CHAPTER 54: “ABOVE THE CLOUDS”

“How is this tower still standing?”

It was a good question. After the floors below them crumbled to rubble and the dust cleared, the tower shouldn’t be able to stand. There was a big gaping six story high hole on the side of the building and yet it stood strong. Once everything settled down, they looked down to see Elain but the other player had already vanished.

Ai and Morion had climbed up a few more steps and settled on a random floor to catch their breath. They didn’t rush to get down but they weren’t scared of Elain climbing to catch them either. Since Ai and Morion couldn’t stay up the tower forever, they would need to fight sometime later anyway so why even bother looking for them. Climbing up a cloud high tower to find two players would take up time and energy that would be better spent defeating other easier targets.

Morion didn’t seem to care much about why the tower was still standing though. He simply shrugged it off and chucked it up to it being some sort of weird game physics. 

“Anyway, we should wait until it's completely dark to make our move. Elain’s mage partner could still be observing us with one of their spells so -”

Ai grabbed Morion’s sleeve to stop him. “Morion, I think we should go up.”

“Up?” Reflexively he looked up and looked at the winding stairs. “Is there any particular reason why? I don’t think any player would go up there. I’m pretty sure it's mostly just a dead end.”

Ai hesitated. Honestly, he really didn’t know why he felt that up was the right choice either. It was a potential waste of time that they could be spending observing the other players and their abilities.

“Actually I don’t know.” He said truthfully. “I just have a feeling that there might be something up there that could help us.”

Morion seemed to think about it for a little bit, weighing in his options. His face showed that he was rather unconvinced and Ai didn’t blame him. There was no guarantee that they would actually find anything. It was all based on pure feeling and not fact.

“If your instincts say that there’s something up there, then let’s look.” Morion ultimately decided. He gave Ai a little head pat as assurance. “Let’s trust your mediator instincts.”

Ai sighed in relief and gave a rather shaky smile. Inside he was actually kind of scared of wasting their time. Morion had decided to trust Ai’s instincts on this, so he hoped that there actually was something waiting for them.

So the two of them climbed up the stairs. It was windy and every floor they passed looked exactly the same. A mess with all sorts of rubble and cracks all over the floors and walls. With each floor they would also pass a small window they would see the Ruined City slowly disappearing, replaced with an endless sea of white clouds.

With every passing floor, Ai’s expectations started to dim. The view outside the window didn’t change anymore, it was all just clouds and maybe a breeze. They had passed so many floors already but the end wasn’t even in sight. It just kept going and going.

How long was this going to go? When they first started climbing, the sun was still peeking through the horizon, but now it had gone completely dark. The sky over the clouds  didn’t have a sparkling moon or any stars to provide just a little bit of lighting.

From the corner of his eyes, Ai took a peek at Morion. He was grateful that Morion was so nice about the entire thing. Any other person might’ve complained about the seemingly endless and pointless endeavor at this point, but he didn’t speak a single word. He even gave Ai an assuring gentle smile when he caught him peeking. Thank god it was dark or else he would’ve seen Ai’s reddening cheeks.

After some more climbing, Ai finally stopped. He sighed and looked outside. The sky had already started to become brighter. They had spent the whole night just climbing up the damned stairs. He didn’t know what floor they were even on.

“Maybe there really is nothing up there.” Ai didn’t dare to look into Morion’s eyes. “I’m sorry I wasted our time.”

Morion didn’t say anything for a moment and Ai was afraid of seeing the look of disappointment or exasperation in his face. He’d always been haunted by those expressions in the real world. His mind unwittingly drifted towards his mother and her disappointed and angry expression as she spoke words that made him feel absolutely retched. “Ai, let’s keep going.”

Ai reared back in shock. He slowly looked up, seeing nothing but a comforting expression on Morion’s face.

“W-what? But there’s nothing here. I was wrong.”

As if sensing his discomfort, Morion’s voice was even softer than it usually was. It was like he was talking to a wounded animal.

“If there was truly nothing here then the path would’ve ended long ago. I think this long winding path is here to throw players off.” Morion took Ai’s hand into his and slowly pulled him forward. “So if we just stay on the path forward…”

It was as if the game had been listening in. Right then and there, just one floor above where they were was what Ai had been wanting to see. 

The stairs led up to a flat wooden ceiling. It would’ve been a spirit crushing sight if not for a single trap door on the very center of it. 

Ai turned to Morion with a barely contained grin. He’d been right. He was so close, a mere one floor away and he almost stopped. He gave Morion a grateful hand squeeze before slowly letting go.

“What could be the purpose of putting this here where most players wouldn’t even look?”

Morion shrugged. “If I had to guess it wouldn’t be anything too OP since that would make the other players angry…but it will surely be an advantage.”

Gulping, Ai slowly pushed up the trap door handle with trembling hands. His heart was pounding loudly. He was excited. There was a thrilling electric feeling going up his back at the reality of finding something the other players didn’t. 

The trap door opened.

The sunlight was incredibly blinding when Ai first stuck his head out the hole. The light was way more intense than it had been on ground level, but once his eyes adjusted a beautiful and serene sight greeted him. 

Gigantic tree canopies with golden leaves that sparkled like gems, a sea of endless clouds surrounding them, and the twisty towers that stretched from below. Though the actual playable area was not at all big, the environment stretched beyond making it feel enormous. 

The trap door led to a wide wooden platform on one corner of the area. There were other platforms in all sorts of different placements with some even damaged. All the platforms led to one place, the center.

The distance wasn’t too far, but the two of them walked slowly, taking in the details of the environment around them.

“A hidden area in a special PvP event map.” Morion muttered. “Should’ve known that person would’ve thought of something like this.”

Ai turned to him, not quite catching what he said. “What about this area?”

Morion blinked and cleared his throat. He looked away from Ai’s gaze and rubbed a hand over his lips. “It’s nothing. Just thinking out loud.” 

At the center of the area was nothing special. A single wooden table laid there, vines twisting around its legs as if keeping it sturdy. At the table laid an open book that looked untouched, even brand new. Morion took a peek at the book without touching the pages. His eyes scanned the pages but then his brows settled into a confused frown.

“There’s nothing written here.”