Chapter 1 A Giant, Distorted Creature

In more than two thousand years of continuous construction and development, Dusk City has become a bizarre and deformed behemoth.

Its predecessor was originally a few city-states in the hinterland of Midgard Continent. In those days, the scale of a city-state was quite limited. Even if a few city-states and their respective territories were connected, they would only be equivalent to a giant city on Earth today. A Dusk Barrier was enough to completely envelop all of this. After the barrier rose, the survivors on this land could only build their homes under this dome. The land area was limited, so they could only develop their city towards the sky.

They first connected the city-states together, developing every inch of wasteland between them as much as possible. After filling the earth, they layered the city upwards, relying on some technology that had long been lost on Earth, possibly left by the Vanir gods, which made this construction method possible.

Resources collected from the dark wilderness were constantly converted into steel and adhesives, filling every inch of space under the Dusk Barrier bit by bit over two thousand years, and finally forming the city's unique conical structure. Today, the upper city can almost touch the energy shield that emits a pale yellow light. Standing on the highest platform in the upper city, you will feel that the Dusk Barrier is within reach—in fact, if you have enough arm strength, throwing a small stone into the sky will cause ripples on the barrier.

The city has no more room to develop.

And deep within this deformed, stacked nest, the ancient steam turbines and pressure piping systems are still running slowly, like the aging internal organs of an ultimate behemoth. Every rotation of these things, some of which are hundreds or even nearly a thousand years old, causes Dusk City to groan in pain. Sometimes even the entire upper city will shake, but the residents of the city are accustomed to this ominous sign.

The steam locomotive slowly pulled into the station in the upper city. After leaving the carriage, Hao Ren immediately felt much better: the steam locomotive used to transport workers and ore was definitely not comfortable. In fact, in order to operate in the dark wilderness, the steel monster was more concerned with sturdiness and safety than with humanization. The completely sealed carriage was not only stuffy but also filled with a pungent smell of machine oil, which was simply torture after a long stay.

Although the air quality outside the carriage wasn't much better.

They were located near the highest point of the city, but standing here, Hao Ren couldn't feel any exhilaration. The low-hanging Dusk Barrier only made people feel more oppressed. He looked at Wendell beside him: "Where do we go next?"

"The headquarters of the Seekers of Light is in the lower city, near the Iron Throne's Temple. We have to go down through the Great Shaft, but the Great Shaft is controlled by the Steam Council," Wendell explained patiently. "The shaft elevator runs once an hour, and ordinary citizens can use it, but you are a problem: you don't have legal identities. So the most likely situation is that we will first have to accept the Steam Council's..."

Lili suddenly interrupted the old man's words: "Are the people you're talking about the Steam Council those people?"

A team of people in uniform stepped onto the station platform. They looked radiant, proud, and confident. Their dark blue, close-fitting uniforms were trimmed with silver, and their chests were adorned with a symbol composed of gears and valves. Except for the leader, these people were carrying metal rods, which should have been for law enforcement, but looked like some kind of elongated, deformed machine control levers.

After this team stepped onto the platform, they walked directly towards them. Wendell's face immediately darkened after seeing them.

"It's them, the constables of the Steam Council," the old man's voice was somewhat suppressed, "and the ones I least want to see..."

Hao Ren glanced at the old man strangely, thinking that the opposition between the Steam Council and the Seekers of Light seemed to be more serious than he had imagined.

At this time, those "constables" had already arrived in front of them. Standing at the front of the team was a middle-aged man with short black hair and a serious face. He ignored Hao Ren and his group, and just nodded to Wendell, his voice with a deliberate coldness and alienation: "Mr. Wendell, I am very 'glad' to see you return safely from the darkness."

Wendell had a bitter face: "Yeah, whether you're happy or not, I'm back."

"I didn't see any other Seekers of Light, so can it be assumed that the result of this search is still the same," the serious middle-aged man's eyes were sharp, "You are the only one who came back alive—the last search operation failed completely without surprise."

Wendell's attitude suddenly changed when he heard these words. He straightened his neck and said firmly: "No! This time is different! I found them!"

The middle-aged man seemed a little surprised by Wendell's sudden toughness. He curiously looked at Hao Ren's side: "These people?"

He received the message that Wendell had returned to Dusk City and came to the upper city by locomotive, but the message came from the outer rim mining bureau. The brief report did not mention the situation of "outsiders."

"They are from outside Dusk City!" Wendell said loudly, his eyes finally shining again, that was the brilliance that would only appear when a lifelong pursuit finally yielded results, "They are from Asgard—look at them, healthy and strong, the entire Asgard is not polluted, there is no need for a Dusk Barrier at all, the whole country is healthy!"

The constables of the Steam Council looked at each other, and some slight commotion spread among them. The middle-aged man at the head was also stunned for a moment, but his eyes quickly turned cold.

"Nonsense!"

He glared at Wendell and said.

"You..." Wendell was suddenly choked, but before he could say anything, the middle-aged man waved his hand vigorously: "I don't know where you found these people, but creating this kind of hoax is shaking the foundation of the entire Dusk City! You are finally completely crazy—take them away!"

The constables hesitated slightly, and the middle-aged man immediately glared: "What are you still standing there for?"

At this time, a hand suddenly rested on his shoulder, and Hao Ren looked at this superior constable with a smile that was not a smile: "I said, brother, anyone with a normal mind should know that there is no right to speak without investigation, right? Is your judgment of whether others are telling the truth based on your mood?"

The middle-aged man had no idea how Hao Ren suddenly approached him silently from a few meters away and put his hand on his shoulder. He was startled, and when he looked up, he found that those strangers who claimed to be from Asgard had already stood beside him and formed an encirclement, while his constable subordinates were still standing there blankly, their expressions stiff as if they had been frozen.

The shadows under each of their feet were stretched very long, and those stretched and deformed shadows all pointed in the direction of the little imp Elizabeth. In Elizabeth's innocent big eyes, two clusters of thin green flames flashed by.

"What are you going to do..."

"We heard that the Steam Council is the administrator of Dusk City," Hao Ren said with his arms folded, "You manage this city, maintain this city, and have allowed the city to develop smoothly for two thousand years under such difficult circumstances—to be honest, I was a little impressed by you at first, but this... is a bit of a bad reputation."

"A spellcaster?" the middle-aged man said with a gloomy face, but he was still not too panicked in this situation of being controlled by others. He just glared at Wendell, "These are the helpers you found to help you act? Aren't you afraid of attracting the Wizards' Guard?"

"I have no intention of reversing your misunderstanding and prejudice towards me," Wendell smiled bitterly helplessly, "but you shouldn't let this prejudice completely blind your mind, right? Don't you want to believe that outside the barrier..."

"Outside the barrier is only darkness! Just as dark as your heart!" the middle-aged man glared at the old man with his neck stuck out, "I knew this when you abandoned your wife and children for the first time!"

Hao Ren was originally thinking about how to give this seemingly stubborn council official some humanistic care, but at this time he was stunned: this sounds like... there is actually a story inside?

Not only Hao Ren, but also Vivian, Lili, March, May, Izhaks, and a large group of people next to him instantly became highly emotional. A large wave of guys who had nothing to do and were waiting for gossip instantly turned their heads in unison, their eyes shining...

It was understandable if it was Vivian, Lili, and May, after all, the three of them watched family dramas on TV when they had nothing to do, so they would naturally get enthusiastic when they heard about this kind of thing, but it was not so easy to explain Izhaks: could it be that a generation of demon kings also had this hobby of inquiring about other people's divorce secrets?

The expression on Wendell's face changed, and finally all turned into a sigh: "This is my son, Hope."