A Tale of Two Knights

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Lots of health potions were used that day.

"We only have two left, you only needed so much, why did you chug like five?" Sullivan checked his bag, two health flasks remained, with one mana orb floating in a glass vial.

"I mean, it tastes pretty good. Like apples and honey-"

"Shut up already," Sullivan said annoyingly. They were on the beaten down white platform that was slowly raising them up in the sky.

Thousands of feet up in the sky, the land beneath shone its beauty beyond. The grey sky was still existent, however it was outshone by the lush green forests and land beneath them. The platform seemingly moved by magic, as all things do. Gold mana ran down the platform's edges, coursing through, like blood coursing through one's veins.

Beyond a single thought, transcendence through reality, the philosopher who questions life, the offspring who came into the world inexperienced, and without a thought. The skylands transcended everything below. Dragons flying in packs of five or more, glorious enlightened water flowing on some islands on the skylands, the overflow of the special elixir flowing down to the lands below, showing growth in plants and wildlife. Majestical kingdoms flourishing. This was truly the one place where the Volnarians could not ever capture and control.

Bridges made from arch wood connected all the levitating islands of the Skylands, Heavenly armies on watch, Enormous towers stretching over miles shone above the world, wildlife plentiful, absolutely nowhere in the skylands had any evil. All evil was exterminated.

Except for one island.

No bridges connected to this one. Before, one bridge, the Tempua bridge connected this to the rest, but after the incident, the war that caused the skylands to almost fall apart, the rope connecting the bridge was cut, along with all access to the island. What was the island?

The Caringol islet. The island is run by goblinoids, lauves, dragons, giants, all of the nasty filth that HE had brought into the world.

Lauf's were creatures that were only a little larger than average humans. They had grey rough skin, and had small wings, big enough to fly, but relatively small, compared to dragons, and other flying species. They are weak and frail, and therefore, their main way to attack is through magic. Their noses are long, and many are blind. Hidden beneath the lips were putrid teeth, stained from eating human flesh, as well as other lauf flesh. Carnivorous mindless animals that didn't do much.

And Ludovicus and Sullivan were about to go in. It was an absurd idea, but there was no choice. Sullivan was the chosen one. Ludo didn't even doubt that. The one who had the marking will destroy the evil for some time... But evil can never perish forever...

The saying was common, but common folk dismissed it. The sayings laws were even present in the skylands. A world transcendent from the lands below. The entire landmasses of the Skylands depended on magic.

Magic was how the place ran. Wizards were of great worthiness, and power. Mana was plentiful in the Skylands. But evil will always come in one shape or form. The greater the good, the more powerful the evil becomes. There will always be a balance between the forces.

...

Before long, the dusted platform, discarded of Faron's remains, reached the Skylands. The main landmass, Faeril, glistening, the levitating island stretching for thousands of miles. Easily the biggest out of the four main islands.

The Skylands were a system of levitating islands, with the main island, Faeril at the middle of the rest. The other three landmasses, Seris, Lerusia, and Fley Drium, were considered the only other lands in the Skylands. Well, other than the coringol islet. The landmass that was on the west south side of Faeril.

When they finally reached the top, the platform led to a small cave, secret to everyone. Their location was in a free open grassy landscape, with no humans and little animals in sight. The two stepped out of the platform, and immediately, Sully took a deep breath. It has been a while since something as calm as this has happened.

Ludo curiously looked around, trying to find any common folk around, but found none. He ran over, and noticed that they were on the very edge of Faeril. He looked down and saw that the edge directly led to certain death. The edge sloped inward, leaving a slope on both sides. If you were to fall off, you would be falling for many minutes before dying a quick death.

Ludo backed away from the edge, and noticed Sullivan, who looked for animals.

Ludo went to Sully. "Sully, how much mana do you have left?"

Sullivan pondered the question for a bit, confused. "I don't think I have any left. I have never had mana before."

Ludo was even more confused by his reply. Infinite reserves of mana? Guess that's what to be expected from the chosen. Ludo was still extremely guilty about Alphonse's death, despite it happening years ago, however, he felt different when he found out Sullivan was the new chosen one.

There was always a new chosen one, to compensate for the growing power of the equal force. Equilibrium.

Grass surrounded them, almost everything was empty except for the grassy cave they had entered through. There was a slight path, which made its appearance of a brown slight mud color, which was a trail that ran through the ground. "Where does it lead to?" Sullivan somehow caught something in the glimpse of his eye, and ran through the trail.

"Hey hold up-" Ludo ran after Sullivan, unaware of what Sully was running after.

...

Their breath was taken away by the sheer beauty of the capital, or what seemed to be the capital. The buildings were magnificent, the capital was on par, if not better than even the great Astoria. The entire capital was protected by a wall stretching for hundreds of feet into the air, so high, in fact, that the tips of the walls touched the white clouds all the way up in the sky.

The buildings in the capital were magnificent, and the scale even better. The walled city was held up by golden mana, stretching from barrier to barrier, mana coursing through the insides of the walls.

A great large golden gate closed the entrance to unsuspecting visitors, and it was almost as if it was the gate to heaven itself. The guards standing in front of the gate wore steel helmets, which sacrificed some protection for lots of air and circulation. The nose piece protected the nose, and small horns were attached to the top of the helmet. Their body armor was phenomenal, the armor going in a V shaped pattern across the front body. They wore great articulated armored leggings, and they were so well protected, almost no sword could even show a mark on the armor. Although not as elite as the Arch knights, they were certainly extremely impressive soldiers.

Ludo and Sullivan were not far from the city, and they saw the hundreds, even thousands of people muddled up together, in tight lines stretching for many hundreds of feet. The gate stood open, with many nobles squirming just to get in the capital. This was truly the closest thing to absolute heaven besides maybe Astoria. This was undoubtedly Erenstin. The capital of Faeril.

"How the hell are we supposed to get in there?" Sullivan asked, still in shock from the grandiose sight that he just witnessed. Ludo put his hand to his chin, in deep thought.

"You see, we aren't," Ludo said. Unapologetically. "There isn't a single way to get inside the city, besides, it's not like we need to anyway."

"I suppose you're right." Sullivan replied. A little upset, but they never planned for this anyway.

A few miles across from the capital, was another sharp turn which resulted in the southwest side of Faeril. There was the once hefty bridge. The exact bridge that connected Faeril to the caringol islet. A landmass that wasn't even named the same way as the other four landmasses in the skylands.

Ludo pointed at the direction of the levitating islet. "We have to go in that direction. That is where the Lauves are taking the people hostage."

Determination filled Sully, as he nodded in return.

They headed for the landmass, not knowing what exactly to expect from it.