“Extra! Extra! A giant floating island hovers over Europe—an ancient city returns! All the truth you crave, only in the Phoenix Daily!”

A Mysidian newsboy skimmed along the trunk of the World Tree, his voice a bell rung in the wind.

...

[What’s your take on the floating island flying in from the Arctic?]

[No doubt—it’s the work of God! A promised land for the faithful!]

On a sidewalk TV in Ivalice, the interviews rolled like a street parade.

...

“Ariana, how’s the investigation?”

“We secretly sent a vampire squad.”

“They got slaughtered?”

“They received a warm welcome from dragons. They call themselves the Sidonia Development Company.”

“Aurora? What tricks is she pulling at a time like this…”

In the halls of Labyrinth City, a lady in silver and her maid spoke in hushed tones, like frost whispering over glass.

...

City-states, nations, guilds and orders—maybe not all knew the Golden Apple was near, but every eye witnessed Arcadia’s grand return.

Beyond the main island where the city sat, Sidonia’s surveyors dug out several shattered satellite isles from the permafrost—factory outposts or plantations, perhaps—and they, too, rose into the sky with the flagship.

On the majestic voyage back to Europe, they named the new territory for easier project filing: the Cloud-Crown Archipelago.

Delegations came in waves, flying to Arcadia, then—under a vast Dancing Light—mooring at the real Krasus Platform for a simple screening.

The reception team stood like a ridge line: ten dragons for presence, Balafaruth for presence, and Dorothy with her court maid automaton, Lymriel.

Dorothy gently but firmly declined the Church’s survey team, watched them leave with sour faces, then glanced sidelong at the little maid behind her.

Its silicone face wore the same fixed smile, posture perfectly meek. But in the ceaseless high-altitude wind, Dorothy caught a suspicious hitch in the breath. She looked down—yes, the maid’s abdomen trembled, faint as a touched drum.

…merde. I’m busy handling diplomacy for a resurrected city, and you’re over here playing disguised restraint and sealed confinement?

A pulse of fury broke her balance, hot as iron pulled from the forge. Yet just as she was about to explode, another delegation arrived.

She swallowed the fire, donned a flawless public smile, and asked, “Which country or faction do you represent?… No, I’m not here on behalf of the Kingdom of France. I’m only offering minor help with the restoration of a cultural relic.”

...

Inside the walls, the work was thunder paced: clearing rubble, assessing safety. For security, delegations could only enter zones already cleaned.

Jiang Bailu turned Coffee Moon into a humanoid crusher. Outsider corpses and broken walls alike became dust under the ghost’s fists, coiled with torsion like tightened springs. Nothing stood.

But willpower isn’t infinite. The Flash Energy she drew before the shift had burned out. She told the foreman dragon, then went to rest in a container dorm at the camp.

Lu Yao took her place, piloting Peace Walker.

She’d mounted cybernetic limbs after the battle. They fit so well it felt wrong they hadn’t done it earlier. Even Ling Yi had no comfort to offer.

Now she reshaped her hands into hardline ports and plugged into the mech’s console. Precision rose like a tide. Man and machine truly became one.

Overnight, Harrison went from no-name explorer to the 18th Speaker of Arcadia, and lord of the fourth City of Sin on European soil (?). He hadn’t settled into the role yet, so he bit the bullet and negotiated renovation with Aurora. In days, his already endangered hairline retreated like a beaten army.

He, Yekase, and others thought long on Arcadia’s future.

First, the body of the ancient city must be preserved—nonnegotiable. Within that, prioritize the central palace—now the council hall—as the lord’s office and future receiving center.

Yekase and Jiang Bailu repaired several not-too-broken stone golems, spinning up a more-than-enough city defense.

The second-largest complex was clearly a classical academy. The vibe felt right; they’d keep it for teaching. Yekase, true to form, picked a fight with stale tradition. To break knowledge monopolies, she rewrote two budget mentors’ scrolls into textbooks, printed thousands, and pitched a floating academy city that teaches Alchemy alongside Infinite Power, theory yoked to production practice.

The pitch was too grand and too sudden. Aside from the two youngsters, Dorothy and Ling Yi, almost no one believed it could happen. Still, Yekase had already poured out a hundred-thousand-word plan with wild zeal. They filed it under development anyway.

