Chapter 252: The Game of Kings Begins

The damp breeze hit my face as I felt the salt on my skin, and heard the sound of the waves.

"Looks really high... really." I muttered as I raised my head to look up, trying to see the highest point in the view in front of me... but it faded into the mist of evaporated water high in the sky.

In front of us the sand stretched to the right and the left until it faded into the horizon, forming the beach that overlooks the ocean, and there far away above the clear blue water dozens of islands floated in the sky, spread apart from each other randomly but also lined up above each other like they were squeezed inside invisible borders in the shape of a column toward the sky.

Some of them were very big, several kilometers across and could hold cities like the capital... and others were small, the size of houses, connecting the bigger islands with bridges of plants.

The surface of the islands wasn’t even visible from here, just the bottom part of them covered with the roots and the branches that hold everything together.

"This is the definition of a long climb," Elliot commented as he tilted his neck as far as it would go.

Emeris put her hand in front of her face against the sun. "What if we threw someone off the top... would hitting the water hurt? Or would it kill them?"

That comment of hers made everyone stare at her suspiciously, some of them even stepped away from her.

She smiled as she took her hand away from her face. "Don’t be scared, I’m not going to throw anyone."

I think I heard her add something like, "Because that would be merciful." Or something like that.

Looking at the sides, you could see the students from the other Empires were stunned by this too... but one of them was complaining about there being no internet to stream.

"Come on students, we have to finish the procedures and the preparations to set off tomorrow."

A loud voice from behind cut off our thoughts, and almost everyone turned around at the same time... the professors and the people who were with us had already disappeared, like Alicia and the Director.

Well, I guess they stayed inside while we were gaping at the islands.

There a big fortress rose from the ground surrounded by high walls that make us look like a bunch of ants, and at the top of those walls the watchtowers covered every direction, even the other side that overlooks the plains we can’t see... unlike the buildings in the safe lands, this place didn’t have any beauty to it.

You could find a lot of these fortresses in the southern part of the continent, especially past the green zone where the danger starts, all of them fitted with teleportation gates and armies of Awakened of different sizes run by the big families... the Imperial and the ducal ones... they work as a first line of defense where any threat that could get into the green zone gets detected and purged.

And this was the fortress closest to the Hanging Islands, and we came out of the teleportation gate inside it... and for the record it’s about five thousand kilometers from the closest point of the safe borders... which is the Erebus Empire.

It’s a very big distance by Earth’s old standards... but here in Aetherion it isn’t considered much... I mean the four Empires barely cover three percent of the continent, and that reminds me again of the terrifying size of this world.

Anyway, we followed the orders soon enough and four hundred people started heading back inside.

"Hey!... move."

"Who the hell do you think you are!"

And while I was walking peacefully, I turned my head to the source of the back-to-back cursing... it was nothing but some people fighting with each other.

They were a group of dark-skinned guys from Auerlion against others from Erebus... this wasn’t a new sight anyway.

A dark-skinned young man reached out and pushed another one from Erebus which made him fall in the sand, I was going to turn my head away without caring until I caught the huge figure that arrived behind the Auerlion group which made them look short next to him.

It was none other than Demir... the strongest person in the Auerlion group.

With rough features and a stern expression, he put his big hand on the shoulder of the one who started the pushing, his deep voice sounding loud even from this distance. "Stop."

The young man gritted his teeth to argue but Demir’s sharp look stopped him and made him shut his mouth... he looked like a bear calming down a puppy.

The other young man got up out of the sand. "Barbaric bastards, you’re such a—" The words froze in his mouth as Demir’s eyes landed on him which made him curse under his breath and turn to leave.

...

With this day ending there was nothing left but tomorrow for the Game of Kings to finally begin.

That day passed with the inspection of our things and putting us through examinations... unlike the entrance test at the Axis we didn’t get any armor or anything like that, and we were allowed to take our weapons and any Relics and Artifacts that passed their standards... the weak ones of course, the ones they don’t consider cheating.

Like Ellen’s blades, and Elliot’s sword that doesn’t break...

As for me, like I expected there was no real way to find the Mind Anchor, at least not with simple methods... and they thought the tattoo on my hand was just a tattoo.

After that a small chip was implanted in the arm of every one of us. And those would be what tracks our locations... we were given electronic bracelets to talk to the rest of the team and show our progress... but of course they were easy to break so it was better not to wear them when there’s a fight on the horizon.

The safety equipment they gave us was an Artifact shaped like a belt that we wear the whole time, and it would move us to the fortress if we got close to death... well, if you don’t die from one blow of course, or the belt gets torn off you... though the last one is unlikely because it’s built to take Rank 4 blows... so yeah, you’ll die before the belt tears.

Like I said before, this game revolves around controlling lands, so there are no points for killing monsters, or eliminating people from the other Empires.

The only way to get points is purging and occupying the islands... or of course stealing the islands the other groups purged and making them ours.

To purge the island and get the points, we have to kill every monster on it... at least until it becomes safe, so a few weak monsters won’t make a difference.

Then move to its center and set up a camp and place the claim marker.... which are Artifacts that look like a pillar and get planted in the island so the points can be claimed after the life on it gets inspected.

And every Empire has its own marker, and they can take the others’ islands by swapping the markers with theirs, which means losing the points along with the island.

In short, we have to control as many islands as we can for a whole month without losing any as much as possible, then the points can be counted as ours.

And the higher we go the more the danger of the islands and the strength of the creatures on them increases, so the reward points will go up too.

The start would be on the lower islands where the four groups would be moved to different islands tomorrow morning, and that would be the beginning.

The first day would be broadcast for the people of the four Empires to watch, while the editors would pick certain clips that sum up the events and publish them daily as episodes for the rest of the month, or whatever.

...

The sun rose from behind the ocean with the salty sea breeze hitting our faces.

Everyone stood in four groups each one with a hundred people, lined up in front of the high walls of this fortress.

Everyone wore what they wanted, whether light leather armor, combat clothes, or even steel armor.

In front of us Zen Asterval stood smiling and giving his last motivational words that go in one ear and out the other.

When he finished our eyes crossed one last time, and something unreadable shining in those red orbs... curiosity?

Then what followed was a faint click in the air, and with it the fortress was replaced by a forest.