[Astral realm]
Standing at the helm of their starweaver, Darganth had his arms crossed behind his back as they flew toward the massive realm fragment that dominated the entire section of the astral it was in. Surpassing even the nearby universes' outer size, the enormous rock that had undoubtedly once been a planet, or maybe even multiple based on its size, stood as the unmoving center of all universes that currently floated in the region.
As such, even from a distance the many starweavers and almost uncountable number of Realmships that entered and left were visible as swarms of vessels that spread out onto their respective path into the unknown of the astral realm or toward one of the well over a hundred universes with inhabitants capable of astral travel that were in the region of the astral realm realm fragment was in.
Though while the sight of this made Darganth nostalgic as his gaze lingered on the at least tens of thousands of ships that surrounded the city, his gaze was soon drawn to the most striking feature of the realm fragment. Furthermore, this feature also gave the realm fragment its name, that being Ouroboros' End, a name that Darganth felt had a rather obvious meaning to anyone who has seen the realm fragment.
Because there, coiled thrice around the massive rock floating in the astral that it had helped name, was the enormous skeleton of a snake. For what looks like an endless distance at first glance, it stretches across the realm fragment, its body occasionally vanishing beneath the rock surface or rising into a hump that reaches hundreds of meters away from the surface.
Though upon a closer look, the limits of its size quickly became apparent. Resting on one of the mountainous protrusions that dotted the surface, the head presented an imposing sight that towered at the highest point of the realm fragment's surface. Meanwhile, tens if not hundreds of thousands of kilometers further down its body rested the tip of its tail, with it being curled around a second, far smaller planetoid, which it kept connected to the greater realm fragment.
"What an impressive beast." Neandra murmured at his side as she let her eyes feast on the sight as well.
"Certainly. Though keep in mind that it likely was a world serpent or one of their lesser relatives, and they are always larger than one would expect for a creature of their power. And this one probably wasn't an ascendant like you, considering how it seemed to have died." Darganth said.
Nodding, Neandra could only imagine how such a death could happen. With no wounds or any signs of a fight on the skeleton, it was clear that the beast had starved to death, something that was exceedingly difficult for a mana user. Likely, it fully consumed everything in the universe that had once been in the realm fragment's place but never managed to ascend afterward, condemning it to a slow death in solitude before its body was dragged into the astral when the universe broke apart at some point.
"Though I wonder how this became such a hub of activity, living beneath a skeleton doesn't sound like a particularly inviting prospect to me." Allaire said into the pause that followed Darganth's words.
"Convenience. Realm fragments this large aren't easy to come by, so the people probably just took what they could get." Darganth answered her.
"However they came here, they did create something quite impressive." Serania interjected, her eyes trailing across the broken remains of a planet before them.
With the starweaver having drawn closer during their conversation, they could now start to make out the outlines of structures on the surface. Built not just onto the broken planet's surface but also on the legendary beast's skeletal remains, the country-sized city stretched across nearly a fourth of the surface like a spiderweb.
At first only appearing as differently colored areas that stood out compared to the mostly green or stone-gray spots that filled the gaps in between civilization, soon the first of a handful of massive landmark buildings became discernible in the city. Of those, the most prominent was the main port, a truly gigantic building from which a sizable portion of the vessels that left the realm fragment were coming.
Built around a steep crater that marred the planet's surface, the ring-shaped building serviced all manner of ships. At its center, just over a dozen large realmships, realm fragments that were fitted with a controlled propulsion method that served in a similar role as and were the main alternative to starweavers, hovered in the crater. Positioned near either the walls or the part of the skeleton that hung across the crater, they further obscured the already dark interior of the hole, with the singular larger opening in between them not leaving enough space to look much further down, making it impossible to tell how deep the hole was and whether more realmships were parked inside.
Around these gigantic vessels, starweavers and smaller realmships were meanwhile docked in the shipping hall that formed the innermost ring of the building. Arcs of at times over a hundred meters across formed giant entrances for these vessels to pass through, with massive metal gates sealing the occupied halls shut or standing open to signal a still available spot.
Among the opened doors, some had water flowing out of them and cascading down into the crater, marking them as landing spots reserved for starweavers. Though they could theoretically also use the halls designed for realmships, even if it was rarely necessary and possible in practice as the latter type of vessel was far more numerous, the water-filled anchorage allowed them to deactivate their anti-gravity enchantment without risking damage to their hull by landing on solid ground.
This structure was then surrounded by a water canal that branched off the lone river that was visible on the world's surface. Encircling the building around the crater with some distance in between, this waterway housed starweavers, some of which were too large for the anchoring halls, while the plains on the inward-lying side of its riverbank were filled with even more realmships.
Though with no central authority coordinating approach and departure for this massive harbor complex, the air above was pure chaos. Starweavers and realmships alike cut through the air with little care for smaller vessels, causing shields to spark every few minutes when two ships scraped against each other.
Arriving at the edge of this turmoil a short while later, Vorthos brought their starweaver to a standstill.
"What a mess." Allaire commented at the sight.
"And I thought our ship was large." Serania said before adding with a tone that dripped of sarcasm, "This will be a fun to fly through."
