"Why did Cyra specifically go to a place like Sulide Volcano?"
The "Cloud Palace" at Sulide Volcano appeared before our very eyes, indicating Cyra had just arrived there not long ago. I initially thought she came specifically for me, since we had killed a few Apostles in that village. Aside from Cyra, the highest ranked Apostles only had four wings, so a six-winged one would definitely catch her attention.
But the facts proved otherwise. Since I didn't reveal myself to any Apostles after that, yet the "Cloud Palace" still appeared as usual, it shows they went to Sulide Volcano for another purpose.
"If you're asking that question..."
Adrian immediately recalled something, taking out a card and handing it to me.
"I saw this thing slip out of a corpse's pocket, so I picked it up. It seems to mention something related."
"You've already seen it once?"
However, as I took the card and examined it, I didn't find any text written on it.
The whole card was pitch black, only occupied by an unfamiliar crest insignia. The material didn't seem to be metal, feeling very lightweight.
But from this card, I could vaguely sense traces of light and dark elements - a very unusual phenomenon. Because unlike the four major fire, water, wind and earth elements, in an environment flooded with light elements, the dark element has almost no space to coexist. Yet they appeared simultaneously on this small, inconspicuous card.
"You need to lightly press on the crest, I accidentally figured out how to use it on the way back..."
Seeing my clueless look, Adrian quickly extended a finger to demonstrate.
With a light "ding", a virtual screen suddenly appeared above the card, displaying something like a text box - looking extremely like some kind of messaging device.
"Whoa..."
Startled, I pointed at the scene speechless for a while.
"What an advanced card!"
However, this sci-fi-like scene was not the first time I'd seen it. The control terminal of the Eye of Galadra I saw in the Dark Continent was quite similar.
Although the two had different visual styles, appearing simultaneously in a magical world already hinted at their origins being related.
Could the "Eye of Galadra" be a masterpiece of the ancient civilization from 10,000 years ago?
This thought suddenly popped into my mind. But could a "technological" product from 10,000 years ago really be preserved for so long? And shouldn't the "Eye of Galadra" be more related to the Earth Angel Galadra's abilities?
"Actually, similar forms of magic-science technology also exist on the continents of the future world. Like in the Ilandra Dominion south of the Astralrealm Kingdom - they've always led the magic-science field. The products they develop just aren't as advanced as this."
Probably thinking I was shocked by the virtual display from the card, Adrian explained.
"That advanced?"
I was stunned for a moment. This Ilandra Dominion was quite familiar - I'd heard about it many times intentionally or unintentionally during my travels.
"You may not have paid much attention, but in the capital there are quite a few shops that specialize in magical entertainment. The magical equipment inside is basically all imported from the Ilandra Dominion. As for research and development, that can't be separated from the Sage Council's involvement."
"Oh right..."
With his reminder, I immediately recalled "SummersField's Entertainment" in Norvale - a typical magic-science game room. Thinking about how much time Nicola spent in there, I understood completely.
Of course, it's not just entertainment products. The adventurers' guild's magic bulletin board also can't be separated from the magic-science realm. It's just not as integrated into everyone's hands like technology products on Earth.
Leaving aside sentiments for now, the main thing was to look at the content first.
This text box contained something like a battlefield report, with the general idea being:
"Since the 'Gana' Battlefield Research Institute located southwest of the central city near Sulide Volcano has been exposed, to ensure the institute's safety and the smooth progress of the 'Xuthus Project', the central city's defense forces had to adopt an offensive strategy to try and stall the Saint Angel Cyra and the large number of Apostles outside the central city. Unfortunately, due to factors like light pollution and strength differences, the city's defense forces were no match for the enemy and suffered extremely heavy casualties. Even though Cyra went on a rampage killing many humans, they ultimately succeeded in stalling her footsteps and completing the mission."
"So the Saint Angel Cyra had already been stationed here before, and she went to Sulide Volcano because of that 'Gana' Battlefield Research Institute?"
