The Last City in the Sky

Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Fallen City

The Ash Fog was not blown away by the wind.

The fog retreated—unveiling itself violently as if in terror.

The dense gray clots that had blanketed the dead continent for three centuries suddenly split beneath the hull of the City of Aster, exposing a straight, black passage leading down to the earth's surface. From above, the long-buried terrestrial land looked terrifying, resembling a row of giant backbones protruding out from an ancient burial mound.

Then, Aster plummeted exponentially.

Arka had no time to hear the echo of the warning bells again; those seven bells had been shrieking chaotically ever since the liberation lever was pulled. He only watched the steel floor beneath his feet collapse instantly, followed by the groans of broken metal spreading in a chain reaction from the outer districts to the core center.

"Hold on!" Nara screamed, her voice nearly swallowed by the roar of gravity.

Arka slammed his technical knife into a stone joint gap, bracing against the impact. Nara drove her seal-breaking hammer into the gap of the main pillar, locking her body position with her knee hinges. Maera grabbed the nearest iron chain, but the giant chain snapped free from the ceiling, flung downward accompanied by a shower of sparks.

Above their heads, the crushed loudspeaker funnel spewed Lord Rask’s distorted voice:

"All districts... anchor the emergency anchors... Do not leave your positions! The Council... will manage... the situation!"

BAM! A cylindrical tower in the eastern district fractured and collapsed into the expanse of clouds.

Rask’s cold, emotionless voice continued, as if blind to reality: "All citizens... are urged to remain calm..."

Nara glanced at Arka with bated breath. "He still has time to tell forty thousand people to remain calm!"

"If you have a more brilliant idea, save it until we manage to cancel this suicidal death plan!" Arka retorted.

He yanked his knife from the stone gap. On the passage wall to their left, a dark red conduit peeled open. The luminescent fluid within overflowed, gushing down not as a flash of vapor, but as a thick current of liquid hanging rigidly in the air due to the absence of gravity.

Arka recognized the architecture. "That's an ancient balancing circuit!"

Maera turned quickly. "Can it stop Aster's fall?"

"No."

"Slow it down?"

"Maybe."

"How long?"

Arka calculated the floor vibration frequency, gravitational acceleration, and the remaining support anchors that hadn't snapped. "Four minutes. Maximum."

Nara stared at the gigantic fissure c***k increasingly splitting the floor. "We need more than four minutes!"

"Then don't use this circuit to hold the city's weight," Arka asserted.

"Then what for?!"

"To choose where this city will land!"

Maera let out a bitter laugh. "You call that a plan?"

"No. It's the only ridiculous option we have!"

Arka ran across the swaying, undulating maintenance bridge. Every time the City of Aster plunged hundreds of meters, the entire structure shook violently. Beyond the inspection window, the ocean of clouds raged fiercely. Hanging buildings, housing, and tiers of terraced fields detached from their foundations, gliding freely like empty debris toward the earth.

From the distance of the sky, the echo of the seven bells split the night once more.

Yet this time, only six bells answered one another. Another floating city suddenly fell silent.

Arka halted his stride for a fraction of a second.

"Eidolon," Maera murmured darkly.

"Eidolon is not destroyed," Arka replied softly.

Maera stared at him in astonishment. "What do you mean?"

"Its gravity heart... is still pulsing down below."

Beyond the thinning fog, deep at the base of the dead continent, a silvery-white glow suddenly radiated brightly. Its shape resembled the foundation of a floating city, but built upside down right at the base of the earth's floor.

Eidolon had never fallen and drowned. The city was deliberately placed there—waiting.

The next massive tremor cut off their observation. Arka pressed his palms against the balancing circuit's control panel. Ancient rune symbols glowed brightly instantly, recognizing the blood trachea flowing beneath his skin.

The blood of the creator.

The steel panel slid open. Inside, three directional control levers were revealed:

[ ANCHOR ]

[ THRUSTER ]

[ BURIAL ]

Nara drew close to his side, her eyes widening. "Don't tell me you suddenly know how to operate this ancient contraption."

