Every structure in sight was staggering in scale.

All the doors he saw were at least ten meters high, and the buildings themselves towered as well. But most of them lay half-buried beneath sand and stone.

"Has there ever been a civilization of giants in recorded history?" Ambrose wondered aloud.

He scoured his memory of historical texts. Official histories, no. Unofficial ones… well, those hardly counted. Some of them even claimed the Creator God Aion had been born after a goblin copulated with the cosmos—many were too unhinged to take seriously.

Catherine was equally astonished. Even in the elves' records, there seemed to be no mention of such a civilization.

And the elven records stretched back tens of thousands of years.

"This is incredible," Catherine said with barely contained excitement. "You really do have to go adventuring to broaden your horizons."

Ambrose felt the same way. A civilization of giants unrecorded in any history he was familiar with… The only giants he knew were hill giants, dim-witted brutes defined by strength rather than intellect.

If this civilization had left no records behind, then its technology must likewise have vanished entirely from history. That meant that this lost underground city might still contain ancient magic or magical artifacts.

Ancient magic was not necessarily stronger, but it was far more likely to be novel. Novel magic was invaluable to any researcher.

They advanced along the broad avenue beyond the city gate and saw a massive monument rose. The inscriptions on its surface had long since eroded away. Only the top remained discernible: a humanoid figure, worn smooth by time.

"This human-shaped statue… what do you think, Your Majesty?" Ambrose asked.

When it came to art, the elves were second to none.

Catherine studied the sculpture carefully and said with regret, "The weathering is too severe. Many details have vanished entirely. Still, the statue is bare-chested, with beautifully defined musculature full of strength. The craftsmanship is superb. The surrounding buildings share the same style, which suggests the entire city was designed under a unified artistic vision. Given its placement at the city entrance, if this figure was not a god they worshipped, then it was likely a hero of great significance. Beyond that, I cannot say."

Ambrose stroked his chin. For Catherine to praise the quality of its art, this civilization must have been remarkably advanced. A society had to reach a minimum level of prosperity to even be able to focus on art at all.

Did giants really possess that level of intellect?

Most giants on record were little more than musclebound monsters.

"There is something quite strange here," Catherine said, pointing behind the monument. "Look at the road."

Beyond the monument, the main avenue split into two, forming a subtle Y-shaped junction.

Most cities favored crossroads for ease of planning, but this forked layout felt oddly deliberate.

Catherine extended her finger, measuring the angle. "This angle… it resembles that of a regular pentagon. May I see the map?"

Ambrose unrolled the map Heki Stone had given him. Catherine took it and traced over it thoughtfully.

After a moment, she conjured glowing magical lines in the air, sketching a pentagon, then inscribing a pentagram within it.

"My guess is that the city is laid out like this. The outer walls form a regular pentagon, and the interior is divided by a pentagram into distinct functional zones. We are standing at one of the star's vertices. I expect these two roads will lead to different districts."

Ambrose examined the buildings along each road but saw no obvious differences.

He knew little of architecture, but he trusted Catherine's judgment.

"A pentagram layout… could this be related to infernal worship?" Ambrose asked.

Catherine shook her head. "It's unlikely. Pentagrams are not exclusive to demons or devils. Many forms of ancient magic incorporate similar geometry."

"Then let's split up and explore," Ambrose said. "See if we can find anything of value. We'll regroup here in an hour."

Catherine glanced into the darkness ahead, a faint tension stirring within her. This was her first time adventuring alone.

But wasn't that precisely what she wanted? 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Very well. Dividing our efforts will be more efficient." She layered herself with multiple defensive spells and even cast Greater Invisibility on herself, causing her to vanish completely from sight.

Ambrose found her behavior faintly amusing. She looked like a novice adventurer. It was hard to imagine how she had become a legend, and even a dual legend at that—perhaps she simply was a monstrous genius.

Catherine went right, so Ambrose took the left.

Liches didn't need light. Ambrose blended seamlessly into the darkness and proceeded down his chosen path.

