Chapter 250- A Voyage in the Sky

[Luna POV]

We were boarding the ship and I was just about to set sail when I heard the sound of something jumping out of the water.  It didn’t take long for me to figure out what it was since the thing in question landed on the deck.  It was a happily smiling Skadi with an equally happy Ophidia being carried in her arms.

“You two have perfect timing, we were just about to head out for a day of sailing near the Sea of Clouds before heading back to the shrine.” (Luna)

“Why’d you call the sky that?” (Skadi)

“You didn’t know?  It’s literally like a sea up there.  With animals and probably monsters and everything.” (Luna)

“Interesting.  I can’t wait to see that.” (Ophidia)

“I agree.” (Skadi)

Skadi slowly put Ophidia down as the ship started to move.  As we exited the cave and were briefly blinded by the sunlight, I enjoyed the vastness of the sea and sky in front of us.  I had an excited grin on my face as I struggled to contain the laugh that threatened to burst from my chest.  After getting far enough away from the island, I started channeling mana into the ship and it slowly started to lift out of the water.  While that was going on, Mio shakily came and stood next to me.

“L-Lunya.  I knyow this might seem like it’s coming out of nowhere nya, but I am extremely scared of heights nya.  While I won’t ask you to stay low nya, please try nyot to do something suddenly nya.” (Mio)

“Alright.  I’ll do my best in order to keep this as smooth as possible.  If it gets to be too much for you to handle, you can stay inside the captain’s cabin.” (Luna)

“Thanks nya, and sorry for suddenly dropping this on you nya.  I’ll do my best to get over it nya, but all I ask is that you be patient with it nya.” (Mio)

“I fully understand you, so no need to apologize.” (Luna)

Mio, while still shaky, came up and hugged me.

“Thank you for not being mad nya.” (Mio)

She let me go and, while tightly holding onto a handrail, went back down to the main deck.

‘Why would I be mad?’

{I think she thinks if she said something, you would have been angry at her for not telling you earlier.}

‘That still doesn’t make sense to me, but I’ll just not think about it.  And anyway, I doubt I could ever get mad at Mio.  Same with the others, they’d have to do something on the level of a mongrel for that to happen, and I don’t ever see any of them doing something close to that.’

{Ufufufu.}

Soon enough, the ships tallest mast started to graze the bottom of the clouds as I steered us in the direction of land.  I saw Ophidia and Skadi walking around and looking at everything that they could since they missed the opportunity last night.  Skadi even started to climb up and sticking her hand into the clouds.  Damien was at the bow and recreating that once scene from that one movie with Vina.  Velvet was sitting down next to Mio who was sitting between some crates in the middle of the ship.  It seems she doesn’t like heights either.  Soleil, on the other hand, wasn’t bothered by it and was actually speedily painting the scenery of the horizon before it changed too much for her to capture it as a painting.

‘This is fun.’

{I’m happy to see you enjoying yourself, but what are you going to do once you reach land?}

‘Continue of course.  We’re so high up that we’ll look like a dot to those on the ground, and if some people have good enough eyesight to actually see us, then they’ll probably just write it off as some kind of hallucination or trick of the light.  And, if someone that can see us AND fly, we’ll either meet them or I can hide us with illusion magic.  I think I’ll have us flying until dark and then teleport us to the shrine.’

{Sounds good to me.}

I continued talking to Tamamo while we went.  After about an hour of flying with the only sound being the wind, the land came into view.

“Land ho!” (Luna)

“What?” (Ophidia)

“Nothing, I just wanted to say it.” (Luna)

“As long as you enjoy yourself, master.” (Ophidia)

“Always, Ophidia, always.” (Luna)

When we finally made it to land, the ship shook some as a strong gust hit it, but other than that, nothing bad happened.  I left an illusion to man the wheel and walked over to the edge of the ship to look out at the land from above.  When I saw it, the word beautiful was all I could think of.  It was endless fields and forests.  Places that had to be towns or villages dotted the land here and there, but for the most part, it was vast amounts of nature.

