Chapter 167: Aetheris Holy City

Chapter 167: Chapter 167: Aetheris Holy City

When those two weapons appeared, Jeremy understood.

His current strength was the exact power the owner of this identity possessed in that timeline. The ring didn’t give him anything extra - it merely unlocked what already belonged to this body.

And those two weapons were likely divine artifacts exclusive to the Mermaid royal family. In the library, he had seen illustrations of them, accompanied by a caption: upon reaching adulthood, every prince and princess would be bestowed by the gods with a pair of weapons engraved with the royal mark.

He tried to put them away using his will.

The flute and the blade dissolved into two streams of light, slipping into the ring.

Success.

But if he truly had to grope his way to the Ice Dragon territory, it was best to sneak in while still concealing his racial traits. Fish scales and ear fins were not things that could be hidden under a hood.

Jeremy stood up and walked outside, deciding to find a way.

Actually, there was a way to seal racial traits for a short period, or even transform entirely into an Ice Dragon form. He had read about it in a book regarding foreign secret arts. It was just a bit troublesome.

He had to leave the sea region and head to the city of the Angel race to obtain the Illusion Dream Pearl.

According to the route on the map, Aetheris Holy City - where the Angel race lived - was situated on a western plateau, a half-day’s journey from the coast.

Jeremy looked at those coordinates twice more to be certain.

That was the exact spot where Griffin had thrown Jeremy and Evelyn’s group down when they first entered the Wasteland. Back then, it was nothing but a pile of ruins with broken stone pillars.

Jeremy did not expect the coverage range of this illusion to be this vast. It didn’t just recreate a single palace. It recreated an entire world.

For a Mermaid to leave the sea region entailed massive risks. On land, they were at least thirty percent weaker than underwater. But currently, there was no other way.

The Angel race maintained a neutral stance, never interfering in the disputes between races. And they were currently in their open period - opening for only one month each year for other races to enter the city and trade. Missing this chance meant he had no idea how long he would have to wait.

Having weighed his options, early morning on the fourth day, Jeremy set off following the route on the map.

Because this matter pertained to the coming-of-age ceremony, no Mermaid accompanied him.

Lorelin saw him off at the palace gates, her eyes red, stuffing a small pouch containing medicine and dry rations into his hand, repeatedly reminding Jeremy to return safely. Otherwise, it could be considered quite free.

It took a day for him to leave the sea region.

The closer he swam to the water surface, the more the pressure decreased, and the more uncomfortable his body felt. By the time his head popped out of the sea surface, taking his first breath of air, Jeremy coughed violently for a while.

Coming ashore, Jeremy downed the potion bottle Lorelin had given him. The thick liquid smelling of seaweed slid down his throat, and immediately after, the legs that occasionally had a tendency to stick together into a fish tail stabilized once more.

As for the layer of scales on his neck and wrists, and the thin fins growing at the tips of his ears, the medicine could not conceal them. They could only be covered with clothes and a face veil.

He covered himself tightly. A long cloak sweeping the heels, a hood pulled down low, a face veil wrapped up to the bridge of his nose, and gloves pulled past his wrists.

Fortunately, he wasn’t the only one dressed like that, so it didn’t draw any attention.

The road leading up to the plateau was packed with people. All sorts of races - some bearing horns, some sprouting feathers on their shoulders, some twice as tall as an ordinary person. And many, like him, did not expose a single inch of skin.

While lining up for the city entrance inspection, he even saw a group covering themselves much more flamboyantly than he did - an entire group of seven or eight people wearing identical black cloaks, their faces wearing metal masks, even their hands tightly wrapped in cloth. They were clearly hiding their identities as well.

The city gate guard - an Angel with pure white wings folded behind their back - merely glanced at each person’s pass before waving them in. No one was forced to take off their mask.

Aetheris Holy City was completely different from the pile of ruins in Jeremy’s memory.

White towers reached for the sky, connected by suspended bridges without supporting pillars. Glass domes reflected the sunlight into rainbow streaks on the streets. The air smelled fragrantly of exotic flowers and incense.

