The Emperor had little choice, flying was his job for the time being, there was no other way to link up with them but he was unwilling to abandon his search. Each day, he checked the communication stone. Pushing the limits of his strength from inside the ship, he sped downward, stabbing at the void. He tried several times to contact any of them from the top of the ship but it was the same outcome, in truth, he was grateful for some of the peace of mind that he had a long road ahead of him but in other ways, he was terrified of failure.
Except for sleep, there was nothing else on his mind. The loss of time from his escape had left him with a sense of dread. Time was flowing at an incredible rate, one month had turned into a year and after only two months, more than two years had passed. The turbulence was no doubt another problem in his journey, sending him across time forward at the random rate of the present.
Six months passed and the Emperor's hair grew quite long. He had passed two more land masses and in front of him, as far as his eyes could see, which was quite far, there was no end to the horizon. He was weeks away from the surface at speeds that should have torn him apart. It took him a while to figure out a way to simulate his presence at the cockpit, he was only able to program a puppet to do so much, it flew using his energy at a constant rate of 80 percent. It didn't sound like a lot for the times when he was awake, however, traveling while he slept had greatly reduced the time it took to reach that point.
His heart was racing. He had woken up to the sight. Hills and rivers, entire mountain ranges that looked nearly microscopic under his vision. Hundreds of such ranges were within his vision, hundreds of thousands of cities were scattered in every direction. It was a monstrous amount of souls accumulated and concentrated together. Some were put to task, but visible from such a great height, there were clearly areas that had no signs of civilization.
Great beasts or scars on the landscapes showed the reason why, herds of beasts that could trample the Cities were great distances away but from his prospective, he was sure that the occasion where they accidentally stepped on an entire City were not uncommon.
Wu Hai held his breath, circulated his energy.. then, he slapped the crystal on his shoulder. 'Come on, Kuzunoha, Vira, Vector, any of you.. answer..' Standing atop the Ship, he tried Kuzunoha first.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
Vector had a lot on his mind. The strength's they had gotten was building, each day they went out to hunt stronger opponents. It was getting quite scary.
There was a moment when Vira was nearly decapitated by falling rocks, they weren't visible to her, she would never have avoided them if not for Vector's quick thinking. She rewarded him by chiding him for not attacking their target. It had even gotten away because of him.
Vector was a little resentful but glad that he wasn't alone.
Kuzunoha did most of the healing but there was a lot of healing salve and potion within her collection of goods. Not one of them were as potent as the spirit stones, the remains of the creatures in the land of the Gods. Ultinia was a vicious place, as a place so named the Heavens, it was much closer to a Hell. People were slain like maggots under the rock that was used to line the road.
"I can't protect them all the time.." the Dragon King muttered under his breath, the girls were being reckless. Maybe it was some womanly machismo, maybe it was a sense of pride that each of them held, the result was terrifying. Their lives hung in the balance but they were unwilling to step down, to take the slow steady road. They heaved burden into their way, tempering themselves greatly in the process.
Kuzunoha turned a corner, she held a bow and charged a beam of light. It was fantastical in nature but it sparkled and twist the space around her.
She fired, it sailed through the woods.
Skipping through the trees, it twist upon a whim, tracing its target. "Get down." She called out to the others.
'Why?' It was a stupid question, he should have ducked. Vector was hit by the blast wave, it sent him into the rockface nearby. "What the fuck was that?!"
Kuzunoha picked up the cloak that covered her and revealed a ring of white in her palm. It had three dark circles passing the opposite direction of the white ring. She drew back her bow, aimed it blankly at the sky and released it to demonstrate its power overhead. "Watch, Wu Hai always had this method tucked away but I could never muster the strength until now." She looked up and covered her eyes a bit.
There was a bright explosion in the sky. It's blast wave could be seen from a remarkable distance, she wanted to tell Vector about the processes but the wave sent the trees nearby sailing into the air, a crater had appeared even where they stood. Her second shot was considerably stronger than the first, a miscalculation by her.
It was awe inspiring to those that could see it and not be blinded or killed.
As she tried to smile and wave it off, the blast actually hurt Vira a lot, she was sitting behind the hill but her arm was scorched and blistered, blood flowed out of the wound and breaks on her skin. "Vira." Kuzunoha ran to her side, dropping the bow. She looked at Mike, "give me some Spirit Stones."
It was her kill, and she didn't have time to search for the remains in that instant.
"I don't have any. I'll have to go find the Stone." Mike turned to leave.
Vira got up. "Its not that bad. I will heal shortly, just let me rest." She leaned against a tree, steadying herself.
Mike still left to recover their hunt, it had escaped and he was saving face.
A Crystal, one that had been laying on Vira's shoulder constantly, shattered. Then, one on Kuzunoha began to light up.
