Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1329: Chapter 1328: Overlooking the Darkness

A high priest of the Supreme Army Corps has died. This is the highest-ranking dark priest to fall since the war began. The soul’s wail from Maselus, as his mind dissipated in an instant, echoed like a fierce wind through the vast root network of the wastelands—piercingly sharp, filled with intense hatred and rage, along with undisguisable fear and reluctance.

This screech entered the mind of Archbishop Bolken, causing him to look nervously towards the western plains shrouded in darkness, muttering once more under his breath, ”Maselus is dead...”

The subordinate nodes also received this shocking news. The surrounding dark forest emitted a chaotic rustling of leaves, as the twisted ”trees” whispered across the plains. Inevitably, some disturbance arose within the aberration Army they commanded—though these disturbances did not last long, as the Archbishop’s intent quickly brought the entire dark-cult to silence.

Two figures approached one after the other, ascending to the platform atop the hill. Bolken glanced at the twin sisters who appeared in his view, his deep-brown eyes shifting, ”It seems you have also received the news.”

”We can hear the sounds within the root network—the wail at the moment of Maselus’ death was truly loud,” Fyrna shook her head and said, ”Ah, how tragic.”

”He was one of our kin, also your kin,” Bolken immediately shook his withered branches, eyes glaring at the indifferent elven sisters, ”You should at least show some respect.”

”Of course, we deeply regret it, but regret cannot bring High Priest Maselus back to life,” Lelena replied with a sincere expression, ”The key is what intelligence did High Priest Maselus send back before his martyrdom. How did he die? Wasn’t the western-line army advancing the most smoothly of all the armies before? Maselus even sent back word that he could take Ruby City within a week and destroy all resistance within the Augari Domain in half a month, seizing the Ancestral Peak—how did he suddenly perish?”

”A branch of the Cecil Clan’s airborne forces entered the western-line battlefield,” Bolken’s gaze paused on the elven twins before he continued in a solemn tone, ”Before that, the western-line army was indeed advancing very smoothly—Maselus had even reached the gates of Ruby City—but then, they encountered the Cecil people coming to reinforce them...”

Bolken fell silent for two seconds, seemingly carefully retrieving the last mental signals sent by Maselus, and then continued after a moment, ”He previously described an exaggerated scene, saying the Cecil people ’made the city float in the sky, using fortresses and castles capable of flight to fight.’ He said it was a kind of war machine similar to the Sacred Stars Temple but purer—and we are no match for those flying fortresses in terms of aerial power.”

The expressions on the Fyrna Sisters’ faces finally showed a hint of seriousness, and they asked in unison, ”Did the Bloated Corruptors fail to have an effect?”

”They couldn’t approach—those airborne fortresses have a large number of escort units, and their firepower is far more fierce than that of the Bloated Corruptors,” Bolken said in a very serious tone, ”I don’t know if Maselus was exaggerating... in his account, our flying units and anti-aircraft firepower had little effect against those Cecil fortresses...”

”Even so...” Lelena mused, ”Our legion command nodes are far from the front line, and Maselus is always a cautious man; he wouldn’t personally charge into battle—even if the vanguard was really being crushed by the Cecil people’s flying fortresses, he should have had plenty of time to retreat safely. Even Bertrum managed to withdraw unscathed when encountering the Living Forest in the north. How did Maselus get killed after having established a battlefield advantage?”

”...this part of the information is very vague,” Bolken’s tone became increasingly severe, ”Previous intelligence was sent back while he still had breathing room, and the content was relatively clear and precise. But before his death, it seemed that a very chaotic situation occurred. The information sent back was not only fragmented but also appeared to have suffered severe interference... The only thing we can be sure of is that when it happened, the Cecil main force was still near Ruby City, and very soon we lost contact with the western-line army’s command units, and then, in less than a few minutes, Maselus’ final death message reached the root network...”

”Some kind of long-range attack, swift and powerful, capable of breaking through the layered defenses around command nodes, and likely accompanied by very intense communication disruption during this process,” Fyrna immediately said, ”It’s just that we can’t determine whether the disruption is a side effect of the attack or another technological means by the Cecil people... that is truly terrible.”

