below from simply flying up and consuming all of them like the ants that they were. Vaguely, he noticed the village as they approached.

The small, simple buildings appeared to have been somehow crafted out of the same weird-cloud material that they'd been walking on earlier. But seeing as this cloud was supporting an entire village and what looked like at least a few hundred avisul, clearly, something had been done to make it safe to stand on despite the cold. Most of the buildings were more like small tents, but the avisul flew over those, bringing them to the center of the village before gently depositing him onto some sort of large pavilion.

Vin barely even noticed that he'd been separated from his friends until he heard them shouting off in the distance. Before he could question what was going on, a thin curtain of clouds unfurled from the walls of the pavilion like a screen, separating him from the rest of the village. With his mana drained, his prosthetic arm inactive, and his divine boon spent, Vin realized he probably should have been a bit more concerned for his safety than he was.

Yet at that moment, all he could think about were those dull red eyes and the sheer, impossible size of the monsters they'd barely escaped from. He didn't even notice a second avisul was in the pavilion with him and the one who had flown him to the village before two wiry hands latched onto either side of his face and yanked him forward, forcing him to stare into the wizened old face of a man who looked like he had both feet in the grave. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent.

Report sightings.

"You are safe," the stranger wheezed, his voice just as shrieky as the other avisul, but sounding as if every syllable was being forced out with his dying breath.

"The World Eaters will not come up here. You are safe." Slowly, Vin felt his racing heart start to calm down just a hair, and he nodded, desperate to believe the word coming out of this man's mouth.

"Why?" he asked, wanting, no, needing to know the answer.

"Why do they stay down there?"

"We do not know," the elder wheezed, letting go of his face.

"Some say that our ancestors struck a bargain with them countless eons ago. Others say it is because if a single World Eater attempts to leave, the others will attack it from behind and devour it. All we know is that in all our years, not once have we ever witnessed a World Eater leave the darkened depths." Vin was a tad worried that the ancient avisul would simply keel over and die after speaking so many words back to back, yet the man hung onto life with a terrifying fervor.

It was always difficult to judge the age of other species, but Vin would have bet every spell he knew that this man was over a hundred years old. At least.

"Thank you," he finally managed, his thoughts actually starting to clear up a bit as the utter panic he'd felt from locking eyes with that monstrosity began to slowly fade away. It was far from gone, and he was pretty certain he'd have nightmares the rest of his life about the aptly named World Eaters, but at the very least, he was coherent once more.

"Thank you for saving us."

"Of course. Your friend was the first non-avisul guest our village has ever received! When she showed up, startling us and begging us to help rescue you, we had no choice but to do what we could."

"To be honest, most of us assumed you'd already been consumed by the World Eaters," the avisul that had flown him to the village said, looking impressed.

"Your friend remained adamant that you were all still alive, reassuring us that you were a resourceful mage. We combed the skies time and time again hunting for you, even having to come back and swap out groups multiple times as we grew weary. None of us expected her to actually be right. I'm ashamed to admit we were more humoring her than anything, waiting for her to accept you were all gone and start grieving. But sure enough, here you are."

"It was certainly close," Vin said, shuddering one final time at the memory before mentally pushing it aside. The fact that he was still this shaken despite his remarkably high focus scared him almost more than the World Eaters themselves. He had a hunch that if a regular person had made eye contact with one of those monsters, they would have been driven insane in an instant. As if confirming his suspicions, he quickly checked the notifications that he'd been ignoring ever since they'd begun their fall.

Swimming increased to lvl 10! 1, 000 exp gained.

Swimming increased to lvl 14! 1, 400 exp gained. Total Resistance increased to lvl 10! 2, 000 exp gained.

Total Resistance increased to lvl 12! 2, 400 exp gained. That checks out… I think Total Resistance may have literally stopped me from losing my mind.

"Pluck, there is no need to tell the wingless your inner thoughts!" the old avisul said, hobbling over and smacking the younger man with his wing flaps, causing him to shriek and jump away.

"Be more polite to our guests!"

"I'm sorry, grandfather, I was just being honest!" Pluck argued, holding up his hands defensively.

"I just spent the last few hours flying around looking at nothing! I'd say I've been plenty polite already!"

"It's alright! Trust me, we really appreciate everything you've already done," Vin hurriedly nodded, earning a thankful look from the younger avisul.

"I know this probably isn't a concern, but just to ease my own worries… We're not at risk of falling through your cloud, right?" Pluck snorted, before flinching back again as the elder glared at him.

"No, our Cloud Whisperers have reinforced the clouds beneath our feet. You have nothing to fear. Even during the night, when most clouds grow large and weak, our village is still safe to walk upon."

"Thank you, that's a load off my mind," Vin admitted, finally letting himself relax a bit as the realization that they truly were safe began to actually sink in.

"I'm sorry, I was so freaked out I feel as though I didn't make a very good first impression. I'm Vin, a human, and an Explorer. My friends and I try to go around investigating the different fragments on Edregon and seeing what mysteries each one holds."

"That's a dangerous profession if I've ever heard of one," the elder said, pursing his lips.

"I am Telin, the elder of this village. You have already met my great grandson, Pluck, the one who will soon be taking over the village in my stead."

"Grandfather, you've been saying that literally since I was an infant," Pluck said, rolling his eyes.

"At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm going to die of old age before you do."

"Have some respect for your elders!" Telin shrieked, hopping over and batting against his shouting great-grandson once more. Witnessing such a normal, familial act sent a small wave of warmth through Vin's chest, and he couldn't help but laugh as Pluck angrily reminded Telin that he wasn't a child any more. The normality helped calm him down even further, and he took in a slow, deep breath, before letting it out and getting to his feet.

His head was still pounding, even more so than he would have expected from simply being out of mana, but he didn't care. The fact that they were all alive and safe was all that mattered.

"My apologies for the short notice, but is there any chance my friends and I can spend the night? We can travel across the clouds during the day, but as we just discovered for ourselves, nighttime travel is too dangerous."

"Pluck will prepare a tent for you," Telin wheezed, smacking the younger man one last time for good measure. Vin could tell just from watching them that there was about as much force behind Telin's smacks as there was a toddler hitting someone with a sheet of paper, but Pluck seemed to like to pretend as if they were devastating blows to be feared. Grumbling under his breath but unable to fully hide his smile as he glanced at his great-grandfather, Pluck motioned for Vin to follow him.

"This way. Let me show you where we have your friends put up for the night."