The rest of the week and a half was spent on the ship. Since I could float, I didn’t feel motion sick unless I needed to sleep, then I would wake up motion sick and race to the top deck feeling like I would vomit at any moment. But I would start floating after and feel better. Shiro got pissed at me for not sharing the motion sickness trick with him after a few days, but I eventually taught him. He had to use his third core, though. Otherwise, his first core would set fire to the ship.
Turns out his third core is a Neutral core which cancels out everything that isn’t neutral. Like gravity or the ability to float with a Storm core. We had to stay on opposite sides of the ship so our abilities wouldn’t interfere with each other.
Also, while we were on the ship with Olli, he taught Cami and I several new spells and began teaching one of the twins, I think it was Leila, the runes and how spells work, and all that. It’s really hard to tell the twins apart for me. They look exactly alike and even wear the same clothes. This is partly the cultivation school’s fault since they both had to wear grey gis and belts.
Anyways, as I was saying, I learned several new spells thanks to Olli. One of which is called –
“ALL HANDS TO DECK!” Pike bellowed in everyone’s mind, interrupting my mental dialogue.
I’ll tell you all the spells later. Right now, I want to know what’s going on. I floated up from the ship’s second deck and went up to the helm, where Seven sat piloting the ship, and Pike stood behind her. I floated over to them and asked, “What’s going on?”
Seven gave a crooked smile and said, “We’re here.”
“I know we’re here. But where is here?” I asked jokingly.
“Go to the ship’s bow and look starboard. You’ll see where here is.”
“Right,” I nodded and moved a little way to leave but turned around to look pleadingly at Seven and Pike.
“Go to the front of the ship and look right,” Seven explained, exasperated.
I nodded again and floated my way quickly to the front of the ship. I grabbed the railing and looked expectantly over the ship’s right side. I didn’t see anything exhilarating, just a mountain range with sheer granite cliffs and a forest stubbornly growing on the tops or bottoms of the mountains. I did see some mountain goats climbing them, though. That was cool. After a few minutes of nothing unusual happening, I almost called back to say I didn’t see anything when we flew into a massive crack in the mountain. The ship flew steadily through the dark crevice, the sails shimmering in the dark and providing the only source of light in the darkness.
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I saw the light from the tunnel exit quickly approaching, and as we exited, my eyes quickly adjusted, and I gasped in amazement at the sprawling city before me. Around the city’s perimeter were hundreds of granite pillars with sail-like flags with the Wong empire emblem upon them. I didn’t pay the emblem much attention as I looked at the rest of the city.
Each building near the city’s outer edge was an industrial complex of machines that created a bog land around the granite pillars. As the city got closer to the center, the orange-roofed buildings got higher. An intricate bridge system connected each building as they got higher and higher into the sky. Trees and vines grew up the sides of the buildings and bridges, creating plateaus where people built their homes or restaurants. Small wisps of white smoke billowed up from chimneys around the city, giving the city an almost homely yet mysterious feel.
At the very center of the city was a massive tree, the same as the Fusang tree back home, creating emerald light and shadows that danced across the city. And around the tree was a monolithic palace with high towers that looked over the entire city. Above all that, even above the massive Fusang tree, floated a colossal colosseum. It looked the same size as half the city, like a giant pulled a mountain from the ground and had smaller beings than it carve the colosseum from the stone and earth.
I reveled in the sight of the city, amazed by the ingenuity and majesty of it. “Impressive, huh?” Haze said as she walked up behind me. I nodded, utterly speechless. She chuckled, “Glad you like the view, and welcome to Nexeus, the capital of the Wong empire.”
“Yeah, it is a very impressive city. Is that another Fusang tree?” I asked off-handedly.
“No,” Haze answered quickly, “it looks similar but is ultimately a different tree. That is Yggdrasil, the world tree. Whereas the Fusang tree is the tree of knowledge.”
I nodded, and a flicker of movement caught my eye, and I snapped my attention to the granite pillars where the standards began moving. Two of the standards dropped down from the pillar and began shimmering with light as they spread out and became wings for a sort of short-range fighter. The two fighters flew over to our ship and hovered around it.
A man with a gravely voice called out from one of the fighters, “Who are you? Where is your docking clearance?”
Haze called out to the man and said, “We are team Fiery Heart from the Fusang empire! We were invited here for the tournament!”
The man went silent momentarily before saying, “You’ve arrived early. Why?”
“Wanted to get good seats and sign up for the fights first,” Haze said, cracking her knuckles.
The man went silent again, “You won’t be able to sign up for the fights for another week, but everything else checks out. Follow us.”
The two fighters flew in front of us and began guiding the ship over the city. Haze tapped my shoulder and said, “Get your things ready. Once we dock, we’re first off the ship. Pass it along.”
“On it!” I said and floated down to the deck, waving at my team to follow me as I passed them. And passed Haze’s orders along as we all went to our rooms to pack our bags.
***