The wind blowing against my face felt sharp and painful, it was hard to breathe, and it was astonishingly cold. White, mixed with bright blue, these soft colors continuously drilled into my eyes, as there was nothing else to the scene.

Underneath me the squawks of a bird could be heard constantly, the massive bird spanned several meters piercing through clouds, while it's massive white wings flapped gently across the sky.

“If I could do nothing, but just stare at this forever.”

I shook my head, there were still things left to do, but really the more I stare at this scenery the lazier I'm feeling. Maybe one day I'll just find a good spot with a similar view, and lie there forever.

“.........”

“Maybe it's just the thin air talking.”

The scenery never changes, only the shapes of the clouds running into my face, and the pure sky. The flight had likely taken over several hours, and the bird was getting tired. Lan could tell from it's slower movements, and ragged breathing.

Just as he was wondering if they should land, tiny specks in the distance came into view, as he narrowed his eyes, a multi layered magic circle formed over his right eye. A small group of floating islands came into view, with lush green plants, and trees overflowing on the distant island.

When the island finally came into normal viewing distance Lan's eyes widened slightly, and a stiff expression formed on his face. It was a shadow protruding from behind the island, hidden inside a vast layer of clouds.

Lan casually plucked a single feather from the bird, and poured mana into it, the feather grew stiffer, and harder, until it was no different then a metal object shaped like a feather, then proceeded to add a magical enchantment unto it.

As he drew closer, and closer, the shadow in the distance grew larger but did not move, as he neared the island he saw giant white pillars, eventually he realized the island was not actually floating but embedded into the white structures appearing all over the place.

The thick white structures were everwhere, even covering over the island, and travelled for several kilometres, piercing the clouds in the far distance as well. Eventually he came to realize the full enormity of what he saw.

“Skeletal remains of some beast, the bones are absorbing the winds itself, keeping it's corpse afloat with ingrained magical properties. Several islands are attached to parts of it's massive body.”

The giant creature had three limbs on each side, and a massive hide that stretched for as far as the eye could see, many parts were still hidden in the clouds. The head was missing but the rest of it's body remained intact. It's bone structure did not resemble any normal creature.

He could see large vines crawling all over the spine, and even trees and plants growing from cracks in the bones. After nudging the bird, they landed on the outskirts of the first island attached to the giant remains of an unknown beast.

Instead of exploring he found a spot to rest, he overexerted his limbs, muscles, and hunger enveloped him. With a small grunt he got back up, and decided to collect items to eats.

The giant bird merely stayed in the same spot like a statue, staring at Lan collecting food. It's eyes were glazed over with a lack of intelligence, and resembled a zombie more than anything else.

Lan eventually filled himself with stems, leaves, petals and some tree fruit, he searched the ground for a nice long tree branch, and incanted a minor spell on it, solidifying it into a permanent walking stick. The sky was still bright, and scenery was filled with lush green.

“What a stark contrast to the ground below.”

He began to slowly delve into the trees, and explore the island. The grass was healthy, and the soil was rich. Even walking along in the environment felt incredibly casual and surreal, as he slowly made his way across he didn't notice any signs of other creatures at all.

The island was surprisingly barren of life, as he continued to reach the other side, the sight of a giant piece of bone that lead directly into the far distance could be seen, surrounded by rolling clouds, and light winds.

“Hmm all I have to do is take a rest, and just fly on wards, I have no reason to go any further than this.”

As he went back to where the bird lay, he did not find what he was looking, instead what he found was a stone statue of the bird he left behind. The moment he noticed the change, true sight was already active. He slowly inspected the stone bird, and the mana current flowing around it, he looked around inspecting his surroundings carefully.

“Odd, I never sensed a magic being activated, and I don't see an anomaly with the area as well, normally some traces would be left after magic was used.”

