Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1110: Chapter 1109: The Road Ahead

The scene from the last meeting with Lady Enya began to replay in Gawain’s mind, and it refused to fade away — these persistent images quickly formed a contrast with the reality before him, making the atmosphere in the Hatching Room increasingly peculiar, to the extent that even Lady Enya fell into silence.

Finally, it was Gawain who first broke the awkward silence: ”So, you also don’t know why you’ve transformed into this form? What was your initial plan?”

”Time was short, I only managed to perform a rough cutting... the subsequent development was completely unplanned,” Lady Enya said frankly, as if after shedding the burden of ’the Goddess’, even her personality subtly changed, the most obvious change being that she now spoke much more straightforwardly, ”In fact, I’m not even certain that my human nature could definitely be preserved, nor if the preserved human nature is truly still ’Enya’ as an individual. I once thought I would transform into some sort of spiritual body... like the soul of a mortal being, or... an ordinary dragonkin. This current appearance truly surprises me.”

Gawain looked at this giant golden egg with a peculiar expression and couldn’t help but say: ”Hearing ’unplanned’ from a god as ancient and patient as you, to be honest, I’m quite surprised too.”

A touch of amusement seemed to be in Enya’s tone: ”I’m no longer a god—and I recall saying from the start that gods are neither omniscient nor omnipotent.”

Gawain nodded slightly, then thoughtfully shared some of his conjectures: ”Could this hold symbolic meaning? A dragon egg... this can be seen as the initial state of Dragonkin life, while in many mortal races on the Loren Continent, the belief is that an unborn or newly born infant who hasn’t yet taken its first breath is a mortal’s ’pure stage’. I think the dragon egg might correspond similarly: it symbolizes the beginning and purest form of human nature, just like your current state.”

”... The most sublime form of humanity is instead hidden on the reverse side of the divine, this is truly an interesting and bold theory, worthy of you,” Enya’s voice sounded quite cheerful, seemingly intrigued by Gawain’s statement, ”It looks like your ’research’ will be even more enriched.”

Gawain accepted Enya’s praise but soon felt a bit awkward: although the conversation was amicable, discussing why an egg became an egg seemed increasingly odd...

”What are you thinking?” Enya’s voice broke the silence, also bringing Gawain out of his thoughts as he quickly cleared his throat, then curiously looked at the shell of the egg: ”Do you have any plans for the future?”

”I’d like to hear your thoughts,” Enya said somewhat lazily, ”I’ve thought and planned too much for too many years, and now I don’t want to continue planning anything, whereas you are a ’human’ with endless novel ideas, I’d like to hear your opinions.”

”My opinion?” Gawain wasn’t surprised by this response, but giving an answer was indeed difficult—the main difficulty being that he never expected this egg to be the Dragonkin goddess who theoretically should’ve fallen during the Talronde war, which led him to rethink all plans for the egg, ”I don’t think I can plan a future for you, I just feel... since you’ve completely reborn, and Talronde, as you said, has ended its Age of Mythology, everything should restart... Dragonkin will begin their new era in the newly formed alliance, and you should try out a brand new life... divine life... I mean egg life...”

Feeling the topic getting more bizarre, Gawain had to awkwardly stop, then looked up and down at the patterns on Enya’s egg shell: ”I should confirm first—you won’t remain in this form forever, right? Since it’s an egg, there ought to be a time of hatching, life before and after breaking the shell must be different.”

”... I’ve been seriously considering this too these days,” Enya’s tone became a bit more solemn, ”Upon realizing I’ve turned into an egg, I’ve been attempting to grasp my state, but it’s not smooth, my power is much, much weaker than when I was a goddess... but I think I surely won’t remain in this form forever. I can feel my human nature is still gradually condensing and changing, as this process continues, I should gradually leave the current state and have the opportunity to guide myself to reshape into another form... it’s just hard to guarantee exactly how long the process will take.”

”Being able to hatch is good.” Gawain nodded with a smile, genuinely feeling happy for Enya—regardless of how long she said this process takes, regaining a normal form is always better than maintaining the look of an egg because not everyone is like Saint Nicholas Egg whose species trait is born round...

