Death... and me

Chapter 3349: Only That

Hearing Roan's words, they all turned their attention to him, waiting for his explanation.

"The plants here were completely adapted to live with Starlight Energy. What does that mean? That means they had to evolve over the years to become like that. I told you before, didn't I? The key word here was 'evolution.' They needed time to evolve, and time was what they acquired," Roan concluded his explanation.

"So that's how it is..." Everyone understood. Time in this place flowed differently, and it did at an extremely fast pace. What was just a few months outside, here it took who knows how many hundreds, maybe even thousands of years. "No wonder the city is already falling apart."

[Well, at least it was.] Sister Orb's voice echoed in everyone's ears. [I can guarantee you. At the moment, time is flowing at the same pace as outside. Whatever accelerated time before is definitely not doing it now.]

"It doesn't matter," Roan didn't seem to mind. "What matters is the source of Starlight Energy," he said, looking above, his eyes focusing on the top of the ginormous pyramid.

It wasn't possible to see it before because it was too bright due to all the 'stars' in the sky. However, now that they were close, it became very clear that there was something at the top of the pyramid emanating a pure light, a light they knew way too well. Starlight Energy, a lot of it!

"Kentucky, fly up there," Rean asked, getting excited. If they could get that source, everything else would be meaningless. They can just turn back and get out of this place.

"Why?" Kentucky asked, confused.

"Why?" The question made Rean confused instead. "Because of the source of Starlight Energy, obviously. Fly up there so we can grab it."

"Then you can give up," Kentucky spoke, his much better eyes also focused at the top. "That source is not outside of the Pyramid. It is inside. The top of the pyramid is acting more like an exit channel for all that excess amount of Starlight Energy. Flying up there won't help us at all. In fact, the entire pyramid is acting as a huge Starlight Energy spreader. It's just that the top is a lot smaller than the rest of the pyramid, so it is hard to perceive the Starlight Energy coming from the rest of its body."

Rean narrowed his eyes. "Can you see any entrance up there, perhaps some opening where all the Starlight Energy is coming from?"

"No," Kentucky shook his head. "As far as I can see, the entire thing is tightly closed. Of course, I will be able to see better if we get closer."

Roan then looked in the direction Herbert said his group was moving from. "Herbert did mention he would need Rean to get inside the Pyramid. Maybe only he knows how to do it."

Finally, they passed through the city walls, now flying above the old constructions of the city, still a little far from the pyramid, though. "There isn't a single soul around. Where is everyone?"

"Kentucky, go down. Let's take a look around first," Roan asked.

*Flap, flap, flap...*

Kentucky quickly landed in the middle of a big street and returned to his humanoid form. "Is this what you mean by a ghost town?"

"It isn't far for sure..." Rean nodded. "Still, this is weird. If everyone had died, we should be able to see some clues regarding their deaths. Maybe battle scars, or at least the signs of skeletons and things like that. Yet, everything is completely empty. In fact..."

Rean went into one of the buildings that hadn't collapsed yet. On the floor, by a corner, there was a piece of cloth stuck between some debris. Similar clothes could be seen on other parts that hadn't been taken by the plant life yet. "These are obviously divine clothes, made to be resistant and to last a long time. The way they are lying around, they aren't products on sale or anything like that. Instead, those using these clothes simply left them behind as they were."

Roan agreed with Rean on that point. "Exactly. It is more likely that the people using the clothes simply disappeared all at once."

He then collected a ring from the ground as well. No doubt it was a Spatial Ring. Unfortunately, too long had passed, so the inscriptions that kept that Spatial Ring working were long broken, and whatever was inside had been thrown into the fabric of space. If they weren't destroyed by the Spatial Storms straight away, they would still end up on some random corners of the Universe.

"A lot of those investigating the phenomenon wanted to come here for these rings and the city's resources. Now, not much remained..." Rifindio couldn't help but comment.

"Kentucky, metals are different. They won't just disappear in a few thousand years. Can you feel any good metal here for us to collect?" Rean asked, making sure to not lose that opportunity.

Yet, Kentucky shook his head. "Nothing at all. I can't feel the presence of any kind of metal. At the very least, no metal that would spark my hunger."

"Eh?" Rean narrowed his eyes. That was hard to believe. Kentucky almost always felt them every time he entered any city as long as the city wasn't occupied by inhabitants of much lower levels than Kentucky himself. It's just that he wouldn't go around stealing them. 

Rean paid attention to the Spatial Ring Roan was holding, and then he had an idea. "I want to find a blacksmith workshop to take a look."

No one minded it, and they walked further into the city until they found a workshop. Even if things were falling apart, it wasn't hard to identify what each commercial building was used for. Inside, Rean went to the workshop at the back, ignoring the old weapons at the front.

Finally, when he came back, he threw a few pieces of metal in front of his group, pointing at them. "This one here is Franquel Steel Alloy. This one is a simple Deep Blue Divine Iron Variant. As for this one, Kentucky has been eating quite a bit of it in our Dimensional Realm."

"I am?" Kentucky looked at that piece of metal, which seemed nothing out of the norm. "That's not possible. This is not a metal I would put in the mouth."

Rean faintly smiled, channeling a little of his Divine Energy inside. As if water falling into sand, the metal absorbed all of it instantly, emanating a very faint aura in the process. "Recognize it now?"

"It's Searing Sky Aluminum!" Kentucky finally recognized it. "But... how did I not feel its presence?"

"Because all of its Divine Energy properties have been completely wiped out. At the moment, it isn't much different from normal Aluminum at all," Rean explained, looking around. "Everything that had Divine Energy had met the same fate. Nothing in this city is of any use anymore. Anyone coming here, wishing to strike it rich with all the resources of a city, will return back home with empty hands."

Coming outside the workshop, they looked at the pyramid in the distance. "The only thing remaining is truly that pyramid, and only that."

And as always, any Golden Tickets and Stones are welcome. ;)

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