Chapter 38: Physical Door Opening
From the moment Joshua decided to head toward the giant pyramid until their arrival, it honestly didn't take much time at all—only a few minutes in total.
Gold-rank experts could fly at supersonic speeds, and with the fluorescent white mist serving as a beacon, none of the group had to worry about losing their way. Naturally, they quickly reached the side of the massive pyramid.
From the side, they could see that the tracks of this miraculous mobile fortress bore obvious signs of weathering and erosion. The surrounding environment's corrosion of mana and matter had inevitably turned these once-perfect creations into the rust-covered state they were in now. From a distance, it looked fine, but up close, many parts had clear cracks, with yellow-black stains everywhere.
However, in contrast, Joshua noticed no traces of time's erosion on the silver-white, trapezoidal pyramid body itself. While carrying Lin on his back, he even observed that on the three smooth, stairless faces of the pyramid, there were actually countless reliefs. It was just that these reliefs were so enormous, combined with the lack of bright light sources in this world, that they had been completely unnoticeable when viewed from afar earlier.
At the top of these reliefs were cloud-like waves, and below them were totems of countless birds of various kinds. Further down were patterns of earth and ocean, with mountains, cities, crowds, and massive ships all depicted within—as if painting an entire world.
And the crystal sphere floating at the pyramid's base naturally symbolized the sun—just like in this world, where the sun was shrouded in a black curtain and the sky was dim and lightless. The golden light within this crystal sphere was also extremely faint, as if it might go out at any moment. Yet even so, it vaguely emitted a sacred, orderly force that maintained its own form.
"Indescribably magnificent... But logically, over a thousand years have passed. How can it still maintain such a perfect exterior?"
Joshua stopped mid-air, studying this colossal structure before him with serious thought. "Such a massive fortress, surviving without being destroyed by the Wild Gods, must have some means of self-defense. Approaching recklessly carries some risk... I need to test it first."
Without hesitation, he gathered a ball of crimson Battle Qi in his hand and then 'sent' it far away toward the pyramid's vicinity. Strangely enough, this ball of Battle Qi encountered no obstacles at all. It simply shrank slowly on its own and naturally dissipated before even touching the silver-white steel reliefs.
"An energy-draining type of defense... If that's the case, it's not really a threat."
Nodding thoughtfully, Joshua gleaned quite a bit of information from that test. "The reasoning holds up too."
Lin, still being carried on his back, hesitated for a moment before speaking softly, "Master, I think the Divine Mechanism aura I sensed earlier doesn't come from the Divine Mechanism wreckage underground, but from here."
As he spoke, he pointed toward the middle area of the giant pyramid. "The aura is inside, and it's very distinct."
"Inside, huh?"
After a moment of contemplation, Joshua turned sideways and said to Moria and Claire behind him, "You two, we're going to land."
This was already the group's goal, so before long, they all landed on the base of this mobile city.
Mottled rust covered the entire massive base forged from steel. On this metal platform large enough to hold a city, clearly visible traces of decay were present, covered in dense, strange cracks. Even the remnants left behind by moss and mold from ages past could be clearly seen.
Amidst his admiration, Joshua also noticed that ever since he stepped onto this base, all the negative status effects on him had vanished. At this moment, the warrior felt as if he had returned to a normal world, no longer needing to expend energy to resist the invasion of chaotic forces outside.
But just as he was carefully observing the surroundings, searching for any possible remaining clues, a loud voice suddenly came from behind him.
"I found a complete skeleton here. Come take a look."
Moria's voice was as booming as any other dwarf's, and even though he was old and his voice somewhat hoarse, it was still enough to carry across the area. Joshua quickly walked over, following the old dwarf's gaze as he looked down and saw a corpse that had nearly turned to bone, wedged in a crevice of the base's steel floor.
Claire also arrived. Looking at the skeleton, she used her mana to conjure three phantom vine tendrils, carefully reaching into the crevice to retrieve it and bring it before the group.
Joshua crouched down, seriously examining this skeleton, which had no remaining clothing. Within two seconds, he had roughly reconstructed in his mind the image of the skeleton's owner in life.
This was a race very similar in appearance to humans, with similar facial features and body structure. The difference was that this race had one or more pairs of wings, and their bones were more fragile. As for internal organs, based on the bone distribution, the positions and functions of their organs were likely very different from humans—this was evident from the fact that their ribs were a single plate of bone rather than individual strips.
"This skeleton looks a bit like the Yaron Winged Humans, who went extinct due to drastic environmental changes before the legendary Era of Radiance."
Claire also noticed a hint of familiarity. "In the Druid Historical Witness Hall of the Far South, there are fossilized skeletons of the Yaron Winged Humans on display. They do share similarities with this skeleton."
