Ebner’s various schemes against "The Fool" using aliases such as Hvin and Zaratul were in truth, applications of the authority of the "Wheel of Fortune."

By preemptively occupying the branch of the "destiny river" where Amon and "The Fool" were fated to intersect, he Sought to prevent the rather unfavorable future — where Klein would be captured by Amon as in the original story — from coming to pass.

If Amon knew that the "Wheel of Fortune" was deliberately targeting Him, then given His "Error" nature, He would actually be capable of unraveling it...

But to this day, He still did not clearly know what the essential nature of the enemy He faced was... The Uniqueness of the "Wheel of Fortune" was hidden within "the Land of the Unknown," and was not something the current Amon could "decrypt."

It had to be said that Adam was truly a man of his word — having promised not to support Amon, he had genuinely not provided a single scrap of intelligence assistance.

"Does that not mean Emlyn has been marked?" Upon hearing that it was Zaratul, Klein felt a jolt of unease.

He was not worried about Mr. "The Moon’s" safety — after all, as a vampire and a priest of the Church of the Earth Mother Goddess, with the attention of the "Chained God" now upon him as well, Zaratul would not dare to make a move against Emlyn lightly. Otherwise, He would not have resorted to using a "Moon Envoy" to probe things out.

What he truly worried about was Melissa... After all, just last week his sister had used Emlyn to probe Gehrman, and had been moving somewhat close to him — there was no guarantee she had not been noticed.

Ebner naturally saw through what he was truly worried about, and said with a reassuring smile: "Rest assured — Melissa and Benson will be fine."

Since the so-called Zaratul was in fact himself.

Hearing the guarantee from Mr. "Tower," Klein could not help but breathe a sigh of relief... The other party had a deep and powerful background, enjoyed the favor of multiple deities, and with his word given, Melissa and Benson’s safety should no longer be a concern...

At least not within Backlund.

...

In the eastern waters of the Sonia Sea, inside the captain’s cabin of the Future.

The "Queen of Stars" Cattleya stared at the sautéed mushrooms on her plate, breathing in the permeating aroma of fat, and for a long while did not pick up her fork and knife.

Suddenly, something stirred her intuition, and she turned her head to look toward the window, feeling as though she had just passed through a layer of barrier.

At this moment, the navigator Ottoloff came running to report: "Captain, a small island has suddenly appeared one nautical mile ahead, with many strange structures on it... Is that our destination for this trip?"

An island? Has it been undetected all this time because of a barrier around it? But I clearly remember the Future having passed through this area before — it was the last time I gave Mr. "World" passage...

Is this place inherently special, or does that island have the ability to "move"?

As her thoughts turned, Cattleya immediately had Ottoloff relay the order to stop the fleet’s advance, while she herself pushed open the cabin door and came out onto the deck.

She removed the pair of glasses Ebner had given her, then raised one hand and pressed it against her brow.

A pair of nearly transparent eyes materialized before her — lidless, cold, and indifferent.

With a casual toss, those "eyes" latched onto a seabird flying toward the "island."

——This was the "Eye of Secrets." Having become a "Mysticologist," Cattleya could attach it to other things to extend her field of vision, and this ability was quite well concealed and difficult for other means to detect.

Through the seabird’s "eyes," Cattleya quickly made out the full picture of that "island":

Metal-paved roads gleamed and shimmered beneath the sun’s radiance, and tall chimneys of varying heights were arranged in an orderly fashion among buildings of peculiar and varied styles... Gardens, workshops, churches, and many spires of unclear purpose had also been built there... It was roughly half the size of Bayam.

Perhaps owing to its layout, when viewed from the sky it carried a kind of inexplicable aesthetic beauty.

"No... this is no island at all!

"This is most likely a maritime fortress!"

Just as Cattleya was astonished, the seabird suddenly dropped in altitude and flew directly to perch outside the window of a building.

Then the window was pushed open, and a familiar female figure came into Cattleya’s view.

"It really is Her Majesty the Queen!"

Although she had already guessed from the information Mr. "Tower" had let slip that the Queen was here, only upon truly seeing the other party did she fully let down all her guard, and a feeling of settled ease washed over her body and mind.

