Chapter 1382: What One Sees
Cage Mountain. Command Post.
“Ringmaster—another one.” Clown crossed the room with a folded sheet of paper and set it on the table in front of Hill Fawkes.
The circus had been disbanded for years, but the old hands still used the old name. Hill had stopped correcting them.
He scanned the page. “Where did this originate? Can we trace the source?”
“Last known position of the messenger was somewhere in southern Everwinter—three cities in the district, no way to narrow it further. Beyond that, nothing.”
Hill’s frown held for a moment; then he rose to his feet. “Get word to Lord Iron Axe and Her Excellency Edith. We may have a problem.”
Fifteen minutes later, Edith set the report face-down on the table and rapped the wood twice with her knuckles. “You’re saying this happened simultaneously. In different parts of Everwinter.”
Hill nodded. “We can’t pin the exact cities, but the spread of origins makes a localized incident impossible. This was coordinated.”
In the past several days the Intelligence Agency had received identical encrypted dispatches, one after another. Each reported the same thing: nobles forcibly moving their populations. Moving them north.
The pattern was too consistent to be error or forgery. Someone had issued a single order across the whole of Everwinter, and the nobles had obeyed.
Edith turned this over with the patience of someone solving an old proof. A city’s resilience lived in a precise ratio of people to resources. Too few and the artisans left; too many and the granaries failed. A forced migration on this scale meant not only bodies in motion but food on the road, temporary shelter, the loyalties of those being moved—variables any feudal lord would struggle to manage even under favorable conditions, and these men were moving in winter. They lacked the logistics. They lacked the discipline. By every ordinary measure the operation should have collapsed the moment it began.
Yet it was happening.
Which meant the initiative did not come from the nobles at all.
In the whole of Everwinter, only one power could compel them so completely.
“But why?” Edith murmured. “If the goal is to blunt Graycastle’s war potential, killing the civilians is simpler. Their Spider Demons could manage it before the nobles raised an objection.”
“Maybe the demons believe the people are still of some use.” Morning Light ventured the guess carefully.
Hill shook his head. “If they’re useful, there’s no reason to move them anywhere. And the only city large enough to absorb this kind of migration—” he unrolled the map— “is Snow Reflection Castle, and it can barely hold half what King’s City holds. Moving everyone there is no different from killing them slowly.”
“Snow Reflection Castle.” Ferlin supplied the details without being asked. “Backed against the Impassable Mountain Range. Low permanent population. First confirmed Red Mist sighting in Everwinter.” He paused. “If the demons are funneling people there, it amounts to a death sentence with extra steps.”
“And the enemy does not make superfluous movements.” Edith set her hand flat on the table. “Something has changed that we haven’t seen yet. This migration is a response to it.”
Iron Axe turned from the window. “What kind of change?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice was even, careful. “But I doubt it is any kind of good news. Alert the front lines. Raise readiness.”
Several hundred kilometers to the northwest, at the altitude of spent clouds, Tilly sat in the Phoenix and stared at the horizon.
“Those red clouds—could it be a demon obelisk up there?”
“No.” Lightning’s expression had gone flat and watchful. “From this distance, we shouldn’t be able to see Red Mist at all.”
“Why not?”
“Because Red Mist flows down.” Maggie answered before Lightning could, leaning into the conversation with the certainty of someone who had watched it herself. “I’ve seen it pour off the Impassable Mountain Range—like waterfalls, coo. Sheets of it.”
“That’s right,” Lightning confirmed. “It’s denser than air—it pools at low elevations. When it crosses the ridge of the continent and spreads into Everwinter, the peaks stay clear. Whatever that is above those mountains, it isn’t coming from below.”
Tilly frowned at the distant smear of crimson. “Then it flowed down the mountain first and rose afterward?”
“Not only that.” Lightning’s voice dropped. “I followed the Impassable Mountain Range north a month ago—close enough to the Red Mist to read it clearly. There was no red cloud over the ridge then. This didn’t come from the great rupture.”
A chill moved through Tilly that had nothing to do with altitude.
She studied the distant formation more carefully. It wasn’t a flat layer of cloud—it was a mass, dense and vertical, as though something vast were pouring itself down from above rather than rising from below. A column of red suspended over a mountain range she couldn’t name.
