With the situation in Deckan resolved, the months began to pass, turning into years. This time, however, was far more exaggerated when it came to the realms of Lorek and Spica. Within these two words, a moment of truth had arrived.
A new group of powerhouses had begun to appear, following along in Jana’s footsteps. Although they specialized in a variety of different fields, many of them had reached quite a high level of cultivation. In fact, among the residents of Lorek, there were two individuals that had reached the stage of ‘Supreme Immortal’, the title given to those who have reached the rank of godhood within the cultivation system.
Most surprisingly, neither of these two individuals were Jana. Instead, she seemed to have secluded herself from the world to allow the next generation to take the stage. As far as she was concerned, the world no longer needed her, allowing her to pass her time in seclusion.
One of these two special individuals, a Supreme Immortal who had mastered the path of Arrays, owed many of his accomplishments to the knowledge provided by Tsubaki many decades prior. Thanks to that information, his path had been far more smooth, allowing him to focus on his own understanding of the different methods of using arrays.
Now, this Supreme Immortal stood at the forefront of developing Lorek’s long-time goal. Working in tandem with the ancient scholars of the elves, he had devised many of the arrays that now supported the mystical construct. And now, he stood atop a wide platform overlooking what appeared to be an inverted mountain.
This landmass hovered in the air, its jagged tip facing the ground. The top of the floating object was smoothed out, and then covered with numerous buildings. Its core had been hollowed to make room for the different necessary facilities and arrays that needed to be placed inside of it.
This was the grand ship that they had created, one which would take them through the vast expanse of space. Perhaps, it may even take them to different planes of existence in time. A floating city, one that was constantly generating its own magical energy on a massive scale.
Haslan, the Supreme Immortal in charge of the product, looked proudly at the first floating city. It was time for the test run, so he stepped forward. His body seemed to shift with starlight, carrying him directly to the massive structure. “May the stars guide my path.” He spoke, gesturing towards the group.
This scene was being transmitted all across the two worlds, Lorek and Spica. This would be the moment when everyone learned whether they would be able to stand among the stars, a right which every other world had long-since enjoyed. Why should they, the worlds that cared most about the stars, be barred from getting closer to them?
Haslan raised his hand, connecting with the control mechanisms of the flying city, and commanded it to ascend. Under the watch of billions of people, the floating city flew into the sky. Within the atmosphere, its speed was still limited, but that did not stop Haslan from feeling a sense of pride.
So far, the two worlds had produced a total of twenty-seven floating cities. The production of the cities themselves were not difficult, only needing the flying array established on a suitable landmass before constructing the buildings. From there, it was just a matter of installing the necessary arrays, which needed a few rare materials and the proper knowledge. However, this was the first time that they were truly testing a completed city.
The Supreme Immortal within the city saw the fiery clouds above the sky coming closer, the results of the sun’s ki clashing with the mana from other stars. This would serve as the first test for the city, whether or not it would be able to withstand the pressure brought by this energy storm, and continue to safely navigate in the space beyond.
As the ship continued to move higher and higher, Haslan briefly checked the shields of the city, before increasing his speed. All at once, the city crashed through the fiery storm, colliding against a few weaker star beasts before exiting the atmosphere. His progress was tracked by another array that he had set up on this particular island, allowing this test flight to be broadcast even after he left the planet.
Haslan gasped, seeing the massive planet laid out before him. Even now, much of their world remained unexplored due to the sheer size of it. And for the first time, Haslan had a proper understanding as to why. Despite having escaped the atmosphere, the planet was utterly massive before him, with the area he came from being only one small continent.
Haslan closed his eyes, allowing himself to take a deep breath. He had prepared himself to see some grand sights during this test, after all. But after this, he just felt so… small. The ancestral land of his dwarves was barely even visible, the island little more than a speck that he had to focus to spot within the giant ocean.
“Using these cities as transport, we can finally explore our world to its fullest.” He muttered under his breath, before shaking his head. Turning, he saw the infinite darkness in front of him, dotted with uncountable stars. “And we are one step closer to the heavens.”
Raising his hands once again, he connected to the weapons arrays on the ship. Lines of light began lighting up across the surface of the ship’s barriers, condensing at one point before launching out as a sharp blade.
Attack arrays at this level worked quite a bit different than typical attack spells in geometric magic. While it was possible to establish similar spells, doing so was far more complex than the alternative, which was to have the array reproduce a sampled attack. In this case, the attack being reproduced came from the other Supreme Immortal, one that had walked the path of Swords.
With his help, the floating cities were able to release an attack containing the peak combat strength of a Supreme Immortal, something that not even their technological counterparts could necessarily unleash. Furthermore, as more Supreme Immortals appeared within the world, they would be able to sample a wider array of attacks to store within the floating cities.
After testing the attack array, Haslan tested the defense arrays, judging the sturdiness of the shields in comparison to the attack he had just released. Shaking his head, he realized that the shields created by his arrays were perhaps not as strong as the replicated attack. If a defense-oriented Supreme Immortal were to appear, that would solve much of their worries.
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Finally, it was time to test the long-distance transportation ability of the floating cities. Turning towards the broadcast point of the array, Haslan nodded at his many viewers. “I’ll be back.” He said, before looking up at the stars. In truth, the transport method was fundamentally different compared to that of other ships.
