Under Willy's guide, the group headed for the Path of Abundance and the Royal Highway towards the manor called 'Hearthfire' . The road that they were on were originally the sanctuary's streets and roadways, but after being left in a state of disrepair for so long, the roads have lost their lusture, and walking on it was extremely difficult .
The surface of cemented roads had folded up, exposing the man-made paths underneath . The roads were riddled by potholes and yet it seems like no effort was made to repair them . It was an unpleasent trek, no different than walking on a broken path in the wilderness . Nangong Wuyue was rather winded walking on such a path, and wondered if her serpentine form would help . But after recalling Vivian's little nice magic had already scared the locals senseless, she suppressed her desire in morphing her three meter long tail out . Of course, a little grumbling was par of the course . "Say . . . Are all your roads these difficult to walk on?"
"Difficult?" Willy looked at the road surface under him, "Oh right . This certainly cannot be compared to the roads in Highspire as this is a poor backwater . Neither the Eisenstadt or the Kingdom of Highspire will be sending anyone to fix the roads here . "
"Why . . . are the two 'countries' fighting a war? Is there some bad blood or something?" Hao Ren asked .
Willy simply blinked . "Why? Because winter is coming of course . We need to light the fire at the World's End . Those who have perished in battle are fuel to the fire . All four kingdoms did not fight because of some petty grudge . I thought this was common knowledge . "
The group looked at each other with an astounded look . Vivian immediately frowned . "Your kind have . . . splitted into FOUR kingdoms?"
"Are you really from the Frozen Beyond?" Willy swallowed his saliva . "Everyone knows this . The Kingdom of Highspire, the Eisenstadt, the Freistadt, and the Starhold . These are the four kingdoms in this world .
Hao Ren was astounded after hearing that, and was rather incredulous to say the least . The world order within the sanctuary inside the ark had changed completely, and have became a few disparate city states and villages, and the roads of old became the way of transportation between the 'cities' . Skyscrappers and other tall buildings were fortified into fortresses and townships while the industrial zone became the wilderness after being torn down and everything useful scrapped . The sanctuary had been turned inside out . A medieval society had bizarrely grown upon the ruins of an advanced civilisation . And these ruins, was just so small .
It was a literal dystopian nightmare .
Hao Ren looked up . It was possible to see the entire landscape of this enclosed scape . Hao Ren wanted to ask what do the young man think of this weird world structure, but he quickly realised that he did not have much to ask at all . The young soldier was born and bred here . He was raised and educated in the same place as well, and thus his world view would be as such . If no one in the ship now knew of the concept of the 'ark', it was probable that everyone here think of the world as a giant egg shell . The freezing world outside the metal hull probably mean nothing to Willy .
Willy was jittery throughout the journey . He really really did not want to travel on this part of the road, especially after his comrades were defeated and in the company of these unknown strangers that knew sorcery . That left him with a sense of severe lack of security . But the soldier did not have a choice, he still have to brave through to guide the outlanders, and to watch out for any attacks by the Eisenstadt or Freistadt soldiers .
Quite some time had since passed since they had departed and Hao Ren did not see anyone appearing . He inevitably started doubting Willy's . "You mentioned that this road was dangerous? Why haven't we ran into anyone yet?"
Willy rubbed his hands together as he tighted his sleeves . It was cold now, and the young lad was shivering slightly . "I don't know . . . They are usually soldiers patrolling this path, or at least merchants going between cities . . . "
As he walked he looked up, the dim lights across the cityscape looked like flickering fireflies in the dark, making this enclosed place looked like a cave filled with fireflies . The young soldier's brown eyes exudes some sort of uneasiness . "It's getting worse day by day for the last ten years . I myself had ran into countless weird incidents . Perhaps the Eisenstadt and Freistadt patrols are slacking off today?"
"Getting worse day by day?" Hao Ren asked .
As Willy opened his mouth to speak, a weird low hum shook the boy .
The sound came from deep under, and sounded like some sort of massive equipment slowing to a halt . The soundwave revebrated across the land, and while not particularly loud, the entire place suddenly shook . At the same time, Hao Ren felt that he suddenly got lighter as his got a feeling that he was about to float away . Willy's expression turned to panic as he screamed . "Don't move! It's the Rising! The Rising!"
Just as Willy finished, everyone felt their bodies turned light . The sanctuary's artificial gravity had disappeared .
Hao Ren saw a red light ran rapidly from one end of the place to another and was followed by another . It looked like an alarm light and Willy's eyes were locked onto the light, as he counted under his breath . "One . . . Two . . . Three . . . Three meteors . Oh goodness, it seems like it won't last very long . . . Please stay still, and don't jump!"
The artificial gravity had completely disappeared by now, and yet Hao Ren and the rest was still 'standing' . In reality however, they were already floating, it's just that their soles are still slightly touching the ground . Willy immediately stiffened and did not move, afraid that any movement would cause him to 'rise' . This would not only throw him uncontrollably into the air, and it may even throw him across the land . Hao Ren quickly understood why the young man was so afraid . He tried to soothe the boy's fear . "Don't worry . Don't worry, your warning was in time . No one will be flying . Say, does this happen often?"
"No, it happens once every few months, but it seems like it was much less frequent before I was born . " Willy took a deep breath, and he was already by now used to Hao Ren's 'lack of knowledge' . Speaking to someone itself helped him to calm down . "Winter is coming, and the heart of this world is slowly freezing . The land will be powerless to keep us standing on our feet . . . Nan had told me before . But if we are able to relight the Furnace of the Ancestors, everything will return to normal . Nan told me that too . "
Hao Ren gave a casual 'Oh' in reply before looking at the massive pipings and alloy bridges above him . There were lights across their surfance, and they were not there before . It seems like the ark has an automated maintenance system, and it was clear that it was having problems, it was still functioning, if barely .
The artificial gravity had disappeared for almost an hour now, and from time to time Willy clasped his hands together before his chest, silently muttering something that sounded like a prayer to the gods . After the gut-wrenching hour had passed, Hao Ren heard another hum came from underneath, and as it disappeared, he felt heavy again, and he was solidly planted on the ground once more .
Willy's wobbly legs almost failed him and he struggled to stand . Giving Hao Ren a rather awkward smile, he said . "You guys don't seem to be afraid of the 'Rising' . "
"As long we don't rise, we won't fall . " Hao Ren shrugged .
Willy's expression darkened . "My best friend said that before too, but he ended up dying in the plaza of Wind Valley City on the other corner of the world . "
As he looked up towards the titled buildings . "That was a long 'Rising', and lasted a whole day . Poor Borqen, he just accidentally stretched and I saw him suddenly rose into the air, higher and higher . . . and that time I still did not know how to use the meteors to determine how long the phenomenon will last . I thought it was going to end very quickly, but in the end, he became nothing but a black dot in the sky . His sister was with me that time, poor lass . . . her brother even crossed the 'World's Axis' . And by the time the Earth Mother had recovered, Borqen had fallen into the other end of the world . It was a few days later that the lord of Wind Valley City sent in back in a box . "
Chapter end
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