Another part of the mountain crumbles in the distance. The delayed sound of the rumbling only notifying people of its disappearance once it’s too late.

“Come on. If i’m right, this might lead us to what we came here for”

Helgi slowly walked through the city, following the pulling of the now magnetised metal card he held.

“You mean the relic? If you have found its location then that would be quite a big surprise for Yuri.”

Walking along, Hikaru curiously observed Helgi.

“Yeah..i think it might...be..”

The card slipped out of his hand and flew straight forward.

“Damnit! We can’t lose it! Follow it!”

Hikaru and Helgi began running after the escaping card.

The card continued flying straight until it reached a seemingly random street and flew down into the ground hard enough that it was embedded into the wooden boards serving as foundation.

“This must be it..i don’t want to waste my cards, so could you dig this up for me?”

Helgi asked while taking a step back.

Drawing his sword, Hikaru slashed at the ground several times, and stomped at the ground with all his power.

A square block of dirt, a meter long, jumped out of the ground.

Doing half a spin, Hikaru kicked with a horizontal move, scattering the dirt in pieces which flew in all directions.

Some of those pieces hit Helgi in the face.

“...That wasn’t on purpose was it.” Helgi slowly wiped the dirt from his eyes.

“I believe we found what we were looking for.”

Hikaru wiped some dirt off his clothes.

“We did?” Finishing wiping off the rest of the dirt from his eyes, Helgi took a closer look.

Floating in mid air, where the cube of dirt was only a second ago. Was a piece of white metal.

“Huh..is that it? I thought these things usually looked more grandiose or something”

Helgi seemed unimpressed.

“This isn’t it..” Hikaru slowly walked up to it and observed it closely.

“Look at it closely. It has a sharp end but it looks incomplete. This is only a piece of the relic. If i am guessing correctly..this must be the relic of my father from when he was a real god. He must have brought his relic with him and given it to these people in exchange for their cooperation..”

“I see. Well if this only one part of it, how the hell are we going to find the rest of them. We don’t really have time to do my card trick on every island”

Helgi felt unmotivated. Sure he wanted to find the relic. But doing something like that would require many days of looking, by which point a commotion would be in full force inside this country.

“We have no need to do so. Observe the relic part.”

Doing as he was told, Helgi noticed something odd about the relic. Something was floating around it. Small grains of sand. No it wasn’t sand, sand would have no reason to float around it, it wasn’t magnetic. It must be small grains of iron from the dirt around it.

The grains weren’t simply floating around the relic part. They were increasing in number, getting absorbed from dirt of the entire island.

The iron sand began forming some sort of line, going from the relic part and into the sky, before going down again somewhere far away.

The line thickened with collected iron sand, presumably from wherever it ended, and another line formed. Which ended in another place. Several lines were created which in total ended in three places other than the one they were at.

“The other parts will be at the end of these bridges of iron. All we have to do is make our way there. Only three left.”

Hikaru was about to take the relic part floating in front of him, when it suddenly disappeared.

“I don’t think so!”

A voice unfamiliar to Hikaru sounded around him.

An older man wearing what seemed to be a high ranking uniform walked out from behind a building holding the relic piece.

“You thieves. Thieves and terrorists...i don’t know how you’re doing it. Destroying our precious protective walls..now you’re aiming to fully destroy our country by stealing our relic. I will not allow it.”

“It’s you, that general..!”

Helgi remembered.

“Yes. Nice of you to remember, imposter.”

The general slowly walked up to the hole Hikaru created.

“Once we have the relic, we will rebuild the walls around our country. Don’t worry, my guards are already on their ways to the ends of the iron sand bridges.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Damn it.! We can’t let them get there first, if they get the relic parts they will undo Yuri’s work and get the relic we were trying to get..Hikaru, you’re faster than me, go there before they do..!”

Helgi told him and motioned at him to hurry.

“Are you sure. I could start with getting this relic piece first.”

Hikaru suggested while glancing at the general.

“It’s fine, i can take care of him, just hurry before you’re too late!”

Waving frantically, Helgi snapped at Hikaru.

“Very well. I will run as fast as i’m able”.”

With that, Hikaru disappeared.

“You should not have done that. You would have been wise to have your skilled friend take care of me first. You alone can’t take this from me, even if you tried.”

The general mocked him while pocketing the relic piece.

“I knocked you out once already. I can do it again, you don’t seem particularly well in shape”

Shrugging, Helgi prepared his metal cards.

“I’m not. But she is.”

Two knives were flung at Helgi, who barely managed to avoid one, while deflecting the other with his metal card.

A young woman walked out from behind the general.

“I dislike it when my lovers aren’t there to greet me in the morning.”

The woman said bitterly.

“Oh. It’s you. Hey. Yeah sorry about that i was sort of in a hurry and you know..”

Making weak excuses, Helgi rubbed the back of his head.

“No more talking. Only repenting!”

The angry woman flew at Helgi with two new daggers in her hands. She did not jump, but she literally flew at Helgi.

“What the hell!? Magic?!”

Dodging around, Helgi was having a hard time keeping up with her speed and flexibility of movement.

