Chapter 384 -: 383 He is here.

Chapter 384: Chapter: 383 He is here.

Julius and Rosalina stepped out of a narrow alley, both of them keeping their hoods pulled low enough to conceal their faces.

They had teleported directly into a dense cloud above the city, appearing almost directly in front of the statue of the Zlycon ancestor Vitra.

The unexpected arrival had left them with little choice but to descend quickly and find somewhere secluded before anyone could notice them.

Fortunately, Miasma had been with them. Using her illusions, she concealed their appearances long enough for Julius and Rosalina to find a pair of suitable robes from one of the roadside stores.

After changing their clothes and making sure there was nothing about their appearances that would immediately identify them as humans, the three of them had separated.

Miasma had decided to visit the Solarian Family first, and judging from the slight excitement in her voice, she had been looking forward to it.

According to what Julius knew, it had been roughly a thousand years since she had last seen her family. Most of the people she remembered were probably long dead by now, and even those who remained would have changed considerably during such a long period of time.

Still, Julius could understand why she would want to see them again after being away for so long. He and Rosalina had therefore said their goodbyes before Miasma disappeared into the crowd, leaving the two of them to make their way toward the Grand Tournament on their own.

"The crowd is really dense today, huh?"

Julius glanced around as he walked beside Rosalina, keeping his pace steady while avoiding the Zlycons moving in every direction around them.

The streets were so crowded that the entire city almost felt as though it were celebrating a festival.

Vendors had appeared along the roads, spectators were discussing the tournament excitedly, and countless Zlycons were making their way toward the coliseum or gathering around the other important locations throughout the capital.

Considering what was happening today, the enormous crowd was hardly surprising. The preliminary rounds of the Grand Tournament were going to be held, drawing spell casters and spectators from across the Zlycon territory, but that was not the only reason the city was so lively.

Today was also the day the human representatives were expected to arrive.

Julius had gathered enough information from the Zlycons he had encountered to understand how significant their arrival was.

The humans and Zlycons had already been standing dangerously close to open war before Julius and Rosalina went into hiding, and the situation had only continued to deteriorate in their absence.

The decision to invite human representatives to Heart Reach for negotiations was therefore far more important than a simple diplomatic meeting.

If the negotiations succeeded, there might still be a chance to prevent the conflict from escalating into a full-scale war. If they failed, however, Julius doubted there would be much left to stop the two sides from finally going to war.

"So the situation has escalated this much..."

Julius couldn’t help but frown beneath his hood. He had expected the conflict to become serious, but seeing the city prepare for the arrival of human representatives made the situation feel considerably more real.

There were too many powerful figures gathered here, and with the Grand Tournament taking place at the same time, even a small incident could potentially spiral into something much larger.

Julius had no intention of getting involved in the conflict unnecessarily, but he also knew that his own circumstances made remaining completely uninvolved almost impossible. The moment someone discovered his identity, everything could change.

"We’re here."

Rosalina’s voice broke him out of his thoughts.

Julius followed her gaze and raised his head. For several seconds, he simply stared.

"...Is there any explanation that can properly describe what I’m seeing?"

His voice carried genuine awe, and even Rosalina remained silent for a moment as she looked at the enormous structure before them.

"I don’t think so."

The two of them had technically seen the tower before, but their previous view had been from such a great distance that the 101 Treasure Tower had looked almost like a thin bamboo stalk piercing the sky.

Standing before it now was an entirely different experience. The tower was unimaginably wide, its surface stretching upward farther than Julius could comfortably comprehend, while its upper reaches disappeared into the heavens.

The area surrounding it was nothing like the empty landscape Julius had once imagined either. Countless Zlycons moved around its base, with roads, shops, and other structures surrounding the tower as though it were the center of an entire district.

It wasn’t simply a tower, it was more like a landmark.

And everything about its construction made that obvious.

The designs carved across its enormous walls were unlike anything Julius had encountered before, combining an ancient elegance with a sense of sheer permanence that made the structure feel as though it had existed long before the current generation of Zlycons and would continue to exist long after they were gone.

Even from where Julius stood, he could feel the strange pressure emanating from it. The material itself looked almost like reinforced alloy, yet Julius knew that comparing it to ordinary metal was meaningless.

According to everything he had learned, the tower was so durable that even an asteroid crashing directly into it would probably fail to leave a meaningful mark.

The 101 Treasure Tower.

Julius’s gaze slowly travelled upward.

This was the very tower he had wanted to enter for so long. More importantly, this was where he hoped to obtain the Invincible Path Legacy left behind by the Zlycon ancestor Vitra.

Countless mysteries surrounded the tower, and even after everything Julius had learned about Vitra and the Zlycons, he still didn’t know what awaited him inside. Yet merely standing before it made the goal feel strangely close.

Almost without thinking, Julius stepped closer and raised his right hand. His palm pressed against the enormous wall.

The surface was cold and unbelievably firm beneath his fingers. Julius applied a little pressure, more out of curiosity than any genuine attempt to damage it, but the wall didn’t even tremble. There wasn’t the slightest indication that his strength had affected it.

"I wonder how that guy made this thing..."

Julius muttered, staring at the wall with genuine curiosity. Vitra had left behind countless mysteries, but the tower might have been the greatest of them all.

Building something of this scale was already difficult enough to imagine, yet creating it from a material that even Julius suspected he couldn’t damage made the accomplishment even more absurd.

Several nearby Zlycons noticed what he was doing. Their expressions immediately changed.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Don’t touch the tower!"

"That’s the sacred tower of our ancestor!"

Julius glanced toward them, then clicked his tongue and withdrew his hand. He hadn’t expected such a strong reaction from something as simple as touching the wall, although considering how much reverence the Zlycons had for Vitra, perhaps he should have expected it.

"Alright, alright."

He gave Rosalina a slight nod, and the two of them continued walking toward the enormous coliseum where the preliminary rounds would soon begin.

As they moved through the crowd, Julius quietly reached beneath his robe and touched the tracking artifact he had been carrying. The artifact responded almost immediately, confirming the location of the person he had been searching for.

Julius’s eyes narrowed slightly. Alfred’s location had not changed since earlier.

He was here. More importantly, he was inside the Grand Tournament’s coliseum.

"He is here..." Julius murmured.