Shadow City
“It’s the floating city! My floating city is finally about to appear!” The skeleton lich Ilyo burning gaze was fixed on the core of the spatial storm, the fire in his eyes blazing brightly.
*Rumble!* The air trembled and the earth thundered, and the Frostfall Valleys lamented as if unable to take on the pressure.
Whether those of the good or evil factions, they all gazed up after retreating a large distance, watching the miraculous scene of the appearance of the floating city.
The stars that filled the skies seemed to lose all their lustre, and it was as if a supernova was born in the sky as a star more dazzling than any other descended, enveloping the world with colour.
*Bzzt! Bzzt!*
Terrifying spatial undulations spread in all directions and in the blink of an eye created a gigantic and deep pit in the ground. The shadow of a dimensional plane loomed over, as if there was a single point of it trying to fuse with the prime material plane!
Even while it was a tiny dot, that was only in comparison between the sizes of two worlds. The tiny point that linked the two unceasingly increased till it formed the figure of the floating city!
This was a large base that was a hemisphere. The shadows of the roofs of many buildings could be seen, forming a large human city.
In the Nether Arcanist Era, the floating city not only was the main area for arcanists, but also a large city and social hub. It could easily fit a hundred thousand people without it getting crowded.
The four elemental plane seemed to have opened a special energy channel as immense energy surged and whistled forward.
It was as if the end of the world for the western desert. If not for there being few people here already, there might have been a terrifying catastrophe or deaths here.
……
After goodness knew how long, the astounding storm finally dissipated, and everything calmed down.
A dark shadow was projected to the ground, hiding the glow from the stars and the moon.
Leylin looked up and found a large shadow. This was the base of the floating city. This immense and vast city had now completely descended into the prime material world!
Watching the large body of the city as well as the bright arcane runes, the whole world seemed to stop breathing.
Deathly silence! In that moment, even the Legends on the ground sunk into a temporary silence.
“Keke… my floating city!”
Ilyo was the first to react, riding his bone dragon mount and pouncing towards the city.
“Dream on!” The legendary paladin obviously could not just watch as he got to the city and soared up high as if stepping on air, body moving rapidly.
“We’re going too! That’s the floating city, and the only one in the World of Gods! It’s the crystal of the Nether Arcane civilisation…”
Other legends also began to get restless.
……
In that moment, within the floating city where nobody seemed to be around, sparks flickered within a certain control room. Lights gathered to form flower elves that were around ten centimetres tall.
The little faces now looked stiff as they spat out in a robotic tone, “Dimensional leap completed. Damage to floating city at 1.77%. Energy consumed at 75.99%. Activating maintenance procedures.”
After which, a glaring red alarm sounded as a layer of screen projections showed Ilyo outside.
He had his bone dragon pet fight against the legendary paladin while he headed towards the city, and was right about to enter the city’s territory.
‘Discovered intruder. Strength at grade A3, determined to be high-ranked Legendary. Activating energy membrane… Beep! Energy membrane damaged at 52.33%, unable to be activated. Changed to automatic defensive mode. Activating magic missiles with automatic calibration and firing.’
With the commands from the intellectual core, the armours at the sides of the floating city opened up to reveal steel cannons that were like a beehive. In that instant, the floating city turned into a large porcupine!
‘Target calibrated. Launching magic missiles!’
*Boom!* A boiling hot white energy of pillar whistled as it shot out of the cannon, arriving before the skeleton lich in a moment.
“Oh, shit.”
The skeleton lich somehow managed to show immense fear on his expression.
*Tzz tzz!* After the glowing white rays, there was no sign of the lich left whatsoever.
“It- it can’t be! That’s a high-ranked Legend!”
The terrifying might of the cannon finally scared off the greedy Legends. Only then did they remember what made the floating city so terrifying.
“This is only the automatic cannons without a legendary arcanist working it. The most powerful dimensional cannon of laws and pure energy defensive membrane has yet to appear…” Leylin gazed up at the floating city that was showing off its strength, the fervour in his eyes becoming more obvious.
