Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(Vol 5)

Vol 5/ Chapter 32: Sneaking In (Part 1)

"Come on, it should be fine. They don't have weapons. Looks like they don't even have teeth!" Cyra said carelessly.

True, the metal bugs were like she said. They only had four legs and no visible mouth or teeth. They looked harmless. But when it felt threatened, the bug in Cyra's hand suddenly sprayed water from somewhere!

Luckily, the spray wasn't aimed well. It just missed Cyra's head and hit a small mound behind her. It quickly melted a big area. Adrian and I felt cold sweat on our backs.

"Damn, what was that? It wasn't acid, was it?"

Cyra quickly let go. Thankfully, this didn't make all the other bugs attack us like we feared.

When the metal bug fell to the ground, its four legs opened and it started moving again. It spun around a few times, then found its way and mixed in with the other bugs. Soon we couldn't tell which one it was.

"If you're this careless again, I won't bring you on missions anymore!" I finally exhaled and complained to Cyra. We need to fix her habit of touching things, or one day we'll be in big trouble because of her!

"What's this? Looks like it fell off the bug..." Adrian noticed a small metal piece where the bug landed. He picked it up, looked at it carefully, then passed it to me.

"Um... I can't tell. I don't know either!" It was a hexagonal metal piece, cut very neatly with no flaws. If it wasn't milky white and different from the bugs' bodies, I would have thought it was a broken bug part that fell off when Cyra dropped it.

"Looks like they're using these things to pave the road. I see lots of these stones on the ground ahead!" This time Cyra noticed something. She crouched down, not daring to touch anything. She moved the floating magic light closer to the ground, trying to see under the moving metal bugs.

"Could it be..." Watching her, I felt like I guessed something too. One magic light doesn't cover much, so I quickly made another one and moved it slowly in the direction we were going.

Sure enough! There weren't as many metal bugs as we thought. About ten meters away, their numbers started decreasing. We could see the ground they were covering - it wasn't gray-yellow dirt anymore, but smooth, flat, milky white stone slabs.

Not just the ground, but the tunnel walls were covered with these "tiles" too. The finished tunnel looked very high-tech, just missing lights.

"They're using these bugs to pave the road. How do they do it?" Adrian was very surprised. He might not know these metal bugs aren't alive. Maybe he thinks someone used special magic to make them.

"The important thing is, the Empire made these, right? But they seem too advanced!" I was focused on something different. Honestly, it's hard to believe! Sifur's city building is good, and the Empire's infrastructure is much better than the Astralrealm Kingdom and other countries. But their magic technology clearly hasn't reached this amazing level yet!

A few minutes passed. Except for the small area we were standing on, all the dirt ground around us quickly changed to white stone tiles. The whole tunnel suddenly looked much cleaner and wider.

These metal bugs may look dumb and slow to react, but they work very efficiently! After laying the tiles, they sprayed white liquid between them, probably to strengthen the walls and make them look nice.

"Should we keep going? Maybe tanks and cannons will come out to greet us soon?" Cyra asked me and Adrian uncertainly as we watched the bug army slowly move back the way we came. Her logic was simple - if they have such sci-fi things, maybe making tanks and cannons isn't too hard.

"Go, of course we should go! The Imperial army doesn't know we snuck in. Why stop now?" I answered naturally. We've seen the Empire's weapons before. The tunnel was probably empty for a while because they were paving it. If they knew we were here, they probably wouldn't send these metal bugs for us to see.

Whatever's waiting for us, this is a rare chance. That Imperial military base is too well guarded. There's no other way to sneak in except this tunnel. If we give up now, how will we save Reed?

Anyway, since the metal bugs paved the road ahead, we didn't have to worry about holes and bumps. We could walk much faster.

But this underground tunnel crossing the border was really long. Even walking fast, it took us about half an hour to reach the end! To be safe, Adrian cast invisibility on us again for the second half of the journey after we became visible earlier.

"Is this the end? Is this really the tunnel the Light Elves dug? They even built a door! That's a lot of work!" Cyra couldn't believe her eyes, staring at the huge door in front of us.

The last part of the tunnel was very wide. Two or three carriages could easily pass side by side. So this metal door blocking the end was really impressive. The Light Elf tribe definitely couldn't have made this.

Luckily, it was closed tight with no movement. We didn't know what was behind it.

"Who knows? You saw what those metal bugs can do. If they're around, adding a door is nothing special." Adrian shook his head, standing right in front of the door. He couldn't really judge. Of course, we could also guess that building the whole military base in two or three days was possible. We can't measure this by normal construction abilities on the continent.

But when did the Ilandra Dominion Empire get such advanced technology? Neither Adrian nor I had ever heard of it. If it was true, they probably would have conquered the whole continent already. Other small countries wouldn't stand a chance!

"I hear people talking behind the door. Quick, let's hide!" Just as I was wondering if we should try to open the door, Adrian suddenly heard something. He quickly warned us in a low voice, pulled me to hide at the edge of the tunnel, and told Cyra to put out her floating magic light.

As soon as he finished speaking, the metal door opened without warning. Bright light shone in from the doorway. The whole process was completely silent.

"The construction looks good. Just as Your Majesty predicted, the tunnel floor has been successfully paved!" A huge magic light ball shot in from behind the door, bursting into dazzling light. It lit up a long stretch of the tunnel.

I thought "Oh no!" This was a light magic spell! It was like a flare, mainly used for large area lighting at night. Since it appeared here, there must be light mages behind the door!

The biggest risk on this mission was meeting light mages face to face. If they discover us, all our efforts will be wasted.

But the situation was even worse than we imagined. There wasn't just one Imperial soldier dressed as a mage who opened the door. Looking closely, there were dozens of them, all standing near the door ready to enter the tunnel!

They weren't all light mages, but they all dressed similarly. The light element energy inside the door was very strong, so I couldn't tell them apart at first.

Luckily, the three of us were still completely invisible, so they didn't notice us right away.

"The magic cannon team will leave soon. They're waiting for our support at the front!" As the first light flare started to fade, the lead light mage cast another one. Then he waved behind him, signaling the main force to follow.

"Quick, run through while this flare is still bright. Then we'll find a place to hide where the mages can't sense us!" Luck was on our side. Each flare explosion released lots of light element into the air. Cyra and I hadn't shown our wings, so our energy was hidden for a short time. Adrian seized this chance and quietly gave this instruction. Without waiting to see if we heard, he led the way through the door.

Of course, Cyra and I didn't dare delay. We quickly followed him.