"I know how to break it so it works in an emergency."

"Those are two very different things!"

"For an old machine, breaking and controlling are nearly the same!"

Maera pointed his spearhead at the third lever. "Choose Burial!"

Arka stared at him sharply. "If Burial is activated, all lower compartments of the city will be permanently locked shut. Everyone in the eastern district will be trapped!"

"But it prevents this city from shattering into pieces before hitting the ground!" Maera urged.

"What if we choose Anchor?" Nara interjected.

"Anchor will pull Aster toward the automatically programmed landing coordinates," Arka explained.

"Then that's the best choice!"

"No," Arka interjected coldly.

He pointed to the projected landing map glowing in the air. That automatic landing point centralized right above Eidolon's white light glow.

Nara realized the implication instantly. "Aster will crash onto Eidolon..."

"And if Eidolon is an active Gravity Heart, an impact of this magnitude will detonate the entire continental circuit," Arka continued.

"Then what about Thruster?" Nara pressed further.

"Our remaining power will be completely drained in three seconds. Aster will collapse wildly out of control."

Maera stared at the three levers with a blank expression. "So all these Council design choices were made just to choose how to die?"

"This system was designed when ancient humans still believed there was always a fourth option," Arka replied, slipping his knife into the panel gap.

He stared at the holographic map flow once more, then turned to gaze at the thick red fluid flowing downward.

"The fourth path is not carved on these levers."

Nara readied her hammer. "You found a bypass loophole?"

"I found a concealed circuit erased from the blueprint."

"And you're going to execute it?"

"I'm going to forcibly reverse its flow direction."

Maera widened his eyes. "That will suck energy charges straight from the earth's surface into Aster!"

"Not just energy charges." Arka touched the white light glow of Eidolon in the hologram. "I am sucking Eidolon's reaction!"

Before Nara could protest, Rask's voice echoed through the communication funnel again.

"Arka Veyr!" The Council Chairman's voice was no longer coldly authoritative, but laden with immense panic. "Never connect Aster's circuits with the seventh city!"

Nara looked up in surprise. "How does he know?!"

"This panel is the master of all city circuits," Arka stated.

"You never understand what kind of obedience is buried beneath Eidolon!" Rask screamed from the loudspeaker.

"Then come down yourself and tell me, Rask!" Arka snapped.

"Eidolon is not just a ruined floating city, Arka! Eidolon is a MOUTH!"

BOOM!

A colossal tremor shook Aster's entire structure. The city plummeted past the remnants of the final Ash Fog layer. The air outside suddenly turned dense gray. For the first time in Arka Veyr's life, his eyes witnessed the earth's surface landscape without cloud obstruction.

Black, petrified forests stretched widely to the horizon's edge. Ancient stone towers jutted out of the ground resembling rows of giant teeth. Among the intertwined roots and continental ruins, long-legged primeval mutant creatures ran wildly, avoiding the giant shadow of the falling City of Aster.

And right at the center of that dead continent lay a gigantic white stone circle three times wider than the City of Aster.

Eidolon.

Not a monument of a ruined city, but a giant gateway fortress built surrounding a bottomless cavity.

The cavity of something now awakening.

"Arka!" Nara screamed hysterically. "Our altitude is below two thousand meters! We're falling too fast!"

Arka stared at the panel with trembling fingers. "How many seconds before impact?"

"Less than two minutes!" Maera called out.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I can already see the rocks on the ground!"

Arka pulled the ANCHOR lever.

Nara struck Arka's wrist hard. "That's not your fourth path!"

"It isn't!"

Arka grabbed the THRUSTER lever, then held it midway.

"If steering Aster toward Eidolon will trigger that mouth's awakening, then we must force its gates wide open before this city's hull hits the ground!"

Maera's face behind his visor ignited pure horror. "You're insane! You want to force Eidolon's gates open from this distance?!"

"I'm not the one forcing it," Arka whispered sharply. "I am making Eidolon open itself!"

