Chapter 351: Nexus City

The closer they got to Nexus City, the harder it became to take everything in. Kai had thought the view from the outskirts was impressive, but that was before the city filled the entire windshield and kept going past both edges of it.

Modern skyscrapers rose between ancient towers of dark stone, and elevated roads crossed over the streets to link one district to the next. Airships drifted toward docking platforms built into the sides of the tallest towers, their shadows sliding across the rooftops below.

Down on the streets, thousands of people moved in every direction. Buses carried civilians between districts, merchants pushed carts through crowded markets, and Hunter teams made their way through the traffic with gear strapped to their backs. Kai even spotted a pair of researchers hurrying between buildings with a sealed relic container held between them.

Everywhere he looked, the city reminded him that it had existed long before the current era. Ancient walls cut through entire neighborhoods, and stone monuments stood between office buildings as if nobody had ever thought to move them. Some ruins had been preserved behind glass, while others had simply been absorbed into the city, like the enormous stone arch with a modern train line running straight beneath it.

Kai leaned closer to the window. "Mythal is big."

Gabriel smiled. "It is."

"Nexus is ridiculous."

Sera laughed. "That’s a better description."

Lily was barely listening. She kept turning from one window to the other, trying to catch everything at once. "How many relic sites are inside the city?"

Gabriel thought for a moment. "Officially, twenty-seven."

"And unofficially?"

"Nobody knows."

Lily sat forward so fast her seatbelt locked. "There are undiscovered relic sites inside the city?"

"Probably. Some of the ancient structures are buried under modern districts." Gabriel pointed toward the distant skyline. "Nexus was built on top of an older Nexus, and that city was built on top of something even older. Then someone built another city over that."

Lily stared at her. "So the whole city is basically layers."

"Exactly."

Kai listened quietly, and the strange feeling he’d had since they crossed the outskirts finally made sense. Mythal felt like a city looking toward the future, while Nexus felt like a city standing on top of its past.

Sera turned from the window. "How many people live here?"

"Several million," Gabriel said. "Nexus is one of the largest population centers on the continent."

Kai turned in his seat. "Several million?"

Sera watched the streets pass for another moment before she spoke again. "I understand now why you didn’t seem impressed when we rebuilt Mythal."

Gabriel laughed. "I was impressed. What Mythal accomplished was extraordinary." She glanced at Kai. "Nexus has simply had centuries to build itself."

Kai nodded slowly. "That’s the difference."

The traffic grew heavier as the vehicle crossed into the main city district, and the streets widened to make room for it. Large digital displays hung from the sides of buildings, cycling through Hunter Association notices, monster zone warnings, and the latest Hunter rankings.

One screen was showing a news broadcast, and Kai caught sight of his own face on it.

He froze. "Wait. Is that me?"

Gabriel followed his finger to the screen, and her smile widened. "Apparently."

The footage showed Mythal after the Second Disaster, with Hunters standing in damaged streets, before it cut to the celebration that had followed the Third. A reporter’s voice played over the images. "Mythal has once again shocked the Hunter community after successfully clearing the Third Disaster shortly after surviving the Six Calamities..."

Kai stared at the screen. "They’re still talking about that?"

"Of course they are," Gabriel said.

Lily pressed closer to the glass. "People here know about Mythal?"

Gabriel gave her a strange look. "Everyone knows about Mythal."

Sera nudged Kai with her elbow. "You really didn’t know?"

"I knew people were talking." Kai sank a little lower in his seat. "I was hoping it wasn’t this many people."

"Too late," Gabriel said.

The vehicle turned into the central district, and Kai’s attention went straight to the building at the end of the road. A giant Hunter Association emblem hung above its entrance, and the structure behind it rose several stories into the sky while hundreds of Hunters passed through its doors. Screens along its front listed missions, emergency alerts, and recruitment notices, and the whole place looked more like a government complex than any guild Kai had ever walked into.

"That’s the Hunter Guild?" he asked.

Gabriel nodded. "The main headquarters for Nexus City."

Sera let out a low whistle. "Our guild would fit inside the lobby."

Kai laughed. "Probably."

Lily leaned against the window. "How many Hunters work there?"

"Thousands," Gabriel said, "though they’re never all inside at the same time."

Kai thought of the guild hall back in Mythal, where he still knew most of the Hunters by name, and said nothing.

The vehicle stopped beside a large plaza, and the noise hit Kai the moment he stepped outside. Hunters crossed between the stalls while merchants shouted over each other, tourists lined up to photograph the monuments, and children chased each other around their parents’ legs.

A massive fountain stood in the center of the plaza, and behind it rose a statue of a figure in ancient armor holding a weapon toward the sky.

Kai tilted his head back to see the top of it. "Who is that?"

"Nobody knows," Gabriel said.

He looked at her. "Seriously?"

