After a few more moments, Atlas descended toward the ground. The Crowbeast Wings behind his back spread wide as he adjusted their movement to slow his descent, allowing him to land in a smooth motion. His feet touched the ground steadily, and only after making sure his balance was stable did, he deactivate the Trait.
The moment he did, the black phantom wings faded away completely from sight.
Atlas first looked around his surroundings. All he could see was the dense forest stretching in every direction, with only a single cleared route leading toward the Central City visible ahead of him.
He turned toward that route, the moment he did, his eyes fixed on the distant city as if he had seen something completely unexpected.
’What are those?’
His gaze remained locked on several unfamiliar Spirit-powered objects flying away from an enormous palace standing at the very center of the city, the palace itself was unlike anything Atlas had ever seen.
Its base spread across an enormous area, while its height continued upward until its peak disappeared into the clouds themselves. The entire structure was built with white and golden materials that reflected the daylight, making it stand out even from this distance.
Atlas could only stare at it for several moments.
’What in the world...?’
Even after everything he had experienced since entering the Eternal Ruin, he couldn’t help but feel surprised by the sheer scale of the structure before him.
His attention soon shifted away from the palace and returned to those strange flying objects. They moved through the air at remarkable speed. Some flew toward the main route leading into the city, the same route every Explorer would normally use after arriving from the surrounding forests, while others headed toward another route stretching far beyond the palace on the opposite side of the city.
Their overall size reminded Atlas of the Spirit Carriages he had seen that was explained by Seraphiel, but that similarity ended there.
These were completely different, using his greatly improved perception, Atlas focused his eyes on one of them from several kilometers away...He could now make out its shape clearly.
Its body was long and flat, built from a smooth black material that reflected the sunlight. A pair of wing-like structures extended from both sides, allowing it to remain stable while flying through the air, the front half was covered by a transparent glass-like material stretching from the front all the way toward the middle of the vehicle curvedly.
Through that transparent covering, Atlas could clearly see that it wasn’t carrying only a single person...There were four people seated inside, each wearing similar clothing while operating the strange flying vehicle as it continued moving across the sky.
Although Atlas had no knowledge of what those flying objects were or even what they were called, he could clearly tell that their speed was ridiculous. There was only one thing he couldn’t understand. ’Why do they use these?...They are Angels and have wings, so what is the purpose of these objects?’
It was a natural question. Even from this distance he could see Angels flying across the massive city with their own wings, yet the number of those strange flying objects seemed even greater than the number of individuals flying by themselves.
As Atlas’s perception had improved tremendously after reaching S-rank, he could distinguish far more details than before. He quickly noticed that the Angels flying with their own wings appeared to be ordinary commoners, their clothing was simple, and none of them carried the appearance or bearing of nobles. On the other hand, the individuals sitting inside those flying objects were clearly dressed differently. Even without entering the city, Atlas could already conclude that they were nobles.
His attention gradually shifted away from the flying objects and toward the city itself as another thought surfaced in his mind.
’There wasn’t any destruction around the city when I looked from above...and even now the inside of the city looks completely untouched. That can only mean there weren’t any of those Null-carrying Monsters here...or they were killed before they could cause any damage?’
His eyes narrowed slightly as he considered both possibilities, though his thoughts leaned far more toward the second one.
’This is the Central City...there’s no doubt SS-ranks and even SSS-ranks are stationed here to explore the higher-ranked Ruins. If those Monsters appeared near the city...they were probably dealt with immediately.’
After reaching that conclusion, Atlas let out a quiet sigh and pushed those thoughts aside for the time being.
’For now...I should enter the city.’
He shifted his gaze toward the enormous entrance standing ahead before stepping forward without wasting any more time.
After walking for about a minute, Atlas finally arrived before the massive entrance. The structure itself was enormous, but the first thing that caught his attention wasn’t its size.
There were no guards standing there.
Not only that...there wasn’t even a gate.
Earlier, while observing from the side view, he had only noticed the absence of guards. Now that he stood directly before the entrance, he realized there wasn’t any physical gate blocking the path at all.
The entrance consisted only of two enormous pillar-like structures standing on either side of the road, and faint Spirit fluctuations continuously radiated from both of them.
Atlas frowned slightly as he looked at the empty entrance.
’Why is there no gate?...This is the city’s entrance, so what’s going on here?’
Just as Atlas was wondering about it, he sensed several presences approaching from behind. He turned and saw a group of Angels flying toward the city. They quickly closed the distance before landing near the entrance. After giving Atlas nothing more than a brief glance, they continued walking toward the threshold between the two massive pillars.
Atlas kept his attention entirely on the entrance.
The moment the Angels stepped between the pillars, he saw a faint amount of Spirit flow out from both sides and lightly brush against their bodies. The Spirit only remained in contact for an instant before returning to the pillars, and immediately afterward, the Angels continued walking into the city without any further inspection.
’Hmm...it simply confirmed they were people, if it had detected a Monster...something would’ve probably been triggered.’
He quietly analyzed the behavior of the entrance as he observed the entire process.
After repeatedly using his Traits and gaining complete control over Gravity as a Fundamental Force, Atlas’s understanding of Spirit had naturally increased to a much higher level than before. Although he couldn’t fully understand the mechanism behind the entrance, he could still grasp the basic principle behind what had just happened.
Without wasting any more time, Atlas stepped forward as well.
The same phenomenon immediately occurred.
A thin stream of external Spirit emerged from the pillars and lightly brushed against the surface of his body before flowing back inside them only a moment later.
Atlas understood what had happened on the outside, but he had no way of knowing what process took place after the Spirit returned inside the pillars. Whatever mechanism existed there was hidden from him, and for now, he had neither the information nor the reason to investigate it further.
He dismissed the thought and continued walking ahead.
A few more steps later...Atlas finally entered the Central City, Solara.
- - -
[A/N: Finally, the main crux of the story is beginning...shower some power stones and gifts, maybe that could help me make each Chapter better with some more motivation? Hehe~ just give those gifts to this poor author and see magic in the Chapters]
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