Back at the inn, Lucas and Asta took a moment to share what they knew about the mountains and the storms that surrounded it. Visually, it looked like light red thunderclouds containing some kind of similarly colored lightning that flashed around.
Since the mountains were connected to the red sky, they seemed to perfectly blend into each other. The storms almost seemed natural, but that's what tipped Lucas off.
"There's no natural reason for the storms based on the surrounding environment. According to the people, it's something about a curse or spell from a high ranking mage, but I don't think it's any of that."
To Asta, it was clear to what he pointing to, "An array?"
"I think so, but not just an array. According to the bartender, it never rains, even though there's a river right nearby. This isn't just an array. At least, I think so. The ground itself contains mana."
"So this entire place could be a construct of some mage."
"Not some mage, Asta, the Demon God. The lightning in the clouds stays consistent and never changes forms. The clouds never shrink or enlarge, the wind is the same no matter the season. I think this is similar to the pocket world in the temple, only this time, out in the open."
Lucas was quite confident in his analysis of the environment. Nothing made any natural sense, so if that was the case, Lucas learned to step outside of his preconceived thinking and view it from a larger perspective.
Throughout the path, he face the Trials and the Stars in the Underground, learned that an entire mountain was just a weapon and items and locations capable of holding their own space. If nothing made sense, then Lucas simply stopped his boxed thinking.
"No, that wouldn't make any sense, a closed space with rules can't coexist next to one that does have them."
That didn't make him always right though. Not that his hypothesis didn't help them further.
"You do make a good point though, it would be impossible to keep this environment constant without a massive source of mana to tap from. Question is, where is it stored?"
Placing his hand on his chin to ponder, Lucas disrupted it in an instant, "No, the question should be, why? There's no point in building something so elaborate unless you have something to keep."
"True, to construct something so complex just for the beauty of it wouldn't make much sense."
Continuing their conversation, they were content with their deductions and placed all their hopes on the mountains containing the artifact. The only thing that contradicted their ideas was the fact that they had to look for the old capital that was lost to time. This small village next to a dangerous mountain didn't look like a capital.
There was also nothing of note in the surroundings. If there were some ruins, they might be able They were supposed to find the old capital, and this place didn't look like it at all. Then again, it was their best bet.
The remaining locations were more a random guess than a constructive argument. They had to work with rumors and flimsy tales of history. With mages existing for so long, it was incredibly hard to tell which ones were even true or fiction.
Still, this was the last location that had at least some credibility. Considering the magical aspects of the place, it certainly stood out more than the empty desert and jungle.
After spending some time together, Asta was ready to take a short nap to recover his energy and willpower as fast as possible. Lucas was about to join him after putting up some defenses. It was then that Asta noticed something was off.
"Where's Bell?"
"I don't know, I think I saw her entering a clothing shop while investigating the place."
Asta rolled his eyes and got in bed to rest. He wasn't worried about Bell since this place didn't even hold any official mages, it was a small town next to a dangerous zone. If there were any people here, it would be to investigate the mountains like they were.
A few hours passed, enough for Lucas and Asta to get a good rest, bringing them to their peak form. Waking up, Asta found Bell outside their protective arrays and spells, for stepping in them would trigger the attacks.
Rubbing his eyes slightly, he diffused the arrays in the room before grabbing a pitcher of water and pouring himself a drink. "Where were you?"
Bell, didn't look all that happy, her hair was neatly done and she even wore different clothing, yet her demeanor was all but excited. "I went shopping."
"I can see that. Why though?"
"I wanted to impress you."
"Consider it a failure. Besides, that's not why I brought you along with us in the first place, Bell. You aren't supposed to impress me, you just have to stay by my side. I might not always show it, but you're like a sister to me," patting her on the shoulder, he left the room.
Bell felt pained, but she couldn't even show it due to the restrictions placed on her. When she lifted her head, Lucas was staring straight at her. "W-What?"
"Nothing", Lucas stood up as he left the room as well.
'Sorry Asta, you might see her as family.'
'But all she's good for is being a tool.'
Approaching the foot of the mountain, Lucas and Asta stared at the storms as Bell tried to pay attention. "Alright, I've done my research on the lightning."
Asta turned his head, they were here for a day, how much could he have possibly done. "What do you mean?"
"I let the lightning hit my body and it burned my skin off."
Hearing that, Bell thought the lightning was dangerous, but even Asta frowned. "So we would lose our limbs if we touched it?"
"No, at most a chunk of flesh. What is important is that the lightning doesn't touch the ground of the mountain, even if thrown into the clouds."
Asta could only shake his head at the thought of how Lucas figured this all out. Throwing oneself into danger to test how powerful the lightning was, was already a step too far for him. Lucas concluded his theory to move forward. "This means we can use the ground as a shell to protect us if the clouds get too close."
