Chapter 29: The Building Blocks to The Start of War
And just like that, the day ended and began again. I sat with Stella and Stello, and after hours of frustrating, roundabout talks, we managed to strike a deal. It was clear now we needed every fighter, every soldier, if we were going to bring down Good.
Funny thing is, I'm not even sure when we officially joined the giants' war. Maybe it was the inconvenience of having a compassionate heart. Or maybe we were just too dumb to say no.
"You're still talking to that book, aren't you, Madoxx?" El asked as she walked into the giant-sized room Stello had given us.
Like the rest of the plateau, the place looked like it had been built inside a massive brick oven red and toasty. It had all the basics: kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms. Only issue? Everything was a hundred times too big. Still, we managed.
"Yeah," I said, tapping the journal. "It relaxes me. I jot down my thoughts, and reading them later reminds me how much we've been through. Helps me make sense of the chaos."
"Well, in that case, don't lie in it," she smirked. "The giants promised us unlimited food if we helped. Melody said it was a fair trade." She laughed, clearly amused.
Later that day, we had a meeting to tackle our next problem the fortress in the sky.
Before the feud between the two giant siblings turned petty and stupid, a plan had been drafted. It was called Intercept and Crash.
See, sky islands aren't natural—not even in this magical world. The one above us was originally meant to be a home for the King of the Giants, These islands are held aloft by five magical orbs—one in each corner and one in the center. If you destroy one, nothing happens. But take out three or more? The balance collapses. The island falls.
Through the courageous volunteering of a certain dumbass in our party "melody" we got stuck as the infiltrators.
To reach the island, we needed something big. Enter: the Galaxy Cannon. It was designed to launch a full-grown giant into space. It was never completed—thanks to the infamous Great Food Kingdom Dilemma but the blueprints survived.
So, the plan was
Gather the materials.
Build the cannon.
Launch ourselves into the sky.
Destroy three orbs.
Crash the sky island.
Then a Full assault on Good and the Lefts.
We also had to modify the cannon—seeing as it wasn't built for tiny humans. But being small turned out to be an advantage. Easier to sneak in, harder to detect.
With El's short-range teleportation abilities, we could dodge obstacles mid-air and hopefully land safely.
It took a few days to collect everything we needed and a full week to build the cannon. But now, it was ready.
Operation: Intercept and Crash the Sky Island was a go.
The Next Day
We all stood on the fray that held the fake decoy kingdoms, and there it stood—facing the ocean, aimed toward the sky islands.
Stella and Stello stood to the cannon's right, smiles on their faces.
The people of both kingdoms stood farther back, clapping and celebrating. Mel, El, and I stood to the cannon's left.
"We finally did it," Stella and Stello said, laughing.
"That does look to be the case," Stella said back, jumping around from excitement and hugging her brother.
I stared dryly at the scene. You wouldn't believe these two had been in a feud all this time—over pure, childish pride.
But as I looked at what we had accomplished, I, too, felt good. It was marvelous.
In front of me stood a 90-ton beast, the barrel made of gigantic, reinforced, pink-glazed donuts.
It rested between two arms made of stone, forged in Stello's kingdom from their impressive furnaces.
But the most impressive—and most time-consuming—part sat nestled inside the barrel: compact, refined, and forged from the magic of both kingdoms and a little from Mel, El, and me, it was the fire powder that would launch us into the sky kingdom. Through the efforts of both kingdoms' science factions, we finally had a cannon capable of launching even giants.
We all looked at each other, smiling. Then Stella pointed up into the sky at a huge cloud.
"There," she said. "That's our target. We need to bring that cloud down today."
El's smile faded slightly. "Wait… that's it?" she said. "That's the whole distance we need to travel?"
Everyone paused, slightly taken aback.
"Yeah…" Stello said.
"Well, this is embarrassing," El muttered. "Since I only need to take Mel and Maddox , and that's the distance, I don't see why we needed the cannon. I could've easily taken us there. Easy peasy."
She laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of her head.
It was as if everyone collapsed at once.
"Whaaat?!" they all shouted in disbelief.
"Oh… it does make sense," Stello said, still stunned. "Originally, we only needed the cannon because we thought we'd be sending giants up there. The one time we tried building up, a rain of magical defense spells broke everything. So, we needed speed and accuracy—thus, the cannon."
"But now," El added, laughing loudly, "we're sending three tiny humans. The cannon's really overkill."
"Whaaaat?!" the kingdom's people shouted again, before joining in the laughter.
What I was hearing was so ridiculous that I started laughing too.
How had it taken this long to realize?
Mel, along with the rest of the kingdom folk, were rolling around laughing.
"Well… on the bright side, I guess we have a cool cannon now. So, it is what it is," I said, wiping away my tears of laughter.
"Yeah, it is really cool," El said, encouragingly.
"Truly," El added, getting up from laughing. "I'd even go as far as saying it would've been a crime not to build it, actually."
The cope in the air was strong at that moment.
But we all went with it—what other choice did we have?
"Ok now—are you ready?" I said, trying to get us back on somewhat of a schedule.
"Let's do it," El said as she intertwined our hands—Mel on one side, me on the other.
"Wait," Mel said. "This ain't cool enough."
I sighed. "What does that even mean, El?"
"Look, okay—if we'd used the cannon, we would've had that epic 'final send-off before a big battle' feel. This just feels... meh," she said.
"Meh?" El repeated, her grip tightening.
"Oh no, no—no offense to you," Mel added quickly, trying to loosen el angry grip on her. "It just doesn't feel grand."
"Why does it need to be grand?" El asked. "Why can't we just do what needs to be done? This isn't a movie or a book, okay? We don't need glam. No one is watching," she said dryly.
"No. No, I won't have it," Mel insisted.
"Hey, Stello! Stella! Throw us," she suddenly shouted.
"What?" they both said, dumbfounded.
"Yeah! Throw us toward that cloud."
"At this point, why not just use the cannon?" Stello asked.
"No, no. We will not waste that shot on something trivial. Throw us," she repeated, more determined.
"It would look really cool," Stella said, putting a finger to her lips in deep thought.
"You know what? Hell yeah," I said. "Throw us."
El looked at me. "You too, Maddox ? Seriously?"
"Might as well go out with a bang," I shrugged.
"Screw it. Let's do it, I guess."
Stella picked us up like a baseball and took a few steps back, planting her feet. She drew her arm behind her shoulder.
Then it started.
We rested tightly in her firm grip. A slow jog turned into a full sprint. She took a breath, held it, and swung her arm forward…..
...FWOOOSH.
We were launched into the sky.
Shooting at unbelievable speed, we zipped past clouds, rocketing upward toward the castle.
"OK—NOW, EL!" I shouted, the wind whipping past us, my cheeks flapping, my mouth dry from the wind.
Mel laughed out loud as we flew. "This is so much fun!" she shouted, her voice echoing through the skies.
The grip we had on each other didn't break—our hands locked. El focused in, her eyes scanning ahead, and spotted a good landing spot on the edge of the clouds.
As we broke through the cloudline, our eyes widened.
The land—in all its glory—came into view.
As soon as we broke through, we knew.
Down below, we saw it—a huge sign, broken and withered.
The air hit us first. Heavy, bitter, and filled with the sting of scorched metal and ash. It wasn't cold or hot—it just was, like walking into the breath of something ancient and wrong.
The clouds beneath ddint look soft or fluffy—they were dense, dark, and looked like wet charcoal. Each critter that walked on them released wisps of smoky fog with every step.
Everywhere we looked, great towers spiraled upward—crooked, bone-like structures with surfaces that pulsed faintly, like veins glowing with dim lava. These towers hadn't been built... they'd grown. They looked alive, like they were part of the sky island itself.
Lightning didn't flash—it coiled. Slow and purple, it slithered across the sky-stained ground like a serpent made of static.
