Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1181: Chapter 1180: Words of Experience

In the depths of the Narrator Neural Network, in a corner of the ”New Dreamland City” modeled after the imperial capital of the Cecil Clan, a towering oak tree rises from the center of the plaza, with a majestic canopy under which breezes flow and faint, melodious wind chimes sound, and beneath the giant tree, pale gold leaves cover the ground. Sunlight filters through the sparse gaps at the edges of the branches, leaving dappled marks of light and shadow, like an afternoon scattered with light and shadow.

The plaza is vast and quiet, with sparse pedestrians. The residents of this city seem not to have noticed this serene corner, while directly under the oak tree, a small square table is set amidst the fallen leaves. Two of the few ”regulars” of this plaza sit beside it: an old ”elf” gentleman with grizzled hair and a kind old face, and a ”human” lady in a dignified black court dress, beautiful and mysteriously elegant.

Before these two gods, a chess game is locked in an intricate contest, the pieces predetermined by destiny clash and move in inches, struggling to seize the limited space on the board. The Chessmaster, however, remains indifferent, viewing these battles and conflicts as leisurely pastimes. This atmosphere has persisted for who knows how long, until the God of Nature, in the guise of the elf elder, suddenly lifts his head, looking toward the entrance of the Golden Oak Plaza.

”It seems we have a visitor, Old Deer,” the lady with black hair also perceives the presence that abruptly appears. She smiles slightly, looking at the rapidly materializing figure at the edge of the plaza, ”Gawain—why the sudden thought to visit us in Dreamland City.”

Gawain’s figure converges from a shifting play of light and shadow, and after swiftly acclimating to the sense reset, he strides towards the two gods engaged in their chess duel. Upon hearing Milmina’s voice, he sighs: ”Well, I was originally planning to go to the defied Court, but just as I was about to head out, I thought I might as well find you online—you’re on the neural network twenty-three hours every day!”

”Indeed,” Amon nods slightly, acknowledging, ”We took Mr. Nicholas’ advice and reduced our activity in the neural network, allowing the Neural Coupler to shut down for at least one hour a day for rest...”

Gawain: ”...”

He always feels there’s a disconnect in communication with these two retired deities in front of him, yet seeing their expression remain composed, he momentarily finds himself tongue-tied—ultimately, he can only chuckle awkwardly and pivot swiftly and stiffly onto the main topic: ”Actually, I came today to discuss something with you...”

”I can see, and guess—that unless faced with a tricky problem, you rarely come to us for a chat,” Milmina smiles faintly, placing a piece while speaking casually, ”I can sense that the Anti-Divine Barrier is in effect, so this puzzle you’ve brought isn’t simple, but before it disrupts today’s leisure time, could you allow us to finish this divine chess game? Don’t worry, it won’t take long.”

In conversation, seated opposite, Amon also places a piece, and in the crisp sound of pieces clashing with the board, under the golden oak, there echoes a transcendent chime, as if the giant tree itself is cheering for the gods’ chess play.

”Divine chess game?” Only then does Gawain notice the chessboard in front of the two gods, and he involuntarily widens his eyes in wonder, until the sound of a piece being played again snaps him back, leading him to cough awkwardly, ”Cough cough, I don’t mind you playing chess online, but I’m not here today to watch you two play checkers with ’take-back moves’...”

Amon seems oblivious to Gawain’s words, casually advancing another piece, while Milmina remarks offhandedly: ”Stay quiet for a moment, this game will be over soon—we’ve been engaged in this battle for several hours...”

Gawain’s eyes go wide, realizing they can play a game of checkers for an entire half day. Honestly, this is not a level reachable by ordinary mortals, yet calling this hours-long match of lousy checkers a ”divine chess game” still leaves Gawain profoundly shaken. He’s unsure if such a title insults the ”gods” or the ”chess game” themselves; pondering this over, he assumes they’ve insulted checkers...

Lost in such wild thoughts, Amon reneges on another move, seemingly extending the duration of the game endlessly, forcing Gawain to interject at last: ”Stop for a moment, friends, I’m here today...”

