Chapter 684: Departing For Central City [Bonus - ]
A sudden sharp intuition flared in the back of her pirate skull, followed immediately by the realization that if she actually asked aloud, she was going to hear an answer that would make her want to gouge her own ears out with a shucking knife...
Before Morwenna could even look away, Eluned paused at the heavy oak doors.
The Lady turned her head over her shoulder, caught Morwenna’s glare, and offered her a sweet venomous smile.
"Farewell, virgin~" Eluned purred.
She dragged one fingertip down the front of his shirt, stopping just above his belt with her emerald eyes looking half-lidded and shameless.
SLAM!
The massive mahogany doors swung shut, the latch clicking into place.
Morwenna stood frozen on the flagstones.
Her face turned a violent shade of purple-red.
Her fingers clenched around Tidebringer’s hilt so hard that the leather groaned under the pressure with her knuckles turning bone-white.
She looked genuinely on the verge of ripping out handfuls of her own hair and screaming a stream of profanity loud enough to shatter the clouds.
"THAT OVERGROWN HOUSEPLANT—!" Morwenna roared, Tidebringer’s tip swinging toward the door.
"Morwenna, breathe," Silas chuckled, placing a firm, calming hand on her shoulder armor. "Save the aggression for Central City."
He turned toward the Elf princess.
"Aeli, take us to the coordinates... In front of the Wall."
Aeliana smiled serenely as she was accustomed to the domestic chaos.
She raised her right hand and snapped her fingers.
SNAP!
Space warped around the entire group, folding the coordinates of Blessed Land in a single heartbeat.
FLASH!
The spatial displacement cleared with a rush of cold high-altitude wind as the lush green hills and floral scents of Blessed Land vanished, replaced by the vast rugged expanse of the Umbral Basin.
Standing before them, squatting across the badlands on its massive steel treads, was The Unmovable Wall.
Three stories of blackened iron-plated hull rose above the rock.
Silas had laid eyes on the mobile fortress several times now, but every encounter still carried a distinct weight.
Each colossal tread plate stood as tall as a house, and above them the armored hull bristled with heavy defense turrets and long-range rail-cannons recessed into the plating, their crystalline targeting arrays humming with a low vibration that traveled straight through the soles of their boots.
The glowing iron emblem of the Wall burned across the bow.
Evelyn swallowed the last spoonful of her ice cream, tossing the empty porcelain bowl into her spatial inventory with a practiced flick of her wrist.
She reached into the deep pouch of her dark hoodie, pulling out a heavy matte-black full-face helmet constructed from dense, vacuum-sealed mythril alloy.
The visor was a strip of opaque, dark-red polarized glass, fitted with internal rune-modulators that disguised voice, breathing, and facial heat signatures.
"Alright," Evelyn said, her voice dropping into a brisk, business-like tone. "Let’s put on our masks... The moment we step into it, we’ll be on our way to Central City."
She lifted the helmet and slid it over her messy bun.
𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
Psssshhhh-CLACK!
The pneumatic seals engaged with a pressurized hiss.
In an instant, the petite tired foul-mouthed twenty-two-year-old girl in an oversized hoodie ceased to exist...
Standing before them was Lord Sky, the legendary cold thirty-year-old male commander of the Unmovable Wall.
The posture shifted entirely, adopting the wide imposing stance of an iron-fisted veteran who had been viewed by millions of followers through his many streams, defeating lords effortlessly.
Silas reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a sleek translucent silver ring inscribed with subtle shifting illusion runes.
It was the dual-polarity Disguise Artifact, forged by Thora’s father in the Underground Mountain Realm, and the exact paired counterpart of the masculine helmet Evelyn had just put on.
He slipped the band onto his right index finger.
Flicker!
A subtle prismatic shimmer rolled down his frame.
His dark hair lengthened and deepened into glossy black.
His features softened into the delicate lines of Kara White with a violet shimmer blooming in both eyes, and his left arm vanished into a neatly pinned sleeve.
His charcoal clothes smoothed into the pristine tailored cut of an elite, complete with subtle shimmering gold filigree along the lapels.
Beside him, Morwenna, Aeliana, and Rika pulled their heavy green traveling cloaks tight, adjusting their deep hoods until their faces were cast in impenetrable shadow, obscuring their features beneath the crest of Blessed Land.
