Chapter 114 The King's City

After the banquet ended, Izhaks led Hao Ren and the others to a terrace above the palace. From there, they could overlook most of the Demon King's City—the massive city was so large that even from the highest point in the palace, they couldn't see all of it.

The roughly circular city was meticulously planned. Within the magnificent obsidian outer walls, twelve symmetrically distributed high walls divided the city into twelve districts. In each district, one could see the iconic buildings of various races and the massive black towers built by the demons. The residents of the city weren't separated by these walls; the walls had huge gates and drawbridges, powered by magic, that could be opened and closed at any time. Their purpose was likely to further defend against external enemies when the city was under attack. The Demon King's palace was located in the center of the city, built on a high rocky hill.

Looking down, one could see the elves' giant trees next to the humans' houses, the dwarves' forges close to the orcs' arenas, and the spirit race's crystal towers built on the halflings' cellars. Hundreds of years of cohabitation had completely changed the traditions and habits of these "Demon King's subjects." As the group most directly living in the Demon King's City and most deeply influenced by Izhaks, they had long adapted to this atmosphere of living together in a huddle. The elves didn't feel that the orcs' rough ale and roasted meat were inappropriate, and the orcs were happy to study the elves' complex and exquisite woodcarving techniques with them. This was the true face of the Demon King's City, which was terrifying in the eyes of outsiders.

Unfortunately, most people only noticed the ferocious appearance of the Demon King's City's hundred-zhang-high walls.

Izhaks, arms crossed, looked down at everything: "Do you think this city can be transferred as a whole?"

Hao Ren didn't think much of it: "The Aerym elves took away hundreds of millions of people, and their several floating islands—those islands are bigger than your Demon King's City."

"But there was a transport fleet at that time, and more importantly, the Aerym elves' universe had a World Gate," Izhaks glanced at Hao Ren. "This world doesn't have one. Our original plan was just to find Elizabeth, but we didn't expect there to be a whole city of people..."

Hao Ren shrugged: "Anyway, it's unrealistic to let you abandon this city of people, right?"

Izhaks chuckled and didn't say anything.

"So that settles it," Hao Ren grinned. "Don't worry about these things, I have a plan. The World Gate issue can be resolved. I'm going to write a report and apply to the higher-ups to open a temporary gate. As for the population inflow...don't worry, I have experience."

As soon as Hao Ren said he had experience, Vivian and Nangong Wuyue rolled their eyes, knowing what he meant.

Vivian looked at the magnificent city and curiously asked Izhaks, "Actually, I'm more curious about something else: have you really given up?"

"I've done what I could. Losing is losing. If I drag these people in the city to die again for my own obsession, it would be meaningless," Izhaks pointed to the city below. "This isn't a comeback, it's just wasting their lives for nothing."

"But some of your subordinates probably don't think so," Hao Ren glanced at Izhaks, "Like that Ramondino."

Izhaks was silent for a moment, then put his hand on Elizabeth's head and gently stroked it: "Before long, he should leave this city with some demons. Elizabeth, go tell Gadamor later not to stop him."

The little girl nodded obediently, and Hao Ren was immediately surprised: "You knew someone was going to run?"

"I've dealt with him for thousands of years. I've been fighting alongside him since before the start of the Unification War, as well as the other old guys in the city. I know them well," Izhaks smiled carelessly. "Compared to the ambition of the stars and the sea, they're actually more interested in fighting itself. If I'm not mistaken, they endured for a year with Elizabeth in the other dimension to build up strength and prepare for a comeback. Now that the opportunity for a comeback is gone, they naturally won't stay here."

Then Izhaks sighed: "Different values, can't force it."

Hao Ren stared blankly at Izhaks: "You're pretty open-minded... You knew about this back then, and you could still tolerate them?"

"It's not open-mindedness, it's just using talent appropriately," Izhaks grinned. "I don't need everyone to have the same ideas as me, I just need their strength to be useful to me. If someone can fight, let him fight. If someone can explore, let him explore. If someone can research, let him research. Ramondino is a standard demon, so let him do what standard demons do best. And now that he can't accept the future arrangements, he's free to come and go."

Vivian seemed to still have some questions to ask, but Izhaks didn't plan to continue on this topic. He looked down at Elizabeth: "Alright, let's talk about the city's problems—you solved the city's power? How did you do it?"

The little girl Elizabeth immediately puffed out her chest: "I found it! We found an energy source in the other dimension, and now it's in the royal city's power furnace—Daddy, do you want to see it?"

Izhaks immediately smiled: "Of course, I want to see it. How about you guys?"

How could Hao Ren and his group miss such a thing? They immediately became excited, and even Doudou happily shouted, "Me too! Me too!"

The group immediately set off for the Demon King's City's power district, which was located underground in the palace. Elizabeth led the way, and Hao Ren and the others followed her, winding through the palace, passing through long corridors and strict isolation doors, until they arrived at a circular hall. This hall was different in style from the rest of the palace. There were no decorative sculptures or reliefs, but there were many crystals and silver-white metal inlaid on the surrounding walls, forming rune-like lines. These mysterious patterns glowed faintly under the drive of magic, and echoing the light was a low humming sound that constantly reverberated in the hall.

Hao Ren felt like he had arrived at a magical version of a nuclear power plant control room from another world.

Elizabeth gestured for everyone to stand on the black stone platform in the center of the round hall, then raised her hand and made a strange gesture towards a crystal above the hall. The black stone platform shook slightly and began to slowly sink down.

So this was an elevator...

As the elevator descended, the group began to enter the most core and important area of the Demon King's City. Hao Ren quickly realized that he was passing through a long, vertical channel made of transparent crystal. Through the transparent walls surrounding the channel, he could see the unknown internal structure of the Demon King's City: huge, dwarf-style steam pipes coiled around the area, and heavy bronze components roared under the propulsion of dwarf steam power, providing enormous energy to the city's upper structures. Below the dwarf steam pipes was a grid layer made of dark red crystals and mithril metal. This layer was the buffer section of the base power district. Further down, one could see even more bizarre things, including a whole layer of dark green crystal matrices, obsidian floors engraved with complex magic arrays, and a steel structure that resembled a jungle—it was unknown how much effort Izhaks had put in to transform the city below to this extent. Looking at these strange structures that mixed technology, magic, alchemy, evil energy, and even steam power, Hao Ren suddenly understood why the Holy See's allied forces had failed to capture the Demon King's City for so long.

This was truly alien technology...

After a long descent, the black stone platform finally reached its destination, and the group arrived at the deepest part of the Demon King's City.

Elizabeth led the group along a sloping corridor for a while, until they reached a circular grand cloister. The inner walls of the cloister were lined with neatly arranged stone windows. Lily peeked through the stone windows and discovered that the annular cloister surrounded what should be the power furnace.

The power furnace was cast directly from obsidian metal, and its interior was a huge, unparalleled circular hall. The floor of the hall sloped downward, forming a structure like the stands of an arena, and on each tier one could see countless shining runes and mithril lines, connecting to the center of the hall: there, a metal device composed of several concentric rings was roaring, and in the center of the device was a mysterious substance emitting a dark red light.

On the tiers of the power furnace, one could see many workers busily working. In addition to demons, one could also see tall spirit race with blue skin and stumpy dwarf technicians rolling around like wine barrels.

Elizabeth proudly introduced this place: "This is the magic energy furnace of the royal city!"

Hao Ren stared blankly for a long time, then turned to look at Izhaks strangely: "... I suddenly know another reason why you had the whole world team up to raid it."

Izhaks: "What?"

"How come you're always in a different style from everyone else wherever you go!"