After Vael had passed the verification process with flying colors, he went through a massive hovering dark green arc that led to a vast tunnel.
This tunnel looked like a wide, virtual chasm, with the walls of the tunnel having lines of white 'sparks' that pulsed rhythmically towards the other end of the tunnel. These lines of white sparks operated as roads and airways, as they had many other flying cars on them going to and fro.
After about five minutes or so, Vael had fully traversed through the tunnel—formally entering the city of Neura.
Of course, he had to go through certain procedures that were similar to the process of entering Luna. Indeed, these two dimensions have quite a lot in common…
The clean-shaven Vael didn't waste any time. He parked his car in a large storage pod that operated as a giant locker.
Before closing the locker, the trio tried to make sure they didn't miss anything. But they didn't bring anything with them, so they just hovered out of Vael's car and proceeded to follow his lead into the main streets of the City of Life.
In doing so, they went through one of many aesthetically pleasing tunnels which lead to the deeper intercity.
The tunnel had an ambient and almost ethereal atmosphere to it, as its walls showcased the culture, religion, history and technology of Sentaia in a rhythmic fashion.
After being greeted by a robotic female voice, the ending of the tunnel finally opened to reveal the grandeur of Neura.
They—along with other people in the tunnel—didn't hesitate to step out of the liminal space and onto the sky bridge.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
A soft resonance echoed through the ears of the trio as they stepped onto the translucent dark green sky bridge.
Zoom!
Vehicles were flying past on the larger highway as noisy chatter was heard in the background. This noise had come from the people and other animals walking on the translucent surfaces that looked like veins.
"What the hell…it's hard to believe such a structure is possible…" Xavier placed his hands in the pockets of his white hoodie as he stared up at the interwoven maze that stretched up towards the sky. A soft residual light was pulsing rhythmically—this had complimented the seeping of the blue sunlight's rays through the curved edifices.
"Not only that, we're also at least hundreds of meters up in the air! Not gonna lie, that's a little scary…!" Aria remarked as she squatted down, holding her hand out towards the glass-like surface that had shown a somewhat blurred version of the busy scene below.
She focused her eyes on the usage of advanced technology that was expressed in the hovering buildings, the large digital billboards, and the majestic emerald spires. Even the grounded enclosures seemed to exhibit otherworldly tech, almost as if the architects were showing off.
But at the same time, she noticed that there were still areas that looked untouched by humans—all sorts of different biomes 'separated' from the rest of the city. It looked peculiar, but purposeful.
Adjusting her black skirt, she later said with an expression of awe, "Man, I almost feel out of place. I didn't expect to be this nervous." Getting up, she turned to Emilia, who was behind her.
"What do you think, Emilia?"
"This sounds weird," Emilia said, her eyes and mouth widening. "But I can see myself taking a picture of this place, putting some ambient music in the background, and then sleeping to it…"
Aria laughed.
"Haha! I didn't know you would use those videos to help you sleep."
"Well, they help with my body's random moments of insomnia." Emilia said as she lowered her head to look at Aria. "Also, doesn't that mean…" She suddenly stopped herself from saying something.
"Actually, never-mind!" She put her hands up with a slight smirk.
"Hm?" Aria immediately raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, she also uses those videos, Emilia." Xavier interjected as he confirmed Emilia's thoughts, his platinum eyes still fixed onto the city. "Heh, Aria is still quite-"
"Zip!" Aria didn't hesitate to turn her head to interrupt Xavier with a 'zipping' motion over her mouth. He didn't mind, though. He still kept staring at the city with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Anyway, I can see firsthand how the culture affects the architecture here." Xavier said as he quickly tried to change the subject.
"Yes." Vael, who was checking his phone during the banter, had replied. "Also, an interesting thing about Neura is that it has 'streets' and 'sections'. The streets are as you would normally expect in a city. A section, however, is made a 'vertical' street."
"This is why Neura stretches up to the sky, kind of looking like a maze."
"Are they showing off?" Aria asked, half-sarcastically.
"Sort of. But it's mostly because they believed that God had been pleased by the ingenuity needed to make such a megastructure." Vael said as he put away his phone.
"Anyway, what do you guys want to do here?" He asked with a slight smile on his face.
"I'd like to explore the city and visit its monuments, like normal tourists." Xavier said, his hands still in his pockets.
"I'm interested in the malls, to be honest." Aria said second.
"I don't mind whatever." Emilia said third.
