Chapter 1891 - 1890: Sacrifice

"So what did you just do?"

With the last guard falling, Geslo pressed the elevator button and asked cautiously.

Ding——

Along with Geslo’s question, the elevator doors slowly opened.

Geslo walked into the elevator, pressed the button for the first floor, and watched the security personnel rushing in from outside the elevator.

The security personnel glanced at the fallen guards on the ground, stopped, and did not pursue further.

"I took a look at some clues left when this city was destroyed back in the day." At this moment, He Ao’s voice echoed in his ear, "Are you interested?"

"No." Geslo quickly shook his head and said swiftly, "I just asked out of curiosity; I know nothing, I don’t want to know anything. I still want to live a few more years; you don’t need to tell me."

Hearing Geslo’s response, He Ao smiled and said nothing more.

His consciousness transcended the closed elevator, sweeping over this unfamiliar yet familiar city buried underground.

The fact that the city is so well-preserved suggests it was likely buried underground in an instant.

A terrible disaster befell Kovotra, burying this ancient commercial city in an instant.

And judging by the Denos family’s decor, it seems the disaster occurred just after Denos went to sleep those few days.

However, this city has no remnants of human remains or structures.

There are generally two possibilities for this:

One is that when the disaster occurred, the entire city, or the area He Ao and his team are exploring, successfully evacuated its residents. Just an empty city was buried, leaving no remains.

The other is more terrifying,

There was a large-scale sacrifice in the city; the reason there are no people left is that they all became ’sacrifices’ of this horrifying event.

A Divine Being or some Higher Being devoured their flesh and souls, leaving only an empty city.

And the disaster that buried the entire city might also be some kind of ’side effect’ of that sacrifice, or a special ritual.

The first scenario is more ideal, while the second is more realistic, a common occurrence for that era.

Although starting with Denos, the entire Kovotra City State began strictly monitoring cults to prevent cultists from infiltrating the city, it was still inevitable that some might get in.

Denos had seen many cities sacrificed, leaving just a ruin of an empty city during his travels on the continent.

Emotionally, He Ao would prefer to believe in the first scenario, but the truth is probably the second.

The reason is simple: the power that seals the Coffin of Time.

That power surpasses the usual transcendental levels and does not belong to the Coffin of Time itself.

This can only mean that an external Higher Being once descended on Kovotra and imposed the seal on the Coffin of Time.

In fact, when he had just returned the Coffin of Time to its original place and activated it, He Ao felt, for the first time, the complete seal on the Coffin of Time.

This entire courtyard, the surrounding power, and even the urban district run a natural yet vast array, naturally converging power to seal the Coffin of Time, preventing it from being moved.

This also prevents the Coffin of Time from being taken by outsiders.

However, due to underlying activity tearing the city’s zone apart, the structure of the array tore as well. Otherwise, these tomb-robbing developers would not have been able to take the Coffin of Time so easily.

This also allowed He Ao to be within the seal, observing the entire structure from the perspective of being ’sealed.’

It has to be said, this seal is extremely ingenious and far more straightforward than He Ao had imagined.

It looks as if the creator of the seal spent only a moment to casually throw down a seal, perhaps formed naturally by the creator’s power accompanying its will.

Yet most of the time, the simpler the array, the more advanced and complex it can be.

Even with the insight of a Secret Wizard, He Ao spent some time understanding the key structures of this Sealing Array.

Of course, some elements of this array have surpassed He Ao’s understanding, and he can only use his understanding of these structures and the sensation of being sealed to roughly explore the principles of this Sealing Array.

In truth, he still has a limited understanding of the array, needing to record its structure and contemplate it slowly.

If he could fully grasp some principles of this array, he might find the key point to breaking through the seal, accelerating the breakthrough process.

In the midst of contemplation, He Ao suddenly asked, "Do you remember how the developers found this underground city?"

"It seems they detected some deep earthquake signals," Geslo was startled, then recalled, "and followed those signals to find this place, uncovering the city."

"He does have quite the experience," He Ao pondered, "Would such deep earthquakes be reported in the news?"

Ding——

The elevator arrived on the first floor.

"They should be," Geslo nodded in agreement, raising his bracelet, which now had a signal, "However, unless such earthquakes cause harm, no one pays attention to the published news."

He quickly searched the news about deep earthquakes, "There are quite a few deep earthquakes in Vissen based on the timeline; it should be this···"

He paused, opening a news interface that looked like a pop-up ad, "It was four years ago, late March to early April of 757, a series of chained small deep earthquakes occurred. The developers probably took some time to confirm the underground city and only saw some significant results last year."

"Hmm." He Ao nodded slightly, pondering this timeframe.

March 757 seems to coincide with the seventh copy world, the one with the ’Usurper God’ Nell.

Could it be a coincidence?

As He Ao mused, the elevator doors in front of Geslo slowly opened, revealing the outside scene.

The security personnel sitting by the door remained ’asleep.’

The alarm light above the elevator remained calm, as if nothing had happened.

Because Geslo had found the underground to surface communication line early and cut it off right away.

So the information below couldn’t reach above for the time being.

Geslo adjusted his attire slightly as he passed by the sleeping security personnel.

The security guard’s eyebrow twitched slightly before turning his head, changing position, and continuing to sleep.

Buzz——Buzz——

Geslo passed through the steel frame structure and suddenly raised his wristband.

He looked at the information on the wristband, paused, and then slowly said, "Sir, the Rockville Energy Group Mercenary Corps and the city defense army of Ilotan had an engagement."

"What was the outcome?" He Ao asked.

"Mr. Davis led the troops in a flank assault," Geslo said with some excitement, "and decisively defeated the Rockville Energy Group Mercenary Corps."

