With the three teams securing all the cores, they could finally advance to their final destination.
Unfortunately, the situation was worse than it looked. When Nathan arrived, he couldnât help but look at the giant hole. "So, we either go down or use the Memory of the Dead."
"Itâs better to use it here. Itâs not like theyâre dead down there. Most people will definitely die on the surface. Or at least, we will know if they are truly down there." Xolotl explained.
"Letâs do that then." Nathan nodded in agreement.
They activated the Memory of the Dead, but surprisingly, it didnât show them anything.
"Hmm?" Nathan tilted his head in confusion. "Whatâs wrong?"
"I am not sure." Anubis shook his head. "I canât just get any reading from this place."
Xolotl squinted his eyes before raising his head. "You may get your answer if we summon Nidhogg."
"Nidhogg?" Nathan didnât understand his request, but he summoned Nidhogg nonetheless.
"Nidhogg. Do you sense any lost souls around?" Xolotl asked.
"Hmm?" Nidhogg raised his head. "Now that I take a closer look at this place, no. There is no kind of energy that implies there were once living people here."
"As expected." Xolotl sighed and explained, "It looked like the alpha class alienâs immunity also erased the trace. In other words, you canât really use the Memory of the Dead in this place.
"This will probably be the case for the alien with the nullification ability. Theyâve messed up the entire area, making it impossible for us to get a reading."
"..." Nathanâs expression turned grim. If they couldnât find anything from here, it would be hard to accept. They really needed those traces to figure out what happened in the past and possibly pinpoint the location of the portals.
And they might even get lucky and find a trace of power left behind by those warriors or even the Asura, like they did in the fortress.
Nathan looked down, contemplating. "So, that means weâre going to return empty-handed?"
"Yeah. However, on the plus side, weâve gotten a lot of cores." Xolotl was also disappointed, but the situation couldnât be helped. "There is also still Evelynâs place, so what Iâm suggesting right now is to check Lunaâs place to confirm my theory before heading to Evelynâs destination."
Nathan was trying to figure out if there were any other ways, but it looked like they had no choice but to go according to Xolotlâs suggestion.
Since there was nothing they could do currently, Nathan started hunting down the aliens around. It wasnât much compared to the armies they had fought, but they still got a lot of cores from this hunt.
In the end, Nathan established the teleportation circles between the two places and visited them one at a time.
As Xolotl suspected, the Memory of the Dead couldnât get any reading from Lunaâs place. The alien with the nullification ability had completely nullified everything that remained in this world.
The finding in Evelynâs place was not as satisfying, but they did find some records, allowing them to get a better understanding of the Asura Palace.
At the very least, Nathan got the idea of how to head to the Asura Palace the next time they went on an expedition.
On the last day, Nathan gathered everyone.
"Weâve done a lot of things in the past month. Iâm sure that all of you understand what will come next, so I will just summarize your next goal this time.
"For the next two and three months, we will focus on enhancing our abilities. Iris, you can try to aim for a world class summoner, but I want your top priority to be summoning the God of Forging before the next trip.
"Selena, Sera, Alavenya, Flora, Noelle. The five of you have the same goal, and I think you understand it already. The first goal is to reach the crystal fusion stage. It will increase your combat power significantly. The second goal is to form your divine rule. This power is necessary if we want to fight the incoming battle. I donât know when it will come, but Iâm sure one thousand elite class aliens will come in a few months.
"We need overwhelming power if we want to somehow stop them. They are, after all, the same as Cthulhu, even though theyâre weaker. Theyâre the Ancient Ones.
"Vivian, Bella. You have to form your divine rule as quickly as possible. Considering the situation, your power will enhance the stability of our group.
"Luna, Evelyn. We have the same goal, which is to increase the number of our divine rules. And with the deadline closing in, we have to think of a method to reach Erendtall with a single teleportation circle.
"And so, form one rule at a time. I know the time is running low, but I donât intend to push you and make you ruin your future. In the worst-case scenario, our team is more than powerful enough to reach that place again. A round trip shouldnât take more than a week, I believe.
"As for me? I do have another task for myself." Nathan remembered how Tiamat was able to burn off so much ash cloud. And without the constant expansion of the cloud, they might be able to clear up the sky again this time.
Although it wouldnât be for the entire world, the entire continent could at least get sunlight for their farms.
It would render the cloud-repelling devices useless, but those devices could be repurposed as charging devices for the magic guns.
In the meantime, he also needed to absorb three alpha class cores, so it would take a very long time to complete all his personal objectives.
Still, if he could somehow power up Tiamat and the others, burning the ash cloud shouldnât be too hard anymore.
And he would ask Flora or the Shadow Guards to handle the diplomatic matters.
This time, they really needed to be ready to face the incoming invasion.
"As such, I officially announce that our trip is now over. We will go back after dinner."