“But… that bone dragon hasn’t disappeared. Seems like Ilyo isn’t a high-ranked Legend for nothing…”
Leylin noticed this and slowly retreated without leaving traces behind.
*Whoosh…* Now, white light flickered. A layer of bone powder turned into a gale and blew by the area Ilyo had disappeared.
The ashes from his bones converged to form a crystal skeleton.
“Tsk tsk… thankfully, I still had a substitute. This amount of strength is as expected of the floating city…”
Ilyo floated in the air but no longer had the guts to just enter. He used the joint in his wrist to and used his palm to support his chin, the fire in his eyes dimming.
“It’s getting difficult… Even with the dimensional leap consuming most of its energy reserves, just the least powerful automatic defences can’t be broken through by a legend as long as the intellectual core exists… If I don’t obtain control over the floating city soon, the personifications of the gods will definitely strike out… Things will be troublesome then…”
Ilyo gritted his teeth, “It’s a pity that I only obtained a portion of the inheritance of the arcanists and didn’t become one. If not…”
At this moment, the floating city produced a loud rumble.
WIthin the core control room, the personification of the core that were the flower elves had screens that appeared before them, gathering images of the people below.
‘Beep! Discovered arcanists! Activating transmission mode. Starting spell formation to receive them!’
Numerous screens shifted till they locked onto two beings. One had a silver mask and looked extremely mysterious, and it was Leylin, who was planning to make his move!
The other was actually Roglo!
*Rumble!* With the sound, a bridge of light shot out from the top of the highest building of the floating city, landing on Leylin and Roglo who were caught unprepared.
With a flash of light, the two disappeared.
“Huh? What’s going on?”
Evita froze.
“Crap, the two that disappeared should have been arcanists! The master of the floating city must have set up a certain procedure for his legacy. Only when arcanists appear will the floating city take them in and even transfer the authority to control it!
Ilyo now looked very anxious.
“What do I do? What do I do?”
Just when Ilyo was gritting his teeth, a new situation broke out at the ground.
“I have no choice… god!”
Evita closed her eyes, and the next time she opened them, there were now a pair of dark golden eyes. A tremendous might had descended into her body.
“The personification of a god has descended! So she used the method of having the god possess her body!”
“Has a god already found out about this place? How quick!”
“God!” The guards Evita had brought along, who were lucky enough to survive, quickly knelt.
“We can’t let other organisations get control of the city! They’ve activated a spatial channel, which means there’s a hole in their tight defences! I’ll send you right in, so find it at all costs!”
‘Evita’ spoke unhurriedly, and a faint goddess’ image appeared behind her.
Mighty divine force turned into a terrifying wave that swept those black-clothed people into the city.
The consumption like this must be terrifying, because once all this was done, Evita passed out and crumbled to the ground.
“Now’s the moment. It’s a good chance!”
Making his mind, a rhombus-shaped red-blue metal tile was shattered and formed spatial force. This allowed Ilyo to go along the gods’ tears and enter the city.
Dazzling divine force rays flickered on the legendary monk and paladin, allowing them to enter the floating city.
“Is this… the inside of the floating city?”
Leylin’s eyes blinked open as he took in his surroundings.
“Yes! Welcome to Shadow City, where the flowers of the Nether Arcanists never wither!”
A flower elf projected itself in front of him, flapping the translucent double wings behind it as it surrounded Leylin.
“Congratulations, Arcanist! You have obtained a chance to inherit the floating city and all knowledge of the mighty Great Silver Hand!”
“Chance?”
“Yes. As two have been determined to be qualified, one of you will inherit the floating city!”
The flower elf spoke primly, obviously carrying out the will of the original master loyally.
“Speak. What is to be done?”
It was impossible for this intellectual core to go against its procedures. Besides, this floating city was not a ruins of the past, and since the flow of information and firewalls were still intact, using his mind and the A.I. Chip to invade it would be just stupid. This was why Leylin went straight to the point.
“This is the floating city’s core energy room, and also where the Mise energy core is…”
The flower elf showed an image. This was within an empty room, where there was a floating ball emitting lights that showed the heat it emitted.