CHAPTER 241: TRACES

Sarman departed with her people.

Before leaving, she secretly asked Sheena why she was traveling with Carlotta.

In response, Sheena didn’t give a complete answer, merely telling Sarman to handle her own tasks first. As for Sheena’s relationship with Carlotta, they’d discuss it later.

Sheena clearly understood that it wasn’t convenient to reveal right now that she’d already recognized Carlotta as her leader. These uninformed people would likely be unable to accept it, potentially causing trouble, she didn’t know about Carlotta’s relationship with the High Priestess; otherwise, she might not have made such a decision.

Receiving no answer, Sarman could only leave.

Sheena then continued leading Carlotta and the others toward the city center.

This city was far more vast than imagined. Carlotta and her companions had to fly for quite a while before finally reaching it.

The closer they got to the city center, the thicker the mist became. By this point, the surroundings were nearly invisible. Even using magic to blow the mist away, very little cleared.

They advanced haltingly, navigating their path, and finally arrived before a massive structure.

"Hmm? Who’s been here already?"

Sheena’s face revealed surprise.

Before the massive building, a door lay shattered, fragments scattered all around. The damage looked fresh, as if someone had recently arrived and kicked the door open.

However, with so many people coming and going in this city, it wasn’t strange that someone had reached here.

Carlotta simply merely, then walked directly into the building.

"Miss Carlotta, be careful. This is the Land of the gods. Both before and after we became Impression Entities, we’ve all come here to pay respects to the god."

Sheena said solemnly.

"God? Already gone. Even the front door has been kicked open."

Carlotta said.

"Even so, the god must not be treated lightly. In the Land of the god, proper respect toward the god is required."

Sheena paused here, then said gravely, "As for whoever destroyed the door here, if I ever discover their identity, I will show them no mercy."

Carlotta didn’t say anything, continuing forward into the building.

The structure resembled a castle, only three stories tall, but each floor was extremely high. In terms of the outside world, each level could be equivalent to five ordinary floors.

The castle covered a vast area. Originally, there should have been extensive greenery, but now those areas were nothing but barren land.

Carlotta could casually observe her surroundings, but Sheena didn’t dare to be careless. Instead, she respectfully bowed repeatedly toward the castle ahead before stepping forward.

"This place... why does it feel familiar?"

Amelia stared at the castle before her and the surrounding environment, her expression turning odd.

She rubbed her temples, carefully searching through her memories, yet couldn’t find any related recollections.

This feeling leaves Amelia unsettled.

Why did she have this sense of déjà vu? She trusted her intuition, it didn’t come without reason. If she felt this way, then she must have seen this place somewhere before.

Yet, she couldn’t find a single trace in her memories.

After all, she was a practitioner of memory magic, someone with profound understanding of memory. Anything that had ever appeared in her memory should be recallable at any time. Thus, this situation feels strange, bordering on unreasonable.

"What’s wrong?"

Carlotta leaned over, concerned.

"It’s strange... I feel like something’s wrong with my memory."

Amelia said, massaging her temples.

"Does your memory have a problem?"

Carlotta frowned, unsure what to make of the situation.

After gaining the ability to practice various magics, she had also trained in memory magic and fully understood its intricacies.

She immediately asked detailed questions, and thoughtfully raised her hand to smooth Amelia’s furrowed brow.

Amelia sobbed helplessly, "It’s like I’ve forgotten something. That’s odd. I don’t know why I’d forgotten something like this."

"Don’t worry. I’m here."

Carlotta patted Amelia’s hand.

"I’m not really worried. Although something feels off, having you by my side makes me feel safe."

Amelia smiled.

Besides them, Selina watched the two with a strange expression.

It was truly difficult. After all this journey, she finally heard words she could understand, only for the content to be unbearably sweet.

The first understood conversation she’d heard in a while was this nauseatingly delightful exchange between two girls. Selina didn’t know what to say.

After comforting Amelia a little, Carlotta took her hand and walked ahead, not daring to let go.

Inside, however, Carlotta’s mind was far from calm. Deep down, she was extremely serious, because she too sensed that something was unusual.

This city had originally lain deep within the Central Ruins. It only appeared at the outer edges after recent spatial fluctuations occurred within the Central Ruins.

