One week later.
"Creak," Su walked into the top-floor office of the City Hall.
Inside the office, Marigold was still buried in handling docunts, and only after a while did she look up at Su and ask, "What’s up, has that person from the reception sent soone to urge us again? Didn’t we tell him that he has to keep waiting, and we’ll arrange sothing when we’re free."
"Princess, this ti the person is a bit different," Su said.
"How different? Have they sent soone to say they’re ready to leave Atlantis again? This isn’t new, is it? How many tis has it been now? Last ti, they said they t Lord Richard in the morning and left in the afternoon. This ti, it should be they t Lord Richard in the morning and left by noon, right?" Marigold asked, and without waiting for Su’s answer, she bowed her head and picked up a quill to start writing on a docunt.
"No, Princess." Su shook his head and said, "This ti, the individual did not send soone else but ca directly in person. Right now, they’re sitting in the City Hall lobby, stating they absolutely won’t leave today without seeing either you or Lord Richard."
Marigold’s hand stopped writing, and she put down the quill, expressing her faint surprise.
"Oh—, looking at it this way, this person really can’t hold it in anymore."
"I think so too. So, Princess, what do you think we should do?"
"Well..." Marigold began to ponder.
...
While Marigold was thinking, in Atlantis City, at the 362 Research Institute.
The four-story stone building stood as usual in the unremarkable little courtyard, with no movent from anyone inside, making it appear extrely quiet. In stark contrast, however, the twenty-seventh underground floor of the stone building was bustling with activity.
Down on the twenty-seventh floor, one could see a vast space with a height of several dozen ters, equivalent to a five-story building above ground.
This space had a main color sche of silver, with walls made of thick steel plates, their surfaces shining with a tallic, cold light. In so areas, the steel plates were replaced with special alloys, the surfaces engraved with intricate magic runes that occasionally sparked with brilliant energy lights, used to guard against potential dangerous situations.
Above, rows of electric crystal lamps cast a bright but not blinding white light, illuminating every corner. Amid the lighting, many people were running through the twenty-seventh-floor corridors, seemingly preparing for sothing, and eventually, everyone gathered in the central command hall, standing ready in front of the densely packed control instrunts.
One wall of the command hall was transparent, made of special materials similar to glass, its surface engraved with extrely complex magic runes, providing strong defensive capabilities.
Through this wall, one could see that adjacent to the command hall was a pit that plunged over forty ters deep downward, surrounded by hundreds of red tallic pillars, thin at the top and thick at the bottom, resembling needles magnified dozens of tis.
Following the edge of the pit, looking into its depths, all walls were specially solidified, covered with silvery-gray tal plates.
At the bottom of the pit, it had been transford into a relatively flat area spanning over a hundred ters across, with a tal platform weighing tens of tons standing in the center, surrounded by a dozen chanical arms. Additionally, dozens of wires and pipes as thick as a baby’s arm were hung from the tal platform, piercing into the depths of the soil, leading who-knew-where.
Twelve wizards in robes of varying colors were busy around the tal platform, continuously pulling levers to make tiny adjustnts to the positions of the chanical arms. So wizards were loading canisters of liquid into a semi-transparent container on the tal platform, whose purpose was unknown.
Upon careful observation, nearly each of the twelve wizards possessed the level of a Third-level Wizard, and the blue-robed witch known as the "Poison Heart Queen," Nora, was among them. The most powerful among them, however, was a warlock nad Erson, who was evidently a Level 4 Wizard.
Erson himself appeared to be around forty, with a serious expression, dressed in a slightly wrinkled black robe, his hair greasy and eyes bloodshot, suggesting an extended lack of rest. As the team’s leader, once the other wizards finished their tasks and paused, he perford a thorough check, confirming that all instrunts on the tal platform were ready, then turned to look towards the command hall.
He slowly raised his hand, waggling his index finger.
This indicated "Level One readiness."
"Command post received, please verify once again," a voice quickly responded from the command hall, not loud, yet it filled the entire twenty-seventh floor.
Upon hearing it, Erson wasted no ti, ticulously inspecting the tal platform again.
After completing the check, he raised his hand, waggling both his index and middle fingers.
Level Two readiness.
"Command post received, please perform the final check," the voice echoed again, perfectly controlling its range to the twenty-seventh floor, filling every corner while neither going up nor down a single bit. This was a display of extrely high skill, achievable only by a few wizards adept in wind-elental sound magic. The curious aspect was that during sound transmission, there was no energy fluctuation, leaving one unable to discern whether it was a spell effect or a real voice, elevating the speaker’s capability to an unfathomable level.
Upon hearing this, Erson showed no irritation, ticulously inspecting the tal platform for a third ti, then raised his hand, waggling three fingers—index, middle, and ring.
Level Three readiness.
"Command post received, authorization granted to comnce ’Ais 4728 High-Energy Experint’ and ’High Spirit Capture Plan.’ All systems are requested to cooperate, and experintal personnel are urged to proceed cautiously following the established protocol."
Upon hearing this, Erson nodded slightly, extended his right hand, making a grasping gesture towards the command post, indicating understanding, then turned to face the eleven wizards standing on the tal platform, swiftly issuing a series of commands.
"Initiate energy transmission," Erson said firmly.
"Clack!"
A gray-robed wizard stepped forward and forcefully pulled down a thick, black lever on the tal platform.
"Buzz!"
The tal platform vibrated, like a dead beast given life again.
"Preheat the high-energy particle generator," Erson said with an unchanged expression.
"Click-click-click-click-click!"
A green-robed wizard stepped forward, extending his hand repeatedly, pulling down six silver levers in one go.
The sound emanated from inside the six fixed chanical arms on the tal platform, swiftly heating up, with a faint heat reaching the outside.
"Report core temperature," Erson inquired.
"1,800 degrees," the third wizard replied.
"Temperature surpassed the threshold, initiate coolant valve opening, inject cooling fluid," Erson quickly followed up.
The fourth wizard waved his hand, and a nearby wheel spun rapidly, with the sound of liquid rushing, slowly cooling the tal platform.
...
Simultaneously, voices continuously echoed in the command hall, issuing instructions for various operations to coordinate with the experinters in the pit.
"Activate the energy center, connect the transmission lines..."
"Click, click, energy center successfully activated, transmission line connected, click, status normal, energy level currently at one."
"Inject high-energy particles..."
"Click-click-click, click-click, high-energy particles injected, status normal, activity level good."
"Extract coolant, fill into pipeline one..."
"Click-click, coolant successfully extracted, filling complete, pipeline one is operational."
"Start coolant circulation system..."
"Click-click, coolant circulation system successfully started."
"..."
...
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