William placed Rena down.
"Now what?" she asked. "How are we doing this?"
She had heard him talk about taming a flying beast, but she had no idea how he would actually do it.
"Now we wait for one to co to us, and then I'll ta it," William said. "Do you know if we should pick a certain type of flying beast, or does it not matter?"
The last thing he wanted was to ta a creature too weak to reach the floating islands. Speaking of which, they were still there—visible to both him and Rena, which remained an unsolved mystery.
They didn't have to wait long. The flying beasts were always circling above, and two people standing on top of a tree easily caught their attention.
What flew toward them was… unique.
It was a massive snake with four green wings and two horns. William had never seen anything like it before.
The serpent lunged, fangs bared, but William dodged with ease. Then, it was his turn to act.
Channeling his demonic energy, he sent it toward the creature. As soon as it made contact, the flying snake collapsed onto the tree, writhing. Now ca the hard part—breaking its mind.
William entered the creature's consciousness, forcing it to submit. Smart creatures were always harder to control, and this one resisted. But as he delved deeper into its mind, sothing strange happened.
For a brief mont, he saw images—people in a laboratory, running experints on creatures.
What was that?
The vision disappeared before he could make sense of it, but he had no ti to dwell on it. The flying snake couldn't withstand his power. Its will shattered, and just like that, it beca his.
Rena, who had been watching in awe, finally spoke. "You can really ta it… I wasn't expecting that. But, um… maybe you could ta a better one? I really don't like snakes…"
William had no issue with this one. Maybe it was because of his snake bloodline, but since awakening it, he'd grown fond of them.
"Let's go," he said. "Before more creatures show up."
They climbed onto the flying snake and took off toward the floating islands.
There were dozens of them, scattered high above the jungle. And yet, no one else in the settlent could see them. Why?
William asked Rena if she had any theories.
"I have no idea," she admitted. "I know a few of the others from outside the dungeon. One of them is even from my village, but she doesn't see the islands either."
That only deepened the mystery. What did he and Rena have in common? Could she have a demonic bloodline like him? No, that didn't seem right.
Still, he asked her about it. She shook her head. "I'm from another continent. One you've probably never heard of."
While they flew, William scanned the jungle below, hoping to catch sight of the portal to the next level. Exploring the islands was exciting, but that wasn't their main goal.
Unfortunately, he saw nothing.
What he did see, however, was a flock of mutated birds speeding toward them.
His sharp senses allowed him to gauge their speed, and he quickly realized sothing—the flying snake was faster.
A smirk crossed his lips.
They'd never catch him.
As they approached the first floating island, William braced himself, half-expecting so kind of barrier to prevent their entry. But nothing stopped them. They passed through the air effortlessly, as if the island had always been within reach.
The first thing that caught their eyes was the dense forest covering a large portion of the island. From below, the landmass had seed much smaller, but now that they were here, it stretched out far wider than William had anticipated.
He hesitated for a mont, considering their next move. Should they land and explore on foot, or stay airborne to get a better view? In the end, he chose the latter. They needed to understand the island's layout before diving in blindly.
As the flying snake soared higher, the landscape unfolded beneath them—rolling hills, scattered cliffs, and then, at the very center of the island, sothing unexpected.
A city.
Not a village or ruins, but a massive, well-planned city. Towering stone buildings rose in perfect alignnt, their architecture both intricate and grand. It was unlike anything William had ever seen.
What unsettled him the most, however, was the silence.
The city was pristine. No collapsed structures, no overgrown streets, no signs of decay. It wasn't abandoned ruins reclaid by ti—it was simply… empty.
No people. No movent.
It was as if the entire population had vanished overnight.
"What's this place?" Rena asked, gripping William's shoulder. Her voice carried both awe and unease.
William let out a small laugh, though he couldn't shake the eerie feeling settling in his chest. "Well, I never expected to find floating islands in the first place, so a city on top of one isn't that surprising."
But deep down, he knew sothing was wrong.
A city like this didn't just appear overnight. It required planning, labor, and resources—far beyond what a small group of people could accomplish. If this were anywhere else, William might have assud it belonged to a long-lost civilization, one that had mysteriously vanished.
But inside this dungeon, a place that functioned like a ga? That theory didn't sit right with him.
His thoughts drifted back to the images he had seen while taming the flying snake—the people in the lab, the experints. Could they be connected to this city? Were they from Earth, or was it all just a coincidence?
Could they also be connected to the people he saw inside that mansion? The ones that tried to wipe his mory?
There was only one way to find out.
Dismounting from the flying snake—who continued to slither through the air beside them—William and Rena stepped into the city and began their search. They started with the houses.
At first, it felt like they were making progress, but after exploring five different hos, William realized sothing unsettling.
Every single house was the sa.
Sa layout. Sa furniture. Sa positioning of every object inside. It was as if soone had designed a single ho and then lazily copied and pasted it across the entire city.
The realization sent a chill down his spine.
"This place doesn't feel real," Rena muttered, her voice barely above a whisper.
William nodded. "It's like… a template. Like sothing you'd find in a simulation."
With nothing valuable inside the houses, they moved toward one of the larger buildings near the city center. It stood at least ten stories tall, towering over the surrounding structures.
But before they could step inside, Rena suddenly stopped.
"William, look," she said, pointing toward a stone water fountain in the plaza.
His gaze followed her finger, and for the first ti in a long while, William felt true shock.
Lying on the ground, just beside the fountain, was sothing that had no business being in a place like this.
A cellphone.
Rena tilted her head. "What is this?"
She had never seen anything like it before, but William had. And there was no mistaking it—it wasn't so ancient artifact or magical relic. It was a modern phone.
His hands moved on their own as he picked it up. The screen was black, the battery completely drained, but the design was unmistakable. It was sleek, recent, not much different from the ones back on Earth.
His grip tightened around it.
"What the hell is going on here?" he thought.
"I have no idea what this is," William said, "but let's keep it. It might prove useful in the future."
He slipped the phone into his pocket. It looked intact—no cracks, no visible damage—so maybe there was a chance he could get the battery to work. Could he recharge it using mana or sothing?
Of course, now wasn't the ti to test that theory. He simply kept the phone and continued searching.
After finding it, though, his curiosity about the city—and the dungeon as a whole—only deepened. The more he explored, the stranger everything seed.
The massive building they planned to explore was just as furnished as the houses had been. Inside, they found shops, a library, and other facilities, all eerily well-preserved.
But despite the phone, nothing else in the city looked remotely modern. It was exactly what he would expect from a fantasy setting—stone buildings, wooden furniture, and architecture straight out of an old storybook.
"Maybe we should move to another island?" William asked. "I don't think we'll find anything interesting here."
"That's a good idea," Rena said, then hesitated before adding, "I really don't feel good here."
They were about to leave the building when a scream echoed from outside.
A chill ran down their spines.
It wasn't the scream of a human. It wasn't friendly. It was sothing else—sothing unnatural.
"We need to hide," William said.
Without wasting a second, he grabbed Rena's arm and moved, looking for a place inside that building to hide before whatever that was outside reached them.
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