“I am home,” Miles shouted inside as he walked in. After eating with Carl and Mae they separated and he drove back.
When he entered, everyone was sitting in the study. They were looking at a video streamed by Malcolm’s wristwatch.
“What is this?” Miles asked as he tried to understand what they were watching. It was a meadow covered with mutated animals and monsters. The video was a bird's-eye view, so it must have been shot from an airplane or drone.
“It is our ancestral lands,” Mercer said proudly.
“A plane was able to pass the sea?” Miles asked in surprise.
Ever since monsters invaded, the seas were the most dangerous areas. Since the capital of the Cross Empire was located on an island, the other two powers wanted them to immigrate to the main continent when the monsters first attacked. But Emperor Cross was untrusting towards others and didn’t want to move everyone there. Of course, that was only an excuse. Only later when Cross left the planet and bombed the other two power’s capitals, did they understand.
But even though Emperor Cross didn’t want to move over to the main continent, he had to move enough manpower to the Science Center that had been created on the mainland. Mercer and his family were also part of those who had been moved to the Science Center, thus when Cross betrayed humanity in all and deserted the planet, they had been left behind.
But even if they hadn’t been betrayed, they wouldn’t be able to go with Cross as they were the ones alerting others of Cross Betrayal. Nor would they want to go.
After Cross left the planet, Mercer always wanted to go and check the empire or what had been left of it. After all, Mercer was certain that the Emperor wouldn’t take everyone with him and those who had left behind would die miserably. But because it was virtually impossible to cross the sea, he had to give up.
“I was sending surveillance drones over and over again, but all of them got destroyed over the seas. Only last week one of them managed to reach the ancestral lands. It survived enough to send this video before it too got destroyed by an unknown power.” Mercer explained without taking his eyes off the stream.
Miles looked at his excited grandfather and was surprised to see his human side. It was rare to see the infamous Cruel Heart like this.
“Isn’t that-” Malcolm exclaimed. Miles quickly looked at the screen to see a stone structure. At first, it looked like an arbitrary forest of giant stones, but on closer look, one could see a certain order. Each standing stone was around 4 meters high, almost 3 meters wide... These huge stones, ten uprights, and five lintels looked like a semi-circle.
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“Stonehenge!” Mercer jumped on his feet as he looked at the screen. His eyes were wide open and he was shaking badly from the excitement. “It still stands!”
“I can’t believe it.” Evelyn held his mouth as she gazed at the screen too. Merlin and Marcela were looking in detail but since they didn’t know what it represented, they weren’t overly excited.
But at this time, Miles’s heart was beating so fast. He couldn’t take his eyes off the screen. And from the connection he had with Coin, the latter was also in shock.
“Miles, that is-” Coin started but Miles was too shocked to hear him. A small discharge of electricity brought Miles back as he looked at Coin. “Miles, that is a word.”
“I know. Although some parts are missing, it is definitely a word from the same language you have.” Miles spoke in his mind.
“I can’t believe it. It is impossible right?” Coin asked. How could a word from the language only he possessed appear on Earth?
“It is possible it seems. I don’t know what to think but if you had also seen it, it means I am not hallucinating.”
“Grandfather, how old is that structure?” Miles asked after some time.
“Hmm.” Mercer for the first time took his eyes away from the screen and looked at Miles. “About 5 millenniums.”
“Was it always in this shape?” Miles asked in hope. Maybe it was altered later. If it was changed by monsters, it was still possible, because if it wasn’t…
“No.” Mercer started. Miles was about to sigh in relief but Mercer’s next words shot down his hopes. “At first it was a full circle, later in time, it turned into this. But for the last few millennia, its form never changed. It was a very important monument of our ancestral lands.”
“I remember grandpa would say it was a sacred place of the empire and had to be protected at all costs. The reason why he stayed behind in ancestral lands was for this reason alone. He was hellbent on protecting that site. It was the mission of so-called knights.” Malcolm reminisced with his eyes closed.
“How can a word from my language appear on Earth two thousand years ago? If it is a language from Earth, how did it appear in that mysterious room where you found the Maroon armor? That mysterious person created that room at least a few thousand years ago when native races of Portal World still lived.” Coin asked in Miles’s mind.
“I do not know. There are only two possibilities. Either your language comes from Earth and the person who created the mysterious room somehow entered Portal World, or it comes from Portal World and someone who knows that language came to Earth at least a few thousand years ago.” Miles answered.
“After all, although wristwatch materials are from Portal World, you were created on Earth. Whatever caused you to be born with this language can very well be from Earth.”
“It still doesn’t explain the fact that one way or another, someone broke through the barrier separating Earth from Portal World all those years ago and passed through to the other plane.” Coin poured cold water on Miles.
“That is impossible,” Miles exclaimed in his mind.
“Is it? Then what other explanation do you have for all these?”
“I don’t know.”
“I wonder why they carved this word?” Coin asked after some time. “What can it mean for people of that age to create such a giant structure after it?”
“Can it be a name?” Miles asked as he looked at the image once again.
“Would be a weird one.” Coin answered.
“Weird indeed.” Miles nodded. “Dawn.”