Sailing the Skies

A roar more deafening than thunder and more terrifying than a mountain collapse echoed between the two worlds. It reverberated repeatedly between the two inverted lands, even dispersing the sea of fire and smoke around Xilantis, piercing the tranquility brought by the Silent Wall, and startling Lucretia's group from their brief rest.

Shirley practically sprang off the ground in an instant. Looking up toward the source of the roar, she cried out, "What the hell exploded?! What was that?!"

"Look up there!" Nina ran to the edge of the Barrier of Protection, straining to look at the inverted desert continent in the sky as she pointed in a direction. "There was a huge explosion over there!"

Shirley looked where Nina was pointing, her eyes gradually widening.

On that inverted continent, she saw a raging storm. Its indistinct clouds swept across the land like a moving wall, while massive flashes flickered within it. Whenever one of those flashes erupted, the storm itself seemed to be briefly dispersed, and a dreadful roar echoed between the two worlds—then the storm re-formed and gathered once more toward a bright blaze.

Amid those repeated bombardments and explosions, matter from the "other world" had already been flung into the space between the two worlds. Countless clouds of sand and dust now floated above Xilantis, drifting chaotically through the gap between the worlds as if weightless, forming rivers of floating sand in the sky and dust clouds of all sizes.

The slow collision between the two worlds had stopped at some unknown point, as if some outside force had forcibly "jammed" the process. Only the unceasing roar remained between heaven and earth, while the matter constantly cast out between the two lands formed ever-larger "clouds."

"We can't stay here any longer," Morris suddenly said. "Something may have