Chapter 441: 442. Necessary Sacrifice

There were moments in life when unexpected, even unimaginable, events took place. While stubborn and reckless in his own way, Dallion had always acknowledged the difference in experience and level. It was normal to let people who knew what they were doing make the decisions, and so far, Dallion had agreed with most of them. This was the first and only time he had shown open opposition to a decision made. Not only that, but an air of certainty emanated from him, making it clear that his demand couldn’t be brushed away.

There was a long moment of silence, broken only by the sound of the sea.

“Only one can join Jiroh,” Euryale said at last. Dallion expected for her to add that he wasn’t ready, but she didn’t.

“Then it will be me,” he said, adding confidence to his voice with his music skills.

The gorgon’s snakes moved about. There were dozens of reasons for her to refuse, dozens of reasons for everyone in the party to ignore Dallion’s request, with several valid reasons. However, no one did so.

“I have to be there,” Dallion added.

The gorgon opened her backpack, took something, then tossed it to Dallion. The only way it could be described was like a strange armor addon—or a medieval exoskeleton of sorts.

“We’ll both go.”

“Didn’t you say that only one could join?” Dallion asked. While he wasn’t complaining, the gorgon seemed to have agreed far too easily.

“I lied,” she replied. “Put that on. You’ll need it.”

“Who’s going to watch the boat?” Largo asked.

“She’ll be here,” Dallion said.

Right? He asked.

Of course, Seamoon replied.

That settled the discussion. The boat’s anchor was dropped, after which half of the team jumped off. At their level, they could last several hours without air easily. Meanwhile, Eury and Dallion got ready for their trip.

The armor additions were quite strange. Dallion could see that they were composed of large sea iron segments held together with sky iron wiring. There were eleven pieces in general: two gauntlets, two elbow protectors, two shoulder protectors, a belt, two knee protectors, and two iron soles. Attaching them felt weird, though once everything was set up, they didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable. It was interesting to note that Euryale had a pair of her own. Apparently, the gorgon suspected that Dallion might pull off what he did and had come prepared. That didn’t make her pleased with the development, however.

Once everything was ready, and all the elements were checked, the three otherworlders went to the edge of the cloud fortress. Jiroh was the one doing the heavy lifting, using her fury powers to effectively levitate them on the edge of the cloud.

Stepping on felt weird, as if Dallion was trying to balance walking on water with balloons on his feet.

“Careful,” Eury grabbed hold of his shoulder. “If you trip, you’ll splash down to the ocean. I didn’t have enough material for a full set.”

Grasping what she had in mind, Dallion removed his left gauntlet, then passed his hand through the cloud surface. Nothing stopped his hand from passing through.

They really are like clouds, Dallion thought.

“No one can touch it?” he asked.

“Furies can,” Jiroh replied as she made her way to the citadel’s walls. “No one else.”

That was slightly problematic. Dallion should have expected this. Since furies lived in the air, it was normal for their homes to be only accessible for them and in more ways than one. Unfortunately, that made Dallion’s task of collecting the heart a whole lot harder. When he had started this trip, he thought that the thread splitter was to slice through materials that would otherwise be indestructible. It was the opposite: the weapon was made so as to allow him to affect the cloud itself.

Getting used to moving in such an environment, Dallion walked on, stopping a few steps behind Jiroh.

“Get ready,” the fury said. “I remember there used to be guards.”

“I’m not sensing any emotions,” Dallion said, focusing on the clouds.

“I’m not talking about people.” Jiroh placed her hand on the wall of cloud, an opening formed, as if a huge force had punctured the cloud in a single go. Things didn’t stop there. The edges of the opening changed as well, shaping into a well-defined archway with banners, statues, as well as the symbol of a crown prominently displayed in the arch stone.

Is it normal for clouds to do that? Dallion asked.

Vapor has those properties, yes, Nil grumbled. And here I thought that you’re slacking days were over.

Vapor doesn’t stick to one shape at all, Dallion replied.

He had to admit that he’d seen water do it, though. This was no different. This had to be one of the strengths of furies: fighting with objects that were in constant flux. The thought sparked Dallion’s imagination. In his mind’s eye, he could see Jiroh fighting with armor made of clouds: light as air, hard as ice, it would constantly shift and change, turning into a weapon when needed. He could picture a cloud fragment turning into a throwing knife, homing towards its target, then flying back in the form of a buckler and attacking itself to the woman’s arm.

Why didn’t I think of this before? Dallion wondered. Cloud gear… so beautiful, complementing the fury that used it. If armies had such weapons, they could easily take over kingdoms. No, they could probably take over the entire world.

“Dal?” A hand grabbed onto his shoulder. All the images of furies fighting vanished, fading away like pieces of a dream.

“Yeah?” Dall looked to his right. Eury was there, a concerned expression in her face.

“You were drifting.”

