Leon was frantic as he sailed his airship through the low hanging clouds.

His mind wedged between hope and despair.

Logically he knew he could afford to take some time to meet his goal, but desperation filled his heart–stirring him onward in spite of the risks. He even pushed his poor little airship to its limits, nearly past the point his brother warned him about. To add to his recklessness, he flew directly into a sea of low hanging clouds, and had multiple near misses with floating debris. It was a miracle he hadn't encountered any monsters as it is.

But even so, he still didn't slow down.

He finally found a clue, and honest to goodness clue of where Luxion could be! However, given all the evidence in the journal and his final memories in the before, Luxion might not even exist anymore. The world was definitely that crummy otome game, thus Luxion should exist. But at the same time, the world was different.

He never noticed it before, but there were definitely differences between the game and reality. And that was only in his small slice of the word, when he was limited to the edges of family's floating island. When he finally went out into the larger world where he was forced to learn all sorts of little cumbersome details….

He needed confirmation and Luxion was it.

The sun was still up by the time he made it back to the little isle, but it wouldn't stay like that for long. He needed to hurry.

He pulled out his compass. It still worked fine.

He muttered a curse at his stupidity. Of course the compass would still work fine, it go on the fritz when he left the Isle. Why would it stop working now?

He took out his spyglass and frantically searched around him. He looked through every the gap in the clouds, but he was too impatient–to sporadic to actually spot anything.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it," he cursed frantically.

He paused and took a deep breath.

"This is getting me nowhere. Calm down and think Leon," he told himself. "The warp device was near shallows and crystal clear waters. Those obviously could have changed, but the warp device propels a ship into the storm and onto the ruins. Since my compass is fine, it obviously didn't shoot the ship straight up to the isle, it was probably at an angle, But the question is, from which direction did the ship come from…."

He thought for a bit.

He pointed in the direction of the outpost using his spyglass, and then slowly rotated it to the right and kept going before stopping.

"Those jackasses came from that direction, complaining about their compass going on the frits…."

It was still a huge section of the ocean, and the assholes could have been flying in circles for all he knew, but it was as good a starting point as any.

Leon let the airbag deflate, letting his tiny airship sink until he was just below the clouds. It was almost like an amusement ride, the one where you rise and then suddenly drop, only with shitty janky manual controls. He wasn't completely inexperienced in piloting, but his handling was far from an expert. Therefore his descent consisted of a series of sudden drops that were both hair raising and uncomfortable. He kept at it until he was satisfied with the altitude.

A harsh cold wind bit at him. He shivered and wrapped his brown and patched cloak around him a bit better. The unfortunate realities of flying a boat in the sky with only the barest of essentials and no protection, it's cold even with a cloak, and you couldn't go too high or the air would be too thin to breathe. But he had long since stopped caring, instead he pressed on.

He grabbed a yellow apple from the small stockpile he had foraged earlier in the morning, and bitterly sank his teeth into the disgusting fruit as he searched the seas.

----------------------------------------

His heart was aflamed.

The compass was out of control.

"Finally," he breathed with light tears in his baggy eyes.

There were no storms in the sky, but there was fog over the surface of the ocean.

He's seen it happen a few times, it was just nature. But the wind was blowing hard. Even the paddle wheels on his airship had to work harder to push forward, and yet the fog stayed in place.

"Bingo~" Leon let out in a musical tone, already letting the gasbag deflate.

It could just be average freak weather, but Leon was willing to bet it was whatever made the impossible storm that protected the ruins when it was in the sky, only low on power or something.

He couldn't spot the warp device to confirm his theory, but it's not like he was going to need it if the journal was accurate.

Leon's ship lowered down until it nearly kissed the sea. From up high, he could still see the sun, down low though, the sun was almost gone.

He'd rather not be out in the dark, so he began his approach.

"Will it be weak enough to let me through, or will it throw me around?" He wondered aloud.

As he approached the fog, he noticed how the surface of the sea roiled. It could be that whatever machine made the storm in the game was using the water to generate the fog. Or it could be some natural or magical phenomena…or it could be a monster waiting for its next meal….

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He swallowed a lump in his throat and had his ship rise a few meters above the sea. Then a few extra for good measure.

"Why did I think being so low was a good idea?"

Leon took a deep breath before pressing forward. Leon's tiny airship stabbed into the fog, submerging itself all the way in.

Surprisingly, Leon didn't feel hot or cold or excessively humid, everything felt fine. The fog was thick and hard to see through, especially with how little light there was. But he could hear how the waters beneath his ship lightly roiled all round him. It'd be nice if he were in a hot spring or a jacuzzi, but this just kept him on edge.

Leon could barely see his own ship, but he had a sword at his hip and his loaded rifle strapped to his back…that said, both of his hands were being used to control the airship. Despite the engine being magical, floating with gasbag, and using a pair of paddle wheels to push forward, it still used a tiller for steering. Tiller steering is where a lever on an outboard motor is used to steer the boat left and right.

He slowed the speed of paddle wheels and eased in with caution. The act was already paying off when a partially sunken ship blocked his path.

Leon quickly elevated the airship and flew above the partially sunken airships. The parts visible were rotted and peppered with barnacles.

As he flew further in, his airship further elevated, the fog thinned, and more of the ghastly scene revealed itself. A variety of ships were around, all in various states of disrepair, some rusted and covered in barnacles. Most of them were old wooden models with rotted gasbags, some had interesting designs like rotted sails and masts, while others were metallic with wings. None of it brought Leon comfort.

