Chapter 2517

2517 – Sanctuary

Eternal Sanctuary—

Whoosh

A Shard made of orange momentum pierced the atmosphere, with extreme quiet and without causing any disturbances.

The Shard was only looking down, searching, contemplating…

Searching for a person who had recently come under all eyes, and contemplating the vague beauty of which one would never grow tired, the beauty of the infinite Eternal Sanctuary that changes whenever you head to a new spot.

…That land was not a paradise in the sense a human mind could imagine, but a world where nature was left to grow as it wished.

Mountains rose on the horizon layer behind layer, some clad in dense forests, others with white peaks piercing the clouds—clouds that sometimes took the shape of little sprites descending to play on their slopes.

And in the background stood towering chains whose bases vanished behind the clouds, their summits catching the delicate light coming from the horizon, gathering upon them until they seemed as though small artificial suns had settled atop the mountain peaks, giving the impression that no matter how hard you tried to approach them, you would never arrive.

And among those mountains lay vast valleys covered in forests and plains filled with grasses and flowers, interspersed with clear lakes that reflected everything above them. Within the waters spread islands of varying sizes; some were mere rocks clad in flowers and trees, while others bore hills, forests, and rivers of their own.

Broad rivers of turquoise hue descended between the mountains and wound around the plains before branching into smaller channels, and waterfalls connected the lakes scattered at different elevations. Some flowed quietly over the rocks, while others plunged from towering edges like glittering curtains vanishing into the clouds, then reappearing below amid the watery mist.

In some regions, the water did not fall toward any visible ground at all, but disappeared into dense layers of cloud, only for other rivers to emerge at lower levels. Sunlit highlands rose above the clouds, valleys drowned in drifting mist lay beneath them, sharp peaks pierced through both, and waterfalls linked them all until it was hard to tell where the land began and where it ended.

Ancient trees grew over the highlands, some with broad trunks and dense canopies, their branches extending over the rocks bearing leaves that graded between green, gold, and purple, while others had long clusters of violet and pink flowers hanging from them, their petals carried by the winds across the valleys to settle over the lakes or drift along with the rivers.

Among them rose colossal trees that pierced through the forests and towered even over some of the mountains, clusters of fruit hanging from their branches, each one the size of an entire city.

Plants covered what remained of the ground; small white flowers among the grasses, and others blue and violet at the water's edges, and plants with nearly transparent petals whose rims glowed when light passed through them. The colors changed from place to place without any clear order, from pink highlands to dark forests and green plains and banks drowned in white and blue.

The air was pure and cold over the highlands, and warmer near the plains, carrying with it the scent of water and plants. The winds passed over the lakes and stirred their surfaces, then climbed the slopes carrying mist and petals, while squadrons of birds crossed between the peaks and sometimes disappeared behind the waterfalls and clouds.

But the most wondrous was above.

There was no blue or dark sky; rather, it seemed as though the world itself had been reflected above the heads of its inhabitants from another time—inverted lands stretching upward, mountains whose peaks dangled downward, and enormous animals walking at ease across their plains and eating from the trees as though nothing were strange about it.

Flocks of six-winged birds could be seen flying from the peaks of the lower mountains toward the heights, continuing to ascend until they reached the other world, then their bodies would flip in the air and descend onto its inverted mountains, as though direction itself were nothing more than a choice.

Nothing separated the two identical worlds but a vast expanse in which the clouds danced, taking on different shapes before dissolving and merging again, while the birds coming from both sides used it as a playground and a racetrack.

Light came from almost everywhere—from the peaks, from the waters, from the clouds, and even from some of the plants, and so this world had no need of a clear sun in its sky. The distant regions brightened and dimmed of their own accord, while the colors on the mountains and lakes shifted whenever the clouds moved between the two worlds.

There was no wall defining that paradise, no city overwhelming its nature, no straight roads cutting through the plains. What hands had built was rare, as though those who lived here had found no need to alter their homeland to suit them.

One could choose a quiet peak to spend centuries upon without growing bored or letting the smile slip from his face even slightly; merely opening his eyes and feeding them on that view was enough… enough, far from power and conflicts and conspiracies, for in the presence of true beauty most things lose their luster.

Here there was no throne greater than a mountain, no palace rivaling the sky, no building declaring itself the center of this place; the mountains, the waters, the forests, and the peaceful animals were enough.

And amid all that stillness, beings capable of influencing entire universes seemed like just another part of nature.

"Hmmm?" The orange Soul Shard finally caught something with its senses and looked in a certain direction.

There, atop one of the floating elevations and beside one of the small elevated waterfalls… sat a young man, one leg extended and the other bent beside his stomach, while resting his back against a small tree behind him.

Whoosh—without thinking twice, the orange Soul Shard descended toward him.

Then, clack, very calmly, landing beside the young man with closed eyes, both hands clasped in front of her glowing chest. The momentum began to gather more and churn for a moment, then it began carving out her distinctive features and expressions.

…Then she spoke in a sarcastic tone with a small smile: "Is this a suitable time to rest, Your Excellency the All-seeing God?"