Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1180: Chapter 1179: Expert Recommendations

After hearing Gawain’s words, Amber was stunned for several seconds before reacting sharply. She stared at Gawain, ”You really are related! So doesn’t that make you Rosetta’s elder as well...”

”Even without that relation, I’m still an elder,” Gawain glanced at the half-elf, waving his hand. ”And even considering that relation, a distant relative from seven hundred years ago—would Rosetta really acknowledge that today?”

”Now that you mention it, that makes sense...” Amber still looked a bit dazed, then tapped her fingers as if doing some mental calculations. ”A distant relative from seven hundred years ago... Suddenly, I’m curious, are the aristocratic circles really this small? How is it that tracing back through family trees, everyone seems to be related...”

Gawain simply smiled, not answering Amber’s question. After all, he had mentioned this topic by chance and wasn’t actually interested in it—those were parts of life and emotion that weren’t his, unlike the memories of the chaotic wave and the pioneering adventures, the latter of which still continued in some form even today, seven hundred years later, whereas the former were already part of history.

However, Amber’s curiosity was not easily satisfied. She blinked and, seeing Gawain remain silent, she moved closer, pressing on, ”Hey, you rarely mention your family from seven hundred years ago. You’ve never talked about your children or wife... So how did you end up hooking up with the distant cousin of Typhon’s founding monarch? Did you two meet during the pioneering expedition?”

Once the half-elf’s curiosity was sparked, it was hard to quench. She circled around Gawain, talking non-stop, leaving him with no choice but to sigh helplessly, ”I was fighting on the battlefield in my youth, with little time to focus on personal matters. Plus, back then, the situation was chaotic, everything was delayed, and then one day Charlie remembered and said he wanted to introduce someone to me—I’m not sure how he ended up finding Roland Augustus...”

Amber listened, wide-eyed, to these pieces of history not recorded in the annals—though it couldn’t be said there were no records at all, it was clear that what scholars wrote was not as ’vivid and real’ as what Gawain described. In the end, she couldn’t help but let out a long ”oh” and said with a peculiar expression, ”Though it sounds reasonable, how come it seems so... so unlikely to have happened to someone like you?”

Gawain was amused by the half-elf’s remark and couldn’t help but laugh. ”Happening to ’someone like me’... What do you think should happen to someone like me?”

”Just...” Amber opened her mouth, but after a while, she couldn’t think of anything to follow up. It seemed she had spontaneously conjured up a lot of things more in line with epic tales and legends. However, when she tried to apply those stories from books to the living Gawain before her, she found it meaningless. She didn’t know the Gawain in historical records, and the one she personally dug out of the coffin... often didn’t quite ’fit the facts.’ ”Forget it, I can’t think of anything.”

Gawain chuckled, casually ruffling her hair a couple of times. ”I imagine I must’ve driven quite a few historians mad, especially those focusing on biographies.”

”As long as you know,” Amber sighed, ”From what I know alone, at least a couple dozen scholars in the Old Anzu Scholar Association studying Gawain Cecil’s biography have already switched to researching something else...”

...

This small interlude didn’t make Gawain forget what he needed to do. Within ten minutes, he had returned to his study, and Aunt Heidi had already brought the organized documents to his desk.

Gawain lowered his head, his gaze scanning over the words printed on the paper—words that originated from the distant Aldernon, transmitted in real-time through the international communication lines that had been newly established between two countries. In today’s world, where the alliance had been formed and the nations were normalizing relations, this communication line became busier by the day, with massive volumes of messages constantly passing between the towering signal towers, communication towers, and relay stations. Only the most important ones would be delivered to the desks of Gawain and Rosetta.

Like an unprecedented plan to knock on the gates of the gods.

Gawain took a gentle breath and opened the ”fax,” quickly skimming through the opening to see some key phrases:

Resonance connection between gods and their kingdoms... Speculation on the nature of thought tides... The theory that the remains of gods are theoretically an extension of their kingdoms... Purified arcane energy can form the ’framework’ for supporting passages... The safety issues of exploring War God’s Divine Realm...