Focusing, he stared towards a single star, isolating that as his target. This was how the long-distance travel worked, though it would usually be activated within the control room below the surface. By locking onto a single star, the floating city attached itself to that star’s frequency, following the path of starlight back towards its origin.
If its destination was such that it was not heading directly for a star, then it was a simple matter. Pick one star as a starting point, and move along its starlight road until another star lined up with the destination.
With the destination set, silver light began to shine on the outer shield of the floating city, before the landmass vanished all at once. As a master of the Array path, Haslan was constantly monitoring the information being sent along the different arrays functioning in the city. He knew how fast they were moving, or how close they were getting to the star even if his view was obscured by the streaks of silver light.
After covering roughly half of the distance, Haslan cut off the transportation, exiting the starlight road. When he appeared, he was in the vast void of space, nothing but empty darkness surrounding himself. If gazing down at the massive world made him feel small as a person, then seeing the utter emptiness around him now made him feel insignificant even as a god.
Shaking his head, he turned the city around and used the arrays to help him find the star that he had come from. A small, yellow dot hidden amidst that vast expanse of nothing. With a thought, the floating city ventured onto its starlight road, taking its journey back home.
We did it. Haslan thought to himself. The floating cities were truly complete now, and ready for use by the numerous organizations that had been vying for them for centuries. Moreover, given what he had seen of his own world before he left, there was more than enough landmass on his planet to spare even if they decided to launch a million flying cities.
After a few minutes, Haslan could feel the starlight road coming to an end. Cutting off the transport, he appeared not far away from his original departure point. As he had returned to a suitable transmission distance from Lorek, the broadcast array he set up was working again.
“All systems appear functional.” When Haslan said these words, and slowly began descending to the planet once more, it caused an eruption of emotion to spread throughout the two worlds. Many people wanted to know what he had seen, but he did not tell them. All that he said in response was that they would never understand without seeing it themselves.
Immediately, plans were underway to recruit talented individuals to manage the floating cities. As these were more than simply ships, a wider selection of personnel was required. First of all, instead of a ‘captain’, there was a city’s lord. This lord was responsible for the city as if it were any normal city, while the military general was responsible for the combat aspects.
The one thing that was undoubtedly upsetting about the floating cities was that they lacked the long-distance portals that other ships enjoyed in the other worlds. Because of this, they would not be able to easily evacuate or request aid in a crisis, and their communications arrays had to be altered.
Regardless of this, these flying cities were bound to be the most popular places to live in the future, due to the safety provided by them and the sense of wonder one could get from exploring the unknown.
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Udona groaned, leaning forward to sprawl her arms out across her desk. She had spent most of an afternoon signing documents to approve staff transfers for the new wave of ships being completed in the orbital factories. These personnel had naturally already been vetted, but still required her approval before they could officially participate in a role as large as this.
Granted, Udona was only signing on behalf of Deckan’s residents. The High Mother, the Iron King, and the rulers of the other worlds would all be having to go through similar procedures. With the active fleet being rolled out, there was a lot of work that they had to do before it could be considered properly ready.
These ships better be able to stand up against that fleet. Udona thought to herself begrudgingly. If they had gone through all of this work and planning only to have the opposing fleet still outperform them… she was going to bash her head against a wall.
After spending the day signing papers, her hands were already starting to feel sore. Which was quite a feat given that she was a true Goddess. However, when the door opened, and she saw a maid walking in with another large stack of papers, she let out a pitiful groan. “More transfer requests, Janaerra?” She asked, causing her maid to let out a small giggle.
“No, these are the monthly budget reports for the planet.” The maid said as she walked over, dropping the stack of papers on the helpless God-Queen’s desk.
Udona pouted her lips when she heard that. “Have you ever wanted to be queen, Janaerra?” She asked, looking up at the maid despite knowing the answer.
“Of course not, My Lady.” Janaerra shook her head politely. “I was born only to serve you. It would not do for a shadow like myself to become a ruler.”
Udona clicked her tongue. “I miss when you were playful and careless with your words. So, was there anything new in the reports?” She knew that the maid would have already browsed the papers herself, to help summarize any major problems for the queen.
“Well… the research institute is asking for a large amount of funding of around ten thousand tokens of Terra, for the purpose of studying if it is possible to seal a planet inside of a card.” Udona sat up, eyes wide when she heard that.
“I’m sorry, sealing a what?!” She asked, completely flabbergasted by what she thought that she had heard.
“That’s right… they want to try sealing planets.” Janaerra grinned as she said that. “They figure that, if a god’s strength is technically limited only by their divine power, it would be possible for a god to physically push, or ‘lift’ a planet. If that happens… would that satisfy the rules of a card?”
“Then why do they need that much money?!” Udona puffed her cheeks out at that. If it was truly something so simple to test, then they should just be able to hire a god to go test it with a smaller planet.
The shadow maid shook her head. “They want to build their own planet, out in the emptiness, to try to find where the cutoff point is, if it exists.”
“Denied! Funding denied!” Udona’s arms flailed, quickly searching through the papers that Janaerra brought over to find the one she was talking about. Once she had done so, she slapped a giant red stamp on the paper. “I’m a mid-tier Goddess as far as the tokens are concerned. If they want that kind of funding, then they can just earn half a million of my tokens! Let’s see if they’re able to come up with that kind of faith!”