"Might I remind you I'm not touching those stones with my magic."
"Fine, it means I can use the ground as a shell. Better?"
"Better. Let's get going."
Satisfied with the change, they started to climb the mountain. The lightning crackled around them as the steep hill made them almost crawl. Flying through the clouds didn't seem like a great idea after hearing what it did to Lucas who had most likely the most durable body of his Rank.
As they climbed, Asta couldn't contain himself from sending his own mana swords into the lightning to check it's destructive power. They were easily destroyed. Creating small cubes, he tried to contain the lightning, but even if he captured a bolt, it didn't take long before it exhausted itself against the cube's walls, breaking or extinguishing.
"Elements, how fickle."
Lucas shook his head as he continued to climb the mountain. It had become so steep they had to pull themselves upwards using the few handholds there were. Lucas didn't bother looking for grappling spots, as he just inserted his hand into the mountain, creating handholds for himself.
Around his waist was a simple rope that was tied to Asta and Bell. As the one with the strongest physical build, it was his duty to pull the others up. Trying to fly close to the edge might've been a good idea, but the sudden wind strikes would push them into the clouds. While painful for Lucas, it would've been deadly for Bell. So there wasn't much of a choice.
"You're still hung up on the elements? I thought you were able to get over them."
"Just because I acknowledge my mistake and displayed my wounds doesn't mean I've come to like them. They're still way too emotional for my tastes."
"Either way, grab the wall, a cloud's coming close," lifting himself up with a single hand, Lucas used his magic to create a small cocoon around them. Stuck in complete darkness, Lucas wanted to move forward, but didn't want to run the risk. Were he alone, he would've reached the top already, so he had to suppress his own frustration a bit.
Using willpower to check up on the cloud, the moment it was gone, Lucas removed the cocoon and continued his climb. While he was a lot more powerful than the average mage, he could still feel it in his muscles after using them purely to pull a bunch of people up for such a long time.
After reaching the top, Lucas' muscles felt sore. Using light magic to ease the pain, it didn't do all that much. He would just have to rest for a bit.
The top held a large opening in the mountain with a massive gate blocking the entrance. Staring at the place they came from, their view was blocked by clouds of lightning. Looking upwards, there wasn't a hole at the very top as well.
"Well, it looks promising," Asta said as he stared at the gate. Finding something created by civilization gave him a lot more hope. Especially since the gate held imperfections, it was created from wood and iron, each with a few flaws and scratches. It wasn't made by a mage, which suggested a group of people lived here. 'No, that doesn't make any sense, this shitty gate isn't any sign of a capital.'
'Let's think about it, we're meant to search for a capital, the first one ever. Doesn't that mean that it could be extremely primitive?'
'Sure, but that does exclude the fact that this place is at the top of a dangerous mountain with no path to reach it and clouds that would disintegrate any normal demon.'
'That's also true. Let's just see.'
Asta stood close to the gate and inspected it with his aura, not even the slightest magical signal was given. Only the mountain itself contained mana.
"I couldn't detect any traps."
Lucas went to the gate and pushed it open. While heavy, it wasn't as extreme as he expected. Letting the others through, they arrived in a dark caverns. Lucas conjured up a small ball of light to remove the darkness.
There was nothing but a small altar with a magic circle on it. Lucas checked for any sign of life, but besides a few smaller critters, there was nothing dangerous.
Letting Asta take care of the array, Lucas simply watched from the side. He'd love to figure it out himself, and learn from it, but he had plenty of projects to work on himself. Taking arrays with it as well would simply mean he wouldn't have time for anything else.
Despite being in the temple's space for a long time, he still had things to experiment and work on. Not that the time given to him didn't result in anything. For one, he developed a new trump card not even Asta had seen. Next to that, he developed a way to create viruses and cures, upgraded his current spell set and figured out the next steps in his control over Darkness.
He just never had to fight with everything he got, making his progress hard to see. Given all the upgrades, there were still things he wanted to improve. Taking his time for arrays would be for later. Copying it in his mind wasn't hard, but figuring it out was something else entirely.
"This is another subspace," Asta concluded after a few hours of investigation. "Or so I think, at least. I don't recognize half the symbols, and the ones I do know aren't interacting with each other as they should. I don't know if this is a highly advanced array or one an extremely dumb one."
"I assume the former."
"Yes, it shares a few runes with the one you had from the Trials, so that's why I assume it's a subspace."
"Can we enter it unharmed?"
"We should be able to just activate it."
Seeing Asta found no issues with it, Lucas stepped onto to the array with Bell and Asta in tow. Activating it made a pillar of light surround them. Unable to see anything, the pillar vanished only after a few seconds.
Instead of the dark cave, they were confronted with a large beautiful city. Buildings as far as the eye could see, some tall spires and clock towers. The sky was pale blue, unlike Sabaoth in the slightest.
