Chapter 95: Into Hell. Part-6.
Royal Capital Velmoira, Eastern Outskirts.
Temple of Resilience.
"This temple is located on a hill; it’s pretty visible from afar... are you sure this is the safe hideout you were talking about?"
Walking through the damaged corridor filled with rubble, Zephyr could not help but feel doubtful in his heart.
They were both trying to keep a low profile inside the capital city, but this temple was located on the peak of a massive hill; it was a very conspicuous building that could be noticed from kilometers away!
"There’s no other way... most of the underground hiding places that I was originally thinking of using have likely been submerged by this miasmic flood..."
"Even I hadn’t expected the capital city to have been flooded by so much miasma..."
Xinran took a deep sigh and continued to speak while moving forward,
"You might have already noticed it but let me clear your doubts; the presence of Light Elementals and ’Purification’ magic in this temple is extremely high due to how it was built..."
"Every stone used to build this temple was blessed by a powerful light elemental mage and some legends say that fairies used to live in this temple once upon a time..."
Velmoira was not always the same capital city it is now; before humans ever set foot on this land, fairies wandered on the continent and cooperated with ancient humans to build temples in various places.
"This temple has existed in this place since time immemorial... It was already here many many years before the Jauregia Empire even came to exist."
"The main reason why this place is still intact to this day is because the light elementals here are able to resist and purify the miasma falling on this temple from the sky..."
"Creatures of darkness and corruption will feel uncomfortable when looking at this place, and thus most of them cannot even get close to this hill... let alone enter the temple."
"Although the light elementals here cannot stop the mighty ’Vessel of Corruption’ from invading the temple, they can protect against weaker demonic and corrupted creatures..."
Following Xinran, Zephyr entered the main prayer hall and noticed that the style and architecture of this temple were completely different from what he had seen back on Earth.
There were no luxurious decorations or any sort of expensive metals like gold or silver.
But even without that, the interior was extremely beautiful!
The floor was made up of white marble that seemed to be shining with an aura of holiness, and the walls were made up of silverish stones that had various murals engraved on them.
Although most of the murals were difficult to understand due to the damage caused by the passage of time, there were some that Zephyr could make sense of.
In one of the murals, several little fairies were showering flowers on an altar where a sword was embedded in the middle as if it were waiting for a worthy master to arrive and wield it.
And on another mural, there was a map engraved with an unknown maze. Zephyr had a feeling that this map might come in handy some day in the future, so he spent a full ten seconds to observe it properly and remember it completely.
With his powerful physique and mental capacity, he almost had a photographic memory, and once he remembered something properly, he would never forget it easily.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to draw a map at the moment on paper to take with him, so he could only keep the map stored in his memory for now.
’Man, I am starting to miss my smartphone now; if I had it, I could have just taken a picture of this...’
’Oh wait... I can let the viewers take a screenshot of it!’
Thinking about this, Zephyr suddenly muttered to himself in a low voice,
"This map might be useful in the future... I must make a paper map of it before leaving the capital... if I had a camera, it would have been better... sigh..."
[Rolling_Crocodile: Don’t worry, anchor; I have already taken a screenshot for you!! All hail the great tank god!!]
[Jumping_Koala: Idiot, even if you take a screenshot, what use would it be? It’s not like you can show it to the anchor. The other party can’t even see the comment section!]
[Invincible_Bob: It doesn’t matter if the anchor can’t see it; we must prove our faith to the great tank god by following his words. If he says the map is important, then it is!]
[Blue_Dinosaur: I am more surprised by the fact that this broken livestream actually has a screenshot function, recording function, and other edit-making functions.
We can’t even bring these clips or photos outside because it’s all happening inside our head! So what’s the point of having these functions if you can’t post these photos and videos on the internet!?]
[Invincible_Bob: Actually, I think it is a good thing that we can’t bring the photos and clips from the stream outside.
Remember the last player that got teleported to the goblin cave?... Imagine what would have happened if those clips and photos had circulated in the internet and reached children.]
[Rolling_Crocodile: Ah man, because of the awesomeness of our great tank god, I almost forgot that players are supposed to die a horrible death in this game world every other day.
Thankfully, we now have our great and mighty god of indestructible tanks, so we don’t have to worry about watching those gruesome scenes anymore! All Hail the Great Tank God!]
[Energetic_Panda: I have a feeling that this temple holds a lot of mysteries... Is anyone else feeling the same?]
[Invincible_Bob: Well, Goddess Xinran did say that it’s a temple that’s centuries or even thousands of years old, so obviously it involved a lot of mysteries about this world. I wonder if we will get to see a fairy someday.]
[Jumping_Koala: Am I the only one who’s noticed that the anchor and Goddess Xinran are still holding hands despite being inside the temple where there’s no miasmic rain?]
...
’Good, They have already taken the screenshot.’
Ignoring the chatter of the viewers, Zephyr followed Xinran towards the centre of the main prayer hall where an oval statue with engravings of stars and various other celestial objects carved on it was.
The oval statue floated two meters above the pedestal below with the help of the light elementals circling around it like little mischievous dragons.
Although most of the statue was damaged and it was difficult to make sense of the engravings on it, Zephyr could instinctively feel that this was not an ordinary statue.
"This is a depiction of the ’Universe’. The Faires believed in the ’World’ and The ’Universe’ itself and regarded it as their ultimate creator and god!"
"This statue here can be considered a ’Map’ of the entire ’Universe’, unfortunately, this statue got damaged in the past and has lost the ability to impart the knowledge of the full map of the universe to others..."
"Legends say that back in the age when fairies walked on this land, this statue could grant immense powers, blessings, and the knowledge of the universe’s various great treasures to those who prayed to it sincerely!"
The oval statue had cracks everywhere, and many of its major pieces were missing, and yet the aura of holiness radiating from it was insanely powerful.
Just the light elementals revolving around it were powerful enough to rival the same intensity of light that Zephyr produces when using the ’Obelisk’ to cover his body with purification magic.
’These light elementals floating around the statue must be the source of all the purification magic in this temple. No wonder miasma hasn’t managed to corrupt this place...’
Just when Zephyr was busy staring at the statue, Xinran pointed her finger to a small dot located near the lowermost part of the statue and spoke with a smile,
"You see this dot? This is the dot representing the position of our galaxy cluster! Look, there are even golden markings and ancient words engraved here!"
"These ancient words mean ’Home’!"
Hearing those words, Zephyr’s eyes narrowed a bit, and the word ’Home’ echoed in his mind like a loud bell.
’Home...’
Thinking about this word, the rented flat from Earth came to mind.
’I don’t even know if I am in the same world anymore, is Earth in this universe or have I travelled to a completely different one?’
’Sigh... I wonder if I will ever be able to go back there...’
Looking at Xinran who was smiling while looking at those golden characters, Zephyr could only sigh in helplessness.
’We both are unfortunate souls that are yearning for a ’Home’ that is now too far away from our grasp...’
Zephyr was now in a completely different place and timeline; he had no idea where his home was, and Xinran was even more unfortunate, as she had seen her home crumble apart right in front of her eyes.
Zephyr still had some hope of returning to his home, but Xinran held no such hopes, as the nation she was a princess of was now a long-forgotten dream.