Complete darkness.

Despite it being in the middle of the day, Yuri’s rune powered wagon was sealed in darkness only comparable to a moonless night.

“You know. I should have expected this, considering the scenery hadn’t changed for several days before...but these mountains are ENORMOUS!?”

Yuri spoke out into the unseen area around them. They were still riding their wagon, heading at a speed far past what was safe by any standards, especially considering they were essentially driving blind.

“They are indeed. As well they should be, this city didn’t survive every war, be it among men or gods, for nothing. They owe it to these mountains, that serve as the city’s first and final unbreachable wall.”

Hikaru looked back while answering. The darkness stretched long behind them. At the furthest point of his vision, he could see the faint light. Where the shadow of the top of the mountains ended.

The mountains were so tall and wide that they completely blocked out the sun, even when it was in the middle of the sky. The only time this area got any sunlight was when the sun was about to set, getting the rare angle that showered the darkness with light.

Unfortunately it was still a few hours until sunset, and Yuri being as impatient as she was, resulted in them heading into the deep dark. Traveling toward the foot of the mountain.

Hikaru noted their distance from the edge of the mountain's shadow.

“We should arrive soon..perhaps we should slow down and walk the rest of the way”

“Ah you’re right, wouldn’t want to crash into something again”

A rune was drawn on the floor of the wagon. Which burst into bright light, fending off the blackness around them.

The first thing that was visible in the bright light, was the lifeless figure of Helgi, who lay in the corner of the wagon, holding a fetal position.

“Oh hey Helgi. Seems you’ve finally relaxed huh. See riding the wagon isn’t so bad, now is it? Your motion sickness disappears once you get used to it.”

She nodded, confirming that she was right.

Slowly lifting up his face from where it rested in his knees. Helgi looked at Yuri with crusty eyes layered with dark rings.

“Hajdadnakdaknfmafsoaf..!”

He spoke no language Yuri or Hikaru knew. It was most likely not even a language he himself knew.

“Yuri..I think spending all this time on a wagon going through a desert while not being able to stomach water...has of taken its toll on him.”

Hikaru looked at Helgi with sympathetic eyes. Although he knew Helgi only suffered of a very light heatstroke and wasn’t close to any kind of danger. He knew that a heatstroke combined with severe motion sickness for such a long time would do strange things to a human mind.

He had experienced it himself upon being caught with his fellow knights by a country suspecting them to be spies, where they used similar torture on him and his companions. Most of them went mad far quicker than Helgi.

Luckily Helgi wasn't human so he managed to endure and free them. But for some it had already been too late.

“Ehhh, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s been through worse”

His concern was waved off casually.

“No, i must insist that we stop this moment and tend to Helgi. He has done well to endure as he has. Do not make light of a man's conviction. Anyone else in this condition would have jumped off the wagon by now. But he chose to endure.”

Sternly saying this, Hikaru looked at Yuri in a slightly scolding manner.

“Alright alright..I’ll stop the wagon..what man’s conviction..I’m a man too you know..”

Mumbling to herself, she went to turn off the runes, slightly sulking over being talked to like that by Hikaru.

“There. Done. Happy now?”

She said once the flow of the runes had stopped.

“Just a second.”

Hikaru drew his sword and moved to the back of the wagon. Leaning slightly over the edge, he stabbed the sword deep into the ground while holding onto the wagon.

His sword was dragged through the ground, slicing through sand and dirt.

Slowly the wagon started losing speed.

It took several hundred meters for the wagon to completely lose its speed despite being slowed down by Hikaru’s sword.

Upon finally coming to a full stop, Yuri heard a small sound.

Dink!’

“Hm..? What was that?”

Moving to the front of the wagon, she drew a small rune to light up the front of the wagon.

Once there was light around her...

She was a mere inch from a stone wall.

“....Hey Hikaru. Did you know about this?”

She looked back at Hikaru, the colour draining from her face slightly at how close they were to becoming pancakes.

“I did not. But i suspected something similar.”

Saying this, Hikaru helped Helgi get down from the carriage, unconcerned with Yuri’s worries.

“Geez..you sure love acting all casual about the strangest things, but worry about the smallest of things..”

Sighing quietly, Yuri walked up to Helgi, who was on all floors, his eyes seemingly amazed at the still nature of the ground.

“Oh dear earth..how i have missed thine soft dusty nature. How have i longed for your still and gentle touch. So filled with life, capable of providing even for the smallest, and able to hold up even the largest. How little do we give thanks to what is always there for us, no matter time or place. Always present to silently support us, without expecting thanks. Receiving only the satisfaction of being..our protector..”

