As he walked through the sewers, Mozo silently counted his steps while keeping an eye on his surroundings. At the same time, he connected every path he had taken into a mental route and compared it against the map he had memorized.
When he reached seven thousand eight hundred steps, Mozo stopped.
Judging by his stride length, the distances calculated from the map, and the number of turns he had taken, this should be the designated location.
The Sun King's memories were extremely vague, so Mozo had marked several possible spots for himself and planned to test them one by one. This was merely the first.
After glancing around, he crouched down and placed a hand on the ground. At the same time, he carefully recalled those ancient memories once more.
Then he spoke in a low voice:
"In the name of the Eternal Guardian of the Twin Sacred Trees, Lord of All High Lords, Noble One Above the Sun, Leader of All Elves, Sovereign of Rivendell, Slayer of Demon Dragons, Repeller of Boreus, and King Who Annihilated Foreign Gods." (Ancient Elvish)
"Elves of Asgar, guardians who obey my command, wardens of the Ageless Witch, grant your blessing, answer me, respond to me! Your king has returned. Honor the ancient covenant. Listen to the song of the Twin Sacred Trees. Lead me to the Promised Land!" (Ancient Elvish)
The next moment, a dark green runic formation rapidly spread outward from Mozo's palm.
Seeing the green rune circle appear beneath his feet, Mozo finally let out a deep sigh of relief.
His memories hadn't failed him.
And his luck had been excellent.
On the very first attempt, he had entered a responsive zone.
At the same time, deep beneath the earth, inside a vast semi-circular underground hall, countless gears forged in ancient ages and preserved until the present day slowly began to move under the influence of a mysterious power.
The intricate carvings engraved upon the countless pillars supporting the chamber gradually glowed with the emerald light of life and nature.
The four thousand nine hundred giant metallic eggs distributed throughout the hall suddenly erupted with crimson radiance.
Then, atop the central platform of the underground chamber, a pillar of green light descended from above.
The king of old had returned.
---
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Cromwell City, a hawk moving at an astonishing speed suddenly descended from the sky before transforming into a middle-aged man clad in noble robes.
Anyone who saw him would immediately recognize him.
He was Count Hahn, the mayor of Cromwell City.
Unlike hereditary landed nobles, Count Hahn possessed neither territory nor hereditary succession rights. He was merely a court noble.
Then again, noble titles were strange things.
Sometimes the distinction between a landed noble and a court noble was enormous.
Sometimes it meant absolutely nothing.
Take Count Hahn, for example.
The only reason he remained a court noble was because he had no interest in governing territory or establishing a family line. Otherwise, a Sequence 3 Demigod would never have remained merely a count, let alone a court noble.
At the same time, Count Hahn served as the Administrator-General of the Special District, jointly appointed by the three Empresses: Daybreak, Eternal Night, and Dawn.
All affairs within the Special District fell under his sole authority.
Though the title referred to the same Cromwell City as "mayor," the actual meaning behind the position was worlds apart.
After landing, Count Hahn frowned and looked toward the Old District.
Originally, he had been on his way back from the imperial capital after reporting to the three Empresses. However, he had suddenly received news that something major had happened in the Special District and rushed back immediately.
Truthfully, he hadn't believed anything serious had occurred.
As for the prophecy claiming that "The Great One is about to return," he hadn't taken it seriously either.
Those youngsters simply lacked experience.
In Count Hahn's long life, he had seen countless similar incidents.
Almost every one of them had turned out to be an exaggerated farce.
After all, the prophecies had been produced by Mid-Sequence or Low-Sequence individuals.
He vividly remembered the most ridiculous case.
A prophecy had once declared that an ancient god was about to awaken.
And the truth?
It had indeed been one of that ancient deity's resurrection methods.
The joke was that the god's Uniqueness had long ago been seized and sealed away by the Great Saint John.
Without its Uniqueness, could it still be called a god?
Naturally, the so-called resurrection became a complete joke.
Still, because the matter had possessed the potential to spiral out of control, appropriate personnel had been dispatched as a precaution.
This time, Count Hahn had initially thought the situation was much the same.
After all, the person who produced the prophecy was merely a Sequence 6 Beyonder.
Errors and accidents were common when lower sequences attempted to divine the actions of higher ones.
What he hadn't expected was that the moment he approached the Special District, his spiritual intuition erupted with frantic warnings.
This time...
It was probably real.
Realizing this, Count Hahn immediately pulled more than a hundred ancient silver coins from his coat.
Every coin radiated an archaic aura.
Each one bore the image of a different race or existence.
There were elves, humans, goblins, and even goblins. Some featured legendary figures such as Saint John.
This was one of Count Hahn's favorite Sealed Artifacts.
It had been created from the Mysticism left behind after the death of a certain Sequence 4 Demigod.
If he remembered correctly, it had originally belonged to an unfortunate noble executed by the Grand Duke during the Cromwell era.
Its official designation was Sealed Artifact 1-141.
Its nickname was Judas's Silver Coins.
That name had apparently been coined by Grand Duke Cromwell himself.
To this day, however, Count Hahn had no idea who Judas actually was.
After taking out Judas's Silver Coins, Count Hahn tossed them into the air.
The coins did not fall.
Instead, they floated motionlessly above him.
Only after he blew gently upon them did two coins finally descend.
Picking them up, he found one Race Coin representing the elves and one Figure Coin engraved with the Twin Sacred Trees.
Looking at the pair, Count Hahn clicked his tongue.
"So this Great One is not only an elf, but also deeply connected to the Twin Sacred Trees?"
"If that's the case..."
"Then they're probably one of the High Lords."
As the thought crossed his mind, Count Hahn collected the coins while simultaneously taking out a feather pen and writing invisible words in the air.
At the same time, inside the study of the Daybreak Empress, clean parchment automatically began to fill with Hahn's message.
The Daybreak Empress, one of the Three Empresses, picked it up and read it.
Her brows immediately furrowed.
Without the slightest hesitation, she wrote back:
"If there is any possibility that he could threaten the stability of the Special District, kill him in advance."
After receiving the reply, Count Hahn drew a sharp breath.
If the stability of the Special District was at stake, even an Elven High Lord could be killed without hesitation?
Was the Special District truly that important?
Even Count Hahn couldn't understand it.