Currently, Night Shadow and the Aerilians were floating in space. The Aerilians taught Night Shadow how to move and maneuver in space. It was easy to move in space but Night Shadow would need more time to adjust to how to maneuver in space. The Aerilians waited for Night Shadow to adjust before moving on.
For Night Shadow, it was the first time he was flying in space so, he put his spaceship in the storage and started moving. Right now, he was moving toward one of the outer rings that revolving around the sun. Although he wanted to explore each planet of the solar system, he wanted to become stronger and complete the mission given by the system first.
While going towards the outer ring, Night Shadow got to know more about the Aerilian Race.
In the race, the higher evolution you have, the higher status you will get in the race. The outermost planet is where the eggs are deposited. From there, the babies have only themselves to grow and evolve. The outermost planet had the worst and harshest conditions. When a baby evolves, that baby might be able to fly out of the planet and go to the next planet. The flight to the next planet was made in such a way that only the baby evolves, he/she might fly to the next planet. A baby that hasn't evolved would not be able to fly out of the planet and will fall down to their deaths. It was gruesome but they had to deal with it. The product of the evolution might be increasing of the wingspan, growth of limbs, development of speech, and so on. The rings also have different sizes and hierarchies.
The outer ring represented low noble statuses where Aerilians had evolved enough or their potential for evolving had finished. The middle ring was for high noble statuses Aerilians and the innermost ring was only for royalty. No matter how high you evolved, you could not enter the innermost ring, unless you had an invitation. The people of royalty were said to be the descendants of the Aerilians that had been saved by the Cybertronians.
As there were very few Aerilians when they were saved, they started cross-breeding with other races. Due to cross-breeding with other races, the bloodline in their offsprings had started to reduce. This led to their potential for evolution to reduce.
(Author's note: Enough history, let's get back to the present)
Right now, Night Shadow could see very few dots flying from the outermost planet to the second last planet. Night Shadow was amazed by the hierarchy system but he still had some doubts.
Night Shadow asked Darrin, "But, who makes sure that the hierarchy system stays in place?"
Darrin only smiled and said one word that changed Night Shadow's world completely.
"Magic"
Night Shadow felt shocked and surprised. He did not expect that magic, that something that existed in novels, to really exists. Night Shadow felt as if he was dreaming.
"Does magic really exist?!", Night Shadow asked in a shocked manner.
Darrin and the others looked at Night Shadow with a strange face. They did not know that Night Shadow had never seen magic before.
Darrin awkwardly said, "Yes, it really does exist"
Night Shadow understood the awkward tone and quickly replied, "Oh, I am sorry, it's just that I have never seen magic before"
Darrin and the others nodded and continued moving forward. Night Shadow followed and they kept moving forward for a few minutes before they reached the outer ring. Darrin and others stopped and faced Night Shadow.
Darrin seriously said, "Night Shadow, now we will be entering the atmosphere. The temperature while re-entering the planet will start to increase as you go faster, so please take care. Also, as you enter the planet, flying in the presence of airflow will be different than flying in space. It will take time to adjust but do be careful. Now, let's get going"
After saying this, Darrin was at the lead and was followed by the others and Night Shadow and they entered the atmosphere. As Darrin said, the temperature started increasing and the Night Shadow's skin started heating up so the ice melted at record speed. Due to the airflow, the flapping of wings became more resistant and Night Shadow could only change direction bit by bit.
(Author's note: From now on, I will use such as skin, eyes, and so on for body parts, because they are easier to use and I'm lazy^_~)
Right now, his speed of descent was increasing and Night Shadow had to flap harder and harder to reduce his speed but it hardly made much change. Night Shadow did not panic but tried even harder to reduce his speed. The gravity of the planet also did not help him reduce his speed. Suddenly...
BOOM!!
Night Shadow's speed broke the speed of sound. He was flying through the clouds and could not see Darrin and his group. Darrin and the others also could not see him and started worrying. Although they wanted to help, they couldn't do anything. Night Shadow started to see some water beneath him and understood what it was. It was the ocean. In Aerilia, there is an ocean that is never-ending and as deep as the abyss. There were also monsters with unfathomable strength living in the ocean. The last thing Night Shadow wanted to happen was crashing into the ocean and be consumed by one of the creatures.
Relying on his luck, Night Shadow did his hardest to reduce his speed. He started increasing his flapping speed and he angled his body in such a way that the air was hitting his body and wings more. In other words, he increased the surface area so that he could reduce his speed. And, it started working. His speed started slowing down and he was starting to get more control, but a problem occurred. He was approaching the ocean below him at a fast speed and could see how wide the ocean was. Night Shadow was currently at least 1000 km above sea level but although it may sound far, he was approaching it quickly.
Night Shadow thought hard and fast when an idea hit him. It was a risky plan but it was his only chance. Night Shadow let out a sigh and dived towards the sea. He folded and wrapped his wings around his body, which allowed him to become streamlined and perpendicular to the sea. This shape made him go even faster and his speed increased drastically.
