The Holy city.

Ellis did not really know that much about it. What little he did know originated from the small tidbits of information that he overheard from Grisella and the villagers.

They had called it a holy ground, but the name wasn’t all that important.

According to the squirrels, it was once the center of a vast and mighty kingdom ruled by an even mightier God. The squirrels were apparently descendant to that Kingdom’s citizens. After meeting the silver-haired Golem pilot, he came to believe them, but upon retrospect, what left him even more impressed was their overall knowledge of the situation.

A million years had passed (presumably). Normally speaking, a million years was enough to wash away any records of a kingdom ever existing. How is it, then, that the squirrels still retained knowledge of their heritage? If you take into consideration the fact that the squirrels never once visited the actual site, the situation becomes even more preposterous.

For a man like him who originated from a world with a relatively brief human history, such a thing seemed nothing short of impossible.

Then again, Lull was a fantasy world. His common sense did not necessarily apply to this world’s people. In addition, the squirrels lived in an isolated society with little to no contact with the outside world. In exchange for things like technological development and societal reform, their traditions lasted for a far longer period of time than in other places.

Well, it did not really matter all that much to him. Even though Alma died at the hands of the other Gods, Ellis did not hold the squirrels accountable. After all, in a battle between deities, what did a bunch of mortals count for?

On that note, he did have to wonder, which God had ruled over the holy city?

Ellis’s knowledge of Lull’s divine pantheon was somewhat lacking. This was to be expected though. When he had met with Alma, the old demon king did not really elaborate on the other gods. What’s more, most of the information regarding the Gods had long since been lost through the sands of time.

Right now, only one God was acknowledged by Lull’s citizens. As for the other Gods… aside from Alma, who got betrayed, the other gods were also out of the picture. Ellis really did not know anything else. What they looked like, what their names were, even how many of them there were, all of it was a mystery.

Anyways, this was the extent of his knowledge regarding the things related to the holy city.

Ellis and the group were practically going in blind. A lingering caution welled in his heart.

His fear was only natural.

After all, this place, even if it was a dead god, it still used to belong to a god nonetheless.

As far as he was concerned, Gods were dangerous. They were existences who possessed unbelievable strength and power. In the face of a god, abstract concepts like reincarnation and the afterlife meant jack shit.

Still, even if he felt wary, Ellis did not cower. Throughout the many years he had spent stuck within this forest, he had picked up some self-confidence. At the very least, he was no longer a man who broodingly cowered at the first sign of danger.

***

At around noon, the group entered the holy city.

Although they had seen some of the streets through the holes in the wall, being inside experiencing the real thing was a completely different concept from peeking in from the outside. The air in here was different. It seemed… holy? It was a bit difficult to explain. A layer of sanctity permeated through the air. It was a feeling that vaguely reminded Ellis of the blinding white God that first brought him to this world.

No, it should be different…

Ellis furrowed his brow as he walked through the city’s empty streets.

It was already quite apparent, but there was not a single sign of life anywhere within the city.

“The world tree should be right around here, right?” Ellis asked out loud as he briefly surveyed the surroundings with tepid eyes.

White. Everything within this city was white.

The streets were lined with perfectly square stone tiles. They somewhat resembled marble, but they felt a lot more like cement. The tiles were not arranged uniformly, instead, they were practically scattered across the ground in a haphazard manner. The general shape was the same, but the sizes of each individual tile differed greatly.

Then, there were the buildings. Like the wall outside and the streets beneath, all of the buildings were also white.

The buildings were stout and square-shaped. Instead of layered brick, they appeared to have been carved out from one giant slab of stone. The walls were smooth to the touch and ice cold. All in all, they somewhat reminded him of Native American pueblos, except the buildings here were a lot more geometric with straight edges and sharp angles.

“According to the legends, the holy ground of God’s lost empire exists beneath the world tree,” Grisella spoke with a bit of doubt in her voice. “Of course, there’s been no-one to verify that legend. And unfortunately for us, it’s impossible to verify the legend from all the way here.”

As she spoke, her eyes unconsciously drifted upward.

Like with the rest of the city, even the sky above was white.

The mist that once permeated the forest still existed even within the city. On street-level, it had considerably thinned, to the point where one would not even notice unless they were really paying attention. Unfortunately, as if to make up for that, everything past twenty meters above their heads was completely clouded in a milky layer of white fog.

In here, there were no dense canopies or towering trees, only a ceiling of ever-shifting white. Just like with what Grisella had previously stated, it was impossible to tell whether or not a world tree really existed above their heads.

Ellis did not say anything. Instead, he came to a stop in front of one of the buildings.

It was a single-story building with one rectangular window on each wall. Judging by the small indentations left behind on the windows, there had probably once been something like glass plastered over it. Unfortunately, those were all gone now, dusted away by the sands of time.