Jeremy originally intended to quickly snatch an Illusion Dream Pearl and withdraw. But having only taken a few dozen steps into the city, he saw a figure ahead.

A tall, slender build exactly identical to Lucius. The lazy gait with the shoulders slightly tilted to the left, exactly identical. Even the length of the silver hair cascading down the back matched perfectly.

...Could it be that they had been swept in here too?

Seeing the other party about to blend into the crowd, Jeremy hastily tailed him.

He squeezed through the flow of people, bumping into the shoulder of a horned man, almost stepping on the tail of a girl belonging to some unknown race. He called out:

"Lucius!"

But his voice was entirely swallowed by the noise of the market. The figure ahead did not turn back at all.

Left with no choice, Jeremy had to borrow magic power to accelerate, gliding past three or four people in a single beat.

Getting closer, Jeremy caught the scent on the other person - a cold, faint scent like the first snow, a scent he was so accustomed to that he could recognize it even with his eyes closed.

Confirming he hadn’t seen wrong, he decisively reached out and grabbed the person’s sleeve.

The exact moment he touched it, a massive surge of power erupted from the other party. Magic power transformed into ice thorns, piercing backward in all directions from all over Lucius’s body.

Jeremy was forced to retract his hand, leaning his body to dodge.

"?"

Did he really mistake him for someone else?

He looked up.

No mistake.

The facial features were the same. The icy blue eye color was the same. Even the tear mole under the left eye matched down to the millimeter. It was precisely Lucius.

Just as he was wondering if this person was an illusion constructed from his own memories, Jeremy abruptly realized those ice thorns were not aimed at him at all. They grazed past his shoulder, flying straight backward.

In less than a few seconds, several explosive sounds rang out behind his back, accompanied by cries of pain.

Jeremy turned around.

Only then did he see several figures hiding in a dark alley by the street. Those struck by the ice thorns were rolling on the ground, the killing intent around them no longer concealable, flaring up like a fanned flame.

Furthermore, through the cloaks torn by the ice thorns, Jeremy saw patches of dark blue scales on their arms.

The opponents were... the Ice Dragon race.

"Let’s go." Lucius’s voice rang by his ear, low and succinct.

In a situation where the opponent’s strength was unclear, engaging in combat in an unfamiliar place yielded no benefits. Let alone the fact that the opponents were the mortal enemies of Mermaids - if his true identity were discovered right in the middle of the street, it would be a huge trouble.

Jeremy chose to listen, temporarily retreating.

The two slipped through the crowd, turning into an alley, then into another. Behind them, there was still the sound of footsteps tailing them, sometimes near, sometimes far.

Twenty minutes later.

Having shaken off the tail, they stopped in a deserted alley at the edge of the city, flanked by high stone walls, with a narrow strip of sky overhead. Jeremy leaned his back against the wall, catching his breath before turning to him: "Are those dragonkin hunting you?"

Lucius gave a "yeah", brushing off a few broken ice fragments still clinging to his shoulder, paying it little mind: "I killed their comrades two days ago, so I was targeted."

"Why?"

Lucius glanced at him, then pointed at his own face, his voice as calm as if talking about the weather: "Too handsome. That guy wanted to peel off my skin to use."

Jeremy: "..."

A moment of silence. He decided not to delve deeper into that topic, automatically skipping it: "How long have you been swept in here?"

"Counting today, it’s four days."

Four days.

"Same as me." Jeremy said. "If both of us are here, then Leon’s group is definitely somewhere in the city too."

"Perhaps. I haven’t met anyone so far."

Jeremy also knew that gathering everyone wasn’t easy. He went ahead and asked his prior doubt: "When you were separated from me, where did you all go?"

Lucius leaned his shoulder against the opposite wall, thinking for a bit: "We were still standing in the same spot, as you instructed. We waited for a long time and didn’t see you return, so we split up to search. Then we lost each other. By the time I woke up, I was already lying in an alley in this city."