In an entirely white silent and eerie yet somehow calming and relaxing space which seem to have no end or beginning, A young man stood with a frown adorning his face showing his bewilderment and uncertain thoughts. He wasn't standing on anything, just floating silently. His lustrous, long and Deep black hair flowed silently down his shoulder and back. They had somehow come undone earlier. If not for his attire, sporting a loose Black trouser with white stripes and a white T-shirt with a pink blue fox frinted on it, he could be called an immortal cosplayer with a aloof attitude.
Right now, Raven was still figuering out the thing that just happened and his next course of action.
" I am sure the misty continent was here. It couldn't be my imagination. I have that much trust in myself!"
"However, there's no point worrying about it now. Since it has vanished, it has vanished. Better focus on whats in front of me."
With that, Raven turned his attention to the smaller floating palace. Since he was already planning to explore this place, better explore this island first.
Although Raven called it small, it was in context with that bigger island. In general, the golden island was still super big with sprawling palace complexes adorned with gold and silver and all kinds of sparkling gems. There were also small lakes with trees and flower beds surrounding them in this island. The architectural style of the buildings were unique to say the least. At first glance, one could call it befitting of god's majesty. As if the high and mighty gods themselves lives here once.
Once because, although this all appeared grand and majestic, it was equally desolate and lonely. There was not even the usual chirping of insects, let alone animals or ay sentient being.
There was no sun or moon or any celestial body surrounding the island yet it was illuminated like it was day here and even had a proper sky with clouds floating. It was just that the sky was not completely sky blue but was somewhat pinkish is color and the clouds floating were silver white and some even of different colors.
The magical thing was that the sky and clouds seemed to be confined in a semicircular shape aound the island with the golden island looking like a semicircular dome with it's own envirinment. It looked like the island was protected by an invisible barrier.
The outermost layer of the island had the smallest palace which continue to increase in size as one goes towards the centre of the island with the tallest and the grandest being the centremost one. Not only the size of the palace increased but even the ground elevation with the centre of the island looking like a small hill itself. And with that biggest and most dazzeling palace at the top, it felt like all other buildings were the residents of the officials while centremost one was where the Emperor resided.
Raven couldn't see it before because he was more focused on that bigger disappeared island but now that that he was observing carefully, he could see that the whole golden island cansisted of a total to 99 palace complex with the one at the centre being the 100th.
And each of these palaces, from the smallest to the biggest, had a huge Black metallic pillar shining in multi-colored light embedded in the centre with the diameter of 5 metres and the height slightly higher than that of the highest point of the individual palace complex.
However, the 9 pillars of the 9 palaces surrounding the centre palace were almost twice the height of their highest point and were in different colors like blue, green, gold, silver, pink etc.
As for the centremost pillar in the main palace, which could also be called the centre of the island, It was entirely multi-colored with the different colors swimming on it's surface, always changing and mixing. The pillar itslef radiated no light yet was the the most unique one of the 100 pillars, not only because of it's unique color but also because unlike other massive pillars, it was only the height of a human being, reaching 6 feet. The pillar emitted a royal purple beam of light which extended all the way up to the clouds of the island and dissappeared there.
....
After observing for a while longer, Raven finally decided to enter the island.
He willed his body to move towards the island while being cautious of his surroundings. He was ready to move away or run at a moments notice if he detected anything unusual. Fortunatley, nothing of that sort happened and he safely entered the island.
Or at least that's what Raven thought. But the moment he touched that invisible barrier sorrounding the island and confining the sky and clouds, his body jolted. He felt a sharp stinging sensation in his brain and almost blanked out agian. Even the constant white space surrounding him and the island seemed to fluctuate for a moment, though Raven himself didn't seem to notice.