ebookland Chapter 71: The Brick City
Chapter 71: The Brick City
Imu rolled her eyes at him and calmly turned away, ignoring the fact that she just brought down a house rather than call him like a normal person.
Shaking his head and wondering what absurdity will come next, Axel turned to study the surroundings.
As expected he was in a sort of ancient city, with brick buildings as far as he could see. But there was no disorder, the buildings were arranged perfectly in a repeating pattern, two rows surrounding a central paved road.
The buildings all had similar classical architecture with an odd mix of Byzantine—which was an odd combination, but it somehow worked. There were few variations here and there—most likely for the richer citizens, but everything was orderly and quite pleasant of you ignored where he was.
As Axel looked around, he frowned. Something was off. The buildings were in pristine shape, even the roads. There was no sign of abandonment or aging, not even the usual plant growths.
Judging from everything he had experienced so far. He had come to the conclusion that a disaster or at least something of that sort had happened, and in those scenarios one thing was common.
Buildings were usually destroyed, roads were cracked, plant growths and others.
But even if he was wrong, it was highly unlikely people still lived here—considering the dusty plates and all.
He touched the plate within his shirt, even if that’s the case, plants should have taken over or at least those creatures should have.
Yet...the only abnormal thing here was the building Imu destroyed.
That’s when it hit Axel, he hadn’t noticed due to all that happened but there was no blue lighting anymore, that depressive atmosphere of the Netherveil was gone, replaced by a more stale ancient one.
Looking up, Axel’s breath stilled in disbelief.
Above them, the mist had been replaced by a pulsing, translucent sky blue dome enveloping the entire city.
"I’d be damned," Axel mumbled as he looked towards the horizon, trying to see the end of the dome but failing.
He couldn’t be certain what the dome was, but from experience he knew such things usually acted as shields or other miscellaneous purposes.
But one thing he was certain of was that this required a huge energy source.
"A really powerful source."
After all, when last had a human being here, not to mention what would be the point of keeping a dome over a ghost city.
Either way, there had to be an energy source, and a damn powerful one at that, most likely zvezdan.
Axel grinned at the thought, just what he needed.
But...he frowned, the old man had to know of this city. If so, why didn’t he mention it.
Multiple theories churned in Axel’s head, but three sounded less crazy.
Either there was something dangerous here or at least something he didn’t want Axel to find. Or he thought it would be impossible for Axel at his level to retrieve it.
Or all his theories were wrong and this wasn’t a ghost city after all.
But we won’t know unless we explore, Axel smiled as he imagined Indus’s face.
Now all he had to do was deal with Imu, who happened to be looking at him at that moment with an amused expression.
"That saves me time explaining," Imu looked at the dome.
Axel looked confused at first, then his eyes widened as in realization. Did she just read my mind, what’s with all these people, no respect for privacy.
But wait, Axel swallowed hard, what does she mean that saves me time from explaining.
No, it can’t be, he shook his head and stepped back.
Imu slowly turned to face him, a small grin on her face.
Seeing that grin, Axel just knew it was exactly what he was thinking.
She wanted the energy source as well.
Axel was about to think of something vile but he stopped himself, forcing himself to focus on her.
"What do you mean mistress Imu?"
Imu’s grin turned vicious, making Axel take a step back.
"You’ll retrieve the crystal for me," She slowly turned to face the inner sections of the city.
"If you even think of running..." As always, she let Axel complete it.
Axel could barely hold himself back from lunging at her, his hand tightly curled into a fist.
Pure thoughts, pure thoughts, pure thoughts, he kept repeating in his head.
He couldn’t even bring himself to think of attacking, not after she almost killed him.
Axel took a long breath and unfolded his fist.
No choice then.
"Good, now come." Imu started casually walking down the straight with hands in her pockets.
After punching a wall to take out his frustration, Axel calmly followed her while thinking of how he could benefit from this.
As a matter of fact, he had already gotten something.
He grinned as he touched the plate in his clothes, who wouldn’t want an indestructible bowl.
And he got it without risking his life as well, now imagine all the useful things he could acquire if he did risk his life. Not to mention I get to explore an ancient civilization.
Axel grinned at the thought, his mode significantly getting better.
This might not be so bad, or so he thought till he saw something coming into view as they walked down the street.
***
"Woah," Axel mumbled with amazement as his gaze trailed the imposing wall stretching out as far as his eyes could see.
"Just what is this?"
The wall stretched all around, encircling what Axel believed was the innermost part of the city. The surface appeared smooth from the distance, gigantic and complex ancient golden runes were etched onto its surface, with inscriptions in a language Axel couldn’t read.
But what was most impressive was the golden dome formed from the top of the wall, covering the inner city.
Just what was the point of making two domes, just how paranoid were the people living here?
Standing atop a roof at least three miles from the wall, he could feel the energy and aura emanating from the dome. It felt like absolutely nothing could get through.
The only entrance he could see was an arched gateway with four imposing statues of armoured knights standing around the gate.
Axel looked at Imu, wondering what was going through her mind.
For the last minute or so, she just kept staring at the gate.
Finally she turned to face him, "Go, the energy source is behind that gate."
I don’t like how she said that...crap
He smiled awkwardly, remembering she could read his thoughts.
But he definitely didn’t like the idea of just walking towards the gate, there definitely had to be traps or a hidden mechanism or something.
It’s definitely not that easy.
"Do I need to repeat myself?" Imu slowly tilted her head.
"No, no," Axel lifted his hands in surrender and walked towards the edge of the roof.
He scanned the gates and its environment, trying to find signs of any traps, any hidden runes, a brick out of place, just anything.
But there was none.
Axel breathed slowly, his gaze turned to the statues. Heavily armoured from head to toe, hands resting on the hilt of swords planted into the ground. They looked imposing and dangerous, especially the horns protruding from their helmets. Definitely bad news.
But they’re just statues right?
But choosing not to doom himself with thoughts, Axel decided against thinking of it and got ready to jump down.
Before he could though, Imu’s boots slammed into his back, knocking him off the roof, sending him crashing into the floor below.
Prying himself off the floor, he gave Imu an angry look.
But as if he didn’t matter, she casually sat at the edge of the roof, legs hanging loose, eyes focused on the gate.
Knowing there was no point sulking, Axel sighed and stood up. With gishiki in hand and slow and steady steps he began to approach the gate, eyes rapidly darting around, searching for any anomaly.
Eventually, Axel reached the front of the gate without any incident. He stopped to observe the statues, seeing if they’ll move.
But they remained still, slightly towering over his smaller stature, definitely imposing and scary—but they stayed still, just like the white stone they were made of.
It can’t be that easy right, Axel looked closely.
But there was indeed nothing, just statues covered in dust.
For another minute, Axel probed, taking a step forward then back to see if they’d react, but they didn’t.
Finally, he moved forward, stopping in front of the massive gate, covered in beautiful paintings of a falling star and seven humans kneeling beneath as if accepting it.
"Seven huh, I bet that’ll be significant in the future, now how do I open this," He looked around searching for a lever or mechanism to open the door.
Then it came, the wind moved, a massive shadow was suddenly cast over Axel.
Shit, I knew it...Axel cursed.