The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

The Great Void (The Great Level Up! 4/5)

IV.

The voice beckoned her to ascend, but for a moment she hesitated. She breathed in, admiring several free Knotting Strands accompanying the currents of air. The gray sky was a thin layer where she stood, as thick as a blanket between the heavenly ceiling and the world below. It seemed odd, since the top of the clouds here were dark as night. Madoka knelt beneath the blanket to inspect the clouds once more and noticed the very same clouds closest to her were gray on the bottom. Light and dark, like opposite sides of those coins inside Audrey's storage portal.

This illusion could be caused by the strangeness of the Leyline, or a "Grotto Situation" as the princess named this phenomenon. Ceghinort called this a Secret Garden, however, they did not enter a door to get here. The rock she stood on made no noise as it drifted around the pillar of black smoky clouds, but it was ascending slowly. She felt like she was departing her world, so she stared down at the vastness of the lands beneath her one last time. How large and loathsome the universe's emptiness must be? It was so dark above this thin line, she shook her head. Why would she want to leave the world she has been living in?

What is a universe? Audrey knew, but Madoka's mind could not grasp how fearsomely huge it was. It did not help that she said no one could visualize the scope of the universe's true size.

Madoka drew in more Knotting strands as she gasped at the beauty beneath her. She could barely make out Livertorjan's walls and flower filled plains far away in the distance, the tall ridges and crags they used to travel to Gladeban. Many more were jutting out in a circular pattern surrounding those strange statues. Rustaze's jutting spires and crags truly looked like a blooming flower from above, which was why they call the sections of land between each ridge Petals, she guessed.

She saw the desert sands and temples large enough to see more clearly beyond the furthest Petal, which meant that it was south from wherever she was according to Audrey. Next, the ocean was west and she wondered if the gargantuan cargo ship she saw could sail on its black waves. Looking beneath her made her feel queasy, so she noted that the landscape was mostly trees and crags. She swept her eyes northwest and noticed a massive fortress standing forlorn in the middle of a gathering of dots, presumably a large city.

Enough wasting time, she decided. The magic from the crystal in her core tightened around her back, indicating she was running out of time. She had a princess to attend to up there! The wings flapped once more, lifting her higher and higher for one last flight. The strands of magic avoided that rock and her insides squirmed as she approached the platform that voice told her to go up to. Madoka could see what she dreaded as she hovered above the land before setting her feet on it. Of course, she groaned. Those blasphemous ruins were awaiting her, in their perfectly clean and symmetrical glory.

The golden cords' light vanished and Madoka felt the particles of shattered crystal seeping back within her heart. No magic was left in her. Things were looking grim, since only the stars above her illuminated her surroundings. A sudden thunderous boom accelerated itself into her ears, directing her attention to the ruin's center altar. Kind gods, Madoka recognized that billowing smoke! Audrey was attempting her cultivation again within that tiny whirling typhoon! She ran towards the cloud, but her foot bumped into something wooden. What? She thought furiously, looking at the distraction. It was a box.

The very box she sat in while waiting for her to complete her cultivation on the summit of the Wind Serpent God's Hall. Was this Audrey's way of asking her to wait? Madoka sighed, feeling useless as ever, but decided to sit inside the box and obey the princess anyways.

Cultivating, Madoka thought as the swirling storm continued its chaos. What an odd word. The princess knew what she was doing, hopefully, and explained the process as stuffing Mana inside of... somewhere? Once she had nearly too much inside her, she cultivated the energy, by purifying it. What does that even mean? Was it like the Knotting Strands going inside of her crystal? Madoka sighed and shifted in the box a little. Was Audrey's rambling getting to her again? She hated thinking about these things, since it made her head hurt. Still, she was sworn into dutifully following her princess no matter how high they went. The stars and the moons seemed a little too much, in her opinion, but nevertheless!