The Silver Leviathan trembled beneath my feet.
Not the familiar vibration of its six engines.
Not the low, steady pulse I had already grown used to since leaving Epoch.
This was different.
The railing shook beneath my hand.
A faint metallic groan traveled through the deck, deep enough that I felt it in my chest before the sound reached my ears.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
The darkness ahead continued spreading.
It stretched across the horizon like spilled ink, swallowing the blue sky piece by piece. There were no clean edges to it. No wall of cloud I could point to and say where it began.
It moved.
Folded.
Twisted.
Something within it seemed to drag the surrounding sky along.
Another tremor passed through the Leviathan.
Stronger.
I widened my stance.
Theon caught the railing beside me.
"What is that?"
Captain Miles didn't answer.
He was already moving.
"Remi."
"I'm checking."
Remi hurried toward the navigation controls. Her hands moved across several instruments I didn't recognize, adjusting rotating rings and crystal gauges while thin lines of mana flickered beneath the glass.
Raymond reached the nearest engine monitor.
His expression tightened.
"Output is stable."
Miles looked at him.
"Then why are we shaking?"
"I don't know."
That answer bothered me more than it should have.
Raymond had understood everything about this ship since the moment we'd met him.
Every engine.
Every mana channel.
Every sound.
Hearing him say he didn't know felt wrong.
Another vibration rolled through the hull.
This time, the entire deck shifted beneath us.
Seraphyne stumbled half a step before catching herself.
Kai grabbed the railing.
Liam looked toward the stern.
"The engines?"
Raymond shook his head.
"They're not causing it."
I looked toward the darkness again.
The line across the horizon had grown wider.
Closer.
The sun was still somewhere above us, but the light had begun fading anyway.
Not because evening had come.
The darkness was eating it.
Varein's hair moved suddenly across his face.
Then stopped.
He frowned.
"The wind."
"What about it?" I asked.
He lifted one hand.
His fingers remained still.
"There isn't any."
I looked around.
He was right.
Moments earlier, the upper deck had been freezing because of the constant pressure of air rushing past us.
Now there was nothing.
No wind.
No whistle along the hull.
Nothing moving through my hair.
The Leviathan was still climbing.
But the sky around us had gone completely still.
Kai looked toward Varein.
"That's bad, right?"
Varein didn't answer immediately.
"Very."
A sharp alarm rang from somewhere near the navigation chamber.
Remi froze.
Then looked down at the instrument in front of her.
"Captain."
Miles crossed the deck.
"What?"
"Our heading is changing."
Raymond turned.
"We haven't turned yet."
"I know."
Silence.
Remi adjusted another control.
The needle inside the central gauge continued drifting.
Slowly.
But steadily.
Left.
Miles looked toward the darkness.
"Turn us away."
Remi nodded.
"Changing heading thirty degrees."
A low mechanical sound passed beneath the deck.
The fins along the sides of the Leviathan shifted.
I felt the engines change immediately.
Their pitch deepened.
The ship began turning.
At least, it tried to.
For a moment, the bow moved away from the darkness.
Then stopped.
The deck shuddered.
A terrible metallic groan rolled through the hull.
The bow shifted back.
Remi stared at the gauge.
"No."
Miles looked at her.
"What?"
"We're not turning."
Raymond moved beside her.
"The engines are responding."
"I know."
"Then why—"
The entire ship jerked.
My feet left the deck for half a second.
I hit the railing hard enough to send pain through my ribs.
Theon caught Kai before he went down.
Somewhere behind us, something heavy crashed against the floor.
Then came the sound.
Not thunder.
Not wind.
A deep, distant roar.
So low that I couldn't tell if I was hearing it or simply feeling it through the ship.
The darkness moved.
Something inside it shifted.
Something enormous.
My mouth went dry.
Remi's hands moved faster.
"Captain, we're losing lateral control."
Miles' expression remained calm.
His voice didn't.
"Full turn."
Raymond looked toward him.
"That'll strain the port engines."
"Do it."
