Ryn sat alone in the quiet room, the only light a thin orange line slipping through the curtains. His sword lay across his lap, half-polished, half-forgotten. His mind wasn't in the present.

It was eight years ago. Or eight years ahead. Regression made memories confusing like that.

He exhaled slowly.

Rora ArcLain. The world's strongest swordsman.

The one who had done most of the damage to that behemoth—damage that allowed Ryn to land the killing blow before he bled out.

People called him a "genius." A "swordsman touched by the heavens." A "once-in-a-century talent."

Ryn remembered him differently.

Rora slumped over a tavern counter, three bottles deep, clothes torn, smelling like smoke and monster blood. His hair was closer to a bird's nest or a trash can depending on who asked.

"Kid," Rora had slurred, pointing at him with the confidence of a prophet and the accuracy of someone who couldn't see straight.

"You ever been to the sky?"

Ryn's past self blinked. "What?"

"The sky, kid!" Rora slapped the table hard enough to wake up two unconscious men next to him.

"Floating island! Hated that place. Nasty monsters."

Ryn had thought he was hallucinating. Or bragging, probably both to be honest.

But then Rora leaned in, breath heavy with alcohol, and whispered:

"Got myself a nice technique there. Damn near died. Worth it though."

Ryn ignored him, the mumblings of a drunk man shouldn't be taken seriously. However, a part of him was curious—of how the world's strongest swordsman came to be.

A sharp knock broke through the memory.

Ryn blinked, the tavern scene dissolving as the present snapped back around him. He straightened as the door creaked open.

Jay stepped in, cloak on, gear strapped, looking like he'd rehearsed this moment in the mirror and still didn't feel ready.

"Uh… morning," Jay said, voice tight. "We're actually leaving now, right?"

Ryn nodded. "We are."

Jay took this as terrible news.

He hovered in the doorway a moment longer before clearing his throat.

"S-So… is Sera really not coming?"

"She left with Maria at dawn," Ryn replied, fastening his cloak. "They're heading to the capital. Someone has to deliver the Cult intel."

Jay's eyes widened. "Just the two of them? To Raias?"

"They'll be fine. Maria's with her."

Jay opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again.

"Okay, but—so that means it's really just us going to the… floating island thing?"

"Correct."

Jay made a soft dying noise.

After a moment, he gathered enough courage to ask,

"Ryn… how exactly do you even know about this place? I've never heard anyone mention a floating island in my entire life."

Ryn didn't blink.

"A legendary swordsman from a few generations ago wrote about it," he said evenly. "Rora Arclain. Ever heard the name?"

Jay shook his head. "No…"

"Most people haven't. His works aren't widely published. Mostly because he was a bit…eccentric."

Jay squinted, suspicion rising.

"So you just… happened to read about him?"

Ryn shrugged. "I like reading obscure histories."

Jay blinked. "…You read?"

Ryn ignored that. "Anyway, he wrote about the Isle."

Jay stared at him, still half-convinced Ryn was messing with him.

"So you're telling me," Jay said slowly, "that this entire trip is based on the writings of a dead swordsman nobody's ever heard of?"

"I don't know about dead," Ryn muttered. "He's probably alive right now somewhere…"

Jay froze. "…What?"

"Never mind." Ryn stood, brushing off his cloak.

"Relax, it'll be fine. If it exists, great. If not, we'll just go to Raias."

Jay stared at him like that was the most horrifying fallback plan imaginable.

Ryn tightened the straps on his pack and headed for the door. "Come on. We need to get moving if we want to reach the ruins by noon."

Jay hurried after him. "Right, right—wait. Ruins? Where exactly are these ruins again?"

"Southeast of Lumen."

"That's the sea."

"Correct."

Jay stopped dead in his tracks. "Ryn…don't tell me that was why you asked me to make those Underwater Breathing Pills?"

Ryn grinned mischievously, "It was a good introduction to Alchemy, was it not?"

Jay stared at him with the hollow eyes of a man reconsidering every life choice that led him here.

"I thought you wanted them for… I don't know, a hypothetical situation! I didn't think you meant actually going underwater!"

"Hm." Ryn tilted his head. "Why would I need hypothetical pills?"

Jay opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. No sound came out.

Ryn patted his shoulder. "Relax. They worked during testing."

Jay blinked. "You tested them?"

"On a mouse."

"…A mouse."

"It lived," Ryn said.

"How long?"

"A minute."

Jay made a strangled noise. "Ryn—!"

"I'm joking," Ryn said flatly. "The mouse is still alive. And free. Probably happier than both of us."

Jay slumped forward, defeated.

"So we really have to go underwater."

"We do."

"And if the pills fail?"

Ryn shrugged. "Then we drown."

Jay inhaled sharply through his nose.

"I hate this plan."

***

The walk didn't take long.

By the time the sun tipped past its morning height, the dirt path gave way to pale sand and the endless stretch of the southeastern coast. Waves rolled in with a slow, steady rhythm, the breeze carrying the sharp scent of salt.

There wasn't a single soul in sight.

Jay looked around uneasily. "It's… empty."

