Chapter 163: A New Quest – Part 3

Chapter 163: A New Quest – Part 3

Our large party crosses through the white veil of the [Eternal Gate], and the fresh air of the High Forest suddenly becomes more humid as we enter Mac Gantus. The guards tense up at the number of heavily armored soldiers that appears before them, and then they become rather meek once they realize that half of our number are Punishers.

It takes a while to write everyone's names in the log, but we're soon allowed to leave, and, once again, we have the opportunity to marvel at the humongous size of the Throne of Ascension.

But first, I pull out the golems, followed by our personal airship, which occupies the whole main street for a short moment before the golems turn it on and have it fly up a few meters. Then they drop a rope ladder for the [Fly] or [Telekinesis]-challenged to use to embark.

We do attract a lot of attention with our little stunt, but nobody is inconvenienced enough to complain. We also make our way to the gate before we fly upwards just so that customs doesn't have any reason to give chase and bother us.

The airship is a bit crowded, with both Punishers and Companions occupying most of the deck, but this should only take an afternoon, I believe, so we'll be fine. The closest Sky Land can be reached in half an hour, but the Carrier is in Kini Kaina, the Chimera capital, which is a few hours to the south.

But what's curious is how little compatibility there is between the two types of soldiers we're transporting. The Punishers are overwhelmingly male and quite rugged (for elves), while the Companions are all female and have an instinctive aversion to the Punishers, both because they don't want to look disloyal to me and also because they prefer my youthful and gentle but mildly wild looks.

"You're cute," Hana bluntly attempts to correct my inner monologue with a rather erroneous adjective.

"You're cute/gih," female voices and chirp echo in my soul space in unison, but I simply ignore them all.

Urmeie also brought four of her bodyguards, but they count as Punishers, considering how stern and stoic they are. Maybe it's just because they're on duty, but they certainly don't contribute to lightening the mood.

Once we're out of the sprawling city, we turn the ship south and then finally start to ascend at full speed, even using the flapping of the wings to speed it up. I also summon eight wind-Alissas to help reduce the drag on the ship, and we get a noticeable speed boost.

Alcander, Kaatohe, and Caterina rest with us in the private tent behind the bridge as we casually chat, and the imperial man struggles to keep his eyes away from the delicious bronze body of my naked cat. Kaatohe definitely doesn't make it easy by taking a "paint me like one of your french girls" pose on the cushions and alluringly tracing her hand over her erogenous zones, threatening to touch herself to stave off boredom.

"We should watch the city as it slowly disappears below us," Ciel takes pity on him and makes a suggestion to distract from the delicious piece of meat.

"Yes, we should..." Caterina rather absentmindedly remarks as she, too, was starting to get distracted.

Kaatohe shoots a subtle glare at the chocolate angel for ruining her fun, but she still joins us on the deck.

It's a soothing sight, and we all stay silent for a while just to savor it better. The sprawling, red, orange, and yellow city gradually becomes smaller and smaller in our sight while the sea very slowly grows in our view as we continue south. The only constant is the Throne of Ascension, too massive to shrink fast enough to be noticeable, but it will, eventually, disappear from our sight.

There are a few airships taking a route similar to ours, coming and going from the nearest Sky Land, and some of them have a curious design. They look like huge kites, very flat and wide, but also very flimsy-looking, with a single, short sail which the air is magically blown into for propulsion.

I think those are light Chimera airships, the equivalent of sailboats for the average merchant due to how simple they are. The "cabin" is basically the same size as a wagon's, while the kite part is made of canvas and many times wider. They're very colorful and pretty, though, as the Chimeras consider color and variety to be symbols of wealth.

"Do you recognize these airships?" I question Kaatohe and point to a kite.

She observes the closest kite for a short moment, then scholarly remarks, "Yes. The Glider-class transport ships are at the bottom in terms of cost, so it isn't a surprise that we'd find them here. Notice how there's little traffic and no other airships similar to ours? This is evidence of how little these 'Sky Lands' have developed." And her cat lips warp in a frown of disappointment.

"Well... remember that we do need their goodwill," I softly remind her of our purpose here. Kaatohe is between Sa'Haa and Yunia in haughtiness, but I know she values pragmatism over reverence.

And she answers positively, "I know; I can hold back my disdain just fine. I'm just disappointed that there's no sign of my great nation ever recovering, even after so long."

Indeed, there's a whole territory big enough to hold an empire just waiting to be conquered again, making me wonder why the Avgi Empire doesn't try to clear it. If I had to guess, it's probably because their airships aren't good enough for it.

But the spirit Chimeras and my airplanes are likely to cause a revolution in airship technology, so I wonder if I'd be able to conquer the Broken Skies for myself...?

While I drown in boyish fantasies, Alissa becomes curious about something else. "Don't you pilot a small airplane like those Gliders?" she tentatively questions.

Kaatohe's answer is sharp and immediate, "Wasp-class airplanes are different from Glider-class airships. One is peak performance, and the other is minimum cost."

"More like peak efficiency," I hum with a smirk, earning an annoyed glance from my naked cat.

Then we fall silent again and continue to enjoy the view. While there's little air traffic, there's actually quite a lot of movement down below, in the Bay of Three Kings. Observing all the different sail ships coming and going, some with impressive speed, is also quite entertaining, so I let my overactive mind wander as I sink into light meditation.