”Why don’t we switch things up?” Amon seems to disregard Gawain’s words, pressing the board, causing the thought-projected chessboard to vanish in an instant, replaced by a deck of cards with beautiful artwork. He turns to Gawain, smiling, ”Now that we have enough people, how about a game of divine cards? Although you always insist you’re a mortal, in our eyes, you’ve long surpassed the threshold of playing against gods...”

Gawain is about to interrupt again, but suddenly realizes something, showing a contemplative expression: ”...you actually know what I’m here to ask.”

Preparing to deal cards, Amon suddenly pauses, while Milmina shrugs. After a moment of awkwardness, the former Goddess of Magic finally breaks the silence: ”You’ve found the War God’s Divine Realm, haven’t you?”

”...How did you know?” Although Gawain has guessed, he can’t help but be surprised, ”Besides the neural network, you shouldn’t be able to perceive happenings in the real world anymore, and the matter of the War God’s Divine Realm hasn’t been disclosed on any channel in the neural network, including the confidential ones...how do you know about this?”

”We indeed know nothing of the ’real world’ events,” Amon leisurely shuffles the cards in his hands, the cards adorned with elaborate imagery constantly changing, ”But we lie in the Courtyard of Shadows—we can see some deeper changes occurring...though only a little.”

”In the once dead-silent War God’s Divine Realm, suddenly echoes arose, ripples diffused into the deep-sea and stirred waves in the deepest reaches of the shadow realm, the dull gods trapped within their divine realms may yet be oblivious, but...” Milmina gently laughs, ”I happen to be a ’leisured god’ who enjoys wandering the shadows, and during one of those jaunts to the deepest parts, inadvertently caught sight of something. And not long after that, you showed up; all of this...leads to easy association.”

”In the deepest part of the shadow realm?” Gawain keenly picks up on the critical words hinted at in Milmina’s speech, ”You’re saying the experiment indeed linked to the War God’s Divine Realm, and the ’ripples’ generated by this connection can even extend into the shadow realm? Therefore the deepest shadow realm and ’The Deep Sea’ have substantive connections?”

Amon, shuffling cards beside, responds by casually tossing a card on the table, depicting indescribable whirlpools and phantoms, the lines and patterns altered constantly: ”I once said, ’The Deep Sea’ is not a definitive ’place’; it...is the deep-sea, the foundation of all existence. Everything in the world can mirror the deep-sea, and naturally everything in the deep-sea can mirror the world, but amongst all these reflections, the ’distance’ between the deep-sea and shadow realm...is indeed closer than other places.

”The thoughts of mortals cast projections in the deep-sea, outlining shadows of the gods. This process is invisible to the real world, but in the shadow realm...as I’ve mentioned, ’distance’ is a bit closer.”

Listening to Amon’s vague description, Gawain suddenly feels a spark within, fantasizing about leaving the neural network and peering into the depths of the shadow realm from the courtyard of defied—yet such urge was but a fleeting impulse. Though it’s not his first time in the shadow realm, all he saw there were eternally unchanged chaotic darkness, massive, indescribable shapes shifting within the dim background, with occasional, lightning-like fissures appearing and vanishing. This was the only monotonous scene unfolding, where he discovered nothing in that unchanged sky.

Never saw the surge of thoughts, never saw the radiance emanating from the kingdom, never saw the trajectory of the gods, and certainly never saw the ’Deep Sea’ seemingly always hidden in the mist.

Of course, it could also be that he had seen it—yet was unable to comprehend or process it.

”You want to go to the shadow realm right now?” Amon seemed to have seen through Gawain’s thoughts, and a slight smile appeared on his aged face, ”Don’t even think about it, you won’t see it. Even if you follow the Goddess of Magic as she runs further in, you still won’t see it... It is not something that your current mortal body’s visual organs and nervous system can identify and understand. It’s supra-sensory information diffusion, requiring a transcendental mode of perception—simply put, you need to have a perspective and lifeform like ours.”

”...Alright,” Gawain slowly nodded, putting the matter aside in his mind for the moment, and returned to the previous topic, ”Anyway, judging by your attitude... you seem not to support the bold move of the Typhon Empire?”

