Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When the Sacred Hammer flew slowly in the sky, the old demonic ape, Gruglu was holding the ropes in his hands. At the same time, he was trying to suppress the shaking of his muscles while looking at the rattan and bamboo sticks overhead.
He dared to swear before the entire forest, vowing to each of his ancestors and making a declaration to anything that he could find. He wanted to tell them he never thought he could ever fly before that day!
The quirky device called the hot air balloon, assembled with magic blue whale skin, vines, wood, and bamboo sticks, actually flew up! As the wolf said, it flew up!
He faintly remembered what the alpha had said, something like that the hot air balloon had come out unexpectedly successful, that the final product should be called an airship, that they could form a fleet etc. He felt that the alpha was always full of wisdom and new ideas. The old demonic ape had often been seeing himself a wise man, but after the appearance of the alpha, he had no longer dared to mention this title, especially now. Riding in a basket hanging under a balloon and flew into the sky, he could not doubt anything that the alpha say anymore.
The cold wind blew into the passenger compartment through the gap of the rattan basket. The old demonic ape heard the structure on the hot air balloon—or rather airship—was creaking. This sound was sending a chill up his spine. It felt as if the big guy would fall apart at any time, but he tried not to show his fear on his face because he was not the only one in the cabin. Many young demonic apes and a small group of noisy imps crowded in this large rattan basket. In front of these young chaps, Gruglu wanted to look steady. He grabbed the ropes around him and peeked at the sky outside through the gaps of the rattan basket while pretending to be calm. “Don’t worry, the alpha has said it, the shaking is normal!”
The alpha might have said that, or probably not. But who knew? Most of the stupid boys were shivering in fear; no one would pay attention to Gruglu anyway.
A young demonic ape shoved himself out of the corner of the rattan basket, carrying a soft mat made of grass in his hand. He stuffed the rug behind Gruglu to block the cold wind blowing in through the gaps behind Gruglu. More cold winds were coming in from other holes, but the old demonic ape still felt a lot more comfortable now. He patted the shoulder of the young demonic ape and said, “It’s so kind of you.”
“Patriarch,” the young demonic ape asked respectfully, “When are we going to land?”
Gruglu thought for a moment and responded, “Listen to the alpha.”
And what was the alpha doing at this time?
She was sitting in the “Captain’s Room” on the upper level of the rattan basket observing the situation outside through the open skylight.
With long silver hair, a pair of eye-catching triangle ears, a big furry tail, a weird dress, she looked like a wolf, but more like a human. When she first came into the herd, most of the beasts in the forest regarded her as a human invader. And the first one to question and challenge her was the leader of the forest’s demonic wolf—strictly speaking, the former leader. This leader quickly paid the price for defying her. It took him only three minutes to pay the price. Then the girl in the silver-hair became the alpha among the beasts.
Lily sat on her seat cushion. She looked a sight because she had just solved a little glitch in the hot air balloon. Her clothes were tattered. But she had a thick fur cloak, which was a complete piece of forest demonic wolf fur, of which the head and teeth of the demonic wolf were still well-preserved. Lily made the wolf head into a hood and was pleased to wear it on her head, as she now looked like a wild hunter. It was the survival rule of the wolves on the floating island; the winner draped in the fur of the loser to become the new leader of the pack.
But the werewolf maiden liked her new clothes for its ability to keep warm, except for the nasty smell.
After determining the current altitude and the state of the hot air balloon, Lily reckoned to the two gnolls at the door. “Order the firefoxes to turn down the fire; the altitude is just right. Just maintain the current temperature.”
The two gnolls, whom Lily had appointed them as ‘guards,’ immediately gave a loud nasal sound and climbed up the ropes to the basket on the top floor. They then climbed further up toward the two large balloons above, from which the basket was hanging. Under each large balloons, there was a basket made of non-flammable black wattle. Several firefoxes lay in these baskets and extended their tails into the hot air balloons and ignited the elemental fire in the opening of the balloons. Firefox was anything but powerful and was regarded as a higher-level beast, below the abhuman. Their only ability was the elemental fire, which they could use to bully regular animals that knew no magic at all. But this ability became the most crucial power source to power the hot air balloons.