Raymond grabbed the speaking tube beside him.
"Port engines to maximum directional output. Starboard stabilize."
A voice answered from below.
Then the Leviathan screamed.
There wasn't a better word for it.
Metal groaned along the entire ship as the engines fought against something I couldn't see.
The deck tilted slightly.
Blue mana flared along the sides of the vessel.
I could hear the engines now.
Not humming.
Roaring.
The Silver Leviathan finally began turning.
Slowly.
Painfully.
For several seconds, I thought it was working.
Then the bow stopped again.
And began drifting back toward the darkness.
Kai stared ahead.
"Something's pulling us."
Nobody laughed.
Because everyone had realized the same thing.
Miles looked toward Remi.
"Current strength?"
She stared at the readings.
"I can't calculate it."
"What do you mean?"
"The instruments keep changing."
Raymond looked over her shoulder.
"Mana density?"
"Rising."
"How much?"
Remi hesitated.
"Too fast."
The darkness reached us.
There was no impact.
No violent wall.
One moment, daylight surrounded the Leviathan.
The next—
Everything disappeared.
Darkness swallowed the ship.
Not complete darkness.
Thin purple and blue streaks of mana twisted through the air around us, illuminating the deck in brief flashes. They moved like rivers suspended in the sky, flowing in directions that made no sense.
Some curved upward.
Others spiraled downward.
A few moved sideways before folding back into themselves.
Mana Currents.
I had heard the term before.
Barely.
A phenomenon found in regions where natural mana became dense enough to move like weather.
But nothing I'd heard had described this.
The Silver Leviathan shook violently.
I tightened my grip on the railing.
Purple light flashed across the deck.
For half a second, I saw everyone's faces clearly.
Then darkness returned.
Remi shouted over the engines.
"We've entered the current!"
Miles looked toward her.
"Altitude?"
"Just over one hundred kilometers!"
Halfway.
We were only halfway to Hyperanos.
The thought settled heavily in my stomach.
The ship jerked again.
Something invisible pulled us sideways.
Raymond nearly lost his footing.
"Engines Four and Six are compensating!"
"Tell them not to overcorrect!" Miles shouted. "If we lose balance in this current, we won't recover!"
Won't recover.
I understood what he meant.
We were more than one hundred kilometers above the ground.
Falling wasn't an option.
Seraphyne moved closer to me.
"Rain."
I looked at her.
Her eyes were fixed on the darkness beyond the railing.
"Do you see that?"
At first, I didn't.
Then another streak of mana illuminated the sky.
A shape appeared.
Far away.
Too large.
I stared.
The light vanished.
My heartbeat quickened.
"What was that?" Theon asked.
No one answered.
Another flash.
The silhouette appeared again.
Closer.
Much closer.
Something enormous was moving alongside us.
I could only see pieces at a time.
A curved shape.
Then nothing.
Another pulse of light.
Something long passed through the darkness.
Too thick to be a tail.
Maybe a limb.
Maybe—
A wing.
My breath caught.
The next burst of mana light was brighter.
And for one terrible second, I saw the outline clearly.
Wings.
Massive ones.
They stretched outward into the Mana Current, disappearing far beyond what the light could reveal.
The creature's body was larger than the Silver Leviathan.
Not slightly.
Not by enough that I could pretend distance was confusing me.
It dwarfed us.
The Silver Leviathan—this enormous vessel that had made the Leviathan station beneath it seem small—looked insignificant beside whatever was moving through the darkness.
Kai whispered something.
I didn't hear it.
I don't think anyone did.
Another roar rolled through the current.
This time, it was closer.
The hull vibrated with it.
My fingers tightened around the railing.
The creature wasn't attacking.
At least, I didn't think it was.
That somehow made it worse.
The Silver Leviathan kept drifting toward it.
Remi looked at her instruments.
Then at Miles.
"We're being pulled directly toward the center of the current."
Raymond shook his head.
"No. Not the center."
Miles looked at him.
Raymond pointed toward the darkness.
"Look at the mana flow."
