Ch.155The First Civilization. Jericania (3)

The path inside the power plant was clean, but I could notice the subtle layer of grease that couldn’t be removed by cleaning alone.

I was secretly impressed by these traces of time that only an Aura User could perceive, but situation assessment seemed more urgent for now.

A matter where the city’s survival was at stake…

If this were just about an ordinary adventurer party or political issue, there would be no reason to open the barrier for me alone. I could tell something unusual was happening inside.

“The barrier wasn’t opened for me—it opened by itself.”

And that was my conclusion.

While the barrier facility would naturally be inside, there was no certainty that insiders were operating it.

There’s a high possibility it had been conquered or occupied by something.

“That’s correct…”

“Intruders?”

“No…”

“Internal personnel, then?”

“…”

The security guards escorting me showed a strange reaction to the word “internal personnel.”

Their faces suggested they were hiding something—not the kind of expression you’d see if this were the work of a betrayer from within.

“If you can’t answer, that’s fine. Just take me to someone who has the authority and right to answer my questions. It would be better for your well-being.”

“…Don’t worry about that.”

The security guards swallowed hard as they answered.

I didn’t want to draw my sword against mere low-ranking security guards.

Why should I draw the Sun’s Sword against insects who would die from just a light tap of my hand?

After walking for quite some time, I finally arrived at a door labeled “Control Room.”

“You can go in.”

“Is it alright if I don’t disarm?”

“Normally that would be required… but it doesn’t matter now.”

“…Is that so?”

Clearly, something had gone seriously wrong.

Power plants are critical national facilities where weapons aren’t allowed without proper authorization. The fact that they permitted an Aura User knight to enter with a sword meant that, at minimum, there was something inside that required a knight’s power.

And the fact that only I was allowed to handle this suggested that whatever was happening inside would cause serious problems if revealed to the outside world, meaning I would have to confront this threat with everything I had.

With that in mind, their ambiguous attitude suddenly made perfect sense.

Creeeeak…

“Ah… you’ve arrived.”

I swallowed and opened the door to be greeted by an elderly woman.

A nameplate reading “Plant Director” was attached to her chest, and upon seeing my appearance, she asked cautiously.

“Are you perhaps that knight…? The one who delivered the Sun’s message at Belfort…”

“That’s right. I am the Sun Knight, Victor Walker.”

When I confirmed, the plant director nodded.

“You’ll need an explanation. Please, sit down.”

And this time, it was my turn to nod.

*

“I assume you know this power plant uses an artificial sun?”

“Yes. Different from nuclear fusion plants… literally using a miniature star for power generation.”

“Correct. And that’s where the problem lies.”

“What kind of problem…?”

The plant director handed me a photograph.

The image was difficult to make out due to severe light bleeding, but the small artificial sun at the center was disturbingly clear.

The artificial sun had dozens of arms, legs, and faces that resembled humans too closely to be called solar flares. Rather than a round sphere, it looked like human corpses forcibly compressed into a circular shape—a horrific appearance.

“What on earth is this…?”

“Seeing is believing… it would be faster to show you this.”

The plant director turned her tablet toward me and played a pre-prepared video.

Whirrrrr…

When the video started playing, the characteristic loud turbine noise of the power plant filled the room.

[Artificial sun status normal… Light intensity satisfactory.]

[It’s behaving well today? It’s been throwing out solar winds like crazy lately.]

[Well, it’s probably tired now. It’s consuming itself after all.]

[I guess so.]

Above the turbine noise, the recorded voices of staff members could be heard.

Everyone holding tablets, drinking coffee through straws—a perfectly ordinary power plant scene.

[Hey, did you hear that rumor?]

[What rumor?]

[You know, about Belfort City.]

[Oh… that Sun Knight thing?]

[Yeah. Everyone here was freaked out when they saw the airships flying in. Seems like it’s real after all.]

[Seriously… a Sun Knight at this point… Couldn’t our little sun bestow some blessing on us? I could make a fine deuterium offering.]

[Hahaha!]

However, the moment the staff mentioned my story, the situation began to change dramatically.

-BOOM!!!-

[W-what’s happening!]

[Light intensity rapidly increasing…! Contact the director!]

[Deploy emergency coolant! The outer walls will melt at this rate!]

[Is it… is it growing bigger?]

Suddenly, the artificial sun emitted an enormous solar wind and began to expand like a balloon being filled with water.

The staff panicked and mobilized all kinds of machinery and safety devices to stop the sun’s rampage, but they weren’t very successful.

-Warning. Barrier temperature exceeding 3000 degrees Celsius. All personnel evacuate immediately. Emergency evacuation protocol activated.-

[Protective suits! We need to wear protective suits!]

[It’s too late! Run!]

Crackle!

-Warning. Barrier temperature exceeding 5000 degrees Celsius. Emergency shutdown initiating to protect facility safety and emergency power grid.-

[No!! We’re still here!]

[Help! Save us!]

[There are still people in here!!!]

What followed was horrific.

The swollen sun literally melted the protective barrier and incinerated all the staff exposed to the intense heat. The mixture of crackling flames and people’s death screams was unbearably terrible.

[AAAAARGH!!!]

-Emergency procedure failed. Initiating facility sealing protocol. Implementing citywide power outage to activate emergency power grid.-

I see. So the earlier power outage was to draw power stored in the emergency grid.

By this point, I understood why they had opened the barrier only for me.

“You want me to appease that sun, don’t you?”

“That’s right.”

The expression “appease” wasn’t quite right, but it’s not like I could kill that… ‘sun’ either.

Even with the Sun’s blessing, there was no guarantee I could communicate with that entity.

“Over 60 million citizens live in this city, and counting the metropolitan area, more than 200 million. If you don’t resolve this issue, we’ll have no choice but to let this city fall back into darkness.”

“How long can the emergency power grid last?”

“Maximum one month… After that, even if we activate all other power facilities, they’ll only produce 16% of what this facility generates.”

The plant director showed me a graph as she explained.

Basically, if this power plant goes down, the city goes down with it, so I nodded and asked:

“Let me ask you something… how was that sun created in the first place?”

“I don’t know much myself. In fact, nobody here really does. Fortunately, some records remain.”

I wanted to say “Then you do know something,” but I held my tongue.

This wasn’t the time for pointless wordplay.

“That sun… was made by binding together the corpses of elementals.”

“…Corpses of what?”

“Elementals. Light elementals and fire elementals mixed in a 7:3 ratio.”

“…..”

“Yes. I had the same expression at first.”

“…How many were used?”

“At least 100 million, as I recall. That’s what the documents state.”

“…When was it first activated?”

“400,000 years ago.”

“…….”

At those words, I stroked my chin and sighed.

‘At least’ 100 million elementals had essentially sustained a nation for 400,000 years, and honestly, I thought perhaps it was only natural to let it go now.

This artificial sun was even older than the Sun itself, making me feel like I was meeting a great-uncle or great-grandfather I’d never known.

“You know the Sun is 350,000 years old, right? How am I supposed to persuade something that’s 50,000 years older?”

“That… I don’t know either. But right now, you’re our only hope. We have no way of knowing what that sun wants. Whether it wants death or life… If we at least knew what it wanted, we could handle the rest ourselves. Probably…”

“Probably…”

The first word that came to mind was “irresponsible.”

But what fault was theirs? It would be foolish to condemn them for a system created before they were even born.

They had simply preserved their ancestors’ legacy, and unfortunately, this crisis happened on their watch.

In the end, I had no choice but to make the absurd promise to communicate with that ‘sun.’