Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 229 - 228: Beyond the Edge of Mortal Civilization

The positions of the stars aligned, then misaligned, as they leisurely rotated in the sky, casting their cold light upon this world, oblivious to the vast number of mortals who once, under their guidance, busied themselves to exhaustion only to end up with nothing.

The ancient gods have not returned, nor has the prophesied day of judgment arrived, despite all the preceding events perfectly confirming those prophecies — such as the gigantic surges in the Endless Sea, or the special energy waves released by ’Ao’ under the influence of the stars, or the frequent whispering of the gods — but beyond that, the crucial final step, the awakening of the God of Storm from the deep sea, did not occur.

The God of Storm is the only god remaining in the real world; if He does not awaken, then there is no way to speak of a day of judgment.

All things seem like a joke, yet those ”god-eaters” in the deep sea, the ”culprits” of this awkward situation, know nothing of it.

In the depths of the Endless Sea, perpetually sealed by storms, the ancient sea demon city of ”Antawen” stands silently at the site of its forced landing. It is slightly inclined, embedded in a rocky seabed near the land. Part of the city reaches directly into ”The Great Sea Trench,” while another part gradually rises along the seabed terrain until about a tenth surfaces on the edge of the land that the sea demons call the ”Aeo Continent,” forming a magnificent steel wall along the coastline.

The sea demons are indeed accustomed to living in the deep-sea, but on this planet with vast lands, they have gradually learned how to survive on land as well — they would of course never establish large cities on land like humans do, but to extract resources and monitor the conditions of the ”jump engines,” they have built a series of outposts and bases along the western coastline of the Aeo Continent, the largest of which is ”Coastal Watch Point” situated directly opposite the ”steel wall.” From the watchtower of this base, one can observe two-thirds of the entire ”steel wall,” making it an important monitoring outpost here.

The ”steel wall” is actually the stern protective barrier of Antawen. In the earth-shattering forced landing countless years ago, Antawen plunged directly from the atmosphere, and the technical personnel exhausted their utmost efforts just to slightly adjust the descent posture of the nearly power-drained Zenith Fleet. Finally, the ship grazed the edge of the land at a breathtaking angle, sending about a quarter of this continent’s land into the deep sea while the Zenith Fleet itself, severely damaged, slid into the sea along the continental shelf, resulting in the current situation with one end near the trench and the other end resting on the continental edge.

The bow structure was almost completely destroyed in this process, but the stern was preserved intact — this was the greatest fortune, as the complex and hardest-to-repair jump engine was at least saved.

But the sea demons soon discovered that even with the engine in good condition, they could not make the ship fly again — not to mention flying, even the most basic machinery aboard the ship became unable to operate after that disaster. It took them a long time afterward to understand that this was a ”malfunction” caused by different physical laws.

Since that day, the sea demons have been learning and adapting to the rules of this world. It was as if they were back at the initial moment of kindling the flame of civilization, beginning to adapt to this world by adjusting their own life forms — but they soon found that this ”starting over” had to happen more than once.

This world is constantly reshuffling...

But that’s alright; the development of civilization has never been smooth sailing, and the sea demons are already accustomed to the difficult situations in this development.

Sea Demon Queen Petia arrived at ”Coastal Watch Point.” She stood atop the high watchtower, gazing at the steel wall along the coastline as the energy pipelines on it lit up one by one — the Core Fusion Tower had already begun activating.

Taking advantage of this surge of ”big squid,” the sea demons collected enough engine fuel in advance, allowing the re-ignition of the core engine to proceed smoothly, though the technical personnel did not hold much hope for this ignition since they still had not resolved several key issues in the magic power conversion process. However, Petia did not concern herself with these matters.

Ignition failures have happened more than once, and all sea demons are accustomed to it. Petia knows very well that even if the ignition fails, the technical personnel can still collect valuable technical data from the process — these experiences and natural laws summarized from experience are indeed the most precious treasures.

The sea demons are not a very intelligent species; at times they could even be described as ”slow-witted,” but patience and optimism are their greatest assets.

During the activation of the Core Fusion Tower, a sea demon attendant entered the top layer of the watchtower. Her snakelike tail gracefully slithered to the Queen’s back: ”Your Majesty, General Vanessa just reported that a Tide Master named Tiel is missing.”

”Tiel?” Sea Demon Queen Petia frowned slightly, ”I seem to remember that name...”

”That kid with the strange walking style...” the attendant replied, ”the one who moves like a sea caterpillar.”

”Oh, now I remember, she’s always so languid,” Petia turned her head with a look of surprise on her face, ”Isn’t she at home sleeping?”