”So that ’ripple’ turned out to be the work of the Typhon Empire?” Milmina was somewhat surprised, ”That was something I didn’t expect... I thought only you Cecil Clan could do such audacious things.”

Beside them, Amon answered Gawain’s question: ”We are more worried—worried that this overly risky action will bring unforeseen changes. For such a bold plan involving the excavation of kingdom secrets, even the slightest accident means catastrophe... To put it bluntly, we don’t dare to gamble.”

”This is something we truly have no grasp of,” Milmina continued, ”Gods cannot analyze themselves, so we have no idea what would really happen if you step into the War God’s Divine Realm. For other matters, we can try our best to provide opinions and suggestions, but with this particular subject... we can’t think of anything helpful.”

Gawain’s expression gradually turned serious: he had never seen Milmina and Amon display such emotions. No matter how thorny the problems they usually faced, they would always offer some insights, and they themselves never showed hesitation or weakness—their reactions now only made Gawain realize that the risk of exploring the War God’s Divine Realm... might be greater than he imagined.

After pondering for quite a while, Gawain finally lifted his head: ”According to your speculations, what would be the most severe consequence of this matter?”

”This is truly unpredictable; it’s a knowledge blind spot for us as gods,” Milmina sighed helplessly, but after a few seconds of thought, she still gave her conjecture, ”The worst case might be even worse than the immediate disaster facing the exploration team—the failure of the exploration not only brings death but could even bring back the already fallen War God. After all, the divine realm and the god are two sides of the same coin. Though the War God as a deity is dead, the divine realm of the War God... in a sense, it is still ’alive’.”

Gawain’s eyes widened instantly: ”Could a mortal’s exploration action lead to a divine realm stepping into death to become ’re-vitalized’?”

”It’s just a guess of mine...” Milmina quickly stated, ”Actually, there’s no basis for it...”

Gawain let out a light sigh: ”Alright, in any case, no matter what, I will carefully consider Typhon’s strategy...”

Just as he was saying this, a familiar voice suddenly came from not far away, interrupting his conversation with Amon and Milmina: ”On this matter, my stance is the exact opposite of these two juniors.”

Gawain immediately looked towards the source of the voice, and in the clear daylight, he saw a figure enveloped in a halo of pale gold becoming quickly clearer in the air. He saw the distinctive golden hair that could touch the floor, the pale golden luxurious long gown, and that beautiful yet majestic face.

This was not an unfamiliar figure, yet he was still momentarily stunned before reacting.

After all, he had already gotten used to her perched in the room in the form of an egg reading, reading newspapers, and sipping tea. To suddenly see her real form was actually quite disconcerting...

Enya couldn’t guess what Gawain was thinking at this moment; she simply went directly to the golden oak, sat opposite Gawain, and between Amon and Milmina, before repeating her previous words once more: ”My stance is the exact opposite of these two juniors.”

”Are you referring to... exploring the War God’s Divine Realm?” Gawain didn’t expect Enya to suddenly appear, but after the brief surprise, he focused on her words, ”Do you think the risk is acceptable?”

”We need to be bold this time,” Enya said, looking toward Milmina on her left, ”Goddess of Magic Milmina... you possess both the courage and prudence of spellcasters exploring the unknown, but in this matter, your and Amon’s caution has overwhelmed reason. I know why; because you know how difficult it was for this cycle of civilization to reach this point in ’analyzing gods.’ You don’t want to see this hard-earned spark of hope extinguished, but please trust me, I am even less willing for this cycle of civilization to meet failure.

”Because the time I have waited far exceeds what both of you have combined.

”Milmina, you fear that the mortals’ exploration actions might cause the War God’s divine realm to become re-vitalized, even leading to the fallen War God returning. On this point, I can assure you that the return of a deity is not so simple—especially when the physical form has already fallen, and the divine has dissipated, it is not so easy for a ’god’ to come back.”

”...Are you so sure?” Milmina still seemed a bit hesitant, ”After all, we all know that the life form of a ’god’ is very special...”

”I have the experience,” Enya interrupted Milmina, her tone very affirmative, ”I’ve died.”