Titanfall City.
The boat they were flying on landed in an open area near the city. Other flying vehicles also danced around them, taking off and landing nearby. Like all cities, Titanfall’s security thoroughly checks outside vehicles before allowing entry. So, all flying vehicles were required to land outside the city wall before entering the city.
"We are here," Oliver said, gazing toward the city.
"Yes, we are."
Root scanned the giant city wall, often looking at the glimring runes engraved into the wall.
Oliver noticed it and said, "The mana in the atmosphere is reacting with the runes to create the glimr. When the runes are powered by fuel rods, they will glow a thousand tis stronger.
Root nodded. "I know."
"But you have never seen one this big up close, right?"
"Hmm..."
Although Root was the son of a well-off family, he hadn’t left the city before. His curious eyes looked over everything, imprinting the images deep into his mory.
Oliver watched this with a smile and steered the boat to the nearby road.
"There is a lot more for you to see."
He said and pressed the accelerator.
While Root was busy, staring at the city, Oliver drove the boat around the outer area, searching for the entrance. His eyes darted around to find the special entrance allocated for the superhumans who were going to enter the gate.
Finally, the opening in the city wall ca into his view. There were colossal towers on either side of the opening in the wall. On it were more than a hundred superhuman soldiers, staring down at the ground.
The mont the boat neared the gate, both Oliver and Root felt the increasing pressure. The aura from the superhumans and everything in it was causing the latent mana in their body to react.
Oliver shook off the feeling, then drove the boat under the increasing pressure. The gateway was just in front of him, and there existed a checkpoint on it; he just had to show his Hunter ID to get permission to enter the city. Subsequently, the gate to Second Earth is behind the city walls.
It didn’t take much ti to verify his identity since he registered before they arrived. The boat was let through the gate without any problem.
"Unlike the one in our city, the permanent gate of Titanfall is near the outer periter. It’s much more accessible."
"But the real reason they built it was for the people of the city to feel safe. After all, Titan that attacked the city during the gate break was one dangerous monster."
Oliver revealed snippets of information as the boat moved through the heavily militarised area to the permanent gate.
While they were moving, the terrifying aura that surrounded them kept increasing. The closer they were to the gate, the stronger the aura beca.
Finally, the mont they saw the gigantic tallic archway of the gate, a sense of dread washed over them. Not exactly because of the archway, but because of what stood towering behind it.
It was a colossal steel giant, far bigger than any ch. The humanoid body, entirely made of superior steel, was crouching behind the gate with one knee on the ground.
The colossal steel giant shone under the bright sunlight, revealing grueso marks of the life and death battle. Chunks of tal were missing from all over its body, but the most terrifying was the giant hole through the center of its chest.
*Gulp*
Root swallowed hard.
The terrifying aura was pressing on his body like a mountain, forcing him to stay still. His mind wandered, thinking about what could make that hole.
"That’s the Titan."
Oliver’s calm voice woke him up from his stupor.
"It’s cool, right? A lot different from what you saw in photos of it, I presu."
Root blankly stared at Oliver and nodded.
Oliver turned his head slightly to look at Root and said, "It was not always cool. When it was alive, the tal on its body flowed like lava, molten and red. Its body was filled with a preposterous amount of mana and heat that lted anything that dared to go near it."
Oliver paused for a second before continuing, "At that ti, the newly founded Hero Union sent all three S-rank guilds in the Federation to the city. However, by the ti the heroes got here, half of the city that had stood there had disappeared into the firestorm it created."
"The first one to reach the scene was the Guardians Guild. But the S rankers were powerless in front of the monstrosity."
Oliver sighed.
"Even while it fought the S-rank Heroes, the rampaging Titan tore through the land and killed everything it saw. Combined, the death toll was almost ten million that day."
His voice grew bleak.
"It was a disaster on a massive scale. One of the worst in human history. Fortunately, the heroes didn’t give up. They worked together, risking their life to kill the Titan."
