Ascension Ceremony [6]
It really was a different world above the cloud layer.
Instead of continuing into a peak, Skyrend Mountain expanded outward again, almost as if forming a secondary base.
Above the cloud layer was essentially a second mountain stacked on top of the first, a little over 500 kilometers tall.
Rushing through the cloud layer meant two things.
Firstly, the suppressive force in the air calmed to the point of being mostly bearable, and the atmosphere of the Ascension Ceremony went through a total change.
Because there were several opportunities present on the slope of this more expansive part of Skyrend Mountain, the rapid sprint to the top halted here.
From here, what mattered was how high one could get, not how quickly one did it.
Because even if one took months to do it, making it to the peak was an absolute achievement!