Although she could see the potential of this knowledge, Aurdis still couldn't understand the text within the device—it was foreign to her. But she could grasp so basic concepts, like the fusion of magic energy with whatever technology Laston had brought from that other world, and how it could produce extraordinary results.
Erend and Eccar exchanged a glance, silently agreeing once more not to tell Aurdis—or anyone else—about the existence of the Praetoris. They didn't even know for sure if the Praetoris were truly as dangerous as Laston had claid. But they weren't willing to take that risk lightly.
"What are we going to do next?" Aurdis asked, looking between Erend and Eccar. Her voice held a spark of eagerness, and her eyes practically lit up with a burning determination.
Erend looked at her, slightly surprised by her attitude. At this mont, she should be focusing on her kingdom—on her father and brother. Was she really trying to turn her attention toward developing this newfound knowledge already? That didn't seem like the Aurdis he knew.
"You should be focusing on your father and brother first, shouldn't you?" Erend said. "The Palace also needs your leadership now—especially with King Gulben, Aerchon, and even Saeldir all bedridden."
As if waking from a trance, Aurdis blinked. Her expression shifted, becoming more somber. "Oh, you're right… I need to focus on helping this kingdom recover before anything else."
Erend smiled, understanding her feelings. He gently took her hand and said, "It's okay. I know you don't want anything like this to happen again, so you're eager to strengthen the Palace. Don't worry—it'll happen in ti. But for now, focus on the recovery."
"I'll help too," Eccar chid in. "I'll let Erend do the hard work. Heh."
Eccar grinned and gave Erend a look—he would help the Palace, while focusing on digging deeper into the information hidden in the device.
Erend nodded, showing his appreciation.
Realizing what she truly needed to do, Aurdis gave a firm nod, and now, a smile returned to her face.
"Thanks for grounding . For a mont there, I really thought we needed to start preparing for another war," Aurdis said, letting out a small laugh.
Erend just nodded with a smile. "I'll study this device and share whatever useful knowledge I find with the Palace."
With that, Aurdis and Eccar left the chamber, leaving Erend alone with the device. As soon as the door closed, he imdiately began pressing buttons and scrolling through the screen, eager to uncover more.
What caught his attention next was information about the old gods—and he didn't an the gods people still rembered. These were ancient deities, long forgotten by this world—and possibly by other worlds as well. There were no records of them anywhere.
Erend let out a long breath. "Damn… there's no end to the mysteries in this worlds."
One of those gods was called the God of the Webway, nad Ozynk. There was ntion of an ancient temple in this world—the sa place Laston had once used to escape.
Erend would have to start there.
He hadn't found anything there in the past. But now… with this knowledge, maybe he finally could.
There were a few other problems besides the mysterious Praetoris. But Erend was certain that the ti would co when they would beco a threat.
As he continued scrolling, Erend ca across more records—this ti about lost civilizations that had mysteriously collapsed across various worlds.
"Laston really did his howork," Erend muttered, a faint, ironic smile tugging at his lips. "I wouldn't have known he gathered all this information if he hadn't launched his attack."
Erend leaned back in his chair for a mont, fingers tapping lightly against the side of the sleek device.
That was all the important information he could glean for now from the Praetoris and the forgotten gods. There would be ti later to dig deeper into those mysteries but right now, his curiosity burned hotter for sothing else.
He exited the current section with a few swift commands and navigated to another part of the interface that labeled INNOVATIONS.
The screen responded instantly. The device was far more advanced than anything from this world so there was no loading ti, or lag, just seamless access to whatever Laston had left behind.
Erend quickly found himself looking at a well-organized directory that split into two distinct folders: COMPLETE and INCOMPLETE.
His eyes narrowed as he hovered over the two options. The fact that Laston had bothered to label them like this ant he'd been thodical to the very end.
It also ant there were projects he had finished and others… that were still just concepts, prototypes, or unstable experints.
Erend clicked into the COMPLETE folder first.
Imdiately, a list of strange, ominous-sounding project nas appeared:
- Project Titanus.
- Project Blackroot.
- Project Prism Veil.
- Project Echo Ward.
- Project Graven Sun.
Each file ca with subfolders that contained schematics, testing logs, field data, and performance breakdowns.
Erend scrolled slowly, his expression hardening as he absorbed the scope of what Laston had managed to create.
These weren't just pieces of tech. So of them—like Titanus and Graven Sun—looked like weapons designed to change the outco of wars.
Others seed like tools of surveillance or cloaking, like Prism Veil and Echo Ward.
All of them combined high-tech systems with Magical runes, written in codes and diagrams that Erend didn't understand.
"This is way bigger than I thought," he muttered.
For a brief mont, he imagined what would've happened if Laston had deployed all of these. If even one had slipped through the battlefront and been activated… the Palace might not have stood at all.
He sighed and bookmarked the projects for later. He couldn't analyze them all now. There was still more to see.
With a flick of his wrist, Erend returned to the previous screen and selected the INCOMPLETE folder.
What he found inside made him pause. Unlike the organized precision of the completed files, this folder felt chaotic.
The nas were more erratic, so even labeled in shorthand or personal notes: Project W, UmbraX, Vortex Core, Neural Sync v3, Gateway Draft 7, ChronoKey Sketch.
So of them didn't even have diagrams, just theoretical texts and raw data dumps.
"Was he… trying to break the boundaries of ti and space?" Erend's brow furrowed as he opened ChronoKey Sketch.
The context suggested an attempt at temporal manipulation—possibly even cross-dinsional anchoring.
"Laston was a genius but he also close to madness."
He leaned back again, eyes still fixed on the screen, mind racing with possibilities. These weren't just tools of war. These looks like attempts to control reality itself.
Erend exhaled slowly. Is it wise to gain this much of knowledge? Isn't this knowledge will also causing anyone to go mad for power?
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