The firefoxes got orders and made a series of sounds. They gradually reduced their heat output according to previous training. But before that, to let these birdbrained guys get the skill down a fine art, Lily trained them tirelessly.
Lily nodded in satisfaction when the hot air balloon stabilized. She then looked at the border of the mainland in anticipation.
Lily was quite satisfied with the aircraft she had designed and even happier with the efficiency of the abhumans. Those guys might be a little dim-witted, but they were not slow at all in building the hot air balloons.
She thought that it would take her at least a month before she could leave the desolate place, but the skills of the primitive races had exceeded her expectation. Some of them had great physical strength; some were able to communicate with plants, some could use flames, some could make adhesives that were tougher than steel. With the help of these magical abhumans, she was able to finish the hot air balloons in a relatively short time. So she had decided to made six airships, and then improved her initial design blueprint, and upgraded the previously conceived basic balloon design to make it like an airship.
Armed with these things, she was confident to reach the mainland.
The old demonic ape told her that there was a human kingdom on the continent. So if you wanted to find Mr. Landlord, the human realm was her best bet. Mr. Landlord was a busybody, and where there were humans, there were troubles. So, she had to go to places where there were humans. The husky maiden Lily Liu felt that her thinking was utterly logical.
After reaching the desired altitude, the airship began to accelerate slowly. Lily poked his head to take a look at the wooden propellers on both sides. Some compact wooden cranks connected the propeller blades, which driven by the bear monsters in the lower pods. Those bear monsters, which could continuously pedal the shaft for a day and night without rest, were ideal labors.
Lily wriggled in the seat covered in grass mat and fur to find a comfortable posture. She then stretched her limbs like a lazy bear. While looking at the clouds through the skylight above, she pondered what to eat for the next meal. The ropes and brackets used to connect the two large balloons crisscrossed into a grid in her field of vision, seemingly dividing the sky into many fragmented pieces. And in these pieces, many strange clouds flew past like a revolving lantern.
A cloud broke apart, and a white monster came out from behind the veil.
Lily was fast asleep, but the appearance of the white monster jolted her out of her dream. She blinked, and her ears flickered, realizing that it was a massive human-made aircraft.
In front of the large aircraft, her little airship looked like a toy. It was a huge ship, a beautiful and advanced beautiful spaceship!
Lily quickly bounced up from her cushion and looked up at the magic-powered warship that was gradually coming out of the clouds. Her golden eyes were reflecting the image of a sleek fuselage and a magnificent statue of a goddess. Feeling a little nervous, but she quickly calmed down. The magic-powered warship quickly overtook her ‘toy’ airship, leaving trails of turbulence in the clouds. It made a slight turn and gradually flew toward the airport city, Lunier, on the south of the Ansu Continent.
A sudden violent vibration came from under Lily’s feet.
“What’s happening?” She immediately asked a nearby gnoll. “Is the heat of the two ballons became unequal?”
The gnoll ran out in panic while Lily followed from behind. She was going to check out the condition of the airship.
She saw something else instead.
The sky in the distance had turned dark, and a thick shadow was coming toward her direction. Fog and shadow, as if mud erupted from the abyss, surged and shrilled along the edge of Ansu Continent. Behind, some terrible power was ravaging the floating island. Lily saw the whole islands began to shake violently as huge black smoke emerged from the endless void in the sky below the island. When the black smoke rose, it directly hit the pedestal of the floating island with a distant and terrible roar. The ancient volcano in the center of the island began to spew smoke and ashes before it erupted into a pillar of fire.
Almost in the blink of an eye, the whole island fell into a sea of fire.
The most terrible tide of Chaos in the world of Collow began.