She said nothing for a long time.
“There’s a way to see it clearly,” she said at last.
Lightning glanced upward at the dark ceiling of cloud above them. “I was thinking the same thing.”
The higher you climbed, the further the world opened before you. If they could clear the cloud layer entirely and look down at the whole ridge of the continent, the truth behind the formation would be legible.
“Then let’s find out—” Tilly pushed the throttle forward and raised the nose. Lightning fell in beside her, synchronized her magic, let it bleed into the airframe until the two of them moved as a single instrument.
The altimeter needle climbed and kept climbing.
At seven thousand five hundred meters, the curvature of the earth became visible—a faint arc along the far edge of the world. The clouds broke apart beneath them into separate islands of gray, and between them the pale blue of the upper sky appeared, cold and depthless. Beads of sweat gathered on Lightning’s forehead; at this height even her protective barrier labored. Through the canopy glass, Tilly could see frost forming on the Phoenix’s frame. Without Lightning’s synchronized magic blunting the worst of the conditions, the engines would have been seizing already.
“Almost.” Tilly could feel the propellers losing authority in the thin air. “We need a gap, somewhere around here.”
“Leave it to me, coo!” Maggie pushed free of Lightning’s hold and shifted—hawk form, sharp-eyed, already scanning.
Thirty seconds later she found the angle: a narrow seam in the overcast, aimed clean at the continent’s spine.
All three of them looked through it at once.
For a moment none of them spoke.
Below the Red Mist, anchored in the sky above the highest mountain range in the world—
A floating island.
Chapter 1382 - What One Sees
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Cage Mountain, Command Post.
“Ringmaster, there’s another similar report…” Clown took a piece of paper and walked towards Hill Fawkes.
Although their circus troupe had disbanded many years ago, the comrades from his past were still used to calling him Ringmaster.
“Where was it sent from?” Hill glanced over the paper. “Can we trace it back to its source?”
“The messenger’s position was last known location was in southern Everwinter; there are a total of three cities there. But there are no other leads aside from that.”
Hill frowned, then suddenly stood up. “Inform Lord Iron Axe and Her Excellency Edith. We might have trouble.”
…
Fifteen minutes later.
Edith placed the report down and gently rapped the table. “… You mean to say that this happened at the same time in different parts of Everwinter?”
Hill nodded his head. “Although we were unable to pinpoint the exact cities where the orders were carried out, it is safe to assume that it occurred at a wide scale from the distribution of the reports’ origins.”
In the past few days, the Intelligence Agency had received identical encrypted letters successively.
The letters indicated that the nobles were forcefully migrating the citizens.
And they were moving north.
The similarities were identical, and it was impossible for the reports that came from different locations to be mistaken or forged. In other words, the nobles of Everwinter were carrying out a single, unified operation.
Although the encrypted letters briefly mentioned the term ‘migration,’ it was not a small matter. A city’s sustainability had a limit, and being underpopulated or overpopulated could lead to a paralysis of a city. Aside from that, a huge migration had many other considerations—for example, the food supply, the temporary residence en route, the riches brought along, etc… something that Neverwinter had deep experience in. It could even be said that the nobles that ruled the cities did not have the capabilities to execute a large scale migration successfully. They were not robust enough in terms of strength and supplies to support the entire operation, so the migration was deemed to be a failure.
Indeed, a majority of nobles did not care about the lives of the ordinary citizens, but that was only if the citizens were individuals. A feudal lord’s taxation and rule was inevitably linked to the ordinary citizens; if there was no one to rule, it did not matter how much strength and authority had. Once the citizens realized that they were unable to benefit from the migration, they were bound to lose the hearts of the people. Let alone the large mass of population congregating together, the chance of a rebellion occurring was much higher; thus, no matter how domineering or unreasonable the nobles were, they were incapable of executing such an astonishing large-scale migration.
Additionally, it was not just the nobles but the entire northern regions, which clearly indicated that it was directed by some other power.
In the entire Everwinter, only the Demons were capable of doing so.
