It was a weird feeling, stepping through that gateway; it was as if their whole being dissolved, becoming one with the air, not human, but something free to do whatever it wanted, to go and travel eternity. It was a calming feeling that quickly ended, as they reached the outer gates of the city.

It was a fast process, but while your body was gone, it felt longer. It was different from Erosion, yet similar at the same time. When using the Ability, he loses all his senses; he feels as if he doesn't exist, which is strangely calming, as if there wasn't anything to worry about, and that he could do whatever he wanted.

But with the gateway, it felt as if he still had his senses, even if his body wasn't even there, unlike with Erosion, where it still exists but as a shadow. It was as if with the gateway, his body was destroyed, to merge with the air. Or something else that then reconstructed his body where they were now.

'Strange.... but actually really cool.'

Aether looked at Lucien and Kade, who both had been weirded out by the experience, and it was to be expected. But he didn't let them get distracted, as he already started heading towards the gate alone, forcing them to follow.

'Let's see how good this city is...'

...

The moment they stepped past the outer gates, Aether understood something immediately.

The city wasn't built to welcome people.

It was built to remind them where they stood.

Everything beneath their feet was white stone, smooth enough to reflect the sunlight pouring through the open sky above them. Not cracked, not uneven, not damaged by time like the world below. Every surface looked untouched, as if decay itself had been denied permission to exist here.

'How much did this even cost... this doesn't look at all like cheap material. Though if you take an entire fee that high, it was possible, after all, you also had to pay for food and a place to stay if you were visiting, and the people already living here also had to pay taxes. So they probably made enough money.

...

But who built everything? And where did they get the materials, if they didn't want people living? Did they make the person they hired to build pay the fee? That... would be hilarious.

Aether took a deep breath, followed by a sigh.

...

Even the air felt different.

'Huh...?'

Cleaner.

Lighter.

Like the city had separated itself from the rest of the world so completely that even nature followed different rules here.

Though it did make him wonder... just how they made it taste like that? Did it have anything to do with the gateways, and how you become one with the air, did it awaken something inside of it, or inside of you, that makes it weird tasting?

'Why is it that the beautiful places in the sky always have something very weird about them....'

The main plaza stretched far ahead of them, wide enough that entire villages could have fit inside it. Streams of water crossed through the stone pathways in perfectly controlled lines, glowing faintly under the sunlight before vanishing beneath the ground again. There were no sharp edges anywhere. Every building curved slightly, as if the city had been shaped by flowing water instead of tools.

The architecture was beautiful, but that wasn't hard to notice; it was clear that they had put a lot of effort into it. There were things that he would have never thought about, but now, he saw them and loved those ideas. Even if he thought that these people were to egoistical, he had to say, they had a good eye and a creative mind.

People moved through the plaza quietly.

Not silent.

Just... controlled.

There were many, maybe not as many as you would see in any other civilization, but at the same time, this whole place felt a lot more formal and proper than any of the other civilizations. With how hungry it was for money, he expected to do something like what the Great Harbor did, with that damn Marketplace. But no. Not at all.

No one rushed. No one shouted. Even conversations sounded softer here, like the city itself demanded restraint from those living inside it. Like, respect among themselves was everything, and if you didn't give it, you were the weird one.

Most didn't even spare their group a second glance.

Their clothes were clean, layered in pale colors that blended with the city around them, with some weird golden headbands around their head, which made him wonder just what they meant... after all, in these kinds of places, things like that seem to be important.

What if it were another situation, as the mark on the hand from the book he had challenged with the Rebellion?

And the way they walked made it obvious they had spent their entire lives above the clouds.

'They don't even look at us.'

Not hatred.

Not disgust.

Something else

Indifference.

It made him laugh; it was different from what he expected. He thought that people here hated everyone from below, and it was evident they weren't from here, because of the clothes they were wearing, and yet, no one batted an eye at them.

Aether walked to the edge of the island, looking beyond it.

Bridges stretched between floating islands in front of him. Some islands carried gardens filled with silver trees whose leaves reflected the light like mirrors whenever the wind touched them. Others held smaller districts built around circular towers rising toward the sky.

It made him wonder even more just how they got these islands in the air. There weren't any chains, which would still not explain anything, but still, they were just floating, nothing to hold them. And there weren't just these; you would see more if you went to the other side, or behind this main platform.

Though it wasn't such a good thing, it made getting lost easy. Like, how were they going to find the Inn...

'Well, we aren't such a good example since I can just try to use Shadow Speech, but if anyone else who had no idea of the layout would have a really hard time.'

Aether walked back to Lucien and Kade, who were all staring at the same thing.

Among all of them, back on their island, at the far end, stood the central tower

Closer now.

Far larger than it had looked from below.

'Damn me.'

The structure disappeared so high into the clouds that the top was still invisible, but now he could make out the details carved into its surface. Symbols. Massive rings wrap around certain sections. Pieces of the tower were moving slowly, almost too slowly to notice, like the entire thing was alive in some way.

'How high does this thing even go...?'

...

But more importantly... 'Was it actually alive?' It was stupid, he knew that, it was probably something weird about it, and how it was built, nothing more, but he couldn't help but think that the tower was actually... alive. His gut was telling him that this thing was beyond just being another tower among the many he had seen.

Something new.

Something that had a soul.

The strangest part was that none of this felt impossible anymore.

That was what disturbed him.

...

Humans adapted quickly. Too quickly.

Only minutes ago, this place had looked like something beyond reason.

Now his mind was already trying to make it normal, yet his gut was telling him it wasn't. Nothing was normal about it.

Aether slowly turned his gaze toward the edge of the island.

Far below the clouds, the wasteland still existed.

Small now.

Distant.

Forgotten.

'Guess this place really did abandon the world below.'

Just the way this city seemed to like it.

It was as if it were two opposite worlds, one fortunate to have to survive the wrath of whatever disaster had happened, and the other that had tragically fallen.

But how?

...

Also, they had reached the location of the relic, yet there wasn't anything in sight... which probably meant it was under. But it wasn't like they were going to dig... they were going to have to find something in this place.

And he had a very good idea of where to start.

Aether glanced at the tower.

...

This place... it survived something the world below hadn't... and unless it was something that only hit the bottom, it had done something that allowed it to be here today. But what? It couldn't be anything normal. After all, it's hard to fight against the natural disaster he knew from his world, but this one looked more dangerous than everything he had seen. You can't just normally fight against it, and survive, and without a scratch...

It almost felt... as if there needed to be a sacrifice.

...

But... at the same time, he didn't like just to say things without any proof...

'First day, and I'm already going to commit a crime.'