As he inspected it's feet he noticed a thin concentration of saturated mana under it, eventually he found a small hole that seemed to have been freshly made in the soil. Judging from how smooth the hole was, and how a thin film of mana was rubbed against the walls of the hole, it did not seem to be made by tools, or a creature, but a different type of magic.

Spells are crafted by a variety of methods, and follow different theories of applications, even the quality and type of the same spell casted by different people differ.

However one thing will always remain the same, the aftereffects left behind, the characteristics left over will always hint at the type of spell used, while the hints are different depending on various factors, the characteristics will always lead to the same conclusion.

The only question floating in his mind was why anything would even bother to do something as trouble some as sneakily petrifying his mount.

“The fact the bird was targeted after I left, instead of immediately, meant I was the one it had an interest in. It could have gotten me when I was resting but didn't.”

Another sigh escaped his lips as he lightly shook his head, thinking about it too much was useless, he slowly walked towards the only way to reach the other islands.

“I can't reverse the spell, and sitting around is pointless, might as well explore a bit.”

In the end after circling the small island, he ended up back to where the long bridge of bone lay, without an ounce of hesitation he jumped down, a powerful draft travelled along the shaft of the bone, the powerful force almost knocked him over the edge.

Lan casually trailed the white bridge with his stick, and slowly made his way forward, the structure beneath him seemed non-existent as white layers of mist covered his feet as he walked forward. Naturally the experience gave quite the awkward sensation, and caused his heart to palpitate a bit.

Along the way he would casually touch the piece of the spine he was walking on, only to retract his fingers and continue forward.

“Looks like this thing didn't have any strong lingering thoughts upon it's death, or maybe it's intent simply disappeared.”

After walking for nearly an hour Lan could see faint glimpses of the rib cage hidden in the clouds above him, the vines and plants growing near his feet made the casual walk bumpy, and occasionally even dangerous.

As he was sight seeing he finally noticed a dense cluster of vines flowing down the side of a rib cage, above it was a dark shadow, and some leaves scattered around it. Approaching the vines dangling near the ribs, he measured they were about thirty metres above his height.

He casually walked across the spine, and unto the rib cage curving upwards, the mana coiling around his legs interacted with the rib, allowing him to effortlessly walk upwards. As long as an object has mana flowing through it's structure, it can be interacted with.

This was the basic philosophy of the magic scholars long ago. We live alongside it, it flows through us, and encompasses everything. The way a spell was created, the type of symbolism associated, and the methodology employed, was merely one of many paths towards tangible interaction that exist within the universe.

Lan casually kicked off from the rib and grabbed the vine, he thrust his palm forward, as if slamming against an invisible wall to prevent himself from swaying back and forth. His grip never once loosening, it was almost as if the vine was a sticky mass refusing to let him fall.

Eventually as he climbed up, his body was rubbing against the dirt, and soil of the island, he threw the stick over before he continued the climb, until he finally reached over and landed on a patch of green grass.

The scenery was the same as the first island, except at a much higher elevation, and a thick fog was covering a majority of the land. While exploring the area, he felt a thick wave of energy spread out, past him. The energy was warm, and did not contain any structured mechanic behind it, it simply poured out at irregular intervals.

Since this was the first real anomaly he discovered, Lan tried to pinpoint the epicentre. The outer rim of the expanding wave was saturated, but the inner portion was more dense, all Lan had to do was feel the density as he moved based on the degree of warmth.

He witnessed a dull red light glowing from the thick white fog located inside the sparsely populated trees. As he walked closer the red light glowed even brighter, and he could sense something forming in the air around him; pricking his skin like needles.

As he went deeper, wooden boards, and metal scraps started to appear punctured in the ground. As he walked over the ever increasing foreign debris, several large shadows hidden in the thick white began to appear one, after another.

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No sense of urgency or danger was felt, Lan sensed whatever it was it didn't harbour much intention behind this waves of energy. While drawing closer to a nearby shadow, he could see it's black, coarse surface, and eventually realized it was a stone statue.

