Chương 110: The City Beyond the Clouds

The island had drifted close enough that even an ordinary person could have made the jump, though it never actually touched the one Lloyd was standing on — between the two hovering slabs of rock, a narrow, dark chasm still gaped, plunging down into an impenetrable void, from which a faint, muffled rumble drifted up now and then, as though something vast and ancient stirred somewhere far below.

He got to his feet, brushed the loose grit from his hands, feeling the wind at the island's very edge tugging at his hair and trying to worm its way under his hoodie's collar, and, after a short running start, leapt across to the neighboring island, landing on all fours on a soft, moss-covered surface. A chronometer instantly rematerialized in his free hand, woven out of those familiar white sparks, and Lloyd brought it closer to his face, peering at the glowing dial.

"Three hours. That'll do." A few minutes later, the island he now stood on began spinning rapidly in place, and the entire space around it dissolved at once into a solid, blurred haze of swirling gray, rushing past at tremendous speed — no stars, no sky discernible above him at all, just an endless, murky vortex enveloping the island on every side.

Lloyd himself, standing right on the island's surface, felt nothing but a faint, barely noticeable breeze, as though all that frantic speed existed somewhere entirely separate, never touching whoever stood within it. He'd long since grown used to this strange property of the floating islands, and simply watched the blurred, streaking haze along their edge with calm indifference, standing upright, hands tucked into his pockets.

About an hour later, the island came to a stop again, going still as abruptly as it had started spinning, and Lloyd moved on to the next one, checking the chronometer once more.

"Two days. Well, shame I won't get any use out of that much time." And so Lloyd kept moving, hopping from one island to the next, each time taking in some new, alien landscape unfolding before him — here the surface was strewn with crystalline formations glinting faintly in the gloom, chiming softly, almost musically, with every step he took; there, deep, smoking fissures gaped open instead, exhaling an acrid, sulfurous stench that made him wrinkle his nose and cover it with his sleeve.

Bit by bit he was descending, drawing closer to something below that vaguely suggested inhabited, lit-up ground, checking the chronometer every so often and carefully steering clear of monstrous shapes that occasionally flickered through the gray murk between islands — massive, lumbering creatures whose outlines he preferred not to study too closely, quickening his pace whenever a particularly loud, guttural roar sounded off somewhere nearby.

At last, the final island he found himself on began gradually slowing and finally came to rest directly across from a very different island altogether — this one stood apart from all the rest.

It didn't move at all, simply hanging motionless in the air, as though held fast by some unseen hand, and its surface was dotted with the clear glow of house lights and unfamiliar machinery, spreading a steady, warm light across the whole expanse of the island, unmistakably signaling that the place teemed with life, unlike all the desolate, wild islands he'd left behind. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Lloyd crossed over onto it, feeling solid, stable ground beneath his feet at last instead of the shifting, trembling stone of the floating islands, and let out a breath of relief, allowing his shoulders to loosen slightly. He set off down a narrow, winding path paved with uneven cobblestones, along which the occasional leaning post held up a dimly burning lantern.

After a while, he arrived at a massive gate, flanked by equally massive, dully gleaming metal walls stretching off in both directions as far as the eye could see, vanishing somewhere into the evening haze. Two guards stood at the gate, clad in blue armor that was, oddly enough, remarkably plain and lightweight, barely restricting their movement at all.

They held long spears, and on each of their foreheads — strange as it might sound — burned a small red light, pulsing steadily in time with something entirely beyond Lloyd's understanding. Lloyd approached a little too closely, and the guards immediately, without a word passing between them, crossed their spears in front of him, blocking his path forward, making it unmistakably clear that no one was getting through without proper cause.

With a heavy sigh, he summoned that same relic resembling a Player's License — a small white card, instantly woven together out of familiar sparks right in his palm. On it, in neat, almost engraved lettering, was written Lloyd's true name, his level, his class, and other assorted details about him.

"After all this time, could they really not have just learned my face by now?" The guards studied the license carefully, unhurriedly, exchanging a brief, unreadable glance between themselves, then silently lowered their spears, giving a short nod to signal that the way was clear. And with that, Lloyd finally entered the city. He walked along bustling, noisy streets, surrounded on all sides by a mismatched jumble of stone and wooden houses crowded close together along narrow, cobbled alleys.

Here and there stood small shops and stalls selling all manner of food — from meat skewers smoking over open flames, their smell immediately reminding Lloyd just how hungry he was, to unfamiliar, brightly colored fruits stacked into neat little pyramids — and occasionally something far more intriguing, glinting with a strange, otherworldly light behind cloudy shop windows.

In this place, Lloyd couldn't shake a strange, almost dizzying sense that he'd been thrown back a couple of centuries, into some long-forgotten era — and yet, at the same time, countless details kept flickering past that made it unmistakably clear this world was far stranger, and far more advanced, than it first appeared.

After a while he came upon a building that rose a good couple of stories above everything around it, its walls noticeably more fortified than those of the neighboring houses — massive stone blocks etched with runes, bound together by something distantly resembling cracked, hardened metal.

In front of the building stood a crowd of creatures from every imaginable race — among them ordinary humans, as well as beings Lloyd had never laid eyes on before: some with scaled, metallic-sheened skin, others with disproportionately long, spindly limbs, and still others that looked less like living beings and more like dense, swirling clouds of mist, only vaguely suggesting a human shape.

He tilted his head back to take in the whole structure, his eyes tracing every jutting ledge, every carved column rising high above him, and murmured quietly under his breath, feeling a strange, mixed feeling stir somewhere in his chest — exhaustion, curiosity, and a faint, barely-there flicker of anticipation. — And there it is. My guild...