Simo

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Raising my head, my body instinctively froze at the scene that unfolded before me, It caused me to blink in succession a few times to confirm what I was seeing. Grandmother was right, I could already see the land of the Gods, though It was still a distance away, there was no hiding its enormous size. 

I reckoned we were a few hundreds of kilometers away, perhaps a bit more, but the massive land In the sky, no, I wasn't even sure if It was correct to call It land. I could see the vague outline of enormous buildings that appeared to pierce the sky, the whole 'land' seemed to be situated on top of a massive dark grey cloud. 

My mind was still in shock at the sheer magnitude of this so-called divine continent. It had truly exceeded my expectations. I almost did not believe that hiding such a massive landmass would be possible for It seemed to take on the entirety of the sky ahead of me. 

Glancing back at the 'empty' sky behind, and then at the land of Gods that took over before me, I subconsciously gulped down. Since we were still a distance away, I was unable to make out the exact details of the buildings, It was almost as If someone or something was intervening, preventing me from seeing things clearly. 

All of this gave the land a vague ethereal feeling to It, making me think that If I blinked the entire place would just disappear as If It had never been there in the first place. "Pretty extravagant If you ask me," Chuckled grandmother next to me as we slowly flew towards our target. 

"Extravagant?" I curiously asked to which she nodded before patiently answering, "The Gods little Aether are, how to put It, well rather lacking in certain areas so they try to make up for It with all of this," She said while pointing at the continent above the clouds before continuing, "This useless parade," She shook her head. 

"But, their food is tasty, I'll give them that!" She suddenly added with an excited expression. I let out a dry laugh as grandmother almost seemed to be salivating while thinking about the food, and chose to carefully divert the subject away from that. 

"But why Is a floating continent considered Extravagant grandma?" Even we lived in a floating mountain, how is that any different from them? I silently noted. Faced with my question, grandmother rubbed her chin silently for a few seconds before finally speaking. 

"Do you know why the Gods are here?" She suddenly asked causing me to frown. 

"By here you mean?" 

"Exactly what I asked, here above our land, and not in the sky above the mortals," 

"Uh, I don't know? Maybe because they feel it's beneath them to be in the lower continent?" I randomly guessed. 

Shaking her head, grandmother chuckled before replying. "Oh, they wish, quite the opposite little Aether, the Gods would love nothing more than being there instead of here since It would be like overlooking their playground you see. The reason they are here instead is a punishment sent by the King, and a future warning after their last mess up," 

Hearing that I subconsciously nodded, 'Their last mess up, that should be the fight between the Eleven Goddess and the Demon God,' I inwardly noted, 'And a future warning? I guess since the continent belongs to the dragons, putting the Gods in the middle of It does seem like a warning of sorts with them surrounded from all sides. Did the King want to use the Dragons to suppress the Deities while lowering their contact with the mortal continent?' I wondered. 

Grandmother then continued, "If It was up to them, the Gods would love nothing more than for all the Dragons to completely disappear, most of them hate us, some are reasonable, others are neutral, but the majority are still against us though they do not have the guts to stand up to us for they know just how significant our role is at keeping them and this entire plane alive," She chuckled. 

I slowly nodded in understanding, 'Obviously not all the gods are unreasonable but there is still some bad blood between them and us, just like how grandfather and father don't seem like they could ever get along with them. Still, like grandmother said, I'm sure a few are reasonable, perhaps friendly even,' With such thoughts swirling across my mind we slowly got closer. 

"It's because of our tense relationship that most of the Deities refuse to set foot on the same land as us," Grandmother let out a silent laugh as If what she had said was the funniest joke ever, "A bunch of arrogant fools," She quietly muttered under her breath. I wisely chose to remain silent as we drew closer.  

My eyes widened in surprise as I could now better 'see' the clouds. Various oversized faces flashed between the fogs wearing contorted expressions of pain as they seemed to be screaming for help, yet their pleas were eerily silent. Some looked like they were crying, while others appeared as If they had lost all hope, a rare few would have expressions of anger. 

The strange creepy faces caused my skin to crawl as I turned to look at grandma who did not seem disturbed whatsoever, she glanced down at me seemingly sensing my unease, and replied with a beaming smile. "Nothing to worry about little Aether, that's just the sick hobby of a few twisted bastards, It has nothing to do with us," She reassured me before silently mumbling under her breath. "I can't believe someone would still do such a thing to their kin," She clicked her tongue in annoyance. 

We gradually arrived before the massive landscape, though It appeared as If It was protected by a wall of clouds preventing us from seeing anything inside. Grandmother was calm as she suddenly grabbed my arm and took a step forward, the clouds swiftly parted making way for us to move as the world suddenly cleared out. 

A sudden bright light forced me to shield my eyes as I felt a certain gaze study me for a second before It quietly retracted to where It came from. By the time my eyes adjusted, grandmother had already led us down as my feet gently touched the ground. 

I blinked in surprise and almost lost my footing, luckily she was still standing nearby and helped support me. "Careful now little Aether, welcome to the land of the Gods," She said, her voice deep and strangely captivating, yet I did not seem to hear her as I was already mesmerized by the scene before me.