In the desert, a fight of glances was taking place. The brown eyes of that imposing gentleman with a strict look seemed meticulously the only survivor in this place besides the young man and therefore was the only witness of the facts.
That solitary figure standing at the gates of the city carefully contemplated his next words before the moment he heard, "Lie and you will be executed".
And with that a strange feeling of discomfort seemed to have appeared in his body, as if his next sentence would determine his fate, and he quickly bowed by the way of formal greeting since he had a basic knowledge of the protocols of manners in a general way thanks to living with the city of nobles in his youth, due to the potential of his mutant blood and although he was later sold to slavers, it could be said that his level of knowledge was not bad, at least better than most slaves.
"Greetings Commander, my name is Azt…," he paused momentarily as if realizing something important then he hesitated without getting up from his greeting posture and continued, "My name is Raiko, I am just an Omicron that was in the city to be sold to the highest bidder and the only thing I remember was that an army of skeletons attacked the city and so my kind and nice owner gave me my freedom and told me that I could escape if I wanted too, but.... I could not have a clear conscience if I turned my back on all those people in the city and because life is our most precious possession, then if we don't fight for it, what should we fight for? And so, I plucked up my courage and walked out the city gates along with thousands of other people to try to defend our city. I know you are wondering and yes.... I was very afraid but I am a warrior in the bottom of my heart and so armed with only my hands, I faced the enemy," he said before slowly standing up from his greeting posture and staring at that imposing figure above the sky with eyes that showed melancholy and absolute sincerity.
And with a seemingly deep voice, he continued, "The battle was brutal....and I don't remember how many hours I have been fighting for at the frontlines. I think it had been for more than 10 hours without rest while I eliminated hundreds of those horrifying monsters until one of them cowardly attacked me from behind and everything went dark. The next thing I remember is that when I woke up, I found the same scenario you are witnessing but just as I was about to enter the city to look for any survivor, you arrive... I also don't want to lose hope of finding someone alive."
His words echoed in the distance, the stern look of that man in the black armor softened for a moment as if he was processing the words he had just heard, considering that the person below him looked so malnourished that anyone would think he would faint at any moment yet the most shocking words he heard had been "Skeleton Army" that only meant bad news for the empire.
And after observing the silent city, he exclaimed, "Stay here and I'll go investigate...," bowing slightly and then stroking that giant whale with his hand as he gave it a glance showing great kindness on his face, "Phill.... If he tries to escape, crush him," and with that the whale let out a howl as if it understood perfectly the words of its master, which have disappeared a moment ago from its head.
Then it sets its eyes firmly on the solitary figure that it had been commanded to be watch as if its life depends on it without even blinking.
Fifteen uncomfortable minutes passed by, where both the young man and the whale looked at each other while they sweat because of the nerves and the intense heat. Dripping from the face of the only witness of the calamity, who had decided not to move so that the creature would not misinterpret his actions and crush him like an insect's boot. And from one moment turned to another before the corpulent bearded man appeared again next to Raiko, who noticed that the expression on that imposing commander had changed radically, it was a dark expression which showed that the scene inside was worse than what could be seen outside.
Aeris bent down to take out with his hand a small size stone that was at his feet as he said, "We are leaving. You will come with me to Skycity to be interrogated by the imperial consultant and if your innocence is proven then there will be no consequences for you".
After having said that, he took the ragged clothes of Raiko with his free arm and jumped on top of the whale, which he showed a strange expression and movement as if it was uncomfortable because of the presence of the dirty human on his arm.
"Phill let's go home," and with that said the creature rose in the sky, beginning to advance in the opposite direction of where they had arrived. And the commander still holding the stone in his other arm lifted it for a moment and at the same time a strange blanket of transparent energy of bluish tone began to emit around it then it was thrown in the direction of the city. The ordinary object approached and fell towards Oasis and it began to undergo in an incredible transformation, as its size increased exponentially in its path until it became like a large mountain which crashed right where the desolate city was located. With it a deafening sound was also heard and there was an intense shockwave but fortunately, thanks to the speed at which the giant whale was flying through the skies, the force of the impact of the shockwave that was caused by the collision of that mountain did not have enough momentum to somehow affect Phill's flight.
Astonished, Raiko sets his gaze in the direction of the now ancient city of Oasis. In the distance he could only view an imposing mountain where the once city and plain could be seen, and as he moved further and further away from the area, he could not help but wonder to himself
'What was that strange power and How did that rock cover an entire city?'.
Another thing that surprised him was that even though they were moving at great speed on top of the whale, he did not feel any kind of wind movement. It was as if the creature was passing through the air without any resistance.
