God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Cain felt his mind and body stretch beyond what should have been possible.

Reality around him seemed to collapse in one moment, and then in another, it became solid once again.

His senses became scrambled, like looking through a broken kaleidescope, yet worse, as it affected all his senses.

***

{The Second Trial Begins...}

{Description: The host has been teleported through time and space to undertake the quest, 'Stars of an Unfettered Heaven'. Solve the conflict of the instance to complete the quest before the time limit of one month is over. Failure to do this will result in the Trial's failure}.

***

A split second later, that feeling was gone. Then it was replaced with a feeling of weightlessness.

Very quickly, Cain realized that he wasn't weightless. Instead, he was falling...

He let out a yell and snapped his eyes open.

Almost immediately, he was forced to close them as bright light attacked his pupils.

In a panic, his free fall became even more unstable, his body spiralling like a broken kite.

'Damn it!'

The sound of the wind screaming into his ears made him even more panicked.

Taking a moment to calm his restless mind, he slowly opened his eyes.

Allowing his eyes to adjust to the brightness, he finally got to look around him.

The first thing he could see, was the Sea of white clouds below him.

His face paled.

His arms flailed around even more as he struggled to recover his lost balance, but to no avail.

'Wind Weaver!'

Quickly activating the spell, the turbulent air around him calmed down and his unstable spiral downward turned into a more stable glide.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Cain studied where he had ended up even more.

Looking around, he confirmed again that he was somehow above a sea of endless white clouds. Overhead was a scorching white sun that bathed everything in its wonderful radiance.

Cain activated the {Eye of Clairvoyance}.

He sensed four other rapidly descending objects. He quickly made the connection that they were the companions that had followed him into the trial.

{Wind Weaver} allowed him to control the air around him and it could even propel him forward at great speeds. However, with the rate at which they were falling, he realized it would be impossible for him to reach them in time before the disappeared into the sea of white clouds.

Hence, he decided to call on reinforcements.

Space around him contracted and a split second later, it was filled with the giant frame of the {Argent Amphithere}.

Dropping onto the creature's back, he gave it mental commands. The beast hissed and allowed the stream of rushing air created by {Wind Weaver} to guide its path.

'It worked!'

He was relieved to see that his {Beastmaster} title worked in the trial.

The {Argent Amphithere} turned into a streak of silver light quickly approaching the first falling target.

Susan felt helpless as she fell closer towards the clouds.

Suddenly, the screaming wind died down.

"Susan!"

Her eyes snapped open. Seeing the enormous beast falling beside her, she felt her heart nearly give out.

However, a moment later, she realized she recognized the beast.

Her confusion faded away when she saw Cain extend his hand from the creature's back. Without hesitation, she grasped onto his outstretched hand.

The {Argent Amphithere} killed the momentum, sharply turning the vertical descent into a horizontal gliding motion. Then it continued on towards the next falling figure.

Gripping onto Cain, Susan let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Hold on tight." Cain said without looking back, urging the silver flying snake to pick up speed.

Repeating the process three more times, he plucked the remaining beauties from the sky, preventing them from falling to their possible deaths.

On the back of the silver serpent, they all seemed disheveled.

How couldn't they be? They had been standing on solid ground one moment, and the next, they were suddenly falling through the sky.

Cain said nothing, allowing them a moment to recover their bearings.

In the meantime, he let his mind spin,

'It's different from the first trial. We can use the system and inventory.'

He has been worried about this, so it was a big relief.

Perhaps this meant that this trial would be a lot more difficult than the first one, so they would need all the help they could get.

However, he was still confused. Forget humans, there was nothing besides empty sky, a golden sun overhead and a sea of stunning white clouds below, creating a rather picturesque scene.

Was the trial to observe the beauty of nature? He had no idea...

Evangeline looked down at the scales of the {Argent Amphithere}, a curious expression on her face. Thankfully, she didn't seem interested in asking any questions.

With a sigh, Cain dispelled {Wind Weaver}. The winged serpent's speed dropped, allowing them to glide through the empty sky.

"So, any ideas?" He asked.

