Chapter 119: A Dead Tax Haven, Cloud Harpoons
"Where did they go?" Levi complained, resting his hands on his hips. "Did they all quit? The apocalypse hasn’t even hit full swing yet."
"They did not log out," Isolde corrected. She pointed her wooden staff straight up toward the sky. "They changed elevation."
Levi looked up.
For the first time since he stepped off the boat, he actually took a good look at the sky above the mainland. It wasn’t the standard clear blue sky of the City of Thresholds. It was choked with thick, swirling gray ash and violent streaks of purple energy. The clouds moved in aggressive, unnatural patterns.
But cutting through the ash, high up in the stratosphere, were massive floating shadows.
"What is that?" Levi asked, narrowing his eyes.
"The mega-guilds pooled their collective resources," Isolde explained. "Crimson Aegis, Obsidian Vanguard, and Solar Lance completely liquidated their surface assets. They utilized the new Guild Castle system to purchase flying strongholds."
Levi stared at the floating shadows. "They bought castles in the sky."
"Correct. They migrated to the Aether Skies. It is a Level 70 to 90 zone composed entirely of floating islands," Isolde said. "By establishing their bases there, they bypassed the surface economy entirely. They are taxing their own internal markets."
"Those cheapskates," Levi scowled. "They literally moved to a different atmospheric layer just to avoid paying my five percent tax rate."
It made tactical sense, though. The mega-guilds knew the reality-merge was accelerating. The surface of Starfall was getting overrun by high-level Abyssal mobs. Building a fortress in the sky was the ultimate defensive play. They were securing their own survival while leaving the rest of the casual player base to burn on the ground.
Before Levi could complain about his ruined economy again, a blaring, server-wide alarm echoed through the sky.
It didn’t sound like a standard quest notification. It sounded like an air raid siren.
A massive, blood-red system warning flashed across Levi’s UI. It was so large it blocked out his vision for a solid three seconds.
[GLOBAL EVENT TRIGGERED: THE AETHER DESCENT]
[The structural integrity of the Aether Skies is failing.]
[All unclaimed floating islands will fall to the surface in exactly 7 Days.]
[Impact Warning: The kinetic force of the descending landmasses will cause massive real-world tectonic shifts.]
Levi stared at the red text. The siren continued to wail in the background.
"Real-world tectonic shifts," Levi read out loud. He felt a cold knot form in his stomach.
This wasn’t just monsters spawning in city streets anymore. This was the game engine actively tying its digital physics to the Earth’s geological stability. If those islands fell in the game, the real world was going to experience catastrophic earthquakes. Entire continents could crack open. Cities would be completely leveled by the resulting tsunamis and fault line collapses.
Isolde’s eyes flickered rapidly as she ran the math.
"Calculating kinetic impact," Isolde said, her voice dropping lower. "An unclaimed island in the Aether Skies possesses an average mass of four million metric tons. If they impact the surface at terminal velocity, the resulting tectonic shockwaves will permanently destabilize the Pacific and Atlantic plates. Real-world casualty projections exceed two billion within the first forty-eight hours."
Levi slowly lowered his hand. The annoyance over his empty gold vault completely vanished.
"The Pantheon is forcing the merge," Levi said quietly. "They’re just going to drop rocks on us until the real world breaks open."
He looked back up at the swirling ash and purple energy in the sky. The floating shadows of the mega-guild castles sat comfortably above the danger zone. The guilds had claimed their islands. Their castles wouldn’t fall. They were perfectly safe up there, hoarding their resources while the rest of the planet prepared to get crushed.
"They’re hiding," Levi snarled.
He didn’t pull up his inventory. He just materialized the Platinum Scythe of the Eclipse directly into his right hand. The massive, dark-metal weapon hummed aggressively in the quiet courtyard.
Isolde looked at him. She didn’t calculate a survival probability. She just waited for his command.
"The mega-guilds think they can just build a clubhouse in the clouds and watch the world burn," Levi said, his grip on the scythe tightening until the leather wrap creaked. "They think the Aether Skies make them untouchable."
He turned to face Isolde.
"They’re fleeing to the sky," Levi said coldly. "We need to hunt them."
"Acknowledged," Isolde replied, her wooden staff glowing with a faint white light. "What is our first operational objective?"
