Chapter 502: Catch Up with the Supreme Divine Beings!

Beneath the starlit night the colossal mechanical construct spread its wings, sharp metal head lifted high, gazing toward the black speck at the distant edge of the sky.

Ray guided the Sun's Wing closer toward it.

That was not quite the truth of it. It was the one closing in on him, since their speeds did not begin to compare.

Click!

The compass floated up from around Ray's neck all at once, flipped open, and spilled out ring after ring of glowing light.

Through that shimmering light his eyes made out an island coming down from beneath the starry sky. It turned slowly in place, and yet it swept across the sea of clouds at an unbelievable speed.

Slow and fast. Two words in flat contradiction, and both of them fit that floating island at once.

One could swear it was barely moving at all, and yet its speed defied belief.

The feeling came flooding back into Ray's mind all at once, and with it the memory of seeing this island three years ago.

"No mistake."

"That's it!"

"No mistake, that's it!"

"The island drifting in the sea of clouds. That kingdom of the heavens."

Ray turned back and looked at Number Two and Number Three.

"Did you two see that?"

Seeing nothing but blank looks on both their faces, Ray could not wait to tell them about the astonishing thing he had just seen.

"Quick, grab hold of my compass."

Number Two floated with her legs tucked beneath her, Number Three stood at Ray's side, and both of them reached out at once to take hold of the compass around Ray's neck.

Through that boundary between illusion and reality, they finally saw the floating island rushing toward them too.

Ray had seen this floating island by daylight, beneath the sun. Beneath the night sky and its stars it felt like an entirely different place.

Under the sun, the floating island had shimmered with a dazzling golden light, as sacred to look upon as heaven itself. Under the night sky, it lay unusually still, its waterfalls, streams, forests and cities all wrapped in the hues of a dream.

Moonlight and starlight poured down through the gaps at the island's edge, falling on the sea of clouds, falling on the earth below.

Without anyone quite noticing, the sight set the heart at ease in an instant.

But right then Number Two, who had been in charge of navigation and the Globe the whole time, seemed to sense something. She cried out all at once.

"Stop."

"Stop, now."

The Kite Demon Spirit had felt something wrong in the air, and she spoke up to give the warning.

Ray and Number Three asked no questions. They obeyed at once and brought the Sun's Wing to a stop right away, which showed their absolute trust in Number Two.

The Sun's Wing's flame-gushing wings cut out at once, and the craft hovered there in midair, flapping stiffly.

At the same time the mechanical tail feathers behind it swung round with a creaking, grinding sound.

Creak, creak!

Before Ray and Number Three could even ask Number Two why, they suddenly found something coming down toward them from the heights above.

Carrying a red light.

Carrying a terrible heat.

A transcendent Power of Law that evaporated everything it touched and warped the air around it.

That extraordinary flame could act on more than just dead matter. It could also burn an ability user's consciousness and their Seal Spirit alike to ash.

Faced with this strange turn, Number Three spoke up.

"Is it morning already?"

The other two paid him no attention at all, so he muttered to himself.

"But it only just got dark!"

Ray stared at the sky that had suddenly gone bright, and only then did he finally ask.

"Is that a cloud?"

All they could see was that whatever fell from above came down in sheet after sheet of red cloud.

"They're not clouds," Number Two said.

"They're burning."

They were the dependents of the Lava God, one of the Seven Gods of Ruhe, and they were called the Floating Sons.

Thousands upon thousands of Floating Sons were condensing out of the distance, hand in hand as if holding on to one another. They spread out until they blanketed the sky all the way to its farthest edge.

It was a good thing Number Two had noticed in time. Had they plowed straight into that, both the people aboard and the Myriad Magic Tool itself would have been finished for good.

But the Floating Sons only sank so far. Once they had dropped to a certain height they came down no further, which let Ray and the others hold a relatively safe distance.

Number Two looked at the Globe and suddenly spoke up.

"Ray, looks like we're not going to make it."

Ray looked to the Globe and recalculated their course with it. It spun fast, then came to a stop just as fast.

"It's already too late."

They had been forced to stop for the Floating Sons, and now they could no longer reach the planned position on schedule and board that island drifting in the sky.

Just as it looked as though they would miss their chance, something Ray had never expected happened. The floating island swept swiftly across the sky, all the way until it reached the very center of that sky full of burning clouds.