He entered the building. The moment he stepped past the door, a quiet chill ran down his spine. Ellis momentarily paused. It felt as if something had just blown past his ear, but upon closer inspection, there was nothing there.

After some brief hesitation, he quickly dismissed his concern and quickly surveyed the interior.

The entire building was about the same size as a two-bedroom apartment. What’s more, it was completely empty. The only source of light came from the giant windows on the wall. As he delved deeper into the room, a certain white-eared wolf squeezed past him.

Ellis was quick to notice the change that Wight had brought on with her arrival. Every time she moved within the building, the little wolf left behind a set of pawprints on the floor. A layer of dust covered the entire building.

It was quite apparent, but nobody had been in here for a long, long time.

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Ellis quickly returned to the street. He then went on to explore a few more buildings near the surroundings. Most of the buildings he visited only had one floor. That was normal though. After all, out of all the buildings within this city, seventy percent of them were one-story buildings.

At first, he felt the same chill and whisper-like sensation on his ear every time he stepped into a building. It lasted for a good while but eventually disappeared. Ellis also eventually forgot about it and proceeded as normal.

After about an hour had passed, he found himself standing in the middle of a wide street.

His investigation had proved fruitless. Aside from the dust inside the rooms, all of the buildings were completely empty.

“This place is completely desolate!” Ellis breathed out a sigh of disappointment as he bitterly stared at the white walls in front of him. “For how long has this city been here? For that matter, how the hell are the buildings here still so pristine?”

He placed a hand on a wall and felt the smooth texture brush against the palm of his hand. He couldn’t help but shake his head in amazement.

He knocked on the wall with his knuckles. The resulting sound proved that the walls were not hollow, but rather, something constructed purely out of stone!

“…”

Ellis suddenly paused. He hesitated for a moment, before he suddenly reared his arm back and punched.

BOOM!

A loud bang echoed throughout the street. His hand easily penetrated through the wall. In the first place, the buildings here were not nearly as durable as the trees within the forest. Comparing the two was practically the same as comparing a sheet of paper to a stainless-steel metal wall!

A cloud of dust spread through the air. Ellis accidentally sucked some of it in, inadvertently causing him to break out into a coughing fit.

After a few seconds, the sound of rapid thumping reached his ears. He looked over, just in time to see Grisella running towards him with hurried footsteps.

“What was that noise!? Did something happen?” Grisella’s face was red with perspiration, while a look of anxiety colored her face.

“Ah, everything is fine. I just, I wanted to test something out.” Ellis mumbled somewhat shyly as he scratched the back of his head.

“Is that so…” Seeing how there was no sign of immediate danger, Grisella’s tense shoulders gradually loosened.

“Ha ha…” he could only respond with a wry chuckle.

Since a while ago, the group had decided to split up and explore the city on their own. Since this place was so big, splitting up like this was clearly the most efficient. As for things like danger and the like, they were naturally worried at first, but after about an hour of peace, they gradually lowered their guards.

Grisella walked over towards him. By now, most of her earlier anxiety had dissipated.

“What were you experimenting?” She curiously asked.

“Ah, that’s…”

Ellis did not really know how to answer. How could he say that he had gotten irritated by all the white in this city and punched the wall after a moment of frustration had taken hold of his heart?

His eyes unconsciously shifted towards the hole in the wall. Grisella naturally followed his gaze.

After a split second of silence passed,

“—Ah!”

She suddenly exclaimed in a shocked voice. “This… this is indeed worth experimenting!”

Off to the side, Ellis’s jaw had practically dropped to the ground. The sight before him was somewhat amazing to behold.

To his absolute surprise, the hole in the wall suddenly began to shrink.

“A stone that can self-regenerate? Even something like this can exist!?”

“It’s indeed surprising,” Grisella spoke with glittering eyes. “While I do know of some weapons equipped with a self-repair function, I have never heard of it being applied to something as large as a building. What’s more, I cannot see any sort of runes or inscriptions anywhere on here! How exactly was this thing made?”

“Maybe the stone just has that ability?” Ellis offered. “The ability to self-regenerate.”

She remained silent for a few seconds. “While some special minerals in this world do possess peculiar features, like the Green Zenith rock with its ability to store mana within, I have never heard of a mineral with a self-regeneration ability! This is way too groundbreaking! I’m afraid if the hermits that reside in those shiny wizard towers were to know of this, then surely they’d all lose their minds!”

Grisella looked up at him. A clear look of admiration was plastered all over her face. “I knew you were strong, but I did not think you’d also be so capable in the field of investigating.”

Ellis awkwardly received her heartfelt compliment with a cough. What skill in investigation? Wasn’t this just random luck?! How could he have possibly known that this random act of violence would reveal such an amazing thing?

He could only shake his head in dismay, Ellis was truly wary of his own ‘skill’.

