"April 18th, Year 26 of the Ouil Era. Early this morning, shocking news arrived from the southern regions where alpha energy had long been rampant. The high concentrations there had undergone bizarre, inexplicable changes, as if they had suddenly gained life of their own. the central city immediately dispatched numerous researchers to monitor and confirm the situation. But matters only worsened from there..."
"Oh come on, it's missing the critical part!"
There were several torn-out pages in the middle of the diary, clearly ripped away, though not very cleanly - leaving behind partial phrases about "Type 1" and "Type 2" that only piqued one's curiosity further without providing enough context.
"Let's see what comes after, shall we?" Adrian suggested calmly.
"Alright..." I could only turn the page. The timeline had advanced over a month, with a significant gap in the missing content.
"June 25th, Year 26 of the Ouil Era. The threat from Beluto grows increasingly severe. It's said that during a routine inspection in the central city, the Saint Angel Cyra suddenly collapsed, throwing the entire True Church into a state of emergency. Even the priests here received the news and displayed utter panic for several days, fervently praying to their god without eating a single meal. 'It's a good thing we're not religious, or we might end up like them!' Karina mocked, yet she secretly tore pages from my diary and ate them - that's how I discovered her abnormal condition! Paper isn't food, it's not a biscuit. How could she have turned into this state? Could it be the ravages of the encroaching alpha energy? But it's only been a few days..."
"June 27th, Year 26 of the Ouil Era. Karina's condition keeps worsening. Many in the village have successively shown symptoms of 'alpha energy syndrome,' and even I can clearly feel my thinking becoming sluggish. Rumor has it that after Cyra suddenly announced her defection to Beluto's side and proclaimed her intention to marry it, Beluto's intelligence soared by several levels, and the spread of alpha energy rapidly accelerated. I can no longer wait - I've decided to leave this place with Karina tomorrow!"
"June 28th, Year 26 of the Ouil Era. Early this morning, as I was writing these words, dazzlingly bright 'clouds' suddenly drifted across the sky again. This phenomenon had occurred several times over the past few days, but they always dissipated after a while. I don't know what these things are..."
The diary ends there, with no further entries. Those "dazzlingly bright clouds" described seemed to refer to the sky being obscured by radiant light - not actual clouds, but merely the brilliance emitted by a massive concentration of light elements.
"So we really have returned to the world of 10,000 years ago?" After perusing the full contents, Adrian pondered for a while before arriving at this conclusion.
Of course, I knew there was an underlying implication to his words. To put it more accurately:
Due to the near-infinite resets, although 10,000 years had passed in the outside world, this region warped by the dual distortions of time and space remained frozen at that ancient era. This explained why the diary, village, and other objects appeared intact and undamaged.
From an ordinary human's perspective, this diary recorded the origins of the light god's birth. Although much was unclear, if proven accurate, it would undoubtedly serve as an excellent historical record.
"But the advanced civilization 10,000 years ago used the common continental language - it hasn't changed at all over such a vast timespan?"
I still harbored doubts. The biggest issue was being able to comprehend writing from 10,000 years ago! Languages evolve rapidly; just look at Earth's civilizations spanning thousands of years, where written scripts underwent multiple transformations. Ancient texts would likely be incomprehensible to most today after over a millennium.
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"Heheh! For that, you'd have to ask the Pope of the Cresthaven Papal Dominion - Garrick!" Judith replied with a burp after filling her stomach, lounging shamelessly as she pointed at the diary.
"The common language and script of the Eldoria Continent are typically unified and published by the True Church. Thanks to the Church's immense influence, even when various nations later emerged across the continent, they all had to accept the Church's cultural guidance as per convention. Come to think of it, that diary did mention the True Church, so perhaps it has played this role since the ancient era."
"That influential?" I had clearly underestimated the True Church's power. Now that I thought about it, it made sense. With Cysper having lived for thousands of years while occupying the Papal seat, it was plausible for the language not to change much over that span.
"But don't forget, even if we truly went back 10,000 years, it still doesn't explain why time keeps resetting here! Our ultimate goal is to escape this place and break free from the endless resets..." Adrian frowned, reminding us that we had circled back to this critical question.
If we could unravel this mystery, we wouldn't have to stubbornly challenge Cyra and Beluto. From the looks of it, those "newlyweds" might not even know what was going on themselves. Could this place be a "prison" specifically designed to confine them?
The notion of a "prison" neatly explained why the phoenix avoided approaching. Animal instincts tended to be sharper. However, history did not record it that way. The light god was supposed to have been defeated; otherwise, the Wind Angel Liana and Earth Angel Galadria would not have created the angelic race to prevent its revival.
Ah, yes! I suddenly realized an issue. Throughout that entire diary, there was no mention whatsoever of the elemental angels like Liana. It was as if they never existed. Logically, the heroes who had vanquished the light god Beluto and saved the world should not have been so obscure!
They weren't superhumans - how could figures of such renown have left no legacy? The only familiar name in that diary was the Saint Angel Cyra.
"Since we can't find any other clues from the diary, why don't we examine the other items?" After pondering fruitlessly, I turned to Adrian.
"Like that scroll you were looking at earlier - was it some kind of magic array?"
"Not quite what you're thinking. It's actually a map!" Adrian retrieved the scroll from the table and unfurled it before me.
"But rather uniquely, it seems to be a map from 10,000 years ago."
"Heheh, a map of the Eldoria Continent from 10,000 years ago!" Judith chimed in, clearly having examined it previously, which explained why she had brought it along.
"An incredibly rare historical artifact!"
"A map, huh..." I couldn't help feeling a tinge of disappointment. I had expected something far more impressive, but it was just an ordinary map.
So what if it was 10,000 years old? I had only been in this world for a few months and hadn't even fully familiarized myself with the current continental map, let alone an ancient one.
"With this map, we can determine our current location. It might prove helpful for escaping!" Judith seemed unsurprised by my reaction as she casually pointed to a city icon in the center of the map.
"This should be the central city frequently mentioned in that diary. And its coordinates are..."
She was right. Next to that city icon were the unique geographic coordinates used on the Eldoria Continent:
"345.1751, 175.4356"
"Is there anything special about those coordinates?" I still felt utterly lost.
"Nothing particularly special, it's just the location..." Adrian hesitated before retrieving a modern map of the Eldoria Continent from his own storage ring.
"Saint City!" The realization hit me instantly. The continental outlines on both maps were largely similar, albeit with some minor variations after 10,000 years of change. But more importantly, at that same central coordinate on the modern map stood the True Church's headquarters - the capital city of Jethrobaines in the Cresthaven Papal Dominion, Saint City!
"But wasn't Saint City just a small town before? " I recalled Cysper, the Pope, telling us that when he first arrived on this continent, Saint City had been a mere small town - nothing like a major metropolis.
"Heheh! That's hard to say. After all, over the span of 10,000 years, even if a city was massive before, it being demolished and rebuilt is nothing new," Judith explained with a smile.
"Moreover, amid that period they experienced the calamity of rampant light elements. It's completely possible the central city was utterly destroyed."
So that would mean Saint City and the central city didn't actually have much relation! I pursed my lips skeptically, feeling it couldn't be that simple.
Following the location of the central city down and to the left, I spotted the icon of a volcano - undoubtedly the Sulide Volcano, the future nesting place of the phoenix.
If we really were on the continent 10,000 years ago, then where would our location be on this map?
The Sulide Volcano existed even 10,000 years prior. Assuming we didn't spatially relocate after entering the mountain cavern, we should still be near the Sulide Volcanic Plateau. And the tallest peak in this vicinity was precisely where the "Palace in the Clouds" resided!