Then, of all things, the island slowly came to a stop.

Right above them, off to one side.

"It stopped?" Ray had never imagined such a thing could happen.

But he had a vague guess. Those red clouds had been summoned by whatever presence dwelt on that floating island, and something must be happening up there right now.

"Quick, fly toward it."

"Right now is our best chance."

Ray gave the order, the Globe began spinning again, and Number Three pushed the power furnace to its limit.

But there was something Ray failed to notice.

Though the island in the sky had stopped, the earth beneath their feet had not.

Without realizing it, they had already entered a strange domain.

But right then their eyes held nothing but the floating island above, and they never noticed anything strange happening below.

The island turned slowly in the sky.

Before long, it had turned its other side to face Ray and the others.

As the Sun's Wing climbed higher, the three of them aboard it made out figures standing at the island's edge.

Shadowy figures, one after another, stood high atop that kingdom of the heavens, looking down over the mortal world.

Those strange burning clouds gave off a dazzling scarlet light, and it shone down from above, falling squarely on them, and on the Sun's Wing as well.

Ray guided the great mechanical beast on beating wings. He stood at the glass window of the head's control room and stared against the glare at the indistinct divine figures within that light.

The girl floating in the air reached out a hand, opened her mouth, and pointed into the distance.

"Someone's there!"

Number Three saw it too.

"There's a figure."

But before they could make out what those figures on the island looked like, some presence up there reached out a hand and began a ritual unlike any that had come before.

They flew on, upward, into that blinding wash of fiery red light.

Ray had the strongest power of the three and the sharpest eyes, and he faintly made out a figure at the edge of the kingdom of the heavens, one radiating a pale, clear light, raising a hand.

In that instant, the power of creation descended upon the world from the boundless heights above.

That Eternal Star, transcending all things, blazed and shone down into this world. Mortals could not see the star itself, but they could faintly make out its afterglow.

But in a single instant, Ray's gaze went utterly blank.

He was certain he had seen something, and yet he could remember nothing at all.

Whirrrr!

The whole world rang with a sound like machinery turning, as though countless colossal rings were grinding and colliding against each other somewhere in the void.

Right after that, a pillar of light shot through heaven and earth.

The light pierced the vault of the sky and shot into the depths of the sea of stars.

Lines crisscrossed above the sea of clouds, and dense clusters of runes floated into being, set into the spaces between them.

"Whoa!"

Right then, Number Two and Number Three stared at that pillar of light, their mouths hanging open in astonishment.

The compass Number Two and Number Three had been holding slipped from their grasp again, but there was no need for it anymore. Everyone could see the Star Realm Gate opening for themselves now, could see the Divine Kingdom preparing to pass beyond the sky.

Except the Divine Kingdom itself was already swallowed whole in light, leaving only the faintest outline visible.

As the glare finally settled, ring after immense ring of light had already appeared across the vault of the sky.

Each ring measured its diameter in the thousands of kilometers, too vast to imagine or describe, swallowing the whole horizon.

The Sun's Wing and the three of them aboard it naturally fell within the ritual's reach as well, standing beneath that colossal gate of light rings that led to the Star Realm.

"That's a huge ring."

"What is that thing?"

Right then, Ray finally snapped out of his daze, and some vague understanding began to dawn on him.

For the first time, his voice trembling slightly, he told Number Two and Number Three exactly what they were facing.

"That's the power of a Supreme God."

"It's the power of the Creator."

He seemed to have gone tense. The scene before them now lay completely beyond anything Ray had ever expected or imagined.

Ray had never once laid eyes on a Supreme Divine Being, but he had heard a few of the old legends.

"Never look directly upon a god!"

To people of the Second Era, those words seemed to mean that mortals could not look directly upon the true nature of myth. Myth fully unleashed gave off corrosive force and radiation no mortal could withstand.

Whether it was the Myth of Life or the Wisdom Myth.

But this legend traced back at its very root to the Creator himself. It began with an account of the second King of Wisdom, Yesael, catching sight of the Creator.

It was said that some of the ancient and powerful Divine King bloodlines, and even certain gods, had glimpsed the Creator in the early days too, only to remember nothing of it afterward. Not until they had themselves become myth did fragments of the sight come faintly back to them.

Once, long ago, his teacher Elena had told him something.