"We need a ride," Levi said. "My Behemoth is fast, but it can’t fly. We’re going to the Valerius Citadel to find a Beastmaster. We’re going to force our way into the clouds."
Levi swiped his menu open and pulled out his mount token. He tossed it onto the stone floor. The massive, crimson and black Behemoth of the Hollow materialized with a heavy roar.
Levi vaulted onto the saddle, pulling Isolde up right behind him. She wrapped her arms securely around his waist, her gray cloak draping over the back of the beast.
"Hold on," Levi commanded.
He spurred the mount forward. The Behemoth exploded out of the courtyard gates at 298 Speed, leaving the empty Harvester’s Exchange behind as they tore a path straight toward the ruins of the capital.
***
The ruins of Valerius Citadel were a depressing sight.
When Levi was here last, it was a towering, multi-tiered stronghold packed with players and NPC merchants. Now, after General Malakor’s Abyssal Incursion, half the city was reduced to smoking rubble. The outer walls were shattered, and the grand cobblestone streets were scorched black.
Levi rode the Behemoth of the Hollow through the debris, ignoring the low-level scavengers picking through the ruins. He headed straight for the beast pens on the western edge of the city.
Surprisingly, the massive stone stables were mostly intact.
Sitting on an overturned wooden barrel near the entrance was Beastmaster Joram. The scarred NPC looked exhausted, polishing a rusty iron lasso while a few low-level dire wolves paced in the cages behind him.
Levi didn’t bother dismounting. He rode the massive Behemoth right up to the barrel.
"I need to get to the Aether Skies," Levi told the NPC directly. "I need a mount that can fly."
Joram looked up, his eyes widening slightly at the sight of the Gold-tier Behemoth. He let out a dry, raspy laugh.
"Fly?" the Beastmaster grunted. "You don’t just buy a flying mount, kid. You have to earn it. The only beasts strong enough to carry a man into the upper atmosphere are the Cloud-Rays. But good luck catching one. They patrol the lower storm fronts. You’d need cloud-silk just to craft the saddle, and to get that, you have to kill them."
The system chimed, popping a standard yellow quest marker over Joram’s head.
[Quest Triggered: The Cloud Harpoons]
[Objective: Hunt Level 70 Cloud-Rays in the lower atmosphere to harvest their Cloud-Silk.]
[Reward: Flight Saddle Blueprint.]
Levi accepted the quest with a swipe of his hand.
"Level seventy," Levi muttered. "That’s a ten-level gap. Not terrible."
He looked up at the swirling gray and purple clouds. "The problem is getting up there to hunt them in the first place. My Behemoth can run at almost three hundred speed, but it can’t double-jump a mile into the air."
Isolde shifted on the saddle behind him.
"I can provide a structural solution," Isolde said softly.
She didn’t wait for Levi to agree. She slid off the saddle and stood next to the massive, armored front leg of the Behemoth. She raised her bare right hand and placed it flat against the beast’s dark, metallic hide.
Her gray eyes flashed with aggressive green hexadecimal code.
"What are you doing?" Levi asked, watching the green static flow out of her palm and directly into the mount.
"I am accessing the entity’s gravity core," Isolde explained, her voice totally calm. "The physics engine restricts terrestrial mounts to solid ground based on collision parameters. By injecting Anomaly code, I am rewriting the collision tags. The game engine will now recognize atmospheric moisture as a solid, traversable surface."
Levi stared at her. "You’re telling me you just hacked the game so my horse can run on clouds?"
"Correct," Isolde said. She pulled her hand away. The Behemoth’s hooves were now glowing with a faint, pulsing green light. "The modification is temporary. We have roughly two hours before the server detects the illegal code and forces a hotfix."
Levi grinned. He reached down and offered her his hand. "Two hours is plenty. Get back up here."
Isolde grabbed his hand and vaulted back onto the saddle, wrapping her arms around his waist.
Levi grabbed the reins. He didn’t steer the Behemoth toward the city gates. He pointed the beast’s head straight at a slanted piece of ruined siege equipment that formed a crude ramp.
"Let’s see if this works!" Levi yelled.
He spurred the mount forward. The Behemoth exploded into a dead sprint. It hit the wooden ramp, launching itself high into the air.