"How interesting…okay. We'll see if we're able to do all of those things before sundown." Vael responded with a soft smile.
"I'll be going to Saint Abel's Cathedral. Do you guys want to come with me, or do you want to do your own thing?"
Xavier suddenly turned towards Vael and narrowed his eyes, trying to mask a potential reaction.
"Abel…isn't that the first son of Adam?" Out of shock, Xavier thought in English.
Aria and Emilia instinctually widened their eyes, having the same thought as Xavier in the same language.
"Could it be that the religions of this world are…" Xavier proceeded to think, but he forgot what he was going to say in his head.
"Maybe this world is a…" Aria had a few thoughts in her mind, but she too couldn't remember what she wanted to say.
"Does that mean that his brother…" Emilia too wanted to think, but her mind had blanked out.
At the same time, a faint ringing sound resonated throughout their heads. A wave of confusion rushed through them as they all creased their eyebrows and narrowed their eyes.
It was as if their memories of the past couple seconds were wiped!
A long second passed by as people continued to walk past them, unaware of the silent scene.
Vael, noticing the emotional change, stopped smiling.
"Is there something wrong?"
Xavier, pinching his forehead, said, "Not exactly…I just forgot what I wanted to say for some reason."
"Yeah, same." Aria affirmed as she placed her hand on her chin. "Weird…"
Emilia tapped her head as she also tried to remember what she wanted to say. Suddenly, her eyes widened as if she had an epiphany.
"Oh!"
"I wanted to ask about who Abel is and why there is a cathedral named after him."
Vael paused for a second as he sighed. With a neutral expression, he said:
"Abel was the second Saint of Humanity. He was one of the leading guardians against the mysterious beings in the Chaotic Eon."
"As a result of his work, he is now resting with the God of Consciousness."
"The cathedral was built to honor him, and many believers of the Second Dimension worship there every Saturday. This has been a tradition for millions of years."
"Millions…" Xavier and Aria muttered in awe. They both fully knew how long that timescale was, given that they were scientists. They practically forgot about the 'memory wipe' that happened earlier.
"I see," Emilia said, her black-covered lips moving softly. "So you're going there to worship?"
"Precisely. I'll be there for a few hours, give or take." Vael said, his smile returning to him.
"Okay. We'll be exploring Neura." Aria didn't hesitate to indirectly make her desires known.
"Wait. How are we going to track each other?" Xavier asked immediately.
"Don't worry about that." Vael grabbed his phone and allowed it to show a spherical holographic projection.
From this projection, faintly lit blue lines burst forth and connected to the trio's bands as they observed attentively.
The trio's bands then connected to each other, with a realistic map appearing on each of the bands. It showed their location, landmarks, and all other sorts of information that can be used to explore the megacity while also keeping track of each other.
"This way, you guys can travel wherever without getting lost."
…
Not long after the conversation, Aria and Emilia split up to explore the otherworldly city in their respective ways. Xavier went with Vael to check out the cathedral, with Xavier occasionally asking about the Religion of Consciousness.
After marveling at the architecture of the cathedral and the technology that put it in place, he went to explore other tourist attractions. A good portion of these attractions were based on religion, which was expressed by large portions of people dressed in dark green circling around these monuments and praying.
The attractions that weren't religious based still had a distinct design that belonged exclusively to Sentaia and the official Second Dimension. While each attraction had obvious supernatural influences from Ethereon that allowed the structure to be possible, it still meshed with realistic, 'natural' technology.
One such monument was the Coreheart Grove, a forest of trees that stretched endlessly into the sky—obviously aided by Ethereon but fueled by the natural processes of life.
Xavier studied these attractions attentively.
An hour later, the entire atmosphere of the city shifted from a dark green ambiance to one that resembled dark blue with white sparks. It looked almost like an augmented reality simulation. This was to symbolize the worship that happened on Saturdays.
When this happened, Xavier felt as if it was time for him to go to the mall to see if there were other things he could find. He went to a personal train station and took a personal train that was connected to the mall.
In the personal train that looked like he was traveling through an artificial consciousness, he saw that the time was 12:02 PM and that he was currently on 13 Intel Street, Section 02.
"I'm guessing this is the address of the mall…" The moment he muttered that statement, the personal train's door slid open, revealing a vast landscape.
All sorts of shops, restaurants, stores and entertainment centers were plastered on the sides of the mall that looked as if they stretched endlessly. Each of these attractions had their own unique experiences and aesthetic—with some focusing more on technology while others focusing more on nature and life.