I followed his hand.
The glowing streams around us weren't moving randomly anymore.
Not when I actually watched them.
They were curving.
Every current.
Every streak.
Every thread of mana.
All of them were bending toward the same place.
Toward the silhouette.
Varein spoke quietly beside me.
"It's pulling the current too."
A cold feeling crawled up my back.
The Mana Current wasn't dragging us toward the creature.
The creature was dragging everything toward itself.
The sky.
The mana.
The Silver Leviathan.
Everything.
Raymond grabbed the speaking tube.
"All engines maximum reverse output!"
The response below came instantly.
The ship shook.
Blue light exploded along the engine lines.
I heard something crack somewhere beneath the deck.
The Leviathan slowed.
For a second.
Then continued forward.
Miles swore under his breath.
"Distance?"
Remi checked.
"I can't tell."
"Estimate."
She stared into the darkness.
"Less than three kilometers."
That sounded like a lot.
It wasn't.
Not against something that large.
Another flash of mana illuminated the creature.
Closer again.
This time, I saw part of its head.
Or what I thought was its head.
Long.
Covered in overlapping shapes that reflected the purple light like black metal.
Then the glow vanished.
My pulse pounded in my ears.
I had fought monsters.
I had fought people stronger than me.
I had stood before things that could kill me.
This was different.
There was no arena.
No ground.
No place to dodge.
No sword technique that mattered.
If that thing decided the Silver Leviathan shouldn't exist anymore—
I didn't know what any of us could do.
The realization wasn't pleasant.
But it was useful.
I looked away from the creature and toward the crew.
Miles hadn't stopped giving orders.
Remi continued recalculating.
Raymond continued fighting the engines against the pull.
Nobody had given up.
So neither had I.
"What can we do?" I asked.
Miles glanced toward me.
"Stay out of the crew's way."
Fair enough.
Kai looked insulted.
I wasn't.
This wasn't our battlefield.
Not yet.
The ship lurched again.
Harder.
Aelira hit the railing.
Liraeth caught her shoulder and pulled her upright.
The darkness outside twisted violently.
Mana streaks spiraled around the Leviathan.
Then Varein suddenly looked upward.
"Wait."
I followed his gaze.
Something was changing.
The current above us had thinned slightly.
Not much.
But enough to reveal a narrow patch of blue-black sky.
Varein pointed.
"There."
Remi saw it.
Her eyes widened.
"A break in the current."
Miles looked toward Raymond.
"Can we climb through it?"
Raymond studied the angle.
"Not while we're being pulled sideways."
"What if we redirect everything upward?"
Raymond hesitated.
"All six engines?"
"Yes."
"We'll lose forward stabilization."
Miles looked toward the approaching silhouette.
"We're already losing."
Raymond said nothing.
Then grabbed the speaking tube.
"Prepare vertical burn."
The crew below answered.
The Leviathan shook harder.
I looked upward.
The opening in the current was already beginning to close.
Slowly.
Too slowly to panic.
Too quickly to waste time.
Miles raised one hand.
"On my command."
The engines lowered in pitch.
Everything became strangely quiet.
Even the creature seemed to disappear for a moment.
My heartbeat sounded loud.
Rain—
No.
I forced myself to breathe.
White Thunder stirred faintly beneath my skin.
Not intentionally.
It reacted to something in the current.
The sensation was wrong.
Heavier.
Sharper.
I looked at my hand.
A tiny thread of pale electricity crawled across one finger.
Then vanished.
I frowned.
There was no time to think about it.
"Now!" Miles shouted.
The Silver Leviathan exploded upward.
My knees nearly buckled.
The deck slammed against my boots.
The six engines roared together with enough force to make my teeth ache.
The ship surged toward the narrowing break.
The pull fought back.
Metal screamed.
Something below deck shattered.
The opening grew closer.
So did the creature.
Another burst of purple light filled the darkness.
Its wing unfolded.
I finally understood how large it was.
The wing alone seemed longer than the Leviathan.
It moved once.
Just once.
