“Should we let the soldiers in?” Dunesther asked this, since humans had different ways of thinking, and they knew a lot were mostly fueled with greed.

  They might see something more than they ever perceived, and try to do something uncalled for.

  “Well, the doors decide. We could just erase their memories if needed,” Jenna pointed out.

  For safety and security, on the doors of the Floating Orb, the high-ranking wizards had used spells akin to the power of the first layer of the Auroras.

  Jenna knew they had to resort to these security measures to prevent the humans from planning to fight against themselves. She knew the outside kingdoms had been in the craze to gain more magical powers.

  This was exactly why the Auroras was made to protect the kingdom of Livingrings even if the citizens did not fully understand how these worked.

  Sadly, the power of the first layer did not always work if the intruders were in great numbers or of intense magical powers. And, could not fully alter everyone’s memories once they step out of the barriers.

  Still, it worked on most intruders.

  It made them think that what they thought they saw and experienced were nothing, but impossible dreams or illusions due to being lost in the wilderness or eaten some poisonous food in their travels.

  This resulted in different books and stories that had evolved for many centuries created by those who had strong memories and magical powers.

  For instance, the Nexxus Alliance had thousands of arcane records of magical experiments, appearances of certain castles, kingdoms, animals, or faces that many humans had encountered for centuries, but never changed.

  The most powerful human wizards, knowledgeable historians, and scribes had been working on these nonstop for many years since the Nexxus’ creation.

  It came to a point when they made conclusions and stated that Livingrings could be powered by some magic that lets those who stayed there lived for a long time.

  And they presumed that it was a power beyond their current understanding, since everyone who went there only had bits of their memories and dreams about it.

  Some had recorded that the place they saw had gold everywhere used in buildings or ordinary ornaments. Some said it had ancient animals and plants that could increase the magical abilities of humans and wizards, if harvested or used as potions, amulets, or attached in weapons and bodies. Some of the intruders had gold with them when they came out and this served as a proof that what they remembered as dreams were real.

  This changed the lives of those who had visited Livingrings. Some who were town scribes became Royal Court scribes if they had the ability and information those at the top required.

  One such example was wandering scribes who were those struggling to make ends meet, but were so curious that they often visited everywhere and tried to get work.

  Many wandering scribes landed in Livingrings for centuries, only to forget what they learned when they stepped outside the Auroras.

  However, they were the ones who had the most detailed and vivid “dreams”, causing high ranking officers to seek them under their king’s command. They were offered riches and safety in exchange for the value of their information.

  Further, those who had pacts with ancient sorcery and dark rituals gained more valuable information, and learned that the Seal of Gaxinar was in Livingrings.

  They then spread stories about the seal, making fake records and plots as the belief of the people in the seal grew over time. This continued for centuries.

  The real and fake merged, which made up the history and legends of the humans and wizards in the outside kingdoms.

  People could be fooled and some loved it that way, because of the advantage this gave them.

  ***

  After flying for a few minutes, the troops and the wizards finally arrived outside the Floating Orb.

  The two Rune Masters could see where the door was, and stopped their companions in midair before their Celestial Drakes could fly past it.

  Dunesther and Jenna were pale since they knew Nymeria and Orion were on the brink of death.

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  For some unknown reason, all of them were allowed inside.

  Most were in shock to see that inside the Floating Orb were different types of infrastructures that had different orientations of what was up or down, west or east, north or south.

  These made the newcomers dizzy and had a difficult time moving around.

  It was not like the labyrinth and maze-like dimensions in the second layers of the Auroras.

  The direction everything was facing was not unified. It was somewhat like a mess and dizzying for them to look at since they were not used to it.

  There was a city above the skies but pointing towards them as their north. Meanwhile, another city protruded on the western side pointing to another direction as their north.

  These cities also had different designs, like the builders were trying out things.

  ‘What the hell is this place?’ Vaelros thought to himself.

