Chapter 191 - Dark Veiled Sea 7 (1/2)
Aris was the top contributor to this find.
Contrary to her appearance, she was very well-versed in various disciplines, so she was of great help in cases like this.
“Good job, Aris. I will give you a great reward once we return.
“Heehee! Thank you very much!”
As Woohyuk stroked her hair, Aris smiled cheerfully.
The lava turtle then pressed the verification code...
Swooosh!
A summoning magic circle unfolded on the floor and the lava turtle disappeared.
It had acquired administrator rights after breaching through the security.
Woohyuk closed his eyes and watched through the turtle’s vision.
'There are no real threats there.'
Thousands of years had passed, but the interior was still bright with the luminescent particles.
It appeared they had obtained an internal power source through a high-efficiency generator.
'I have to control the turtle now.'
Lava turtles weren't intelligent enough to carry out this mission alone.
As Woohyuk manipulated its movements,
[Discovered a new manager. I shall now investigate your personal information.]
[What is your name? According to the biological data analysis, you are not intelligent enough to enter this place... Is there a separate subject who is issuing you orders?]
The hologram of a girl with olive-colored hair in a maid outfit approached the turtle and asked questions.
'Is it an AI avatar?'
Woohyuk clicked his tongue and pressed the virtual keyboard projected by the girl with the lava turtle's limbs.
[Chun Woohyuk. King of the Rhine Kingdom. Are there still survivors here?]
[They received the anger of the Sea God. There is no way anyone would’ve survived. One sailboat luckily managed to escape, but the rest didn't.]
[Who designed this fortress? We came here after finding his journal.]
[… Please follow me. I will show you the way.]
The girl turned around and began to take the lead.
Woohyuk took a breath and followed her within the lava turtle...
Beep. Beep beep.
Finally, they reached a spacious space that looked like a high-tech laboratory.
'Is this the fortress' central control room?'
If so, there was a high possibility that the relics of the owner of the journal were somewhere here.
As Woohyuk observed the magic-engineered devices that were still in operation,
[I have been waiting for you, Mr. Adventurer.]
A woman with indigo hair appeared as a hologram in the glass container at the center filled with a transparent solution.
At the same time, blue particles began to surround them.
It was a certain type of medium that enabled telepathic conversations.
[Back in the days, I was. But now, I am merely a ghost.]
The woman's name was Fiona.
The queen who had led the Erendia Kingdom to its golden age.
However, because of her beautiful appearance, she was targeted by the Sea God.
The demons hadn’t begun their conquest back then, so the gods would mess around with the humans at will.
In the end, Fiona decided to buy as much time as possible to work on a secret project with several scholars.
The goal was to get the entire Erendia Kingdom out of the Sea God’s sphere of influence.
To do that, they first had to move away from the sea, so the question was how to get the kingdom to the mainland.
They ended up finding a certain solution for this problem.
It was Inotia, the Magic-Engineered City.
[Then, is this the heart of Inotia?]
[Yes. Neustein, this power source, can sustain not just Inotia but also the entire Erendia Kingdom.]
[Is that even possible? Did you stock up on Dragon Hearts or something? If you buy the wrath of the dragons, even a sky fortress won’t be able to withstand their fury.]
[Of course we didn’t. The power source is Erdium, a divine mineral. Originally, it was extremely difficult to obtain within the human world, but the Wind God helped me.]
The Wind God acted freely as he wanted, and also had a bad relationship with the Sea God.
Therefore, he was willing to help the troubled Fiona.
In return, he asked her to build a temple for him in Inotia later on.
Woohyuk tilted his head at Fiona's past.
[If you managed to find a power source, why did the kingdom sink helplessly? Did something happen?]
[There was a traitor among us. He sabotaged the propulsion system designed to lift the Erendia Kingdom into the air at the most critical moment.]
But even he couldn't escape the wrath of the Sea God.
Contrary to what he had promised, he didn’t manage to capture Queen Fiona.
She was already part of Inotia's system by the time he tried to take her.
[Did you sacrifice your physical body to take control of Inotia?]
[My body is frozen in the basement. But I'm not sure if I could return to my original state. Well, there’s no reason for me to do that however.]
The Erendia Kingdom had perished, and its splendid civilization had vanished from everyone's memory.
Only the gods in the heavenly world knew the truth.
Therefore, Fiona had been waiting for a long time.
Waiting for the person who would come find her and restore the true history.
'I can imagine what had happened now.'
The reason the Sea God had left this fortress intact was because Fiona's soul was still contained in it.
Meanwhile, Fiona was in control of the place, but could not repair the physically damaged propulsors.
The defense troops were equipped with combat-specific artificial intelligence only, so they could not repair the sabotaged devices.
As the situation was cleared up in his head, Woohyuk made a suggestion to Fiona.
[In truth, I came here to restore the Edda Chronicles. It means that our interests are not so different. So what if we cooperated to revive this failed project one more time? I have an outstanding magic-engineer with me.]
[… What is the point of doing so now? All it’ll do is get us targeted by demons.]
Fiona knew some of the events happening in the outside world, as she had been constantly collecting the wreckage of ships with her exploration robots.