The Mana Current twisted around it.
And the Silver Leviathan stopped rising.
Completely.
The engines continued roaring.
But we weren't moving.
Miles stared upward.
Raymond stared toward the gauges.
Remi's face lost what little color remained.
Then the ship began descending.
Not falling.
Being pulled.
Slowly.
Back into the darkness.
Toward it.
I looked over the railing.
The silhouette shifted beneath us.
A pair of enormous wings opened inside the current.
And between them—
Two lights appeared.
Not mana.
Not lightning.
Eyes.
They opened beneath the Silver Leviathan.
And looked directly at us.
For a moment, I forgot about the engines.
The alarms.
The Mana Current tearing itself apart around us.
Everything.
Those eyes were too large.
Even with the darkness hiding most of the creature, I could tell they were looking upward. Not past us. Not toward something beyond the Silver Leviathan.
At us.
A streak of purple mana crossed the darkness.
The eyes disappeared.
Then the ship dropped.
My stomach rose into my chest.
I slammed against the railing and wrapped both arms around it as the Leviathan was dragged downward.
"Hold on!" Miles shouted.
The deck tilted.
Seraphyne slid several feet before catching one of the support rails. Theon grabbed Arion by the arm while Kazen dropped low and planted one knee against the deck.
The engines screamed above everything.
It didn't matter.
We were still descending.
"Raymond!"
"I'm giving you everything!"
"Then why are we still going down?"
"I don't know!"
Another stream of mana flashed beside the ship.
For an instant, I saw scales beneath us.
Black.
No.
Not black.
They reflected the purple light like polished metal, each one overlapping the next. I couldn't tell how large a single scale was from this distance.
Then darkness swallowed them again.
The pull strengthened.
The Silver Leviathan groaned.
I looked toward Remi.
She wasn't watching the creature.
Her eyes moved between the instruments and the Mana Current outside.
Again.
Again.
Then she stopped.
"Captain."
Miles barely looked toward her.
"What?"
"We need to shut down the reverse thrust."
Raymond turned so quickly I thought he'd misheard her.
"What?"
"The engines are fighting the current."
"That's the idea."
"No."
Remi pointed toward one of the gauges.
"That's what's trapping us."
Another violent tremor traveled through the deck.
Raymond grabbed the console to remain upright.
"Explain."
"The current is splitting around it."
Around it.
Nobody needed to ask what she meant.
Remi continued.
"We're trying to move against the flow, but the stronger we resist, the more pressure we're creating around the hull."
Miles looked toward the darkness.
"Your solution?"
Remi hesitated.
Only for a second.
"Stop fighting."
Even Kai didn't have anything to say to that.
Raymond stared at her.
"If we reduce thrust, that thing pulls us straight into it."
"Not if we enter the eastern branch."
"What eastern branch?"
She pointed.
I followed her hand.
At first, all I saw were glowing streams twisting through the darkness.
Then I noticed it.
Several currents were bending around the creature.
Not toward it.
Around.
They curved together before disappearing behind its enormous silhouette.
Remi had found a river inside a storm.
"We let it take us," she said. "Then burn out when we reach the edge."
Raymond shook his head.
"That's insane."
"Can you overpower the pull?"
Silence.
Raymond looked at his instruments.
That was answer enough.
Miles didn't hesitate.
"Do it."
Raymond looked at him.
"Captain—"
"Do it."
His jaw tightened.
Then he grabbed the speaking tube.
"All engines reduce directional resistance on my mark."
The response from below came immediately.
I tightened my hands around the railing.
Theon looked at me.
"You know what's about to happen?"
"No."
"Good."
"Why is that good?"
"Means I'm not the only one."
Raymond raised three fingers.
"Three."
The engines roared.
"Two."
The Mana Current twisted beneath us.
"One."
He dropped his hand.
The engines went quiet.
Not completely.
But enough.
The effect was immediate.
The Silver Leviathan vanished beneath my feet.
At least, that was what it felt like.
The ship was ripped sideways.
My body slammed into the railing hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.