The road was even wider than the main avenues of Alkhemia. The massive stone slabs underfoot further confirmed his suspicion: this was a city built by giants. Everything was scaled up several times over.

There were no dangers along the way. After walking about a kilometer, however, the road ended abruptly, choked by rock and sand.

Ambrose attempted to clear it with magic, but even after digging more than ten meters, the obstruction seemed to persist. It was as though the city had been buried entirely, and only a fragment had been exposed by mere chance.

Without a path forward, Ambrose instead turned back and investigated the buildings along the avenue.

Most of the wooden doors had rotted away; even the faint breeze stirred by his passing was sufficient to reduce them to dust. The interiors were vast and empty, containing nothing but the faint outlines of long-decayed furniture.

"It looks like a residential district. Homes of giants, huh…"

He inspected several houses. Though the layouts varied slightly in size, they all shared the same essentials: dining rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, everything one would expect.

What surprised Ambrose most was the sewer system. It was impressively engineered and connected directly to each residence. The care this culture invested in city planning was evident.

This civilization surely had been truly magnificent in its heyday.

But Ambrose couldn't help but feel deeply unsettled. He had found no corpses in sight, no bodies.

Aside from the peculiar material used to construct the city gate, Ambrose had seen no skeletal remains anywhere since entering the city.

Where had its inhabitants gone?

Had they fled before the city's destruction?

It was too hard to say. Any potential evidence one way or another had long since faded with age.

After an hour, Ambrose returned to the monument, where he found Catherine already waiting for him.

"Back so soon?" he asked in surprise.

"The road ahead was blocked not far in," Catherine said, somewhat shiftily. "There wasn't much to see."

Ambrose: "…"

Had she grown so afraid the farther she went that she had chosen to retreat early?

Better not call her out on it. There would be time to investigate properly later.

"I didn't find anything either," Ambrose said. "This area appears to be a residential district."

"Same for me," Catherine replied. "The right-hand path seemed to lead to a commercial district. The buildings look like shops, but there's nothing inside. Anything of value seems to have been taken already."

"Must be Heki Stone." Ambrose snorted. "He definitely sent people in ahead of time. Didn't leave me a single gold coin. Stingy old bastard."

He grumbled, but didn't dwell on the matter.

He had plenty of gold now.

"Since there's nothing valuable and no danger ahead, let's just choose a place to move in. I found a decent house that's spacious and well-located."

He was referring to the largest residence in the district, a three-story structure nearly as tall as his old castle with ample interior space, perfect for establishing a new home.

Catherine had no objections. She followed Ambrose into the massive dwelling.

With a casual gesture, Ambrose summoned a group of skeletons and set them to cleaning. As they cleared out the decayed remnants of furniture, he opened up his extradimensional space and transferred his belongings into the house.

Catherine, meanwhile, took out a pouch of seeds and scattered them around the exterior, accelerating their growth with magic.

The underground city had virtually no ventilation. Short-term exposure to the air was tolerable, but long-term habitation required purification.

Soon, various magical plants sprouted: ones that cleansed the air, emitted light, and even produced food. Greenery wrapped around the building, making it hard for any outsider to believe this was the domain of a lich.

These plants, however, could only grow outdoors. Catherine's own quarters were fashioned from living vines woven outside the main structure.

Inside, Ambrose's skeletons continued their work. Lesser skeletons lacked the precision to control dark magic delicately, and magical plants would wither rapidly in such an environment.

The boundary between life and death was absolute. No one could cross it.

After hours of labor, the preliminary setup of the laboratory was finally complete.

Ambrose dismissed the skeletons and retrieved a vast array of metals and stacks of blueprints from his space.

These were remnant materials salvaged after the disappearance of Alkhemia, resources once meant for constructing magical automata.

Ambrose had never been particularly interested in such constructs. Necromancy and golemcraft were fundamentally incompatible, and pursuing both had seemed like a waste of effort.

But now, things were different. The Lyon Empire might well unify the entire continent. Ambrose had to plan for his future.

He intended to forge himself a new body, a body of steel that would free him from the weaknesses of holy light.