His body was still aching from the fall, every bone screaming in protest, but his eyes… his eyes could not close.
He raised his gaze, across the blood-stained mountain chains, and saw something that stopped his breath.
There… hundreds of miles away, a giant city was rising, but it was not on the ground… it was hanging in the sky.
It was not just a city, but an entire continent, its walls made of black metal, its towers stretching like spears into the clouds, and its barrier glowing with radiant symbols like imprisoned stars.
His mind could not grasp its size.
Every time he tried to measure the distance with his eyes, the scene only grew wider and wider, until he almost thought the city had no limits.
But it was not alone.
He lifted his head higher, and saw dozens… no, hundreds of floating cities filling the sky.
Each one was different from the other:
One had waterfalls of blue light pouring from it.
Another was surrounded by fiery whirlwinds that burned the air around it.
A third was covered in giant crystals that reflected light like a rainbow from hell.
They all moved slowly, like small planets orbiting in the space of this world.
Ashen's heart trembled.
He had thought that his old world, with its history, its battles, and its blood, was the peak… but in front of this sight, it seemed like nothing more than scraps on the edge of an endless kingdom.
He felt awe, humiliation, and fear.
But after a moment, something else ignited inside him.
A deep hatred, a thirst that could only be quenched with blood.
He remembered the faces of his clan, their screams, their blood as it spilled.
He remembered the fall into the rift, the pain that tore his soul, the torment that almost erased his humanity.
All of that gathered in his heart and melted into one word: revenge.
He clenched his fist over the blood-stained soil.
He raised his head toward those cities and smiled a bloody smile.
"I will not remain below."
"I will not be just another victim in this world."
"I will rise… no matter the cost."
His voice echoed between the mountains, but inside him it echoed as a sacred oath.
In that moment, a new determination was born in his soul.
He was no longer just a young man running from his fate.
He was no longer just the heir of a slaughtered clan.
He had become a witness to the vastness of this terrifying universe… and he decided to carve his name into it.
He swore to uncover the secrets of this world, to tear apart every chain that bound him, to walk a path higher than any path.
Even if the price was to burn his blood, his mind, or his very soul.