900 km to the sea...
850 km...
800km...
750...
At this point, another BOOM!! resounded around Night Shadow and he started traveling twice the speed of sound.
700...
650...
600...
550...
500..
450...
400...
350...
300...
At this point, Night Shadow got ready and opened his wings.
Whoosh!!
The air that was flowing was, suddenly, blocked by the wings, and Night Shadow was lifted up. Night Shadow's height rose, approximately, 100 km before he started gliding. Suddenly, a quiet crack sounded from the wing. Night Shadow looked at the source of the crack and saw a small crack but it was restored within seconds. The cool air blew on Night Shadow's skin and Night Shadow smiled at the scenery that greeted him.
The sun, which was currently orange in color, was reflecting upon the clear-crystal ocean and being blocked by the scattered clouds at the same time, making the scenery heavenly. The only thing Night Shadow could hear was the wind blowing on his skin. Night Shadow laughed as he flapped his wings and lifted higher and did a barrel roll. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice.
"Night Shadow, are you alright?", asked Darrin worriedly while the others also look worried.
Night Shadow replied in awe, "Yes, I'm alright. Although I must say, it is really peaceful and beautiful here"
Darrin puffed out his chest with pride and said, "It is. Due to non-existent pollution in our solar system and our caretakers' care for the environment, our planets and the rings have been clean for a long time"
Night Shadow nodded in understanding and continued to fly with the group. They continued to fly for some time before Night Shadow started asking questions.
"So, could you tell me more about this place", Night Shadow asked.
Darrin pointed towards a place in the sky and replied, "Over there is Pugnea. We will be landing there and start heading towards the inner ring. Pugnea is one of the floating continents in the outer ring. There are 3 more floating continents namely Xueles, Auzoth, and Aqoid. Each of the floating continents is almost the same size as the next. To go to the middle ring, we will need a pass for the portal..."
At this point, Darrin suddenly stops speaking and looked around cautiously, and started flying away. Night Shadow was going to ask why he stopped when he felt something beneath him. Something big. Night Shadow looks at the ocean but could not find anything strange, so he scans using his radar and was shocked. Night Shadow saw that a lot of his radar was covered in red color. Meaning the object coming towards him was very huge. This made Night Shadow flap even harder and move away from the thing. Night Shadow didn't know what it was but did not want to face it. Good thing Night Shadow and the group flew away from the spot because, a few seconds later, a huge whale-like creature suddenly erupted from the water.
The whale-like creature was looking like a whale was about 100 meters long and 75 meters wide. It was completely dark red in color with razor-sharp silver teeth coming out from its mouth. It had 8 black eyes, 4 on each side with 4 wings on the right and on the left side. If it were to be described in two words it would be - dangerous & huge. Night Shadow could only look at it with shock as the creature retreated back into the ocean. The splash created by the creature made Night Shadow and the group wet. But Night Shadow did not care about that.
Darrin shook himself before looking at Night Shadow and quickly explaining, "Night Shadow, sorry about that. His name is Laihymnr. Nowadays, he has started becoming quite aggressive to strangers coming to his territory, after all, his wife has given birth to his babies and he wants to protect them with his life. Usually, he is calm and friendly and even plays with our children sometimes. But yes, if anyone tries to harm him or his family, he will eat them without any mercy"
Night Shadow was even shocked after hearing what Darrin said. He probably could imagine the friendly side of that creature but the aggressive side, Night Shadow couldn't. Although it was scary, after hearing Darrin, he became less nervous.
Night Shadow quickly said, "Alright, let's get going"
Darrin and his group didn't say anything and started moving towards Pugnea. While going there, Darrin asked a question.
"Night Shadow, how can you understand the language of us, Aerilians?"
It was a surprise for Darrin and the group when Night Shadow in their native tongue but did not ask out of respect. But now, Darrin couldn't hold back the question. Night Shadow looked at Darrin and only gave a mysterious smile. Darrin did not go deeper into the question and continued. While flying, Night Shadow captured a lot of images of the world and stored them in his core. His eyes(aka vision sensors) could also act as a camera but never used them until now. He also enjoyed the scenery. Around 30 minutes later, they reached their destination.
In front of Night Shadow and the group was the continent. Pugnea. Night Shadow stared at it for a long time before moving on. Pugnea was so huge that Night Shadow could not see the edges of it. The continent was covered in a translucent golden-colored dome-like shape with was powered by some type of energy Night Shadow didn't recognize. Night Shadow looked inside the barrier and saw a beautiful city and couldn't wait to enter it.
The group kept going on forward before reaching the dome. Darrin took out a card and put it in the barrier. Night Shadow saw the card passing through it but stopped halfway. After a few seconds, the card was removed and Darrin kept it. Darrin, then, bowed to Night Shadow with his right-hand palm on his stomach facing upwards and his left-hand fingers pointing towards the barrier. Darrin looked like a butler bowing to his master.
"Please, go ahead, honorary guest", Darrin said in a lavish manner.
Night Shadow nodded and went through the barrier with hope.