Alicia Alicia, Sandryon, and Xiaoyuan each came to tour the island. The two chic magi glanced around and left; Xiaoyuan slipped into the engineering crew and started working. The foreman only realized they’d recruited a legend at the night inspection.

With century-rare undercurrents surging, every side still held balance and restraint. No one would forsake the Golden Apple for a long-term venture that paid nothing now.

Arcadia used this perfect timing to complete repairs and opened as an ancient city relic—daily, in timed, limited slots, to all.

...

...

With the main tasks done, Yekase sent the dual-academy proposal to the Mysidia Sorcery Institute and the Ivalice Public University.

Burns, the public university’s president, was close with Yekase. The co-op framework clicked into place with barely a bump.

Mysidia was the problem—magic tends to run conservative, whether Alchemy or modern Sorcery, and Endymion, master of the Sorcery Institute, was a stubborn old coot. He almost used the highest alert level to eject Yekase.

So Yekase, Jiang Bailu, and Burns—the three engineers—conspired. Using Arcadia’s anti-magic materials, they built a single-soldier anti-magic armor in a week.

Its magic resistance was aimed inward.

And the wearer had zero control.

They named the mobile cage the Automated Sightseeing Car, packed it in a teleport crate, and paid Mysidia a second visit that very night.

They stuffed Endymion inside and brought him back bound.

“I warn you—this is an act of war! You terrorists, you shameless—”

His old voice hit a layer of anti-magic stone and a pad Burns kindly added. You had to lean in to catch the words.

“Old man, you know who I am?” Yekase asked, smiling like a closed fan.

“You’re the Slackfish Cult’s Scarlet Witch—”

“Wrong. The Scarlet Saint. Also, I’m an Infinite Power engineer and a Flash Energy Ascender… Do you know what that means?”

“…?”

Yekase opened a hidden panel on the back of the armor, pressed her palm to his spine. The sudden cold made him jolt like a fish touched by frost.

“It means I know how to use Infinite Power, and I have Infinite Power to use. Our ideal is to raise more people like me, to drive humanity’s productivity to a third great leap. Do you understand?”

“By doing this… where do we place a mage’s dignity and reserve?! We’ve pursued truth and mystery for generations—spent our lives! Those commoners who get smug after learning a Levitation Spell will only sully the purity of Sorcery!”

“That’s why we brought you.”

Flash Energy poured through Yekase’s hand, undeniable, flooding into Endymion. Gentler than how she treated Liu Sheng by far. Heat kindled inside him, not painful—almost pleasant, like soaking in a hot spring.

“I act first, talk later. Let me show you the future we’ve drawn… but before that, you need to obey.”

—What?! Obey?!

Was she going to use some brainwashing taboo art?

Endymion fought, but the armor held him tight. From outside, only a faint tremor showed like a moth beating against glass.

Under the seep of Flash Energy, he felt himself melting. Primal fear smashed the pride he’d built over a lifetime. He couldn’t stop the humiliating screams.

“Uh… uhhh—ah…”

…?

Why did it sound a little… shrill?

Just then, the armor that hugged him so tight a finger couldn’t slip in began to loosen. Joints quivered toward disassembly.

Heaven helps the bold!

A surge of joy. He drew a deep breath—and heaved.

The stone armor cage fell away, clattering across the floor like hail.

“Ha-ha-ha! I win! By my mage—”

…Huh?

“…rip… it… apart.”

No, no, no.

He couldn’t sense any sorcery vectors—yet he was a natural caster blessed by the Mana Nexus!

And what was this voice—and this height?

Burns had stepped out to avoid the moment. Yekase and Jiang Bailu stood to either side, smiling down at Endymion.

Before, he could look down on them. Now, unless he tilted his head, he saw only their chins. How did it come to this?!

“Here’s the story: Endymion, drawn by Arcadia’s ruins, decides to stay and study newly found magic. He sends his familiar—Artemis—back to Mysidia to lead cooperation with Arcadia. How’s that plot?”

“As expected of the Doctor. I’d never come up with something this wicked…” Jiang Bailu admitted, glancing down.

She pulled a full-length mirror from the teleport crate and set it before Endymion.

In his view stood a child as pure as a winter moon: a cascade of golden shoulder-length hair, doll-perfect features, an ill-fitting mage robe. A slender, innocent girl like the moon goddess descended.

...

“Eh?”