Aeris had a bag at his feet which were full of supplies because even he didn't wanted to risk getting lost for some reason in Infernatum and he clearly knew that without enough supplies he wouldn't last long in this kind of place and so he bent down and began to rummage inside the bag, moments later he pulled out some bottles of water, small balls of rice and dehydrated meat as he placed them on the ground and sat down to eat, giving a glance to the young man next to him who was clearly aware of his actions and had a look of desire plastered in his face. The owner of the giant whale couldn't help but sigh and softly say without a second thought, "Come and eat, I don't want you to faint from hunger when you are in the presence of the imperial consultant".
The young man heard his own belly growling as he hurriedly jumped down to accommodate himself in front of the commander and quickly began to feed himself. He wasn't really too worried about formalities, as he had the impression that Aeris was someone with a rather direct character, he could be stern if he was insulted in some way but he wouldn't have any bad intention towards another person.
They both ate in silence and after a while the Whale let out a hurried yelp and quickly Aeris stood up without saying a word and began to search for something in the bag that he had on the side. Pulling out a bow and arrow that would look quite common to anybody's eyes.
"Which way Phill? ", he asked in a hurried voice to which the massive animal let out a series of howls, if anyone would hear it, they would get the impression that it was trying to say something urgently. Swiftly Aeris took the bow in his hand and aimed it in a direction that would seem random then placing the arrow on the string again and stretching it to the point where it seemed that the bow would break and even a slight sound of wood cracking could be heard.
Stupefied, Raiko looked at the scene in front of his eyes without understanding exactly what was happening because no matter how hard he tried to look in the direction where Aeris was aiming, he could still not find anything.
Then momentarily later a very strong tension filled the atmosphere, it seemed to be the calm before the storm and as spontaneously as the silence had begun, it was interrupted by the urgent howl of the whale and without any second hesitation, Aeris, who looked imposing as he hold the bow, released the arrow which was after being shot emitted the same bluish glow like the stone and the same way as it advanced it rapidly increases in size, reaching the point of being as thick as a tree which even if two people together would not be enough to embrace it.
The arrow flew so fast that it created an intense whistling sound as it pierced through the air and when it was about five hundred meters from where it had been launched at the exact place as it was apparently empty, it crashed into something. Raiko who was looking expectantly as the arrow traveled, was surprised and could hear a roar that was even louder than the arrow when it was just advancing, a roar full of pain and fury since that imposing projectile had crashed against a strange creature similar to an eagle but did not have any feathers but rather its skin was composed of scales as if it were a reptile. And the weirdest thing of all is that these scales changed color rapidly in total random patterns that many people would find extremely beautiful, it was like a series of colorful paintings making a parade to delight the eyes of anyone who looked at them and even at times you could see the color of the sky or the shape of clouds within that parade of colors and figures without a mistake.
Even with a quick flash it seemed that the strange creature had acquired the color that would have the sky at night. But all this was because the winged beast had completely lost control of its body, since that accurate shot had hit right in its stomach, piercing it completely with the arrowhead sticking out of its back, it must be said that the size of the colorful animal was not small, if it compared side by side with the giant whale it would not be smaller than Phill. And so only a few seconds after being hit by the arrow, and despite the desperate attempts not to fall from the sky, the flying reptile crashed in some random place. Raiko did not notice it because he was focused on the food in front of him but at some point, the panorama had changed completely from being in a desolate desert to the now lush forest full of ridges, mountains and plateaus in all directions, some small and others so high that it even exceeded the clouds.
Without giving it any more importance, Aeris sat back down to eat but felt the heavy gaze of Raiko on him. Aeris then observed him, noticing that he had a face of doubt as if he was trying to ask something but the words did not come out, and because of this Aeris could not help but smile slightly and mentioned, "I do not know if you know this but we are now currently in a C danger zone, "the Arbolaria" and it is a dividing line between Infernatum and Skycity. The thing that wanted to attack us is called Eagle-Chameleon; it is one of the most dangerous creatures in this area for obvious reasons. Fortunately, Phill can use his sound waves as radar and detect them easily".
To this the whale let out a slight howl that seemed to indicate that he was proudly boasting of his ability, and Raiko could not help but smile slightly at this scene.
A few hours passed in which there were two other Eagle-chameleon that tried to surprise them but met the same fate as the first one, which only made Raiko more impressed by Aeris' ability.
'Could he modify the size of anything at will? '
He thought but those thoughts were interrupted by a phrase, "We have arrived, welcome to Skycity".
Raizo's red eyes widened as he observed that right in front of them was a series of giant rocks that appeared to be floating in the sky. It felt that rather than rocks it looked like giant mountains. Some were pointed, the smaller ones were the size of the city of Oasis while the larger ones were difficult to appreciate.
Hundreds and hundreds of imposing mountains were in the sky, inert and with mesmerizing beauty that only deepened as they got closer.
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One more chapter is waiting for today, from here on the story gets interesting.