The magnificent sea of clouds stretched endlessly into the distance, bright sunlight glimmering brilliantly across its surface, almost painfully dazzling. Beneath his feet, the anti-gravity flying fortress sailed through the cloud sea like a beast breaking waves, while immense formations of escort fortresses moved through the surrounding mist, appearing and vanishing like colossal whales that could swallow the sky. This was not Gawain's first time aboard the Dawn of the Mortal World, but no matter how many times he boarded this Sky Fortress, the breathtaking sight still filled him with wonder and fascination.
Standing at the edge of the Dawn of the Mortal World's upper deck, Gawain took a deep breath as the high-altitude currents, filtered and weakened by the shields, brushed harmlessly past him as a gentle breeze. Only then did he draw his gaze away from the cloud sea and look down at the vast land that appeared and disappeared through the gaps in the clouds. He saw the endless frozen mountain ranges of the northern border slowly passing beneath the cloud cover, while the distant coastline had already come into clear view. Northport glittered like a gem set between the strait and the mountains.
"We're about to pass Northport," he said softly. "If the weather stays clear, we should see the edge of Violet Island in another few dozen minutes at most."
"This thing is really fast!" Amber's voice came from the air beside him. "I've always had this illusion that something as huge as the Dawn of the Mortal World had to move clumsily. Like, when it floated through the sky, it ought to inch along really slowly..."
"Strictly speaking, the Dawn of the Mortal World's maneuverability is definitely terrible. If you made it chase Dragon Rider Aircraft in tight turns, it'd get left so far