Chapter 101: The Secret Hideout
She said to him and they swam for half an hour more before finally arriving at their destination.
It was an enormous mountain, with a strange color of blue and gold.
The mountain was so massive that standing before it gave the illusion of facing a dead end.
But while Nolan should have been intimidated, he strangely wasn't, and Instead he found himself being taken down the memory lane once more.
It reminded him of the extra ginormous mountain that he came across during his first God King Trail.
Compared to that mountain, this mountain was like a kid to an adult and Nolan felt a chill crawling down his spine.
"So... this is it? A dead end?" He asked as she swam forward towards the mountain.
Magically, her violin appeared in her hands once more, and she began playing a tune. Barely five seconds into it—
GRUUUUUMMMM
Nolan watched as the mountain began fiercely shaking. Three seconds later, a part of the mountain, shaped like a door, opened up. Lorelei put away her violin before swimming back to Nolan.
"That's... That's pretty cool..."
reading-here-on-NovelFire
Once again, he was dragged forward by Lorelei as they both disappeared into the mountain, which closed behind them with another fierce
GRUUUUM
---
The pitch darkness that surrounded Nolan gave him quite the chills, but he felt a bit of comfort from the warm hand wrapped around his.
Barely a minute passed before light returned, and Nolan felt his head burst out of the surface of the water.
He took an incredibly sharp inhale of the air.
Looking around the place, he was more than surprised to find himself in a quiet hall, where rows and rows of bookshelves were arranged.
Dim lights came from the gently lit chandeliers that dangled from chains above.
"How come... How come there's no water, even though we're underwater?" Nolan asked in shock as he turned his head to Lorelei, only to find a feminine figure standing on her feet, looking at him with a mischievous expression.
Immediately, Nolan's eyes snapped shut as he waved her off.
"You're naked! Go and get some clothes on..." he said, hearing the sound of retreating steps and mischievous giggles.
Silence lingered for a few minutes before he once again heard the sound of footsteps closing in towards him.
"You can open your eyes now..." The voice resounded, and Nolan couldn't help but ask the system.
'Is she really clothed?'
[Yes. I feel like someone is disappointed, though,] the system teased.
'That person must have been you,' Nolan replied as he opened his eyes, finding Lorelei now dressed in a light blue, princess-like gown.
She stretched out her hands towards him and helped him out of the puddle of water.
"Where is this place?" Nolan couldn't help but ask.
"It's my little home. Since nobody can hear me speak or make a sound, I come here to pass the time alone. You could call it my special secret hideout..." Lorelei said to him.
"And what did His Majesty say about that?" Nolan asked.
The way they came was quite long, and who knows what could happen to a girl like her on the way?
She might get hurt by something, and Nolan refused to believe Atlantis was really so incredibly safe.
"He didn't refuse me. He never does..." she said to him as she walked towards a bookshelf, her fingers moving around the rows of the books, her large almond eyes searching for something.
"Lucky spoiled princess..." Nolan remarked as he boringly checked out some books within the shelves.
Soon, he found one that piqued his curiosity, a book with the image of a strange machine drawn on its cover.
With interest, he picked it up and flipped through its contents, his curiosity growing as he began reading the notes carefully.
The book spoke of the destruction of Atlantis, and according to it, the catastrophe was caused by the creation of a machine.
A machine known as Atalanta-2r4t.
"I could swear I put it somewhere around here..." Lorelei's distant voice echoed as Nolan delved deeper into the book's contents, finding even more answers regarding why the machine was created.
It was built to harness a profound and strange energy known as "Anti-Aether."
Nolan gasped in shock as he read about the energy. Anti-Aether was an energy, which, judging from its name, was capable of nullifying *God's Breath*.
According to the book, the term *Aether* referred to *God's Breath*, encompassing all energy types, such as *Terror Flux*, *Mythical Essence*, and even the *Divine Essence* of the Celestial Heirs.
The *Anti* in its name meant it went against something, implying that the energy the Atlanteans were trying to harness with the Atalanta-2r4t was capable of canceling and nullifying every other energy upon its barest touch!
Nolan was completely blown away!
How could there be an energy apart from the four great energies that the Celestial Heirs don't know of?
And could there even be an energy whose nature goes against the very essence of those other energies, one so powerful that it could nullify them with a single touch?
According to the book, there was no definitive answer. But Nolan's thoughts were simple.
If such an energy didn't exist, then why would the mighty Atlanteans attempt to build technology capable of harnessing it?
The creation of the Atalanta-2r4t was a testament to the existence of Anti-Aether.
But the technology failed to harness the power, and its explosion was what led to the absolute destruction of Atlantis, sinking it into the depths of the ocean.
The mighty realm was locked away by the Celestial Heirs, ensuring the Atlanteans would never see the light of day again.
But something felt wrong to Nolan.
In a way, he felt like the explosion of the device was the handiwork of those who never wanted the power of Anti-Aether to be harnessed.
And he could guess who those people were...
"The Celestial Heirs, the Titans, and the Nightmare Creatures..."
"I've found it!" Lorelei's excited voice interrupted his thoughts.