Global Awakening: Apocalypse Ender's Chronicle Chapter 1289: The Alien Ship

Whom~

Merlin appeared above the Floating Island without any warning.

A faint distortion spread through the air, and the old mage stepped out of it as though he had merely walked through an invisible doorway.

Beneath him, the enormous island floated silently with the Mist Shelter on it... At the edge, its surface was covered by the remnants of the ancient structures that belonged to the First Citadel.

Merlin lowered himself slowly until his feet touched the ground.

"So this is the place Shane was investigating."

He had no idea what had happened inside.

He didn’t know that Shane had already encountered the Representative, nor did he know that two of Shane’s companions had been transformed into Bloodforged Automatons before being rescued.

As far as Merlin knew, Shane and his team had simply entered the First Citadel to investigate the ancient facility.

Still, the strange atmosphere immediately caught his attention.

Merlin slowly raised his hand and released a small detection spell.

A faint wave of magical energy spread across the Floating Island before returning to him.

His expression became thoughtful.

"There is a tremendous amount of energy beneath this place."

He could also sense something else.

The island itself seemed to be connected to a much larger structure hidden beneath the surface.

"Interesting."

Rather than immediately entering, Merlin spent several minutes studying the surroundings.

He eventually found the entrance Shane’s group had used and stepped inside using another movement Spell to slip through the crack...

The moment he crossed the threshold, the atmosphere changed.

The outside world disappeared behind him, replaced by an endless metallic corridor illuminated by faint blue lights.

Merlin glanced at the walls.

"So this is Anima Civilization technology?"

Well, he heard it from Fiona who had briefed him of the situation.

He had also heard Shane mention ancient civilizations before, but seeing their technology firsthand was another matter entirely.

Merlin continued forward.

Unlike Shane’s group, however, he didn’t intend to follow their exact route.

He had no idea what they had already encountered, and he wasn’t interested in walking through a path that might have already triggered half of the facility’s defensive systems.

Instead, he chose another corridor.

He barely walked thirty meters before several panels suddenly opened along the walls.

Mechanical weapons emerged.

Merlin stopped.

"Already?"

Dozens of energy weapons unfolded from the walls, their cylindrical barrels started rotating toward him as blue-white energy gathered around their muzzles.

A barrage of energy bolts immediately followed.

Merlin raised his staff.

"Flame Barrier."

A translucent wall of fire appeared before him.

The energy bolts struck it one after another, causing the barrier to ripple violently, but Merlin remained completely calm.

He observed the weapons through the flames.

"They’re adjusting their aim."

He noticed the pattern after only a few attacks.

The machines were predicting his movements.

Merlin smiled faintly.

"Then I simply won’t move."

He raised his other hand.

The temperature inside the corridor suddenly increased.

A tremendous wave of flames erupted from his body and surged toward the walls.

BOOM!

The mechanical weapons were instantly engulfed.

Several were destroyed before they could even adjust their targeting systems.

Merlin lowered his hand.

"That works too."

He continued walking.

A few moments later, however, the floor beneath him suddenly opened.

Merlin glanced downward.

Several thick mechanical cables shot upward from the darkness.

He immediately teleported several meters backward, but the cables changed direction in midair and pursued him.

"Tracking restraints?"

Merlin frowned.

He fired several lightning spells, destroying the first wave of cables, but even more emerged from the floor.

"This place really doesn’t like visitors."

Instead of destroying everything, Merlin suddenly disappeared.

The cables slammed into the empty floor...

Boom!

Merlin then reappeared against the ceiling, as he studied the mechanism.

Unlike Shane, he didn’t have Cloud constantly analyzing the facility for him. Instead, he had only his own magic and experience... but that was enough.

"The cables aren’t being controlled individually. They’re responding to movement through the floor."

Merlin smiled.

"Then let’s stop giving them movement to detect."

He cast a spell.

The air around him became completely still.

His body floated silently across the corridor without touching the floor.

The cables immediately stopped moving.

Merlin passed over them and continued deeper into the First Citadel.

He occasionally encountered more machines, but each trap revealed something about the facility.

Some were designed to restrain intruders.

Others attempted to drain magical energy.

One corridor even contained rotating mechanical blades that filled the entire passage from floor to ceiling, forcing Merlin to teleport between narrow openings while carefully timing each movement.

The deeper he went, the more interested he became.

"Interesting... This isn’t merely a fortress."

Merlin stopped before an enormous metallic door... He then placed his hand against its surface.

"There is something much larger hidden deeper inside."

A faint smile appeared on his face. This time, he wasn’t thinking about another battle...

He was thinking like a mage who had just discovered an ancient civilization’s lost inheritance.

"I wonder what Shane has found."

Merlin had no idea that Shane had already discovered far more than he expected.

And he certainly had no idea that somewhere deeper inside the First Citadel, Shane was currently searching for a way to restore the memories of two Bloodforged Automatons who had once been his companions.

For now, Merlin simply pushed open the ancient door and stepped into the darkness beyond.

Clank...

The moment Merlin opened the door, he was greeted by a sight he had never expected to find inside the floating island.

A massive metallic vessel was suspended in the center of the chamber.

It was shaped like a gigantic disk, with a wide, flattened body that gradually curved upward along its edges. Its surface was completely smooth, without sails, wings, or any visible means of propulsion, and several layers of metallic rings surrounded its central section.

Faint blue lights pulsed beneath its surface, while several circular structures rotated slowly around the underside of the vessel.

Merlin stared at it for several seconds.

"What in the world is that?"

He had seen countless magical artifacts throughout his long life, but he had never encountered anything resembling this.

The strange vessel looked almost exactly like the flying machines described in ancient stories about visitors from beyond the stars.

Merlin couldn’t help but guess what this alien ship was for...

"An interstellar vessel?"