Chapter 1404 Twilight Barrier

Hao Ren quickly received messages from Gala卓尔 and Anthony: the envoy Odin had sent had taken effect. Though bewildered, the Twilight Guard and wizarding groups had temporarily ceased fighting under the direct orders of the Steam Council. The two sides were now awkwardly confronting each other on the upper platform, while the Steam Council's follow-up troops were cleaning up the mess. Although the Dragon Queen and her people had tried to hold back, there were still many casualties among the Twilight Guard, and the aftermath on the elevator platform would probably keep the Steam Council busy for a while.

But no matter what, there was no need to worry about the things above.

"In these two thousand years, I've thought about many things," Odin said after recounting the establishment of Twilight City. He couldn't help but sigh again, "We are outsiders—I knew from the beginning that we, with our innate strength or powerful technology, are clearly not the natives of this world. We are just poor refugees who have drifted here for some reason, but we became swollen with arrogance because this world has a group of intelligent but much weaker native creatures. This made us feel like we were the rightful rulers of this world. We brazenly occupied land that didn't belong to us but lacked the foundation for development: population, history, culture, technological systems... Apart from the scattered legacy brought from our homeland, we actually had nothing. But even so, we were able to rely on simple *divine* power to maintain that supreme ruling position, which completely blinded everyone."

"Humans were ignorant, so we assumed they were born ignorant. Humans were weak, so we assumed they would always be weak. Humans didn't understand runes and technology, so we assumed they weren't qualified or intelligent enough to come into contact with these things—but what about the reality? They built this Twilight City, using methods that even I couldn't have imagined... You were right, old friend. This world ultimately belongs to them."

"Actually, human development is far more amazing than you imagine, if they weren't trapped on these ruins," Vivian shook her head with a wry smile. "Do you know what Earth is like now? Humans can fly to the moon. They are everywhere in the sky, the sea, and on land. The cities they build are more magnificent than any divine kingdom in the age of myth. The changes are too great... I don't even know how to begin to tell you."

"Then don't," Odin's voice contained a sense of relief. "In any case, my time has passed. I'm glad to see you again, and that you're doing well. This shows that at least some aliens have survived in the world today, which is a comfort to me. Actually, I only have one request for you..."

Hao Ren suddenly spoke, "To help this Twilight City?"

"That's right," Odin said slowly. "I was originally considering giving up completely, but your sudden appearance gave me some hope. Since you have a way to enter from the outside world, you should also have a way to bring the people here out—I wonder if you've noticed, this city has actually reached its end. Although humans have been trying to prolong the city's life as much as possible and have developed amazing technologies under the barrier, everything is coming to an end..."

Even if Odin didn't ask, Hao Ren would find a way to take away the millions of people in this city, but he still asked subconsciously, "What's the problem?"

"Me," Odin said softly, "I'm dying."

Although they had expected it, Hao Ren and Vivian fell silent when they heard this sentence.

Hao Ren looked up at the dome of the throne hall. The dome wasn't completely closed; there was a huge circular hole directly above the roof. Through the hole, he could see the scenery outside the fortress. He saw crisscrossing steel beams and layers of stacked city buildings. The entire Twilight City was like a bloated, expanding nest, and Odin, at the deepest part of this nest, was like a cornerstone, with the entire city heavily weighing on his shoulders.

Although he hadn't figured out the operating mechanism of the Twilight Barrier, there was no doubt that the city's defense mechanism was entirely based on Odin himself.

Hao Ren looked at Odin again: this old man, sealed in crystal, already weakened and decayed beyond recognition. His current weakness was undoubtedly related to maintaining the Twilight Barrier for many years.

"Maybe you don't have to die," Hao Ren exchanged glances with the data terminal and smiled. "I have a way to restore you to health. But before that, I need to ask you something: we came here on a mission. We're looking for an ancient aircraft that once belonged to the wise giant Mimir. That aircraft should be quite large, and it was last sunk into the Well of Wisdom. But it's said that it may move between the Nine Realms along the branches of Yggdrasil, so we can't be sure of its location now."

Vivian quickly added, "If you can help us find that thing, we can transfer all the people from Twilight City out at any time."

After a few seconds, Odin spoke in a somewhat hesitant tone, "Are you looking for a black ship?"

Hao Ren was immediately startled. "You know where it is?!"

Odin paused, then suddenly let out a low, hoarse laugh. The laughter grew louder and louder until he finally couldn't restrain himself. "Ha... haha... fate, fate. The Norn sisters are always talking about fate, but even they probably wouldn't have thought that there would be such a coincidence in the world..."

Hao Ren quickly grabbed Vivian's arm. "Is the old man going to pass out?"

Vivian frowned. "No, he already passed out two thousand years ago..."

Odin suddenly raised his voice, "Do you know what the Twilight Barrier is?"

Hao Ren was stunned. "What is it?"

Odin's voice came from all directions. "The ship you're looking for is here."

As soon as he finished speaking, a creaking, grinding sound rang out from the depths of the earth.

Hao Ren was shocked to find that the floor of the throne hall was actually covered with a thin layer of completely transparent barrier. Everything, including the throne and the cables, was actually placed on the barrier—he only realized this because the stone slabs under the barrier were moving, retreating towards the surroundings!

The mechanical grinding sound grew louder and louder. The entire floor of the throne hall began to deform, and the heavy strips of stone disassembled and dispersed themselves with dazzling regularity, disappearing into the walls around the hall. After the floor receded, Hao Ren saw the secret hidden in the deepest part of Twilight City:

A huge cavern emitting a faint red light, in which a massive interstellar spacecraft was quietly parked.

Most of the ship's structure was hidden in the deep darkness. Its specific shape and size couldn't be seen from here, but one thing was certain: it was very large. The ship was clearly not completely dormant; lights flickered on some of its armor plates, and two streams of light snaked up from the depths of the darkness. Although the light was weak, it was enough to show that the ship's central power system was still running and was sending energy outward.

And Odin's Iron Throne was built on top of a protruding structure on top of this ship: they were completely connected!

"The Twilight Barrier... is this ship's shield," Odin's voice awakened Hao Ren from his shock. "Although I didn't know what it was at first, I discovered that it had been sent to Midgard by Yggdrasil's vines, and it had a powerful force inside it. At that time, Twilight City had not yet been formed, and the few surviving city-states were barely able to resist external erosion with a large number of rune barriers. So I thought of using this unknown powerful energy source to build a defense system."

"Holy crap... you're saying this is a coincidence..." Hao Ren thought that it was just as Odin had said, fate was a wonderful thing. The previous actions had really chosen the right path: if he had put the Twilight City aside temporarily and focused on finding Mimir's ship, he might have had to go around many detours!

But then again, he had also faintly felt that Twilight City should have clues to this ship: after all, an entire city had survived Ragnarok, which required a very powerful force. This force was unlikely to come from ordinary humans, so he had connected the starship and Twilight City together at the time.

But even now that he had seen it with his own eyes, he couldn't help but be surprised.

"I studied it for a long time and couldn't open the outer shell of this thing, but I succeeded in activating its shield from the outside and expanding the shield to cover the entire city," Odin's voice was filled with pride. "However, maintaining this shield required a continuous stimulus from the outside, so I sat here, day after day, year after year, preventing the Twilight Barrier from going out."