Under the starry night sky, the giant steel island that had been silent for nearly two million years, the mottled ancient creation of the prehistoric civilization, the steel road that stretched straight in the darkness, and the self-activated street lamps.
Amber howled and disappeared before Gwen. After half a minute, she poked half of her head out of the shadow fissure in the air, looking at the movement outside in fear. She looked around and muttered cautiously, "Nothing came out, right?"
Gwen held the Pathfinder sword in one hand and pulled Amber out of the shadow fissure with the other. At the same time, he kept his guard up and whispered, "Nothing … But it seems that something here has noticed our arrival …"
The tip of the combat staff in Modir's hand was condensed with streaks of magical light. The old mage had put on at least a dozen layers of protection on himself in half a second. At this time, the remaining energy accumulated in the staff was dissipating into the atmosphere little by little. He watched the movement in the steel ruins with vigilance, and after hearing Gwen's words, he muttered softly, either nervously or excitedly, "Such ancient ruins can actually be 'alive' … I've never seen such a bizarre thing in my life!"
Gwen glanced at the old mage, but before he could say anything, Modir muttered again, "Oh, it's not that I've never seen it before … Maybe I've seen it many times, but I've forgotten …"
"You're really good at this." Gwen said casually to ease the atmosphere, and then turned his attention back to the ancient ruins before him. The light orbs that rose from the metal pillars by the road were quietly floating a few meters in the air, emitting a constant light that illuminated the road in the darkness and extended far along the road. Gwen looked into the distance and saw that it was not just the road in front of him, but also some street lamps in the distance that were activated one after another. From this position, he could not tell how large the area's illumination system was reactivated at this moment, but one thing he was sure of was that the scale was not small.
Because in just a moment, the communicator on Amber's waist rang, and Byron's nervous voice came from it. "Your Majesty! What's the situation over there? I see that many areas at the foot of the tower are suddenly illuminated! "
"Even your side can be seen?" Gwen's eyes widened in surprise, then he shook his head. "Don't worry, I just activated some ancient lights. Stay alert on your side. I will inform you immediately if anything happens. "
The communication with the Winter was temporarily suspended. Gawain and his team began to move around the ruins that had suddenly 'moved'. Gawain, holding the Pathfinder longsword, walked in front of the team, followed by Modir, who had put on dozens of layers of protection on himself, Gawain and Amber. Amber, on the other hand, had already transformed herself into Shadow Affinity. Amidst the ever-changing lights and shadows, her figure flickered in and out of the front, back, left, and right of the team, paying attention to the movement in all directions.
Modir's eyes could not help but be attracted by the half-elf with terrifying control of the shadows. No matter how knowledgeable the old wizard was in his life, he had never seen a fierce person who could use Shadow Leap as if it was a walk. He could not help but widen his eyes. "… This is really the most skilled lurker I have ever seen in my life. She alone is enough to keep an eye on all the movements in the night!"
Gwen glanced at Amber, who was running around in his line of sight, and said casually, "Don't be fooled. She is running around in all directions so that she can be faster when running away."
Modir, "…?"
Amber had obviously heard Gwen's comment, but she had long been used to it and was shameless, so her expression did not change at all. After running around for a while, she could still confidently run up to Gwen to show that she had done a great job. "I've checked around and found that only these things like street lights have been activated. There's no other movement."
Gwen nodded. He was also paying attention to the surroundings, and everything was just as Amber said.
Everything in the ancient ruins was deathly still. Only the distant waves and the sound of the wind stirred the silence under the night sky. And it was in this deathly atmosphere that the abruptly lit street lamps appeared particularly strange and made people vigilant.
"I think we'd better avoid these places lit up by street lights," Amber suddenly said, her expression a little nervous. "Moving around in this environment where all directions are lit up, I don't think it's a good idea."
"All the areas leading to the tower have been illuminated by these street lights." Gwen looked up into the distance. Of course, he knew that Amber's nervousness was reasonable, but after observing the situation in the distance, he realized that they might have to bite the bullet and walk under these eerie street lights. "The lighting system is activated with the tower as the center. The closer to the center, the less blind spots there are. Let's go, at least we have a clear direction."
Amber could only suppress her nervousness, shrunk her neck, and continued to follow Gwen. They walked on the wide and straight road towards the base of the tower. Modir's gaze kept sweeping around, curiously looking at the signs that occasionally appeared on the roadside, or the marks on the ground that had been defiled and broken.
"Such a wide road … It's even wider than the central avenue of Cecil City …" Amber could not help but whisper. "Who do you think this road is for? Could it be that the Voyagers are giants that are several meters tall? "
"Maybe it's because of the size of the vehicles they used here." Gawain shook his head. "Enya said that the Voyagers are a race that is almost the same size as humans. They even look like most humanoid creatures, but they have a lot of huge machines. In the temporary base built by the Voyagers, there are often more intelligent vehicles than people moving back and forth. When this facility was still in operation, most of the vehicles running on these roads were probably mechanical vehicles built by them … Perhaps most of them were used for engineering purposes. "
"There's a signboard here that I can still see." Modir seemed to have suddenly noticed something. He pointed to the air in front of them and said, "Up there … Oh, I can't read a word …"
Gwen immediately looked in the direction of the old mage's finger. He saw a horizontal alloy beam across the road. A huge signboard and several devices that had lost their function and purpose were unknown were fixed on it. There was an extra light at the bottom of the signboard, illuminating the mottled but still recognizable characters on the signboard.
It was a mysterious and unknown text, made up of short dots, lines, and beautiful arcs. There was also an arrow next to it. Perhaps no one on the Roren Continent could read those characters. Enya might know something, but she was not here at the moment.
