Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
Lucien finally realized what was going on there. The dwarves thought that he was their God of Steam, the master of life and death, and they were worshipping him.
This was Night Highland, once under the control of the dwarves, but later they were conquered by the vampires.
They should be from the last group of dwarves left from the Civilization of Steam, and they were raised by the vampires as labors.
These dwarves managed to escape from the vampire and found the relic left by their ancestors. They thought that the teleportation circle was an altar, and they misunderstood the material left by their ancestors when they tried to learn magic as the instruction for reaching their God. In this case, he was sent here when the dwarves were carrying out their rite.
It seemed that the vampires killed by him were here to kill the dwarves, and thus the dwarves, after witnessing his power, firmly believed that he was the God of Steam.
Lucien’s brain worked very fast. It did not take him long to figure out the story.
Then, Lucien’s first thought was that he should use magic to erase the dwarves’ memory. However, when Lucien saw the cast-iron stoves in the rooms around and the steam hammer, an idea suddenly stroke him. The dwarves had mastered the basic knowledge of the Steam Civilization and should be able to carry out some relatively complex smelting procedures.
To simplify the alchemical products and items, Lucien first needed the skilled workers who were able to make the gears.
Since the skills of making alchemical items and products were mostly owned by the sorcerers, and the Congress would not waste the apprentices’ time doing the harsh labor work, very rarely could an ordinary person join an alchemy work. This problem had been bothering Lucien for a long time, preventing him from spreading the usage of alchemical items and products, which would not only bring Lucien a great amount of wealth but also shake the ordinary people’s belief in the Church.
Lucien thought that this would take a very long time, at least a few generations. However, he saw new hope in the dwarves from the Civilization of Steam.
“The almighty God of Steam, may your name spread throughout the world!”
The dwarves’ praying inspired Lucien. He quickly got a plan: he could make the dwarves work for the Congress of Magic using the name of their God, so the dwarves would be completely loyal to them, and it would also be much easier to make them sign the magic compact.
Facing the fact that Lucien had saved their life and could provide the dwarves with a bright future to work as the new workers for the Congress, the dwarves would definitely accept the offer instead of being the slaves for those vampires. However, Lucien still wanted to make sure that the dwarves would be sincerely willing to work for them.
Lucien still had his mission to complete. Furthermore, the teleportation circle set up beside the space joint was not able to send many dwarves out, but using the teleportation circle too frequently in a short period of time would draw the vampires’ attention. Lucien decided to let the dwarves hide here on Night Highland for a bit longer, and in that case, they could also have some time to grow bigger by enrolling more dwarves. Once his mission was completed, to avoid the great conflict, Lucien would ask the Congress to set up another gate to take away all the dwarves.
If a war broke out between the Congress of Magic and the vampires, the Church would be the biggest beneficiary.
Although Lucien was moved with compassion seeing how the dwarves were suffering, currently he could not come up with a better solution.
The fourth circle magic spell, Invisibility (Advanced), would still last for a while. Lucien took out a tube of liquid and gently uncorked it. The liquid instantly turned a colorless and odorless gas, which soon filled in the entire hall.
…
The dwarves were still praying, praying to their almighty God, praying for their beautiful future full of hope.
Suddenly, Harold felt that the temperature started increasing. When he opened his eyes, to his great surprise, Harold saw that the floor made of grey stone bricks had turned into yellow hot sand.
“Go. Go deep into the desert to find my Kingdom.
“Go. Go there so you could find everything you want.”
The sacred and solemn voice came from the sky. The dwarves again deeply lowered their heads and put their faces against the hot sand. “Your name is respected. Your will is fulfilled. Master, you dominate everything in the world.”
The voice then disappeared. After a long time, the elder slowly looked up and saw that they were now in the boundless desert. Close to the horizon line, he saw something green that he believed was an oasis.
It was the first time that they witnessed the unimaginable power of God.
The hot wind burnt their faces. The dwarves remained where they were, totally shocked. It was even the first time that they saw the sun! Night Highland would never be lit up.
Harold moved his lips and murmured, “Sun… Daylight…”
His words awakened the elder and the rest of the dwarves. Myrna asked as if she was in a dream, “Where shall we go…?”
“…Where?” The Elder hesitated for a moment but very quickly cheered up, and his voice was full of hope and passion, “We go deep into the desert! We find our master’s Kingdom!”
Harold felt that he was almost going crazy from the excitement, “So we can get back our lost civilization, right? We can build a steam city!”