Then came the scent—burnt iron and singed skin, with just a touch of something sweet… like sugar boiled too long until it turned bitter. It clung to the back of your throat.
The clouds here weren't normal. They bled. Thin, black streams dripped from above, vanishing before they hit the ground.
Structures stood all around—castles of volcanic glass and fused obsidian, warped into spires They didn't sparkle like Stella's crystal castles; they flickered, like dying embers.
And then we saw them…..the Lefts.
They crawled and twitched through the streets—spidery, skinless things with too many limbs and not enough eyes.Every movement was jerky and wrong, like puppets with their strings snapped and rewired. They didn't speak.
They didn't need to.
Their silence screamed louder than any words ever could.
High above, on a mountain made of dark clouds, was the heart of it all: The Hollow Crowna massive, hovering fortress suspended by chains. Chains that connected to nothing, simply floating in space, made of black smoke and bound lightning. It pulsed with an unnatural heartbeat, each throb echoing across the sky.
It's great that all giants seem to have labeled everything with massive signs in bold lettering smeared across the entrances—because without those, these descriptions would've been way more confusing.
The first thing to catch my eye as we plummeted through the skies was:
The Emberwake Wastes
It looked like a hot springs resort—but instead of warm waters and relaxing baths, it was filled with lakes of cold ash water. Every so often, ghostly geysers erupted—not of steam, but of red-hot ash and sorrowful moans that echoed like lost voices.
It was clear this place was meant to be a resort, once. Now it was a littered wasteland.
Scattered throughout were the remains of massive obsidian statues, sunk into the ash lakes—giants long turned to stone, their faces frozen in screams.i didn't knowv if they were once followers... or victims.
The Witherwinds
Here, the skies never stop howling. Invisible winds stripped color from anything that entered—clothes bleached to gray as the half-dead Lefts were hit by wave after wave of razor-sharp air.
At first glance, I couldn't tell if this was torture… or training to strengthen their resolve.
Clouds formed blade-like ribbons that whipped through the air, slicing through stone like butter. Some Lefts gathered here in droves, dancing in maddening patterns, flaying themselves in worship as the deadly winds tore into them again and again.
The Cindertide Hollow
This land was buried in thick black clouds. The only thing visible was the worn sign, leaving me to wonder—what was hidden down there?
The Crater
Just as the name implied, this was a vast hole in the cloud floor, filled with slow-turning smoke and molten fog. The fog glowed in flickers of orange and violet
The Shatterspire Choir
A forest of crystalline towers. Each one hummed with a different mellow tone. The wind blew against them making it sound like some kinda messed up hum .
The Deep Dark was a towering mountain made of clouds with a dark opening, through which Lefts constantly marched. Mining for resources. Or maybe... something worse. From way up here, that was the image I got.
What caught my eye most was:
The Dying Crown
High above the Hollow Citadel floated the crown itself: a ring of skyfire suspended in orbit like a shattered halo. It looked unreachable by foot, and those who flew too close were turned to ash on contact i knew this because,
A transparent barrier shimmered around it—deadly and unseen. a bird flew towards it touched it... and vanished in flame.
And finally, in the middle of it all, it stood—the castle I once thought could house something good. Bigger, grander, and darker than any other in the sky:
Just to the east a gate. And above that gate, a sign—half-broken, smeared in withering smoke. It didn't welcome you.It warned you.
A single thought rushed through my mind as I looked down at the cold, twisted domain before us. Unlike the sweet, comforting lands of Sweet Point Plateau... or the warm, radiant beauty of Saveryspire Plateau, places that looked like they'd been plucked from the joys of heaven—
This land felt like you had stepped into the cold, merciless clutches of hell itself.
And its name, blackened and cracked across the old wooden sign, made that very clear:
The Ashen Cloud Capital
The land ruled by the man who burned in a volcano for a century…
Notes~
Good wants to be emo so bad lmao