I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha.

Chapter 526 This is the Old Paradise! The Real Sun!

When Roland and the others followed Brianna to the edge of the teleportation platform, they looked down and were stunned by the scene before them.

Below the teleportation platform were clouds, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Helena couldn't help but recall the airplane that her best friend Vivian had invented when she was still teaching at the academy.

That thing flew incredibly high, higher than a magic carpet or a broom. It also flew incredibly fast, faster than a dragon.

Helena remembers that when she accompanied Vivian on her test drive, they flew to this altitude—the dashboard showed an altitude of 9877 meters.

They could have flown even higher, but the wind was too strong. Damn Vivian, she should have installed glass on the outside of the cockpit.

Later, Vivian said she wanted to 'chase the sound'. So Helena and she pedaled hard on their wheels, and with a loud bang, the plane broke into pieces the moment it broke the sound barrier.

Fortunately, Helena was with Vivian for the test flight that day. Vivian seemed to have a slight fear of heights.
As she fell, she covered her eyes and trembled, unable to even find her broom.

Helena strongly suspected that Vivian might be flying the plane with her eyes closed.

"cough."

Joan suddenly coughed and asked, "Didn't Roland say that the Holy See should be in orbit in space? But it doesn't seem to be very high up here?"

Helena's eyes widened suddenly. She said, "Yes, senior! When we were chatting on the ground, didn't you say that the Holy See should be at an altitude of about 400 kilometers?"

You also said that looking down from this height, you can see the curves of the earth.

But why does the ground still look 'flat'? And at this altitude, there shouldn't even be air, so why are there clouds?

Helena was absolutely certain that there wouldn't be any clouds at this altitude. Because the first thing all the Black Abyss and White Chess Wizards did after embracing the stars (reaching the third tier) was to fly up into the sky and take a look.

She still remembers what her grandmother (the White Queen) said—there was nothing up there, no heaven, no hymns, no air. Just emptiness.

Roland frowned. He had just secretly observed with magic.

Within two hundred kilometers below the clouds lie mountains, rivers, and plains.

Roland could even feel the power of the ocean—though it was very far away, he could feel it.

The ground beneath my feet was indeed solid.

Roland did not find the 'Holy Seat' between the platform and the ground. Even the platform itself was very low; it was only four kilometers above the ground—less than four kilometers.

This is the flight altitude of a passenger aircraft.

Everything was telling Roland that this place wasn't very high. But Roland inexplicably felt that it was extremely high.

He even felt a sense of loneliness, as if he were in some distant void far above the ground.

"When I first came here, I also wondered if I had been teleported to the wrong location."

Brianna said slowly with a somewhat subtle expression, "But this is the Holy Throne—to be precise, the highest and largest 'foundation fragment' of the Holy Throne."

It's 3 kilometers higher than the Holy Throne in my world—it's located at an altitude of 360000 kilometers beyond our planet.

Before anyone could react, Brianna said again, "What you are standing on is not the earth and the clouds, but the Holy Throne. It is what the people of the South call the 'Old Paradise'."

Roland's pupils suddenly contracted, as if he had discovered something crucial from the information provided by Brianna.

The others had varying expressions.

Joan had briefly wondered if this was some hidden realm within a spatial rift, or perhaps some other dimensional plane. But after looking at the magnificent sky once more, she dismissed that idea.

Helena, standing nearby, pulled out a compass and exclaimed, "Impossible! 36 kilometers. That's practically the moon! How could there still be clouds? Look, it says it here—3603 meters! Only a little over three thousand meters! Hey, do you even know runes?"

Before she could finish speaking, Brianna pinched her cheek, making her beg for mercy in pain.

"Little one, be more polite when you talk to your auntie—would I lie to a child like you?"

Helena was indeed tiny compared to Brianna, as were everyone else, including Roland and Joan.

Although this charming witch looks only twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, her real age is 36 even if divided by 10—she is the same age as her senior, Catherine (Alysandra).

Therefore, this older sister is a genuine ancient person who is over three centuries old.