Oliver motioned to the hole in the Titan’s body.
"You see that? It was created by the focused mana blast of the nine S-rankers who participated in the battle. As a last-ditch effort, they combined and focused mana from their body into a beam of powerful laser light and blasted it into the chest of the Titan, killing it in one shot."
Oliver sped towards the gate and continued,
"The hole is more than fifteen ters wide. You can actually fit a smaller ch inside it. So say the beam of mana was seen from space as it tore through the Titan. It was supposed to be the apex of human feats."
Oliver said the last few words slowly, making sure that Root could hear him.
"Nova Rift, Oblivion, and the Guardian. The three S-ranked guilds suffered huge losses at that ti. To respect the heroes who died in the battle, saving an uncountable number of lives, the Titan body is engraved with the nas of the dead."
Oliver observed Root’s face as he told the story.
"I don’t know if everything I said is the truth because I have not seen the battle, nor are there any recordings of it. Nonetheless, the heroes who died in the battle deserve respect. They are not the bare minimum heroes like . They are much better. They are the best."
Oliver said that and drove the boat into the shimring archway of the permanent gate.
*Bmmm*
With a humming sound ringing in their ears, both Root and Oliver appeared on the other side of the gate.
Oliver quickly took control of the boat and moved it towards the exit on the other side. Finally, they reached the second Earth.
The aura of terror that pressed against them disappeared, and Root breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally, he felt like he could relax.
However, that was nothing but his wish. Oliver didn’t bring him to relax. He was going to teach sufficient survival and combat skills in the next few days.
"The mana is thick. I can feel it diffusing into my body, increasing my natural mana recovery." Root said that as he felt the mana in his body change. "It’s significantly higher than the mana base of Dragon City on second Earth."
Hearing him, Oliver nodded.
"That’s correct." He replied while driving the boat out of the periter wall surrounding the gate. Then pointed to the large structure on the other side of the wall and said, "It’s because of that."
Sprawled before them was an ancient structure—a ruined temple of massive proportions standing tall on the side of a hill.
The gate was situated near the base of the temple structure.
Oliver took a right turn to move away from the gate entrance. Still, he moved so of the caras outside the boat to focus on the temple, hence displaying the unmoving image of the temple in the cockpit displays.
"The Titan was the temple guardian." He added.
The black volcanic stones used to make the structure barely showed any scorch marks. Other than the few temple structures lying on the ground, shattered and broken, nothing else showed its age. It was as if the temple stood undisturbed for eons.
"The main temple on top of the hill is the source for almost all defensive runes humanity has. It is a treasure trove of information about the civilization that must have existed on Second Earth." Oliver said.
Hearing that, Root’s eyes shone. He was particularly interested in runes and information about other civilizations.
Although humanity had raided and conquered many such temples and old ruins, they had yet co across any information as to who built them or how.
Was it a distant cousin of humans?
Was it the aliens they saw in dramas and movies?
Or was it sothing entirely different?
Humans had no idea of their identity. Other than so drawings depicting humanoid creatures on the walls of the temples, they had nothing else to go by.
So, Root, who loved conspiracies and stories, was enamoured by the temple.
"Can we go there?" He asked Oliver.
Oliver shook his head.
"Nope. Absolutely not. It’s a protected region. Only authorized personnel, for example, professors who study the topic or the security team who protect the area, can go in there."
Root’s face turned gloomy. "That’s a bumr." He muttered.
Sadly, they were none of the above.
Oliver saw this and smiled.
"If you want to go there, you could specialize in rune arts in the Hero Academy. They will let you in if you are a students of Hero Academy."
"Only the hero academy?"
"Yes. I guess it’s the perks of being the best academy in the world."
Root panicked when he heard that.
"Then, if I had decided not to join the academy, I would have never gotten the chance to go there!"
"You would have when you are an old professor who studies related material."
"Ahh! I have to thank god then."
Oliver turned and gave him a side eye.
"You should thank , dumbass."
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