After a long look into the journal, Woohyuk and his party found a hidden authentication code.

Aris was the top contributor to this find.

Contrary to her appearance, she was very well-versed in various disciplines, so she was of great help in cases like this.

“Good job, Aris. I will give you a great reward once we return.

“Heehee! Thank you very much!”

As Woohyuk stroked her hair, Aris smiled cheerfully.

The lava turtle then pressed the verification code...

Swooos.h.!.+

A summoning magic circle unfolded on the floor and the lava turtle disappeared.

It had acquired administrator rights after breaching through the security.

Woohyuk closed his eyes and watched through the turtle’s vision.

'There are no real threats there.'

Thousands of years had pa.s.sed, but the interior was still bright with the luminescent particles.

It appeared they had obtained an internal power source through a high-efficiency generator.

'I have to control the turtle now.'

Lava turtles weren't intelligent enough to carry out this mission alone.

As Woohyuk manipulated its movements,

[Discovered a new manager. I shall now investigate your personal information.]

[What is your name? According to the biological data a.n.a.lysis, you are not intelligent enough to enter this place... Is there a separate subject who is issuing you orders?]

The hologram of a girl with olive-colored hair in a maid outfit approached the turtle and asked questions.

'Is it an AI avatar?'

Woohyuk clicked his tongue and pressed the virtual keyboard projected by the girl with the lava turtle's limbs.

[Chun Woohyuk. King of the Rhine Kingdom. Are there still survivors here?]

[They received the anger of the Sea G.o.d. There is no way anyone would’ve survived. One sailboat luckily managed to escape, but the rest didn't.]

[Who designed this fortress? We came here after finding his journal.]

[… Please follow me. I will show you the way.]

The girl turned around and began to take the lead.

Woohyuk took a breath and followed her within the lava turtle...

Beep. Beep beep.

Finally, they reached a s.p.a.cious s.p.a.ce that looked like a high-tech laboratory.

'Is this the fortress' central control room?'

If so, there was a high possibility that the relics of the owner of the journal were somewhere here.

As Woohyuk observed the magic-engineered devices that were still in operation,

[I have been waiting for you, Mr. Adventurer.]

A woman with indigo hair appeared as a hologram in the gla.s.s container at the center filled with a transparent solution.

At the same time, blue particles began to surround them.

It was a certain type of medium that enabled telepathic conversations.

[Are you in charge of this place?]

[Back in the days, I was. But now, I am merely a ghost.]

The woman's name was Fiona.

The queen who had led the Erendia Kingdom to its golden age.

However, because of her beautiful appearance, she was targeted by the Sea G.o.d.

The demons hadn’t begun their conquest back then, so the G.o.ds would mess around with the humans at will.

In the end, Fiona decided to buy as much time as possible to work on a secret project with several scholars.

The goal was to get the entire Erendia Kingdom out of the Sea G.o.d’s sphere of influence.

To do that, they first had to move away from the sea, so the question was how to get the kingdom to the mainland.

They ended up finding a certain solution for this problem.

It was Inotia, the Magic-Engineered City.

[Then, is this the heart of Inotia?]

[Yes. Neustein, this power source, can sustain not just Inotia but also the entire Erendia Kingdom.]

[Is that even possible? Did you stock up on Dragon Hearts or something? If you buy the wrath of the dragons, even a sky fortress won’t be able to withstand their fury.]

[Of course we didn’t. The power source is Erdium, a divine mineral. Originally, it was extremely difficult to obtain within the human world, but the Wind G.o.d helped me.]

The Wind G.o.d acted freely as he wanted, and also had a bad relations.h.i.+p with the Sea G.o.d.

Therefore, he was willing to help the troubled Fiona.

In return, he asked her to build a temple for him in Inotia later on.

Woohyuk tilted his head at Fiona's past.

[If you managed to find a power source, why did the kingdom sink helplessly? Did something happen?]

[There was a traitor among us. He sabotaged the propulsion system designed to lift the Erendia Kingdom into the air at the most critical moment.]

But even he couldn't escape the wrath of the Sea G.o.d.

Contrary to what he had promised, he didn’t manage to capture Queen Fiona.

She was already part of Inotia's system by the time he tried to take her.

[Did you sacrifice your physical body to take control of Inotia?]

[My body is frozen in the bas.e.m.e.nt. But I'm not sure if I could return to my original state. Well, there’s no reason for me to do that however.]

The Erendia Kingdom had perished, and its splendid civilization had vanished from everyone's memory.

Only the G.o.ds in the heavenly world knew the truth.

Therefore, Fiona had been waiting for a long time.

Waiting for the person who would come find her and restore the true history.

'I can imagine what had happened now.'

The reason the Sea G.o.d had left this fortress intact was because Fiona's soul was still contained in it.

Meanwhile, Fiona was in control of the place, but could not repair the physically damaged propulsors.

The defense troops were equipped with combat-specific artificial intelligence only, so they could not repair the sabotaged devices.

As the situation was cleared up in his head, Woohyuk made a suggestion to Fiona.

[In truth, I came here to restore the Edda Chronicles. It means that our interests are not so different. So what if we cooperated to revive this failed project one more time? I have an outstanding magic-engineer with me.]

[… What is the point of doing so now? All it’ll do is get us targeted by demons.]

