Chapter 578 - The sky city (Patreon)

Following Bonnie and Alex, the group arrived in what looked like a massive hangar, but that was only on the inside. On the outside, the place only looked like a cluster of cabins side by side. Even the doors were there. However, after trying out one of them, Hera realized they were fake doors. They could still be opened, but behind them was just a wooden wall.  

Inside the actual hangar, there were a few odd sculptures, if they could be called that. They looked like fish with very large open mouths, but they also looked like slimes. Each of them was somewhat translucent and looked a lot like slimes. That made everyone who went into the town hall get ready for a fight, but Alex and Bonnie just stared at them with confused expressions.

"What are you doing?" Alex frowned.

"Those could be mimics," Adriel replied.

"Should I punch one?" Blue started to step towards one of the weird fish things while keeping both her arms up in a boxing stance.

"I can try a poison needle. If they are monsters, they will do something. If not, it will just bounce off," Hera suggested. A long time ago, she had already tested the effects of her poison spells on objects. The Poison Needle, specifically, would act as if she had just dropped an actual metal needle against a piece of iron or something.

"If you think that will help, sure, but you can just use your inspect to check," Bonnie crossed her arms and gave some space for Hera to do what she wanted to do. 

While Hera was carefully using her poison needles on each of the twenty giant fishes that were inside here, Helena turned to Bonnie and Alex, "Mimics can trick even our inspect or observe. Just like how we can stop others from seeing our labels, they can do that and more. That's why we have to be careful when we see one in the area," the mage turned towards the fish. Hera could easily fit in the mouth of one of them, "Especially when they are that big."

"They can trick the system?" Bonnie gasped.

"No, they can trick our skills. It's different," Helena kept looking at Hera to make sure nothing was going to happen.

A few minutes passed, and the Empress returned to the party, "Ok, those are all objects. Or slimes that could copy an object to the point of making my poison bounce."

"And what are them?" Blue asked.

"Transportation. The light green ones are Flying Slime Fish that can take us to Sky. The s is capitalized, so I'm assuming that's the name of the city up there," Bonnie explained.

Alex pointed to the other side of the hangar, where ten dark green fish were sitting on small wooden structures, just like the light ones, "And those are Diving Slime Fish that could take us to a place called Abyssia. I assume that it's underwater, but I'm not sure if I want to figure it out."

"Right… and are they safe? Do we know how to turn them on?" Shane walked over to one of the flying fish and started to inspect it to see if there was a switch or something to turn it on.

"We need to sit on their mouths and press a scale behind their lips. They should be flying pretty fast but not enough to make anyone sick. After activating them, they will make a bubble around them to protect us while we go up, and they will land on the hangar in the sky city," Alex explained without missing a beat.

"How do you know that?" Helena turned to the assassin.

"Look, my eyes are already black. I figured it was better to get an answer. We are leaving everything to Shane and Hera in that department, and I want to pull my own weight. Besides, I'm down for anything that would let us sleep without having to worry about those slimes."

"Seriously?" Hera stared daggers at the assassin, "Are you doing this shit again?" 

"What? Bonnie was fine with that," Alex turned to the researcher, who nodded with a sigh.

"I'm not going to lie. I am a bit freaked out about staying here when I can't fight or run properly."

"So what? Every time you used that fucking thing, we got screwed. First, it was the attack in Dzviery, then the whirlpool. What is going to happen now? One of the fish is going to break midway?" Hera yelled.

"That's not fair. I've used this much more, and nothing bad happened. You are only remembering the bad times."

"You used it more?" Hera, Blue, and Helena gasped.

"Yeah. I mean, I had to figure out what was going on. This curse let me see colors properly, and it helped put the splint on Bonnie's leg. Adding this, it's a tie. The curse was both good and bad, just like any other thing."

Hera took a step forward with the intention of slapping Alex, but Nimbus stepped in front of her to stop the Empress.

'I don't think this is the best idea.'

Hera stared deep into Nimbus' eyes with a rage that sent chills down his spine, but she eventually backed off. She turned to one of the fish and said, "If you die because of that thing, the last thing you'll hear from me is I told you so."

"That seems kind of rash," Alex mumbled.

"It's as harsh as you are being stupid," Blue scoffed and walked towards another of the fish. Hera and her could fly if push came to shove, so having them try the fish first seemed like a good idea. 

"At the same time… It's a bit hard to argue with the results. If I had that, I would be using it constantly," Shane added. And got a few angry stares from the rest of the party. 

Angry and frustrated, Hera sat on the mouth of one of the fish and started to look for the scale that she had to press. 

'Nimbus, if something happens, be ready to turn into a griffon. I'll keep you back in the legacy while we are flying. I don't want you being left behind in case this moves faster than you,' Hera said while her eyes were focused on the inside of the fish's lips. Looking right above her head, she found a scale that seemed out of place and touched it. Feeling some push back, almost as if it was a button, Hera pressed it, and the Flying Slime Fish sprung to life with a low humming sound. The slime-machine slowly floated above the wooden support as Hera tucked her legs inside the mouth. Whatever made this made it in a way that allowed people to be lying down while moving, but she didn't feel confident enough to do that.

After the Flying Slime Fish rose about a meter from the ground, a bubble appeared around the entire fish. Surprised by that, Helena rushed over, "Hera? Are you ok?"