If some day one saw some power or miraculous sight beyond all ordinary bounds and imagining, and yet afterward lost every memory of it, that meant one might have glimpsed a Supreme Divine Being.

It was not that the Supreme Divine Being had erased the memory. It was that some memories were simply more than one's mind could bear to hold.

Right now, what he faced and what he was living through matched that account exactly.

Ray gazed up at the rings of light in the sky, layered one atop another into the boundless heights, spreading out to the very edge of the world.

Those rings were not simply giving off ordinary light.

Their structure was intricate, as though they were solid things, and they bore inscriptions. Countless tiny components had been fitted and interlocked together to form them.

Dense runes and an elaborate ritual framework overlaid the whole of it, as though some colossal building stood there at the edge of the sky, or some enormous machine.

Ray seemed to feel, within it, an all-powerful force from a civilization beyond his own era.

He did not understand exactly what was about to happen, but he understood enough.

He was about to witness a moment that would change history.

A sight this strange in the sky was not something only Ray and the other two saw. Every winged person across the Land of Light saw it too.

They saw, first of all, that distant pillar of light piercing through the sea of stars.

At the same time, they saw the Star Realm Gate opening.

Atop the Sacred Mountain of Light, a host of sky messengers took to the air, staring into the distance.

"Why's the sky gone bright over there?" The winged people stared into the distance, unable to understand why the western sky had lit up. Even if dawn were coming, it should have started in the east.

"Quick, look, what is that thing?" Right on its heels, the pillar of light piercing heaven and earth sent a chill straight through everyone's hearts.

"A barrier? A ritual?" And the Star Realm Gate that opened right after it left the sky messengers utterly at a loss.

They guessed it might be some kind of barrier or ritual, but they had never seen a ritual or barrier so vast in scope before.

---

Radiant Temple

King of the Sky Messengers Duma stood together with a number of third-rank sky messengers, calling on the Radiant Divine Technique to watch the far side of the sky.

Within the white light a vision bloomed, revealing the scene far away.

Then that scene kept magnifying, larger and larger, until it reached its limit.

Only then did they finally make out part of what the Star Realm Gate actually looked like.

"What terrifying power is that?" All three Dumas spoke at once. Even seeing it only as a projected image, rather than feeling it up close, that ring of light and its unknowable force was already too terrible to bear.

"What in the world is that?" The sky messengers broke into a buzz of discussion.

"Look quickly. What is that?" Right then, Lomier suddenly noticed something and pointed at one thing within the projected image.

Beneath those terrifying rings of light, amid the boundless glow, they spotted a black speck.

A closer look made it out to be an island floating in the sky.

Lomier suddenly remembered Ray, and the island he had spoken of before.

"It is that island. The island Ray spoke of."

"So it truly does exist after all?"

Ray had said he had seen it before, but Lomier himself never had.

He believed Ray, of course, but believing was never quite the same as seeing it with his own eyes.

Winged people came running toward the rings of light in droves, eager to see what was happening for themselves.

But right then the Star Realm Gate locked into place, and the world itself began to turn.

The Star Realm Gate swept rapidly toward the Ruhe Beast Island on the far side of the world, and vanished into the distance.

Far away, on the Ruhe Beast Island, the snake people slowly began to see the very sight that had just shaken everyone else to their core.

---

In the sky, high above the sea of clouds, Ray looked down over the land and the sea, watching the world turn beneath him.

Number Three looked down below.

"We're moving. We're flying really fast."

Number Two felt entirely differently.

"It's obviously the earth that's moving."

Gradually the distant Ruhe Beast Island came into view for the three of them, and the Lava Mountain appeared before them.

Ray had always firmly believed the world was a sphere, but he had never once imagined that one day he would see the truth of it laid bare exactly like this.

Ray laid a hand on the Globe and spoke in earnest.

"Do you see it?"

"The world!"

"It really is a sphere."

The snake people on the Ruhe Beast Island watched the Floating Sons that had flown away before come streaming back, watched that twilight glow cutting the night sky in two.

The gods of the mortal world woke one after another as well, and turned to look at that gate leading into the Star Realm.

At the same time, they saw the first Divine Kingdom about to pass through the Star Gate and beyond the sky.

At last, the great god beneath the Lava Mountain opened one eye.

The Power of Law linked together with the Star Realm Gate in the sky, and the floating island rose higher and higher, drawing bit by bit toward the center of that gate's first layer ring of light.

