Chương 27: A Glorious Ascent and an Inglorious Landing

"I… I never imagined it would be so glorious." Gloria had witnessed the Katamaran countless times throughout her years in DDO, for although she had rarely needed the vessel herself, Ural remained one of her favored cities and its weekly arrival had often provided a pleasant spectacle.

None of those distant views had prepared her for standing beneath the mountain-sized slime that pulled it, however, because calling the creature large offered roughly as much useful information as describing Gloria herself as somewhat powerful. The creature was the size of a mountain, an actual mountain whose entire mass trembled with slow waves of translucent gel as it rested close to the docks, and Gloria could repeat that description a thousand times without making it feel any less absurd.

'I want to touch it,' Gloria thought as she began walking faster.

'I need to touch it. I want to pet it, climb onto it and lie across the top until it starts moving. Would I sink into it? Would it jiggle? Could I bounce?'

"Lady Gloria!" She turned to find Iris hurrying toward her with a heavy satchel held against her side. The Archer reached her slightly out of breath, though relief brightened her face as soon as she confirmed that Gloria had truly come.

"I confess that I had begun to wonder whether you had sent me upon a fool's errand," Iris admitted as she fell into step beside her.

"Fifty sheets of paper and three pens seemed reasonable enough, but purchasing that slime meat made me question whether the list was some elaborate test, or perhaps a method of leaving me behind while you continued without me." Gloria laughed as they resumed their approach toward the Katamaran.

"Put such concerns from your mind, Iris, for I gave you my word that we would meet here, and I would not have missed this magnificent sight for anything." As for the peculiar collection of supplies weighing down Iris's satchel, Gloria had indeed selected every item with a purpose in mind. Admittedly, whether those purposes would survive their first encounter with actual practice remained somewhat less certain.

'It should work,' she assured herself while maintaining a perfectly confident stride.

'Probably. The ideas are solid, the materials are cheap, and if I knew nothing about magic, this is how I would like to learn it.'

"You need not doubt the purpose of those materials," Gloria continued aloud.

"I accepted responsibility for your instruction, and I shall use them to guide you toward the greatest heights of magic you are capable of reaching." Iris's remaining uncertainty vanished beneath a brilliant smile.

'No, that was much more ambitious than what I meant to say! Why do you keep adding stuff to what I want to say???'

"As expected of Lady Gloria!" Iris declared loudly.

"I knew that every item upon your list must serve some ingenious purpose beyond my understanding!"

'Wonderful, because I certainly hope this Gloria knows what she's doing,' Gloria thought, maintaining an expression of complete confidence. Iris followed her for several more paces before glancing over her shoulder, and the absence of a tall black-haired goddess among the people moving toward the Katamaran gradually drew concern across her face.

"Should we not wait for Lady Echidna before going any farther?" Gloria turned toward her with a puzzled hum, which Iris apparently mistook for an invitation to speculate, because the Archer moved closer until they were nearly shoulder to shoulder.

"Unless we are deliberately leaving without her," Iris whispered, casting another cautious look behind them.

"I would support that decision entirely, Lady Gloria, for although I mean no disrespect, Lady Echidna is remarkably rude and possesses roughly the temperament of a Praetor suffering from rabies." Gloria's lips began trembling before she managed to look away, though the attempt to conceal her amusement only encouraged Iris, who evidently believed that she had found a rare subject upon which teacher and student could agree.

"I am relieved that you understand," Iris continued, growing bolder beneath Gloria's poorly suppressed laughter.

"Her devotion to you is certainly admirable, yet I have spent barely a day in her company and already witnessed much, so perhaps a little distance would prove healthy for everyone involved."

"Echidna must disappoint you, child, for you shall not separate her from the Mighty through such feeble scheming." The voice came from so near that Iris recoiled with a startled yelp, spinning around before searching behind Gloria and peering between the people passing around them.

