Boy, the place the God of Light chose is awesome! It might be built right on top of a volcano!

If we didn't look at the map, we would never have realized this. Luckily, we seem to be in a time around 10,000 years ago, and that mountain doesn't show any signs of erupting. From future records, the Sulide Volcano has erupted many times, but the scale was never too huge.

"Looking at the location of this central city, if we are really near the Sulide Volcano now, maybe it's within reachable range?"

Adrian also thought of this, pointing at the old map and saying.

"You want to go to the central city?"

I immediately understood his intention. To be honest, I was quite curious about what cities looked like 10,000 years ago. But the problem is whether we can actually get there.

After all, we are now trapped in this place where time and space keeps looping. The central city is likely outside of this "space-time barrier", which means going there would be a wasted trip.

"Yes, I mainly want to verify a guess - whether the central city is also trapped in this space-time loop, constantly resetting together with the Light God and Saint Angel!"

Seeing my thoughts, Adrian nodded at the map.

"Ah...I understand what you mean!"

With his prompting, I suddenly realized. This is a very important clue. Because in the real world 10,000 years later, at the same coordinates there is an actual holy capital Jethrobaines there. If the central city is also within the scope of the time reset effect, then how can the holy capital with no time reset exist? It shouldn't exist at all!

This directly relates to the nature of the "space-time barrier" - whether we are in the real world constantly entering time loops, or in another almost identical world.

Just having one volcano can't fully explain the issue. If this point is confirmed, it's possible this world may not even be real...

This can also explain why history recorded the God of Light was defeated and died, but another one jumped out on the mountain.

"So you two are going on a long journey?"

Hearing our conversation, Judith blinked her eyes a little disappointedly.

"Hehe, I haven't had enough of that Sour Fish Stew yet, I was planning to stay here a few more days to keep you company..."

"Really sorry about that!"

I glared at her. This girl really dares to say that out loud. Wants to stay and eat for free after freeloading? Even if we don't leave, the fish won't be that easy to catch.

Actually, going to the central city doesn't really count as a long journey. In this space-time looping distorted world, how far can we really go?

"What are your plans next, still want to travel with us?"

Adrian's expression also looked a bit displeased. If not for considering that Judith had helped him a lot before, helping him avoid the "Judgement of Light" after each reset, he might have started kicking her out already.

"Of course, I'll continue investigating!"

Judith shrugged and stood up, stretching lazily as she answered.

"If we are really near Sulide Volcano, the map clearly shows there are quite a few small and medium towns around. We might be able to get more useful information from them."

"Towns around here?"

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We were certainly not unfamiliar with the towns she mentioned. When we took the detour behind the "Cloud Palace", we passed through such a place on the way. Hearing this, Adrian glanced at the map and kindly reminded,

"Your time might not have much left, you'd better find a place not too far away. I think this small town to the southwest is not far from here..."

Following his finger, we could see a symbol for a small town to the southwest of Sulide Volcano. Going further was the continuous Dona Mountain Range.

However, there was a very prominent red X mark south of the Dona Mountains. When Adrian saw this mark, his expression froze for a moment and his finger twitched, but he quickly withdrew it without showing any further reaction.

That red X mark looked very familiar, like I've seen it somewhere on the modern map...

"So you guys did notice my situation after all?"

Judith seemed a bit surprised, then waved her hand casually.

"No worries, it'll reset eventually anyway. When that happens, make me another bowl of Sour Fish Stew as consolation! Oh right, I probably won't remember at that time. Feliciana, don't take advantage and skip out on it!"

"Don't worry, after we escape, I'll definitely make a huge pot for you to eat your fill!"

I sighed and nodded in agreement.

"As long as you don't mind it being too sour..."

Judith was only at the third rank. Although much stronger than an ordinary human, she had still been affected by light pollution over the past half month. Loss of taste was likely one of the most typical symptoms happening to her.

Actually during meals, we could see some other signs too. Like her movements starting to become sluggish and inexplicably trembling. Fortunately she only had about 10 days left before the forced reset, so it shouldn't develop to the same tragic state as those villagers.

"Escape huh, hopefully so..."

I don't know if it was because she read the diary, but her reaction seemed a bit depressed. But she quickly livened up and bid farewell, heading southwest alone.

"Well, I won't disturb you two anymore. I'll go first!"

The way she said it could be misleading!

Seeing her wave and drop that line before just running off, I opened my mouth but ultimately didn't refute her.

I turned back and looked at Adrian. He didn't seem to have any particular reaction, just busying himself packing up the tableware and maps.

"Thankfully we didn't stay here long, so there's not much to pack up. Let's head out too!"

That's good then! Since we're going on a trip, we naturally can't continue staying here. After the reset, all the living supplies in the room will be returned to their original state in the storage ring, so we don't need to waste effort packing them up.

The distance from the central city to Sulide Volcano is the same as from the holy capital Jethrobaines to Sulide Volcano - not too far, probably just a few dozen kilometers at most.

Previously when challenging Cyra, although taking the detour behind the "Cloud Palace" only took a few hours, that was with a few sixth-rank experts running at full speed assisted by energy acceleration, much faster than cars on Earth!

For just the two of us traveling, we definitely don't need to rush like that. Unfortunately, to avoid being noticed by those Apostles, we can't fly with our wings the whole way. So my walking pace is basically the same as an ordinary person's. Walking on foot will definitely take several days.

"It seems that village really was near Sulide Volcano all along!"

Along the way, we compared the scenery, terrain and town names to the map, and they almost completely match the markings. This made me feel a bit moved - we took the path from 10,000 years in the future to go to Sulide, but ended up taking the path from 10,000 years ago to return.

With a map, we naturally had a sense of direction. On this journey, we didn't even need to sleep outdoors. We planned out a perfect route to find lodging whenever we needed to rest.

Originally I had a glimmer of hope that in this world suspended 10,000 years ago, we might find one or two surviving ancient humans by chance. But reality gave us a hard slap - the humans we encountered were exactly the same as the initial village, either demented or unresponsive, impossible to get any useful information from.

Of course, Apostles were everywhere too. I just avoided drawing extra attention by hiding my wings. What was more surprising though, was that those "Cloud Palaces" weren't the only ones!

When we had only walked halfway, we discovered another palace almost identical, but not built on top of a volcano - it was right on the ground, blocking our path forward.

"That place seems abandoned. There are very few Apostles inside the palace, probably only around 10 or so. But there are many human corpses left on the ground, likely right after a direct battle. Those Apostles were probably just left behind to clean up the battlefield."

I hid in a nearby residence while Adrian secretly went to scout ahead for a while before returning to tell me this.

"Fortunately for us, it's not much of a threat. If needed, we can just go around the sides."

"So not every palace has a Saint Angel like Cyra stationed in it?"

I patted my chest in relief. When I saw that situation suddenly appear ahead, I thought the "husband and wife" duo had caught up to us!

But thinking about it, that's impossible. This round, we haven't had any direct confrontations with the Apostles at all, so they don't know of our existence completely.

"This is probably just a place similar to a military base. The God of Light has full control over the light element, so casually building a few palaces like this is no big deal."

Adrian nodded in response.

Even if it really was as he said, it was still shocking enough. Using palaces as military bases, only a deviant like the God of Light would do such things!