That was when the impression entities within the city awakened, allowing outsiders to enter.

In other words, this was a long-sealed city.

Then why did Amelia have this sense of familiarity with the castle?

Could it be that an identical castle once existed outside?

That idea was unreasonable. This place was where a god had once resided, how could there be an exact duplicate elsewhere?

Moreover, Amelia clearly felt déjà vu, yet couldn’t locate any matching memory. That was highly abnormal.

What exactly was going on?

Carlotta could only tighten her grip on Amelia’s hand, preventing anything unwanted from happening.

The group advanced and reached the castle’s main doors.

Pushing them open, they saw a tall, spacious living hall. The furniture and decorations inside were neatly arranged, yet exuded an air of decay, time’s force lingered throughout.

"You have come."

Suddenly, an extremely distant voice echoed through the hall.

"You have come."

"You have come."

After the initial voice, reply after reply echoed continuously throughout the hall, one after another, carrying an indescribable sense of awe.

Sheena immediately dropped to her knees, loudly proclaiming her recovery to the god.

Carlotta and the others turned to look at Sheena, strange expressions.

’Is that the voice of a god? Sheena has undoubtedly seen gods before and was familiar with their voices, so she instinctively reacted this way upon hearing it?’

Carlotta thought silently.

Even though being called "Third in World" sounds impressive, it depends on who you compared it to. Compared to a god, it was nothing.

Gods have existed since ancient times. They had seen countless "First in world." In comparison, what was a mere "Third in World"?

Sheena clearly understood this.

After a series of echoes, the god’s voice disappeared as if it had never been there.

Sheena remains kneeling for a while. When nothing further happened, she finally raised her head.

"Where is the god?"

Sheena asked in astonishment.

"What god? There’s no god here."

Carlotta said with a smile. "It was just a lingering echo. Given a god’s immense power, if they stayed in a place for long enough, residual echoes would remain. That’s not unusual at all."

Sheena had no reply.

She thought about it, and realized Carlotta was right. She looked around, but found nothing.

"Let’s go. Keep exploring and see what’s here."

Carlotta pulled Amelia forward.

Selina quickly followed.

As for Sheena, she said, "Let’s split up and search around."

With a respectful heart, she headed in another direction, hoping to find useful traces.

They hadn’t walked far when Carlotta suddenly halted.

It seemed to be dawn.

She had used magic to create an effect similar to an alarm clock, when a crucial moment arrived, she would immediately sense it.

Carlotta now opened her information screen.

[ 1: Within the god’s residence, only traces left behind by the god remain. Using special tools, one can collect these residual traces and release them when needed, gaining a slightly divine power with astonishing might. The tool for collecting the god’s traces is located within this residence, as shown (a map).]

Carlotta opened the map and saw it pointed toward the castle’s basement, where the special tool was located.

’So it’s possible to collect traces of a god? I wonder what kind of tool it is, but it seems extremely useful.’

Carlotta didn’t want to miss out. Intel said the power was astonishing, so it must be.

[ 2: Amelia Fenwick’s maternal lineage originally came from World Nine. In ancient times, they arrived in World One and settled here. Generation after generation passed down stories of their origin, ensuring each descendant remembers their roots, until it reached Amelia’s mother, Diana Fenwick. Due to Diana’s untimely death in her youth, she failed to pass on this knowledge.

The reason Amelia feels a sense of familiarity toward the Divine Castle is because memories of the gods have been inherited through each generation. When Amelia was young, Diana had shown them to her, but later decided she was too young to know such things, so she deliberately erased her memories.]

Carlotta rubbed her temples, momentarily dazed.

She reread the second piece of intelligence, then glanced at Amelia, her expression reversed shifting.

So Amelia was also someone from another world?

No, that wasn’t quite accurate. Perhaps it would be better to say she carried bloodline from another world.

It was impossible now to trace exactly who Amelia’s ancestors were, such a distant past indeed.

Those people had arrived in this world through the Tower of Babel, settled here, and became part of this world. It wasn’t strange. Perhaps there were other individuals from foreign worlds who had migrated and settled here in ancient times as well.