While he smiled, Enya’s tone suddenly turned somewhat curious: ”However, I do have something to say: can you remove the magic symbols in this room? They don’t serve any purpose for my... ’hatching’.”

Upon hearing this, Gawain’s expression turned a bit awkward, he looked up at the room filled with magic symbols, simultaneously hearing Enya’s voice continuing: ”The Dragonkin taught you this method, right? It’s hard on you all for thoughtfully preparing this room.”

”They indeed taught it, mainly because your situation was unclear, I thought you needed to be placed in an energy field,” Gawain coughed twice, ”Ahem, I’ll arrange for the room to be restored to a normal guest room soon. Anything else?”

”Let me think,” Enya thought slowly, ”Hmm, I don’t need beds or other typical furniture right now, but you could send a table and some shelves for arranging tidy newspapers and books, and some chairs for visitors to sit on. I’m also somewhat interested in your ’Magic Web Terminal’... if possible, could you install one in this room? Although I can’t move, I should be able to directly control it with magic power.”

Standing silently for a long time, Aunt Heidi finally adapted to this bizarre scene and nodded upon hearing this: ”Tables, chairs, and shelves are easy to arrange, they can be delivered today, but the Magic Web Terminal...”

With that, she couldn’t help but glance at Gawain, seeking the opinion of the elder ancestor.

The Magic Web Terminal is a special device, connecting with the Magic Web network, which carries the neural network... although Lady Enya is no longer the Dragonkin ’Goddess,’ her background is sensitive, whether such a once divine entity can access the Magic Web Terminal, or even have the chance to interact through the network with a vast mortal population... Aunt Heidi herself dares not make this decision.

Gawain’s eyes narrowed slightly; at this moment, he thought of the report received on the return trip from the Imperial Computing Center and the project proposal jointly filed by Megal III, Yuri, and Wendy. After careful consideration, his gaze fell on Enya’s egg shell, which remained quietly in the base, looking very patient... Well, he truly couldn’t judge if an egg has patience.

In any case, it seems the time to enter the next stage has arrived, and it’s time to attempt letting ’gods’ actively contact the neural network, allowing the Anti-Divine Barrier to operate officially. Given Enya’s initiative, Gawain is happy to accept—in a field involving gods, there’s never enough observational samples, not to mention a sample completely ’humanized,’ from another race god, how much valuable experience could she bring to the theocracy Authority Council?

”I can arrange it,” Gawain concluded his thoughts and told the giant golden egg, ”But you’ll need to wait two or three days—your equipment requires customization, and we also need to consider some ’security issues’.”

”That’s understandable,” Enya lightly laughed, ”I remember you as a very cautious person... with particularly prudent measures.”

This former Dragon God hinted, reminding Gawain of the time he had to employ the ’orbital descent countdown’ to intimidate, except these events are past now, mentioning them only brings a knowing smile to the parties involved.

”Aunt Heidi, please make the arrangements,” Gawain turned to his countless great-granddaughter beside him, ”and also send someone to the Cecil Mechanical Manufacturing Facility. We need a set of ’custom terminals’.”

”Yes, ancestor.” Aunt Heidi bowed and then withdrew, leaving the room.

With Aunt Heidi gone, Betty remained beside Enya and Gawain. The somewhat dazed maid listened in on the conversation between her master and the guest, feeling as if she’d overheard something significant. Yet, upon reflection, she realized she hadn’t understood a thing, making her head feel muddled. It wasn’t until Lady Enya’s voice suddenly broke the silence that she snapped back to attention: ”Betty, could you help prepare some refreshments? I need to talk with your master a bit longer.”

”Ah, okay!”

Betty scurried out of the room, while Gawain watched the scene before him with some surprise. After a while, he couldn’t help but say to Enya, ”It seems you get along quite well... that’s really unexpected.”

”Why is that unexpected?”

”I find it hard to imagine how that girl usually talks with you. She sometimes seems rather daft and isn’t skilled at dealing with strangers, whereas you... to be honest, your styles are worlds apart.”

