Chapter 208 – Floor 33: Part 1
Floor 33: The Resplendent Dawn
This world is a stark testament to the devastation wrought by the Orb of Twilight. You witnessed the Orb being purchased during an Auction on Floor 20, where a third party obtained it for nefarious means. The Orb of Twilight is capable of consuming a sun and applying its power to fuel its curse.
The Orb, a relic of darkness and spite, has been brought to this world. Once brimming with light and life, it now languishes in eternal night. The Relic has drained the sun’s radiance, plunging the planet into an unending void of darkness, a frozen waste consumed by storms and inhabited by malicious creatures drawn by the Orb’s power.
In the heart of this shadowed realm, a solitary beacon of hope remains. The Resplendent Dawn, a majestic flying ship powered by a rare and precious Shard of the Sun. This fragment of solar brilliance is the last source of light in this forsaken world. Its warm, golden glow cuts through the encroaching gloom as the ship prepares for its perilous journey.
As a Champion of the Gods, it is your duty to safeguard The Resplendent Dawn and its precious cargo of sunlight as it makes its way through the suffocating darkness. The ship is the only vessel capable of navigating the treacherous void, but its is not invincible.
The darkness that has devoured this world is alive, and it seeks to extinguish the shard’s light. The Orb’s influence is a constant threat; it is driven by the desire to engulf the last Shard of Sunlight in shadow.
The survival of the remaining people, those who cling to hope and wait for refuge, depends on The Resplendent Dawn reaching its destination.
Reward: Compendium of Advanced Words.
While this tome provides no new words to the reader, it will allow the Speaker an improved understanding of the Celestial Language, allowing the Speaker to use Advanced Words more effectively and reduce the physical burden on the Speaker’s body.
“Heal” Mathew whispered as he held his hand over his right leg. His palm emitted a glow of energy and he ran it slowly up and down his right hip, thigh and knee. The pain gradually eased, and he could feel something inside his body knitting together.
After a few minutes, the glow faded, and he tentatively tried to have his right leg support his weight. To his surprise and delight, his leg didn’t hurt at all. Mathew was free of pain for the first time in decades. It was almost worth going through the heartache of the previous Floor.
He still couldn’t believe it had all been an illusion. Susan, Arnold and Mia, all the people he knew from there, weren’t real. It had all been a trick to try to get him to quit the Tower.
Mathew had asked the grey-suited woman why he had been chosen for that Floor and what its purpose was, and her reply was similar to Arnold's. Apparently, Unyielding Declaration had stepped on someone’s toes, and they were seeking revenge.
Since Mathew was Unyielding Declaration’s Apostle, it made sense to strike out at him.
As Mathew stood, the elevator slowed down, and the doors slowly opened. Healed and ready, Mathew strode through the elevator doors into darkness.
The void was absolute.
As Mathew stepped out of the well-lit elevator, the doors closed behind him, and he was swallowed by a blanket of darkness that was so profound that it felt almost tangible. His breath caught in his throat as he emerged into a landscape untouched by light.
Before him stretched an endless expanse of terrain, the ground already beginning to be covered in a thick layer of crystalline frost that glinted eerily in the weak, distant glow of the few remaining stars in the sky that had not yet been blocked from sight by the Orb of Twilight.
Now a pitch-black abyss, the sky seemed to fold in on itself. It pressed down upon the planet below with a suffocating weight. Aside from a few distant pinpricks of light that cast only the faintest illumination through the oppressive darkness, the once-familiar night sky was now absent of everything.
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Mathew’s eyes could hardly adjust to the dimness; he only saw hints of the landscape's stark desolation. The air was bitterly cold, biting through his clothing despite its many enchantments designed to repel the elements.
In the distance, Mathew could make out some shadows that were lighter than the others. As he walked forward, his boots crunching on the hard, frozen ground, he found some remnants of civilization that rose up out of the ground like skeletal fingers reaching toward the sky.
Bits of concrete buildings, parts of a road, or a tree, its leaves still green and frost-covered by the sudden onset of cold.
As Mathew walked through this wasteland, the weight of the darkness pressed down upon him. It was a constant reminder of the sun’s absence; his heart was heavy, and he felt a mixture of dread and despair at what had happened to this planet.
