novelEarth People in the Otherworld
| ← Ch.0243 | Ch.0245 → |
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Let us not discuss about how the elven guards were going to explain to Hilda about the guests. In the meantime, Hao Ren and company were already far out and approaching the wall outside the Royal District. Vivian carried Hao Ren in the air and Lily ran on the ground. Y'zaks was also not slow at all; their moving speed was so much faster than the levitating vehicles made by the elves. The flash caused by the explosion at the edge of the floating island was no more. However, there were a few large light columns rising up into the sky near the scene, which they could use as landmarks to navigate. All Hao Ren could hear was the sound of the wind as they moved through the air. He shouted at the top of his lungs, "That's the wall! Can you fly higher and go around it?"
"The wall's not a problem, but the shield is. I don't know if we can go through it, " Vivian also shouted just as loud."I've never seen such barrier."
Outside the wall of the Royal District was another layer of shield in the air. This magical protective shield, covering the entire city was not just for show. It was difficult to say whether Vivian could penetrate this city-level shield. Hao Ren now realised that he should not have declined the elven warriors' offer on the flying vehicle out of convenience—or at least, he should have waited a few minutes so that the crew at the wall could be informed, and they would have opened a passage for them before hand. As the semi-transparent membrane lay before them, Vivian began to slow down way before she reached it. She managed to stop right in front of it. Hao Ren reached his hand out and touched the membrane. It was a solid shield just like the Steel Membrane Shield he was wearing.
Of course, it may not have been able to match the Steel Membrane Shield technologically, but, it was not some kind of weak membrane, which one could penetrate by brute force.
Lily was now catching up to them. She looked up and saw the wall but she did not slow down. Instead, she tried to jump over the wall and move towards the spot where Hao Ren and Vivian were hovering at. Hao Ren saw a white shadow sweeping across the air, followed by a loud bang and a whine. Lily hit the shield and slid down good-style.
Now, it was proven that the shield was impenetrable by brute force.
"Maybe, I could blast a hole." Y'zaks was heard from below."But, it does not seem very appropriate."
"Of course it's not appropriate." Hao Ren could not have said more about Y'zaks' meteorite-madness. As if bringing down a meteorite from space was the panacea for all problems. He could not let Y'zaks have his way this time: he was not there to cause more damage. As the floating island of Aerym was already in a dire situation, bringing down a meteorite was going to make it worse. Was Y'zaks here to help or to destroy?
"Is Lily okay?" Hao Ren looked down where Lily fell. He was impressed by her amazing leap; the maiden could jump over a 200-metre city wall without much effort—but, her brain ostensibly did not work as good as her physical talents."Are you hurt?"
Lily was only heard from below after a few seconds of lag. She sounded as if she was still confused."I guess, yeah... just a little dizzy. My head hurts and it's swollen."
Hao Ren wanted to open the shield, but he was clueless as to where the control centre of the wall was. Who was in-charge? Plus, he did not know how to contact Hilda. He realised he had been too hasty. Anyway, he and Vivian soon discovered something: there was a slight flash of light on the shield not far from where they were. They could see all levitating vehicles passing through the shield speedily at the flashing spot.
"Could it be the mouth of the traffic?" Hao Ren said as he pointed at the light spot.
Vivian flew towards it immediately."Let's see."
True enough, it was a traffic portal. It seemed that Aerymian shield technology had its limitations. They still could not let their own vessels pass through at any point of the shield just by using identification signals—while Kuiper Station had a shield, all spacecrafts were able to enter or exit the space station with ease. So because of this, the Aerymians could only have a fixed opening as a traffic portal. A floating circle of bright runes around the traffic portal functioned like a controlling device, whereby during an emergency, the portal could be closed. Vivian reached out and the portal felt like a soft water-film. She then flew out through the film. Lily followed them and called out to Hao Ren."I'm coming straight towards the portal—ouch..."
A whine ensued and Hao Ren looked down."What's wrong again?"
"I hit the roof of a building. I'm back down again."
Vivian was trying to shake off the cold sweat on her forehead—her hands were tied up, carrying Hao Ren."I admire her physical strength. Nothing can stand in her way."
"Don't. She gained her body strength at the expense of her brain."
Y'zaks had more sense than Lily as he summoned a pair of flaming devil wings and flew through the traffic portal with ease. However, he was not a flying demon, so after flying for a short distance, he was back down running on foot again. Meanwhile, the four of them had caught the attention of the elves—Y'zaks was the main culprit as the lighting effect of his flaming wings was blinding. A bulky guy like him flying in-style up in the air was basically a challenge to their aesthetic senses. Lights lit up on both sides of the wall, and windows as well as rooftops were full of curious onlookers. Embarrassed by the stares, Hao Ren gave a little pull on Vivian's clothes."Keep going, keep going... Watch out! Traffic!"
The two of them were still near the traffic portal, and traffic at night was just as heavy. Before Hao Ren's voice trailed off, a levitating vehicle brushed past them. The vampire maiden was drenched in cold sweat. She quickly lowered her altitude—she could be the first creature from Earth who got into a mid-air traffic accident.
Soon, they came to the edge of the city. Beyond that, they could no longer use the light columns as navigation aid. The light columns were warning lights on the outside of the hoop circling the floating island. So, when one was looking from the inside out, the guiding effect was blurry and it was difficult to pinpoint the exact location of the explosion. As the streets were full of people, Hao Ren asked Vivian to descend. They met up with Lily and Y'zaks on the ground. They then planned to ask around.
The city streets in Aerym were not as busy as those on Earth. There were no night markets or entertainment outlets. Although they had enough power to light up the city at night, it was set up just to meet the bare minimum needed. The explosion of the propulsion components had drawn people out to the streets. The appearance of four aliens, clad in strange costumes certainly attracted their eyes as well.
Y'zaks was already a head-turner. Now Lily had appeared with her glowing eyes and silver hair while Hao Ren as well as Vivian were descending from heaven. That combination was only eye-catching while they were shapeshifted form.
"Excuse me, may I know the route to the site of the explosion?" Hao Ren stopped a random handsome elf—everyone there was handsome. The elf was visibly frightened by the four weird strangers, but he still pointed towards a direction."There."
"Thank you." Hao Ren nodded in appreciation and when he was about to leave, an elf among the crowd called out, "Y'all are the aliens brought back by our queen?"
That attracted even more curious stares from the crowd. Hao Ren quickly retreated from the crowd as he said, "Don't worry about us. Can we get on our way please. Your queen will be calling for a press conference tomorrow..."
As he shoved himself through the crowd towards the explosion site, an elf called out again."Don't go there! It's dangerous!"
"That's exactly what I'm going for!" As Hao Ren's voice trailed off, he vanished at the end of the street.
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