The floor was made out of shifting dark blue tiles that comfortably adjusted to the emotions of the walker, while the ceiling showcased a digital screen that showed all kinds of advertisements, messages, videos and the like. Occasionally, it would shift to a dark blue background with white sparks, making it look like a boundless artificial intelligence.
Scattered around the floor were robots and holographic AI assistants that tended to many people's needs, while flowers bloomed and trees swayed responding to people's moods.
Not to be outdone, there were many biospheres in the distance that held different kinds of animals: jungles, lakes, mountainous areas, arctic areas. It would be an understatement to call these ecosystems 'zoos' or 'aquariums'.
Even though there seemed to be an almost endless amount of people in the mall, with differing colors and ethnicities, there was no spot in this megastructure that made anyone feel claustrophobic. That's how big this thing was.
Xavier stepped out, his mind still processing the visual and auditory information. After a few seconds, he could've only muttered the words: "Am I in a video game…?"
"Hello!" A floating holographic robot suddenly manifested in front of Xavier. "How may I help you?"
"Yeah, this doesn't help with that feeling at all." Xavier added in his head.
"No, I'm good." After a few seconds, he responded to the robot.
…
After a few minutes of exploring the mall, Xavier had to resist the urge to go to a lot of stores. Namely clothes stores, game stores, electronic stores and libraries. This was because he was low on money and couldn't afford to be tempted by the sweet embrace of novelty.
"What's that?" However, in his vision, he saw something interesting.
It was a decently large tent that was in front of a waterfall that stretched up to the sky. Sea animals moved up and down in this large waterfall, almost defying physics.
The purple tent looked like a strange, magical enclosure that belonged to a fortune teller. It had all sorts of symbols on it that added to its mystery. It heavily contrasted with the other attractions in the mall that were either a technological or natural aesthetic.
There was a decently sized line in front of it, so he concluded that it was rather popular.
"Hm…" Xavier put his hand to his chin, considering whether or not he should go inside.
"I guess it doesn't hurt to check it out. It's different from the other things I've seen so far." Xavier shrugged as he walked towards the line.
After about half an hour of waiting, his turn had finally come up. Before he could've even entered the tent, he could've seen that the inside was completely dark.
He stepped in anyway. As he stepped in, he strangely felt his surroundings getting darker.
It felt colder, like warmth was being siphoned from his body.
Alarmed, he turned around.
"Really?" He said out of exasperation.
This was because the entrance to the tent had completely disappeared! This had draped the entire space in a deep darkness!
"Man, technology is so strange nowadays…" With cold sweat dripping down his cheeks, Xavier said under his breath.
"Haha…" A cute, female laugh ruptured throughout the dark space.
Xavier didn't hesitate to turn back around upon hearing this laugh.
There, he saw a cute woman who would be considered asian on the previous Earth. She wore purple lipstick and black eyeliner, and her cheeks were slightly blushed red.
She had purple eyes, and black hair that had bangs that streaked across her forehead.
She had worn a purple hooded robe with black streaks. It had mysterious symbols on it, and her hood was placed over her black hair, adding to her mysterious aura.
"This is not technology," She said with a teasing voice. "This is magic."
Xavier tried to compose himself as he put his hands in his hoodie pockets.
"Oh really? What type of magic?"
"Westorian Magic." She said, her lips curling up to a smile.
"Mysticism? Sixth dimensional magic?" Xavier's eyes widened slightly as he connected the dots.
"Correct." After saying this, she bowed slightly, her right arm crossing over her waist.
"Forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is Ren Zhou."
"Ren…so you're a fortune teller?" Xavier asked, his curiosity piquing.
"Perhaps. Though I'd call myself a Seer." Ren said softly as she straightened her back.
"A Seer? So…does that mean you'll be reading my fate?" Xavier asked.
"Who knows?" Ren said with a teasing tone. "Or maybe, is it you who'll be reading your own fate?"
"As expected, this is a charlatan. I guess even in a world where magic exists, you still have people like her…" Xavier expressed his disappointment with his thoughts.
Ren giggled.
"Hehe. It seems like you don't believe me."
"I can tell you three things about yourself."
Xavier sighed.
"Go ahead."
Ren's lips curled up even more as her eyes narrowed. Her expression reeked of ecstasy, as if someone had told her a hilarious joke.
"Your name is Xavier Hale,"
"You know about Ethereon,"
"There is something about yourself that you are hiding from most people."
Xavier's expression froze.