Monastar had no strict division of cities.
Its main body was a city built in the mountains and inside the mountains, merely separated by so-called “districts.”
The district where the palace stood was called District A, located in the canyon belt at the very center of the whole city.
Reaching the Calculation Core required passing through a tunnel and heading for District C, which had been opened up inside the mountain.
The tunnel entrance was semicircular, wide enough for ten carriages to travel abreast.
The rock face had been cut and braced, and now and then a few regularly faceted crystals were set into the tunnel walls, giving off a pale-blue glimmer.
After several hundred meters, the air grew warm, dry, and pleasantly fresh.
At the end of the road stood a steel fortress built inside the mountain.
Everyone left the carriages and walked toward District C, which was like a fortress of steel.
They passed through a narrow tunnel guarded by several mechanical golems.
After a few dozen steps the view opened up all at once, and a vast space about the size of twenty soccer fields filled their eyes.
Artificial waterways, handsome buildings, and bridges crisscrossing in every direction all lay fully revealed under the orange warm light given off by the magic stone at the center.
The magic stone was a regular hexagon, rotating slowly without any pattern.
“That is the Calculation Core.”
Letitia introduced it to everyone.
Carriages and magical tools were forbidden here, so they could only go on foot.
“This is a ruin Lartomia left behind, isn’t it?” Gabriella asked.
“That’s right. In truth, the very foundation we stand on now is inseparable from Lady Lartomia.” Letitia was not lying.
Only her voice was a little hesitant, as she considered whether these words truly ought to be told to Gabriella’s party.
“Not only that. That we were able to awaken at all is partly her doing as well.”
“Several thousand years ago, Lartomia left her legacy here and decided to assist us. That lady could always foresee everything.”
“Including the [Relics], and including everything here?”
A faint sadness ran through Letitia’s tone.
“Only, in the end she decided to leave us. I don’t know whether she is still upon this world. I can only hope that before the world is destroyed, Lady Lartomia will appear once more.”
Gabriella asked nothing further.
On the way, everyone still kept the same calm as before.
Only Hero Reina was a little restless.
Of course she knew the Church would soon face a revolt, and although Simona was an atheist, she had never intended to rebel against the Church.
Gabriella noticed that besides a few staff members, this place was nearly deserted.
It was a city built specially for the Calculation Core.
Unlike many functional buildings, the uppermost level of the Calculation Core had enormous platforms like metal basins hanging from a ceiling two hundred meters high.
They looked like some kind of energy-storage devices, yet the material they used was exactly the same as the armor plates of the palace fortress.
More than energy, they seemed meant for protection, or for sealing something dangerous.
At that moment Gabriella noticed that Reina kept shifting her gaze onto her, longing for her to change something.
It left Gabriella not even knowing what expression she ought to use to deal with this pitiable young Hero.
She could hardly say something that sounded like a perfunctory “humanity will be fine.”
Besides, even Gabriella herself did not know what the Church and the Holy Feather God would actually do to humanity.
Exceedingly complex magic circuits flowed through every tiny metal plate.
The magitech of this world was like the combination of countless mathematical equations.
The group finally arrived before the Calculation Core.
The regular hexahedron, which looked a good fifteen meters tall by eye, appeared on the outside like a constantly rotating Rubik’s cube of countless orders.
If ordinary fluorescent magic was a two-digit addition or subtraction, then the existence before them called the Calculation Core was more like a magitech core computing tens of thousands of mathematical functions several thousand times per second.
This was clearly no longer a product that ought to exist in this world.
Compared with the Church’s present magitech, the Calculation Core was a full “magitech revolution” ahead.
Nine outer metal tubes encircled the Calculation Core like a planet’s rings, rotating together with the flickering core.
“Miss Gabriella, do you know about the Star God Plane?” Letitia said, looking at her.
“Of course I do. A civilization destroyed by the gods. The Evil God. A plane-level crisis.” Gabriella rattled off several key phrases at once.
“Mm… In fact, the Calculation Core is the strongest [Relic] preserved in Lady Lartomia’s hands. At its smallest it can help us modify machinery. At its greatest it can calculate clear skies and overcast days, or deduce the future.”
Letitia said it with pride.
“What is even stronger is that she can reproduce any complete information recorded within her. It can be the structure of a magic circle, or the original appearance of a world.”
“The original appearance of a world… Does the Calculation Core record information on the Star God Plane?”
Letitia nodded and admitted it.
“It would be better to say that the reason we believe civilization is certain to be destroyed by the Evil God is all thanks to the Calculation Core.”
Understanding dawned on Gabriella.
Creis had said that the reason the Star Gods moved against the Evil God came from scientific “calculation,” and the “supercomputer” that calculated the Evil God was about to destroy the world was, as expected, the Calculation Core before them!
Creis also stared at the Calculation Core without looking away.
She too was curious whether this culmination of magitech was truly that formidable.
“Is its calculation accurate?” asked Isabella, who was holding Gabriella’s wrist.
Letitia was firm.
“Very accurate. It can even simulate scenes of the past on the spot. Well? Do you want to try?”
No one else answered.
Isabella and Gabriella, however, nodded and agreed.
Gabriella tried to resonate with the Calculation Core before her, just as she had when she resonated with [Soul Severing] last time.
Gabriella closed her eyes and probed the fluctuations of the Calculation Core’s power.
That feeling was very close.
Almost there.
It was like a friendly power she could touch at a casual reach.
She only needed to put out her hand and press the button…
But before Gabriella’s resonance could take effect, Letitia had already issued a command to the Calculation Core.
She raised her hand.
The magic circles on the core began to shift rapidly, and vast power transmitted from countless mana arrays underground, fully charging the entire core.
Then the core gave a mechanical voice of indistinguishable gender.
[Calculation successful. Scene simulation: Star Continent, 13,237 years ago]
[Depth: 20]
Suddenly the metal parts around the outside of the Calculation Core flew apart.
The orange-yellow energy contained within spread like a tornado.
Some of the Heavenly Oracle Envoys instinctively took a step back, yet still could not get clear in time and were swallowed up in it.
That orange-yellow mana did not come to a complete stop until it had spread through the whole of District C.
And at that very moment, the space they occupied had already undergone an utterly different change.
It was as if they had come to another world.
Skyscrapers blotted out the sky.
Overpasses linked every towering building.
The sound of magitech aircraft cutting through the air rang in their ears.
On the streets, neon-like radiance cast iridescent patches of light, and the pitch-black night sky seemed to be lit by civilization and technology.
Magic wind-riding flight could be seen everywhere.
Shrine maidens in mysterious attire flew through the air.
Neatly dressed magisters moved in groups.
Crowds of pedestrians filled the roads…
Everything was so real.
Letitia, standing in the middle of the road, gave everyone a smile and continued to lead the way.
“This is the Star Continent. That is, the human civilization once protected by the Star Gods.”
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