Everyone does not need to travel through all the nine kingdoms to reach Midgard—in fact, after Heimdall’s death, the space of Midgard was fixed on the seventh floor of the nine kingdoms. In this solidified space chain In the back, there are also Nibelungen, the country of the dead, and Niflheim, the underworld. It is said that the situation in those two countries is worse than other places, but Hao Ren has no plans to go there yet.
They arrived at their destination: the twilight capital of Midgard.
Midgard, in the days when the Nordic gods were prosperous, was the "atrium" of the Nine Kingdoms. It is said that Odin led the gods to open up various kingdoms on the branches of Ugudora Hill, and divided the atrium into the place where human beings live. In Vivienne's memory, this continent is actually the "Northern Europe" "Gods" human experiment base and observation test field. But whatever it used to look like here, it's pretty much the same as any other country now.
The sky of Midgard was a reddish lead color, and the extremely dim sky was almost no different from midnight. The turbid and thick clouds covered the dry and twisted land, as if it was about to collapse. Under the canopy of the sky, the scorched land no longer looks like it used to. Thick smoke and poisonous mist are constantly gushing out from the crisscross gullies, and the tentacles of the eldest son meander out from some of the largest cracks in the ground. , A series of ridge-like protrusions were formed on the post-disaster land. Midgard used to have several rivers flowing through the entire continent and a piece of green mountains, but now the rivers have dried up and the mountains have become bare. Among the scorched mountains, there is hidden the last of this "world". Tinder: The Twilight Zone.
The spherical aircraft glides silently in the darkness, gradually approaching the energy reaction source ahead, and the situation in Twilight City is presented to everyone through holographic projection.
It was a city of unprecedented scale, but also a chaotic, old, crumbling city. Hao Ren saw a dim yellow barrier between the mountains. The barrier was translucent and irregular in shape, as if someone had tried to expand it to its current appearance. Inside the barrier, you can vaguely see a large number of strangely shaped buildings. Those buildings are piled up on top of each other, filling every inch of space in the barrier like some kind of diseased and proliferating biological tissue, just like Wen As Del described.
The spherical aircraft stopped when it was still some distance away from Twilight Capital, and Anthony asked, "Where is the entrance?"
Wendell was obviously not used to this kind of perspective from the sky. He stood on the edge of the platform for a long time to figure out the location of the city. He raised his finger and pointed to the corner of the barrier near the mountains: "There is one of the gates."
"Are there any procedures for entering and exiting?" Hao Ren asked casually.
Wendell just shrugged silently: "Who do the procedures go to?"
Hao Ren quickly understood the meaning of this sentence:
Inside the barrier is the only refuge for human beings, and outside the barrier is endless darkness with no life. This can almost be regarded as a one-way passage between the living and the dead. Except for the light seekers, who would dare to go out through the gate? And in this dark eternal night, who would come in from outside the gate
Perhaps thousands of years ago, the gates of the Twilight City were still passable, but now, even the pass is probably useless.
"After we go in, I'm afraid we will have to deal with the Steam Council," Wendell said, "They manage the city."
When the old man mentioned the name "Steam Council", the expression on his face was a bit complicated, and there was a trace of dissatisfaction in his respect: he respected the city's administrators, but this "Steam Council" did not support the cause of the light seekers very much. . In fact, as a pragmatic ruling group, it is the Steam Council that is constantly reducing the size of the Light Seekers team, and not long ago issued a notice that they will no longer send Light Seekers.
This made Wendell's feelings towards the parliament very complicated.
"Steam Council? We're not very interested in this," Vivienne shook her head. "We want to meet your 'Old Sage' first. He still protects the Twilight City."
An "Old Sage" who popped up suddenly two thousand years ago and has been sheltering humans in Midgard until now, this made Vivienne a lot of interest, she vaguely guessed the identity of this Old Sage, and this is exactly what happened It is an important reason for her to come here.
Wendell looked at Vivienne in surprise: "Of course the Old Sage is still protecting us...but it may not be so easy for you to see him."
Hao Ren raised his eyebrows: "He doesn't see anyone?"
