Part 4

After losing himself in the pristine corridors of this grand building Knight finally found himself on marble steps leading to a garden that matched the grandeur of the building.

“Wow,” the sight made him exclaim.

Apart from the narrow paths mazing around the garden at the back of the grand mansion, all the ground was covered with grass of a sunny gold and out of it grew the odd purple bush resembling rosebushes. There were numbers of mysterious plants that had spread their branches that they resembled little trees. There were many iridescent trees in the garden, and one of the things which made the place look the strangest and loveliest was that some plants that could only be called climbing roses had run all over them and swung down long tendrils which made light swaying curtains, and here and there they had caught at each other or at a far-reaching branch and had crept from one tree to another and made lovely bridges of themselves. They wrapped the garden in beautiful rays of light that seeped through the gaps in the bridges. It was like nothing you would see on earth, with iridescent trees and each other tree harbouring different coloured leaves ranging from, crimson to gold. Knight even spotted a black tree like the ones that surrounded the glade he awoke in.

Yet, a pristine golden fountain stood in the middle, laying ruin to what would otherwise be this world’s nature at her best. It might be made out of the finest materials, but it was ugly surrounded by imperfect natural beauty. It was the sign of the snob that lived here, infatuated with himself and gold. If Knight could hazard a guess, it was probably those women on the paintings that protected the garden, allowing nature to morph it into something impossible for living creatures.

Walking along the winding stone paths Knight hoped to come across the innocent little girl. Though the path only took him to the out of place fountain and a bench before ending up back at the marble stairs.

Not getting anywhere in his search he decided to tread upon the golden grass and pass underneath the rose curtains hung between trees.

It was as if the curtains had shut him off from the outside world. As he crouched past them the harsh noise of water crashing against rock entered his ears. There was a vast sea beyond the black rock of this island. Yet, that didn’t enter Knight’s mind. Instead, his eyes were focused on the small slender girl, dangling her feet off the black edge, water slapping against them. She was absent-mindedly staring into the dark sea, occasionally wiping her tears as she sniffed.

It took Knight a minute to pluck up the courage to talk to her. He didn’t know how he was going to help soothe her reopened scars, but he was at least going to try.

“Um, hey,” he said, dropping down to sit next to her, “what are you doing?”

“...” the girl replied with silence, as she wiped a tear away.

“I’m...I’m sorry about before. I shouldn’t have pressed you to answer me.”

“…”

“...I was...inconsiderate,” he continued apologising, “I should have ignored it and moved on.”

“...” yet the girl still replied with nothing but a sniffle.

With a sigh he spoke the bare truth, “Look, I was a twat. I’m sorry.”

“...”

“Oh, come on. What more do you want me to say?” Knight said with a dejected expression.

“No more,” the girl finally replied but strangely with a smirk, “hehehe”

Knight was shocked. The girl was giggling. It was the first time she had ever laughed.

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“Wait, you didn’t reply on purpose?” he asked, “You... You wanted to milk my apology!”

The girl tried with more giggling, wiping the last tears from her face, “Y-yeah...hehe”

“...”

“But...now it’s you who…said sorry too much,” the girl barely caught herself from bursting into laughter.

“Oh crap.” Knight realised, “you got me thee, but what are you doing down here?”

As Knight said this the giggling died down and she began to idly stare into the sea.

“Oh crap, something to do with your past? I’m sorry for bringing it up.

“…” the girl sniffled, holding back the tears, “no, it’s okay. I’ll tell you.”

“You sure?”

Taking a deep breath, she answered, “I…n-need to do this.”

Knight recognised this and gave her time to prepare for her to reopen the scars. He watched the girl’s face, as her melancholic look turned solemn.

“I-I’m ready,” she stated, “where shall I begin?”

“Anywhere. Or is it easier if I soothe you into things?” he asked, wanting to talk to her right and help her through.

“P-please ask me some questions then.” She answered, her solemn face showing she wanted to do this.

“Okay then,” he said before pausing, careful to not go in deep, “Why did you come here? Did you come here and stare into the sea when you had the chance when you lived here? Wait, did you live here?”

“Yeah…I lived here…but I wasn’t staring into the sea, “she exclaimed before pointing ahead, “Look, m-master. How did you not see it?

“Huh?”

Knight looked straight ahead. Yet he could see nothing but the dark sea crashing against itself. It was certainly a rough sea, but it was unusually rough. The dark see was whirling, not just crashing against itself. What was even weirder was it seemed to dip just beyond the whirlpools. Actually, the whirlpools could not simply be classed as such. The violent whirls of the sea were sinking; the sea held multiple vortexes. It was like they were sucking in the waves of the sea, only to spew them out as they sucked in even more. The screeching of the vortex’s fury barely missed the shore of the island. They could only be classed as maelstroms. Even the big dip was a maelstrom, gargling the water and spitting it out, repeating the process again and again. This was unnatural, even for another world.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed at the sight, “That’s mental-”

“No, not that hehe” the girl giggled, pointing upwards.

“Huh? What’s so…” he caught his breath as he followed the pointing, “funny…”

At about 100m above the ferocious maelstroms, there were three gigantic iridescent crystals. The tips sloped inwards, towards the centre of the most violent maelstrom. Half of the crystal must have been covered as they protruded from a colossal piece of rock. No, it wasn’t rock. It was an immense mound of earth.

The biggest thing, however, wasn’t the crystals or the floating earth. It was the gigantic white tree whose roots wrapped around the mound of earth, even reaching the iridescent crystals. It truly was monstrous in size. It was so monumental that it broke through the heavens, the golden bush of leaves hidden by the dense clouds. It could only be compared to the world tree of legend, the only differences being the whitebark and golden leaves.

Thousands upon thousands of buildings were spotted around the mound of earth, some rested on the wide roots; some had even climbed the tree. There was even a wall wrapping around the midpoint between the heavens and the earth that would otherwise be classed as huge if it wasn’t wrapping around something that would dwarf anything ever made on Earth.

There were even great waterfalls spewing water all over the side of the floating colossus. Actually, spewing is not the right word. The water was curving downwards, right back into the earth. How was it even possible? Knight’s thoughts were not clear enough to ask about the sense of it all, or even how he missed it in the first place. Instead….

“Holy shit,” were the first and only words he muttered, “HOLY FUCKING SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!”

He nearly fell into the dark sea as he jumped back in astonishment, a huge grin covering his face. His hands smothered his face as his mind was frozen in pure excitement.

“NO FUCKING WAY! I AM ACTUALLY IN A FUCKING ISEAKI!”

He had gotten so excited that he forgot about helping the girl get through her past. Instead, he grabbed her shoulder and rocked her back and forth.

“I’M IN ANOTHER FUCKING WORLD! JUST LOOK AT IT! IT’S A FUCKING FLOATING ISLAND WITH ALL SORT OF SHIT GOING ON!”

This repeated till his arm got tired and his astonishment died down. The girl was dizzily fell to the floor as son as Knight stopped his wild actions. Her eyes were still wide in shock at Knight acting so weird. Truth be told, he didn’t realise it with his excitement taking over. As his mind finally found its way past his hype, he realised how much of a fool he looked and plopped himself back down.

“You, err, didn’t see that, right?” He asked the girl, his eyebrows raised.

“Err, I did, mast-”

“Nonononono” he cut the girl off, “You did not see me.”

“I can’t lie, m-master.” She stated.

Judging that she wouldn’t change her mind, Knight quickly moved the topic back to the floating island.

“So, what is that place?”

“Uh,” she said as the sadness in her eyes reappeared, “It’s called the Epipléon Kingdom - where the humans live.”