Chapter 282 Stones Over An Immaterial Lake

As the dragon took flight, Luke didn't know where he was going, but he definitely felt that finding this Lord named Brako was better than not finding him. Luke also couldn't tell for sure if Ogen, the Black Scaled Dragon he was riding, was on his side or the Melki Empire's, however, he certainly sensed the animosity that existed between Wanney and Ogen.

As they flew away, Luke was not shy and soon asked, "Ogen, are you, or rather your Lord, part of the Melki Empire?!"

"You spoke to me, warrior!? It's hard to listen at that speed!" The dragon replied, flapping its wings with intensity and dodging the larger clouds.

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"I asked if your Lord serves the Emperor of Melki!" Luke shouted even louder so that Ogen could hear him.

"Oh, but of course not! A Lord serves no one!" Between a weaker flap of wings, Ogen retorted.

Luke couldn't determine whether the dragon lied or not, because Ogen's heart already had a strange rhythm from the first moment the half-wolf met him. Maybe that meant he was an experienced liar, or maybe it didn't mean anything at all.

Either way, Luke was betting a lot of things at this moment. He could be going to the demons' lair and not even be able to know it.

However, something inside the half-wolf told her from the first moment of conversation to try to trust the half-dragon, and that was what she was doing. Don't get it wrong, the half-wolf wasn't believing that everything Ogen said was true, he was just trusting his instincts that Ogen was not his enemy, and it was his instincts that had gotten him to where he was, so he was somewhat reassured.

The moment after the Dragon slowed down to answer Luke, he flapped his wings once again with great force and in a single second overtook a thick layer of clouds that was above them. Then Wanney, Meredith and Luke got their first glimpse of a panoramic view of one of the most beautiful places in the world.

As if the sky were a lake, and the clouds a shallow mist, rocks as large as islands floated naturally above the clouds, moving only slightly with the strong wind, from side to side. Under many of these earthen stones green vines drifted for dozens of meters until they became weak and brittle in the wind.

Between many of these islands there were chains that held them to each other. On the islands there were forests, waterfalls, and on the island that was in the center and the largest of all the islands, there was also a small town with a few dozen brick buildings.

Although a little away from the town, they saw people walking, growing food, and even children playing, all with horns like Alexis' on their skulls on this larger island.

Meredith blinked her eyes a few times, scratched them hard, and still refused to believe that what she was seeing was real. How could such large islands float above the clouds?

How could this be possible? Her sense of normalcy was totally shattered by these questions.

The people walking on the islands saw Ogen approaching and started waving happily at him, after all, he was one of the Three Great Dragons.

"This place is beautiful, don't you think?" The dragon asked the people mounted on his back. "Well, it's one of the few beautiful places left in this nation, one of the few places that Corruption hasn't reached yet."

"Corruption!?" Luke and Meredith literally asked at the same time.

"Oh, you guys don't know that yet? That is certainly unusual, but my Lord will know how best to explain to you what Corruption is."

The dragon resisted its urge to greet people as it passed above the city, flapped its wings and flew even faster to a part of this larger one where the city was already becoming distant. In the middle of a vast grove of green trees, there was a large building with a circular roof on which there was a dome.

Luke was as speechless as Wanney and Meredith, who just could not believe what was before their eyes from the first moment they saw the floating islands. That feeling of fright and daze only went away when Ogen landed in front of the construction of that grove.

When they stepped onto the land of the island, the feeling was exactly the same as any other footstep, but the treetops shook more than usual and you could feel the island swaying in the wind, making it impossible to forget that they were many hundreds of feet above any firm ground.

Wanney stepped onto the grass with both feet, arched his eyebrows and then jumped as high as he could, but as he landed he realized that this could not be an illusion, there was no way it could be. "So, it's real, the old tales about flying Islands are real!" He exclaimed, knelt on the ground and squeezed the grass that remained between the fingers of his hands.

"Hey, inset-I mean warriors, make your friend shut up, please. We are in sacred territory." Ogen asked, striving to be as polite as he could and crossing his muscular arms.

"Friend? We don't even know this guy." Luke stated with a simplistic expression.

"Oh, you guys aren't? Then can I throw him over the edge of the Island?" The half-dragon grabbed Wanney by the back of his collar and lifted him up with ease, after all Wanney was not a very tall man, and Ogen was taller than the vast majority of normal men, even at his advanced age.

"No problem." Meredith threw her arms to the side.

Luke crossed his arms and agreed with a nod.

Wanney's use was to guide them and also provide some information about places in the Melki Empire, however, Wanney became just a hindrance from the moment they met Ogen.

"No, no! I can still help you! I know better than anyone about Melki!" Wanney wiggled like a child to try to escape the dragon's grasp.

Ogen let go of the man with scales on his skin after watching him struggle, and Wanney fell flat on his chest on the ground, somewhat relieved.

"Are you guys going to want this little bug's help?" The half-dragon asked, looking at Wanney with much disgust.

Meredith and Luke exchanged glances at that moment, and came to the same conclusion without exchanging even a word.

Luke stewed his chest and decided, "Before we make any decisions, I should meet your Lord, no?"

The old dragon didn't disagree with that, he smiled and asked the trio to accompany him, and that's exactly what they did. So, they walked for a few meters until they finally came upon the entrance of the building they saw from above.

This building was, in a way, simple. The thin stone beams supporting the second floor of the building, which followed an architecturally open concept, were numerous and from the entrance seemed to form a path, which they followed as Ogen guided them inside the second floor.

After entering the main part of the building, where there were older looking walls, it only took one look upwards for everyone to see rock drawings in orange stones on the ceiling that were as old looking as the bases of the lines themselves.

People more avid about history, like Meredith, would be fascinated for the rest of their lives if they had at least a few minutes inside this building. The half-fox, although she didn't have much time, was the only one of the three visitors to the flying islands to realize that that building was not some kind of weird temple, but rather a construction whose purpose was to try to preserve and keep standing the stories written on the walls of that small old building in the core of the newer construction. She noticed this because she connected the cave drawings, the ancient facet of the construction and the huge amount of beams.

When they finally came across the end of the beams, they were already facing a large hall with lots of entrance to the sun through large windows and many different plants, a real garden.

"?? Oh, the shuddering of the roots that brought me here, but I don't feel like I got there yet, if I go back now, is anyone still waiting for meee? ??" A man with a harmonious voice sang while watering a strange plant with pink flowers and white leaves.

"Khum!" Ogen cleared his throat to show he was present, because the man didn't seem to notice the sounds of footsteps. "Lord Brako, I have brought visitors whom I thought it necessary for you to meet." He knelt down and spoke.

At that moment, Brako turned calmly to look at his faithful half-dragon companion and saw three totally strange people. The first thing he noticed were the particularities of each one.

The woman with the large bust, thick clothes, orange ears, and bulky tail was certainly a half-dragon.

The man with black hair, slightly pointed wolf-like ears and eyes so yellow that not even the most sunflower could match was also a half-beast, by his judgment certainly a half-wolf.

Finally, the white-haired man was the person who created the most fear in the lord's heart. The scales that emerged at some points on his skin were certainly not recognizable traits of any half-beast race.

"You have brought a Corrupted One into our home, Ogne. You know that don't you?" Brako spoke to the old half-dragon, who was standing with his head down and knees on the ground a few feet away.

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