What Cattleya saw through the seabird was naturally "Morning Star City." After flying away from the "sea region of the ruins of the divine war," the city had lost the "power" provided by the "Storm God’s might."

Although Ebner had left behind the "Book of Calamity" as a new power source, due to "Morning Star City’s" enormous mass, the consumption of "spirituality" when using this item was astonishingly rapid. Even with the three "Alchemists" Annick, Eleanor, and Olmos taking turns at the helm, it was still an unbearable burden, and in the end they had no choice but to make an emergency descent into the sea, disguising themselves as an island.

This outcome left the other "Alchemist" who had been lingering in the floating city — Klaus from "Elements Dawn" — somewhat disappointed. However, he had recently been wholly absorbed in studying the "advanced technologies" that "Morning Star City" had developed over its two hundred-plus years of history, hoping to find a way to keep the city airborne indefinitely.

On the other side, having seen that the Queen was inside that maritime fortress, Cattleya hesitated no longer, ordered the fleet to set sail again, and very soon arrived at the "island’s" temporary dock.

It was apparent that the metal-constructed gangways had been built not long ago — the weld points were all very fresh... though the metal materials used were heavily rusted, and had evidently been salvaged from elsewhere...

The supplies in this fortress are quite scarce... No wonder they needed so much mineral ore.

Cattleya swept a few glances over the state of the dock, and formed a few guesses in her mind.

At this moment, a handsome golden-haired young man arrived at the dock with a dozen or so "people" clad in heavy armor, and extended a welcome to the arriving party from the Future.

"I am Annick, a council member of ’Morning Star City.’ Your Excellency the ’Queen of Stars,’ welcome." The golden-haired, radiant Annick said with considerable courtesy.

He no longer bore the image of a "RoboCop" from before — knowing that he was about to come into contact with humans from the outside world, he had fashioned himself a set of "synthetic skin" and restored his appearance to what it had been before his "mechanical modifications."

The upper echelons of "Morning Star City," who had lived for several centuries, understood full well in their hearts that presenting oneself in a semi-mechanical form had not been a problem in that dark world, but upon arriving in the world of light, they would have to disguise themselves.

After all, humans always regarded those different from themselves as "outsiders" — if they did not disguise themselves, they would likely attract unnecessary trouble.

Of course, due to the scarcity of raw materials, currently only a few of the upper echelons had produced a full-body synthetic skin. The other higher-ranking residents had at most fashioned a head covering, with their bodies hidden beneath various kinds of heavy armor.

As for the greater number of residents living within the lower and middle levels of the mountain body, they were only permitted to come out for one hour each day to experience the sun and the red moon, and were not allowed to appear in the upper levels at other times — so there was no pressing need for them to have "skin" made just yet.

However, although Annick’s disguise was reasonably successful, Cattleya still detected the "extraordinary" nature of "Morning Star City’s" residents from their "weight."

But she did not expose this, and decided to find the Queen first and get a clear picture of the situation here before saying anything.

Seeing that the unloading would still take some time to complete, Cattleya gave her crew a few instructions, then accompanied Annick to the central tower, where she very soon met the "Queen Mystic," Bernadette.

After the several "Alchemists" had all withdrawn from the room, Cattleya asked with a degree of puzzlement: "Do you know what this place is? Why were those several Demigods so deferential toward me?"

Because your title contains the word "Queen," and in their understanding, "Queen" seems to be synonymous with the "Mechanical Emperor"...

Bernadette let out a somewhat exasperated sigh, and answered only Cattleya’s first question:

"This is a ’floating city’ that emerged from the ’Land Forsaken by God’...

"And you should actually have seen it before... In the dream of that sea region to the east!"

The floating city in the dream of that sea region? Cattleya was taken aback. In that dream she had been able to maintain a degree of lucidity, yet had not possessed the ability to move freely — she had essentially been sitting on the reef the entire time, only able to see the underside of the floating city...

...

At the same time, "Vice Admiral Pale" Maria had also found Ebner in Beldan, and said gravely:

"Tonight is the night of the full moon... I have come to keep our appointment!"

(End of Chapter)