HUUUUUUUUUM!
High above on the flank of the mobile fortress, a massive pressurized bulkhead groaned.
A wide hydraulic ramp slowly descended from the armor plating, clanking against the rocky ground with a heavy metallic thud, revealing the illuminated corridor leading into the heart of the fortress’s spatial jump chambers.
Lord Sky turned with the voice modulator projecting a deep baritone that carried the chill of steel.
"The path is clear... Let’s move."
Kara White smiled, smoothing the pinned left sleeve of her pristine coat, and turned toward the cloaked figures behind her.
"Alright, ladies," Kara said smoothly, her voice carrying the calm, effortless swagger of a woman stepping into her element. "Let’s head inside... Central City is waiting."
The massive hydraulic ramp shuddered, groaning under pneumatic pressure as it retracted into the fortified underbelly of the mobile fortress.
Behind them, the colossal exterior bulkheads sealed shut with a series of heavy echoing thuds, cutting off the wild howling of the northern badlands and plunging the entry bay into the steady mechanical hum of pressurized mana-generators.
’Thankfully I already placed the tile in the Keep so I’m okay...’ Silas thought, after asking the System a few questions, he had managed to make sure that he would be able to plant the tile’s exit coordinates in Central City. ’I wonder where I should put it...’
He couldn’t let the World Council be able to access it after all.
The entry bay opened into the lower industrial holds becoming a maze of steel girders, automated overhead cranes and reinforced containment vaults, and beyond it the main corridor ran paved with interlocking sheets of cold vulcanized steel, lit by long recessed strips of pale cerulean runes along the vaulted ceiling.
Everywhere they looked, personnel were moving with practiced military precision.
Infantry in dark plate, artificers bearing runic wrenches and diagnostic slates, and logistics officers clutching thick ledgers bustled past with their boots ringing crisply against the metal floor.
The moment the imposing figure in the mythril armor and dark-red visor stepped off the ramp, the bustling corridor snapped to attention.
"Lord Sky!"
Crisp salutes rippled through the ranks.
Both male and female troops halted mid-stride, their fists clattering against their breastplates in uniform reverence to the commander of the Unmovable Wall.
Lord Sky offered a disciplined nod.
"At ease. Finalize all cargo stabilization... We initiate the long-range spatial jump within the hour."
"Sir! Yes, sir!" the soldiers chorused, immediately scattering back to their stations with renewed urgency.
Sky turned slightly, gesturing down the wide, illuminated central spine of the vessel.
"I didn’t show you this sector the last time you boarded." His voice rumbled, directing Kara and her cloaked entourage past a secondary security checkpoint lined with heavy kinetic turrets. "This spine connects the lower maintenance rings straight to the primary bridge and control center... It’s where every navigational array, shield node, and dimensional anchor is monitored in real time."
Kara adjusted the pinned left sleeve of her impeccably tailored coat, stepping lightly over the steel threshold.
Her black hair swayed softly against her collar, and her purple eyes scanned the dense conduit lines humming behind reinforced glass with quiet interest.
"Impressive engineering," Kara murmured smoothly, her melodious feminine voice carrying an effortless relaxed swagger. "Though I have to ask... doesn’t living in a massive tin can full of grinding gears and humming conduits get exhausting after a while? You’re surrounded by cold metal twenty-four hours a day."
Sky rolled his armored shoulders with a faint clink of overlapping plates.
"You get used to it. Metal doesn’t rot, metal doesn’t complain, and when three tons of explosive ordnance hit your bedroom wall, thick plating is remarkably comforting compared to garden hedges."
"To each their own," Kara replied with a low amused chuckle. "I’ll take the scent of pine needles and fresh soil over burning machine oil any day."
Behind them, Morwenna, Aeliana, and Rika followed in tight formation, their heavy dark-green cloaks drawn closely around their frames.
The insignia of Blessed Land catching the blue overhead light as beneath her hood, Rika kept both hands tucked against her midsection, cradling the tiny fledgling phoenix resting warm against her collarbone, while Morwenna’s hand never strayed far from Tidebringer’s hilt with her pirate instincts constantly measuring the width of the blast doors.