Sera laughed. "You’ve said that about almost everything."

Gabriel shrugged. "That’s Nexus."

Lily had already walked up to the base of the statue. "There are inscriptions."

"Most of them are damaged," Gabriel said. "Some can still be translated."

Lily’s eyes lit up, and Kai sighed. "Lily, we’re here for Aegis."

"I know."

"Then stop trying to investigate everything."

"I’m not," she said, her phone already raised as she snapped pictures of the inscriptions one after another.

Kai watched her for a moment. "...You’re investigating everything."

Lily smiled without lowering the phone. "Maybe."

They hadn’t made it far across the plaza when a middle-aged woman stopped in front of them and stared at Gabriel. Her eyes widened, and she looked again to be sure. "Archbishop Gabriel?"

Before Gabriel could answer, the woman bowed deeply. "Archbishop!"

Heads turned all around them. The name and title passed from one group to the next in whispers, and within seconds a small crowd had formed. A few people bowed, while others stepped aside to give her room.

Kai glanced at Sera, and she looked just as surprised as he was.

Gabriel let out a quiet sigh. "I was hoping to avoid this."

"You’re an Archbishop?" Kai asked.

"You knew that."

"I knew you were part of the Church. You never mentioned people would start bowing."

Gabriel smiled. "I don’t normally walk through the city with you."

A young Hunter approached carefully. "Welcome back, Archbishop Gabriel."

She nodded to him. "Thank you."

An older man bowed beside him. "May the Astral Light guide you."

Gabriel returned the greeting, and Kai watched the faces around them. Several people smiled at her the way they might smile at a neighbor they hadn’t seen in a while, and one woman pressed a hand to her chest as if she was relieved to see her home safe. Gabriel wasn’t just someone important within the Astral Church. She was someone Nexus knew.

Sera leaned toward Kai. "You really didn’t realize how important she was?"

Kai shook his head. "Apparently not."

Gabriel heard them anyway. "I helped Mythal."

"You helped us a lot," Kai said.

She smiled. "That’s enough."

Before Kai could say anything else, another voice rose from the crowd. "Wait."

The man wasn’t looking at Gabriel anymore. He was looking at Kai, and he took a step closer. "Is that Kai?"

The name moved through the crowd even faster than the Archbishop’s had. Someone asked if he meant the Mythal City Leader, a Hunter nearby said he was right, and then several phones came up at once.

Kai stared at the phones. "Oh no."

Sera laughed. "You were saying?"

"This is going to become troublesome," Gabriel said.

Kai gave her a flat look. "You think?"

A young Hunter pushed his way to the front. "You’re really Kai? The one who cleared the Six Calamities?"

Kai scratched the back of his head. "One of the Hunters who helped."

The Hunter shook his head like he couldn’t believe the answer. "You’re the City Leader, and you survived all three Disasters?"

Kai nodded.

Another Hunter stepped forward. "Did Mythal really clear the Third Disaster?"

Kai hesitated before he answered. "Yes."

"How?"

Kai looked at Gabriel, and Gabriel looked back at him. Neither of them said a word.

A woman in the crowd called out, "Are you here because Nexus has a Disaster coming?"

Kai turned. "What?"

Her face reddened, but she gestured toward him anyway. "Mythal’s City Leader came all the way to Nexus. Why else would you be here?"

That was all it took. Someone suggested he had come to help, someone else said they hadn’t heard any warning, and a third voice insisted the government just hadn’t announced it yet.

"We’re not here because Nexus has a Disaster," Kai said, and the crowd went quiet. "We’re here for another reason."

The young Hunter tilted his head. "Then why are you here?"

Kai glanced at Gabriel, then toward the old towers rising in the distance. "We have some things to investigate."

"Ancient ruins?"

Kai paused. "Something like that."

Lily perked up immediately, and Sera hid a smile behind her hand.

Gabriel sighed. "That’s one way to put it."

The crowd started talking again all at once. Someone mentioned Aegis, someone else said they’d heard the Mythal team was heading toward the old region, and a third person asked whether that was really true.

Kai turned to Gabriel. "How does everyone know where we’re going?"

"This is Nexus."

"I already miss Mythal."

Sera laughed. "You’ve been here for less than an hour."

"Exactly."

Gabriel turned toward the road. "Come on."

Kai followed her out of the plaza, and he could feel the crowd’s eyes on his back the whole way. The phones stayed raised until they turned the corner, and he had a feeling the footage would be on those same giant screens before the day was over.

He looked up at the ancient structures rising between the skyscrapers. Mythal had become important because it had survived, but Nexus had been standing long before the current era began, and now he was walking straight into its oldest secrets.

Gabriel looked back at him. "Ready?"

Kai kept his eyes on the skyline. "Let’s see what Nexus is hiding."

Somewhere beyond the city, the Ruins of Aegis were waiting.