He observed it for a few monts, the horse eating, the stones glimring between its teeth.
Then he closed his eyes.
He intended to rest for a while before setting out again.
But it was at that mont that it happened.
A change. Small. Subtle. Almost imperceptible.
The shadows around him seed to move.
It was not a dramatic movent, not shadows dancing like snakes or stretching like tentacles.
It was sothing gentler. More natural.
As if the sun had shifted slightly in the sky, altering the angles.
But the sun had not moved.
Kyrian opened his eyes.
He frowned. Sothing was wrong. Very wrong.
The birdsong had stopped. Not gradually, not one bird after another, their voices fading in sequence.
But all at once.
As if an invisible hand had flipped a switch.
The insects, which monts before had been producing their constant background buzzing, had also fallen silent.
The silence was absolute. Even the wind seed to have vanished.
The leaves of the trees, which had been swaying gently in the breeze, now remained motionless.
The entire forest had plunged into a strange silence. An unnatural one.
Kyrian rose slowly, without any sudden movents.
His hand rested on his spatial ring, his fingers touching the cold surface of the tal.
Preparing to draw one of the many weapons he now possessed.
Then he saw it. A shadow.
Slowly erging across the ground.
First, covering a few trees. Their crowns darkened, and their trunks lost their color.
Then the clearing. The ground where Kyrian stood darkened, the green grass turning gray.
Then the river, its clear waters transforming into a dark, opaque liquid.
Then everything. Kyrian raised his head.
And froze.
The sun had disappeared.
No. Not disappeared. Blocked. Suddenly.
A gigantic mass covered the heavens.
Sothing so absurdly enormous that it was difficult to comprehend its size.
Kyrian tried to asure it with his eyes, with his perception, and with his instincts.
He failed.
For several seconds, which felt like hours, he simply stared.
Trying to understand. Trying to identify it.
"A cloud?"
"No."
A cloud would have dissipated. Moved. Changed shape.
That thing remained still.
"A mountain?"
"Impossible."
Mountains did not fly.
The shadow continued to grow. Expanding. Moving.
And then...
A spine-chilling sound echoed through the heavens.
’OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM’
The entire world seed to vibrate. Kyrian felt the sound pass through his bones. Through his flesh. Through his blood.
It was deep. Ancient.
So low and yet so high-pitched at the sa ti that it barely seed like a sound. It felt like the roar of a mountain. The voice of sothing whose existence was difficult to believe.
Arcon reacted imdiately.
The horse, which monts before had been calmly eating its spirit stones, raised its head.
Its fur stood on end, an involuntary reaction, a reflex born of fear.
Its red eyes widened.
For the first ti since Kyrian had known him, since he had found him in the fortress of the Blood Court, since he had ridden him through battles and journeys, he saw fear in Arcon’s eyes.
Genuine fear. Not the fear of a predator facing another predator.
But the fear of prey standing before sothing far greater.
The creature let out a nervous cry, a sharp, piercing neigh that echoed through the clearing.
Kyrian did not hesitate. He leaped onto its back.
"Move!"
Arcon spread his wings.
A burst of wind scattered leaves throughout the forest. So were carried far away, others shattered upon impact.
And then he shot into the sky. Climbing.
Higher. Higher. Higher.
The shadow continued to expand.
It did not matter how fast Arcon flew nor how much altitude they gained.
The shadow remained above them. Covering everything. The deep sound continued to echo.
’OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM’
Arcon pierced through the clouds, the first layer, the one hanging low, damp, and gray.
The light changed.
But the shadow was still there.
He passed beyond the lower layer, thinner and more scattered.
Then another. And another.
Until he finally reached an altitude where nothing should have obstructed his vision.
The sky should have been clear. The sun should have been visible.
But the shadow was still there.
And at that mont...
Kyrian saw.
His heart skipped a beat. His eyes widened.
"That was actually..."
"A city."
There, floating atop a dark being, upon a shell that seed as vast as a mountain range, stood an entire city.
Not rely isolated buildings.
Not rely a few structures.
A city.
With mountains. Towers. Walls. Temples. Rivers. Forests.
All of it was there.
Upon the back of a colossal creature.
Kyrian stood motionless.
His mind, which always processed information at absurd speed, stopped for a mont.
The beast was so large that it extended beyond the horizon.
He could not see its entire body. It did not matter where he looked, left, right, up, or down.
The creature continued. Continued. Continued. Like a living mountain range.
A gigantic shell covered its back, dark, gleaming, and covered in ancient runes and symbols.
Upon it stood forests, real trees growing atop the beast’s shell.
Lakes, blue waters reflecting the sky.
Roads, stone paths connecting different parts of the city.
Buildings, temples, markets, residences, towers. A true city.
No.
A small nation. All of it carried by a single creature.
Slowly. Majestically. Crossing the heavens.
Kyrian’s mind beca completely blank. Not because he was in shock, though he certainly was.
But because it made no sense. He had never imagined that a being so imnse could exist. The greatest dragons of legend were nowhere near that size. The winged whales described in ancient scrolls were insignificant by comparison.
Yet that thing existed, and it was alive.
Kyrian’s violet eyes shone. Trying to see a little more. Instinctively. His gaze focused on the creature, piercing through layers of skin, flesh, and Qi. Piercing through the darkness.
But all he saw beneath the black skin were runes. Millions of them. Small. Dense. Glowing with a light invisible to the naked eye.
Each rune pulsed at a different rhythm, so fast, others slow, all in harmony.
And alongside the runes were thousands of spiritual chains. Colossal. Ancient.
Covering the entire creature, every inch of its skin, every crack in its shell, every space between the runes.
Normally, no one would see them.
The runes were hidden. The chains were concealed.
But Kyrian could see them. It was impossible to hide them from his eyes.
’OOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM’
The sound echoed again. This ti closer. Louder.
Arcon remained motionless in the air.
His wings beat weakly, just enough to maintain altitude. Without the courage to approach. Without the courage to flee.
Even the proud spiritual mount, which would face Core Formation beasts without hesitation, seed incapable of comprehending what it was seeing.
And honestly...
Kyrian couldn’t either.
For long seconds that felt like an eternity, neither of them moved.
Simply watching. The gigantic city slowly flying across the heavens.
Kyrian had just encountered one of the greatest legends in the entire cultivation world.
The Sky Caravan.
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