The higher we float upward, the fewer birds there are circling here.
Once we make it to a certain point, they stop soaring higher.
We approach the slowly swaying chains, and I watch one of the highest-flying awakened birds glide peacefully through the sky between two of the massive metal links.
As it flaps its long graceful wings glowing red with ethereal threads, another creature comes rocketing toward it, jumping with strong dark green armored insect legs.
It's almost a blur in the sky how fast it moves.
Two sets of transparent wings unfold from its exoskeleton as its powerful jump pushes it forward, and it cuts through the air with a bright orange aura trailing behind it.
Its long antennae and beady black eyes sense the air around it while a sharp outstretched limb cuts the scavenger bird's head clean off before it even knows what hit it.
The insect, with the body of what seems to be a cricket mixed with a praying mantis, rockets through the air, perfectly landing on the chain across from it.
The creature's body is far smaller than the bird it just killed. Possibly 3 to 4 meters from its antennae tips down to its feet, but the strength and speed it just showed outclassed anything I've seen inside this construct.
It turns to jump back, pointed straight at the falling bird while it dissolves and crunches through its red core with powerful fangs, absorbing its essence in seconds and climbing higher up the vine-covered chains.
Its green outer shell blends in with the lush plant life on the rusted metal chains, but its bright orange aura stands out to me as bright as day.
It looks back my way while hopping up higher and further away, chain to chain, as I approach.
More and more of the mutant locust creatures come into my view as Ember and I start to soar up through the twisting chains.
The further in we travel, the more chains become visible to me, deeper into the endless sky and sea.
Once deep enough in, I sense the fast-moving orange masses jumping around me on all sides, picking off the remaining scavenger birds that dare to fly this high.
Eventually, one jumps close enough and attempts the same maneuver on me.
"Finally," I whisper while preparing for a new monster type to battle.
To my surprise, out of the corner of my eye, I watch Ember transform into his hybrid human-dragon form, growing in size and giving himself scaled armor, a long spiked tail, and clawed hands and feet.
In reaction, I take out my flame emperor's sword and activate my greater form.
If Ember is showing this much strength right now, it's better not to hold back. His words right after my transformation confirm my thoughts.
"Don't take our orange-cored guests so lightly. Their strength may surprise you."
The blur of orange comes my way while the red strands of energy intertwine themselves with my dark greater form.
I take a moment to concentrate and focus, channeling mana into my blade, creating an attack powerful enough to subjugate many double-ranked-up opponents over level 2000 I've faced in the past. The divine energy coursing through me increases this power's attacking force drastically, but the closer my opponent gets, the more its power becomes clear to me.
My greater form's blade collides with the insect's front leg, and the resulting clash sends ripples of red and orange thread-like energy waves to scatter from our point of contact.
I'm surprised when our strength is almost matched.
My brute force, powered by my fully unleashed mana control, pushes the insect backward, but an incredibly tough outer layer of its exoskeleton is coursing with dense orange threads and completely nullifies my attack.
My eyes widen as the creature is sent flying backward, but not a scratch is left on the impact point once the energy fades.
The only thing I held back during this exchange was not using soul energy...
My vision shifts to my left as another massive cricket comes soaring Ember's way and he doesn't hesitate to cover his body in soul energy-imbued flames to thrust a clawed fist forward and shatter the creature's orange thread-imbued shell.
There are rippling waves of gravity that hit me even from hundreds of meters away.
Ember thrusts his other clawed hand forward and tears off the insect's head, trailing millions of orange tendrils of energy behind in its wake.
His eyes are laser-focused on his enemy, and he doesn't hold back, tearing the creature to shreds with everything he has.
My gaze moves back to the monster that attacked me, and it has already recovered from the blow I gave it.
Its antennae move back and forth, and its orange aura retracts, making the outer orange layer on its green shell even denser, then it flaps its wings while kicking itself off the air to fly forward again with the same speed it did before when using the chains as a backboard.
I smirk while letting hot qi and mana that have been infused and waiting in my core trickle down my arms and into my blade.
I see the divine threads taking root in this hot energy as it makes the blade in my hand heavier than it has ever been before.
At the same time, it courses through my entire body, making the swing and speed I charge forward at the strongest and fastest I've ever felt myself travel as well.
Every step through the air I take leaves behind red footprints where I've impacted this construct and when my crimson soul energy attack makes contact with the outer barrier of the insect's attacking arm again, it shatters with little to no resistance.
The dense tendrils of orange energy are overwhelmed by the weight of the soul energy attack woven into the red core's power.
After its arm is shattered, its head and main body are obliterated in the follow-through of my slash as well.
Insect parts rain through the sky as my dense soul energy attack collides with one of the heavy metal chains far off in the distance.
There's a rattling clanging sound as a chunk of metal is broken off one of the links and the chain continues to sway in the heavy winds.
I let out a satisfied sigh while floating down with the bulk of the insect parts and collecting the orange core that drops with it once it dissolves.
The core falls into my item storage, and at the same time, I hear a rattling of chains far off behind me as another orange-cored locust comes flying my way.
I turn to face it and use the same attack as I did just moments ago.
Ember and I continue to weave through the chains, traveling upward, and slicing through the jumping critters one by one.
While I'm pretty much going all out in every attack, these monsters still don't give me an actual fight.
However, considering the massive jump in power from the scavenger birds up to these insects, my mind races to think what we're really moving up this construct to find.
Another half a day passes, and the chains only grow more in number, reaching out further and further than my senses can see.
The conversation of stopping on one of the massive links to rest and absorb the dozens of orange fragments we've collected so far comes up, but Ember is certain we'll find solid land to rest on instead soon.
No matter how far I look, all I see is endless chains, clouds, and locusts for hundreds of kilometers.
It becomes a mental guessing game where these chains are even going, what they're possibly attached to, and why there are so many.
After mindlessly killing more and more insects, there's finally a change in the atmosphere.
For the first time since we entered this place, the sky starts to change color. It becomes slightly darker high above us.
One of the tightest chains near me shudders, and all of the orange-cored monsters in its vines jump off and begin hopping and flying away as fast as they can.
I hear a loud echoing cracking sound, like rock splintering against rock high up in the sky.
Then, the tightened chain less than a kilometer away starts to bend.
It's like whatever was holding it so straight has loosened its grip.
The sky gets darker and darker as the massive chain bends and starts to look like many of the other slack chains I've passed while traveling upward.
Then, I see why.
An impossibly large rock looks like it's falling from the sky with the end of the chain attached to its center.
The longer I stare up at it, the more massive it becomes.
It looks like an entire mountain is being pulled down from the sky.
Ember and I both look at each other with surprised expressions, then start air-stepping away as fast as possible.
There's an end in sight at the edges of this enormous falling rock, but the closer it falls, the further away these edges become.
More cracked and grinding sounds fill the air as more and more locusts scatter away, screeching and chirping as they do.
None even try to attack us as they pass, sensing that whatever is falling toward us is a far greater threat.
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Author's Note:
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Thanks for reading:)
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