After traveling for a few days, Jonathan found himself in awe at Sarnakthros’ skill. The god was so much weaker than the height of his power, yet was still able to channel an amount of mastery that far eclipsed Jonathan’s own. After the first demonstration, Sarnakthros had shown that he had far more in his repertoire than just predicting attacks. He showed Jonathan how to punch in alignment with the flow of ambient elemental energy, drawing in other elements than his own into his blows. It wasn’t a skill that Jonathan would master any time soon, and he could only achieve a miniscule effect. Sarnakthros, meanwhile, could deliver punches with force well above his Tier. His fists connected on a fundamental level with the universe, creating whirlpools of potency that could deliver far greater force than his strength would indicate.
Apart from this, Sarnakthros demonstrated a few other skills. It turned out that concepts existed beyond just the twelve elements and their subsidiary minor elements. Concepts that revolved around fighting. There was such a thing as a perfected punch, a strike that anyone could deliver, no matter how weak they were.
Sarnakthros demonstrated this twice, once on its own, and once in tandem with his elemental punches. The first blow shattered one of the monstrous trees, and the second was able to drive Jonathan back a single step. While it did no damage, it was a shocking amount of power for a Tier 2 to deliver.
Jonathan was warned that this level of mastery would take centuries if not millennia to master, but there wasn’t a cutoff point. You could continuously progress up to that point, gaining exponentially more power as you went. Sarnakthros had told Jonathan that such degrees of mastery determined the outcomes of higher level fights, more than levels or even Tiers.
Still, even from the meager progress he had made, Jonathan’s Blunt Weapon Mastery had gone up a level. For a Master Rank Pathway Skill, that sort of progress was unheard of. It was a testament to Sarnakthros’ expertise. Had the god been able to use his true power, Jonathan suspected that he would have been able to make even more progress.
At this point, Jonathan was beginning to notice the spatial distortions quite acutely. With his perfect memory, he was able to recognize landmarks he had seen already, even if they were just minor variations in the arrangement of trees and moss. For example, he had already passed by a small grove of five trees multiple times. Other times, he had seen the broken stumps of trees that his group had already dealt with.
Still, there was always something new each day, which meant that they were going somewhere. As long as that was the case, the time frame hardly mattered. As far as Jonathan was concerned, his own territory was safe. He wasn’t going to have to deal with invasions any time soon, which meant that he was free to do whatever he needed to continue his journey through the Hells. Even if he died, his people would be able to live on in peace.
It was strange how quickly he had adapted to the Hells being his home, and its residents, his people. Jonathan had never been especially close to anyone on Earth, and had never really thought of his life as being very important. Another truck driver could always be hired, which he was sure had happened after his death. His death wouldn’t mean anything to his family either, other than the life insurance that would go to his closest living relatives. They wouldn’t grieve for him.
Jonathan centered himself quite easily, realizing that he was far beyond the comprehension of anyone living on Earth. Had he been able to return at that moment, people would have worshipped him as a god or feared him as a devil. He could easily destroy Earth entirely if he let his Void powers loose, spiraling out of his control. A punch could break mountains and carve canyons into the ground. A single step would leave a crater like an asteroid impact. One flare of his aura would send armies to their knees.
If nothing else, such speculation was a distraction from the seeming futility of his journey through Hollow Dream. He had become used to rampaging across the Hells, moving far faster than the world could keep up. Now that it was taking days to get from one place to another, his feelings of transcendent power were a thing of the past.
It wasn’t until four days had passed that Willow finally stopped and announced that they were nearly at their destination.
“That trip was a lot shorter than it could have been, " she explained. We are lucky in that regard.”
“I don’t see a settlement anywhere,” Jonathan replied. “All I see are more trees. I assume it’s hidden somewhere that the moss cannot reach?”
Willow nodded. “Settlements in Hollow Dream cannot be hidden underground because the earth is the flesh of the Dream King himself. Neither can they be made out of trees. Instead they are secreted away in the clouds, formed by the work of thousands of elementalists. To get to them requires the usage of spatial arrays.”
Jonathan looked up through the gaps in the trees. “I don’t see any clouds. Where are they?”
“Extremely high up,” Willow explained. “About as far away as the capital of Brighthollow is from Evenas.”