Once it reached that position, the floating island's speed began to climb violently.

That massive kingdom of the heavens seemed to be flung forward like a shot, climbing up along ring after ring of the Star Gate's light, faster and faster.

Until at last it crossed some critical threshold, broke free of the pull of the earth beneath it, and set out on its ascent to the heavens.

The floating island slowly turned into a single streak of light, shooting straight past the edge of the sky.

Right then, Ray finally understood what those rings of light were for.

His eyes went wide, deep blue and reflecting the rings of light in the sky, and above all the shape of the floating island leaving this world behind.

"That's..."

"The gate to the high heavens above."

"That's the door to what lies beyond the sky."

Ray watched, and kept watching, that Divine Kingdom racing toward the world beyond the sky through a twilight that never ended.

For a moment, his blood ran hot.

It seemed to him that it was charging straight toward the realm where the sun itself lived, to stand beside the sun in the vault of the sky.

"Charging beyond the sky?"

"Charging toward the sun?"

The sun itself could not be seen, but a twilight scene like this naturally called it to mind.

More importantly, this sight seemed to stir something in the memories buried within Ray's own body.

In an instant, he seemed to see scenes from the previous era, from the God-Forsaken Era.

He saw himself building the very first flying craft inside Elena's Miracle Workshop, and climbing aboard it as it flew off, swaying and unsteady, into the distance.

Back then, like a child, he had happily told his teacher.

"Lady Elena!"

"Look, I'm flying!"

"I'll fly far away, all the way to where the sun rises."

His teacher Elena asked him, "And what will you do out there?"

Ray said, "There are so many unknown places out there. Maybe one of them is the very place we're looking for."

"Since there's no hope to be found here, then we'll go out there and look for it."

Elena told him, "We searched too, once. Out there is nothing but ocean. Out there is nothing at all."

Ray circled through the sky in his flying craft and shouted up at the heavens at the top of his voice.

"Then it must be that I haven't flown far enough yet!"

"I think as long as I keep at it, as long as I never stop..."

"As long as I'm still flying, as long as I haven't reached the end..."

"Then hope has to be out there!"

The scene shifted.

He saw himself overseeing the construction of an enormous pyramid.

His teacher Elena, the last Knight of the Abyss, stood at the pyramid's foundation stone and spoke to him.

"It can be a ship. A ship to carry us into the next era."

"Or it can be a pyramid, for it will be our eternal paradise."

Ray followed close behind his teacher, watching the rough shape of the Demon Spirit Pyramid take form, this eternal paradise they were building for themselves.

"A ship... to the next era?"

But it was not long before his teacher Elena chose to abandon the pyramid's construction. Completing it would have meant burying the entire People of the Abyss.

Elena had grown old, and had lost her vital spirit along with it.

With no hope left in sight for the future, she wanted, at the very least, to let the People of the Abyss live out what remained in peace.

Better, she thought, to hold on to the present than to chase after a future she could no longer see.

In the last moments of her life, she knelt in her armor before the statue of God Yinsai, praying with devotion in the darkness, and at the end she turned to Ray and spoke.

"Let it end!"

"If everything is meant to fade away like this, then let it go to its end that way."

His teacher died. That Knight of the Abyss and apostle who had feared nothing at all closed her eyes.

She was not afraid of death, and she could face her final moment with perfect calm.

She had not feared battling an evil god, and she had dared to raise her sword against the mightiest being there was.

But in her final days, she had shown her own people the softest side of herself.

Some might call that weakness, but Ray could never bring himself to say so.

Following his teacher's last wishes, he carried her God's Grace Stone into the depths of the Abyss with his own hands, the very core needed to complete the Demon Spirit Pyramid, and so he opened the age that came after Elena.

In the end, he saw himself standing as high priest at the side of the Demon Spirit King and Queen, looking up at the Demon Spirit Pyramid he himself had built.

He was preparing to give up his identity as one of the People of the Abyss, to become a metal puppet, a ghost forever wandering the dark.

In the moment before he stepped into the pyramid, the setting sun sank low over the ocean.

Its red light stained the sea crimson.

Through the glimmer on the water, he watched the afterglow of the setting sun.

"Teacher!"

"Honored Lady Elena, in the end we still went against your wishes."

"But we can't give up."

"I believe that as long as we keep at it, hope has to be out there."

