Cold.
Dark.
Empty.
Wind slipped through the corridors, smelling like chalky dust, mildew, and cold stone.
The broken white dust clung to his hands. His arms, legs, and body; he could barely move them.
This atmosphere had not even compared to the warm, welcoming air of Pladtioa. The air was thin here, somber-filled.
Asahi assumed there wasn't much… and despite falling into the sky, he now stood on… solid ground?
Asahi's eyelids fluttered open. Strange, unfamiliar architecture loomed around him. Withered tufts of grass jutted from the cold stone walls.
He glanced upward, rubbing his head, and spotted cobwebs draping every corner of this forsaken ruin. Black-stained bricks, scarred by time, greeted his gaze.
Darkness shrouded the room; there was no sight of light anywhere.
Only the luminance on his clothing shone.
He felt a hard, eroded metal surface beneath his feet.
"W-Where… am I?" He heard his voice reverberate and echo continuously.
Shivers ran down his spine. Faint light peeked through cracks, rubble, and black bricks scattered across what seemed a crater.
As he advanced toward the alien building, he saw bridges, mechanisms, and gears scattered across the brittle ground.
Hallways stretched from branch to branch, resembling a cathedral of shattered glass and debris.
"It feels so lonely here. Where is Aletha?"
...Time seemed to pause in the eerie silence, but soon, the last bits of the building emerged from the darkness, revealing a new presence.
At the edge of the building, amid drifting smoke, a white-haired, gray-eyed girl stood, analyzing the weathered pillars below. Asahi gasped and raced to her, arms outstretched, screaming her name.
"ALETHA!"
His voice bounced off every wall, yet she didn't bat an eye at Asahi. Now, up close, she wasn't wearing her usual attire, and her hair was much shorter and curly. As he approached, the girl slowly tilted her head to Asahi and raised an eyebrow, curiosity on her face.
There was no S mark anywhere on her body. Her pallor gave her an alien look, setting her apart from Aletha's angelic appeal. Asahi spoke in a thin voice.
"W-Who are you?"
The curly-haired girl sneered at Asahi, pure hatred and contempt on her tattered face.
She was beautiful, but that look was unsettling. As she stared in silence, Asahi reached his hand toward her and asked.
"What is this place?"
The mysterious girl swiftly lifted her hand and pressed her hands against a button.
(Click)
Suddenly, a metal door behind her slid open, revealing a dormant beast-like mechanism slumped against the tattered walls.
A white light sparked from its head, roots extending from its dark metal shoulders as rusty saw blades slowly lifted. It pushed itself upright, staring at Asahi.
"In…truder… detected."
Its footsteps thundered, shaking the building as it crept toward Asahi. Steel scraped rock.
"Must eliminate…"
"H-Huh?"
Asahi's heart froze; he turned to the curly-haired girl and watched her vanish.
"Where did she g--
The mechanism hurled its bulk and arms down, raising a cloud of dust. Asahi dodged, eyes wide. Recognizing the danger, he sprinted away with the massive robot creature pursuing him through the hallways.
Asahi's footsteps echoed over pitted stairs, faceless marble statues collapsing behind him.
"Who was that girl? And why did she look like… Aletha?"
As he neared the last corridor, he bumped into someone with short white hair, dark gray eyes, and worn metal armor. The encounter startled him, shifting his focus from the vanished girl to this unexpected person.
She appeared to be a middle-aged woman, wearing advanced leggings tangled in devouring vegetation.
She said nothing to Asahi but blushed at the sight of him. Asahi tried to question her, but two tall men with long white ponytails pulled her away, their eyes narrowed with suspicion. They spoke in a different language.
Asahi scratched his head.
"H-Huh?"
Suddenly, five metal doors opened, with lights flickering on and emitting a loud buzzing noise.
The people faded away with a look of hatred, just like the curly-haired girl.
Unnerved but determined, Asahi continued through this alien place and decided to exit the rather strange building.
What met Asahi's sight as he pushed the black, rusted metal door open was something unbelievable.
"Where… am I?!"
The sky wasn't normal; it was a deep, dark blue, with four moons behind a massive expanse of cloud pillars.
