Margaret was silent for a moment, her gaze drifting toward the depths of the garden as if she could pierce through time and space to see that magnificent yet oppressive Holy City.

"Yes, it is time. ’The Driver’ and ’The Machine’ have been separated for far too long. Without sufficient ’parts’ and ’power,’ even the most intricate blueprint is just a drawing. What lies beneath the Holy City is both the key and the cornerstone."

Othilia drained the last of the chilled tea in her cup. As she set it down, it made a crisp clink.

She asked abruptly, "Once the plan is truly set in motion, the number of variables will grow exponentially. Can you bear to part with Eleanor? She’s still so young to be swept into a torrent like this."

Margaret drew her gaze back from the distance and fixed it on Othilia’s face.

A complex emotion flashed through her dark eyes—eyes similar to Othilia’s, yet deeper and more inscrutable.

"If I said I couldn’t bear it," Margaret’s voice was soft, "would you agree to give up?"

"Of course not," Othilia replied almost instantly, her face breaking into a smile as bright and as cold as before. "This is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. Besides, offspring are something you can have as many as you want of in the long years to come. You’re only hesitating because Eleanor is your first child. You’ll get used to it."

She paused, her tone airy and tinged with a dismissive contempt. "Besides, no matter how talented she is, how could she possibly compare to us, who have inherited the World Origin of the Wizard World? If she never reaches our level, she’ll turn to dust sooner or later. It’s no great loss."

Margaret watched her and slowly nodded. "You’re right."

She mused for a moment, her tone growing grave. "But we must be wary of the others. What’s buried beneath the Holy City is more than just what we need. Moreover... some people wouldn’t mind playing the part of a thief."

"Them?" Othilia snorted with contempt. "They’re nothing but small fry. Still..."

She reigned in some of her arrogance. "We do indeed need to be wary of others. Only our alliance, bound by a contract from the dawn of the Wizard World, is truly unbreakable."

Margaret’s gaze once again drifted to a distant point—to the far north, toward the place known as Monte Castle.

Her expression grew distant, and the corners of her lips curled into an inscrutable smile.

"Yes," she repeated, her voice so soft it was nearly lost to the wind. "Only our contract... is unbreakable."

Othilia rose to her feet, the hem of her sea-blue skirt shimmering like ripples in the sunlight. "Well, I’m off."

As she spoke, she extended her hand to Margaret.

Margaret rose as well, placing her hand in Othilia’s.

Margaret nodded.

In the next instant, their figures began to blur and turn transparent, as if melting into the warm afternoon sunlight and the drifting floral scents.

Patches of light from the wisteria trellis still danced on the stone slates, and a faint warmth lingered on the two chairs at the stone table, but the space beneath the trellis was now empty.

Only the distant, carefree laughter of Eleanor and her lady-in-waiting, Leia, as they teased a fledgling, echoed softly through the garden.

...

Far away in the Northern Territory, Murphy was still completely unaware of the earthshaking explosion deep within the Iron Ridge Mountain Range, or of the crimson portal that had silently opened.

At this moment, his entire focus was consumed within a secret chamber deep beneath Monte Castle, where he was contending with the recently delivered batch of Thunder Steel.

In the center of the secret chamber, dozens of ore chunks of varying sizes were piled silently on a custom-built platform.

The pile weighed about a ton.

They possessed a strange, grayish-blue luster. Their surfaces were covered in fine, scorched lines, like the marks left behind by lightning strikes. Even in the dim candlelight, they would occasionally give off a fleeting, pale-purple glint.

This was the Thunder Steel Ore the Peric Clan had delivered as promised. Although the total volume wasn’t massive, it far exceeded the combined amount Murphy had managed to gather piecemeal over the past decade.

Murphy stood before the platform and reached out, his fingertips gently brushing across the cool, patterned surface of a piece of Thunder Steel Ore.

The touch was not one of pure metallic hardness. Instead, it left a strange, tingling numbness, as if a faint electrical current lay dormant deep within the ore, ready to awaken at any moment.

Different Spiritual Materials embodied different aspects of the Laws of Heaven and Earth.

Refined Gold, created by quenching vast quantities of Gold with True Flame, was inherently solid, heavy, and incorruptible. It was the ideal foundation for bearing power and constructing eternal structures, as stable as the earth itself.

This Thunder Steel, on the other hand, was born deep within iron-rich lodes, nurtured for eons by the ley lines of the earth, and occasionally infused with the very Essence of Thunder. Its nature thus leaned toward "Rapid," "Piercing," and "instantaneous bursts of power."

It might not be as indestructible as Refined Gold, but it could release power in a swifter, more concentrated, and more destructive manner.

This aligned perfectly with Murphy’s ultimate vision for his Flying Sword.

It had to be not only indestructible, but also as fast as a thunderclap and as swift as a lightning flash.

However, one can’t make bricks without straw.

For years, the rarity of Thunder Steel and the difficulty of mining it had held him back, preventing him from bringing this concept to fruition. The quality of his Flying Sword had thus hit a bottleneck, unable to break through to the next level.

But now, everything was different.

This batch of Thunder Steel from the Peric Clan was like a welcome rain after a long drought.

Though the quantity was still precious, it was enough for him to begin experimenting and refining.

If he succeeded in using Dao Patterns to guide the "Rapid" property inherent in the Thunder Steel and perfectly fuse it with the "incorruptible" foundation of Refined Gold, his Flying Sword would be completely transformed, its quality ascending to an entirely new level.