Helgi spoke poetically, transfixed in a trance.

“Okay okay. Any longer and i worry you’re gonna kiss the ground..”

He was pulled up by Yuri, who slapped his cheeks.

“Huh..? Yuri..?”

Blinking, he looked at Yuri with confusion.

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“Where are we?”

“We arrived, at the foot of the mountain”

“Oh..Already? That wasn’t so bad, i must have fallen asleep during the trip”

Helgi smiled in relief. His memories of his horrible journey pushed to the back of his mind, never to be explored again.

“Yeah..exactly..”

Now slightly worried, Yuri nodded, realising how truly horrible it must have been for him that his mind had to push away his memories.

“Well, let’s get going? Don’t want to be standing all day in this dark do we?”

He began to unpack what little possessions they had.

“Yes Yuri, we should hurry, now that we have made it so early, we might make it before they shut the entrance for the night.”

Hikaru took his and Yuri’s baggage and headed along the wall that blocked out the sky.

Yuri drew a rune on a small rock, and carried it as a flashlight. Both her and Helgi slowly followed after Hikaru while cautiously lighting their way.

They continued walking for a long time, their surroundings never changing, it was hard to tell if Hikaru himself knew where he was going, but seeing as there were only two ways to go when you follow the side of the mountain. Yuri figured he was just going to walk until they stumble across the entrance, wherever it may be.

“Ah there it is.”

He finally spoke up.

“The entrance?”

“No, the stairs leading to the entrance.”

Standing to the side, Hikaru revealed a small doorway, inside of which was a stone staircase that went up the mountain, further than the eye could see.

It was inside the mountain, so even if they could see, they most likely would be unable to make any deductions as the inside of it was too dark to tell how long the staircase truly was.

“Finally. Let’s go up”

Yuri ran up the stairs before being grabbed by Hikaru who took her down the stairs again.

“Hey what are you doing, let’s go already!”

“It would be wiser to set up camp for the night here. Seems we took too long to get here after all. Climbing those stairs would take at least several hours. By that point the entrance will be closed.”

He explained to her.

“What. But we’re so close!”

“Come on Yuri, I don’t want to have to sleep on some stairs, that seems really bad for your back..or really good depending which position you sleep in..hmm..”

Helgi began thinking of how the stairs could be used in alleviating hurting backs by applying pressure on it.

“No way. Then we will break through the gates. I dislike quitting when we’re so close to achieving what we want.”

She folded her arms.

“But Yuri, if we do break in, that means we can’t stay at a comfortable inn since they will try and arrest us”

Making a perfectly reasonable point which Yuri couldn’t argue with, made her fold her arms even tighter.

“Then all we have to do is get there before they shut the entrance right. Fine. Hikaru. Cut a meter long slab of stone from the mountain.”

Commanding Hikaru, she pointed at the wall.

Raising an eyebrow, Hikaru did as he was told, slicing a round slab of stone, fast enough that they could barely see him draw and resheath his sword.

“Alright..now with a bit of this and this..”

A few runes were etched onto the centre and sides of the slab.

She began to push it toward the stairs, but realising she wasn’t making any progress, she looked at Hikaru for assistance.

“Alright everyone get on”

She said when Hikaru had pulled the stone slab onto the stairs.

“Uh...what’s that supposed to be..?”

Helgi cautiously asked.

“A home made elevator!”

“I don’t think i want to get on that..”

He denied, shaking his head at Hikaru and Yuri who were already sitting on the stone slab.

Yuri activated the runes, which began to glow ominously.

“Come on Helgi, it’s going off any moment!”

“No really, it’s okay. I rather not.”

“Oh come on!”

He was pulled in by Yuri, and hit the middle of the stone slab with his stomach.

The runes glew one final time and set off with Yuri’s now classic move. A combination of Water and Air.

Shooting the stone slab up the staircase, like a reverse sledge, which was going uphill.

The intense speed of the stone slab going up the stairs made Helgi’s unwanted memories of their ride here well up to the surface of his mind again.

If he was conscious he would have screamed. But now that his mind was in complete shock, all that came out of his mouth was..

“hafahoafhaohfaoanhdahdfj!?”

The mysterious language that no one other than the gods could decipher. But his tone made the meaning of his gibberish fairly obvious to anyone who wasn’t deaf.

The stone slab kept moving up the stairs, a few minutes of flying later, Hikaru grabbed Yuri and Helgi, and jumped off their stone sleigh.