"HELLO!" Vira yelled into her shoulder, she was bleeding but she stopped caring in the moment.
"VIRA?! FINALLY!" Wu Hai was yelling, the crystal shattered.
Vector was busy searching the rubble, the trail of energy from the stone was barely visible with how buried it had been. He pulled it out and saw his communication stone light up. He touched his shoulder. "What is it? Is Vira okay?"
"Mike? What's wrong with Vira?" the voice spoke to him, he knew instantly who it was.
"BRUH!" Vector stopped, composed himself and kept talking. "Where have you been? Hurry up and teleport to my location."
Wu Hai laughed over the communication stone. "I will, now.. tell me what the hell is wrong with Vira!"
"She's burned a little, she says she'll be fine and that she needs time to.." The stone broke. Vector
A few moments passed. A communication stone lit up in Vira's hand. She had been waiting for a reply.
"VIRA??" The voice came over the stone.
"I'm here." She spoke but her voice was weak. Vira was still recovering and it was audible.
"So am I." Focusing on the sound of her voice, he found her position, then stowed the ship away.
The Ship vanished from beneath his feet and, as he was falling, he flicked his fingers completing the teleportation circle.
Looking down from Vira, he crashed between her legs.
"Grav..ihh..tee" He struggled to get up, he had spent more than half a year piloting, his strength, though above average when he had arrived, was no greater than before. The twenty times gravity in the lower realms was enough to make him sink into the soil when he was unprepared.
"Its good to see you too. Where have you been?" Vira was crying, she was happy. It was something that the Emperor was equally happy to see, he felt a grip against his waist.
Kuzunoha picked him up and helped him to his feet. When she was dusting him off she asked, "So, where have you been?" She kissed his cheek.
"This whole time I've been on the way here, it was really really far. I've tried contacting you all everyday but there was no connection." He swallowed hard and steadied himself. "Vira, can you stand?"
He didn't realize that it was him that had knocked her down, she still nodded and got to her feet.
Standing together, Vector came to their side. He passed the Spirit Stone over.
Wu Hai saw the stone, "That's pretty big. How hard was the fight?" He looked everyone over and saw the battle damage. "Lets go rest."
He threw down a Teleportation Steele. It covered the crater, "If this one doesn't work, I don't know what to say. I've laid down four of them now, one on each of the Heavens." Wu Hai grabbed their hands and stepped onto the steele.
"I still want to hunt here for a while longer." Vector wanted to stay, "These creatures, they are hard to kill. We aren't ready for the next level. That is what you wanted to do right?" As a pro-gamer he was not an idiot, they were in a place to spend some time grinding away at their skills.
"Do you want to hunt?" Vira stood beside the Emperor, her arm at his waist. The shoulder that was bleeding had stopped, it was healing over quickly now. By the time they would locate prey again, she would be at peak condition.
"Are you able?" He was serious, he wasn't willing to risk anything or anyone on a whim.
When she nodded again, he stepped down from the steele, leaving it in place. If he ever wanted to find his way back, he could easily find that location with the help of the array's splintered spirit.
Surveying the damage, he noticed Kuzunoha using a bow. "Changing weapons?" Wu Hai had always thought she would use the blasts of light element or fire.
"Just trying something out, wanna see?" Before she could string the bow, Vira stopped her. "Oh, you're right. I should probably wait till we find some prey." It was like she didn't realize that Vira's injury was caused by her, she was lost in thought because of the Emperor's return.
'I really can't keep them protected all the time.' Wu Hai sighed and shook his head. "I want to rest. We can relax for a moment in the ship."
It was a compromise that everyone was okay with, Vector included. Wu Hai threw out the ship from storage, it hummed as it hit the air and the airlock opened from the seamless hull.
"This is nice." Stepping in, Kuzunoha found a chair first.
There was plenty of room to move around but it was not enough to exercise in.
Vira and Vector found their seats and kicked back. There was a lacking, something was missing. It left all three of them feeling light.
"What the hell?" Vector stretched slightly. "Hey, I think the ship is immune to the gravity outside."
The Ship was eliminating the gravity, they were protected within its walls.
"That's a strange way to put it." Misozi appeared like a phantom and Vector dropped his drink.
'Che' Misozi commanded a puppet to clean it up, a strange four handed mechanical stone demon came crawling out of a hole in the wall.
"That's not creepy." It was sarcasm, Vector pulled back and lifted his legs. The puppet made quick work of the mess then disappeared into the hole again.
"Please don't make a mess in the cabin." Misozi chided the Dragon King momentarily then, when she had received a dirty look from the Emperor, she quieted down.
'Go away...' Mike wanted to smash at the spirit, ghosts were a sensitive subject among humans. No manner of convincing could stop them from fearing Spirits, Ghosts or Spectres. To encounter one would mean calamity in most cases, so the apprehension was not only understandable, it was common.