Following these phrases were several pages of large, clear images, evidently from a high-security laboratory somewhere in Aldernon. The mages of Typhon had used imaging technology rivaling those of the Magic Web Terminals to capture scenes onsite, converted the data, and uploaded it to the Cecil Clan’s Magic Web Communication Network. In the images, Gawain saw iron-grey armor fragments restrained by anti-gravity fields and energy field screens, magical platforms for testing, and some ruler photos for size comparison.

Heidi stood at Gawain’s desk, watching her ancestor’s expression turn serious. She carefully chose her words before speaking, ”It seems Typhon is not as weak in this area as we thought. A laboratory of this scale and the underlying systems ensuring its operation couldn’t have been set up in just a few months, especially with these technical personnel...”

”The Augustus Clan has long been secretly studying divine mysteries, even during periods of coexistence with the Eye of the God, they found ways to obscure its judgment. That’s perfectly normal—they’re not a family that waits idly for death,” Gawain nodded. ”However, in the past, such research could only progress on a small scale and slowly; even with sporadic results, converting them into practical actions was impossible, much like the Morning Star Family of the Silver Empire in the past.”

Aunt Heidi couldn’t help but feel some admiration in her voice, ”The emergence of the theocracy Authority Council has allowed rulers to reach a consensus, turning the analysis of gods from a heretical act to mortal self-rescue. Coupled with the rapid gathering of fragmented technical data from various parties, the once timid and directionless explorations by the technical staff have gained some confidence. Now, these audacious things can finally be carried out openly...”

”Even so, it’s still the most audacious thing among all those audacious acts... to attempt knocking on the doors of the divine realm,” Gawain shook the document in his hand, then asked, ”Where are Kamel and Veronica now?”

Aunt Heidi nodded, ”They’ve been notified and should be arriving soon.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Gawain heard a familiar gentle female voice from outside the door, ”We have arrived, your majesty.”

The study’s door was pushed open, and two sources of light entered Gawain and Aunt Heidi’s view, one radiating with arcane magic was Kamel, and the other, perpetually surrounded by a faint Holy Light, was Veronica. Their entrance made the room noticeably brighter, causing even Gawain to squint slightly.

Standing slightly behind Gawain, Amber, who had been silent all along, coughed twice and couldn’t help but speak to remind the two luminous figures: ”Can you turn down your brightness a bit...”

”Sorry, I got a bit excited upon receiving Lady Heidi’s message.” Kamel spoke while quickly dimming his body, reducing the arcane brilliance that had been as bright as to be almost blinding to a normal state. Veronica next to him merely glanced at Amber with a slight look; although she didn’t speak, the holy radiance surrounding her already dimmed.

”Let’s put these trivial matters aside for now,” Gawain nodded and said, his gaze sweeping over the two ancient Defiers before him, ”You should already know what’s happening—our neighbors have come up with something big.”

”Yes, we already know—though just a rough outline,” Kamel nodded, ”now we need more detailed information...”

”Are these the documents sent from Aldernon?” Veronica stepped forward, her gaze falling on the papers in Gawain’s hands, ”Can we take a look?”

”Of course,” Gawain said as he picked up two more compiled documents from the side and pushed them toward Kamel and Veronica, ”These are copies prepared especially for you. They’re certainly incomplete—Typhon hasn’t sent over the detailed technical data; these are just drafts that they’re willing to make public for now. But after we give our response, more detailed information will be disclosed.”

Kamel, like finding a treasure, swiftly took the documents, then controlled the papers with arcane energy to flip through them at a speed far exceeding the reading limit of a normal person. After receiving the documents, Veronica skimmed through them directly, as if scanning them into her memory instantly—even though Gawain had just taken his hand back, both of them had already finished reading.

Fortunately, Gawain wasn’t surprised by this: speed-reading and memorization spells are not uncommon among mages. Although it consumes twice the energy of normal reading, the time saved allows the conversation to proceed quickly. He nodded to the two technical experts, with a serious expression, saying: ”I want to hear your thoughts on this bold plan proposed by Typhon... please provide your suggestions on its risks, feasibility, and value.”

