Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 105: Book 2: Chapter 22: Welcome “Guests”

Read chapter 105 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Book 2: Chapter 22: Welcome “Guests” Book 2: Chapter 22: Welcome “Guests” It began with the horizon being pierced by a pair of spiraling towers, ringed by something enormous. At first, it was just a glint, the sunlight catching something massive far in the distance. Then the city crested into view, Citadel Terraxum, seat of the kingdom, crown of stone and steel. Even from miles out, its presence pressed against the air like a held breath. Towering walls loomed over the plains around the outer reaches, wrought not from simple stone but from reinforced alloy-mortar. A mixture of stone and metal, infused with dense black-green runes. Glyph pylons shimmered across its battlements, pulsing every few seconds in synchronized beats. Defensive arrays, Anti-flight barriers, aether disruption fields; all woven into the bones of the city like veins in a living creature. The land around it was shaped by war. Military encampments fanned out from the base of the walls, drills echoing in tempo as soldiers marched, trained, sharpened weapons. A massive glyph-patterned bridge crossed a dried riverbed, once a moat, now a kill zone. Inside the prison wagons, the mood shifted. There was no more idle chatter from the guards. No friendly glances. Even the jokes dried up once the city came into view. Alex felt it in his bones before it was spoken aloud. The cold return of authority. One soldier, a younger one who had shared fire-roasted roots with Henry just a week ago, came by the bars and handed him a canteen without a word. As Alex reached for it, the soldier hesitated. “We don’t make the rules,” he said, eyes haunted. Then he walked away. That small encounter was the beginning of the end of the little freedoms that they had managed to scrap together during the regiment’s travels. The travel was over, and the approach of the capital was the signal to the end of any illusions of friendship that might have formed along the way. It was a tough pill to swallow for all of them. Alex and his team, as well as the Terraxum soldiers. For many assumed that these were the last few hours they would ever see any of the prisoners again. The front entrance to Citadel Terraxum was a grand gatehouse, four stories high, alloy-stone made up every stacked cinder block. It was named ‘The Iron Gate’, and it lived up to its moniker, not just because of the materials of its construction, but also the fact that it had never once been breached. At least, that’s what the soldiers had told him as they neared it. The gate door itself was a solid slab of forged blacksteel, enchanted, multi-layered, ten feet thick. Its surface bore glowing green etchings of the Terraxum crest and a rotating ring of suppression glyphs. As the caravan approached, the gates released a noise that sounded as though the metal slabs hissed at them. It took a second for him to realize what was happening, and where the noise was coming from. With his ability activated, Alex saw aether-pressure shifted and changed around them as the suppression field locked down, creating the noise. A soft, thrumming hum began in the back of Alex’s teeth as he listened to it. From inside the gatehouse, figures walked forward. Each wore armor and carried weapons of different make to the soldiers they had been traveling with. Also, each of these soldiers wore a different cloak. Alex could see that these were a clean, pale white emblazoned with the symbol of lotus flower wreathed in stars around the edges. “Royal Arcanuum,” a soldier whispered beside him. “No sudden moves,” barked the captain. One of the men in the white cloaks stepped forward. He was older than the rest of the soldiers. Middle aged from what Alex could tell. He activated his aether sight and opened his sense to the man. Still Adept Tier, middle stage, but very close to the late stage, he’s just nearly there. Alex moved his attention to the men and women standing behind him. Weaker, but each are as strong as Captain Drenn. This is some sort of elite force.