On closer inspection they looked like the humans of this world, their faces seems distressed, and their poses were erratic and in mid action. Walking past over ten frozen statues to the red light he encountered even larger pieces of debris that looked to be made of wood, and tattered white sheets.

“A primitive looking ship huh.”

The red light actually penetrated the hull of the ship in front of him, and leaked out in a manner that treated the wood obstruction like glass. Instead of breaking a hole to the side of the ships, he jumped several feet in the air landing on the deck. He could literally see the glowing light underneath him, as he walked on the brown deck, covered with broken metal, and statues.

While walking around the deck, he could feel a metallic quality despite it being wood, even the sound of walking over gave it a pinging sound. He put his palm on the floor and using his strength slammed it on the deck, a giant sound wave quickly enveloped the ship, and forest, after twitching his ears, he walked directly to his right, and stared at the entrance inside the wrecked ship.

He quickly bludgeoned the hinges of the door down with his stick, and frowned.

“The material is harder than I thought.”

After pushing down the door he walked inside, where the red glow was literally blinding. After adjusting his eyes, he marched downward into the sea of red light. The inside was a typical primitive ship filled with cannons imbued magical properties, various rooms, and more statues around.

While walking around a surprised expression appeared on his face.

“Oh? I couldn't feel it before, but an intense mana concentration is gathering.”

This time instead of squinting his eyes he close them completely, and merely followed the mana concentration, while using the stick to feel for obstacles. The red light even penetrated his closed eyelids, and grew brighter as he kicked down a jammed door.

The light practically dug into his eyeballs behind his eyelids, and he even felt pain form his eyes to the back of his head, he could feel something clattering on his feet as we walked closer.

A distinct voice leaked from the source of light. It was a beautiful voice, it had a strange allure to it that caused one to want to listen more, it was similar to a slow song that soothed you.

The problem was to Lan that voice was speaking in a language he didn't understand.

Lan ignored the voice, and simply talked to himself out loud.

“First of all I have no idea what you are saying, but you are definitely not a living being, it seems a rather intricate, and powerful enchantment has been engraved into you. Since you can communicate I assume you have sentience.”

Lan stretched out his hands at the voice, and source of red light. While his fingers drew closer, his pale hand formed small thin red slits on his hands, droplet of blood leaked out, and numerous red scars started to form on his arms, and even tore up his shirt, creating numerous scars that kept multiplying across his body.

Lan just snorted, and thrust his hand forward gripping the object firmly, the object released a powerful gale, that nearly caused Lan to stumble but he held on, until the red light finally blinked out of existence, and only the darkness remained.

A slow sigh escaped his lips as he stared at the object in his hands.

It was a plain black handle attached to a long red blade dyed in the color of blood, that shined like a ruby, occasionally pulses of red light leaked from the blade. The blood leaking from his hand trickled from the sheathe, and towards the blade.

A strange red magic circle formed form the blood on the blade, and Lan could now hear the voice in his head.

The voice that spoke in a foreign language constantly drilled into him, rather than be shocked, Lan could only feel a slight annoyance at that voice constantly talking, Eventually the words slowly became familiar, and after a few minutes the unintelligible words slowly gained meaning.

“Stop ignoring me you disrespectful bag of flesh.”

“Hmm you're sentience is more advanced than I thought are you a weapon that gained a psyche or a former living being?”

“Oh, human you can finally hear me now. Open your mind to me, let me delve in your aspirationss, and fears, I will grant you the hidden dark desire dwelling in your soul.”

“But you're just a sword stuck on an wrecked ship, in the middle of a tiny Island. What can you offer me?

“Human, you dare talk down to me?”

Lan just sighed gently.

“Ah, hold on a minute.”

He quickly cut off the conversation, and started to explore the remains of the ships, he went through all the rooms, and examined all the items available. Every statue he passed he casually touched, and various lingering thoughts flowed into him.

“I need a woman to hold.”