To the Empress, her friend's voice was a bit muffled, as if they were talking through a thin wall, "I'm ok. Nothing is happening with me."

"Are you sure?" the mage pressed.

"I'm sureeeeeeee…." in the middle of Hera's sentence, the fish started moving, and it jolted up. Instead of it breaking through the ceiling, it passed by a trapdoor that opened outwards, and now, the Empress was already heading to Sky. 

'Mum? Are you ok?' Daskka asked. 

'Yeah. I just didn't expect it to move so fast,' Hera wasn't feeling the wind blow, but she could tell that this fish was very quick. Peaking out of the mouth, she could see the raft becoming smaller and smaller. It was odd seeing that place like that for the first time. The center was very cluttered and filled with cabins right by each other, but when going to the edges, they became more sparse. Another interesting thing was that there was a pattern to the cabins. It almost looked like a spiral heading toward the town hall. A somewhat square spiral, but still. 

While still looking down, Hera saw another fish coming towards her. She also noticed that this room was weird. The water in the ocean was so reflective that when looking at it from this distance, she couldn't tell where the sky stopped, and the sea started. If she was flying around the area without being able to see the raft, getting lost wouldn't be just easy, but likely. A few moments later, another six dots came out of the hangar. Figuring that they would get close soon, the Empress turned back to the clouds, trying to see if she could find her destination. Unfortunately, she could only see a blue sky and puffy white clouds everywhere.

'Nimbus, is this what you saw?' Hera asked inside her legacy. Talking to her blades without them being out was still a new thing, and so far, she could only have a proper conversation like this with the Sentinel. Everyone else sounded like they were in a very old phone while passing through a tunnel. 

'It is, Empress. We should arrive after we go inside the cloud. Everything will be hard to see for a while, but it shouldn't take long to get there.' 

Hera nodded and leaned against the side of the Flying Slime Fish. She was still angry at Alex for using the curse to find out about these things. It's been just a couple of days since she caused Bonnie to break her leg and arm, and yet, she was here using it again. Not to mention that the worst parts of her recent life were all related to that damn curse. In silence, Hera promised again to make that her number one priority. This time she wouldn't even wait to get back to civilization. Instead, she would try asking the guides and even Yarnball how to get rid of the curse and hope that she could find something. 

A couple of minutes passed, and she finally arrived at the cloud. As Nimbus said, the visibility took a dive, which made her very worried. If there was something dangerous around, or if the Flying Slime Fish was on a collision course, she might not be able to see it until it was too late. Trying to cast something beyond the bubble also didn't work. However, Hera still had an ace up her sleeve. Dismissing Armory, she resummoned the tiara in front of the bubble and used her Pulse spell through it. She still could talk with her court member, and the spell was now on the outside.

'Are you ok out there?' Hera asked.

'It's a bit weird and scary, but I am,' Armory replied. Hera was sure that if she had an actual face, she would have closed her eyes.  

'Tell me if it gets too much for you. Please, I don't want you getting hurt,' Hera replied and continued using the spell through the tiara. Another five minutes passed when, on the edge of the pulse she was sending, something appeared. It was a massive structure that blocked all the mana that tried to pass through. 

Her ride started to go up, and soon it emerged from the cloud, revealing this giant triangle-shaped city. All buildings were triangles, and it seemed like the entire floating island was slowly spinning and adjusting to keep the tip of the triangle towards where the wind was coming from. From beneath it all, there was a rock very similar to monster-repellent stones, but this one kept creating a cloud that obscured the place from prying eyes. 

The fish moved around and dove toward a large white house with a chimney-looking structure that wasn't exactly taller than everything else. In fact, if this was the hangar, it was nowhere near as tall as any of the structures surrounding it. Hera noticed how the tip of the triangle was very thin and short, and things became bigger and bigger the closer they got to the opposite side. The fish went down the chimney and landed on a support that shifted to the side and moved almost like it was going to the right parking spot. Only when it arrived that the bubble disappeared and let Hera leave. She did so, calling Nimbus and her cour out, and as soon as she took a few steps away from the Flying Slime Fish, a new bubble appeared, but this time it was completely red instead of the transparent one that was protecting her. Somehow, it felt like the fish was recharging. 

Hera shook her head, "Now, I'm Santa Claus."

"Santa Claus?" Nimbus asked.

"You never spent a Yuletide with us?" Hera asked. 

"I don't think so… But isn't Santa Claus a character for those… I think it was a Christmas movie?" Nimbus asked.

"Oh yeah. Everyone has their own celebration. Christmas is one of them, even if it's a smaller one. Usually, we say either merry or happy and add the name of the holiday to wish people happiness during that time," Hera explained. 

"Oh… then Mery Christmas, Hera," Nimbus smiled.

Hera chuckled, "You are a bit early on the draw, but sure. Happy Yuletide Nimbus, you too, Daskka. And everyone," she looked at her blades before leaving the hangar to see what this sky city had in store for them. 

##### Author's Note #####

Happy holidays everyone! This was my way of having the characters wish you all her Happy holidays, hope you enjoyed and it still is on par with the world (Christmas is a thing but since Christianity is not as big it's considered a minor holiday on the world of MAZE) 

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