Iver felt that if he had not revealed his affinity with unicorns, Grey had probably intended to have a hippogriff carry him as well.
As the Pope's representative, she was clearly extremely well-known throughout the Eternal Theocracy... Probably far more so than Iver was in Avalon. With her status, taking Iver up ring by ring would only make him famous. And she could tell that Iver was not the sort of person who liked being famous.
That was probably why she had brought three full groups of Pope Guards. On the one hand, "seven" was the Sacred Number of the Silver Crowned Dragon; on the other, this was essentially having the Pope Guards serve as drivers for Iver and his companions.
As they rose straight upward, rainbow-colored radiance spilled from around the unicorn, while golden radiance spilled from around the hippogriffs. As the radiance formed translucent shields that blocked the cold air... Iver did not even feel the chill or impact of the wind rushing toward him.
Before long, their group reached the Thirteenth Ring.
They were already above the clouds. The pure-white clouds were so close that they seemed like a ceiling within reach.
Normally, at this altitude, they should have begun to feel the cold and lack of oxygen.
Yet Iver felt nothing unusual at all—in fact, he felt as though the air had become richer in oxygen.
The moment he set foot on the Thirteenth Ring, Iver clearly sensed an atmosphere and layout completely different from those of the First Ring.
Compared to the sunlight-drenched First Ring, this place had much weaker natural light. But torches had been planted everywhere, illuminating it like a grand library.
The torches burned quietly with deep-red flames, not wavering in the slightest.
It was as if the flames could not sense