"But that doesn't help us much with our current situation."
Slowly standing up, Joshua frowned deeply. Just as he was about to suggest looking for other peculiarities, his eyes suddenly narrowed.
In the grime beside the skeleton, he vaguely spotted a few characters.
"Wait."
He immediately set the skeleton aside and used Battle Qi to sweep across the surface of the steel base, clearing away all the grime, rust, and various other messy debris. Instantly, dozens of clearly visible characters appeared before Joshua's eyes. "There are words here... This is a metal plate that fell over many years ago. If I hadn't looked carefully, I wouldn't have noticed it."
Without another word, Joshua thoroughly cleaned all the dust and rust off this metal plate, revealing a smooth, small stone slab about three meters long and two meters wide before the group.
"I can't read the script."
After looking for a while, the old dwarf simply shook his head. "At first glance, it does seem similar to the Common Tongue, but it's actually completely different."
Claire hesitated for a moment, then read out a word or two. "'Even though, the Crystal Sun...'" But that was just one or two words. The elf shook her head again. "This language has a trace of similarity to Astral Language, but only a trace."
Joshua naturally couldn't understand it at all. He was originally just the son of a count from a rural place—the Northern Lands were indeed a rural area—and even counting his past life, he was just a PvP-specialized Legendary player. How could he possibly distinguish such high-end things as an otherworldly language?
But not understanding was one thing—he had the system!
"System, translate."
With Joshua's command, a progress bar faithfully appeared before his eyes.
40%, 42%, 46%... 100%
The progress bar jumped rapidly. After just a few minutes, the system prompt indicated a successful translation.
"It's not a magical language, just a variant of the Common Tongue. Translating it wasn't difficult at all."
Joshua read aloud the translation results provided by the system:
"'Even if the heavenly sun goes out, we shall use the elements as a furnace to recast the Crystal Sun.'"
"'Even if heaven and earth decay, we shall use steel as a dome to reshape the land of life.'"
"'The people of Carlis never give up. Even if the world is destroyed, we will struggle to survive on the bones of the world.'"
Apart from the opening, which was like a slogan, the rest of the steel plate was filled with various words of praise and sentences, as well as a rough outline of their history. This was more or less the same as what Joshua knew from the old steward's secret letter, and even if there were minor discrepancies, he didn't pay them much attention.
Overall, after roughly reading through this metal plate, Joshua understood why the mobile fortress beneath him had been built.
The people of Carlis—let's call them that for now—were once a magical civilization race with extremely advanced alchemy. Their void ships could travel through the Astral Void, roam multiple worlds, and had a certain reputation in the Multiverse. Their Grand Alchemy, in theory, could destroy the entire surface of a world or reshape its ecosystem.
However, due to a sneak attack by a certain Void Evil God, their civilization's finest creations were destroyed in an instant. Additionally, their civilization's style was countered—pure-energy Mana firearms couldn't inflict massive damage on the Evil God's minions, the Wild Gods, unlike Battle Qi and solid-projectile firearms. This led to one defeat after another in their resistance. After the decisive battle on the plains, they couldn't even hold their home world and were forced to retreat to various mobile war fortresses to resist the tide-like armies of Wild Gods.
During their resistance, their alchemy advanced by leaps and bounds, the completion of their Divine Mechanisms grew higher and higher, and their mobile fortresses became increasingly massive. To some extent, they could even counterattack. But as the entire world of Carlis was eroded by Chaos, the 'Heavenly Fire'—the sun—gradually went out, plunging the land into an eternal winter. Everything decayed, making survival impossible, and they nearly faced extinction... It was then that someone proposed creating a new ecosystem within an artificial environment—which was the origin of the giant pyramid fortress beneath Joshua and the others' feet.
The later history wasn't described much, but Joshua knew that this endeavor didn't lead them to success. In the end, just when the people of Carlis saw a glimmer of hope for victory, the Void Evil God's true body was finally able to extend a single tentacle into this nearly fully corrupted world, completely crushing their resistance. The Divine Mechanisms, forged from Wild God crystals as raw materials and lacking self-will like Joshua's Ying and Lin, how could they resist the Evil God's call? Naturally, they turned traitor in battle.
"It seems that giant crystal sphere should be the 'Crystal Sun' mentioned in the inscription."
After finishing reading all the text on the stone slab, Joshua looked up at the pyramid under the gaze of Moria and Claire, who were staring at him as if he were an alien creature. "What mechanism could remain in perfect condition for hundreds or even thousands of years? Even if it could, in this decaying, fireless world, it's impossible."
He called out to the group behind him, who were looking at him almost like a monster. "Let's hurry. We need to make good time and explore the interior of this pyramid as quickly as possible... Hopefully, we can find some supplies."
(To be continued.)