My Servant System

Trying not to look down was practically impossible, and while I wasn't necessarily afraid of heights, this was certainly at that point where it made my knees tremble a little, especially since we weren't on what I would call 'solid' ground...

The crystal being able to be seen through was somewhat terrifying to me, mainly because there was something in my mind that was telling me transparency equalled a fragile surface, and even though the carriage plus all of us was being supported by this crystal, I wasn't able to rationalize that in my mind.

I seriously couldn't, and with the bottomless pit beneath us releasing thick wisps of mana that eventually actually turned into the clouds around us, well... part of me felt validated by this fear, but more of me was actually just taken aback by how gorgeous everything was from this high up.

Just like I had thought, the Labyrinthian was a patchwork of biomes stitched together at random into a beautiful mosaic that caught the eye far more than anything else I had seen; the diversity of these places was contrasted or complimented wherever you looked, and that made everything interesting beyond imagination.

Crystalline forests, frozen lakes, empty deserts, mountains of all kinds of colors, vast expanses of death and rot, small patches of an overabundance of life... anything you could think of sprawled all around us as far as the eye could see, and from this high up, that was very, very far...

And yet even from here we could just barely see the edge of the Labyrinthian, something that brought more questions to mind as I realized that although we could see the edge, this landmass wasn't visible from that far away... despite being utterly gigantic and so high in the air.

It just hadn't ever appeared to any of our senses, and that was rather terrifying as well, especially since this was clearly something created by mortal hands; how had someone managed to shroud this entire country sized piece of land from all senses?

Then there was the abundance of mana around us that just floated around in the air without any use, burning up its 'life' and dissipating into nothingness, but not before it enjoyed its time as a cloud that crackled with an abundance of power, like a supercharged storm cloud preparing to unleash a devastating lightning bolt.

It was nature's dangerous beauty made manifest, and they drifted ever so close to both the chains and our bridge, 'feeling' us out as sparks of raw mana crackled out at random and caressed our armor or the chains, further fueling my fears of falling.

When we reached solid ground way up above, I didn't even have time to feel relief as another mind boggling sight took over my mind; gone was the nature that we had been forced to trek through this last week, laden with riches and dangers in equal measure, and gone was the haphazard randomness that was a trademark of the Labyrinthian.

In its place was a sprawling metropolis of artisan buildings crafted from all sorts of materials, ranging from purple wood to golden stone, sparkling orange bricks and shimmering blue tile; a cacophony of colors assaulted our eyes the moment we arrived on solid ground, and yet despite the surplus of color combinations the city itself was stunning.

Gorgeous architecture made even better by the materials chosen, with chiseled pillars of gold holding up an orange roof laden with flaming red tiles, standing next to its complete opposite in a blue, green and silver building that relied less on pillars and arches and more on a squat, homely design.

More contrast that actually complimented everything around it, and yet we were simply taking in the beauty of a ghost town, the complete silence and lack of any signs of life making it clear that this city was devoid of living beings.

"Welcome to this rainbow city floating amongst the clouds~! And yes, before you ask, it is empty. Literally empty; no furniture inside, no signs of life whatsoever. Not a single crumb, drop of liquor, scrap of cloth or anything else to signify that this was in use by anyone... ever. The buildings are pristine, the roads paved and maintained... but it's not being taken care of by anyone."

Lilith walked us forwards a little, taking us onto the road that connected the edge of the land to the city, and the brick below our feet - besides being multicolored and seemingly laid out at random - was completely smooth and perfectly cut.

There were no flaws at all in how it had been laid out, with each brick being identical in size while the caulk or whatever was used to seal the bricks was evenly distributed as well, not rising above the bricks nor descending deep between them either.

"It's too perfect..."

Lady Fenyras' growl made us all nod as we looked around, and even as I looked at it with the enhanced sight that Lilith had taught me there was nothing wrong with what we were seeing, which made Lilith nod and grin at us like an excited schoolgirl.

"Exactly! It's so perfectly made that it makes you question everything! And then there's the obvious question of what is the purpose of a floating city in the middle of the most dangerous place on the continent? Because monsters still find their way up here, and all it would take is enough motivation for them to decide that this is a worthy place to occupy..."

"But why haven't they? If they can get up here, why haven't they stayed up here?"

"That's another excellent question, Chordeva~! No clue~!"

Despite the worries I had about this and the clear implications that could be drawn from what was just asked, I still just couldn't do anything besides marvel at the scene before me, only to turn around and look down across another equally breathtaking scene.
Read exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire

More questions flooded my mind now, and each one was more than enough to short circuit my mind a little the more I thought of them, the lack of answers driving me a little crazy as I tried to understand what we were finding ourselves in.