"It's unclaimed land," Ryn said, stepping onto the sand. His boots left clean depressions in the powdery surface.

He stopped a few steps ahead, scanning the horizon. The ocean glittered beneath the sun, calm and deceptively ordinary.

Nothing about it suggested ancient ruins, underwater pedestals, or century-old mechanisms capable of shooting people into the sky.

Jay followed his gaze. "So, uh… where's the entrance?"

Ryn pointed at the water.

Jay's stomach dropped. "…In there?"

"In there."

Jay stared at the sea like it had personally insulted him.

Ryn crouched, setting down his pack. "We should take the pills here. I don't want to waste time once we're in the water."

With utmost confidence, he popped a pill into his mouth and jumped into the water.

"Hey! Ryn—wait!" Jay exclaimed, but he was already gone.

Finally free from hesitation, Jay ate the pill and followed after him.

The world muted the moment Ryn slipped beneath the surface. Sound vanished into a dull, rhythmic thrum. Water shifted, pressure settling against his ears while the distant pulse of currents moved around him.

The pill's effect hit immediately: the water flowed into his lungs without resistance, cold but strangely clean. Almost refreshing.

Good. Jay's alchemy hadn't killed him. Ryn was right about him after all.

He floated a few meters below the surface, cloak drifting lazily, and glanced back just in time to see Jay splash downward in a frantic mess of limbs.

A second later, Jay's eyes went wide as he realized he could breathe.

Ryn raised an eyebrow. Jay responded with a shaky thumbs-up.

Good enough.

Ryn pointed downward.

Jay got the message and followed him.

The water grew darker as they swam deeper into the depths. Even sunlight struggled to pierce through layers of water, let alone them.

However, as they got closer, Ryn spotted something.

Tilted stone pillars, swallowed by corals, sat on the sea floor. It was chipped and cracked everywhere, a reminder of its age—of being buried long before Lumen ever stood.

Exactly where Rora's drunken rambling had indicated.

Ryn angled his body and began to descend, feeling Jay fall into position behind him. The deeper they went, the clearer the structure became.

It was a temple of some sort, collapsed inward but still recognizable. They saw what looked like an entrance underneath all the collapsed rubble and decided to enter.

Ryn braced for more water. He was so wrong, as the moment they crossed the threshold, his foot met solid ground as he pitched forward and slammed into the temple floor.

Air rushed from his lungs in a cough.

Jay, predictably, repeated the exact same mistake five seconds later.

Ryn pushed himself up, blinking.

The room was bone dry. A shimmering film clung to the doorway behind them, visibly keeping the seawater at bay.

There was some kind of protective barrier that kept the water out.

Ryn exhaled slowly.

"…Strange."

The interior was half-collapsed, stone beams jutting at odd angles like broken ribs. Piles of rubble choked most of the hallways, turning the temple into a maze of dead ends and narrow gaps barely wide enough to squeeze through.

Jay stood beside him, dripping seawater onto the dry stone floor. "So… this is it?"

"Part of it," Ryn said.

Most of the temple was lost to time, crushed by centuries of pressure and shifting tides. But a few paths remained open. Enough for them to explore, at least.

Ryn chose the clearest corridor and started forward, the faint echo of their footsteps oddly loud in the stillness.

Jay followed, whispering, "Why is it so quiet…?"

Ryn didn't answer. He didn't know, either.

They moved deeper through the ruins until a faint glimmer caught Ryn's eye—a fractured archway with carvings still intact. Pushing aside a slab of fallen stone, they slipped inside.

What they found was… unexpected.

Rows of stone shelves lined the walls, many collapsed, but some still stood. Most were empty or filled with unrecognizable debris. But scattered across the floor were strange rectangular blocks—crumbling tablets, slabs of etched stone, and remnants of something that might have once been scrolls.

Ryn picked up a half-destroyed tablet. The markings were unfamiliar and definitely not any language used within the continent.

"Ancient," he murmured.

Jay leaned over his shoulder. "You can't read that, right?"

Ryn stared at him plainly, which answered Jay's question.

Jay set down the fragment he was holding with newfound reverence. "So whatever civilization built this place… they really did vanish completely."

Ryn nodded. He skimmed through more debris—nothing useful. Most of the texts were eroded beyond recognition, shattered by the collapse or water damage long before the protective barrier formed.

He managed to find a small drawing, one of a ritual. What looks to be light reflecting on a crystal ball, reflecting the beam onto some sort of mechanism.

There's no way Rora would've figured this out by himself…

Then, from nearby, Jay's voice echoed.

"Ryn! I think I found something!"

He quickly made his way there, tablet still in hand.

The path widened ahead, opening into what seemed like the central hall. Half the ceiling was missing, revealing jagged stone framing a circular chamber.

And there, at its heart—

A perfectly intact stone platform. On its side, a small pedestal with a crystal ball on top, dim and dormant, like it was waiting for something.

Ryn stepped closer, feeling something stir in his chest.

They'd found it.

The Elevator to the Heavens

"So it wasn't just drunken rambling after all…"

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