> [After leaving the border of India, I journeyed straight north, crossing the steppes to reach the northeastern part of the Roman Empire. Compared to the southeast, which was recently pacified by Lucius, the friction in the north has been increasing daily. The king of the steppes must be impatient to destroy the civilization of Rome.
> After all, destruction is all that one can do, even if that one also wishes to protect something with their own hands.
> Calculating the time, the faith of the Roman pantheon will completely come to an end, replaced by the light called God. Nothing in this world is eternal and unchanging; time is the force that proves this truth.
> There are not many high mountains here; the ranges are mainly composed of rock, and vegetation is rather sparse.
> Perhaps because war is frequent here, the residents and soldiers seem a bit more bold and heroic than those in the west. Even the postures of the male and female dancers are more unrestrained and less delicate. Although each has its own beauty, I personally appreciate the scenery of the east more.
> However, whenever I admire these dances, my companion always glares at me with an expression that says she wants to eat me. Why doesn't she understand that appreciation is just appreciation, and not every instance of it leads to romantic feelings? But I suppose this is also a symbol of our affection.
> But no matter what, there is still a sense of desolation here. It's hard to imagine that the thing I am searching for would have its strongest reaction in a place like this.]
Aslan closed the journal he had been casually writing in. Its cover was wrapped in exquisite cowhide, and even the paper inside was specially treated thin leather. To make leather as thin as ordinary paper is nearly impossible without the help of magic. Although paper from the East could already be bought here, Aslan had his own little mischievous hobby. After this Roman Travelogue was finished, he would let it circulate. A book made with excellent materials and reinforced with magic would surely be able to last for a thousand years without decaying. Aslan didn't know that his identity as the "Son of God" had already been quietly spreading among Christians. Now, he was preparing to pass down this book, intentionally treating it as a future Holy Relic.
Aslan wouldn't mind having more and more identities and aspects as a Heroic Spirit. If, in some future war, he could fight a whole battle by himself, that would definitely be interesting enough. Thinking about how his "cheap cousin" could already fight an entire Holy Grail War by herself, he couldn't lose, could he? Their Pendragon family truly had an inexplicable sense of competitiveness in the strangest of places. Aslan didn't really understand why he had such thoughts, but as long as it was interesting, that was all that mattered.
Furthermore, just as he had written in his travelogue, ever since he chose to head north, the detector he had made had its first intense reaction. The magnitude of the reaction was far more severe than any before. If the previous ones were like a drop of water hitting a calm basin and making ripples, this time it was about to flip the whole basin over.
His destination this time definitely held a relatively complete Machine God wreckage! Perhaps this wreckage even had some remaining functions. And if it was as huge as he imagined, then he could finally gather all the raw materials he needed! He just didn't know which god this wreckage belonged to. Aslan even suspected that the wreckage he was about to encounter might have been dragged here by the White Titan during its battle all those years ago. But for it to have remained undiscovered for so long meant that the area it was in had to be very special—either hidden and concealed, or impossible for people to approach.
Whichever the case, his long-cherished wish was about to be fulfilled. Aslan's mood was more cheerful than ever before.
"Sir Knight, we can't go any further. Ahead is the volcano the locals call 'The Furnace.' The horses simply can't get close..."
While on the road, Aslan had naturally been traveling with a merchant caravan. On one hand, they could look out for each other, and on the other, he could protect the caravan to earn some extra money. Humans are social animals, after all. Even if a journey for two is undisturbed, after a long time, one still hopes to hear stories and learn about customs from others.
Upon hearing the caravan member's words, Aslan poked his head out. As a magic user and someone who was also a bit of a hedonist, Aslan had of course inscribed temperature-regulating Faerie Letters on his equipment, so he didn't feel the heat as intensely as the others did.
Looking around, the forest, which was already not very dense in this Middle Eastern region, was completely barren here. Even the roads were full of cracks. The soil would turn into fine dust and float into the sky with just a gentle rub. The area was extremely arid, and the air shimmered with waves of heat. The man who had come to inform him was drenched in sweat. And in the distance, a volcano was continuously spewing lava. It seemed the high temperature of this entire region was because of that volcano. In his memory, history didn't seem to have recorded its existence... but this was Nasuverse history, with the whole Earth-Moon separation thing. Even if there were things he didn't know, it should be considered normal.
He looked at the instrument in his hand. There was no mistake; the place with the most intense reaction was that volcano. It seemed the Machine God's wreckage was there. To be able to create a volcano, it was likely a god related to fire, or perhaps one related to the earth? It would be great if it was the wreckage of one of the twelve main gods. Among the materials he had collected so far, there were quite a few from second and third-rate gods. It was just a pity that none of them included core fragments. Thinking back to the Machine God and core wreckage of the "God of Contracts" he had first obtained, which had allowed him to directly connect and contract with the remnant of the Horizon Dragon... In contrast, the fragments of the "Goddess of Beauty's" body he had collected on the continent could only produce a weak hypnotic effect. The difference between ordinary body parts and core parts was simply too great.
Aslan gathered his luggage, jumped off the carriage, and waved to the members of the caravan. "Thank you for your hard work, and for making you take a detour."
The caravan member quickly shook his head. After all, Aslan had protected their safety along the way. This was the war-torn east, where they might even encounter Hunnic troops that had broken through into the empire to burn, kill, and plunder. Merchant caravans like theirs were the primary targets. Having a Holy Knight like him around gave them an immense sense of security.