One Man, One City

Sun Wheel City flipped over in a single breath.

Apart from the initial tremor that rang out like the heartbeat of the world, there was no other disturbance.

There was not even a moment of weightlessness as the entire city turned upside down.

It was as if nothing had changed.

But

Arata could faintly sense that the Ancient Sun Land had been hidden in a peculiar space. If he had to describe it, it was like something that had once floated on the water's surface had suddenly flipped beneath it.

Above the surface lay a false, empty city, perfectly symmetrical and identical to the original.

How long that fabricated world could conceal them, however, remained unknown.

At the same time, another unusual object appeared in Queen Himiko's hand, giving off a faint, obscure pulse of energy.

It was roughly square and dark gold, its surface covered in strange gear-like patterns and mysterious, indecipherable inscriptions.

Without question, this was the second secret treasure kept in Sun Wheel City.

A mighty divine artifact said to control time!

Yet although it could control time, it could not change what had already happened.

In other words, it could turn Sun Wheel City's clock back to the day of the queen's great battle, but it could not bring back those who had died in the meantime or undo the act of killing a god.

Time in the outside world would continue to roll forward, unchanged and unhalted by anything peculiar about this place.

It could, however, freeze or slow time for ordinary people.

Vast divine power surged from Queen Himiko once more.

The dark-gold artifact of time erupted in crimson light. Its cryptic inscriptions seemed to come alive, growing steadily more active, while its gear-like patterns began to turn.

Within that sudden crimson radiance, countless