“But why are they doing that?” Edith muttered to herself in doubt. “If they are thinking of impairing Graycastle’s war potential, they can just kill off the
citizens… With their Spider Demons, the nobles can’t stop them even if they were unwilling.”
“Maybe the demons think that… they are still of some use.” Morning Light guessed.
“If they are useful, there isn’t a need to do a force migration.” Hill shook his head. “Everwinter has the least cities out of the Four Kingdoms, even King’s City can only accommodate up to three hundred thousand people without prior preparations. Let’s not even talk about their route isn’t having King’s City as its destination.”
“The largest City in the north is…” Edith looked at the map.
“Snow Reflection Castle, with the Impassable Mountain Range behind it. It is only half the size of King’s City.” Ferlin immediately added in the relevant information. “Due to the uniqueness of its topography, it has a very low permanent population, and also the first place where the Red Mist was reported to appear.”
“If the demons are planning to migrate everyone there, then there’s no difference killing them off directly,” Hill commented.
“And the enemy will definitely not make any superfluous movements.” Edith nodded her head in agreement. “I believe that there has been an unforeseen change that we have not noticed, which is why the demons are implementing this inexplicable operation.”
“What can that change be?” Iron Axe queried.
“I don’t know…” Edith said slowly, “But I believe it cannot be any good news. Inform the front lines, tell them to raise their alertness.”
…
“Those red clouds… could it be that a demon obelisk is situated there?” Tilly muttered.
“No,” Lightning replied with a heavy expression. “From this distance, we should not be able to see any Red Mist…”
“Can’t see? Why?”
“Because Red Mist flows downwards!” Maggie was the one to answer. “I have witnessed the sight of Red Mist pouring down from the edge of the Impassable Mountain Range; they looked like waterfalls!”
“That’s right, I’m not sure if it is due to the Red Mist being heavier than air that leads to them gathering easily at low altitudes, but one thing is for sure. When Red Mist comes out from the ridge of the continent and infiltrates Everwinter, the mountain peaks would not be red,” Lightning added.
“You mean to say they flowed down the mountain ?” Tilly frowned.
That was the reason for Lightning’s argument that it should had been impossible to see any Red Mist—They were a few hundred kilometers away from the tallest mountain range of the continent. If the Red Mist didn’t rise up, it would had been completely obstructed by the mountain range.
“Not only that,” Lightning confirmed. “I followed the Impassable Mountain Range north a month ago and approached the edge of the Red Mist before. But at that time, the ridge of the continent did not have that red cloud. It… doesn’t seem to have come from the great rupture.”
A shiver ran down Tilly’s back. She noticed that the red clouds at the mountain peak were not a single layer, but formed a huge body. More accurately, it looked as though the a huge cloud pillar was pouring down from the clouds.
She stared at the peculiar sight in the distance and only spoke up after a long silence, “There is a way for us to view it clearly.”
Lightning raised her head and looked at the dark clouds above them. “I think so too.”
The higher one flew, the further one could see.
As long as they could see the entire ridge of the continent, they had the chance to see the truth behind the red clouds.
“If that is so, then we should try it out—” Tilly accelerated to the plane’s maximum and raised the nose of the plane. Lightning followed alongside her, and synchronized her magic to overlap with Tilly.
Through their cooperation, the altitude meter of the Phoenix deflected to its extreme.
After rising up to a height of 7500 meters, the land formed an obvious curvature. Dark clouds became disjointed and was no longer one body, revealing the pale blue at the periphery of the world.
Beads of perspiration appeared on Lightning’s forehead, the high altitude had caused a burden even for the protective barrier around her. Through the screen, Tilly discovered that the frame of the plane had a layer of frost. If not for the reduction of the discomfort with Lightning’s synchronous magic power, Tilly could not imagine the state of the plane.
“We’re almost there.” Tilly could feel the weakening of the propulsion supplied by the engines. “We should find an opening around here.”
“Leave it to me!” Maggie poked her head out and transformed into her hawk form.
Half a minute later, she found the optimal view point. Through a small crack in the clouds, they were able to see the outline of the continent’s ridge.
When the scene above the Red Mist entered their vision, the three of them did not dare believe their eyes.
They saw a floating island.