Jonathan gave her a blank look, but Edgar seemed to understand. “The clouds are a hundred thousand miles away? How can they form that high up?”
Willow frowned. “Wait, that was the wrong memory. From Brighthollow to Vassyr.”
Edgar’s eyes bulged. “I see why you would need a spatial array.”
“Care to explain for the non Telvarians among us?” Eliza asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, right. What Willow is saying is that the clouds are over a million miles away. Too far to see even for Jonathan. They would just blend in with the sky. Even if we tried to fly up there, it would take ages, and with the added distortion, it could take years to reach it.”
“Not years,” Willow corrected. “The power of the Dream King decreases as you go up. It would be about a month on average.”
“Damn…” Jonathan muttered. “If that’s the distance between two cities, just how large is Telvaria?”
Edgar shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think anybody but the gods could tell you that. All I can say is that it would take a Tier 1 a lifetime to cross a minor kingdom. One of the larger empires would take a million years.”
Jonathan nodded, looking back up at the sky. “I guess this is one small step on our way to escaping the Hells. Perhaps we can explore Telvaria then.”
“Anyway,” Willow continued, “I mentioned spatial arrays. I do not know where they are, only that they exist and are in this general area. I suspect that the citizens of the cloud villages would not take kindly to my presence. You will have to contact them through your own power. I will keep the moss away until then, but I must make my exit before they arrive.”
“Okay,” Jonathan said. “How do we go about contacting the people in the clouds?”
He looked around, but nobody seemed to have an idea. Even Edgar, usually a font of magical knowledge, just shifted around uneasily.
“I cannot tell you where exactly the arrays are,” Willow suggested, “but their presence makes it likely that they are used to return to the surface. Perhaps you should cause some sort of disturbance in the area to prompt a search party?”
Jonathan tilted his head, thinking for a moment. Then he nodded. “I should probably refrain from using the Void. Perhaps one of our wind specialists should do it? I feel like whoever comes to check on us won’t be too pleased if we accidentally damage the arrays in the process.”
“How much should we hold back?” Edgar asked.
“I think you should go all out,” Jonathan replied. “We want whoever’s coming to think that we are a threat worth dealing with. If I went all out, they might see it as not worth the trouble. Even if they are at the peak of power for this realm, or perhaps a bit beyond, I can still hold my own. Tiers within a few of my own don’t matter that much unless I’m fighting a Circle Lord.”
Eliza snorted. “You know, you say the most arrogant things sometimes. Though, considering you have backed them up multiple times, I can’t complain.”
Arkanon looked over at Eliza, a frown on his face. “Is it not the mandate of a king to bolster his own legend so that he can better face what is to come? Jonathan is not an ordinary man. Sometimes, false humility is worse than arrogance.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Eliza opened her mouth, then shrugged. “I suppose you might be right. I’m still thinking about things the way I did on Earth. This is a different world. Kings were a thing of the past there, but they are a thing of the present and future here.”
Arkanon smiled. “So you do understand. Good.”
As they spoke, Edgar walked a small distance away from the group, stopping just before the edge of the moss. He took a deep breath, and floated into the air, the wind whipping through his hair. Raising his hands, Edgar reached up to the skies. Clouds began to form out of thin air, swirling down into a tornado centered on his hand. The tornado grew and grew until it blotted out the sun above. With a cry, Edgar thrust his hand forward and the tornado left it, ripping through the trees. It traveled miles in seconds, and after it was at a safe distance, Edgar clapped his hands together. The tornado flattened down into a thin disk of pressurized air, slicing through the trees for dozens of miles in every direction.
“Damn,” Jonathan exclaimed. “I’ve never seen you go all out before-”
He was cut off by a rumbling noise coming from the distance as the thin disc of air sped back towards its center, forming into a humanoid shape. A giant of clouds and flickering electricity took a single step forward, sweeping its hand up and around to gather power. It slammed it down on the ground, and a colossal windstorm tore apart the earth itself, shards of debris spraying high into the sky.
The moss tried to connect to the elemental, but was unable to do so. Edgar continued to pilot the cloud construct, sweat running down his brow as he started to bottom out his energy reserves. Unlike Jonathan, he had limits. Eventually, he let the elemental dissipate into thin air, falling to his knees.