But due to the immense passage of time, some things could no longer be traced. No one knew what had truly happened in that distant past. Across such long ages, every possibility exists.

The migrating clans might have seen many of their lineages extinguished over time, or forgotten their origins entirely, fully assimilating into this world.

Just like Amelia, unless something unexpected occurred, from her onward, their origin would remain unknown.

"Why do you keep looking at me?"

Amelia noticed Carlotta’s odd gaze and asked in confusion.

"Because you’re beautiful, of course."

Carlotta stated firmly.

Amelia had no reply.

Carlotta smiled, took Amelia’s hand, and continued walking, while glancing over the remaining intelligence.

[ 3: The endpoint location indicated by the Lion Key, as shown (a map).]

Carlotta paused, slightly amused. Why tell her the endpoint of the Lion Key now? Still, she could memorize this information for later.

[ 4: Locations of Divine traces, distributed as follows (a map).]

Carlotta looked and found that most areas of the castle contained traces of Divine traces.

To her, these were things she could collect. She wondered how it would affect Sheena, who took a different path, would Sheena end up kneeling every time she heard the voice of a god?

Intelligence was scarce. Carlotta closed the panel and continued toward the castle’s basement.

As they passed through a corridor, a distant voice echoed repeatedly.

"The weather is nice today."

The sentence reverberated many times through the corridor.

This place was exactly where intelligence mentioned, where Divine traces exist. The gods’ voices from long ago endlessly echoed here.

Carlotta knew it was merely a phenomenon and didn’t pay it much mind, continuing forward.

Along the way, she encountered numerous Divine traces. Unfortunately, the words left behind by the gods were mostly mundane, containing no useful information.

Walking steadily, Carlotta finally reached the entrance to the basement and opened the heavy door.

A musty, decaying odor seeped from the dark basement, making her feel uncomfortable all over.

"Do we really have to go inside?"

Selina stared at the basement entrance, a chill running down her spine. She didn’t want to enter.

"You can wait outside for us."

"Forget it."

Selina shook her head firmly.

After all, staying close to Carlotta gave her a greater sense of security.

In her eyes, this city was filled with eerie elements, so much so that even she, a mighty Weaver, had to proceed with caution.

Carlotta said nothing more. She led Amelia down, creating a transparent magical barrier around them to block the stench. Ahead, she conjured a light source to pierce the darkness and illuminate their path.

It wasn’t long before Carlotta reached the interior of the basement.

Despite merely being a basement, it appears exceptionally spacious, as if the entire foundation beneath the castle formed one vast underground chamber.

Inside the dark basement lay numerous objects resembling alchemical equipment, almost like a workshop. Many of the devices were completely incomprehensible to Carlotta.

"Could this be the gods’ alchemical workshop?"

Carlotta speculated.

This made her think of her own Stellar Workshop. As her power and understanding grew, the value of the Stellar Workshop kept rising, still boundless and unfathomable.

Was there any connection between her Stellar Workshop and this place?

Carlotta reached out and touched a piece of paper on a table, immediately, it crumbled into dust.

"Don’t touch anything here. Everything is too ancient. Even the slightest contact can destroy it."

Carlotta quickly warned.

Selina, who had just reached out, hastily pulled her hand back.

Amelia approached another table and examined its contents, regretting, "There are writings on some of these papers, but unfortunately, I can’t understand them."

"Let me see."

Carlotta walked over.

The script on the paper, Carlotta couldn’t immediately recall which world it came from. However, it recorded the formula of a certain medicine. As for what effect this medicine might have, she was unclear.

After explaining the situation to Amelia, Carlotta continued searching the surroundings.

Over the next while, she discovered many remnants of information, but most were either useless or their purpose unknown.

She could only tell that the gods seemed to be researching something, and their studies weren’t limited to one field.

One of the subjects was clearly the creation of Impression Entities. They were attempting to create such things, and the process appeared extremely complex. Based on the fragmentary information here, Carlotta couldn’t understand it at all.

It involved divine methods, unless she became a god herself, she truly couldn’t comprehend it.

After circling around, Carlotta spotted a box. It was black, exquisitely crafted, placed inside a container filled with liquid. The box was completely submerged, yet showed no signs of damage.

"This should be it."

Carlotta opened the container.