Chapter 122: Released

Sage had successfully deciphered the seal. That glowing seal had been the full appearance of the seal, and an art he learned from the Timeless Master’s dwelling. Instead of sending his consciousness into a seal he could get it to come out and show off for him, perfect for analysis. Once he understood enough of the seal he could find the core of it, the place which held the changes. A perfect seal was a representation of a thing, a Seal Master merely took that perfectly formed seal and applied a change. The seal and the object were one and the same, so the change to a seal changed the object. Seal techniques were merely the methods of change that could be performed. In this case, it was a prison.

Looking through the Charming Beetle’s eyes, Sage couldn’t see anything but dust and sand. Thankfully, they were on top of the Plateau when it shattered, meaning they were a half mile higher than all the other terrain so there was little danger of them smashing into anything. He was just careful to try and keep their current altitude and to keep Rocky from falling off. The huge dust storm carried them many miles away before it finally started to clear away. The huge cloud settling slowly and finally revealing what exactly they let out of the prison.

Sage had learned quite a bit about what was inside from the seal, but only in snippets. He knew it was sealed more than ten thousand years ago and it was created nearly a hundred thousand years ago. Sage had seen the passing of stars and destruction of great mountains. Rushing through the air, great masses of beings that he could not recognize. Thick armor plates and thrumming magical engines. His mastery of seals was lacking so he could only decipher the most basic of things from each part of the seal. He had thought it was some sort of ancient vehicle or construction equipment.

The massive plateau finally shattered completely and an immense presence washed over Sage and the other two. The Lance Beetle finally regained control of their flight path and they flew up higher, turning back towards where the plateau used to be. Sage was wrong, it was no simple vehicle. The place where the plateau had been was now a pit many miles deep, and a create nearly ten miles long lifted itself into the air.

It was utterly massive and from its shape, Sage could only liken it to a whale. A whale ten miles long and made of metal. At least that’s what he first thought. A moment later, the air cleared further and Sage’s powerful vision got a closer look. It was covered in scales, each of them seeming to move independently, lifting and twisting about. The topside of each scale was somewhat reflective like a layer of glass or metal but was black in color. The underside of each scale looked like a perfect mirror. Amazed, Sage released a huge gust of wind with his Divine Breath and cleared away the dust around him, wanting a better view.

Why do those scales look like solar panels?

As if to confirm his suspicion, the overlapping scales seemed to shift, half of them flipping up to reveal the scale they overlapped and using their reflective undersides to direct light at other scales. The other sides of the scales weren’t just mirrors they actually looked more like highly polished metal.

What an amazing creation.

Sage was busy marveling over the thing, so he didn’t notice Rocky actually speaking.

“What are you doing!? Get us out of here! We can’t handle that thing!”

Sage finally caught what Rocky was saying and he hopped out of the Beetle to join Rocky on its back. Shaking his head and looking towards the massive thing in the distance, “It doesn’t look hostile yet. Somebody created it a long time ago and used it as a… vehicle or something. Think of it as a massive Flying Ship.”

Sage wasn’t really sure about his words, but he was far too curious to leave just like this. He wanted to try and learn more about this thing. The Lance Beetle slowly flew towards it, Sage paying careful attention to see what that big whale would do. Would it notice them?

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The huge whale was holding still, having done nothing since it broke free of the mountain it was trapped under. Merely hovering a few miles in the air and slowly flapping and twisting its nearly dozen wing like flippers and huge tail. Each of the flippers or wings had a softly glowing zone at their following edges and many holes that looked like intake vents on the leading edges.

Those must be some sort of thrusters or engines. Who would have thought I’d run into such a thing in this Hidden Domain.

They flew closer and closer, closing the distance slowly. He was about to ask if Rocky wanted to come along to explore the thing, but then he remembered how easily Rocky handled that first fall to enter the Hidden Domain. If he didn’t want to come along he would have jumped off already. With no more qualms, Sage continued to carefully watch the huge ship, looking for a reaction of any sort. Eventually they were only a few hundred feet away and the huge mechanized whale still had no response.

With the closer view, Sage got a better look at the scales that covered every inch of the huge ship. They truly did look very similar to solar panels on one side and chrome on the other. Beneath the scales was another layer of some sort of metal or stone. It was hard to tell from so far away with the scales obstructing the view. The Lance Beetle flew about slowly, with both Sage and Rocky looking for openings or entrances. It was only in the shape of a whale, it didn’t actually have any eyes or a blowhole on top. Besides the thruster like parts on the fins and tails there was only scales. Swinging around underneath the whale, they finally found something different.

When they swept around to the front and underneath there was a loud noise. The creaking of metal rung out as it opened its mouth. Or at least it looked like the mouth of a sperm whale, a narrow flap on the underside of the head like a huge ramp slid open. Flying around to get a good look, it seemed that a huge floor had just lowered down. A massive platform lowered from the underside of the whale and created an opening nearly fifty feet high. The platform seemed quite empty besides for a few huge pillars that looked like hydraulic pistons. If it wasn’t for the hydraulic pillars and the lack of people, it looked very similar to sets of runways, or at least that’s what the markings seemed to indicate.

Is this really just a Hidden Domain?

Along with this thought, Sage looked upwards. He hadn’t bothered to look after the dust cleared and amazingly he saw that the huge explosion of dust and sand had cleared out the view above. Instead of the thick cloud cover he saw a night sky. A few pinpoints of light that seemed like stars twinkled above him. The sight astounded him. Did that mean this wasn’t actually a ‘Hidden Domain’, and was another planet? Or was this Hidden Domain far more than it seemed and contained not just some land but a whole galaxy?

Putting these problems aside for later, Sage directed the Lance Beetle towards the huge landing area that conveniently opened up for them. Moving from the front of the whale towards the belly, there was a ramp that led up into the huge whale ship. There looked to be a few panels or doors on the ceiling above them, but none of them were opened while the path up the ramp seemed to lead deeper into the ship. Flying up to the ramp, the Lance Beetle landed slowly and walked up the ramp using its legs. The ramp led to a large tunnel, easily fifty feet wide and fifty feet tall. At the end of the tunnel was a huge set of closed doors.

Will they open up for us like the docking bay?

A few seconds later they moved within a hundred feet of the doors at which point they slow slid away to either side, retracting into the walls and giving them a view of what was within.

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