No regular-shaped clouds were visible; only millions of gargantuan, gravity-defying pillars rose skyward. It looked completely different from the sky he saw in Gincad.
"Asahi!" A girl screamed as she sprinted out of the building.
Abruptly, warmth embraced him, pressing her hands against his back. Asahi froze, shocked, gazing at the unknown civilization.
Instead of celebrating Aletha's discovery, he spoke in a trembling voice.
"Sis… do you recognize this place?"
She shrugged her shoulders as she gazed upon the unknown territory.
"No, I have no idea."
Both having a vague sensation of unfamiliarity, they raced further atop the massive mountain they were on and saw a large expansive kingdom of ruined buildings, towers, spires, statues, and even more beneath the cliff.
As the landscape unfolded, the vines and foliage of this place seemed to have defied the rules of their world.
They examined the building's walls—S marks carved everywhere.
"That….looks like… our mark…" Asahi mumbled as he pointed to his cheek.
Aletha's hands trembled; she couldn't decipher the vague symbols—detached rectangles and erased drawings on the black wall.
"I don't remember this place at all. I don't recognize anything here."
"Me too…"
Empty hearts of shadow pits curled dead leaves on the barren ground.
Half-crumbling towers loomed, the wings of a massive crashed spaceship scattered toward a cluster of houses.
The site combined old and new technologies, with mechanisms and gears scattered across the shattered plains.
Leaves rattled on stone, black trees creaked in the breeze, and their footsteps clapped on cobblestone as they passed more white-haired individuals, each in different clothing but sharing similar physical features.
They continued onward despite these encounters.
. . .
Asahi and Aletha discovered a large, disk-shaped platform made of steel and deliberately patterned, lying at the center of a white pond.
The water looked like milk, but with black, curled remains of moss and abandoned nests scattered over its surface.
It looked intoxicating as well, seeming to burn through the skin if one were to jump in.
They decided to travel across the bridges spanning to the ruined cities and avoid the massive cloud pillars rising into the sky over the towns.
The cities were enormous, with meandering tree roots surrounding them; sparkling white essences hung over the metal structures, which appeared to be laboratories and testing areas.
Step by step, a sense of anticipation grew as they approached the city's heart.
At the city center, Aletha screamed, pointing up. The center's strange energy drew their eyes skyward.
"ASAHI! LOOK UP!"
He slowly scratched his head and dared not to resist. Asahi's eyes widened in shock, seeing what looked to be the entire nation of Pladtioa upside down, behind a wall of clouds.
He swiftly grabbed Aletha's hand and questioned as he panicked through the uneven roads.
"This isn't Gincad. We… are…"
Asahi hunched down to the floor.
"We are upside down… in the sky."
Aletha backed up and screamed, confused.
"WHAT?! H-How does that even make sense?"
Asahi closed his eyes and sighed.
"Don't ask me. Come on, let's explore more of this… strange city."
"Okay…" Aletha answered.
Sunlight filtered through the cracks of the towers. Tree roots snaked over the vast city, whose spires and skyscrapers rose above layers of dead vegetation.
Cloud pillars descended upon some of the towers, enveloping the structures completely and reducing them to dust.
The wanderers walked over and climbed a lengthy staircase, dodging traps and mechanisms along the way. As they moved forward, they realized that the white-haired people they had encountered were all ghosts.
Despite being transparent and able to phase through walls, the ghosts could activate mechanisms as if their consciousness were transferred to their technology.
The wanderers sprinted over the carpet of leaves and saw five to ten bulky, robotic, human-shaped mechanisms chasing them across the bridge.
Asahi and Aletha grasped their blades and deflected the flying lasers, racing down staircases and executing parkour moves over buildings.
They arrived and saw that the world stretched for kilometers, with even more mountain ranges and cloud pillars scattered across the area.
But as they finally escaped and reached the end of the massive, ruined city, they approached a forest of black trees and natural, spiraling terraforms stretching up to the upside-down Pladtioa.
Without hesitation, the wanderers raced up the terraform, slaughtering and destroying ancient robots in the process.
This encounter and their exploration of this alien kingdom raised even more questions than before.