The tense mood between the Companions and Punishers relaxes a bit with Ciel's help. She's the perfect mediator between the two strongly averse groups, and she isn't even doing it on purpose; she's just become an expert at soothing people.

"I've heard that storms in the Broken Skies could topple castles and fling whole islands against each other," one of the Companions speaks out loud, her tone more dreamy than frightened.

And our angel soothingly replies, "They can certainly do that, but to fall into one would be like accidentally stumbling upon a mountain. You can see them coming from so far away that they're easy to avoid."

Then a Punisher curiously chimes in, "But what about the monsters over there? Without anyone clearing the land-... skies, Aberrants can become humongous."

"'The Destroyer' is with us! There's nothing she can't deal with!" a thirsty Companion cheerfully declares and glances at her succubus Queen. Hana takes note of this one's face for the future when she's in the mood for pussy.

But Caterina states matter-of-factly, "We're here as ground support for the Royals, but in anything related to flight, we'll be of little help."

So Ciel expertly soothes them again, "That's fine. One of the dangers of flying in the Broken Skies is being overwhelmed by hordes of flying monsters, so the Punishers will also have their role in this expedition."

"That sounds fun!" Urmeie cheekily shouts with a toothy grin.

Now it's Yunia's turn to temper expectations. "Not really; it's a messy fight. Small groups could be interesting to fight, but swarms are simply too chaotic."

"Sounds like a bloodbath, which is my specialty," the big mama bear brags and glances at her bodyguards, who nod back in support. They even straighten their backs, seemingly proud of being able to follow the Princess into the fray.

"Well, we're not exactly fond of fighting, so we certainly wouldn't stop you if you want to face a horde by yourself," Ciel remarks with a rather wry smile.

"That's why I'm here," Urmeie chuckles and grunts.

Then she starts to boastfully recount her previous adventures. She isn't a mystery solver like I am, so her stories are mostly about her wandering into a group of monsters and killing them in surprisingly novel and inventive ways.

If she has a talent, then it's certainly for killing things.

The storytelling continues for a while, and we eventually pass the clouds as a blue haze starts to slowly cover our view of the ground. Then everyone immediately falls silent when a glowing green light suddenly appears in the distance, far ahead of us. That's the first Sky Land, a trading post between the Empire and the Chimeras.

We're finally within the first cloaking enchantment that hides the Sky Lands from the rest of the world. And now that we're inside it, we see an increase in the number of airships, with nearly all of them being of the Glider-class, but in different sizes. Curiously, there's one imperial battle airship docked on the floating island ahead of us, but we have no idea how significant that might be.

As we approach the green glow of the huge gem under the island, we start to make out the details of the trading post. It's a little settlement occupied mostly by tall warehouses, while the rest is divided between marketplaces and inns. The architecture is peculiar, though, as everything is made of wood and has a rounded or spherical shape, seemingly to resist strong winds. But in true Chimera fashion, the trading post is fucking colorful.

And so, our airship quickly passes by floating islands of increasing size. The huge gems under them that keep them afloat all glow brightly with green light, acting like beacons that guide us further into the Chimera aerial territory.

The conversation eventually turns to Chimera culture as we sight curious farms and forests. Space and resources are extremely limited in both the Sky Lands and the Broken Skies, so the Chimeras have used [Alteration Magic] to turn everything that grows into something useful, which has resulted in all the plants gaining rather curious or even alien-like shapes.

I still remember the time when we were served bark that tastes like pineapple back in Whakamutu, so once my lust is satisfied, I start to dream about the new foods we'll get to taste.

The air gradually becomes even more chilly, and the world below us disappears in a blue haze that then becomes dark orange as the sun begins to set. But we continue to follow the string of green lights until, suddenly, the sky ahead is lit up with innumerable lights, but less than half of them have the green tint of the gems that keep the islands in the sky.

We've finally reached Kini Kaina, a huge conglomerate of floating islands that have completely abandoned the neat grids of previous settlements. Thankfully, the Carrier is big enough that we can easily spot it, docked in a very prominent location and lit up by a number of spotlights.

The Chimeras of the Sky Lands have been very welcoming of their lost ancient brethren, so we're very optimistic about the upcoming negotiations. But we certainly don't expect that they'll give us anything for free.

Announcement

Hall of Fame of Patrons

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

Prince PreownedFIN.

Prince Owldente.

Prince Definitely not Dio.

Lord Andrew Meyers.

Lord Michale Erwin.

Lord Bakerdea.

Lord Maurice.

Lord Mattirro Draca.

Lord Tenebris Lupus.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Tmac.

Lord CopeyDunt.

Lord BlindTactic.

Lord litalmexy.

Lord Philip.

Lord d3235.

Lord William Clark.

Lord SubJef.

Lord GalacticTNT.

Lord Placid.

Lord LiuAnshan.

Lord Black Unicorn.

Lord Brandon.

Lord Duncan Campbel.

Lord Empyrean.

Lord Badger.

Lord School Work.

Lord Patrick_starz.

Noble Salty Panda.

Noble Mild Fracas.

Noble Aclys.

Noble Carl Baxter.

Noble Tony Starrk.

Noble DND.

Noble Tony Starrk.

Noble Anon A Moose.