”Yes, truly terrible,” Lelena nodded and said, then promptly looked at Bolken, ”So what is the current situation on the western line, who is controlling the aberration Army after Maselus’s death?”

”It’s not just Maselus who died but also a dozen or so priests around him—that was a large-scale strike,” upon saying this, Bolken’s mood was visibly fouler, ”The western line army fell into chaos after the command nodes disappeared. Although the moment I received the news, I transferred command to Bannor, who was the closest, a large number of ’soldiers’ far from the command nodes permanently detached after that... these loss-of-control dispersal aberrations aren’t a match for the main army, they will likely be wiped out soon; the western-line army has already receded to the Wind Erosion Valley line under Bannor’s control and has begun moving south.”

”...can only be described as a headlong flight, what a disgrace,” Fyrna sighed, ”it seems our grand plan won’t be easily realized, Archbishop.”

”Put away such meaningless lamentations unless you still plan to sit and watch the show only at this point,” Bolken snorted, ”Let me hear your thoughts—the circumstances have somewhat exceeded our initial plan, and we may need to make some adjustments in our subsequent actions.”

”Don’t be overly concerned, Your Excellency the Archbishop,” Lelena smiled, her tone very steady, ”The great army in the wasteland has not yet fully deployed; we haven’t exerted our full strength. As for those Cecil people... they indeed have some surprises, but they can’t protect every section of their border. We do not need to entirely crush every inch beyond the wastelands, we just need to complete the deployment of the Rune Stones, allowing those mortals to indulge in false victories on local battlefields. The Loren Continent is vast; they will inevitably be forced to abandon some land to sustain their front later on—only when we complete the ’taming’ of the entire planet will be the true moment to determine the victor.”

Lelena’s steady and powerful words seemed to have improved Bolken’s mood somewhat; the branches at the fringe of the Grand Dark Archbishop’s tree crown expanded a bit, but his tone remained very serious, ”But we must acknowledge that if the Cecil people continue to stir things up, the ’window’ for us to deploy the Rune Stones will become increasingly restricted. Now, the mortal defenses on the eastern and southern fronts have also united and are resisting us with full national strength; particularly those elves... the crash of the Sacred Stars Temple did not destroy their morale; instead, their Thousand Years Legion has fully mobilized. With each Rune Stone deployment, we pay two to three times the previous price, which is not a favorable trend.”

”Indeed, things cannot continue in this manner,” Fyrna nodded and said, ”We need to find another weakness in the mortal defense line, and most importantly, we need intelligence—especially on the Cecil people. Since the war began, they have taken out too many surprises for us, and such ’surprises’ are not good on the battlefield. Their Living Forest is still trying to seep into the wastelands, and their flying war fortresses certainly won’t obediently remain near Ruby City. We need to figure out these things.”

Immediately after Fyrna finished speaking, Lelena chimed in, ”Speaking of the Cecil people’s Living Forest, as far as I know, that ’Madam Beltira’ has been relentlessly trying to penetrate our ’Immune Barrier’ set in the north?”

”Yes... that woman!” Mentioning ”Beltira,” this former ’kinswoman,’ made Bolken evidently more resentful than mentioning the flying fortresses of the Cecil people, ”She inherited all of Frankenstein’s legacy, including all the knowledge and secrets from that underground palace, and now she uses that knowledge against us—

The Living Forest attacks our northern immune barrier daily, forcing our root network to defend against her invasion with nearly a third of its strength. If it wasn’t like this, our control over the various armies should have been stronger than it is now, preventing the situation where a massive loss of control occurred immediately after Maselus’s death!”

”The flying fortress in the sky is hard to deal with for now, but at least the forest tendrils writhing underground are something we can reach—and the threat it poses to us is growing by the day,” Lelena said. ”Grand Archbishop, we should first find a way to curb the spread of that forest, at the very least understand its... survival mechanism. A creature with its main body rooted in the Plains of the Holy Spirits, spreading its limbs to the southern slopes of the Dark Mountain Range, is no small thing.”

Bolken fell into contemplation, the withered and twisted branches and leaves silently resting under the night sky. Then, he suddenly shook his branches, transmitting a spiritual signal through the root network with his movements.