The Sunless world stretched endlessly, a sombre monument to what had once been a thriving civilization, now fallen to ruin, occupied only by Mathew’s solitary figure in the midst of an eternal night.
Mathew walked for only a few minutes, but the cold was already becoming too much for him to handle. His fingers were white with the cold, and even tucking them into his pockets couldn’t relieve him of the chill.
Looking up, he saw another star twinkle brightly before it was swallowed in darkness. The world seemed to grow a tiny bit dimmer around him. Letting out a sigh, Mathew lowered his gaze toward the ground.
That’s when he saw it. A glimmer of light in the distance, a faint glow against the darkness. Hurrying his steps, he came to a small rise and was granted his first look at the ship that was carrying the last of this world’s people to a new home.
The Resplendent Dawn was a marvel of unparalleled beauty imbued with purpose. Its outer appearance was strikingly bright in the surrounding darkness. The ship's hull, a masterful blend of gleaming brass and rich, auburn-coloured wood, emitted a soft, golden glow that surrounded the vessel like a cocoon.
This light was ethereal and otherworldly, emanating from the ship through lines of magical energy that formed symbols and glyphs on the hull. It was the sole source of illumination in the shadowy expanse, its glow casting a warm and reassuring radiance.
Enormous sails reached into the sky. White and pristine, they were crafted from shimmering, almost translucent materials that stretched from the ship’s three masts. These sails rippled with the golden light from the hull, but their colours would shift subtly as they caught the glow, sending a rainbow effect across the material.
In the center of the sails was a symbol: a golden sun with beaming rays that extended to the edges of the fabric, blazing with a magical fire. It seemed as though the celestial body itself had been captured and imprinted upon the material, its fiery essence forever etched into the sails.
Two wings stretched out from the hull on either side of the ship. These wings were detailed with fine arcane engravings with similar lines of power as they kept the vessel aloft.
The Resplendent Dawn hovered a dozen feet or so off the ground as if they were waiting for something. Quickening his pace, Mathew soon arrived at the ship.
As he entered the bubble of light cast from the vessel, he felt a warmth like the sun on a summer’s day strike his face. It drove away the cold, and Mathew let out a breath of relief at the sudden absence.
Someone on board had obviously seen him approach, for someone’s head peeked over the side and greeted him.
“Are you the Champion we have been waiting for?” A man called out. His voice had an accent Mathew didn’t recognize.
“I am.” Mathew called back. A ladder was lowered, and Mathew quickly found himself on the deck, surrounded by people. Ignoring the greetings and endless questions, his eyes locked on the person in charge.
An older woman in a uniform, she had a commanding presence about her that drew his attention. Stepping forward, she greeted him.
“I am Elysia Thorne, Captain of the Resplendent Dawn.” Elysia said, her tone clipped and short as if she were cutting off her words before they ended naturally.
Mathew found her to be an imposing figure. She had silver hair, tied back into a practical bun that did nothing to hide her eyes. Sharp and piercing, they locked onto his and seemed to be trying to dig out his every secret.
She wore a perfectly tailored and untouched uniform in a deep blue with golden embroidery. High-collared, it was matched with a belt that had a sabre sheathed on her hip. Surprisingly, Mathew could feel mana coming from the Captain, enough that she would be the equal of players from the lower Twenty Floors.
“I’m Mathew, The Enduring. Apostle to the god of Unyielding Declaration.” Mathew replied, matching her formality with his own. It was often better to try to set a good first impression if he wanted these people to trust and rely on him.
The Captain’s eyes widened slightly at the word ‘Apostle,’ showing Mathew that she understood the significance of that title.
“It is good to have you here, Apostle. We have been waiting for a Champion to assist us on our journey to our place of refuge. The void is no place to travel casually, not with the light of the sun absent from our skies.” The Captain explained, and Mathew nodded.
He was about to ask a question when the Captain spun on her heel and began to give orders. In moments, the Resplendent Dawn was rising into the sky. If there had been anyone on the ground below, they would have thought the missing sun had returned.
But their despair would have returned as the ship was eventually swallowed by the darkness, silently disappearing from sight.