Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1054: Chapter 1053: The Stars of Talronde

At the northern edge of the Loren Continent, the brand-new port city ”Northport” has already taken shape. Though it will take time for it to become a truly bustling transportation hub, this important city, which has concentrated the Empire’s most advanced technology and received substantial resources and manpower support, is already showing glimpses of its future grandeur.

Along the long coastline, a straight, wide port avenue runs east to west, with a steel-reinforced concrete pier enchanted with Eternal Magic extending north from the dock area, protruding straight into the sea. Large-scale breakwater facilities are built relying on the shallow coastal areas, forming a wide zigzag-shaped dike outside the port. Additionally, numerous tall towers, inlaid with magic symbols at the top, rise from the seawater on both sides of the dike. Within the glow of these symbols, the sea surface within the port has been further calmed.

All this is derived from the technology of the sea demons or Naga—if it were left to humans to study from scratch, who knows how long the Mage Technicians and craftsmen responsible for building Northport would need to explore.

On the other side of the port are the urban buildings of Northport. Besides the wide and straight roads which are more extensive than those in typical cities, the most prominent feature of this ”Border Town” at the northernmost point of the human kingdoms is the towers scattered throughout the urban area. These towers stand amongst the buildings, with surfaces covered in plates that flicker with a faint light of magic symbols, and are extensively connected to metal pipes extending from inside the towers. The upper end of these pipes connects to large ancient magical devices, while the lower end extends to the surrounding urban area and the heat source plants at the base of the towers. These ubiquitous towers and pipes form the ingenious and vast thermal grid of Northport City, which also represents the most advanced and complex heating system of the Cecil Empire to date.

It is due to the existence of these thermal grids that humans can establish themselves firmly in this cold land.

The ”Ice Duchess” Victoria Wilder stood at the end of a wide pier, watching the direction of the surging waves with the sea breeze blowing, accompanied by several Naga and sea demons. Among them, a beautiful sea demon with long black hair and a tear mole at the corner of her eye used her long snake tail to support her body, glancing back at the city with some emotion, saying, ”Development is so rapid... Indeed, prosperous commerce is the source of vitality for a city...”

”Lady Cassandra, isn’t the commerce of your sea demon Kingdom prosperous?” Victoria turned her head and looked at the black-haired sea demon with curiosity, ”I hardly ever hear you talk about the situation on that ’Aeo’ continent.”

”The sea demons Kingdom... the situation in the sea demons Kingdom is different from that on the continent,” the black-haired sea demon called Cassandra thought for a moment and said with a smile, ”We certainly have commercial activities, but our social pace is much slower, and commerce is not as active as on land—as you know, we arrived on this planet aboard a large spaceship, and over the long years, most of our social activities have revolved around that ship and a few satellite cities around the crash site. Of course, this situation has recently changed somewhat, and since the Naga became part of the sea demons Kingdom, our society has gained new vitality, but overall, we remain a slow-paced community.

”Additionally, I need to correct you on one point, Lady Victoria—although our territories include the ’Aeo’ continent, in reality, over ninety percent of sea demons live on the seafloor surrounding the continent. Our interest in the land is merely because there are some minerals on it, but compared to the bountiful and generous ocean, it is still not very attractive. So if you are interested in the sea demons, you shouldn’t inquire about the continent; you should inquire about our deep sea.”

”The bountiful and generous ocean...” Victoria murmured as if lost in thought, ”Our King once described the sea like that too...”

A sea breeze blew by, carrying the cries of seagulls from afar. The deep-sea witch Viola, with medium-length blue hair, looked up at the sky, interrupting the conversation between Victoria and Cassandra: ”It’s about time, Cassandra.”

The black-haired sea demon snapped back to attention, glanced at the undulating waves outside the breakwater, and the long snake tail behind her slowly coiled and uncoiled: ”The Eternal Storm... I’m really quite curious about what’s underneath.”

On the side, several Naga preparing to accompany them began to check their required weapons and equipment, while Victoria nodded to Cassandra: ”In any case, thank you for your willingness to help—frankly, it would indeed be very difficult for us to explore the situation of the Eternal Storm without your intervention.”

”We are friends; it’s just a small favor,” the black-haired sea demon waved her hand with a smile, ”and honestly, we are also very interested in that sea area ourselves, only that place has always been shrouded in a powerful energy field for many years, even we couldn’t swim through it. Now that the storm has finally dissipated, it’s a good opportunity to satisfy our curiosity.”