Fiona knew some of the events happening in the outside world, as she had been constantly collecting the wreckage of s.h.i.+ps with her exploration robots.

However, she hadn't heard the story that the G.o.ds had been confined by the Creator.

Woohyuk explained to her the current situation in detail.

[We need your cooperation to end this turmoil, Fiona. Rest a.s.sured, the Sea G.o.d can no longer affect the world.]

[That’s… surprising. Those arrogant G.o.ds are trapped and can only wait for their deaths now...]

The Witches' secret plans were also quite shocking.

If this world were ruined, all the time she had spent waiting would be in vain.

For Fiona, she had no choice but to cooperate with Woohyuk.

[So, what is your answer? For reference, other than me and my va.s.sals, only Lilith’s subordinates can come here. And they won’t be very cooperative with you.]

[Fine. I will cooperate with you. What should I do?]

[First, let the Nautilus enter the fortress. I can't keep talking to you through this lava turtle.]

[… But the submarine is too big. Although Neustein's accommodation s.p.a.ce is quite large, there are some limitations.]

[Don’t worry about that. If it’s too big, I can reduce it.

Woohyuk paused the telepathic conversation and took out a miniaturization potion from his pocket.

Aris looked at it and tilted her head in confusion.

“What are you planning to do?”

“I will reduce the Nautilus’ size.”

“… Huh?"

Everyone stared at Woohyuk dumbfoundedly.

Not caring about their reactions, Woohyuk casually chanted the spell.

Swooooooos.h.!.+

A blue magic circle unfolded and emanated a swirling aura.

He then poured the miniaturization potion on it,

Rumble.

When the magic circle’s aura was absorbed by the Nautilus, the scenery beyond the gla.s.s window began to grow in size.

“We, we’re actually shrinking!”

“That sturgeon became huge!”

Aris and Brynhild shuddered in amazement and slight fear.

Later, the Nautilus entered Neustein, and Woohyuk headed to the central control room with the others.

“Aris, do you remember that time you turned a city into a flying fortress?”

"Ah yes. I did do that back when we first met.”

“Try to reproduce that effect. This time, you’ll have to lift the entire of the Erendia Kingdom.”

All the necessary equipment was in Neustein.

Eventually, as the party reached the central control room, Fiona stared in confusion.

“… Why is the Sea G.o.d’s va.s.sal with you?”

“I made him submit to me through force. Rest a.s.sured, he’s quite obedient now. Well, if you want to use him to take some revenge on the Sea G.o.d, I wouldn’t really mind.”

“...”

Triton silently wept at the thought of being abandoned after working so hard all this time.

Soon enough, a full-scale repair project was carried out under Aris’ initiative...

“Lord Asura, I did it!”

The Erendia Kingdom would be able to achieve its greatest dream.

Boooom! Rumble!

The propulsion system started to operate, and cracks began to form on the seafloor.

The lift was dozens of times stronger than it was originally designed.

It needed enough strength to withstand the pressure of the deep sea and rise high up in the air.

Boooooooooom!

Before long, the mainland of the Erendia Kingdom emerged from the sea and rose to the sky.

Truly a spectacular sight.

Woohyuk and his party watched the event through Neustein's mana particle monitor.

“Are you going to revive this kingdom, Lord Asura?”

“It’s been submerged in the sea for a long time, so it needs a start-over.”

Inotia, the Magic-Engineered City, was the ideal place to cultivate various talented and gifted people.

Not only was it equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, but it could effectively defend against invasions and intruders.

In addition, the Erendia Kingdom had the advantage of being able to move anywhere using the propulsion device at its bottom.

“I’ll have to move my lab here. There are so many things I can research on.”

“We will be flying towards the Rhine Kingdom. We can't stay in the Dark Veiled Sea forever.”

If the Dark Veiled Sea calmed down, the kingdoms of the eastern continent could invade the western continent, with the Rhine Kingdom being the first one to be attacked.

Therefore, the Dark Veiled Sea had to remain chaotic and violent.

For the Erendia Kingdom, they just had to move it to another location since it could navigate through the air.

Fiona spoke up as the group discussed their plans for the future.

“By the way, how are you going to bring back your companions you left down there? We have no air carrier system in Neustein.”

The companions she was referring to were Sieg and Helena, who were left on the Isle of Chaos.

Woohyuk thought for a while and then turned to Brynhild.

“Go down there and return to the Rhine Kingdom by sea, just in case something happens to them.”

“Gosh, do you think Sieg is going to cheat on me with that saintess?”

“No, I’m just worried about them. Especially the Witch of Profanity. We need to bring back those important prisoners, and I don’t want her to wreak havoc.”

It would be difficult for Sieg to deal with that troublemaking saintess on his own.

Brynhild nodded at his explanation.

“I also prefer being with Sieg. Then I shall see you back in the Rhine Kingdom.”

Woohyuk turned to Triton this time as Brynhild spread her white wings and flew out of the fortress.

“Now that I think about it, you should also go down there in a hot air balloon or something. You saw how Davy Jones did it earlier, right?”

“… Why should I go back down?”

“We can’t have the Chief Mate abandon the s.h.i.+p halfway through the voyage.”

Moreover, his main task was to procure seafood for Sieg and the others.

Triton wept as he watched Woohyuk's serious expression and exited the control room.