Roland suddenly said, "No wonder the clouds are so low. Helena's instruments weren't wrong. Although this place is smaller than the ground in our world, it is still the real 'earth'—because it's smaller, we can see clouds like this at an altitude of 4 kilometers."

Helena and the others: "Huh?"

Brianna said, "Indeed, I have measured it, and the combined area of ​​the five foundation fragments exceeds 3900 million square kilometers—the area of ​​the Eastern Territory plus the two southern continents combined is not as large as it."

Everyone believed that Brianna and Roland wouldn't lie at the same time, but it was still hard to believe.

Because if an object exceeds this area, then it should be called a 'satellite'.

For example, the moon.

Joan whispered, "You mean, this thing might be bigger than the moon?"

Brianna said, "No, it's the same size as the moon. Exactly the same size."

Brianna looked at Helena and Joan: "Our world is the satellite that orbits our world without satellites, the largest of the five pedestals—that is the moon you speak of."

Everyone's faces became very interesting.

The wizards' research has always told them that there is no heaven in this world, and that outer space is a void.

But now they stand in the old paradise of the gods.

Roland suddenly asked, "Who told you that the Holy See is composed of multiple 'fragments' scattered in space between 36 and 400 kilometers away?"

Brianna said, "That's right, to be precise, there are 5 large base fragments and tens of thousands of smaller fragments. The platform we are on now is a small fragment, and the one under our feet is the largest fragment."

These five largest 'fragmented base pieces' float above the earth like an inverted pyramid.

The one furthest away is the largest, and the one closest is the smallest.

Because the other fragments are too far away and not large enough, people on the ground often mistake them for celestial bodies.

The piece you saw in the Holy City was the one closest to the earth.

After a pause, Brianna looked at Roland: "The smallest fragment was indeed no more than 400 kilometers high. Roland, your eyes are very accurate."

Four hundred kilometers is the distance between the ground and the space station.

The smallest fragment travels at this distance.

Because of its immense size, its shadow covered the entire holy city, making it resemble an unidentified object occupying most of the sky. At that moment, Roland recalled a sentence that his senior sister Catherine had said on their last night in Greyfalcon City—"My mother said that the Holy Throne cannot be destroyed."

Indeed, such a massive object, even if we disregard its materials which are beyond human comprehension and it is composed entirely of ordinary stones and soil, cannot be destroyed by a few nuclear bombs.

The largest piece of the entire Holy See, the 'base fragment,' is as large as the moon.

Roland couldn't help but wonder, and he looked at Brianna: "I remember Charles saying that the Holy See was destroyed in the war seventy thousand years ago. Who destroyed it? Was it the Forbidden Creators?"

Brianna said, "No, quite the opposite, Roland. The Creators always wanted to repair it. It was the gods who destroyed it."

Roland: "???"

"Don't look at me like that, I just heard it from someone else."

Brianna said with a strange expression, "At least that's what the Pope said. He must have interpreted it from the Old Scriptures."

Roland's eyes flickered slightly, and he hurriedly asked, "What else did he say?"

Brianna said, "He also said that the Holy See, that is, the Old Heaven, may not have been created by the gods."

Roland couldn't help but frown.

The gods clearly knew a great deal about the Holy See and were knowledgeable about all the technologies related to it.

But the Pope said that the Holy See may not have been created by the gods.

But if this old heaven called the 'Holy Throne' was not created by the gods themselves, then why do they reside there?

If Roland weren't afraid to meet the Pope, he really wanted to have a detailed discussion with him about these matters.

Roland shook his head, thinking to himself, 'Our positions are different. Even if we could meet, the Pope wouldn't discuss these matters with me.'

Brianna said, "Let's go, Roland, didn't you want to see that topology map? We need to go to other teleportation arrays."

As soon as she spoke, Brianna recited a 'prayer,' and then wings of light sprouted from the backs of everyone.

"This seems to be legitimate divine magic?" Roland glanced at Brianna with a strange expression and said, "Who were you praying to just now?"

