The Shattered World (2)
Aavern let out a long breath. The tearing sound had resounded through the void several times now. Each time, Aavern had picked another direction and just flew. He was getting frustrated, but his resolve would not break. He wanted to get out of here.
"I went that direction, I think, so I'm going this direction instead."
Aavern silently thanked the trial for not consuming any of his physical stamina as he floated off into oblivion once more.
"I wonder how much time has passed."
Aavern began to talk to himself as the darkness closed in.
"Will I get out at the same time as I entered, or will it be days and days?"
He continued floating through the void, gazing in no particular direction.
"Will I be able to get the others to help Dracoa in time?"
His eyes began to play tricks on him. The darkness began to turn into the night sky, flickering with a single star off in the far distance.
"Or will the shadow have won by the time I get out?"
Aavern shook his head. Now wasn't the time for such thoughts. He needed to focus.
The star was still there.
"Wait, what?"
The endless void, in which darkness was complete, had a star.
Aavern blinked several times. The star remained.
He frowned and changed his direction, moving towards the star instead.
As he approached, the star came into view. It wasn't a star.
It was a rock.
One just like the one at the center of the toroid.
Aavern's eyes widened as he approached. What he thought was the light from a star were actually the glowing runes covering the rock, glowing with a gentle blue in the darkness.
"Interesting. I wonder what this thing does."
Aavern looked around the darkness, hoping to find another rock.
"Maybe there's more like this."
Aavern looked back at the toroid and squinted. Far off in the distance, on the exact opposite side of the toroid, wasn't that another tiny star?
Aavern's face slowly broke into a smile as he rushed towards that other star.
-
Another island was floating into view. One with Ysk Mountain on top, tilting at a strange angle.
"Here we go, right back where we started," Qassot said.
They bridged the gap without much difficulty.
"I have a question." Cyil said as they floated lightly across the gap, buffered by gentle, cold, ethereal wind from all sides, blowing across the empty span of nothing the chunks of island floated upon.
"Yes?" Qassot said.
Riselus had bridged the gap; a simple platform of tree trunks lay across the space.
"Do you think the air orb is missing too?"
"I don't know," Qassot replied, "we can check if you want."
They quickly crossed over to the base of the mountain. They stared at the closed mountain, without sign of the former cave, widened and toiled upon to fit a few hundred creatures of all different sizes along with a stage for the meetings, along with the now dormant air guardian.
"Let's try to get in," Qassot suggested.
Cyil generated a tongue of flame and put it in his fur.
"What are you doing?"
"What I did to make the fireball back there." He pointed back at the empty space where the forest once was. It had floated significantly out of reach, behind the dark mountain. Birds had returned to its peak. A clear rumbling cut through the din of bird calls.
Cyil said, "There's that mountain again. I thought I killed all those birds."
"Just focus. That mountain is the least of our worries. A mountain can't hurt you." Riselus grunted.
"Pay attention!" Qassot shouted. "Get out of the way!"
The rumbling was a massive cluster of rocks and miscellaneous boulders rolling down the mountain towards them. Riselus quickly pulled nearby stone into a hard dome. The first dozen rocks broke upon it and shattered it. Qassot flooded energy to Riselus while he tried to make another dome. It promptly broke under the next wave of rocks.
"Just dodge them!" Cyil yelled at him. He had been making a slow path up the mountain simply by sidestepping the rocks and debris. Qassot followed suit, weaving her way up the mountain.
"I'm too big!" Riselus yelled.
"Try!" Qassot yelled back.
"WELL YOU CAN FLOAT AND CYIL CAN FLY!"
Riselus promptly warped himself up the mountain, causing a fresh spray of boulders and shale to roll down the mountain.
"Watch it!" Cyil called from under a rock. He slowly pushed it out of the way.
They finally made it up to the source of the rocks; the entrance to the cave; now blocked by rocks and debris. They walked in, and Cyil held his now-blue incubated fireball aloft. It revealed a horrific sight. Every single creature on the island, Dringochs, wyverns, Oacinhragn like Cyil, land guardians, dragons, all of them were frozen, only a bluish glimmer revealing the life behind them. Dark gray, stony skin was where fur, scale, or shell should be. Hundreds of frozen stone statues. The glimmer from the eyes gave the room a creepy feeling. However, the symbol was still there, the circle was too, but the secret door was open. Silently, the trio wove among the maze of lifeless creatures. They emerged on the stage. The announcer was frozen there, eyes fixed on a horror long since gone.
Qassot stared into the face of a familiar looking dragon.
"The Krie Clan also came in here. I wonder what drove them inside?"
"Maybe they were getting overwhelmed by the black creatures," Cyil said, "Also, why are they stone?"
Nobody knew how to answer.
They walked up the crumbling causeway, now riddled with cracks and gaps down through the mountain into the empty void which the parts of the island floated, occasionally revealing the sight of the sun, wrapped in purplish nebulous cloud matter, clouds tinged red and green, and other islands floating off in the distance, slowly coming apart. Devastating, solemn, and awe-spiring it was. They came to the transparent wall. No bright light shone from behind it, in fact, it was no longer transparent. Just a wall. They quietly descended into the Guardian's chamber. Just the spire. Just the room. Absolutely nothing was amiss except the absence of the air orb. The ground was shattered open, revealing a shaft downwards, riddled with odd rock formations, gems, and a smoky yellow mist.
"Woah…"
Riselus moved rubble out of the way, and they descended the shaft, floating lightly down on the first living current of air they had felt for a long time. They eventually came to a large cavern. The guardian was frozen into a stone statue, not even a blue glow about its eyes. A chilling air filled the room. The final look on its face was submission.
"Someone powerful came to get the orb," Qassot said. "I can still feel the magic residue here."
"Guys?" Cyil asked. "What's that?"
Qassot and Riselus turned.
The sight they saw left them speechless.
Behind them, through a crack in the wall, they could see a massive blue-gray dragon, with massive plates of thick blue ice covering parts of its skin like armor plating, sleeping soundly.
"What is that?" Qassot asked.
Behind them, an odd deep, grinding noise began. A faint rumble began to emanate from the guardian. They snapped around. The guardian's eyes flashed open with a red glow.