"Congratulations. That's the right answer."
Slash!
A broad ice wing swept down. In the blink of an eye, Loa flung away a vast swath of Island Cloud. Then, amid a series of sharp cracks, an icy staircase wound down through the opening, bridging the ground and Kong.
"Let's go."
With that, Loa led the way down.
The two soon reached the ground. At the sight of the enormous buildings before her, still magnificent despite their decay, Robin let go of her backpack without realizing it. It fell to the ground behind her.
"This is the City of Gold, Shandora!"
Shandora had existed more than eleven hundred years ago. In its day, the kingdom had been a treasure of the world, flourishing beyond compare!
The name Shandora meant "the glorious city."
Now that glorious city, long buried in the river of history, had finally come to light before Robin's eyes. Even she, steeped in history and familiar with Ruins of every kind, could not help but be awestruck by Shandora's sight.
What a magnificent, prosperous city it had been!
Its riverbeds had dried up, but even the weeds that choked them could not hide their former splendor. A towering platform rose at the city's center like a giant holding up the sky, a sight that took her breath away.
Broad streets and a maze of narrow lanes stretched before her. Robin almost felt as though she had crossed through time and could hear the sounds of Shandora at its height. More than a thousand years ago, people had crowded these very streets, trading, laughing, and singing as they built a great nation!
Shandora!
"The lingering echoes of history?"
Robin was beginning to understand what Loa had meant. Unlike China, with its five thousand years of civilization, the people of this world