How long has this nation been here? Why are there white-haired individuals here? How did they get so advanced?
How could a nation hide in the sky? How did this device portray the nation? Most importantly, why did the people hate Asahi and Aletha?
. . .
As they advanced up the massive mountain, they saw what looked like a forest of castles lying atop; some floated in the air, while others were engulfed in the suffocating mists of the cloud pillars.
Asahi and Aletha's long white hair slowly turned black as they stood; the more tame they became, the higher they went. The winds were a lot tamer the higher they went up.
Strange. Usually, the higher the elevation, the stronger the wind. But in this place, it was inverted.
Asahi and Aletha sheathed their swords, spotting dragon statues above deserted mining sites. They stood by the cliffs that stretched into the depths of the clouded void below.
They climbed the last of the crumbled castle's staircases and sat on a rock ledge to take in the view.
It genuinely looked like a completely different world to them; the sheer size piqued the wanderers' curiosity, prompting them to question what had happened to this place—a straightforward opposite parallel to the world beneath the sky, and this ruined civilization.
To pay heed to what could happen in Pladtioa, the wanderers rushed to find anything that would force them to go there.
Conveniently, a gust the size of two meteor craters was triggered by Asahi pressing a large button. It appeared beneath a bridge, extending out to ruined cities filled with mechanisms and turrets.
"Intruders detected. Paranormal authorization succeeded."
Although the technology was old and worn out, it could still fulfill its duties, posing a threat to Asahi and Aletha.
"Follow me…"
The memory of gliding down with Aiyana while their world was demolished filled their minds. They were so young at the time, and now, having experienced so many adventures, they still keep that memory in their hearts.
Without resistance, the wanderers sprinted off the cliff, hoping the wind would propel them.
But surprisingly, as their bodies and shifting hair flew upward to the upside-down perspective of Pladtioa, a loud voice echoed from the distance.
"Don't even think about it."
The perspective of the cloud pillars was inverted, the sky's dark blue shifting to bright azure.
Gravity shifted, and the sea of clouds blocked the nation's entrance, as the devices' power finally dimmed and flickered. Their legs flailed as they saw themselves falling from the sky.
But just as they could recollect what they saw, all memories of seeing that place had vanished from their heads.
. . .
Meanwhile, residing on the ground of Pladtioa, Drimi, Sally, Phthonus, and the others were resurrected from a strange man who emerged from the depths of Pladtioa.
He had dark hair and beautiful violet eyes, and wore black and cyan attire, similar to The Establisher's scheme. But this man didn't generate any suspicious aura; instead, it was a feeling of trustworthiness and faith.
His arms lifted towards the sky, forming a massive, transparent blue dome that surrounded the entirety of Pladtioa.
All people's eyes widened as they saw the man's majestic presence float over their heads.
Drimi awakened and scratched her head, feeling numb from the continuous bombardment from the device. She was more confused than afraid. Voices greeted Drimi.
"Rise and shine, sleepy head. Actually… Never mind, get up. Um… It's hard to describe this, but after we saw that beam in the sky… we were then transported here." It's a muffled voice, but it was understandable.
Drimi's vision cleared, revealing a tan man wearing a dark scarf around his mouth. She swiftly pushed herself up, brushed her shoulders, and turned to her right.
There, Drimi saw a large crowd. Narcissa and Sally were among them; Sally was pushed forward from the emerging crowd., Where are the wanderers?"
Phthonus raised his eyebrow.
"Oh, them? Well… It's hard to say… but they are; falling from the sky right now."
"Falling from the Sky?"
Phthonus pointed to two dark, flailing figures in the sky. Their white hair gleamed in the rising sun, their eyes closed after their encounter with the clouded nation.
"It looks like they have some time before landing. Mind me and my precautions, I must take hold of this myself."
Scampering and entering behind Plados was a beautiful toffee-haired woman with two horn-shaped things on her head. Surprisingly, the man recalled, from that look in her eyes.
"Narcissa, your father is up there. I sense an immense evil aura corrupting his presence."
"P-Plados? I thought you were gone? Weren't you supposed to be transformed into this nation after that ancient war four thousand years ago? What happened?"