“I haven’t had the opportunity to use my full power in a while,” Edgar admitted. “I always had to conserve some of my elemental energy in case another foe was around the corner.”
“But in this case,” Arkanon continued, “you have allies to deal with whatever is to come.”
A few minutes passed, with Edgar replenishing his depleted energy reserves. Suddenly, Willow tensed up, and looked at the sky. “It is time for me to depart. Farewell. I hope I never had to face any of you in battle.” Then she was off, speeding into the trees before anyone had a chance to reply.
A pillar of dark purple energy erupted from the center of the crater Edgar’s cloud golem had left, and three shining stars of light flew out, hurtling towards Jonathan and the others. He had just enough time to make out details, such as that all of them were people, surrounded by cloaks of radiant flame.
There was one human, one elf and one dwarf, each of whom were wearing the same type of armor, a strange mix of leather and plate, seemingly made for a mix of flexibility and defense. The human held a sword loosely in one hand while the others wielded axes, the elf holding a two handed greataxe, and the dwarf with a pair of smaller handaxes.
Each of them radiated the power of a peak Tier 8, far higher leveled than anyone in Jonathan’s group. Though, not far stronger.
They came to a halt before reaching the edge of the rapidly shrinking circle of clear ground, the moss returning in the wake of Willow’s departure.
“Who are you?” the human asked, his face twisted with suspicion. “Explain yourself, or die. Are you from another cloud city?”
“No,” Jonathan replied. “We are from another realm of the Hells.”
“You don’t seem powerful enough to be from the higher circles,” the swordsman observed. “None of you are any meaningful distance into Tier 8, or even at it for that matter. What circle are you really from?”
“Levels aren’t everything,” Jonathan said. “You aren’t any stronger than I am, I can guarantee you that.”
The dwarf took a threatening step forward, but his elven companion laid a restraining arm on his shoulder.
“Even if that is true,” the human continued, “that doesn’t answer my question.”
“I started out in the Ash Heaps. I’ve moved through the circles since then, trying to free as many as I can.”
“Really?” the swordsman asked, a derisive look on his face. “Don’t you think we would have heard of you by now? Other than the merging of the circles, nothing of note has happened recently. Unless you’re saying that you are behind that as well?”
Jonathan laughed. “This is pretty refreshing. I’m used to people knowing who I am before I even tell them. I guess there isn’t much news circulating in those cloud cities, is there? You probably don’t have a clue about the goings on of the Infinite Hells.”
“So you came here to do the same for Hollow Dream? I’m not sure if I should take you at your word. Even if you managed to reach Eventide and kill him, this world doesn’t hinge on his presence. He is asleep most of the time. The realm itself is what keeps us prisoner.”
“If that is the case, I can provide you with a way out. I can evacuate the entire population of this Circle to somewhere safer and better. Before fighting Eventide, if you want.”
The hotheaded dwarf once more stepped forward, this time shrugging off the elf’s hand. “Ah have had enough of yer insinuations!” he roared. “Ye mean to usurp the people of this realm and take it for yerself!”
“Easy, Edran,” the human said. “Don’t do something you might regret. We don’t know how powerful-”
“Respectully, Lucius, shut yer mouth. Ye always were too mild mannered.” As he said those words, Edran launched himself at Jonathan like a bullet, spinning around in the air. His axes caught flame, a spinning tornado of fire gathering around him.
Jonathan stood there as his allies backed away, planting his feet. The Third Eye of Exal’drin opened on his forehead, though he hardly needed it. Edran wasn’t exactly what Jonathan would call fast.
Stamina poured into his right arm and a gauntlet of compressed Void energy formed over his hand. Jonathan held it palm up and grabbed Edran’s axes. The dwarf crumpled as if he had struck a brick wall. Jonathan reinforced the ground beneath him with a lattice of elemental energy, grounding the momentum that it wouldn’t tear up the entire landscape around him.
With a single, dismissing flick of the wrist, Jonathan slapped Edran away with his left hand, sending him skidding away into the trees.
“Believe me now?” Jonathan asked, wiping his hands off. “I don’t want to hurt any of you, but I will if I have to. Just let me do my job. I don’t care if you help or not, just as long as you don’t get in the way.”
