Gloomvale Descends from the Heavens (8000, Big Chapter, Please Vote)

The Shadebloom airship crossed the northern mountain route of the Seven Cities Alliance, emerging from the planet's shadow and sailing toward the dawn rising before it.

Crystal-blue from end to end, like a dazzling gem, the Shadebloom was one of the few high-speed airships on Terra capable of steadily ascending into orbital space. Its prototype had come from the anti-gravity spacecraft of the Pre-Epoch Civilization. It had initially been built as an aerial carrier, but because its shields were too limited to withstand the attacks of Fourth Energy Level ascenders, it had been repurposed as the Empire's official diplomatic airship.

Isengard stood on the deck of this imperial gem. Feeling the thin air at such altitude and looking down at the mountains and cities scattered beneath the airship like specks, his thoughts were somewhat complicated.

He knew his friend Ian's dream, and he knew that Ian wanted to go Above the High Heavens... He had developed his territory, built industry, and established an entire alchemical industrial park all to construct an airship like this one... perhaps an even stronger airship.

But in the end, it was all the same. This technology, this line of thought, had long existed upon this land. It simply had not been valued because it held no meaning to anyone.

At the root of it all, what exactly lay among the stars that was worth giving everything to explore?

When people were still busy slaughtering one another on the ground, hating one another, scorning one another, what could reaching the High Heavens prove?

If one merely wanted to display one's strength, then wouldn't becoming a Fifth Energy Level powerhouse be enough?

In truth, he understood far more than anyone imagined.

Ian had once told him that without the heavens of Star-Prison, the black sky would be