“So different from walking it.” (Luna)

“I have to agree.  And to think I used to think that my jungle was the biggest.  It must be so small in comparison to all of this.” (Ophidia)

As I was about to reply to Ophidia, we heard a loud sound that was a mix between a hiss and a screech.  Everyone looked in the direction the sound came from to see a giant serpent-like body coming in and out of the underside of the clouds.  It was a mix of dark grey and white and its head was as wide as the ship.  It had dull amber eyes with slitted pupils and was staring straight at the ship.  It was moving rather quickly in our direction.  I opened several Gates and prepared them to attack when Ophidia held her hand up to me for a moment.

“Master, let me talk to it first.” (Ophidia)

“Are you sure?” (Luna)

“Yes.” (Ophidia)

I thought about it for a second before nodding to Ophidia.  She nodded back then went to the bow of the ship.  Just before the cloud serpent rammed into the ship it stopped.  It flicked its as it stared down Ophidia as she did the same.  Then a low hissing sound could be heard coming from Ophidia and another one came from the large serpent.  It must have been somewhat intelligent because after one hiss from Ophidia, its eyes seemed to get a little stormy with anger.  It struck at Ophidia, but she slapped it away like she was swatting a mosquito.

“Master!  End this arrogant pile of scales!  It doesn’t deserve to swim in the same skies as you!” (Ophidia)

I didn’t have to be told a second time.  I aimed my Gates and shot at the cloud serpent.  Two swords pierced each eye and the thing started to fall.  I shot several chains out and they wrapped around it before retracting into the Gates.  Once they were fully retracted, the cloud serpent went into a Gate before I transferred it to my normal inventory.  Ophidia and Skadi then joined me.

“Ophidia, what did it say?” (Luna)

“That flying noodle of rotten scales demanded we submit to its will and then force us to have its offspring.  When I refused its ridiculous and disgusting offer, it got mad that I defied it.” (Ophidia)

“Luna, let me get a good punch in.  I don’t care if it’s dead, I’ll kill its corpse.” (Skadi)

“I’ll do that when we get off.  I don’t want you to accidentally break the ship.” (Luna)

“Alright.” (Skadi)

Skadi walked off with a pout on her face and Ophidia quickly followed her in order to calm her down.  After a while she succeeded and now they were standing at the bow and scanning the horizon for any more interruptions to our peaceful sky journey.  We didn’t run into anything else aside from more of what I started calling Cloud Rays before the sun started to set.  Instead of teleporting everyone to the shrine before putting the ship into my inventory, I decided to try something.  I focused on the space in front of the ship like I would to fold space, but I instead used the same method and opened a large Gate in front of the ship.  We sailed into the Gate and for a split second a purplish-black void was all that could be seen before cracking sounds followed by the sound of shattering glass could be heard as a hole opened up in front of the ship.

{Luna, while I didn’t say anything when you were trying to walk on space, but you better apologize to the space spirits at some point.  You’re doing things that are probably causing them so many problems that it’s increasing their workload more than ever.}

“Alright.  I’ll do so as soon as I can.”

{Please.  You don’t want them to end up hating you, it’ll make your job so much harder than it needs to be.}

I nodded and promised myself to never try to make a portal like this again while not fully ascended.  Once we exited the portal, we were in the skies above the shrine.  I looked back and saw the hole in space slowly stitching together before completely disappearing.

Chaos Realm:

Atmos: Those poor space spirits.

I know right.

Order: Why haven't they sent one to reprimand Luna yet?

They're actually split into two camps.  The workaholics, and the non-workaholics.  Do I need to explain further than this?

Order: No.

Atmos: When Luna ascends, she better be prepared to give them gifts of freshly brewed coffee straight from Java himself.  I think that's the only way the non-workaholics will forgive her for all the times she accidentally does stuff like this.

I agree.  Speaking of coffee, anyone want some?

Order: I'll take some.

Atmos: Me too.

Made the usual way I assume.

Order: Of course.

Atmos: Yes please.