With these words, the sea demon lady waved her long tail and moved serpentinely toward the edge of the breakwater, followed closely by several Naga. Victoria stood at the back, watching this special reconnaissance team prepared to explore the northern sea area until she saw them leap off the edge of the breakwater and disappear into the vast and undulating sea waves.

”May they be safe,” Viola, left on the dike, withdrew her gaze from the sea and, after a slight flick of her long tail behind her, curiously asked, ”By the way, we’re all starting to formally investigate the Eternal Storm, yet General Byron and the ’Winter’ haven’t returned?”

”The Winter is still on a patrol mission in the eastern sea and is expected to continue at least until the latter part of Revival Month,” Victoria shook her head, ”For a ship designed for long-distance, extended overseas combat missions, such a long-term task is a very necessary test method, and we can also take this opportunity to verify the effectiveness of the navy’s training and gather much long-distance voyage experience.”

Listening to Victoria’s explanation, the deep-sea witch Viola showed a thoughtful expression, while the once powerful storm priest, Naga Rudolf, couldn’t help but mutter, ”Is it just performing training and testing tasks?”

Victoria’s face showed no expression: ”...At least that ship and our sailors do need to carry out training and testing tasks.”

...

At the edge of the Talronde Continent during the polar day, there is only the cycle of dusk and day. The giant sun peaks and dips on the horizon, making it difficult to discern the exact time of the day. Melita stood on a high platform at the edge of the encampment, gazing at the magnificent solar coronet on the horizon, taking quite some time to vaguely determine that it should be ”midnight” now.

Since awakening, she has rarely had time to rest. Yet even so, she wasn’t particularly tired—the challenging situation and the countless compatriots who needed help were her greatest motivation at the moment, and compared to Calador, who had hardly rested, she thought she had already taken a long enough break.

Footsteps came from behind. Melita turned her head to see Noreta, in human form, stepping onto the platform.

”As I expected, you’re here,” White Dragon Noreta said with a knowing expression, ”You can see almost the entire camp from here—I like to come here too.”

Noticing Melita was not speaking for a moment, her face filled with heavy thoughts, Noreta gently sighed: ”You’re still thinking about the matters discussed at the meeting, aren’t you? What exactly are you thinking about?”

”Thinking about constructing more shelters and developing fisheries along the coast,” Melita replied, ”And for some reason, in this process, I can’t help but think of humans... those I dealt with on the Loren Continent.”

”The Cecil Clan?” Noreta raised an eyebrow, ”I suppose so, our current situation indeed easily leads you to associate with theirs back then. Rebuilding everything from the same ruins, similar refugee situations... But today’s Talronde has far harsher environments than the Dark Mountain Range, and the survival challenges we face far exceed those of humans.”

”Correspondingly, we are also much more powerful than those humans, aren’t we?” Melita looked at her friend, ”Although we lost implants, Enhancers, the factories, and the entire social system... just with fangs and claws, the Dragonkin are still quite powerful creatures.”

At these words, Noreta suddenly fell silent, only speaking again after a moment, her tone seemingly complicated: ”Yes, with just fangs and claws, the Dragonkin are still quite powerful... so before I found you, Calador and Elder Duke More and I discussed this. Do you know what my worst thought is?”

”Your worst association?” Melita asked with some curiosity, ”What is it?”

”Do you remember those stories?” Noreta looked towards the direction of the camp, her gaze falling on those Dragonkin who were using recycled materials to repair equipment and melting steel with Dragon Breath to weld isolation walls, ”Those cliché hero adventure stories, those novels and poems called the ’Classical Darkness Series’.”

”...Dragons rampaging in the human world, occupying castles and towers, looting treasures, kidnapping princesses and princes, accepting tributes from the king... things like that?” Images surfaced in Melita’s mind. She realized Noreta’s implication, and her expression became strange, ”Aren’t you overthinking it?”

