Days later, Vicente and his companions arrived at the ancient City of Angels, the ruins of the former headquarters of the Congregation of Revelations.

Arriving at the place that once housed tens of thousands of members of the continent's former greatest force, Vicente and the others couldn't help but sigh, disappointment and regret visible in their eyes.

As much as they now knew of the many crimes committed by the Congregation of Revelations, they knew that, for better or worse, this was still a human force that, for at least part of history, had been on the opposite side of monsters and vampires.

Ambitious and ruthless leaders had led the Congregation of Revelations. It was a force that had brought about its own downfall and deserved it. Still, it was no small matter that an ancient power that was once so well positioned in the Polaris Empire had fallen into its current state.

Looking at the destroyed buildings, it was impossible to tell what the city had looked like before the catastrophe. Now, many monsters now lived there and the group could only lament.

'This is the future of the continent, if we can't deal with the vampires.' He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the subtle scent of blood and decay as a light breeze blew against his body.

'So many lives had been lost here.' Vicente could almost feel it in the air, affecting his mood and that of his companions.

"The City of Angels was once the center of the continent. Even though it was reserved for members of the Congregation of Revelations, it was still possible to visit or do business here," said Tenglin, an aficionado of northern history. "People from all over the continent had the ambition to enter the city at least once, to do business, to leave products. Cultivation geniuses often gathered here to hold official and unofficial tournaments.

This place once shone as the greatest jewel on the continent. It was like this after the beginning of the Magicians Era, and even before. Even when there were only a few thousand magicians on the entire continent, the City of Angels was already famous and sought after. Back then, the Congregation of Revelations was just a small sect founded by a young Light Path magician."

"Sigh! Who would have thought that the creation of the Light Magician would bring so much darkness to the continent?" Acidbelly sighed, not knowing much about the continent's history, but knowing the basics that a being of his stature should.

The group continued to walk through the rubble of the city, searching for valuable signs, passages, or even people.

However, given the current state of the city, there were no humans around, while the negative beings in the surrounding area were all relatively weak.

The strongest were peak Sovereigns. As soon as they sensed those Archmages next to Vicente, they left their resting places and moved away to protect their lives.

Vicente said nothing to his group about this place. Despite his lament, the glorious past behind the destroyed city no longer mattered.

The tens of thousands of years of the City of Angels, its many glories and positive deeds, no longer mattered. It would forever be a cursed land, home to those indirectly responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of living beings!

The Congregation of Revelation could have saved humanity thousands of times in its long history. But the only thing that would count was their big mistake of making deals with the vampires and weakening the continental forces. That was how they would be remembered!

After a few minutes of walking through the rubble, Vicente felt some magical fluctuations that caught his attention.

When he stooped and touched the ground with one of his hands, the surrounding ruins shook as his pentagrams emerged from his body.

The ground he touched crumbled, with metal objects clumping together to form structures that led underground, clearing the way between the surface and a secret entrance to the underground area.

Descending the ladder and the metal tunnel built by Vicente, the group soon found themselves in front of a large, unlocked hatch.

Whoever had used it had left in a hurry, not bothering to activate the locking inscriptions, leaving valuable treasures behind.

Vicente followed ahead of his group, making bright spots appear in his path to illuminate the darkly underground structure, a gigantic bunker, very well preserved.

"It looks like this place was used recently by members of the Congregation of Revelations," Lonan said, noting how the areas they had already passed looked disorganized, with strange smells and signs of recent use.

Vicente nodded in agreement. "They probably used this place before they fled south. I heard from some allies who live in the areas the Congregation of Revelation chose as their new headquarters that a large group arrived from the north a year and a half after the disaster began. This group must have been hiding here during Demien Bloodthorne's attack."

"In that case, why did they leave so many things behind?" Acidbelly, in his reduced body version for exploring this area, looked around, sensing the plants, scrolls, magic stones, and various valuable artifacts in this bunker.

"Probably because of the rush to leave, the low value of these items for the group... Anyway, it's hard to judge the minds of desperate people." Vicente soon reached an area that appeared to be a library, where dozens of scrolls and books filled every shelf in the area.

He kept all the books in the area in his spatial ring, not underestimating the value of history. Although it wouldn't make much difference to him, his family could use this knowledge in some way.

Then he picked up the scrolls from around the area, many of which were special techniques and spells from various elements that he was familiar with.

There were so many things that there was more in this one place alone than Vicente had collected on his entire journey, including his experiences since his magical awakening!

But he knew this was only a fraction of the ancient archives of this place. Copies of spells kept for safekeeping in case the originals, which were kept in the central library of the City of Angels, were somehow lost.

"We're going into seclusion," he announced to the group. Vicente felt he had enough material to spend at least a few weeks studying in depth in search of the qualitative advance he needed to reach the 6th stage.

Vicente didn't know if this would be enough to advance, but he wanted to try. At the very least, he would be closer to his breakthrough if he understood most of the spells and techniques at his disposal.