Chapter 77: The Shattered Heavens

Chapter 77: Chapter 77: The Shattered Heavens

The muster began at dawn under the city’s gray banners.

There were twelve elite students, forty military escorts under Marshal Halden’s gray eagles, two siege lifts full of supplies, and one twelfth student carrying a kit no one bothered to inspect twice.

At the seventh bell, the Deep Gate swallowed the whole column, and the world began counting floors.

The conquered strata passed one by one, like a ledger being read aloud.

Six: the fossil markets, lit and orderly.

Seven: the mine workings, full of tin lanterns.

Eight: the fungus farms, warm and damp.

Nine: the last gate, the last stamped page.

Beyond it lay a stair no map had claimed, cut into stone that looked wrong with age.

The column slowed.

Even Marshal Halden’s drums fell silent. Drums know better than to compete with places like this.

Then the stair ended, and the Tenth Stratum revealed itself.

Sky.

A black stone shore.

And beyond the shore, nothing.

Islands floated in a vast dark with no floor and no ceiling. Some were as large as countries. Some were the size of chapels. Some were no bigger than chandeliers. Roots of stone and frozen waterfalls hung from them, and they drifted through the dark so slowly they looked almost still.

Storms turned in the distance like glowing millstones. Auroras spread across the void in slow waves. Rocks hung in midair, still falling toward a ground that did not seem to exist.

There was no horizon.

No floor.

All at once, forty soldiers forgot how to breathe properly.

For four full seconds, nobody spoke.

That was the Tenth Stratum’s second miracle.

Even Valerius said nothing.

Even the drums stayed silent.

A chapel-sized island drifted across the dark a mile away. Far beyond the storms, something enormous turned in its sleep, and its light ran along every hanging root of stone at once.

In that moment, the entire column discovered the same silent faith.

All fifty-two of them belonged to it.

[Ding!]

[Zone entered: the Shattered Heavens, Stratum 10.]

[Cartography: blank. You are the first party on record to stand here.]

Joel stood at the shore, staring at the familiar color.

The darkness wasn’t black like the night. It was gray, the same color as the mist he had encountered twenty years ago.

For years, he had believed that place belonged only to his memories.

But now he understood.

That place had an owner.

And the owner was showing him its home.

•••

The Tenth Stratum’s first attack came without warning.

A soldier’s canteen suddenly floated past a sergeant’s face.

Then a coil of rope slipped out of someone’s pack and stood upright.

A moment later, gravity reversed.

WHUMP!

A soldier shot into the air, screaming and waving his arms.

The Sky-Lancer quickly jumped after him, stepping onto hardened air before catching his harness forty feet above the ground.

Gravity in the Tenth Stratum could change direction without warning.

Valerius was the first to attempt flying.

The rank-one student stepped off the edge of the shore, his golden aura shining brightly.

He spread his arms and began making a grand speech about becoming a legend.

For six seconds, everything looked magnificent.

Then he crossed an invisible boundary where gravity suddenly changed direction.

WHAM!

Valerius was thrown sideways.

His cape snapped violently behind him as he struggled to regain control.

He released several bursts of aura to correct his movement, consuming mana with every attempt.

Meanwhile, the escort soldiers were ordered to cheer.

And they did, although their enthusiasm seemed rather forced.

Eventually, the Sky-Lancer caught Valerius with a hook and pulled him back, keeping a perfectly straight face.

Valerius landed, straightened his clothes, and brushed off the dust.

"The Tenth Stratum," he announced proudly, "will remember that."

Perhaps it would.

After all, it had watched far greater men fall through its endless sky.

•••

Joel was no longer listening.

He quietly walked past the column toward the edge of the floating rocks, attracting no attention.

Then, at his usual calm pace, he spoke.

"Domain."

WHUMM!

[Ding!]

[Pinnacle authority projected: Domain of the Inertia Sovereign.]

[Environmental ruling logged: within the sphere, gravity is motion, and motion owes the Sovereign a hearing.]

Within fifty meters, Joel’s Domain took control of the Tenth Stratum’s strange physics.

The floating canteen stopped in midair.

The powerful updrafts lost their force.

The soldiers’ boots suddenly became heavier, firmly holding them against the stone.

"Walk where I can see you," Joel said, "and you cannot fall."

Sergeant Voss, who had called Joel a mascot at the gate, stared at him.

Then he looked down at his boots and saluted the ground.

The next island was separated from them by nine meters of open sky.

Joel stabilized the air within his Domain, stopping the violent gusts.

All fifty-two members of the expedition crossed the gap in formation, walking as though an invisible corridor connected the islands.

TIK!

At each landing, Joel placed one of Roan’s twenty wax-sealed beacons.