While he wasn’t looking, Grisella suddenly pressed her face against the wall and groped its smooth surface.

“How did they do it?” She murmured to herself. “The effect should be manmade, but… how? Is it related to mana? That would make sense… Plus, it would explain why the fog in here is so much lower than outside the city…”

The solitary witch was lost in her old world. Ellis did not really blame her. After all, a self-healing building was a pretty crazy concept!

Don’t tell me… are all the buildings inside the city like this?

Ellis somewhat scared himself with his own thoughts. If this city really was like that, then he could only concede to the majesty of a God. Only a God could possibly come up with such an outrageous concept. If the rest of its kingdom was even a third as good as this one city, then it would surely be the greatest kingdom to ever exist on the face of this planet!

His eyes once again scanned through his surroundings. This time, there was a new found sense of respect within his gaze.

As he stared, Ellis suddenly frowned. He had noticed that quite a few of the houses had cracks running through their walls. The cracks were thin, almost negligible, but once you noticed one, noticing the rest was only a matter of time.

… Well, it’s only natural. Even like this, a million years have passed. I guess even these rocks are not eternal.

Ellis breathed out a sigh. He changed his previous outlook. Even a God could not stand up against the might of Father Time.

“But, a million years… I can’t even imagine something like that…” He breathed out a somewhat lonely sigh.

Combining his age from both his past life and his present life, Ellis did not even reach thirty. A million years was way too far away of a number for the current him to relate to.

He glanced back over at Grisella. Once again, he noticed that something strange had happened.

This time, he noticed that a crystal orb was floating above her head.

“What’s that?”

Grisella paused for a moment. She turned around and looked over at what Ellis was pointing to. “It’s a recording device. After all, we are in a place of great history. It’s important to record these things…. Besides, we might be able to replicate some of the technology from the holy city.

“Hmm,” Ellis nodded his head. “Being able to create something like this building would certainly be convenient.

He was not a short-sighted man. He could clearly see the benefits from having a self-healing building like this. At the very least, he wouldn’t have to worry about pesky things like an earthquake or a tornado with a house like this.

Ellis had experienced something similar when a flood once swept through his orphanage back on Earth. The few months after that were some of the worst that his pitiful-self had ever experienced.

“Then, we should probably take some of it with us them,” he stated. “For research purposes.”

“I’d like to, but as you can see, the removed parts of the building don’t retain their self-healing properties.” She shook her head and pointed towards some of the rubble that had fallen near their feet. “I’m guessing that the system that this thing utilizes prioritizes the larger of the two masses. Or maybe there’s some sort of core somewhere inside? Or, or maybe the house is connected to an even larger grid that powers the rest of the city. Really, there are many possibilities.”

In response, Ellis lightly laughed. “Who said anything about taking these broken scraps?”

“Wha—”

Before she could argue, Ellis was already on the move.

The first thing he did was call Ena over. This did not take too long, as she had been quite close by. Next, he directed her to use her magic on the building.

Ena had learned earth-type magic during their three-month vacation. Her mood had also improved. The little fox returned to her usual levels of enthusiasm prior to their battle with the giant Slime. It was apparent that whatever transformation that she was experiencing already came and passed.

Unfortunately, Ellis did not notice any outward change to her appearance, nor did she magically transform into a human.

Just then, the earth trembled.

Ena sported a rather serious expression as she fiercely glared at the shivering building in front of her. Slowly but surely, cracks began to form around the building. Unfortunately, she seemed to have met some difficulty. The ground here was paved with a marble-like substance. Breaking through it was not an easy task.

After some consideration, Ellis suddenly stomped his foot down. Almost immediately, large spider-web like cracks immediately littered the ground. These cracks helped to loosen the earth around them.

The entire building, along with a few meters of dirt underneath it slowly floated up into the air. Ten seconds of terse silence passed before Ena suddenly waved her paw. The entire building, dirt and all, were suddenly sucked into that small magic pouch of hers.

Luckily, that thing around her neck still hadn’t shown any signs of filling up. It was certainly an amazing treasure, especially for one that they picked up from the bottom of a pool.

After the entire building was safely deposited, Ellis patted the crown of Ena’s head with a smile on his face. He turned to Grisella.

“There, now you can research to your heart’s content.”

Ellis patted himself on the back for a job well done. A somewhat smug smile twisted his lips. Although most of the work was done by Ena, Ellis did not mind stealing the credit from this little fox.

“That… you’re right. This also works.” Grisella simply stated with a pallid expression. She did not look all that shocked.

“…”

Ellis felt somewhat aggrieved. What the hell, this sort of reaction was way too weak!

Doing a helpful deed is indeed difficult. Some people just can’t appreciate all the effort that I go through for them.

He sighed and shook his head. Ellis whimsically mused over the selfish people that walked this shitty planet.