“Why did the magic crystal crack!”

“What's happening to my body!”

“Dammit, after all the effort to obtain that treasure!”

“Ah, I wish to return to Ealsia.”

He also took his time examining many more statues, some of them gave hints on their roles, and purpose, the conclusion he found was that the magic making this ship fly was destroyed, and they came crashing into the island.

He also found a pile of coins with different images imprinted on it, some of them far different than the others, which indicated different types of currency from various places. His clothes were changed to a plain black pants, and white shirt, he found around the ship, and a small satchel was made from the various cloth. During his inspection the voice was constantly berating and hurling abuse, but Lan just ignored the voice in his head.

“As a weapon you really are annoying huh?”

“Men will grovel, lakes of blood will reign, and the death of thousand lie in my wake.”

“Sorry I just don't care.”

Lan sighed lightly as he quickly left the ship, and let the thing prattle on. He sighed again as he remembered his blood flowing unto the blade and accidentally activated a contract with it. The style, shape, and details were different, but he definitely recognized a contract when he saw one.

“So what's your name?”

“I have no name to give to you.”

“Ok, your name is red.”

“Offer yourself to me, and I will grant you power. Your body is already connected to me, you cannot escape your fate.”

A seductive yet warm voice enveloped his brain, and he could feel a strange sense of attachment to the sword in his hands.

“Hah nice bluff, blood contracts aren't consensual, only by meeting very specific requirement would they activate, even if by accident. In this type of contract you have nothing over me.”

The woman inside his head remained silent, and refused to acknowledge what he just said.

Like the first Island Lan casually circled the second one, trying to see if their were any points of interest that might be of use to him. Even thought he now had the crimson blade, he still kept the walking stick.

Eventually after finding nothing more he could use, he quickly went back on the spine heading towards the other areas. The sky was turning dark now, and the winds grew even more chilly, while walking casually he looked at the scar left by the blade on his arms, and body.

“I should probably clean my wounds first, and get something to eat.”

“Such weak vigor dwells within you.”

“You do realize, you did this to me?”

“Hmph...”

Along the way Lan had tried to probe her for answer on various question only to be met with silence, only sometimes she would talk in order to make complaints, or hurl weird one liners. As he walked along another island came into view. It was located directly in the spine, and was easy to reach, as long as he went forward.

This island was surrounded by green hills, and he could see a variety of nests built inside them. They were white hairy ape like creatures with four bat wings, their size was about 7 feet tall, with stringy limbs, and well toned bodies.

Lan watched them with true sight, while hiding behind some trees growing on the spine.

“Looking at their teeth they should be carnivorous. Since they chose to make a nest here it means a food source should be nearby.”

A quick estimate resulted in over eighty of those things, while killing them all was a possibility it was not an effective use of energy and mana, if he was going to do anything it would be after a majority of them leave. Instead of taking action he merely remained hiding behind a tree and observed their behaviours.

Animals usually followed a set pattern embedded inside them, and universal habits that dictate their actions. Since he was in no hurry, and needed the rest anyways he sat down, and casually observed from the side of a tree.

After two hours of waiting the night was getting darker, and Lan was now seriously considering sneaking past the nest. A portion of the population recently flew away leaving a much more sparse nest guards.

The creatures had three roles as far he could tell, the one with black stripes, and larger were hunters, the small ones with only two wings were likely female as they attended to the young more, and the hunters walking all over the area were likely guards.

“The right side has less nests, and the interval when a guard pops up would be around one minute.”

Lan slowly darted past the trees, and plants until the spine leading to he hills had no cover left, from his pockets he dug out a feather, and after mumbling a few words, the feathers slowly multiplied in his hands, until he had a handful.

For several minutes he would solidify, and throw one near one of the guards, until they finally reacted to the feather.

“Ok so their range of detection seems pretty dull only about twenty feet huh.”