As he spoke, he began to display the message on his wristband, which roughly described the battle process, "Sir, can you see it?"

Essentially, the Rockville Energy Group had sent people to attack the city.

But Davis had long since circled from another city gate and ambushed on the nearby mountain.

Just when the Rockville Energy Group brought out all the main equipment for the siege, Davis suddenly led elite troops from behind, pierced right through Rockville Energy Group’s position, destroying a Sky Behemoth.

Then this elite troop moved back and forth within the position. This immediately broke the morale of the Rockville Energy Group, and the siege had to be stopped.

Now the entire Rockville Energy Group has shrunk to fifty kilometers outside Ilotan, beginning to cut off Ilotan’s trade routes.

"Davis does indeed have a military talent." He Ao glanced over this news with a slight sense of awe.

"He is indeed very impressive," Geslo nodded, "this is something everyone in Ilotan acknowledges. We all believe that as long as Davis and Eric stand together, no one can defeat them."

"It certainly sounds very promising." He Ao nodded slightly.

"Where should we go next?" Geslo raised his wristband, "I’ll ask how things are going over at Anke’s side."

The victory news seemed to boost his mood a bit.

He dialed a number, and after a short pause, a busy tone came from the phone.

When the busy tone ended, the phone automatically hung up.

"Maybe it’s on silent. I’ll try someone else." Geslo’s smile froze for a moment, then he quickly dialed the next number.

This time, it was again a busy tone, and after the busy tone ended, it was unreachable.

The smile that had just appeared at the corner of his mouth froze at this moment.

Geslo immediately dialed several other numbers, ultimately still unreachable.

He looked somewhat bewildered at the message on his wristband.

After a brief pause, he redialed the numbers he had called earlier.

This time, they were still unreachable.

Using a communication app to call also yielded no replies.

"They can’t be contacted." He paused and said with a somewhat hoarse voice.

"Do you know Anke’s address?" He Ao asked.

"I do," Geslo quickly replied, then he walked briskly toward the construction site exit, "He gave me the address before. We’re going back to find him now."

Soon, he climbed over the fence again, rushed into the off-road vehicle, and started it.

The speeding off-road vehicle roared along the old road.

He Ao didn’t speak, just quietly watched the quickly retreating scenery by the roadside.

——

Dawn City

Dim clouds covered the sky.

Christos looked at the war report in his hand, lowering his gaze to the contents of the report, "Can we still send troops to support Lank City now?"

"It’s already the limit." The man in front of him, looking like a general, said in a low voice, "The pseudo-Federation and the consortium’s armies are fiercely attacking the northern cities; if those satellite cities are eradicated, Dawn City will be completely exposed beneath the enemy’s large forces,"

He raised his head to look at Christos, "If it comes to that, I’m afraid Dawn City won’t hold."

"If Lank City is breached," Christos took a deep breath, "our reinforcements can’t come through, and the fall of Dawn City will only be a matter of time."

He raised his hand, and an electronic map projection appeared before him.

Most of the map was covered with a bright red glow, with only a small part near the southeast and a point in the northwest displaying a blue glow.

Besides, in the central region, there was a small bright spot.

"Eric of Ilotan has contacted me," Christos looked at the map, "with his help to delay, we should be able to slow the pace of some of the Federation’s troops, but he is also under pressure from all sides and probably won’t be able to hold out for long."

"How did the situation come to this," he took another deep breath, "We’re facing a joint army of the Federation and the consortium, don’t we have any means to counter? Is our equipment disparity so severe?"

"Mr. Christos," the general standing opposite him was silent for a while, then spoke slowly, "there’s something I need to tell you clearly."

Christos raised his head, looking at the general in front of him, "You can speak openly."

"It’s not just an equipment issue now," the general looked at Christos,

"Our command structures are also not interconnected. Dawn City’s City Defense Army only listens to Dawn City’s orders, Yilan City’s City Defense Army only listens to Yilan City’s orders, the Nolanka Group’s Mercenary Corps only listens to the Nolanka Group’s orders. Even those satellite cities that have declared to be on a unified front with us, their City Defense Army still can’t be mobilized easily."

He looked at Christos, "Including Saint Joen City, Limen City, these cities’ City Defense Armies also fight individually."

"But now these armies will also follow our orders and cooperate with us in fighting." Christos looked at the general in front of him.

"That’s correct, but as you also mentioned, it’s cooperative combat," the general looked at Christos,

"The hierarchy between different cities is equal. Every battle order requires us to coordinate everyone’s conditions, which means that our directives need long coordination from start to issuance, and each city’s army will somewhat hold back, not fully utilizing their capabilities."

He raised his hand, pointing his finger at the red portion of the map projection in front, "But our enemy, the Federation Central’s army, only follows Gray Stone Palace’s orders, and even the mercenaries respond faster than us, able to cooperate quickly with the Federation Central Army,"

He again lifted his gaze, looking towards Christos, "These major consortia have likely formed a complete command hub and are connected with Gray Stone Palace, allowing all their troops to perform combat tasks effectively."

He didn’t say the rest, but Christos could hear the implications.

Dawn City and its allies do not have such a command hub.

Christos raised his hand, rubbing his brow, and sighed, "Previously, I tried to establish such a command hub, but now our network has been cut off by the Federation,"

He walked to the side of the desk and looked at the dark clouds outside, and the silent city below them, "Everything happened too suddenly; we weren’t fully prepared and got pushed to this step by them."

"I don’t know how you define this situation politically," the general raised his head, looking at Christos’s back, "In the military, we usually believe that there’s never a time when you’re fully prepared."