Kamel and Veronica exchanged a glance, a natural 300 lumens flicker without frequency, before Veronica, the former leader of the Defiers, spoke: ”From the risk perspective, I must first remind you... do you remember what event initiated the defied Plan during the Gondor era?”

Gawain quickly fell into memory, and soon found the relevant information: ”During the maintenance of the Well of Deep Blue, you accidentally opened a rift leading directly to a certain kingdom of a God. The Master Mages who entered there to investigate the situation accidentally gazed directly into the Divine realm, and upon realizing a massive quantity of ’divine truth’ and the reality behind the ticking countdown to madness of Gods, they fell into madness, which directly led to the subsequent defied Plan.”

”Yes, we opened a rift leading to the Divine realm at the source depths of the Well of Deep Blue—and to this day, we still dare not be sure which Divine realm that rift actually led to,” Veronica nodded, ”The Master Mages at that time didn’t even truly step into the Divine realm; they merely gazed from a distance at the Divine realm from the ’critical edge’ formed by the Well of Deep Blue, and one by one, they went mad.”

Next to them, Aunt Heidi thoughtfully glanced at Veronica: ”So what you’re suggesting is this matter is extremely risky, and we shouldn’t do it, and we should best dissuade Typhon?”

”No, I’m merely illustrating the risk of the ’Divine realm’ itself to remind you of the seriousness of this matter,” Veronica shook her head, changing her tone as she continued, ”Specifically regarding the current situation... Typhon plans to open a ’door’ leading to the War God’s Divine realm, which I don’t think is too problematic.”

Gawain didn’t interject, merely signaling with his eyes for Veronica to continue.

”The reason being, we are now immune to the War God’s divine nature,” Veronica didn’t hold back the reasoning, expressing her thoughts directly, ”Since the battle at Bitter Winter Castle, the War God has fallen, and the influence of the War God’s divine nature has rapidly dissipated worldwide. To date, all information we’ve gathered indicates that the divine arts in the War God’s domain have vanished, and our further testing of the War God’s remains shows that the divine contamination left on those remains no longer affects mortals. This all aligns with the theoretical model we’ve established in the fields of divine nature and ideology: the act of deicide by mortal hands achieved the most thorough ’decoupling.’ This current civilization has completely broken free from the chains of the War God.

”Since the War God’s divine contamination no longer affects us, His remaining Divine realm shouldn’t affect us anymore either—in our eyes, it should have already regressed into a normal Otherworld. According to the latest theories, it is a projection formed in the ’deep sea’ by mortal ideologies. I don’t know the real situation of the War God’s Divine realm now, but at least theoretically... it is harmless.”

”Theoretically.” Gawain deliberately repeated the term.

”Yes, we can only speculate based on theory,” Kamel nodded, ”Risks still exist because we can only infer the state of the War God’s Divine realm from the fragments of remains we have, and our theoretical understanding of the operations of gods and ideology is far from complete—in fact, only when we can truly free ourselves from this chain can we genuinely understand all the laws behind everything. Until then, the risks of exploration will always accompany the explorers.”

”The risks of exploration will always accompany the explorers...” Gawain took a light breath, ”You’re right, there’s no such thing as one hundred percent safety in these matters. But as of now, do you think the risks are controllable and acceptable?”

The two technical experts nodded seriously (Kamel had no expression but flashed very seriously).

”Then we can give a reply to Aldernon,” Aunt Heidi broke the silence, ”Do we need to draft a response now?”

Gawain thought for a moment and waved his hand: ”Wait, I think... in such matters, it’s best to consult other experts as well.”

”Other experts?” Aunt Heidi was momentarily puzzled, but quickly caught on, ”Ah, you mean those few retired ones...”

”Prepare the Anti-Divine Barrier, at maximum power. I’m going to make a trip to the defied Court, and inquire with Enya as well,” Gawain nodded, ”We can’t just let them play cards all day with nothing to do...”