”No, she’s missing,” the attendant said seriously, ”She hasn’t appeared since the last encounter with those crazy humans.”

Petia shook her head, ”Perhaps she died and chose the wrong coordinates upon resurrection. Last time’s battle was chaotic, some fallen sisters even resurrected in the Southern Ocean and it took them over a month to swim back...”

The Chamberlain sighed, ”Even if she swam back from the Southern Ocean, she should have arrived by now unless she was ’inch-worming’ her way back on the seabed with that peculiar walking style, which means she could still be on her way.”

”Deploy a search team, start the search centered on the last battlefield, and also send some personnel to investigate the crazy humans’ bases at the sea boundaries. See if our Tide Master was inadvertently captured by them...although it’s unlikely, if it’s Tiel, one can never be sure.”

The Chamberlain bowed deeply, ”Yes, Her Majesty the Queen.”

Petia nodded, and after the Chamberlain retreated, she turned back, her gaze falling on the stretch of winding steel along the distant coastline.

At the same time, within the secret sanctuary of the Eternal Sleepers in the Typhon Empire, nightmare bishops dressed in black or white robes gathered in the central hall, a solemn and grave atmosphere hanging over everyone.

”The Sons of the Storm and the Oblivion Association have each sent messages. Our allies have suffered various losses due to the premature activation of the ’Ultimate Plan,’” a nightmare bishop spoke, his voice sounding low and cold, ”Comparatively, our losses are the smallest.”

Another bishop added nearby, ”Additionally, the observation outpost set by the Sons of the Storm at sea sent intelligence, reporting unexplained phenomena—they observed the tide rising, and divine power beginning to surge in the deep sea, but everything soon inexplicably calmed down.”

”Therefore, we cannot blindly dismiss the ’prophecy,’” a third bishop spoke, ”Various signs match the description of the first half of the prophecy, with only the final results deviating somewhat. Perhaps some unknown power interfered with the realization of the prophecy...”

The first bishop’s voice carried a hint of sarcasm, ”Who can interfere with the revival and return of the gods?”

”The sea area where the Sons of the Storm observed anomalies is located in the Far Eastern Sea,” the second bishop immediately said, ”It’s near the territory of the sea demons.”

”Sea demons... those ghosts in the deep sea...” A black-robed bishop who had not spoken before suddenly broke the silence, ”They were said to have destroyed a development site of the Sons of the Storm last time...”

”To me, the Sons of the Storm are hardly trustworthy,” someone else spoke, ”Perhaps it was their observation of the starry sky that went wrong, leading to the setbacks we faced...”

Before this bishop finished speaking, a deep, gentle yet irresistibly authoritative voice suddenly echoed in the hall, ”Enough.”

The bishops immediately fell silent in reverence, turning to a certain direction and bowing their heads respectfully, ”Your Holiness the Pope.”

A vague shadow appeared out of thin air at the end of the hall. This blurred shadow seemed to scan the people present, and though no eyes could be seen in place of a face, each person felt a piercing gaze sweep across their bodies and minds, increasing their awe.

Then this shadow spoke softly, ”Do not forget our cause — in the face of our cause, this is hardly a setback.

”We each anticipated this — though the prophecy exists, it is not our sole guide. It is merely a factor, and whether or not it comes true will not affect our plan.

”The early activation of the eternal dream-realm was just a precautionary measure to prevent being caught unprepared, and we did not come away empty-handed during this process.”

The Eternal Sleepers Pope deliberately paused before continuing, ”The first run of the eternal dream-realm generated a large amount of empirical data, which will help us ultimately perfect this grand plan. Furthermore, during my observations of the eternal dream-realm, I discovered its potential and applications far exceed our imagination.”

The bishops stirred slightly, looking at each other, clearly filled with curiosity about what the pope said.

But the pope didn’t leave them waiting for long and quickly announced his decision, which surprised everyone: ”Rest for three days, and in three days, the eternal dream-realm will restart.”

Low discussions erupted, and a bishop promptly reminded, ”Your Holiness, the eternal dream-realm still has many imperfections...”

”It can only be better perfected... and evolved in an operational state,” the Eternal Sleepers Pope interrupted, ”Through meticulous observation, I realized this, and I also discovered something else...”

The bishops immediately quieted down, listening to the pope’s voice rising:

”I discovered that the immense computational power provided by the eternal dream-realm is the key to deciphering Gawain Cecil’s memory fragments. During the last operation of the eternal dream-realm, those memory fragments showed signs of loosening, appearing to become decipherable.

”Nightmare bishops, rise anew. We have much to do — gather your subordinate nodes and prepare to decode Gawain Cecil’s memory fragments. We must uncover who he — really is!”