Chapter 217 Above the Sea of Clouds
As dusk fell and darkness began to set in, the Goliath broke through the sea of clouds and reached an altitude of nearly a thousand meters above the ground.
The night sky overhead was a deep, dark blue, with a boundless sea of clouds stretching out below.
Inside the Bridge, Sheeta and Pazu, having had their fill of playing, were summoned by Dola's men.
Pazu looked around the Bridge, wishing he could pilot the steel airship himself; Sheeta, on the other hand, held the Levitation Stone Necklace in her hands and walked to the navigation pointer located at the front of the Bridge.
More than a month has passed, Volucite has regained its deep blue color, indicating that it has recovered some energy. It is unknown how the stone recharges.
The girl's eyes were filled with hesitation as she turned to look at Mu En for help.
" Mr. Tree —do we really need to recite that spell? My mother did teach me various spells, but I've never tried them, and I don't know if they're actually effective."
The golden wooden avatar remained seated in its command position and nodded.
"This is the only way to get to Laputa. You must also want to see what kind of place your ancestors lived, right?"
Pazu walked up to Sheeta, still wearing that somewhat worn leather jacket, with a bulging multi-tool bag slung across his waist.
"Don't be afraid, Sheeta, Mr. Tree and I are here. No matter what happens, we'll be with you."
Without further hesitation, Sheeta took a deep breath, held the Volucite in her hands to her chest, and closed her eyes.
"Lidi Ladobarida Ulusu Arialos Balu Nedoril."
She recited the ancient secret of Laputa word by word, softly but firmly. Its meaning was "[Awaken the light, help me]", a spell to be used when encountering difficulties.
But Sheeta never imagined that it was a real spell with power; she just thought it was a story her mother made up to comfort her.
Mu En did remember the original plot; this was indeed the spell to activate the Levitation Stone Necklace, and it did indeed help Sheeta "solve the problem." After the ancient robot hidden at the bottom of the Tidis Fortress was awakened, it almost destroyed the entire fortress, giving Dola's Gang the opportunity to rescue Sheeta.
What puzzled Mu En was why this spell would activate the function of pointing to the Castle in the Sky. Was it to allow the Laputa in distress to return to that city for help?
Given that the Spirit of the Volucite wouldn't answer overly complex questions, even now that he had personally come to this world, his doubts remained unresolved.
After the incantation was finished, Sheeta opened her eyes and found that the stone in her hand did not react much, looking bewildered.
"It seems like nothing has changed?"
As soon as she finished speaking, a blue light suddenly burst forth from Sheeta's hand.
Light surged from the Volucite like flowing water, transforming into several streams of light that struck Sheeta.
A sudden gust of wind swept through the supposedly enclosed Bridge, with air currents whistling from who-knows-where, forcing Pazu to hold down her hat, whipping Sheeta's hair back, and even making the portholes vibrate and buzz.
The pilots and soldiers were startled and kept turning around, wondering what the deity was doing. They began frantically checking the instrument panel, thinking that something had gone wrong with the giant ship beneath their feet.
"Keep it down." Mu En shook his head and sent a thought into the Volucite.
It's just giving directions, is it really that big of a deal?
The unrestrained blue light immediately and obediently restrained all its divine power, transforming into a quiet and orderly beam of light that emerged from Sheeta's hand, pierced through the porthole glass, and pointed straight towards a distant direction.
Mu En could see that this "beam of light" was not a straight line—it had a slight downward curve, indicating that Laputa was beyond the horizon, and that this stone, which could only be inherited by the Laputa royal family, was more intelligent than he had imagined.
Sheeta was dumbfounded.
The spells her mother taught her, the words she heard as bedtime stories when she was little, were all true, and the Erdtree knew this even better than she, the inheritor.
"As expected of Dongfang—Sir, you are truly a prophet!"
Looking at the beam of light projected by the necklace on the compass, and then at the direction indicated by the pointer, Dola was full of praise for Mu En's order to choose the east from the very beginning.
Ignoring Dola's flattery, Mu En propped his head up with one hand on the armrest, pretending to be deep in thought, calculating the time in his mind.
In the original story, Dola's Gang rescued Sheeta from the Tidis Fortress at dawn, then rushed back to Valley Town to board the Tiger Moth, and arrived at the " Dragon's Nest " the next morning, only to be destroyed by the Goliath.
Based on the online timeline, the journey from departure to arrival took no more than twenty-four hours.
Even if the Goliath's cruising speed is slightly faster than the Tiger Moth's, Laputa shouldn't be too far from the eastern coast of the Northern Kingdom.
The problem is that, according to information revealed in the original work, Laputa is a moving city that drifts around the world, causing the Volucite veins to shimmer wherever it goes.
Now, it's been a month since the original timeline, and who knows where Laputa has gone.
This is likely to be a long journey.
"Full speed ahead, while increasing altitude, try not to attract the attention of the United Kingdom."
In the end, Mu En still gave the order. What did it matter how far away it was?
With the supplies Goliath carried, completing a circumnavigation of the globe would not have been a problem.
"Yes, sir!" Dola snapped to attention and turned to walk toward the captain's chair.
"Pass down the order: full speed ahead, simultaneously climb to an altitude of 5,000 meters, and maintain silent navigation!"
A series of responses and orders rang out from the Bridge.
Mu En withdrew her gaze and continued to ponder.
With such a long journey, let's just hope nothing unexpected happens.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the western Pacific Ocean.
The blue beam of light shining from the Goliath's porthole pierced straight through the clouds, crossed the sea, and stretched thousands of kilometers towards the distant horizon.
Along its path, there happened to be a fairly large airship flying westward.
The airship's shape was almost identical to the passenger airship Muska had traveled on when he came to the south: a streamlined hull, stabilizing wings on both sides, and a large gondola embedded in the gasbag below.
Unlike other airships, the airship's skin and paint scheme feature a luxurious and majestic combination of black, red, and gold, making it particularly eye-catching under searchlights.
The side of the pod is adorned with a large shield-shaped emblem, the main body of which is crossed, while the lower half resembles a red pair of pliers and a wrench in the shape of a lightning bolt.
Above the emblem, a line of small, gold-embossed lettering Winky under the spotlight. "O'Hara Conglomerate."
Inside the luxurious cabin, a blonde girl dressed like a doll watched the thin blue line passing by with a curious expression.
"What is this thing?"