For the first time, they were mapping the Tenth Stratum.

The third crossing proved even more dangerous.

The column was halfway across a narrow path of chained floating rocks when gravity suddenly reversed.

WHUMM!

A powerful wave of reversed gravity swept across the path.

Forty soldiers began lifting off the rocks at once.

But Joel’s Domain was already active.

The moment the strange force entered his fifty-meter range, he stopped its effect on them.

All fifty-two members of the expedition froze an inch above the stone.

Below them stretched the endless abyss.

Not a single person fell.

TIK! TIK!

One row at a time, Joel lowered the soldiers back onto the rocks, fixing their boots firmly in place.

The wave of reversed gravity continued sweeping past.

But when it finally disappeared, everyone was still standing.

[Ding!]

[Gravity flare: inverted, causeway-wide, magnitude: severe. Ruling: denied. Casualties: zero.]

[The abyss filed a complaint. The complaint is under review.]

When the wave passed, Sergeant Voss looked at Joel again.

This time, he gave him a proper military salute.

Around them, all forty escorts exchanged glances.

Their opinions had changed completely.

[Ding!]

[Cartography: 3 points logged. First lines ever committed to the tenth.]

[Party anchoring: 52 of 52. Falls today: zero. Complaints: zero.]

Marshal Halden watched the second island appear beneath his boots and reconsidered his orders.

"The academy’s anchor holds," he told his officers. "The column moves at his pace. He gets whatever rations he needs. And nobody leaves his fifty-meter range without a written reason."

"So the army moves at my pace," Valerius declared, arriving late with his golden aura glowing.

"The army moves at the floor’s pace," Sergeant Voss muttered, looking down at his boots.

His boots remained firmly planted.

Without waiting for orders, the forty escorts had already begun staying within Joel’s fifty-meter Domain, careful never to step beyond his protection.

•••

Dusk arrived as a change in color rather than a change in time.

The distant storms continued turning, while glowing auroras spread across the dark sky.

The expedition made camp on an island the size of a parade ground. Tents were secured, ropes tightened, and Joel’s Domain kept everything stable.

That evening, Marshal Halden held his first meeting.

"First day in the Tenth Stratum. Casualties: zero. Progress: three islands."

He looked around the table.

"The academy’s anchor is responsible for both achievements. I’ll include that in my report."

He paused.

"Officially, the Vanguard thanks the academy for its support."

"Send them the bill," Joel replied.

The officers laughed.

Then they noticed the Marshal writing something down.

"What did you write?" Valerius asked.

"A price," Halden replied.

He offered no further explanation.

After all, a man who had obtained a powerful fortress cheaply had no reason to reveal its true value.

Valerius sat apart from the others, drinking tea while his remaining mana hovered around sixty percent and continued dropping.

Twice, he tried to explain what had happened during the gravity inversion.

Both times, he stopped before finishing.

Meanwhile, Victor Kole had secured his tent with four ropes and remained inside, looking far from comfortable.

When Joel passed during his patrol, Victor finally spoke.

"Does your protection extend beyond the tents?"

"Sleep within fifty meters," Joel replied, "and gravity becomes a rumor."

Victor nodded.

He didn’t thank him.

Instead, he quietly tightened his tent ropes, pulling them slightly closer to the campfire.

Closer to the center.

Closer to Joel’s fifty-meter Domain.

•••

When darkness settled, Nyx emerged from Joel’s shadow. The camp’s lamps were the only lights in the endless gray sky.

"The sky is the same color," she said. "Just like the mist. Your mist, Architect."

"I know."

Nyx moved along the island’s edge, her crown pulsing slowly with violet light as she examined their surroundings.

"The islands aren’t falling."

"No," Joel replied. "Nothing here has finished falling yet."

He stood at the edge of the camp, staring into the endless darkness.

The Tenth Stratum wasn’t an ordinary place.

It was part of a fall that had never ended.

Somewhere above them, inside the Spire, existed the mysterious being that had fallen from the sky centuries ago.

According to the ancient records, it was still falling.

The floating islands were pieces left behind by that fall. The storms were part of it, and the strange gray mist was its presence.

Joel had encountered that same mist when he was fourteen.

He had breathed it and somehow survived.

Even now, he didn’t fully understand why.

And somewhere at the bottom of this endless fall was the Apex Tear.

A pure Tear capable of bypassing a person’s genetic limits.

That was what Joel had come to find.

"Tomorrow, the expedition moves at the anchor’s pace," he told Nyx. "And the anchor moves toward the Tear."

Far below the island, a massive boulder the size of a chapel slowly drifted downward.

It had been falling for ages without reaching the bottom.