And while most of their expressions twisted in a frown at the prospect, Jennia's thoughts went into a different, more chaotic direction, "Hey Yldra, how would it sound to try and navigate through that traffic in our full forms?"
"Airborne parkour, I like it." The dragoness commented in response, a grin flashing over her lips.
This short exchange was followed by silence as the entire group around Darganth turned toward the two with varying reactions. Softly shaking their heads with a smirk, Darganth and Neandra found themselves in a weird middle-ground between being intrigued by the idea and wanting to shut it down before they could follow through with it. Allaire, Venrie, and Serania on the other hand only stared at the two women with questioning looks, while Sarkia had buried her head in her palms with a groan.
"My words will probably fall on deaf ears, again, but please don't." Sarkia said.
"Don't worry, it's safe. Well, should by anyways, otherwise you would also try to stop me, right darling?" She asked in a playful tone.
Chuckling at her antics, Darganth surprisingly wasn't entirely sure in his answer, "Probably. Yldra, you will definitely come out on top in a collision with most starweavers, though I'm less sure with realmships. But they tend to be slower, so that won't be much of a problem. What I would worry about are their weapons, they won't be weakened by the astral here, and I don't know what the rules for firing are here, nor how willing the people might be to break them."
"Fine." Jennia said before turning to Yldra, "Let's give it a few days to get a feel for this place. And maybe start with a smaller port."
Leaving them to their plan to cause trouble, Darganth turned his attention back to their approach. Still not finding an opening he was confident a relatively inexperienced pilot like Vorthos could exploit, his contemplation was interrupted when he suddenly gained a spark of inspiration from overhearing Jennia and Yldra's conversation.
"Neandra, I'd say your chances against the vessels here are meanwhile quite good, or?" He asked with a sly grin.
"Of course, why do you-ohhh." Abruptly switching her tone mid-sentence, the former beast empress realized what he was implying.
"I'd say even my presence is enough to clear us a path, or do you want to send a message?" She asked, clearly amused by the idea.
"They aren't blocking us out of malice, so it'll be enough to put some fear into them. Though you should probably also hide the celestial mana in your presence. There are only three ascendants here, and I doubt they'd like more competition." Darganth said.
"Then let's hope that this doesn't cause enough of a commotion to get one of them to personally take a look." Neandra said as she took two steps forward, coming to a stop directly behind the railing.
Without further fanfare, she then straightened her back and unleashed her presence. Spreading as a focused wave that came barreling through the airspace above the dock, its concentrated power pushed back the first three vessels it slammed into as it cut deep into the crowd of ships.
Immediately, pandemonium broke out around those three. While Neandra's presence still swept across dozens of vessels each second, with shields sparking under the strain and hulls shaking from the impact, even unaffected ships flared with mana as their captains pushed their ships' propulsion to the limit.
Though confused, even just what little of the pressure that seeped through their vessel's shields was enough to make them abandon all hesitation and act on instinct. Often needing all their strength to just keep themselves on their feet, they did their utmost to find the quickest path out of the affected area.
As such, it didn't take long before two waves of motion cascaded through the crowd shortly after another. Being not just the faster but also the more agile type of vessel, the first one was made up almost exclusively by starweavers, their sails shifting to quickly weave through the more sluggish ships. Though it didn't take long before the realmships and another few starweavers followed their example, resulting in a total of two or three hundred ships clearing an ever so slightly expanding approach path that blocked almost half of the shipping hall at ground level.
"Let's go, we don't want to hold up business for too long." Darganth called out, his voice echoing across the deck and signaling Vorthos, whose eyes were glued to the clear path in astonishment over the power Neandra had just shown, to continue this last bit of the journey to Ouroboros' End.
Moments later, their ship thus set off again, with a shimmer rippling across the wing like sails that stretched sideways from the hull as they once again propelled the vessel forward. Ignoring the few vessels that were still scattered across their path, their captains likely having been stunned into unconsciousness by Neandra's presence, the dragon-hydra controlled their starweaver to fly through the opening under the confused, fearful, and angry gazes that were directed their way from the surrounding ships.
Soon, the starweaver was approaching one of the medium-sized gates. Carefully maneuvering it into position in front of the open hangar, by the time Vorthos guided the ship into the hangar, the airspace behind them had already devolved back into chaos.
Once the gates closed behind them, the starweaver gently settled down on the artificial sea that filled much of the hall. With an empty stone surface opposite the gate and a wooden pier along both walls on the side as the only pieces of solid ground in the hall, their vessel had more than enough space for this.
Though as the starweavers' barriers around him powered down for the first time in weeks, Darganth's attention was drawn to the dry land as the door leading to their hall abruptly swung open.
Marching inside without invitation, about a dozen men and women flooded onto their dock at a brisk pace. Gathering in a wide formation mere meters from the exit, clearly intending to block it, they turned their sight upward toward the deck.
Meeting the eyes of the two among them whose gaze narrowed in on him, Darganth held eye contact as he unfurled his wings and floated toward the solid ground. Landing about a dozen meters away from the other group, shortly followed by Neandra arriving at his side, he silently studied them as he waited for them to explain their presence there.