The sapphire blade cuts through the last monster in the group, and it blows up in a dark haze.
“That should be the last of them before arriving in Gleinyl.” I turn to my left, “Look, the city is over there.”
The forest road ends in a wide, flat lakeshore where nothing but wheat-yellow reeds grow. At the end of the small sea of reeds there rises dozens of towers. On the towers stand giant cannons and other weapons of mage-craft: the defense array. Beyond the defense array there settles a city on a sea of calm, waveless water: Lake Gleisavia. In the rear of the city above the water there rise seven towers, higher than the long, steep slope I stand on. At the foot of the towers a city grows. That’s Gleinyl, the City on the Lake.
“Wow! I never thought lakes and huge cities exist out of that one I lived in. And what is that flyover leading leftwards?”
“That’s too big for a flyover, Leorria. It is a bridge, an elevated track for trains to run.”
“Trains?”
“They are… huge metal machine box… you could see it with your own eyes in the city. Let’s go!”
Between the shore and the city there lies a moat, a hundred feet in width. Across the moat there sets up a liftable bridge flanked by four defense towers. Beyond the bridge there stands a couple of guards, armed with heavy portable magecraft cannons. Those, as well as the array, are weapons prepared not for people but for monsters. After checking possible threats, the guards let us in. In the front the road splits into two.
“Sis Moreânna, where could I find my god? I can’t wait to see him again.”
“I don’t know. It has been some decades since my last visit to this city. Things have changed: the train project just started back then. Maybe we could go to the Assembly Hall. It would be best if we could reach anyone in charge of the manufacturing towers.”
This city has changed a lot.
The towers constantly releases the divine power they utilize, which I could perceive and use as a landmark when guiding in these unfamilar roads. Eventually this guidance leads me (and Leorria, who has no idea of the landscape) to a web of narrow alleys and walkways. Some alleys are only inches above water, others are ten or fifteen feet in height—

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

What?!
A shadow flashes before my eyes.
BAP!
A gun fires.
<|REACTIVE SHIELD ACTIVATED|>
It seems wise to keep the shield on in the city.
Before I could react to my perceptions, the shadow descends from above to my front.
Scarlet eyes. Walnut hair. Short cloak. Gun.
A revenant? Maybe one of House Ariênia.
She raises her hand towards me. I try to push her away, but my reactions are untimely. The knife on her hand left on my left shoulder a pale scar.
She jumps backwards. I activate the shortsword.
Not a robber nor a thief?
The intruder touches the dagger, and points a finger at me.
And there comes a shock, not on the physical body but on my soul.
A feeling of being searched inside my body.
That’s all she wants?
“Hey, you!” I yell, and rush forward with the sword. Leorria screams. The revenant hops up to a roof, and disappears from both my vision and my perception.
That must be a revenant. Leorria must be worrying about me. Better not chase her after.
I look back, sheathe my shortsword, walk up, and give Leorria a hug to calm her down.
“Are you alright, Sis Moreânna? You are hurt.”
“Alright. Keep that reactive shield I gave you. Let’s head for the Assembly Hall.”
“Sis Moreânna… Why is your blood black? And it is releasing smoke.”
“Uh! I do not know. Maybe this is a self-healing mechanism that Aenosîlidh gave me when I was created.”

After the small disturbance, there has been no one to haress us before reaching the crowded city square. This is a square beside the Assembly Hall and the sky-rising manufacturing towers. It is a round square, three hundred feet in diameter, decorated with lawns and water: better call it a park than a square. Around the square there stand three high towers, at the foot of one a large white hall is built, made of white marble, the most common material in Gleinyl, decorated with carvings and sculptures of the divine familia and the founders of the city.
“This hall, the Assembly Hall, is said to have been here since before the Catastrophe.”
“That was almost five centuries ago!”
“Perhaps more. Let’s see if we could find someone who has any news of Elthyris… Leorria!”
That energetic girl rushed out before I finished speaking. Now she is a foreigner asking anyone if they have seen “Elthyris”.
But that won’t work even if Elthyris is the guiding Celestial of the city. Elthyris is a divine name, and folks outside the familia usually won’t know those names even if the Celestial is the guidance.
“You won’t find any clue if you search like that. We should head straight to the hall.”
“F, I, N, E!”
But despite the square being a place for the masses, the Assembly Hall is reserved for the city council. This time the guards do not let us in.
“At least, the city council is for the citizens.”
“Even if I am an Agent?”
“Even if you are a Celestial.”
“Does that mean a Celestial visited here, and you really prevented him from entering the hall?”
“I wasn’t a guard when the Celestial, if you’re referring to the one I heard of, came to visit our Guidance. Word came that his rule was abolished by his people. Fools. Who would say no to free sweet rolls?”
“Is he still here?” Leorria asks.
“Nay, impossible. He left, to the south, they say. By the way, you are foreigners. Were you his citizen and Agent?”
“This girl is in that Celestial’s familia, I am not. I have nothing to do with that Celestial… except for he crafted a blade for me. Maybe my lord is a friend of his. Farewell then!”
The towers above the Assembly Hall start to make a small blitz sound as we leave. As I try finding a market to exchange some monster-originated material for local money, Leorria is putting that “I AM DISAPPOINTED” look on her face this whole time.
The first thing she does when we settle down in an inn for foreigners early at night, is rush out to ask more people about the news about Elthyris. I am trying to find a place to sell other goods when I find someone I never expected:
The revenant who attacked me.