After breathing out slowly, he threw ten feathers simultaneously near the centre, and left of the nest, nests were hit. The guards were drawn to the commotion in the nest near the left, and centre, as the guards were distracted at the crying, Lan dashed out and ran at full speed.

Under the cover of darkness his form was merely a blur, as he silently scaled the spine, and reached the hills, when the commotion died down and the guards went alert again, he lay flat on the grass, near the entrance, and dove into the nearest nest, instead of drawing blood, he spread his palms out and forced psychic images into the creatures destroying their primitive minds in less than a second.

After taking over a nest near the spine, he slowly btt surely made his way above the hill, occupying the nests near the edge, when he tried to go around he realize another nest was on the other side as well. On the tenth nest, a guard walked by, he quickly did the same psychic barrage, and as the guard was about to collapse he sped out and prevented it from falling. With a small grunt he carried the creature to the side of him, leading to the top of the hill.

After reaching the other side, he pushed the body down the hill in front of him.

He silently went down the hill to be greeted by a giant lake formed in the centre of the island, surrounded by green hills, and in the centre of that lake stood an enormous structure. It was basically five small pyramid forming into a pentagon, made of stone.

One glance and he could tell it was man made, the first thing that came to mind was the structure resembled a temple. Inside that temple he felt a familiar type of magic inside.

“That thing that turned my bird to stone.”

While mumbling to himself the woman inside his head actually spoke.

“.. A moroch temple, I see.”

“Moroch?”

The voice did not respond, and did not speak again. After staring at the large body of water Lan became more conscious of his own body. He slowly approached the shore where white mist floated along the waters surface, and began to strip.

The water was frigid, and the scar stung, but what was important was to clean his wounds, so after a good cleansing, he found a small tree, and began to carve a magi circle under it, before falling asleep in the middle.

The next day he gathered plants, fruit, and water as breakfast before making his way to the temple. He dumped the body in the water, and minutes later, he noticed a pool of red leaking into the surface.

Instead of swimming their, and risk exposing himself to possible threats in the water, he cut down a tree, and then made small chunks out of it.

He then proceeded to dump the chunks into the water, using his sword, and stick he swatted them all across the lake, like playing golf. For some reason whatever was in the lake did not respond to the pieces of wood.

All the chunks began to form a disjointed path, using his stick, and sword, Lan lightly jumped on the closest piece and began to weightlessly skipping on each piece. The magic embedded in his legs, caused the chunks he landed on to maintain buoyancy, and he would swat the nearby ones into different directions. Each time he jumped he would land on one path, and swat the nearby ones, to form another path, using this method he finally reached the structure in the centre.

The moment he saw the hollow entrance inside the triangle pyramid, a strange feeling could be felt in the air. It had no noticeable quality to it aside from a vague sense of longing. When he stepped inside the entrance he could feel the will of something, it was anxious, excited and slightly sinister.

Lan did not care what it's intention were but he wanted to deal with it first, before he tried to find a way back to his journey. Whetever was here clearly wanted him to come, so Lan merely accepted the invitation.

If a reason was truly necessary to describe him coming here, it was purely intuition, he felt he needed to deal with this before he could safely leave. Of course it was also his intuition that allowed his mount to be petrified into a statue in the first place.

The inside of the structure was covered with carved drawings, and the mana inside was exceptionally pure. Meaning the building was made of high quality material, that harnessed the mana in the atmosphere naturally. While walking forward strange yellow orbs of light started to drift from the cracks of the stone walls illuminating the hallway.

The deeper he walked, the more magical power he could feel leaking from the depths, many complex emotions leaked out and assaulted Lan's senses, whatever was inside was being incredibly emotional.

His skin was getting goosebumps, and it seems the sword was throbbing as if it was like a heartbeat.

While the woman inside his head remained silent, he could feel a strange happiness coming from her, and vaguely felt dark intent leaking from the blade.

Once again Lan just sighed.

“Everyone likes being difficult huh.”