"People have been here already…was Luxion claimed? .…No, there's no rumors floating around of some overpowered jackass and their spaceship…so then…why has no one claimed Luxion?"

Dread and unease filled Leon's heart as he slowly sailed over the grave of airships.

"Hm?" From the corner of his eyes, he could have sworn he saw something. But it was just a flag that lightly raised and fell.

Leon's eyes narrowed.

As silently as he could, he took his bayonet from his side and fixed it to the tip of his rifle. He winced at how loudly it clicked into place, even though his airship was far louder than his action. He kept a whole arm on the tiller, it was uncomfortable and made maneuvering difficult, but it freed his other hand to hold the rifle. He doubted he'd be able to hit anything with a single hand–let alone aim–but it brought him comfort.

He chanced looking over the edge and peered down into the roiling waters. Still nothing but disturbed and foaming sea.

He looked ahead, carefully maneuvering over more shipwrecks when a small hole in the ocean came into view.

"No…an entrance!"

It was the entry to the dilapidated facility!

Excited, he maneuvered his ship until it hovered right next to the entrance. The small space was free of the fog, he could even see the sky turning dark. Though there wasn't much light, it was still enough to work with.

Leon looked around.

The area around the entrance was covered in small barnacles. Originally there would be trees growing around the entrance. But for the entrance of the hallway leading into the facility to be slanting down at an angle, surrounded by nothing.…

He couldn't see clearly under the water, but judging by the stray object poking out of the water, it's possible that falling into the ocean broke the island apart, or bent it at least..

"...Did everyone who came here die because the inside was damaged?"

Leon chewed on that thought.

He looked at the sunken airships that poked out of the water, then at the entrance of the dilapidated facility, and then frowned as he brainstormed.

It was your standard grizzly entry in games. Something artistic to justify the price on the game, but not really something you put much thought into aside from "this looks dope." But seeing it in real life made him shiver. It also raised a lot of red flags.

The facility in the game was large, very large, since it held Luxion and other ships of the same model that were never fully constructed. At least that's what the artwork depicted.

The sunken ships should've been far beneath the surface of the water. There was no reason for them to poking out of the sea like this…. Unless…the entire facility was basically hanging off the edge of a seamount–an underwater equivalent of a cliff.

"Hey now, don't tell me this whole thing can sink to the bottom of the ocean at any second…." Leon asked himself in fear.

The fact that it was beneath the water alone made it a very dangerous place. The whole place could be submerged, air trapped within could be toxic, or it could be an electrical death trap!

His brows twitched as he imagined all the reasons a person or an entire crew could die in the ruins.

He shook his head. Speculating was getting him no where and night was close. At the very least he could check out the entrance.

He lit one of his limited torches and tossed it down the slanted hallway. It slid down to the bottom without fizzling out. But there were three noticeable lumps attached to the wall.

Leon's eyes narrowed.

He pointed his rifle down and took aim with a good grip on his rifle.

He fired.

POW

Ssssrrrrrtututututut!

The object Leon hit let out a mix between a growl and hiss as something from its center shot out.

Leon quickly reloaded his rifle and shot again!

The bullet had hit its body again to no noticeable effect. Leon calmed his breathing as he reloaded. His torch lit the hallway giving Leon a glimpse of the thing jotting out of the object. It was fleshy.

Leon aimed for it, but it kept swinging around like a tail or a hand looking for something. He aimed close to the base of the object and fired.

A small whine could be heard before purple pixels briefly lit the vertical hallway and purple mist. The brief light gave Leon a better image of the monster.

"Barnacles."

Monster Barnacles guarded the hallway.

Leon threw some of his disgusting apples at the remaining two barnacles, aiming for their main body. As he hoped, the two barnacles shot out fleshy pinchers in reaction to being hit.

Leon aimed and disposed of the monsters promptly.

"Five bullets…please let the cores be worth it," he whined. Monsters were the last thing he wanted to deal with.

But it did give him a better idea of what was going on. Over time, after the facility fell, real monsters must've taken over guarding the ruins. Odds are that power isn't working properly, and/or that the adventurers who came exploring had no idea how to operate anything. It would have been the equivalent of giving a neanderthal a microwave; they'd have no idea of how it works.

"That's the likely candidate…but…."

Something wasn't right.

Leon wasn't sure what it was, but there was something wrong with the entire situation. There were plenty of dangers, sure. The place was practically a death trap if an earthquake occurred. But something kept bugging him.

The smart thing to do was to mark the spot on his map and leave. Exploring alone was both reckless and stupid, something Nicks and his father reiterated in spite of Leon's protest of being annoyed. It was a far better plan to return to the outpost, somehow hire help, and then return with better preparations.

He knew that.

And yet Leon had already tied his airship next to the entrance.

He had deflated the gasbag of his airship until it floated on the surface of the ocean. He tossed down what he was sure could survive the impact. He then secured a rope and tossed it down the slanted hallway. He was just thankful it didn't have more barnacles, monster or otherwise. After making sure the rope was secure, he proceeded to slowly slide down, using his back and feet to control his descent.

With any luck, he'd be out in the night sky with Luxion at his beck and call.

Still, Leon's nervous nerves never settled. There was something keeping him on edge, some detail he was missing but couldn't put his finger on. Something that made his heart pound a little faster.

After collecting his torch, he couldn't help but look back up at the dark skies. A question presented itself to him.

Was it wealth and glory that awaited him down below, or was he heading to an early grave beneath the roiling sea?