It kept flying off into the darkness, followed by the sound of something crashing into metal, accompanied with loud cursing.

“That’s the entrance.”

Hikaru noted.

“Our usual entrance”

Yuri nodded, being reminded of how they crashed into the gates of Asur.

“Hohagahoa…”

Helgi breathed out in relief, still speaking strangely.

--

“Ehh..what kind of entrance is this. It’s so narrow. What kind of stupid entrance is this. How can they even fit supplies through here..”

Yuri was complaining while walking through a rough tunnel leading through the mountain.

They had been allowed to pass only due to the credibility of Hikaru, who seemed to have worked with the guards once upon a time, and so was vaguely recognised.

“They don’t need to, they are completely self sufficient, so the only thing they ever need to import are rare commodities, and those usually don’t take much space anyway.”

Hikaru explained.

“Yes but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have made it a bit bigger..you can barely fit two of me side by side”

She tried stretching out her arms, which stopped against the wall.

“Well..that’s how they survive every war. Whenever something happens. They just shut the tunnel. The enemy has no way of getting in, and waiting them out is no option when they are completely self sufficient.” Hikaru added.

“They seem completely cut off from the rest of the world. I’m guessing they have overconfident pride in their superiority, right? Not quite unlike some countries from our world, that chose to isolate themselves”

Joining the conversation, Helgi spoke up from the back.

“Well..i would say they’re more..hm..comfortable with themselves, than most.” Hikaru replied, giving an apologetic glance at the guard escorting them, who rolled his eyes.

“Ohh Helgi, the demon possessing you left then? or did you force it out in the form of gas. I saw you clutching your stomach for a while there”

Grinning, Yuri stabbed an ill-willing comment at Helgi.

“Ahhh shut up Yuri. It’s your fault i was about to hurl. and what demon? Your jokes are getting weaker and weaker, as i would expect from someone who can’t even reach to my chest in height. Those closer to the ground get duller by being ground against the ground while walking huh?”

Helgi shot back verbally at her.

Not having a good comeback, Yuri resorted to making an ugly face at Helgi.

“Ha, how childish Yuri, you should know by now that something like that won’t-”

Helgi began.

“Stop making that face while I’m talking damnit”

“No way~”

“Fine, how about this!”

Helgi began to make faces at her as well, making sure they were ruder than hers. They continued their disturbingly ugly battle for a while.

Their faces froze in the middle of half way making a strange face, and halfway laughing.

They had finally come out of the tunnel.

Having climbed up those stairs, they had guessed they would come out in a fairly high position compared to the ground.

But never had they expected that they would be quite that far off the ground.

Looking down, all they could see was a great deep blackness.

But above the terrifying, imposing deep, was something beyond anything anyone had ever seen, even in this world, those who laid eyes upon this scenery were rare and far between.

The mountain they were in stretched for miles and miles, until it became completely tiny in the distance.

It covered the area they were facing in a huge circle, blocking off all light from the sun.

The area protected by the mountain, was as big as several cities, or perhaps as big as a small country, it was truly that vast. So was the hole beneath them.

It stretched far and wide, completely covering the inside of the area protected by the wall of mountains.

It made one almost wonder if the city they were supposed to visit was on the bottom of that seemingly bottomless pit.

Almost.

If it hadn’t been for the many things floating above the deep darkness.

Not hanging, not flying, not falling.

But floating.

Giant pieces of land, of rock. Which contained everything from forests, to mountains, houses, to even small cities.

Each giant piece of floating rock had something different on it. Each one was like it’s own tiny planet.

They looked tiny from the distance, but considering the houses were normal sized, each piece of floating rock would be as small as several streets, and as big as half a normal city.

Since it was completely dark, the light that made them able to see everything inside the protective shell of the mountain, were lights on the walls of the mountain.

Many countless lights. Covering the entire walls of this mountain that stretches for miles.

Lighting up everything stronger than the sun ever could.

It wasn’t something that one saw everyday. No it wasn’t something that one saw even in fantasy.

This was a sight completely beyond what was expected of imagination itself.

The idea itself was possible to see in anyone's mind eye.

But actually seeing it. The precise movements of each land of mass, floating so naturally through the air as if floating in invisible water.

The mass of variety between each rock. covered in something completely different, they looked almost like multi-coloured candy.

And the bright yellow lights coming from all around these floating islands.

Yet not strong enough to be overpowering. Having only just enough power to make the movements of each floating rock, glimmer in light.

It was a sight beyond what a human could achieve, it was beyond what humanity could achieve.

It was a sight beyond belief.