Chapter 154 - The Rest at the Peak

The ascent to Zenith Academy was a transition of pressure and crystalline light. The transport vessel did not rumble as it climbed through the clouds. It glided on a cushion of concentrated mana, leaving the smog of the capital behind until the air became thin and sharp. Through the reinforced glass, the world below shrank into a map of glowing veins and dark shadows. The clouds eventually parted to reveal the floating island. It was a massive slab of obsidian and white stone suspended in the sky, held aloft by ancient gravitational cores that thrummed with a low frequency. The architecture was a forest of spires and hanging gardens, all built to defy the natural order of the earth.