Arka slashed his knife across his own palm. Fresh blood spurted out, which he smeared directly onto the ancient circuit network inside the panel. As soon as the blood merged with the ancient metal, the entire core hall erupted in blinding silvery-white light.

Beneath the city, the seven stone pillars responded simultaneously.

The six cracked stone pillars vomited flashes of blood-red light.

The intact seventh pillar emitted a sacred white glow.

On the continental surface, Eidolon's circular stone structure began to spin rapidly counterclockwise.

Rask's echoing screams pierced the communication funnel: "STOP! ARKA, STOP!"

Arka paid no heed.

Nara squeezed her hammer handle tightly. "Arka... if this insane theory is wrong, I swear I'll smash your head in hell!"

"That is a very logical assumption!"

"What if we survive?!"

"Then I won't need to be smashed!"

Maera thrust his crystal spear against the floor tiles. Its black crystal tip shattered apart, releasing a piercing screech like screaming glass. He forced the red fluid flow to curve and stream straight toward the white coordinate point.

Out there, Eidolon's giant gates split open.

Not merely stone doors shifting.

The continental ground itself gaped wide.

The circular stone plates collapsed and slid into the earth's belly, revealing a bottomless cavity filled with surging, vibrating dark red light. From the depths of that cavity, an ancient entity crawled upward.

Arka felt that ghostly pulse travel through the control panel.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

CRACK!

The City of Aster's Gravity Heart completely went out.

The entire city fell freely without weight.

The hysterical screams of thousands of citizens and Council guards echoed in the upper districts. Cylindrical towers snapped in half. Suspension bridges folded and shattered. Hundreds of emergency anchors slid, cutting through the air, yet only a few managed to embed into the hard surface rocks.

Arka gripped the edge of the panel with his remaining strength. "Now, Nara!"

Nara stared at him in panic. "Now what?!"

"Pull the Thruster lever!"

"You said the city's mechanical power is totally exhausted!"

"The city's mechanical power is indeed gone!" Arka pointed to the silvery-white glow surging rapidly from Eidolon's cavity toward Aster's hull. "But the power from below just overflowed!"

Arka grabbed the THRUSTER lever and jerked it fully.

BOOM!

From within the depths of Eidolon's earth, a white light wave glow slammed into the base of the City of Aster with extraordinary propulsion power.

Not to destroy it, but to break its fall.

The City of Aster suddenly stopped plunging, floating rigidly in place just a few meters above Eidolon's circular cavity. That entire giant city now hung stiffly in midair, held firmly by seven strands of pure light chains anchored solidly to the continental rock.

A gripping silence descended, enveloping the entire universe.

Then, something truly gigantic opened its eyes within the darkness of Eidolon's cavity.

Not merely a pair of eyes.

Instead, thousands of illusory eyes glowing golden-red.

Within the cavity of Eidolon's cliff, the red glow formed the contours of an ancient face too grand and terrifying to be called human.

The entity Arkhon's voice echoed mightily, shaking the sky and the dead continent:

"C-h-i-l-d... o-f... t-h-e... c-r-e-a-t-o-r..."

Arka stood tall among the debris of the burnt panel and the cracking stone floor.

"My name is Arka Veyr," he declared loudly.

Nara turned in panic, elbowing his arm. "Maera warned you! Never answer their call!"

"I'm not answering their call, Nara," Arka replied without turning away from the giant light-face image beneath them. "I am introducing who the new master of this place is."

Thousands of ghostly eyes at the base of the cavity bloomed wider.

Around the dead continent, primeval monsters halted their steps, prostrating toward the gates.

Far up in the sky, across the other six floating cities, their Gravity Hearts extinguished simultaneously in the exact same second.

And from within the darkest depths beneath the earth's surface, the echo of Arkhon's voice whispered warmly yet soul-stirringly:

"I-f... s-o... y-o-u... h-a-v-e... a-t... l-a-s-t... r-e-t-u-r-n-e-d..."