Wendell shook his head: "The Old Sage hasn't shown up for many years, and now only the caretakers in the lower area can see him. There are thousands of people in the Twilight City who want to meet the Old Sage, but ordinary people don't this qualification."
Vivienne smiled slightly: "We are from other countries, I think this identity is enough to arouse the interest of the Old Sage."
Wendell's expression changed instantly, obviously agreeing with Vivienne's words. He pondered for a while: "Well, it makes sense, the Old Sage will be very happy to hear your news. I can send a letter for you through the organization of the light seekers. We still have a little friendship with the caretakers. But no matter what, the Steam Council will definitely pay attention to you—they manage the entire city, and everything that happens inside the barrier cannot be hidden from them. To be honest, I want to avoid provoking the Steam Council as much as possible. They... are very conservative, and I am afraid they will impose stop."
Hao Ren waved his hand to indicate that it didn't matter, and then Anthony controlled the spherical aircraft to approach the gate of Twilight City.
When there was still a distance from the barrier, the aircraft slowly descended, and the group landed directly in the desolate area outside the city: in order not to cause too much commotion, they couldn't fly in with such a big space shuttle .
Before reaching the entrance of the barrier, Hao Ren saw the situation beyond the light curtain.
Outside the barrier is a piece of dry and twisted land. This land has also been eroded by mana storms. Everything on the land shows signs of severe weathering, and a rather old building group can be seen faintly in the severely weathered surface landscape: They are probably the remains of cities more than 2,000 years ago.
This piece of ruins is close to the twilight barrier, and some of the wreckage ruins are even divided into two by the barrier!
"That's the ancient city 'Kamshiron'." Wendell stood beside Hao Ren and explained, playing with the life-support collar around his neck curiously: this small device is more powerful than his original magic amulet. But it was much more advanced. He didn't feel anything while walking in the magic radiation while wearing this thing.
Looking at the ruins of the building divided in two by the light curtain, Hao Ren certainly knew what they meant: "Life and death are separated by a wall."
"When the barrier was raised, the city was just on its edge, so the whole city was divided into two, half of the city survived, and now it has been integrated into a block of Twilight City, while the part outside the barrier becomes This look," Wendell smiled wryly and shook his head, "there was no gate here at the time, so everyone who stayed outside died."
Standing on a large rock protruding from the ground, Lili climbed up and looked into the distance, and suddenly found that there were dots of light in the dark wilderness outside the light curtain. She was surprised: "There are people moving outside the barrier?!"
"That's the collectors," Wendell nodded, "The resources in the Twilight City are always limited. We have to take the risk of mining ore from the darkness outside. Scholars have studied various methods, We were able to open up three mines near Twilight Capital, but it’s a pity that it won’t work any farther away. Come with me, I will know a way after entering the gate, and if we walk from there, we can try not to cause trouble.”
The procession marched through the darkness, toward the majestic curtain of light emitting a soft yellow light.
The Twilight City, as its name suggests, acts as the last beacon of civilization on the land of Midgard shrouded in long night.
It took them half an hour to pass through the ruins of the city outside the barrier. After crossing a large piece of weathered and collapsed building debris, which was almost no different from rocks, a halo that could accommodate three trucks abreast appeared in front of everyone: this road The halo is inlaid on the twilight barrier, and the light curtain inside the halo is obviously thinner than the outside, and this is the gate.
"What is this?" Hao Ren looked at the things outside the gate in surprise.
Outside the gate of the Twilight City is a piece of land that has been artificially leveled. There are hundreds of sculptures scattered here and there, all of them are men, women and children with different expressions. Some of these lifelike portraits are crying, some Some are supporting each other, some are struggling to crawl forward, and the most eye-catching one is the one at the front of the sculpture group: this is an old man sitting on the ground, his legs have shrunk and deformed, but he just sits quietly. Sitting there quietly, facing the door, waving and smiling.
It was as if he was waving and smiling at the entire Twilight City, and it seemed that there was someone standing opposite the light curtain, and the old man was waving goodbye to him.
In this regard, Wendell only said one sentence: "When the barrier is raised, half of the city will remain outside." (To be continued~^~)