"Where did that come from? Is Lady Echidna here?" Gloria finally allowed her laughter to escape as she lifted a hand between them, revealing a broad ring wrapped around her finger. Its uneven crimson surface possessed the crude appearance of something shaped from flesh rather than forged by a jeweller, and although the band remained perfectly still, Iris looked at it with rapidly growing horror as she realized where Echidna's voice had originated.

"We encountered a modest difficulty after separating from you, for only two tickets remained aboard the Katamaran despite there being three of us," Gloria explained, turning her hand so that Iris could examine the ring more clearly.

"Fortunately, Echidna's mastery over her own body extends considerably beyond altering her height or appearance, and she proposed this form as a means of accompanying me without requiring passage of her own."

"Echidna now rests upon the hand of the Mighty, where no mortal possesses the authority to question her presence," the ring added.

"The arrangement is exceedingly comfortable, although listening to an ungrateful child compare her to a diseased worm has somewhat diminished the journey." Iris stared at the ring, then at Gloria, before her eyes returned to the ring with utter dread.

"H-How long has Lady Echidna been wearing that form?" This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"Since before you approached us," Gloria answered pleasantly. The color slowly drained from Iris's face, and she tightened both arms around the satchel.

"Then I should clarify that the comparison to a rabid Praetor was intended as praise for your vigor, Lady Echidna, since Praetors are renowned for their extraordinary—""Echidna advises the child to stop speaking before her explanation becomes more insulting than the original." Iris closed her mouth immediately and resumed walking beside Gloria, keeping the Dragon between herself and the ring.

Gloria permitted Iris to maintain that cautious arrangement for several more paces before slowing near the edge of an open boarding court, where the dense procession from the surrounding streets had begun dividing into smaller groups.

Many of the people who had no intention of travelling had claimed benches along the seawalls or settled directly upon the paving stones, while others crowded around food stalls beneath striped awnings, purchasing skewers of roasted shellfish, cups of iced fruit and translucent sweets shaped like miniature ships.

The sight drew Gloria's attention back across the docks, where hundreds of conversations mingled with music and the laughter of children climbing upon their parents for a better view, and she found herself marvelling again at how thoroughly the living city surpassed the place she remembered from DDO. Ural had always been beautiful, yet its festivals had once consisted of repeating animations, the same old lines of dialogue and crowds that vanished the moment a player traveled far enough away.

The crowd thinned most noticeably across the centre of the court, leaving a wide stretch of paving stones open beneath the mountainous slime, and Gloria understood that they had reached the area from which passengers boarded. She reached into her robes, withdrew the second ticket and offered it to Iris, who accepted the strange object with both hands before examining its thick white surface and the large pale-blue button protruding from its centre.

"Have you travelled aboard the Katamaran before?" Gloria asked, adjusting the ring upon her finger as Iris turned the ticket over in search of writing or some hidden instruction.

"I have not, although I once watched several people board from a considerable distance," Iris replied, shifting the satchel until its strap lay securely across her shoulder.

"They disappeared so quickly that I could not see precisely what happened to them, but I assume pressing this button signals that we are prepared to enter."

"That is correct, although you should secure everything you are carrying before activating it," Gloria advised, recalling one particularly amusing piece of lore.

"The boarding process is reputed to surprise those experiencing it for the first time." Iris immediately tightened the strap across her chest, wrapped one arm around the satchel and placed her thumb over the button.

"I believe everything is secure, Lady Gloria, so should I press it now?" Gloria placed her thumb over her own button and smiled.

"At once, Iris, for I have waited quite long enough to experience this for myself." They pressed the buttons almost simultaneously, producing a soft chime from within each ticket that faded without any further response, and after several moments Iris glanced from the object to Gloria before beginning, "Lady Gloria, I believe I may have—" Before Iris could finish, the air above them roared, and two enormous tendrils of blue slime shot down from the titan of gel directly toward them.