“The relic wasn’t the only thing we received. The great protector below us granted us special magic for use in a situation just like this one.”

The general explained.

The woman flew at him once more, her daggers held in front of her.

“Cut that out!”

Helgi flung a metal card at her, which exploded on impact as she didn’t even try to dodge it.

Her two daggers were flung to two different directions while she herself was flung backwards, collapsing on the ground behind the general.

“Now, you will give that to me, or else i will do the same to you”

Slowly approaching the general, Helgi stretched slightly, exhausted from dodging the woman's attacks.

“Why should i give you anything. After all, your opponent is still not done.”

“What are you talking about, the girl is unconcious”

Helgi raised his eyebrow.

“The girl was never your opponent.”

“...!”

In the middle of stretching his neck sideways, Helgi noticed a glimmer behind him.

He immediately dropped to the ground, just as two glimmering objects whizzed past above his head.

He quickly stood up and prepared himself.

Floating in front of the general, were the two daggers the woman had dropped earlier.

“...Don’t tell me.”

Helgi glanced at the floating iron sand, which seemed to flicker slightly, seeming to lose its power. Looking at the two daggers floating in midair. He noticed why they glimmered so suspiciously. They were metal.

“I see..it’s the same deal with you then huh..”

Brushing off his pants, Helgi unfurled his deck of metal cards and sorted them all to his liking. Preparing himself.

“Of course. Our protector rules the power of the world itself. The world is made up of minerals. And he has granted us the ability to manipulate them, even if only a little, in order to protect our precious country!”

The daggers slowly pointed their sharp end at Helgi while floating in circles around the general.

“I have complete control over how these daggers move. You have no chance of winning this. I do not even need to lift a single finger, letting my projectiles do the work for me!”

“Is that so...well then let’s see..” Helgi activated one of his cards, making it shine bright red while he held it between his fingers along with several other cards.

“Which one of us. Is the better projectile user.”

--

“Alright yah slow bastads, get movin, we gotta get to the safe island before things start goin badly!”

Ahab was commandeering a big ship at the front of the rest of the airships, which carried the people from the city heading for the safety of a new floating island.

“Sir, we’re trying! But we have to keep a slow pace in order for the other ships to keep up!”

One of the rebel guards working on the ship explained.

“Alright alright, do yah any information if they finished modificating yer floating base? We’re gonna be needing all the extra space we can get”

“Yes sir! We have workers who have been working on expanding it non stop for hours now! That is partly the reason why we were required to move it further away. Due to the noise of construction attracting attention”

He explained again.

“Aye, i knew that..!” Ahab scoffed at him. Despite having no idea behind the reasoning for the rebel base being moved so far away, as he had mostly not been listening to what his rebel guards planned.

“We can’t have it be on a real island as they would all fall down, if that lass succeeds that is”

He realised.

“Correct sir” The guard nodded.

“Hey, what’sat over there?”

Ahab looked to the side, a peculiar black line was going through the sky, splitting into several ends which went into different directions.

“I have no clue sir”

One of those ends actually ended at a nearby floating island. An island which seemed to not really have anything on it. Not even vegetation. It was a floating mountainous rock.

“Gimme the telescope!”

Ahab grabbed a telescope which hanged at the guard’s belt, and looked through it at the strange black line.

At the end of the black line. He found something floating. A white piece. Presumably a piece of a larger object.

“Could that be..”

Ahab pondered.

“You” Ahab pointed at the guard. “Keep drivin the ship to the base, i’ll catch up to yuh later. I need to check somethin”

Ahab said and jumped on a smaller airship which was attached to their larger airship.

It was a small airship built to be maneuverable and swift. But not made to fly long distances. Often used as either a fighter airboat, or a rescue boat.

Turning on the lamps of the airship, Ahab flew it toward the floating white piece, where the black line in the sky ended.

“Sir! Wait! You can’t get to the base with only that airship! Sir!`? Do you even know where the base is!?”

The guard yelled after him. But Ahab was already far enough that his old ears couldn’t hear.

His airship headed at top speed, making his clothes stick tight to his body due to the wind pressure. Which didn’t make for a pretty sight.

“Hm? Who is that over there..? One of our airships gotten lost..?”

He noted an airship approaching fast in the distance.

“Wait a second..that airship..looks a bit weird..” His old eyes took a while to adjust, but eventually he could vaguely the see the airship.

“..It’s balloon is red!? It’s one of those damn guards! What’s a single man ship doin alone here?”

He pondered while heading for the white piece.

“Is it..? It’s headin for where i’m headin..! I must be right then! That thing over there, must be that relic that lad asked me to find!”

Ahab smiled.

“I’ll show that smart arse. Said i’m a cheap bastard who breaks his promises..well i’ll prove him wrong by not breakin this one! That relic is mine!”

He yelled at the airship in the distance, despite knowing it’s driver couldn’t hear him.

He increased the speed of his airship's propellers and headed for the relic piece as quick as his airship allowed him.

“Let’s see who gets there first!, been awhile since aye’ve done an airship race!”