After reading it over and over, that was the only conclusion I could draw.
"Should be correct. This stalling battle must have occurred some time before our reset began. The key is, what was so important that made Cyra rush over urgently?"
Adrian nodded in agreement with my view.
Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind - what exactly was this so-called "Xuthus Project"? Could its successful implementation have adverse effects on Beluto and Cyra, so Cyra had to hurry and stop it?
But that didn't seem right either. If there really was a way to defeat the God of Light, the city's guards wouldn't have died so tragically, right? It was just a battlefield research institute, not an ultimate weapon research institute. Plus, when we later fought at the "Cloud Palace", Cyra and the God of Light seemed fine?
Unable to figure it out for the time being, I could only suppress my doubts and continue onwards.
Fortunately, there were very few Apostles in the palace ahead, allowing Adrian and I to easily bypass it. Finally, on the third day, we reached an extremely massive city cluster.
"This is the central city? Isn't it a bit over the top!"
Looking at the scene before me, despite some mental preparation, I still couldn't quite believe the ancient human civilization could be so developed! Although I had seen similar scenes in movies, games, and other works on Earth, this was my first time experiencing it up close - the feeling was completely different.
To be honest, the buildings on the outskirts still looked quite crude, with some even smaller in scale than ordinary residences in the capital Norvale. But the further in we went, the building density and heights kept soaring higher and higher.
Spacious streets, magnificent stone palaces and plazas everywhere. The design of some individual buildings was cutting-edge feeling - streamlined exteriors, pointy rooftops with a metallic luster, reflecting the endless brilliance from above.
Unfortunately, everywhere was completely deserted and deathly still. It wasn't that there were no humans at all - occasionally we could spot one or two. But they were all severely light-polluted dementia patients with no value for questioning or investigating.
"Just as expected, I've long heard that the ancient civilization 10,000 years ago was quite glorious, but I never imagined it reached this level. What's more, what we're seeing is not even its full appearance..."
Adrian also looked quite pensive. The legend of ancient civilizations far surpassing modern times exists in virtually every world, like the pseudoscientific theories about Atlantis, Mu continent, and so on from Earth.
However, as he said, this city was incomplete - it was essentially "cut off at the waist".
The city area we could see should only be less than a quarter of the total area, because an extremely abrupt towering cliff blocked our path forward.
"Looks like we've reached the end!"
Of course, this meant we had reached the limit of how far we could go from Sulide Volcano. If I'm not mistaken, that mountain peak should be part of the "Karga Mountain Range" to the southwest of Sulide Volcano on the map, about a hundred kilometers or so from the central city. (The Karga Mountain Range is a range spanning the entire Astralrealm Kingdom in a southeast-northwest direction, connecting to the Dona Mountain Range where Sulide Volcano is located at the southeast end.) Some inexplicable force directly connected the space in front of us to the space of that mountain peak, forming an infinite looping barrier.
"Even if we can't see the full appearance, this is enough..."
I nodded and said. Our main purpose in coming here was to verify whether another "holy capital" truly existed - and the facts proved it did. Although only half remained, it was already very telling.
Since this half of the space was looping infinitely with us, it was obvious the holy capital Jethrobaines was not in the same space. This showed that this "space-time barrier" was completely independent from the main world where the Eldoria Continent existed. Just like the nature of Edenmere, it was either a sub-space subordinate to the main world, or a parallel world.
However, since we had come here, there was no need to rush off. Even if only a small part of such an advanced city remained, it still had great value to explore. Inspired by Judith, we began randomly entering some houses to look for useful things.
The decision proved to be absolutely correct. As soon as we entered the first house, we discovered a very unusual item.
This should have been a residence. We chose this place mainly to see how the residents of the central city lived. At first glance after breaking in, we saw someone lying motionless on the bed.
And that unusual item was a headset-like VR device worn on his head.
"What is this?"
Adrian had never seen such a headset before and curiously wanted to reach out and take it off.