Cades had been flying for a long time, so much so that he wasn't certain how long.
At some point he had blacked out far above a chain of mountains that had reached far into the skies with their stone crowns and awoke far away, over the ocean.
He would've fallen out of exhaustion but luckily he had been able to make a few breaks on smaller islands and that what he had thought to be the ocean at first had turned out to merely be a gigantic lake that stretched between two mountain chains, the first being the one he had blacked out above and the second appearing a few minutes later.
It seemed like the time he had spent not realizing anything had barely been a few minutes after all.
Throughout the journey he had been able to make various breaks, in clearings residing within ancient forests, on ancient islands that were probably known only to pirates and so many other places.
Overall the worst part about travelling for such a long time, for an ehetrian, was the boredom that came from seeing nothing but nature, albeit beautiful scenery, for days on end, aside from, maybe, the soreness coming from the endlessly repeated move sets of their wings.
After some time people had started following him but they had quickly given up, not being able to keep up with the stamina or sheer speed of a being at the peak of the lord rank, or maybe even shortly before ascending once more and finally giving a name to the next rank, at least in his native language, if it didn't already have one, which Cades wasn't too sure about.
The few followers had barely been able to keep up with him for a few hours and then they finally stopped.
And just a few days after that had happened Cades had flown over another chain of mountains, taller than any he had seen before, so tall that the clouds seemed to barely reach the middle of its shaft, so tall that he had to be careful and hold his breath as he was flying above them because of the incredibly thin air, although that wasn't really a difficult task for him.
Finally, after the mountains there was a small beach of round gravel at their feet and after that followed the infinitely extending ocean.
Cades had taken a break before flying once more, recuperating as much of his power as possible and even creating a few ujos to use as he was flying and flying and flying towards the goal that he might never be able to reach.
After some time he had already build up a small campfire at which he had rested for a few days before he had begun flying once more, now without a break, towards the elusive, second continent.
Over the first few days his exhaustion was barely noticeable, the boredom on the other end was never-ending.
All he saw was a blue layer of water, a eternally extending rift of nothingness.
From time to time he saw a few sea creature swimming beneath him, a few birds flying above him but Cades continued on towards his goal, the goal that would hopefully free him from this torment.
Though, after some time Cades began to question whether or not this continent really existed.
Had the crow tricked him ?
Had the crow been tricked ?
Would he even be able to reach the next continent ?
But at some time that which had previously seemed to be an endless extend of a dark blue veil towards the horizon, only separated by the sky and the feint, brightly shining line of the sun had begun dissolving and he finally saw a landmass.
Cades had no idea whether this landmass was the continent that he was searching for, maybe it was a illusion appearing because of the exhausted and completely bored state of his mind, his earnest wish to finally reach the salvation of a solid ground under his feet once more and hopefully go "home", if that even existed right now.
He had estimated that the time it would take to reach the elusive land mass was still at least a few days, though Cades was still, undoubtedly, looking forward to finally resting his sore wings and taking a break from the constant flight.
But as he was thinking this, hopeful for the relieve, he was suddenly grabbed by something that was exuding a horrendous, fishy smell and pulsating, covered in a kind of dark gooey slime that reeked even worse if that was even possible.
That which had grabbed him was a tentacle, covered in a wrinkled dishevelled greyish skin and provided with dozens of neatly ordered suction cups which seemed to all have a dark, onyx marble in their middle, surrounded by a circle of teeth to rip apart its prey.
The grab that this fleshy monstrosity which seemed to be a gigantic tentacle belonging to a nest of such tentacles consisting of dozens of such monstrous, disgusting limbs with one gigantic, red eye in the middle, surrounded by teeth similarly to the suction cups.
It was constantly pulsating with its fleshy muscles, if that was how one would call it, but it wasn't too powerful for Cades to face.
It was incredible that he had just randomly met a lord-rank in the middle of the ocean after not seeing any monsters in such a long time but it wouldn't be able to kill him, he was certain of that.
And, truly, just as he was finished with the quick analysis of his new, probably short-lived, foe, that very same being send a few of its tentacles, seven in number to be exact, not that it truly mattered in this case, towards Cades who quickly used the momentum he generated for his staff by twirling around in the air and freeing himself to knock them off, turning them into more of a bloody mess.
Cades thought that it might be over in just a single attack but the tentacles regenerated at an incredible pace that put even the wyrm to shame.
And if that hadn't been enough Cades was feeling true fear for the first time in a long while as he realized something horrible.
The goo that resided on the tentacles of the ancient monster was poisonous.