"Eugy, look outside."
A gust of wind breezed past my head and sent my hair fluttering in the skies as I leaned out of the carriage. Beyond the rows and rows of beautiful stone buildings filling the streets, a hue of orange and violet filled the usually blue skies.
Wispy clouds likes the strokes of a painter's brush spread in between the strangely colored sky. Their ends dabbed the color of the ocean beyond them.
But at the end of it all.
The farthest from the eye.
Stretched a tower.
A tower, upside down.
Like a drop of rain falling from the skies. The tower broadened the further up it went and narrowed the lower it came. Layers of the stone tower's grey and black structure alternated as the part closest to the ground looked as thin as a needle while the width of the end in the skies encompassed the clouds.
Unending, at its top half, the tower was completely swallowed up by the mass of clouds as they blocked a part of the sky from one's view. Even when gusts of wind blew the others clouds ahead, only the clouds that hid the tower remained unfazed.
Another head peeked out in front of me as Dawn looked outside.
Then, so did Lily before Keith and Maria turned to the other window of the carriage.
"Woah…" A gasp of admiration left Lily.
"Amazing… so that's the Great Labyrinth…" Dawn spoke. Her fluttering hair slammed right into my face.
I moved her hair away as if collecting a pile of straws and leaned further out to look at the tower.
As cracks and between and around the slabs that made up the stones glowed with shades of red and violet, their color leaked out into the sky and gave it the hue that spread through.
Not even the buildings around were spared.
The houses covered with a dome and gates that resembled caves reflected the shade of the skies. Their pumice stones and volcanic ash was alternated well with the rows and rows of flowers and shrubs that the houses of the kingdom spread.
This was the Agrippa Kingdom.
And in front of us, was the Elysium tower.
After a month of traveling. No, after nine years of knowing about the world where this world was but a game, I was at the starting point of that very game.
A starting point, that supposedly leads to the end of the world.
At the villain at the very beginning was no one but me.
A smile spread over my face. This would be interesting. Very interesting. I was looking forward to the levels of strength I could reach.
"We'll be in the Academy city soon."
***
The soon came by rather quick.
In just another day, we had found ourselves at the southern end of the Agrippa Kingdom.
Around us were the same Cycladic buildings that filled the Agrippa Kingdom. The ground below and the houses around were splayed over the alternating terrain. Some went up while others went down, but no amount of discrepancy bothered the houses as they stood tall above them all.
The roads all around were filled with slopes, while stairs covered whatever the inclines couldn't.
"That's an ocean, isn't it?" Dawn asked as we stepped out of the carriage. We stood atop a hilly location that gave us a clear overview of the entire city.
"Correct," A voice came in from the side.
With her hands folded together, Vienna walked over to us. She donned her usual flowing dress while she held a folding fan in her hands. Following right behind her in a similar dress was Lady Sophia and lastly Billy.
"The Academy City is right against the ocean," Vienna continued. "It's a wide place, all these houses you see around are used by students.
I raised my brow at that. When I looked around, it did seem like mostly young people were walking around the streets or stepping out in their verandas and balconies to enjoy some morning tea. There seemed to be but a handful of people with streaks of gray on their heads.
"The Academy City is divided in seven districts." Vienna's hand pointed at the eastern ends. Amongst the rows of houses was a tall, wide volcano stretching into the sky. "That's the territory of Volkash Academy."
"There are other academies?" I said.
"Huh? Yeah, you didn't know?" Dawn asked.
Well, I thought it was only going to be the one academy modeled after Pantheon?
"Near the ocean is the Poseidon Academy," then, Vienna pointed at the different places over the streets. From an academy situated around a cave, to another near the forest covering at the northern ends.
And then, at the center of the city, was the narrow tip of the Elysium Tower. The Great Labyrinth was narrowest at this point while it spread up and widened further into the sky.
She spoke of six different academies situated inside the city.
"Here's the catcher, lord Eugene." Sophia intervened right then. "All of them are dungeons."
"Excuse me?" I couldn't help but widen my eyes. It was already rare to see dungeons form because of the coalescence every single one of them brought. It created a zone of magic energy that was deeply unstable.
If I counted the Elysium Tower, then there were a total of seven dungeons inside a single city.
"That's crazy…"
"The seven academies compete for the position of the best."
"Wait," I said. I counted the number of districts again, and Vienna had only told me of six.
"Where's the Syncretic Academy?"
"Hah…" Billy chuckled at that. It seemed he wanted to look cool.
Right then, he raised his hand high up in the sky and pointed to the air.
All of us turned our gazes up.
The wisps of clouds, like strokes of a brush, started to flow away again. All of them, expect the one that enshrouded the Elysium Tower.
And there, beyond the clouds, deep within the skies of a dozen tints, were small islands floating in the sky.
"That's the seventh district…" Billy said. "The district of the Syncretic Academy. House of Elyssia."
"Crazy…"
"Beautiful…"
Different mouths let out different gasps.
But my eyes were focused.
The dome like structure on the floating island closest to the dungeon was reminiscent deeply of the glass house that I called Pantheon.
I bit my lips together as a wave of memories flooded me.
This was the beginning.
Things were starting.
"H-how do we get up there?" Lily asked.
"Can't we just fly?" Dawn answered.
"Not everyone can fly, dumbass."
"Can't you?"
"I use my shields to float. I don't fly."
"What is this conversation? Is this the level of top adventurers?"
Dawn and I chuckled at Sophia's innocent question.
Then, Vienna spread her fan and pointed at us.
"You don't have to fly. Come along."
I raised my brows at her words.
The carriages moved to a different spot while we followed behind Vienna toward a clearing near the hills we stood on.
A cliff stretched out beyond us that led away from the Academy City.
"Now, jump."
"Jump from this cliff?" Lily asked. "T-that's crazy! It's like, meters tall!"
Heh…
Interesting.
I ignored Lily and walked ahead. As if going on a stroll in a park, I placed my foot ahead and tumbled forward.
"Young master!"
A scream resounded and I started to fall.
Air pushed up against my hair, and then my body, but gravity won out as I was going closer and closer to the ground.
It was a tall cliff, but not dangerous. I would barely get scratched at this heigh—
"Eugy! Hold tight!"
Right then, a current of air breezed through me.
My clothes were lifted up, then my hair.
A sensation of going against the world struck me all at once and then, I started floating in the air.
"Woooohoo!"
A scream of admiration spilled out on its own. An intense stream of wind was now carrying me up the skies. I passed by the edge of the cliff at once and waved at the group below as the air current lifted me higher and higher above.
My feet dangled in the air, and soon, the others jumped off too.
The breeze turned to a side and started carrying me over to one of the many islands. It lifted me up high and slammed me down into the floating block of land.
My body fell on the soft cushioning of the thick blades of grass and a chuckle left me.
"Ahhh!"
A scream sounded as others started coming up to the island too.
One after the other, the group started following me up and all of them fell flat against the blades of grass.
Thud after thud, one after the other, everyone came up into the islands in the skies.
"Haha…"
Someone laughed.
"Hahah!"
And like a contagious disease.
"Hahahahaha!"
The laughter spread.
This was…
The beginning at the academy.
The house of Elyssia.
The Elysium Tower, and the start in the Syncretic Academy.
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