It took two more hours, the great creature seemingly changing in size half an hour before Lawrence had exclaimed that they would have to leave it as not to terrify those that lived within or all that near the city, making it halt around one of the chains and leaving in under a hour, the long way once again causing complaints from himself, as if he was trying to improve the mood, something he was failing at quite miserably.
After they had left the great being he had once more stumped the end of his axe's shaft into the ground and the great octopus or whatever that creature was banished, became smaller and smaller, descending into the very veil they had swum through for multiple hours now, the swarm of creatures that had defended them before and even as they had left the great being, consisting of countless beings, of dragons, of wyrm, of flying pigs with dozens of wings even, most following the shrinking being instead of the tyrant also vanishing.
A sigh had escaped his lips as the being had completely vanished, him saying that there were only two islands left before they would arrive, a few hundred miles at most, a day's travel if one walked normally, explaining that there would be a few things they might like to see on the way, mentioning something about automatons and farmers.
Leyk, Avere and the others had been confused by that, but after some time multiple conversations had sprung all around once more, Kehit and Leyk conversing about agriculture in such regards to islands divided by chains, assuming that it would take a long time for things to grow here, perhaps even rarely fit with many islands because of both monsters and, in the case of the wooden world as Leyk and Avere had now both decided to call it, even the very nature of the place fighting against the minds of the farmers.
Avere was trying to get information out of Lawrence, making holes in his story as he asked more and more questions, the entire thing and even parts of the process of creating that indescribably huge thing that could only be described as a world-eater or something of that kind, there being big changes in his personality as he had brought them closer and closer, such as the time he had conversed with the confused Leyk, trying to sound rather philosophical but not bringing any real substance, the same as Leyk in that context.
This whole journey, all of them realized this, not one person had truly trusted each other, they had laughed, they had understood, they had at one point or another suffered as they thought of the other's past, they had felt sadness, they had felt exhilaration, they had been happy, but never once, not even Leyk and Kehit, had they truly thought of each other as all that important, had they truly trusted each other, that was what Lawrence was thinking about as well.
Like this, talking but not really trusting, they continued walking for five hours, coming to the first island that he said they would meet, one filled with countless trees fashioned in orderly rows, bearing plum fruits, round and reddish, some of them still green, glittering in the light of a sun that was not visible through the veil of protection that always surrounded the islands of this place, automatons, ones without a lower side, their backs riddled with clockwork and steam, filled with mana and glows of various colours, mostly in the scheme of copper and gold, a furnace running inside of them, the flame fuelled by the very same one every mage knew to call forth.
These automatons as they were called had been created, or rather, designed, by another forsaken lord called Rekrat, a genius artificer and master of steam, his city being known as the city of progress according to Lawrence, though he also mentioned that in the past years his city had not been doing well because he kept on getting stuck with his expansion, crossing over into the domain of a being known as the naked dragon, a creature whose rank most people did not even dare to estimate, though Lawrence personally seemed to estimate it as a rather powerful tyrant, perhaps even a demigod, but not any more than that, gods being in this place in exorbitant rarity.
They represented most of those that did repetitive jobs in the forsaken realm, at least with those cities in the surrounding few thousand islands, and a few more, it being quite certain that there were far more cities and lords out there that they had simply not been able to contact or find yet.
As Lawrence told them all of these things he had also mentioned the reason for that fact.
The islands were too far apart, aside from the warp gates placed around the cities, such as the golden one, the one of progress in specific, serving as a haven for transportation, the one of nature, though heavily checked at entrance, the one of silver, mostly consisting of people who would not like vampires, and the city despised my most, the priest city who had claimed it to be a simple way to meet others and tell them about the grace of gods, never really having succeeded in that endeavour and using it to buy food for themselves, having quite a lot of debt in most cities.
In truth, though Lawrence did not mention it out of quite obvious reasons, the only reason the priest city was even able to persist into this day and age without being destroyed and taken over by the other forsaken lords is because their city is protected by three total lords, calling themselves the king, the queen, the pope, and perhaps even more, all of them being rather powerful and known for their fanaticism still being full of vigour after having been banished to this realm centuries ago at the very least.
After they had left the islands, the entire and rather great mass of land having been left after two hours of walking at a rather leisurely pace, they stepped onto the chains once more and Lawrence continued to tell them about the forsaken lords, the cities, and many a other thing of this place, a history mainly taken over by peace between the cities because of the sheer distance, not to say there hadn't been a few wars.