The fourth, fifth, and sixth chimes of the Heavenly Ascension Gate echoed through the upper air in slow, majestic intervals.
DIIIIIIIIING... DIIIIIIIIING... DIIIIIIIIING...
Each chime sent ripples of rainbow-bright, golden sound waves washing across the troposphere, parting the distant cirrus clouds like curtains of spun silk.
Frank stood on the bottom granite riser at the foot of the Golden Stairs.
His heavy, steel-toed work boots rested on the boundary line where the glass-fused mortal flat stone slabs of Tongtian Apex met the polished sky gold of Step 1.
He was about to lift his right boot to begin the long climb.
Then, the earth beneath his feet began to warm.
It wasn’t the burning heat of an ungrounded lightning surge or the scalding pressure of an unvented steam main.