People shouted.
Metal screamed.
The deck tilted so violently that the sky appeared where the floor should have been.
Then we moved.
Fast.
Faster than anything that large had any right to move.
Purple and blue mana became streaks around us.
I couldn't focus on anything beyond the railing. The darkness blurred together as the current seized the Silver Leviathan and carried us around the enormous creature.
The ship wasn't flying anymore.
It was being thrown.
I forced air back into my lungs.
"Theon!"
"I'm here!"
I couldn't see him.
That was enough.
Something enormous passed beyond the railing.
A wall of black scales.
It continued.
And continued.
And continued.
My mind struggled to understand what I was seeing.
That wasn't a wall.
It was its body.
A claw appeared next.
For one brief flash of mana, I saw four enormous talons curled against the darkness.
Each looked large enough to tear through the Leviathan's hull.
Then they were gone.
Another flash.
A horn.
Another.
Part of a wing.
The current carried us faster.
And the creature did nothing.
That was the worst part.
It didn't chase us.
Didn't strike.
Didn't roar.
We were desperately trying to survive being near it.
It hadn't even moved.
"Edge coming!" Remi shouted.
Miles grabbed the speaking tube.
"Raymond!"
"I see it!"
A thin line of light appeared ahead.
Daylight.
The Mana Current ended there.
Or at least weakened enough that I could see through it.
The line widened.
Miles shouted something I couldn't hear.
The six engines ignited.
Blue light exploded across the sides of the ship.
The sudden force drove me against the railing again.
The Leviathan fought sideways.
The current fought back.
For several seconds, neither won.
Then—
Light.
We tore free.
The darkness disappeared behind us.
Wind slammed across the deck.
Real wind.
Cold, violent, wonderful wind.
The Silver Leviathan rolled sideways before the stabilization fins caught us.
I held the railing until the deck finally leveled.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
I breathed.
Once.
Twice.
My arms hurt.
My ribs hurt.
I didn't care.
We were out.
Raymond immediately looked toward his instruments.
"Engine Four overheating."
A crewman shouted something from below.
"Six is losing output!"
"Reduce Six to sixty percent. Divert cooling through Four."
Another voice answered.
"Stabilization array on the lower port side is damaged!"
"How bad?"
"Still functioning!"
"Then leave it. Engines first."
The crew moved.
No celebration.
No relief.
Just work.
Miles looked toward Remi.
"Course?"
She checked.
"We've been pushed east."
"How far?"
"Several kilometers at least. I'll need time to recalculate."
Miles nodded.
"Do it."
Only then did I look behind us.
The Mana Current remained there.
An enormous wall of darkness suspended in the sky.
Purple light moved within it like veins.
I stared.
Something about it had changed.
The currents were separating.
At first, I thought the phenomenon was dissipating.
Then a section of darkness bulged outward.
Slowly.
My hand tightened around the railing again.
"Captain."
Miles turned.
I pointed.
He looked.
And stopped.
Something emerged from the Mana Current.
A head.
That was all I could understand at first.
An enormous head pushed through the darkness, covered in the same dark metallic scales I'd seen inside.
Then came horns.
Two of them swept backward from its skull, followed by smaller ridges running down a neck that seemed to have no end.
More of the creature emerged.
And more.
The darkness peeled away from its body.
My breathing slowed.
Not because I was calm.
Because I had forgotten to breathe properly.
I knew that shape.
Anyone did.
I'd seen drawings.
Read stories.
Heard tales told by people who probably hadn't seen one themselves.
But none of those stories had prepared me for the scale.
"A dragon..."
Kai's voice barely carried over the wind.
The creature continued emerging.
Its chest cleared the Mana Current.
Then its wings.
One unfolded.
The shadow crossed the clouds beneath us.
I stared at it.
The wing was longer than the Silver Leviathan.
Much longer.
The second opened.
For a moment, the creature seemed to occupy the entire horizon.
Scars crossed its body.
Not small ones.
