This sky city seemed to have existed for a very long time, but the buildings and greenery were extremely well-preserved. Judith thought there could only be two explanations - either it had something to do with being sealed away, or it was because of the protective barrier.
However, now that the seal was completely broken and the protective barrier that used to cover the city had also disappeared, no one could say for sure what the reason was.
"In any case, even though we're in the enemy's home turf, we should actually be relatively safe!"
Cyra looked around and saw a flat main road not far ahead with no one in sight. However, the sounds of artillery and magic explosions between the various airships overhead kept erupting non-stop. Soon she was proven wrong.
A dragon-class airship with a smoking tail plummeted down in this direction. Its exterior decorations looked like a ferocious dragon, extremely terrifying. It soon crashed into a tall building not far from them, causing not only a huge explosion but also kicking up extremely dense clouds of dust that blotted out the sky! Stone fragments flew everywhere like the apocalypse, forcing me to quickly lie down to avoid getting hit.
After the commotion to finally subside. I stood up coughing and couldn't help but look back at the accident site. That building hadn't completely collapsed - it was really sturdy! However, the airship had smashed a huge hole into the building's surface and was now stuck there without falling further. At first glance, the scene had a touch of comedy to it.
"Cough cough, this place is too dangerous! We'd better find somewhere further away from the combat zone, otherwise we might randomly lose our lives!"
Judith crawled out from the rubble covered in dust complaining. It seemed the Crestvale Republic's airship fleet had just engaged the Ilandra Dominion Empire's forces after being exchanged over, and as the main forces, the skies were basically filled with just the two sides fighting each other.
There were a huge number of dragon-class airships that had been exchanged over this time. Although one had just fallen, and their individual combat power was indeed somewhat inferior to the Empire's airships, they were very different when fighting as a group.
As expected of the Republic's fleet that frequently clashed with the Ilandra Dominion, their attack methods were quite special, mainly in terms of mobility and weapons. The dragon-class airships had powerful rear thrusters, allowing for extreme speed, which could completely offset the impact force of the Empire's main cannons. Before their onboard shields failed, taking advantage of numerical superiority, most were able to charge right up to the enemy! Then the "dragon head" front of the airship would spew raging flames to erode the enemy's shields. Before long, many of the Empire's airships didn't even get a chance to fire their second main cannon before being burnt to ashes.
In contrast, the Church's small airships and the Kingdom's griffon knights had been marginalized, only able to play a supporting role. In the chaos, I also caught glimpses of various flying monsters.
"So the monsters have also been forced to mobilize en masse?"
Overall, the combined forces of the Republic, Kingdom, and Church seemed to be gaining the upper hand in this tug-of-war battle. This was a good thing, indicating the scales of victory were slowly starting to tilt in our favor. However, Cyra suddenly asked a stupid question.
"Why hasn't Adrian used 'Divine Punishment' yet? Even the Crestvale Republic's airships couldn't withstand the power of Divine Punishment, right?"
"Isn't that obvious? Divine Punishment has such a huge blast radius, do you want to hit our allies?"
I answered irritably. Of course, I really didn't want Adrian to use that ability. As for the Republic's battle strategy, they must have considered this issue. Their airships either operated in small groups around each Empire airship for group attacks, or kept weaving between the tall buildings for mobility and evasion. They would never gather exposed in open areas, so even if the enemy wanted to use Divine Punishment, they had to hesitate.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Looking back at the tallest building in the city center - the Chromos Tower, its slender spire soaring into the clouds could easily be seen from every corner of the city. I gritted my teeth and finally made my next decision.
"Let's slowly approach the target, but be careful not to be discovered by the enemy!"
To be honest, even until now I still hadn't figured out how to sneak into the Chromos Tower. I could only take it one step at a time. A frontal assault would definitely be unwise. Leaving aside the other monsters, just Mirium the dragon and that mysterious "man" we had fought before already seemed extremely formidable.
I didn't know why Reed was so confident sending me with two novices to challenge such difficult enemies. Setting aside Cyra the two-winged angel, the remaining Judith...was simply a letdown!