"The first capital was supposed to be something small?" Lucas said sarcastically as the city in front of him was larger than the current capital of the Duke. It wasn't just that as well, there seemed to be a working waste management system and many large public houses.
The only thing that seemed off was the fact that nature had started to take over. Many buildings were overgrown with plants and roots. Not that it dampened the beauty of it all, it even supported it.
"That looks like the center," pointing to a large temple in the middle of the city, it must've been the core of the place. Asta didn't hesitate to move forward, making Bell and Lucas follow along. The place was beautiful in its own sense, there was just a single thing that truly stood out. The strangest part of it all weren't the many buildings or the subspace even, but the sky.
"Why blue? Sabaoth has always had a red sky. Why bother creating a subspace with a blue sky?", Asta couldn't understand it. If one had to make a capital in a subspace, why bother creating a blue sky, distancing themselves from the planet they inhabited.
Lucas took a moment to look at the sky. There was no sun. Yet the sky remained blue.
"To remind them of... home?", Lucas spoke more to himself than the others. His words mumbled, his companions didn't hear him fully. The words of a certain old priest came to mind.
"What did you say?", Bell said as she was genuinely curious about the place.
"Nothing, for all we know this was created by humans who lived here once. It would explain why the sky is blue."
"I guess," Bell didn't know too much about Aurora, but she had learned the sky was a different color. To see it in person, she found it fantastical. There were a few birds flying around, making the scene extremely calming. The old city still stood strong, despite not a living soul present.
As they made their way forward, they eventually reached the center. A massive monolith stood strong. With only a single entrance available, it left little to the imagination. The door to the monolith was made from stone, simple hinges kept it from falling down.
Lucas approached the door as he started to have a strange feeling, "Why weren't there any traps?"
Right as Lucas was about to open the door, he felt the hairs on his back stand up. Turning around in an instant, he conjured his Blue Flame Sword out of reflex as he steeled his resolve.
"Of course there wouldn't be any traps. This was supposed to be a safe haven for the people."
Landing softly on the ground, Alastor, Morior and Kinetsu had flown over the city.
Asta joined Lucas as he pulled Bell behind him.
"Goodness, are you all itching to fight at the mere sight of us? I had thought you were a bit more civilized."
Alastor didn't put up any defenses, not even Morior or Kinetsu showed any sign of preparing spells. Asta didn't even have the time to come up with a retort, everything happened too fast. There was no sign of Alastor even being near the town, let alone making it inside the subspace.
"Well, don't worry too much about my presence. We're all here for the same thing, aren't we?", stretching his arms wide, the smile on his face infuriated Lucas somehow.
Given the time to think things through, Asta didn't rush to enter the monolith, quite the opposite. "You were waiting for us to arrive here."
The fact that they appeared unnoticed in such a short time meant this wasn't an impulsive decision.
"Why of course, the artifact of the Progenitor Demon God can only be accessed by one of his descendants. As long as the blood line is pure enough, you will be able to gain access."
Connecting the dots, Asta was about to respond before Alastor spoke up again.
"As you guessed, my bloodline is just too thin. So we had to wait until you arrived."
Asta didn't like the relaxed nature of Alastor, as if everything was going his way. "If you're not planning on fighting, then please do explain how you'll be able to get the artifact before us."
Not minding the fact he gave away his lack of clues, to Asta, right now, gathering as much information was all that was necessary, and Alastor gladly provided. With a sly smile, he explained his reasons.
"Just getting inside isn't nearly enough to get the artifact. Three trials need to be completed at the same time for the artifact to become available. Of course, as long as you aren't able to exist in two places at once, I believe that dear maid will have quite a hard time."
Asta didn't like where things were going, "What are you suggesting?"
His smile deepened even more, "We have to team up, obviously. You can stay with your maid, Morior and myself will handle the second trial while Kinetsu and your good friend can tackle the last one."
Instantly disliking the idea, if Alastor already knew so much about the interior, there was only a small chance of them making it through the trials without their interference. He didn't know about the limits of the trials as well, while Alastor seemed to be well versed on the topic.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Asta felt something strange. He was confident in his fighting ability and with Lucas next to him, he wasn't going to go down without a fight, but the large smile on Alastor's face put him off.
He had heard about Morior and Kinetsu, demons from far away, serving a different duke but some of the most powerful demons on Sabaoth. Fighting against them could very well place his life in danger, but more than that. He had no way to protect Bell. If a fight broke out, she would die. That much he was certain about. Feeling his hands clamp up a bit, he felt the rough hand of Lucas on his shoulder.
Looking at him for support, he simply nodded slightly. Revitalized, Asta dusted his clothes before staring Alastor down. With Lucas' support, he felt anything was doable.