  He got a throbbing headache just from looking at everything. It was as if his head had moving beats that gave him pain wherever his eyes glanced.

  In all his years as a citizen and as a General in Livingrings, this is the first time he entered the Floating Orb.

  He glanced at all his comrades and they were clearly feeling the same as he was. Some were even reeling as if they were getting nausea, but were trying to hold on.

  A lot had their mouths agape in awe, and shocked at this mysterious structure and arrangement of things.

  It was as if everything here was unreal, except they were truly here.

  Compared to these, the second layers of the Auroras were more organized.

  Here, some seas were floating and merging constantly while their own inhabitants inside lived in peace. There was also a river of magma under these, flowing to some ruined cities.

  There were mountains lined up with what looked like different minerals of some kind.

  It was hard to look around and not get confused.

  There were also unusual living plants and creatures inside, mixed with experimental objects and infrastructures that rotated and twisted everywhere or flew around causing explosions.

  “Are these the products of your experiments?” King Thalorin asked the two Rune Masters, surprised by the extent of ‘disorder’ in this place.

  It was a kingdom on its own — vast, teeming with life, and unique.

  Just as King Thalorin spoke, huge animals passed by in another direction and huge birds they had never seen before flew by them.

  Some animals even had ancient plants growing on their backs.

  The waters near them also flowed in twisting forms – some were floating and went inside circular twisting castles or towers with translucent forms.

  In another area, fruits flowed like rivers and juices filled the lakes.

  There were also flying objects they had never seen before aside from the birds.

  The visitors looked around and could not grasp why this place was like this, as their drakes followed the two Rune Masters to a nearby tower where they would land.

  Perhaps, they would never understand even if they tried to do so their whole lives.

  This place was not something they could explain and understand with normal logic and reasoning.

  They could only conclude everything was due to magic.

  “My king, these have existed here for thousands of years, though some were created recently.” Dunesther replied hastily, while looking for any signs of a Divine Archmage when they landed on a wide-open space in a tower.

  The tower that reflected everything around it had two gigantic rainbow-colored phoenix guardians as tall as itself, holding it from both sides.

  The king and the others looked around again, puzzled about what was inside all these creations and their purposes.

  King Thalorin and these people were the few ones who had seen it aside from the wizards.

  Vaelros was silent in thought while looking around.

  ‘So this is it. We didn’t even know something like this actually existed in our skies.

  If not because of this, I may have died someday, not even knowing these existed.

  But, damn! How messy!’ And Vaelros was not the only one who thought this.

  After all, the Floating Orb was not visible to them outside. It was as if it was never here.

  Who would have thought it was a space this vast and filled with all sorts of things just above them?

  “We patrol around the skies almost fifty times a day, but we’re never obstructed by anything. Since when we-,” a soldier said excitedly, but suddenly stopped talking and took a battle-ready stance when they felt something.

  Everyone felt a sudden chill.

  It was like winter welcomed itself while not yet in season, and creeped into their blood vessels and internal organs.

  Winter was only experienced in Livingrings when big holes appeared in the Auroras. It was quite rare. One time, after sky high-waves challenged their walls, thick snow dropped furiously and covered the whole kingdom.

  ‘What is this?’ Everyone asked in their minds except for the two Rune Masters who knew who it was.

  Dunesther and Jenna were the only ones celebrating and relieved since they knew — a Divine Archmage just arrived.

  Every newcomer was stunned as a peerless tall beauty with a terrifyingly strong presence appeared out of nowhere.

  All the soldiers could not help, but be on edge and gripped at their weapons in case this person was a threat to King Thalorin and everyone else.

  They only relaxed when they noticed King Thalorin and the Rune Masters were not on edge.

  *Town Scribes - serve their local towns or cities

  *Court Scribes - serve the nobility or royalty, the Nexxus mostly take from wandering scribes who still ‘bear the secrets’

  *Wandering Scribes - mostly go to the famous Livingrings due to curiosity