The descending tendrils struck with enough speed to crack the air, causing Iris to release a shriek as one flattened around her waist and enclosed most of her torso, while the second curled securely around Gloria's body. The paving stones vanished beneath their feet an instant later as both appendages recoiled toward the Katamaran, carrying them skyward so quickly that Iris's crimson hair streamed above her head and her legs continued running against empty air.

"Lady Gloria!" she cried as the docks fell away beneath them.

"You said it would be surprising; you neglected to mention that the sky would reach down and abduct us!"

"I advised you to hold tightly to your possessions, and you have done so admirably," Gloria called back, preserving an impressive degree of composure even as the sudden ascent pressed her robes against her body and sent an exhilarating rush through her stomach. Their departure had drawn reactions throughout the boarding court, where several children leapt from their seats, waved both arms and cheered as the tendrils carried the two women upward.

Experienced travelers barely interrupted their meals, although one elderly woman glanced up from a bowl of steaming noodles and laughed when she saw Iris kicking helplessly, while a dock attendant cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Hold the bag against your chest!" several seconds after the advice could have served any purpose.

"Echidna finds the child's screaming excessive," the crimson ring observed as their ascent continued, her voice remaining perfectly calm despite the wind rushing around them.

"You are currently jewelery, Lady Echidna, so your opinion regarding the experience carries very little weight!" Iris replied.

"Lady Gloria, I apologize for raising my voice, but I would greatly appreciate knowing whether this creature has ever dropped anyone!"

"Not according to anything I have read," Gloria assured her, glancing down at the city shrinking beneath them.

"Although I imagine falling from this height would be quite painful."

"That does absolutely nothing to reassure me, Lady Gloria!" Iris cried, her face gradually turning green. Their ascent began to slow, allowing Ural to spread beneath them in a vast sprawl of red roofs.

As the tendrils carried them around the mountainous slime, the vessel travelling behind it finally came fully into view, and although the ship was enormous in its own right, with several broad decks rising above the water and enough space to hold thousands of passengers, the blue colossus ahead reduced it to the appearance of a toy being pulled through a bathtub.

The tendrils stretched back toward the ship and began lowering them with far greater care than they had shown during the ascent, carrying both women above the upper deck while sailors directed newly arriving passengers away from the landing area. Iris ceased struggling once she saw people moving safely beneath them, whereas Gloria watched the deck rising toward her feet with disappointment.

'Already?' Her boots settled gently upon the deck, and the slime loosened around her before withdrawing with a wet slurp that left several strands clinging to her robes. Gloria watched the tendril retreat toward the creature, then turned to Iris with a satisfied smile.

"Well, even if the experience lasted considerably less time than I would have preferred, I found it thoroughly enjoyable; would you not agree, Iris?" The Archer offered no answer, having fallen to her knees the instant the slime released her, and the green tint that had entered her face during the ascent had deepened into a thoroughly unhealthy shade. Gloria stepped closer and tilted her head, puzzled by how severely the brief journey appeared to have affected her.

"What has happened to you?"

"N-Nothing, Lady Gloria," Iris managed, staring rigidly at the deck as though lifting her head might prove disastrous.

"I simply cannot endure the feeling of anything slimy touching me."

"That is useful information," Gloria replied, at which point she noticed a heavy lump of blue gel tangled among Iris's hair.

"In that case, you should probably remove the rather large piece still attached to you." Iris went perfectly still.

"The what?"

"Remain calm, for I shall remove it," Gloria assured her as she crouched and carefully pinched the offending mass, although the slime proved far more elastic than expected and stretched nearly the length of Iris's arm before finally tearing. Gloria retained one half between her fingers, while the other snapped back and landed across Iris with a moist slap, spreading over her.

Whatever green remained in Iris's complexion disappeared, leaving her deathly pale as she rose without a word and staggered toward the nearest railing. A sailor saw her coming and quickly moved aside, giving her an unobstructed path to lean over the edge before she began vomiting her soul out.