The journey Adrian was taking was possibly the most defining path the world had ever taken. Gostia's ruins were hidden somewhere within the Uduma Desert, and it would decide the fate of the world.The closer he got to the location, the more relief he felt.***The trio arrived at the inn twenty minutes later. However, the place had been destroyed. It was now nothing more than a shell of its former self. Despite how prosperous it was just two months ago, that luster was now long gone. "Did the outlanders do this? Why would they destroy the inn?" Mya frowned and looked around. Adrian had predicted that the inn was somehow in communication with residents within the desert, but he was not sure whether the inn had been intentionally built for this purpose. The Steedtens running the place were gone, so he would probably never find out the answer. It was getting late and daylight was quickly fading.At this moment, Adrian suddenly spotted a shadow moving inside the abandoned inn. St
Enigma City was a mysterious city that vanished one night with no records of what happened. However, one thing was for sure—no city could have vanished without a trace. Adrian said, "Enigma City didn't vanish, but probably sank. It was probably caused by the soil the city was built on and the Earth’s crustal movements. Enigma City might be just below our feet. The mirage in the desert was probably conjured by the city." The other three looked at each other upon hearing this. Mya replied, "Enigma City is a mysterious place. It’s said that its residents could summon and control the dead during a fight. We don't know how or why they vanished, nor do we know where to begin our investigation. But you might be right about the city sinking due to natural causes. There are probably many things we're still unable to understand right now."Adrian nodded and was quite confident in his theory. He got up and said, "Let's go to the passage and have a look. It should be one of the entrances in
Everyone got to their feet.An old man said smilingly, "War Legate Draco, I've always been very interested in Gostia and Partingia, but I never had the chance to conduct research on them. Thank you for fulfilling my dream.""This is Professor Steve Vargas, an archaeologist from Southeast University. He's sixty-two and has a vast knowledge of ancient ruins. He's also brought a few students with him," Mya introduced.Adrian said, "Thank you for your service despite your age."Steve replied, "I’ve studied the passage and can confirm that it was buried. It probably used to be on the surface and later sank underground.""Enigma City is probably beneath us, and I believe we'll be able to get there if we follow this passage. Everyone, please pack your things. We'll be leaving in five minutes,” Adrian instructed, "Mya, organize everyone into smaller groups so that we can handle any unforeseen circumstances. This place may crumble at any moment, so we need to be extra careful.”Mya nodded
That should not have been the case.Amid everyone's confusion, Adrian said, "Scout ahead, Strider, and be careful.""Yes, sir."Strider dashed toward the light and disappeared from everyone's sight. In less than a minute, he came out from the light and shouted, "Sir, it’s amazing! There's a city up ahead, a really large city!""What?" Adrian quickly walked over as the group followed.Soon, Adrian was standing beside Strider. He saw a cave with two strange-looking skeleton statues on each side. The skeletons were facing each other and hunched over. They emitted light from their mouths and numerous symbols were engraved on them. "What is this?" Adrian reached through his memories after finding the scene rather familiar. "I remember this from somewhere…" Mya, too, found the light-emitting skeleton statues familiar, especially the symbols on their bodies. Adrian suddenly recalled and said, "You're right. We have seen this before. Do you remember the black metal we found in the b
Everything that they had experienced so far was astonishing. They knew they were indeed inside Enigma City, but they found it was not buried underground. Instead, it felt as though a mysterious power had transported them into another dimension. There was a chance they had been teleported to somewhere outside of Earth.Enigma City radiated with a strange energy, and the gigantic palace in it stood as a representation of the ancient civilization's extraordinary powers. This shocked everyone, and Mya's statement laid out what they all thought. Based on all this, it was easy to connect the city’s downfall to immortals. ***"Who would've thought such a place exists… This is a miracle!" "Immortals have already been proven to exist, so it's not that difficult to comprehend this city's existence.""I'm sure everything we see here was done by immortals."The others began to discuss the vast city around them.Meanwhile, Adrian recalled the map from Strider Mountain. According to the m
"The entrance?"Mya curiously looked over and spotted dozens of silhouettes. They were standing just outside of Enigma City, but nobody knew what they were doing. Upon closer inspection, these figures did not look human, but some sort of lifeform that could not move."Are those…" Mya rubbed her eyes and peered closer."People," Strider replied. "People?" "Yes. There's a group standing outside of the city's entrance, but they're all dead," Strider explained."What the… Come on. Let's go to Adrian." Mya pulled Strider along with her, and the latter silently followed suit. Adrian was standing under the moonlight, looking at the city up ahead. He had spotted the group of people outside the city and had been staring at them ever since. He could tell that these figures were defending the city."Adrian, what's up with them?" Mya grabbed Adrian's arm when she arrived next to him. Instead of answering her question, Adrian looked at Strider and asked, "Can you sense anything, Stride
Adrian had figured it out. This technique was related to the worms from Isle 416's meteorites. After taking a deep breath, he said, "They had a technology we currently don't possess. It was a technology to utilize the meteorite worms. Looks like things are going to get ugly tomorrow."Strider said, "I'll do everything I can to protect you."Adrian smiled. "Do you think I've grown so old that I need your protection?" He patted Strider's shoulder and returned to camp.Strider scratched his head and looked at Mya in confusion. "What does he mean by that?"Mya rolled her eyes. "You're so young and naive. You should learn a thing or two from Jerome to fix this problem. You're both immortals, yet how are you two so different?"She continued to mumble to herself as she walked away, leaving Strider in confusion.***When the group woke up the next morning, the sun was shining across all of Enigma City. Now basking in sunlight, the city was now a lot clearer, exuding magnificence, glory,
Noticing the incoming light, Strider yelled, "Look out!" He pushed Adrian away and hurled a punch to destroy the ball of light, causing an instant explosion.Adrian was sent flying and landed heavily on the ground."Adrian!" Mya shouted and ran over to help him. "Are you all right?" she asked anxiously.He shook his head and got back on his feet with Mya's help. He looked toward Strider and saw the latter was enveloped in his own light as he stared at something. More than two hundred men were walking over from the other side of the city, with a large-nosed middle-aged man leading them. They were dressed in Rondom's battle suits and fully armed, with huge grins spread across their faces. The figure hovering in mid-air slowly landed in front of the Rondoniers before taking its position beside the man. "Rondoniers…" Adrian muttered. Strider turned around and asked, "Rondoniers? What are they doing here?""Nicholas told me that the outlanders had found this place. Looks like they