The dense dark forest surrounding the hill began to stir, and the next second, a hunched, withered figure pulled its roots from the soil and emerged from the forest. The figure climbed onto the hillock, and the magical glow from the polluted clouds above the wasteland illuminated the figure—it was none other than the Dark Hierarch Bertrum, who had recently fled in disgrace from the northern battlefield, where his initial battle directly led to the loss of half his main force.

”Grand Archbishop, you called for me?” Bertrum drooped his branches low, lacking the boldness he once had when commanding the army to destroy the northern sentinel towers and nearly breaking through the Cecil Clan’s and Typhon Defense Line’s defenses.

Even though the failure at the northern front wasn’t entirely his fault, as the Living Forest lurking in the southern slopes of the mountain was an entirely unexpected situation, his blind aggression at the start of the battle and subsequent disarray ultimately led to half his main force being devoured by the Living Forest.

Hastily retreating back to the wasteland, Bertrum was stripped of his command over the Northern Legion and faced severe punishment, becoming a disgrace rooted in a corner of this twisted forest, a laughingstock of the Legion—even the lowest-level dark Druids secretly mocked him for frantically fleeing hundreds of miles from the Dark Mountain Range, abandoning all his subordinates to return to the main camp.

He had never expected to be summoned by the Grand Archbishop again.

”I will give you a chance to cleanse your disgrace and rectify your mistakes,” Bolken said in a low voice, gazing at the hunched Treant in front of him. ”Bertrum, you must seize this opportunity.”

”Of course, I await your orders at any time!” Bertrum immediately replied, the vine-like roots writhing beneath him. ”I will complete your mission!”

”Confidence is good, but don’t boast too early,” Bolken said flatly. ”Do you still have the courage to face that northern battlefield?”

Bertrum paused momentarily, then vigorously shook his withered branches. ”Of course, I’ve been burned by the flames of hatred these days, that battlefield... I constantly long to return to the front lines...”

”Very well, then you shall return to the north, to support our ’Immune Barrier’—our root network is facing an invasion from the Living Forest, and you, who have previously come into direct contact with Beltira’s spiritual form,” Bolken focused on Bertrum. ”Seek out those forces that once pierced your soul, trace the path those forces extend underground, seek the truth of Beltira’s ability to stretch her body this far, and the source of her power...”

The cold night wind swept across the plain, the winter chill enveloping the dead quiet of the Gondor wasteland.

Bertrum’s form hunched further, respectfully lowering his branches, the dry leaves trembling in the wind. ”I shall follow your orders, Grand Archbishop.”

Bertrum withdrew, leaving the hill temporarily silent again, while Bolken seemed to be pondering something. The Elven Twins merely stood calmly not far away; no one knew what they were thinking, not even Bolken was fully aware of it.

He couldn’t hear the whispered thoughts between Fyrna and Lelena on the mental level either.

”Things are getting interesting, aren’t they?” A voice from one of them, only audible through the psychic link shared by the Elven Twins, broke the silence.

”Indeed, the floating fortress, the Living Forest... these ’Cecil Clan’ have created many intriguing things. Relative to the foundation of this era’s civilization, their current trajectory and direction are increasingly approaching that ’ideal model.’

”The starting point for all this was that ’visitor.’

”The changes brought by the visitor... whether it will ultimately alter the course of this era’s mortal beings, whether an interstellar soul fallen to the mortal world can truly become a variable on this planet... it’s indeed something worth anticipating.

But more likely, this civilization, like the countless seemingly hopeful ones before it, will fade away to nothing—a bold ’Fallen Worlder,’ ultimately reduced to dust before the immense forces of fate—civilization holds no significance, the activities brought about by ’wisdom’ are just meaningless notes among the stars, whether Voyagers, mortals, or gods, they are only leaving behind fleeting illusions in this universe.

”None of it matters, we need not concern ourselves with this process, regardless of whether the visitor from beyond will change anything, it will nonetheless be... an enough interesting thing.”

The psychic link quieted down, Fyrna and Lelena continued standing quietly on the hill, looking down with indifferent eyes at this dark, boundless wasteland.

Just as the sentinels have done for the past 1,800,000 years.