At the same time, Pact Fortress, on the border between Cecil and Typhon.
The immense energy released by the three Energy Towers stirred visible vortices of magic through the atmosphere. Like the enormous beam that had once shot straight into the sky from the Azure Well, breathtaking magical power was gathered, converted, transmitted, and poured into the central hall of Pact Fortress, where it became an arcane torrent that kept the portal stable.
The enormous portal apparatus emitted a low hum. A circular spatial passageway, like a mirror surface, floated quietly amid curved alloy beams. The pristine "mirror surface" displayed the scenery of the other side—once a realm mortals had only dared describe and imagine in religious tales and sacred rituals, but now a world that could truly be reached and explored.
It was the realm of the gods.
Camil, Winsor Mapel, and Daniel stood gathered before the portal, personally inspecting the preparations needed for the next stage of exploration. Not far from them, the autonomous construct Explorer, with its brass shell and intricate mechanical limbs, stood quietly on a charging platform while several Technical Personnel inspected and maintained it.
This advanced Artificial Intelligence creation from Typhon had made an enormous contribution to the entire project. Over the past period, it had completed sixteen routine explorations on the other side of the portal, as well as two "extreme walks" intended to test the threshold of magical energy depletion. Its once-smooth, gleaming shell was now heavily worn, its mechanical limbs covered in scratches, and its internal magic-storage structure had endured immense strain amid repeated "magic-depleted" conditions, even requiring replacement once. Yet under the meticulous maintenance of the Technical Personnel, the construct's overall performance still met the requirements for further exploration.
"Over the course of our previous explorations, we have roughly mapped