Very excited, Aquinas also quivered, “Me, too. I want to see those black chimneys, the grand airboats, the great cannons again!”
Rebuilding a steam city was the ultimate dream for the dwarves from the rebellion force. A steam city represented their supreme honor!
The Elder looked around at the dwarves’ sweaty red faces. He raised his arm and cried out, “The master of life and death told us that we can find everything we want deep in the desert! So we go deep into the desert!”
“Steam above! We go deep into the desert!” repeated the rest of the dwarves aloud together.
…
Although they did not have a clear guidance, the dwarves could feel that something was calling them in the front.
Walking in the desert was hard. The sunlight was dazzling, and the wind was drying them up. The dwarves came to know how horrible a desert could be. They were thirsty. They felt dizzy.
“Myrna, are you alright?” Harold quickly grabbed Myrna’s arm when she was about to fall over.
Myrna shook her head and bit her lips, “I’m okay. This is the trial given by the Master. To get to his Kingdom, I won’t give up.”
The dwarves were encouraged by Myrna’s words. What she said was true. If they could not bear the pain, they did not deserve the blessing.
Suddenly, they heard the cheerful voice of the elder, “Look! It’s there!”
The dwarves looked at the same direction together and saw the huge city in the oasis.
The city was there! Their Master’s kingdom!
The dwarves had completely forgotten the exhaustion. They ran toward the huge city as fast as they could.
When they were closer to the city, a sudden loud buzzing sound came from the sky.
The dwarves all looked up and saw a huge weird bird coming from the other side of the sky toward the city. When the weird bird was right above them, the dwarves finally recognized what it was. It was not a bird, but a giant machine covered with a silvery white metal!
The bird was so huge that the dwarves felt that they were just a group of ants.
The machine bird lowered its speed and slowly landed in the city somewhere they could not see.
“Is this… an airboat?” Harold was shocked, but the machine bird looked different from what he saw on the frescos.
The elder slowly shook his head, “No… That is not an airboat. An airboat is not that fast. But it is definitely man-made!”
What was it then? All the dwarves asked themselves.
“We will figure that out when we reach the city,” said the elder with great determination.
The dwarves set off again, and silence covered them. They did not know what they would see next on their way approaching the city.
After more than ten minutes, the dwarves reached the edge of the oasis and finally saw the city.
Many of them took a deep breath since they were deeply shocked by the view. This city was totally out of their imagination!
On the other side of the city, they saw the very tall and straight chimneys and the many factories and plants. The dwarves were more familiar with the scenery since they had seen it many times in their dreams. However, on the other side of the city, there were buildings even taller than those chimneys. Even the most exaggerated legends had failed to describe that resplendence and imposing manner!
The tall buildings were close to each other, tiled in different colors including black, gray, silver white, and brown. The well-aligned windows reflected the sunlight.
Between the tall buildings and factories, there were wide roads and even land bridges, on which ran the strange but also good-looking vehicles very fast.
The shadowy figures guarding the city were holding metal objects like steam rifles in their hands, but smaller and lighter.
Little did Harold ever realize how sharp his eyes could be. He could even see the slow-moving elevators in the building, and the many shadowy figures using the strange devices talking to each other even when they were in the different buildings.
Myrna also saw the shadowy figures holding some strange metal tablets. All kinds of pictures showed up just with a gentle tap.
Night fell very soon, and the city was lit up by the many lights, turning it into a place where all the stars gathered on the ground.
The dwarves were speechless for a long time at the incredible splendor of the city.
Suddenly, a gap opened in the ground at the edge of the city, and a huge “metal arrow” shot out with a bright flame into the distance.
“What is that?!” The dwarves were totally shocked.
Then, the metal arrow fell to the ground on the horizon, followed by a deafening bang!
The ground was shaking, and the dwarves’ ears buzzing. There was a new sun at the edge of the desert, burning and glowing, with enough power to destroy the entire world. The bright sun soon disappeared. Heavy smoke in the shape of a huge mushroom was left there at the horizon as if there was another horrible hell in the distance.
Seeing that, Harold swallowed hard. The metal arrow could definitely destroy the entire Night Highland.
The look on the face of the elder and the rest of the dwarves were very serious. They held the power in awe. When they looked back at the dream-like city, the beautiful lights blurred their eyes.
“Where is this place?” Harold blurted out, feeling afraid but also excited, “This place is even greater than the steam city described in the elder’s stories!”
“This is…” Myrna murmured, quivering.
The solemn and sacred arrived again,
“This is Atlantis. My kingdom.”