"Can't you help me out for Reed's sake?"
In the spiritual network, I kept pleading for Mia's aid, but unfortunately Reed wasn't present. Instead, Mia flatly refused without hesitation.
"No way! I have to hurry to Lady Reed's side right now. My job is only to protect her. Besides, your situation there doesn't seem too bad..."
I didn't know if she was on her way to Crestvale Republic or returning to Edenmere. After a pause, Mia suddenly reminded me,
"If I remember correctly, Lady Reed should have prepared an insurance plan for you in advance. You should have more than enough combat power!"
After saying that, I was directly kicked out of the spiritual network...Alright, so I was being a nuisance, huh? I'll remember this grudge!
Ignoring the battle raging overhead for now, after slowly advancing for a while, we finally arrived at a "villa district".
The reason it was called a villa district was because there were standalone buildings everywhere in a consistent style, interspersed with various greenery - so it was clearly a residential villa area.
To be honest, compared to those towering skyscrapers, these low-rise standalone buildings felt a bit more reassuring. Just a moment ago, as we passed under a high-rise, we actually heard human shouting coming from inside, followed soon after by flying monsters appearing from behind another building. Luckily we avoided being discovered - all three of us were scared out of our wits, afraid of carelessly turning a corner and running into "trouble".
"Don't think you can relax just because we're in a place like this. Don't you dare reveal your wings, got it?"
I rushed into a random house, closed the door, and turned back to warn Cyra with apprehension. Unbelievable, earlier she had actually wanted to take the chance to strike down a demon straggler behind us. Luckily I stopped her in time - we can't risk exposing ourselves now, otherwise who knows if we'll even make it to the Chromos Tower!
"I know already, you've nagged about it so many times on the way here!"
Cyra plopped down impatiently on a chair inside. This was a single-story house divided into several rooms, and we were currently in what seemed to be the entrance living room area. Even with the light coming in through the windows, the interior furnishings were in disarray, clearly left in a hurry when it was abandoned.
"Well, let's take a break for now..."
On the way here, we'd already encountered several enemy patrols, either monsters or members of the human Parristol Resistance. Feeling rather tired, I also sat down on the sofa and absentmindedly glanced at a paper left on the coffee table in front of me.
"Lantine Oasis Municipal Government Notice: Due to the unexplained spreading epidemic of intelligence degenerative disease, the Central Laboratory's Project Beta Energy Extraction has been temporarily suspended. The sky city of Lantine Oasis will return tomorrow to land and discuss countermeasures. Simultaneously, Outer Districts 10 to 18 will be completely sealed off. All research personnel will immediately relocate to the central districts for housing, while non-research staff will be concentrated in the Interim Districts 5 to 9 for management. Emergency Protocol 5 is now in effect..."
Seeing this, I was momentarily stunned, easily able to associate the contents with a certain incident. Based on our location, we should be in the outer districts, so this house must have been abandoned at that time.
Looking further down at the signature:
"Acting Mayor of Lantine Oasis Sky Research City: Thorolope Loren, Date: 25th of the 11th month, Year 25 of the Wyvern Era."
In an instant, I seemed to realize something. Seeing my actions, Judith came over curiously and glanced at it, unable to help feeling surprised.
"This 'Beta Energy'...if I remember correctly, that's actually an very ancient term. It should be referring to Dark Element!"
"Dark Element?" Cyra immediately came over after hearing this, and then extended the thought.
"If Beta Energy refers to the Dark Element, then what do they call Light Element?"
"Alpha!" I couldn't help giving her a look. Didn't this girl listen at all when I recounted my experiences in the Trial Space? Her attention was completely focused on trivial side information. Though to be fair, Judith had mentioned this content before too, she had just completely forgotten.
However, that wasn't the most crucial point. From the contents of the paper, this sky city we were in actually had quite an impressive background! I never expected Parristol's origins to be related to the birth of the Light God...
Cyra and Judith simultaneously realized this point as well, and both gasped in astonishment.
I started wildly speculating - did the Empire and monster side also know this? If they did, then what was their motive for participating in this incident?
And the Church, and Adrian...