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“I’m fine. I was just thinking about something.” He had to focus on the here and now. Even so, the image had been so real… too real. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“Do you know where to go?” Eury asked loudly. She didn’t seem to believe Dallion fully, but was willing to let it slide for the moment.

“Sort of,” Jiroh replied. “It’s been a while. I’m not even sure what part of the city this is. We’ll just have to figure it out as we go.” She took a few steps forward. “At least there don’t seem to be any guards. Still, stay close.”

The remaining two did just that.

Walking through a cloud citadel was every bit straightforward and complicated, as Dallion imagined it would be. The closest thing he could compare it with was walking through a mending labyrinth. On the surface there seemed to be streets and structures, yet each time Jiroh moved passed by everything changed. Archways appeared where there were none. Streets that used to be a dead end, opened up, or changed into a staircase… and all the time there was no clear indication how far in they had moved. Dallion was certain that they had been walking for an hour at least, yet even with his writing skills, he had no idea whether they were a hundred feet from the entry point or several thousand.

Two things were certain, though: the citadel seemed to recognize Jiroh, and also the further she walked, the more she started recognizing it as well.

“This is the armory,” Jiroh said, as another wall transformed, providing access to a rather large and well decorated room inside.

“I think you should skip that,” Eury said. “Armories tend to be protected better than anything else.”

“Maybe,” the fury didn’t sound convinced. “That’s not the important part, though. I remember playing in the armory. That meant it had to be close.”

“In this place does that mean anything?” Dallion asked. “It could have changed three times over.”

“You’re right. However, it’ll change back for me.”

There wasn’t arrogance in her voice, just a calm of fact. And just to prove the point, she walked into the armory. The dozens of shelves and columns disappeared, revealing nothing more than a bare, empty room. A few steps later, however, a single table of cloud material emerged. On top of it was what appeared to be a cube of cotton.

Hesitation swept through Jiroh. Her right hand trembled for a moment, as if remembering something, then moved forward to touch the cube. Before she could even touch it, the cube moved, changing into a cluster of threads that moved up her arm and onto her armor. As Dallion and Eury watched, a new layer of armor took shape.

Just like I imagined, Dallion thought.

“This was made for me by the citadel’s thread forgers,” Jiroh said. “Armor that would grow as I did. I must have been five or younger. I can’t believe they still kept it.”

“Are you sure it’s the same one?”

“It is.” The moment she said that, the armor shifted, transforming into a thick white belt. “It’s not far now. We just have to—"

“How do you plan to go back?” Dallion interrupted.

Jiroh looked at him.

“You said that you found a way to go back to your home. What is it?”

“You really know how to make things complicated.” A sad smile appeared on her face. “The moment you walked into Hannah’s inn, I knew there was something about you. However, even I didn’t think you’d end up walking the path of the empath.”

Crap! Dallion looked at Eury. In theory, the rules should have prevented her from sharing information. Apparently, that wasn’t the case. Either that, or Jiroh had managed to find out on her own. 

“That’s why I didn’t want you to join us on this. It won’t be pretty.”

“In what way?”

“The reason I was searching for the cloud citadel I was born on was because it knows me,” the fury said. “Because only a citadel that knows me would be willing to do what I ask of it.”

Dallion’s heart tightened. He already got a sense where this was going.

“It takes a lot of energy to have someone cross worlds. Even the Moons can’t do it all the time. And you’ve seen how difficult they are to convince in anything. The only realistic way for anyone to go back is to sacrifice a magic creature, but not just any creature. In order for the portal to give me that single second between worlds, I need the magic of a citadel.”

I didn’t see that coming, Nil said. He too believed that the citadel held some secret information or an ancient artifact from times past that would allow her to go. Reality was much harsher. It was just like what happened to the dragon; the only difference was that Jiroh’s goal was to have all the energy consumed. There would be no skill gem, no crackling remnant, just a portal.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Dallion managed to ask. The real question he was wondering was why she had told him at all. If it was about sacrificing all the creatures that maintained the shape of the citadel, she could have done it without revealing anything. By the time Dallion figured it out, the fury would have been gone, and nothing in this world would have mattered.

“Because I know what hearing it would cause you,” she replied. “You’re not the only one to be a chess piece of the Moons. My Moon found me interesting enough, so she gave me a gift as well.”

Dallion gasped.

“That’s right. I’m a favored too, and the path I follow is the Path of the Traveler. My purpose is to travel as much as possible, never stopping for long. The irony is that I could never make use of this gift, for by the time I received it, I had stopped using my awakened powers, so as to get used to my old life back home.”

“There has to be another way.”

“Always thinking like an empath.” Jiroh said right next to Dallion. Her normal movement speed was greater than he could follow. Combined with the blessings of the Orange Moon, it was as if she had teleported next to him. “I’m not going to harm the creatures in the cloud.” She put her hand on his cheek. “I’ll just ask them to rest for one last time.”

Suddenly, a blue rectangle emerged.

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