”Betty is a very good conversational partner, perhaps even the only suitable one here besides you,” Enya’s voice came from within the golden eggshell, ”Not everyone can remain calm and chat after seeing an egg start to speak, but Betty managed it—she has a calm and composed demeanor that most people lack.”

”Calm and composed... So that’s how you see her,” Gawain’s expression turned a bit peculiar for a moment, but he soon chuckled with understanding, ”Well, that’s a good thing. Sometimes not overreacting is a form of calmness too. I’m just curious, after so many days of talking with her, why haven’t the other attendants and guardians working around here noticed anything? It’s not just because Betty knows how to keep quiet, and Aunt Heidi happens to be too busy to pay attention, right?”

Enya was silent for a moment before responding somewhat apologetically: ”Sorry, I admit I did use a small trick... I didn’t want to be disturbed, just wanted to rest for a few days, so I slightly influenced people’s judgment around me, only to divert their attention away from the Hatching Room. But in the end, it still didn’t work perfectly—someone noticed the anomaly and managed to lead you here, didn’t they?”

Gawain sighed: ”Alright, I can understand wanting a good rest after such upheaval, but in the future...”

”Don’t worry, it won’t happen again in the future,” Enya responded straightforwardly before Gawain could finish, ”Since I’m temporarily staying here, I will adhere to basic etiquette.”

The God of Yore had seemingly taken it for granted that she was a long-term guest here, which was a bit surprising, but Gawain didn’t comment on it: after all, it was something he was quite happy to see, even if the process was a bit odd, the outcome was not bad.

And after this little interlude, before Betty returned with the refreshments, Gawain quickly broached a very important subject.

”There’s a matter I have to discuss with you,” he said, looking at Enya’s eggshell, his expression gradually becoming serious, ”Although the Age of Mythology in Talronde has ended and you are no longer their deity, there’s one thing you surely haven’t forgotten—the towering structure located to the northwest of the Talronde Continent, what do you plan to do with it?”

”Is there a problem with that tower?”

The smooth eggshell showed no expression, and Gawain found it hard to discern Enya’s emotions just from her tone. He could only speak while carefully choosing his words: ”Not currently, but the threat it poses is clear. Now that Talronde is almost entirely destroyed, the surviving Dragonkin can merely maintain order in the southeast corner of the continent and are unable to keep the tower sealed. Currently, there’s only a weakly fortified observation post there, with difficult communication with the rear. Our major concern is what could happen if unregulated dragons approach the tower and get corrupted... The corrupted could break through the observation post’s defenses and spread the Inversion Tide’s power to the Loren Continent.”

Enya fell silent once more.

After an unknown span of time, a peaceful yet slightly apologetic voice emerged from within the golden egg: ”Sorry, I’m afraid I can’t be of much help.”

Gawain said nothing.

”I know this is very irresponsible, but as things stand, that tower has indeed gone out of control... out of my control, and out of Talronde’s control,” Enya’s voice continued, imbued with a sigh, ”And as you know, even at Talronde’s peak, we couldn’t handle that tower—the dragons couldn’t resist the divine in the Inversion Tide, and the Dragon God couldn’t counter the Voyagers’ legacy, so even back then, all we could do was blockade the seas around the tower, preventing other sentient beings from getting close. If that was the case at the height of our power, then now...”

Gawain gazed at the golden egg and finally sighed: ”Well, it was almost the expected answer. No need to apologize, as I didn’t have high hopes to begin with.”

The room fell into silence once again. After a moment, Enya suddenly spoke: ”Perhaps, in the end, the only one capable of resolving everything will be you.”

”Me?” Gawain raised an eyebrow, ”You’re suggesting I deal with that tower?”

”Do you remember what you once used to intimidate me?” Enya said calmly, ”The legacy of the Voyagers... In the end, it must be destroyed with equal power, so for the sake of the surviving Dragonkin, implement the decommission agreement on that tower.”

(Running this far to attend a meeting has really sapped my energy, I may need to take a day off tomorrow, sorry, sorry =.=)