One pale line ran from beneath its neck and disappeared across its chest, wide enough that I could see it from kilometers away.
Something had done that.
I wasn't sure I wanted to know what.
Kai slowly looked toward Captain Miles.
"That's... actually a dragon?"
Miles didn't answer.
His face had changed.
Until now, I had seen him surprised.
Concerned.
Focused.
I had never seen him look like this.
He knew what we were looking at.
"Captain?" Liam asked.
Miles finally spoke.
"Yes."
The dragon's wings moved.
Once.
The air hit us several seconds later.
The Silver Leviathan tilted.
Crew members grabbed the rails.
The stabilization engines corrected immediately.
My eyes never left the creature.
Miles' voice came again.
Quieter this time.
"Not just a dragon."
I looked at him.
He stared toward the enormous creature.
"One of the Ancient Rulers of the Skies."
Nobody spoke.
Ancient Rulers.
I'd never heard the title before.
I didn't need an explanation.
Not yet.
The thing in front of us explained enough.
The dragon turned its head.
Toward the Silver Leviathan.
Every muscle in my body tightened.
My hand moved toward my sword before I could stop it.
Then stopped halfway.
I almost laughed.
What exactly was I planning to do?
Cut it?
The absurdity of the thought would have been funny under different circumstances.
The dragon's eye settled on the ship.
Golden.
Ancient.
Its pupil narrowed into a black line.
White Thunder stirred beneath my skin.
I froze.
A spark crawled over my fingers.
Then another.
I hadn't called it.
The dragon's eye shifted.
Only slightly.
But suddenly, irrationally, I had the feeling it wasn't looking at the Silver Leviathan anymore.
It was looking at me.
My heartbeat slowed.
Once.
The White Thunder grew sharper.
I curled my fingers into a fist.
The sparks disappeared.
That was ridiculous.
We were kilometers apart.
I was one person standing on the deck of a ship.
There was no reason for something like that to notice me.
The dragon watched for another moment.
Then its head turned.
One enormous wingbeat carried it upward.
Then another.
It entered the higher sky with terrifying ease.
The Mana Current twisted behind it.
Within minutes, its body became a dark silhouette.
Then a distant shape.
Then nothing.
Kai stared after it.
"...I'm never complaining about dire wolves again."
Theon looked at him.
"You complained about them?"
"I did internally."
"You screamed when one bit your boot."
"That was tactical communication."
A laugh escaped me before I could stop it.
The tension broke.
Only slightly.
It was enough.
Behind us, the Mana Current slowly drifted away.
Ahead, there was nothing but open sky.
Raymond and the crew spent the next several hours repairing what the encounter had damaged.
The Silver Leviathan continued climbing.
Slower now.
Engine Six remained reduced while Engine Four cooled, but neither seemed in danger of failing.
By the time Remi corrected our route, the sun had begun sinking.
I stood near one of the windows when I noticed my hand again.
White Thunder.
I raised two fingers.
A tiny spark appeared.
Instantly.
Too instantly.
I frowned.
Usually, there was a feeling before it came. A familiar pull from somewhere inside my Core.
This time, it felt as though the lightning had been waiting directly beneath my skin.
I let it disappear.
Maybe the Mana Current had caused it.
Maybe the dragon.
Maybe neither.
I wasn't going to guess.
Not yet.
I lowered my hand and kept walking.
By evening, exhaustion had finally caught up with everyone.
Dinner was quieter than before.
Kai tried explaining how large the dragon had been.
"The wing was at least three times the length of the Leviathan."
Theon stared at him.
"Earlier you said twice."
"I've had time to think about it."
"That's not how size works."
"You weren't measuring it."
"Neither were you."
"I have good instincts."
"You thought a cloud would be soft."
"That has nothing to do with this."
I listened while eating.
It felt strangely normal.
A few hours ago, we'd nearly been dragged toward something large enough to make the Silver Leviathan look like a toy.
Now Kai and Theon were arguing over measurements neither of them had taken.
Maybe normal wasn't a place.
Maybe it was just whatever people returned to after something stopped trying to kill them.