They reached the end of the central spine, where a pair of reinforced obsidian doors stood framed by complex hydraulic locks.
Sky stepped forward, raising an armored palm toward the polished crystalline panel mounted at eye level.
BZZZZ-CHIRP!
A grid of crimson scanning beams swept across the mythril gauntlet, reading the intricate bio-mana frequencies woven into the suit.
[Biometric Signature Verified: Commander ’Lord Sky’.]
[Welcome to the Command Bridge.]
With a deep hiss, the obsidian doors parted down the center, sliding into the bulkheads to reveal the command center.
The room was broad, occupying the highest forward deck on the fortress’s third story.
A sweeping panoramic observation window composed of multi-layered reinforced quartz curved across the entire front wall, offering an unobstructed view of the rugged basin stretching toward the horizon.
In the center of the chamber sat an elevated command dais surrounded by sunken pit-consoles, where dozens of specialist operators tapped away at glowing interfaces.
Holographic charts, frequency maps, and telemetry readouts floated lazily through the air, casting a vibrant cerulean glow over the polished steel decking.
"Take your seats," Sky commanded, gesturing toward the semi-circular row of high-backed leather chairs arranged near the primary hololithic table.
Standing beside the central tactical console was a woman they hadn’t seen during the chaotic clashes of the Lord War.
She wore a fitted officer’s uniform of dark navy and silver, her sharp, focused eyes glowing with faint amber calculation runes as she tracked three separate floating displays simultaneously.
The moment Sky stepped onto the dais, the officer snapped a rigid, textbook salute.
"Command Bridge fully synchronized, Lord Sky. All secondary turbines are pre-heated, kinetic baffles are pressurized to maximum tolerance, and the dimensional jump array is primed to coordinate specs..."
"Good work," Sky nodded, walking past and sinking into the high-backed captain’s chair in the center of the dais.
Kara smoothly took the seat directly to Sky’s right, crossing one elegant silk-clad leg over the other, while Morwenna, Aeliana, and Rika filed into the adjacent chairs with their eyes scanning the strange machinery in sharp fascination.
A heavy latch clicked on the starboard elevator lift, and a handful of figures stepped onto the bridge.
"Lord Sky!"
Elm bounded forward with a cheerful spring in every step, her long white hair swaying behind her and her bright silver eyes practically sparkling.
A warm affectionate smile lit up her face as she offered an enthusiastic wave to her commander before plopping into the seat beside Sky’s chair.
Her silver eyes slid over to Kara, and her smile softened into something grateful.
She dipped her head in the smallest of bows.
...Elm hadn’t forgotten who had pulled her out of that glass tank.
Behind her came Hiro, Kassandra, and two women in long white cloaks.
Hiro, the tall blindfolded swordsman, moved as still and disciplined as a drawn line.
The black blindfold sat securely across his eyes, and the hilt of his massive double-edged broadsword rose over one shoulder, its sheath strapped across his back.
Despite the blindness obscuring his vision, his posture was faultless, moving through the labyrinth of consoles without a single wasted motion.
He halted three paces before Sky’s chair, dropping to one knee, his head bowed low in solemn contrition.
"Master. I offer my deepest apologies for my disgraceful performance during the Lord War... I failed to hold the perimeter and allowed dishonor to fall upon the—"
"Save it, Hiro," Sky’s synthesized voice cut in calmly, raising a hand to stall the apology. "We’ll review combat later, stand up and take your station."
Hiro paused, bowing his head once more before rising smoothly.
"Understood, Master."
He turned, his blindfold tilting toward Kara and her cloaked entourage, offering a courteous nod before stepping into the shadow of the central tactical pillar.
Kassandra stepped forward next, tall and straight-backed in her pink-tinted tower armor with her helm tucked under one arm and the Divine Aegis tower shield strapped across her back.
She stopped before Kara and the cloaked girls, set a fist over her breastplate, and bowed deeply.
"Lady White, Blessed Land has my thanks," she said, her voice steady and sincere. "After we lost, your people could have chained us. Instead they fed us, healed our wounded, and gave us beds. Even your maids... the one who served me could probably flatten a platoon, and she still smiled while she handed me a chicken thigh that tasted like heaven. I won’t forget it."