Evangeline frowned, "We don't even know where we are. The system wouldn't bring us all the way up here for no reason."

Jenny shook her head,

"Dropping us through the sky for a reason? I doubt that. Perhaps there was simply no better place to drop us."

Roselle raised a brow, "You mean?"

Jenny nodded, looking at the white clouds below, she shivered,

"What if... there is no ground?"

It was definitely a terrifying thought, Cain thought to himself.

He sighed,

"For now, we can only speculate."

They seemed to agree as they fell silent.

The flying serpent continued to glide forward aimlessly for a few hours, not coming into contact with anything.

Just when he thought the system had dropped them into an empty world, {Eye of Clairvoyance} picked up on something in the distance. Something big.

Cain's eyes lit up,

"I think I've found land."

Then, he paused. That statement didn't make sense.

'What is land doing in the sky?' was what he thought to himself.

A few minutes later, his question answered itself.

Floating just above the Sea of white clouds was what could only be described as an enormous tower on an even bigger island.

A tower in the sky seemed like something their imagination had conjured up in desperation.

But the reality was that it was there, right in front of them.

Cain frowned, unsure of what to make of the situation.

Was this where their quest would begin? There didn't seem any other choice available either way, so Cain made a quick decision.

He turned, "Let's land on the island. If anything seems off, we'll leave immediately."

None of them voiced any objections, and so, Cain ordered the {Argent Amphithere} to glide towards the island.

Jenny suddenly frowned and turned towards a spot rather far away.

"I don't think we are the only ones headed for the island."

Cain raised a brow. Sure enough, as they approached the island, it became apparent that they weren't the only things headed for the island.

In one moment, it felt as though they were the only things that existed in this bright world, the next moment, a creature created in lightning bolts swam through the sky towards the island.

From somewhere else, the sky split open to reveal a small ship riding on the wind, sailing for the island.

From there, it only became more bizarre as more strange creatures and objects began appearing in the sky.

Cain's eyes widened and he couldn't help but feel overwhelmed.

Roselle's face was pale as she stuttered,

"W-what the hell is going on?!"

A shrill cry came from above and a shadow was cast around them. The {Argent Amphithere} let out a frightened hiss and nearly fell out of the sky, its body trembling in fear.

{Eye of Clairvoyance} caught a sight of the creature that had flown overhead and Cain immediately regretted it. His heart was instantly filled with dread and his face paled.

He immediately yelled,

"Don't look up!"

The four girls didn't dare do otherwise seeing the fear on his face and the reaction of the flying serpent.

Cain gritted his teeth, trying to forget what he had just seen.

'What the hell is going on?'

He took a deep breath. Regardless of how strange the situation was, it seemed they were on the right path.

After what felt like a lifetime of flying, they finally landed on the island.

The moment its belly hit solid ground, the {Argent Amphithere} curled up and hissed, as though begging Cain to send it back, away from this place.

Cain patted the creature's side,

'You've done your best.' Cain consoled the beast before sending it back onto the sub-space.

The island was covered with lush emerald grass up till the base of the black tower that seemed to stretch until its tip touched the radiant sun in the sky.

Cain felt dizzy even trying to comprehend the size of the tower.

All around them, various flying objects and beasts began landing onto the Island as well.

A giant beast that looked like a strange mix between a bird and a tiger landed beside them. It flapped its powerful wings, stirring up a cloud of dust.

Five figures jumped off the back of the strange creatures.

One of them locked eyes with him.

Cain frowned.

The being looked human, but was clearly not. Its ears were longer, and its skin was milky white like polished Ivory. With streamlined faces and turquoise eyes as deep as the depths of an ocean, they looked breathtakingly beautiful and harrowing at the same time.

It was an inhuman beauty. It was as though they lacked any flaws, at least physically...

All five of them were dressed in a strange light armor that was made from a mix between metal, leather, and what looked like wooden material.

The one that locked eyes with Cain raised its brows,

"Hm? Humans?"

The rest of the strange humanoid creatures turned towards them. Their eyes widened, just as surprised as the first.

Sensing something off about their reaction, Cain instinctively took a step forward. Whatever these things were, they didn't seem friendly at all.