Eventually, we went to our rooms.
I lay down.
Closed my eyes.
And waited.
The engines hummed through the wall.
I could feel their vibration beneath the bed.
Steady.
Constant.
Safe.
At least safer than before.
I opened my eyes.
Sleep clearly wasn't interested.
I stared at the ceiling for another minute before sitting up.
The corridor outside was almost empty.
Most of the mana lamps had been dimmed. Their pale glow stretched along the silver walls, leaving the spaces between them in shadow.
The Leviathan felt larger at night.
During the day, voices filled it.
Footsteps.
Orders.
Arguments.
Now there was only the distant machinery.
I walked.
I wasn't sure where I was going.
That didn't bother me.
A crewman passed carrying a box of tools.
Another sat beside an open panel, quietly replacing one of the damaged mana crystals.
Neither paid much attention to me.
Eventually, my feet carried me upward.
Toward the observation gallery.
The door opened quietly.
I stepped inside.
And stopped.
Stars.
There were too many.
That was my first thought.
Thousands covered the sky beyond the glass.
No.
More than thousands.
From the ground, darkness always belonged partly to the world.
Cities.
Torches.
Mountains.
Trees.
Clouds.
Something always interrupted the sky.
Here, nothing did.
The stars continued in every direction.
Below us, the clouds formed a pale ocean beneath the moonlight.
I couldn't see Jishu.
Couldn't see Epoch.
Couldn't see Okrith.
I couldn't see anything that proved the world beneath those clouds existed at all.
More than a hundred kilometers below me, people were sleeping.
Walking.
Working.
Fighting.
Living.
And none of them could see this.
I moved closer to the glass.
For a long time, I simply stood there.
Ignis felt far away.
The orphanage even farther.
There had been a time when the walls around that place had seemed like the entire world.
Then there had been roads.
Lionhearth.
The academy.
Things kept getting larger the farther I walked.
Apparently, the world wasn't finished proving how little of it I'd seen.
A star disappeared.
I blinked.
Another vanished.
Then three more.
I straightened.
Something was moving above us.
My first thought was clouds.
Then I remembered where the clouds were.
I looked higher.
Darkness shifted across the stars.
A silhouette.
Alive.
It moved silently through the upper sky before disappearing.
I watched the place where it had been.
Then I noticed the lights.
Far above.
At first, I mistook them for stars.
They weren't.
Too bright.
Too organized.
Hundreds of them stretched across the darkness.
White.
Blue.
Gold.
Some remained still.
Others moved slowly.
My eyes adjusted.
Something existed behind them.
A dark mass.
Then another.
And another.
My breath caught.
Land.
Not fragments like the island we'd passed earlier.
These were enormous.
Even from this distance, I could see their shapes hanging against the stars.
One stretched farther than I could follow.
Another floated above it.
Smaller pieces surrounded them like debris around something impossibly vast.
Lights covered their surfaces.
Civilization.
Above the world.
"So you found it."
I turned.
Captain Miles stood near the entrance.
I hadn't heard him come in.
I looked back through the glass.
"That's Hyperanos?"
Miles walked beside me.
"The edge of it."
The edge.
I stared upward again.
If that was only the edge...
I didn't know what the rest looked like.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
Then my thoughts returned to the dragon.
"That thing earlier."
Miles glanced at me.
"The dragon?"
I nodded.
"Will there be more things like that up there?"
He looked toward Hyperanos.
His expression didn't change.
"That wasn't from Hyperanos."
I turned toward him.
"What?"
"It was passing through."
I looked back at the distant lights.
The Ancient Ruler.
The Mana Current.
That enormous creature that had made the Silver Leviathan look insignificant.
It hadn't been protecting Hyperanos.
It hadn't been waiting for us.
We had simply crossed its path.
Miles stepped away from the glass.
"Get some sleep, Rain."
I kept staring upward.
The lights of Hyperanos remained suspended among the stars.
"Tomorrow," Miles said behind me, "We enter the Sovereign Skies."