Roland felt that the power of this divine magic was somewhat similar to the system of the Dawn Order, but also somewhat different.

Moreover, he was quite certain that he had felt this power in certain people.

Brianna looked somewhat dejected; she seemed reluctant to discuss the matter and flew away first.

Roland had a vague feeling that this might be related to another world. He didn't ask any further questions and followed the others.

The teleportation array wasn't located on the ground, but rather on a small fragment above the clouds. Therefore, the group didn't descend.

Roland was eager to see what was down there, but considering he could come back anytime and they had already been there for quite some time, he didn't suggest going down.

On the way, Roland overheard Joan whispering to Helena behind him: "...When I was with the Revolutionary Army a while ago, I saw a document that Senior Catherine had reviewed. It said that the Eastern Frontier plans to launch a miniature secret star in the distant sky that people can live on for a long time."

It will orbit our world to support research at Merlin's Labs—400 kilometers is far enough if Roland fails to retrieve the data from Olivia. The technical team believes that while such a location isn't as advantageous as a riverbank, it's far more effective than ground level in monitoring the fluctuations of the ocean beneath the surface.

Helena said, "If we send it up, won't it get bumped into something?"

Upon hearing this, Roland was slightly taken aback. He frowned and looked up at the sky.

At this moment, Helena seemed to suddenly realize something and asked, "By the way, Joan, what did you just say? You wanted to launch something into space to monitor it? Why would it be easier to monitor the fluctuations of the ocean in the lower world from space?"

Joan said, "I don't know, but I have heard people say that it's easier to communicate with the lower world from outside the sky. I think it's probably because it's very quiet and clean there, without any elemental interference."

Helena frowned and thought for a long time, then her eyes gradually brightened.

"Ah! I see!"

Helena exclaimed, "I heard Mr. Taras say that everything in the underworld is projected into the surface world."

For example, the land, mountains, and oceans in our world also have corresponding deities in the lower realms.

Helena tapped her forehead with her finger, unable to quite recall.

Roland interjected, "Information?"

Helena's eyes suddenly lit up, and she gave her senior a thumbs up, saying, "Yes! That seems to be the word! He said that everything in the surface world is actually made up of information."

The reason why the matter we see in the surface world is 'solid' while the matter in the underlying world is invisible and intangible is because of the different carriers.

If we could become something from the lower realms, then the matter of the lower realms would no longer be indescribable in our eyes, but rather something that can be understood.

He also said that the underworld is like a big database. It seems that my senior has said something similar.

Well, in short, he believes that if a vast ocean truly exists in the lower realm, then we don't necessarily have to dive deep into it to see it—its projection must exist in the surface world.
So, that's why people want to build laboratories in the sky, right?

They believe that there is a projection of the lower world, the ocean, in the sky.
"Hey! Joan, are you listening?! What are you looking at?"

Joan scratched her head somewhat awkwardly.

Although she didn't serve as a professor at the academy like Helena, she was still a professional researcher. However, her area of ​​expertise was potions, which in the Eastern Realm would be considered a 'humanities' subject.

So when Roland mentioned the word 'information', she started to drift off.

Joan pointed to the horizon and changed the subject: "Look over there, the sky over there has no color."

Helena followed Joan's finger and looked over, then her face lit up with surprise.

"Huh! It really looks like it. Huh?! It looks like it's moving! Sunrise? Is it sunrise?! Senior, senior, did you see that? There's a black sun over there!"

Roland, who was deep in thought, was suddenly interrupted by Helena's voice.

He frowned and looked over impatiently, then his pupils suddenly dilated.

Near the horizon, there was a small, bright area, like a small, dazzling halo.

The aperture was extremely bright, with a magnificent sky outside it, while inside the aperture there was no color—it was true emptiness.

Because it is round and rises gradually from the clouds like a sunrise, it looks like a black sun.

As the black sun, surrounded by a dazzling halo, slowly rose, the magnificent sky gradually began to stir.

The entire scene resembles a pure black vortex, slowly moving across a surface of vibrant water saturated with dye.

(End of this chapter)