”Now it seems I might have overthought it. The first thing everyone thought of after awakening in this wasteland was to rebuild their home and help their kin, but whenever it gets quiet, I can’t help but let my mind wander,” Noreta smiled self-deprecatingly, shaking her head, ”This wasteland is so vast, and many survivors are still separated by the ruins on this vast land, and they... perhaps do not have the same hope as here. When they are hungry enough, when they realize that the temple and the council that once approved exit permits are no longer there... How long do you think it will take for them to think of the much richer food in the warmer human world? And there is no radiation, cold winds, or wandering elemental creatures.”

Melita had never considered such matters, and after hearing Noreta’s words, she fell into silence, remaining silent for half a minute before suddenly saying, ”...We cannot regress into beasts—we are a civilized and rational group, how can we...”

”Our civilization is no more, and ’dignity’ and ’pride’ will ultimately give way to reality—even for us dragons,” Noreta said word for word, ”Of course, most of us will choose to face this wasteland with pride, but perhaps a few... even a very small part of them might choose a despicable path.”

”... What awaits them won’t be the swords and arrows of adventurers, but more likely the Arcane Missile Anti-Air Cannon of the northern borders of the Cecil Clan and the laser arrays of the Typhon Empire,” Melita shook her head, ”Those cliché stories are just stories, and humans are not as easily bullied as those in the stories. Perhaps they were much weaker than Talronde in the past, but today... it’s uncertain.”

”But it cannot be denied that the dragonkin, despairing after losing social constraints, are still a very big hidden danger. Our innate power is too strong, while the starting point of most mortals in this season of civilization is too weak,” Noreta sighed, ”So we must find a way—we cannot let the proud group fall into such a dark and despicable state, and currently the most urgent thing we can do is to bring some hope to other possible survivors in the wilderness.”

”Bring a bit of hope?” Melita instinctively repeated.

”Your idea was indeed brilliant,” Noreta suddenly smiled under the twilight-dim sky, ”Perhaps you didn’t even realize how brilliant it was.”

”My idea?” Melita was stunned for a moment before reacting, ”Oh, you mean lighting the flame? Actually, it just came to me suddenly... After all, I’ve been in the human world for so long.”

Noreta continued smiling and glanced back at the highest abandoned sentinel tower in the southwest corner of the camp, ”Lord Balogar is about to light the fire—it’s said he repaired a booster device excavated from the ruins, and the flames it spews can cross the entire plain...”

Melita also instinctively looked over, and under the dim sky, in a completely unfiltered and raw view without any visual enhancement systems, she saw that tall tower. There were indistinct shadows swaying on the platform at the top of the tower, and occasionally, a bit of flame flickered.

She blinked, trying to get a clearer view, and at that moment, a burst of blazing firelight suddenly tore through the dark twilight accompanied by a booming sound from the booster!

A tremendous pillar of fire surged up, piercing through the murky, dark sky over the Ruins of Argondale, just as bright and visible across the entire plain as Noreta had said.

Many dragons in the camp were startled by this firelight and looked up towards the direction of the sentinel tower, even those dragonkin who were tormented to the point of incoherence by the backlash of the Enhancer, were momentarily drawn to it.

The rising firelight was reflected in Melita’s violet eyes, and she was somewhat surprised, taking a few seconds before averting her gaze.

She looked outside the camp, her sight sweeping over the dim plain covered by murky clouds.

The undulating charred land, the menacingly torn city ruins, the molten and twisted steel wreckage, everything was shrouded in silent darkness.

In the Ruins of Argondale camp, what rose was the only firelight in the world.

Melita stood on a high platform, gazing into the distance for a long time without finding anything, and she finally sighed regretfully. Beside her, Noreta softly said, ”Perhaps they haven’t seen it yet, or perhaps they sent out a signal but we couldn’t see it...”

A faint fireball suddenly appeared within the sight of Melita and Noreta, rising from the horizon, only to disappear in the sky shortly, but a few seconds later, another ball of fire of the same kind rose in the same place.

Noreta’s remaining words went unsaid, and she and Melita both stared wide-eyed, and a few seconds later, a new light appeared in their sight—a lightning bolt, clearly a magic-created lightning.

Soon after, the third and fourth signals followed.

Whether it was a faint dragon’s breath, a bright bolt of lightning, or just a dust plume suddenly rising from the ruins, they seemed to respond to Argondale’s flame, rising from various places on the desolate, scorched plain, large and small, near and far.

The nearest signal was even near the camp.

Melita’s eyes were wide open—

Under the dim and gloomy sky, these faint lights shone like stars.