“Why did you come here then?” Lucius asked. “If you truly don’t care what we do.”
“I wanted to get a lay of the land. Who better to get that from than the inhabitants of this realm? I know little about Hollow Dream, and I am hoping to learn more.”
“There isn’t much to learn,” Lucius replied. “The realm looks the same for the most part. The only difference is Eventide’s resting point at the very center. Everything else is part of the Dream King, save for the cloud cities.”
A roar of rage came from the trees as Edran recovered. He launched himself back into the fray, but this time Lucius stood in his way, blocking with the flat of his sword. “Enough! You’ve embarrassed us enough. This man is stronger than any of us, despite his lower level. Do you really want to drag us into an unnecessary fight with him?”
Edran withdrew, and stood there, his face the color of a beet. He was visibly shaking with rage, though at what exactly, Jonathan couldn’t tell. Perhaps it was being stopped by his commander, or being told that he was too weak. Either way, Jonathan wasn’t concerned with the aggressive dwarf.
“If you are telling the truth,” Lucius said, turning back to face Jonathan, “I suppose we will need to tell the elders about this. You wouldn’t have any objections to returning to the cloud city with us, would you?”
“No,” Jonathan replied. “That was the whole point of this in the first place. We wanted to get your attention, so I had Edgar blow up the forest to do so.”
“Huh. How did you know the spatial array was here in the first place?”
Jonathan almost said that Willow had told him, but then realized that announcing any sort of allyship with a servant of the Dream King was probably a bad idea. “I have pretty good elemental senses,” he said instead, something that was impossible to check. If Lucius was suspicious, he didn’t say anything.
“Alright,” Lucius said after a short pause. “We’ll take you up to the cloud cities then. If there is any sort of treachery, however, you will find that its inhabitants do not take kindly to such actions. Many are far stronger than myself and my group.”
Jonathan nodded. “That’s reasonable. Where is the spatial array? How does it even work?”
“Follow us,” Lucius answered. “You won’t mind if we don’t explain the inner workings of the device, will you? We need to keep it secure.”
Jonathan shrugged. “Fine by me. All that matters is that we get there.”
Lucius started off into the empty patch of ground left by Edgar, every so often looking down at the destruction with an inscrutable look on his face. In comparison his companions were much more overt with their expressions. Edran had a permanent scowl while the elf had a haughty expression, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes.
They walked for a few minutes, before reaching a patch of ground that to Jonathan’s eyes, looked no different than any other. Lucius reached into a pocket and pulled out a key, before holding it out before him. A lock sprang out of thin air, made out of a black metal that absorbed the light around it. He inserted the key and turned it, a door opening in the fabric of space. It was filled with a swirling pattern of dark purple light.
“This is it,” Lucius explained. “Simply step through and you will reach your destination. You all can go first. I have to start closing it on this side.”
At that moment, the horizon started to shake, the ground pressing up from beneath. Lucius’ face went ashen. “Through the portal! Now!” he screamed, with none of his usual measured tones.
Jonathan and the others filed through as quickly as they could, trusting in Lucius’ knowledge. Edran and the elf followed soon after, with Lucius hurriedly raising the key once more.
Jonathan felt a wave of heat on his back as Lucius stepped through, a wave of force slamming into him from behind. The portal closed, slicing off the tip of a claw.
“What the hell was that?” Jonathan asked.
Lucius took a deep breath, steadying himself. “The Dream King keeps tabs on the cloud cities. He rarely responds to them, given that he isn’t exactly conscious to do so, but sometimes his will overlaps with reality.”
“What does that entail, exactly?”
Before Jonathan could receive an answer, the adrenaline pumping through him ran out and he fully took in the sight around him. He stood upon a long road of marble, leading towards a citadel that seemed to be carved out of the clouds themselves. Before him was a shimmering dome of force that blocked off the road.
About fifty guards stood there motionless, hands on swords or spears. Their expressions were blank.
“Welcome to Cantasia, the Seventh Cloud City.” Lucius’ voice was filled with pride. “It has survived for the last million years, ever since the last awakening of Eventide. I pray that it survives for another.”