"However long the way takes, however far the road stretches, I'm not willing to give up."

At the last, he leapt up and dove into the depths of the Demon Spirit Pyramid.

In the moment of his death, he spread both arms wide.

Just as though he were flying.

The vision ended, and Ray found himself still standing aboard the Sun's Wing.

Everything, every last part of it, had ended long ago. Nothing of that old world could be brought back, and this one had changed beyond all recognition.

The one thing that had never changed was that he was still flying.

By now, flight no longer seemed to stand for any single purpose. It had come to mean something else entirely.

Just then, the girl floating beside him suddenly leaned her face in close to Ray's.

She looked at him with curiosity, and asked him softly, "Are we going?"

Ray watched that kingdom piercing through the edge of the sky, that floating island flying beyond the heavens.

He suddenly stepped forward and pressed his face against the glass, a fierce longing plain in his eyes.

"Of course we're going!"

"We have to go!"

Ray laid his hand flat against the glass, staring fixedly into the distance, his fingers bearing down so hard they seemed to tremble.

"No matter what it is. Not death, not distance, not the years. Nothing can hold back our hearts from flying."

"As long as I'm still flying, as long as I don't stop, then nothing is over."

"Even if nothing at all is left, even if everything is forgotten, it still... isn't over."

A moment later, Ray turned his head.

He smoothed back the hair that excitement had tousled, combing it neatly behind his ears.

Ray looked to his companions, drew a deep breath, and spoke, spirits soaring.

"Full speed ahead! Catch up with that kingdom of the heavens!"

"Catch up with the Supreme Divine Beings!"

"Together, let's go to the world beyond the sky!"

Number Three snapped into position at once and threw every bit of his power into it.

Number Two seemed swept up by Ray's energy too, drifting through the air like a kite, spinning in circle after circle.

The Sun's Wing blazed with fire, surging toward the vault of the sky like some colossal mechanical firebird.

Its wings, over a hundred meters across, spread wide and beat with tremendous force.

The Sun's Wing wheeled through the air like some great bird.

Following close behind the Supreme Divine Beings, it plunged headlong into the Star Realm Gate.

High above the heavens, the Creator, robed in white, stood before them all, demonstrating how the Star Realm Gate worked.

"Accelerate!"

"Enter the first layer orbital ring."

The floating island shot up toward the edge of the sky, the world beneath it falling steadily farther away.

Right then, Shelly spotted the Sun's Wing keeping pace below. She looked down, eyes wide, watching that mechanical tool climbing after them on beating wings.

"Hey!"

"There's someone down there who wants to fly up here too!"

All at once, Shelly thought of a very serious problem.

She turned her head and looked at the witch doctors behind her, puzzled.

"Did they pay the price to open the gate?"

The witch doctors exchanged glances.

"It seems... they did not!"

This was the first time the gate had ever been opened, and it had never once occurred to them that anyone might hitch a ride to the world beyond the sky. Someone had simply slipped through the crack.

The witch doctors looked down too, at the Sun's Wing.

They watched that young man who did not seem to know the meaning of fear, and all sorts of expressions ran across their faces.

Shock, astonishment, a shake of the head, or a sigh.

Did they have any idea how much a single ticket cost?

Did they have any idea whose door this was?

Did they have any idea just how terrifying this fellow really was?

Refusing to pay and hoping to ride for free. There really was someone in this world bold enough to freeload off the Life Sovereign herself.

In this world, one could offend anyone at all. One could even offend the Dream Sovereign. If one had a death wish, one could provoke even the Creator himself and it would hardly matter.

None of them would even care.

But there was one, and only one, no one could afford to offend.

Even the witch doctors had never seen anyone quite so bold.

---

Endless Desert, Abyss Royal City

Something this enormous happening in the sky above the Ruhe Beast Island was not about to escape the notice of the God of Demon Spirits, Elena.

She was a being of myth herself, and her gaze pierced straight through the sky. She saw not only the Star Realm Gate, but the Divine Kingdom charging beyond it.

At the same time, she saw Ray's Sun's Wing as well.

Elena looked at that colossal mechanical construct, the Myriad Magic Tool called the Sun's Wing, and could not for the life of her work out how it had suddenly turned up here.

"Ray!"

Elena had no idea what exactly was happening, but as she watched Ray follow that floating island straight into the Star Realm Gate, a fierce worry gripped her heart.