Gwen looked up at the signboard for a moment and was about to look away. But at that moment, the unfamiliar characters in his eyes suddenly trembled. He saw them as if they had come alive. They changed shape and swam in his eyes. As the lines quickly reformed, the meaning of the characters appeared in his mind.
"Ahead, Entrance B-17 to the Production Center.
"Drive safely. Remember, this is an important place for production. Slow down.
"20 Order Points will be deducted for speeding. Level 2 negative behavior will be recorded."
Gwen blinked and rubbed his eyes. Amber, who was beside him, immediately asked curiously, "What's wrong with you? Are you crying in the wind? "
Gawain casually slapped the guy's head and looked up at the base of the towering tower that was illuminated by the lights in the distance. He said in a deep voice, "Looks like we're going in the opposite direction."
As they moved forward, other than the increasingly dense and bright lights, there was still nothing threatening in the ruins. The three of them slowly quickened their pace and came to the last stretch of road around the base of the tower. As they got closer to the tower, the buildings around them became more crowded. Many large and small strut-like alloy structures stood on the nearby platforms, pointing straight into the sky under the night sky. Between the struts, there were all kinds of alloy beams intertwined to form a complex three-dimensional structure. There were also some curved plates like domes covering the top of some of the three-dimensional structures. Under the night sky, these towering struts and connections cut through the night sky of the North Pole, vaguely revealing some kind of … "architectural art" of the Voyager civilization.
"How beautiful..." Hu Po could not help but raise his head to look at the large city sculptures. In such an industrial center, of course, they had more important functions than city sculptures, but those functions had all been lost in the long years of history. Now, what they could present before the eyes of the future generations was only their amazing architectural skills and unique aesthetic style. "I thought the Voyagers only knew how to make cold machines or powerful weapons, and were a race of warriors through and through, but it turns out that they also understood art and aesthetics..."
"Don't be led by prejudice," Gwen reminded her. "The Voyagers were also an intelligent civilization, and as long as it was an intelligent civilization, they would have developed their own art and aesthetics, even if the aesthetic standards of different civilizations may be very different. Just like these struts here, they — "
Gawain raised his head as he spoke, but he suddenly stopped midway. His gaze turned solemn as he quickly scanned the pillars and connecting structures. He lowered his head and happened to meet Amber's equally solemn gaze.
"It looks familiar!" The two of them said almost in unison.
Modir, who was beside them, was a little confused. "Huh? Why? Have you seen something like this before? "
As soon as the old mage's voice trailed off, Gwen and Amber's eyes fell on him at the same time. Modir was startled by the stare and instinctively wanted to ask, but he did not know whether to open his mouth when he saw the solemn expression of the two in front of him. He could only shrug with a blank face.
And Gwen and Amber had confirmed something in this brief exchange of glances and memories.
Their 'sense of familiarity' was correct. They had seen something similar to the pillars and connecting structures here not long ago, and all of it had something to do with Modir. It was the 'stage' presented by the shadowy sand that Amber took from Modir. It was the mysterious place where the old mage and the two figures suspected to be the elven twins met in the sandstorm illusion!
Over there, there were also struts and vaults that were similar to this one!
"The style is more than ninety percent similar, but it's not the same place." Gawain quickly compared the scene in his mind. He then looked up at the scene in front of him and said to Amber with certainty and speed, "It should be in another Voyager ruin."
"Are you sure?" Amber could not help but confirm. "The scene shown in the sandstorm illusion was not clear, and there are many details between these struts that are hard to remember. Why don't I —"
As she spoke, she raised her hand and was about to summon the Shadow Sand again to confirm. But halfway through, she stopped herself and shook her head cautiously. "No, this place is too strange. If I do this, it might cause some unexpected changes …"
When Gawain saw Hu Po's actions, he wanted to stop him, but he did not expect Hu Po, who was usually so carefree, to be so cautious at this moment. Gawain was surprised, but he also felt that it made sense. It was obvious that the cowardice in the depths of Hu Po's soul was at work.
"No need to confirm. I'm confident in my memory," he said, and made a note of it. "Let's keep going. This place is getting more and more interesting."
As he spoke, he turned to look at Modir. "Keep an eye on yourself to see if there are any changes. If you see or hear anything unusual, tell me immediately."
"I'll try." Modir nodded helplessly. He followed Gwen's footsteps and said, "But in many cases, if the mind is contaminated, it is difficult for the contaminated to immediately notice the strangeness of what they hear or see …"
"Then take this," Gwen said as he stuffed something into Modir's hand. "But don't look at it too often. Just keep it by your side."
Modir took the item from Gawain and glanced at it. It was an amulet no bigger than his palm. The surface of the amulet was covered with complex and wonderful patterns. He only took one look at the amulet and felt some kind of invigorating and high-spirited energy flowing into the depths of his heart. But the instincts that he had accumulated over the years of adventuring kept him from indulging in such a positive spiritual influence. Instead, he immediately became vigilant. "What is this? It seems to affect my mind … "
"Portable Divine Protection Runic Array, a gift from the sea. It's a standard item for all members of the Theocratic Council who are 'contact-level' and above," Gwen explained casually. "The concept behind these terms can't be explained in a short time. You can simply understand it as an item specially designed to fight against mental pollution. But as the saying goes, fight poison with poison. The protective principle of this talisman is actually a kind of spiritual pollution. Although this kind of spiritual 'pollution' only has a positive effect on ordinary people, and the negative effects can be ignored with a little adjustment, your situation is special. Your resistance to spiritual pollution may be much lower than ordinary people, so I've only given you this now. Also, it's best if you don't let this talisman appear in front of your eyes too often …
"I understand," Modir said as he carefully put away the 'gift of the sea'. At the same time, he could not help but whisper, "Mental pollution … No wonder when I looked at this thing just now, I had the urge to turn around and jump into the sea!"
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