Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1352: Chapter 1351: Surging

A few casual chats with friends helped Wickcliff, who had just returned to the surface from the medical ship, regain some of his previous feelings. He gently exhaled in the cold wind of late winter and early spring, casting his gaze toward the military camps outside Ruby City that had just been built recently, and the various vehicles shuttling between them. He spoke with a tone of admiration: ”Many people say that the Cecil Clan are like gods in the field of infrastructure, but it wasn’t until I saw with my own eyes how these camps and roads were spread all over outside Ruby City in a matter of days that I understood what that meant. Everything else is understandable, but how did they build so many barracks from the foot of the city wall to the edge of the forest in a few days?”

”They simply dropped them from the sky,” Camilla shrugged. ”While you were waiting for the doctors to screw in your new arm, they sent two more flying fortresses from the rear, called ’Frontline Engineering Ships,’ and they were stacked like boxes with these square ’container houses’ and then air-dropped them directly onto the plains...”

Wickcliff was dumbfounded, staring blankly for a while before touching his nose with his hand made of alloy, muttering to himself while feeling the touch of metal against skin: ”I was too narrow-minded...”

Camilla’s gaze, however, was always focused on the mechanical arm of the Human King. She studied the mechanically aesthetic armor plates, joints, and connecting tubes carefully. If it weren’t for her status as the Great Chieftain, she would probably have said, ”Take it apart, let me play with it,” at this point. Her undisguised gaze, of course, did not escape Wickcliff’s attention. The Human King couldn’t help but smile, waving his arm in front of Camilla. His neural signals immediately triggered a mechanism in the mechanical arm, and with a ”buzz,” the armor plate near his wrist suddenly popped open. An energy blade filled with arcane glow instantly condensed in the air, the bright light flickering in the beastmen chieftain’s eyes.

Camilla immediately let out an exaggerated exclamation: ”Whoa—”

Wickcliff smiled again, casually flipping his wrist, allowing the energy blade to dissipate. His mechanical palm then suddenly split open, revealing a ring-shaped rune structure and crystal array, with a small Arcane Missile Launcher appearing in front of Camilla.

”This thing is much more useful than your Chopping Axe,” the Human King proudly said to the Great Chieftain. ”The doctors said that since I’m already a powerful Transcendent, capable of sustaining more magic power consumption, they packed many experimental weapons into my mechanical arm—now you’re no match for me.”

”Whoa—” Camilla exclaimed again, quickly squinting her eyes, ”Can you take that off for me to play with for two days?”

”Absolutely not,” Wickcliff refused without hesitation, swiftly restoring his arm to its original state. Then, while pulling out a pipe and holding it in his mouth, he used the arc shot from the mechanical arm’s fingertip to light it. ”After installing it, it’s the same as my original arm, with nerves and bones connected altogether. I was just showing you...”

Camilla’s ears twitched on top of her head, and she showed a clear look of disappointment before glancing at her own arm, murmuring softly: ”Maybe I should cut off my arm and replace it with something like yours...”

This time Wickcliff didn’t respond but simply cast a casual glance at the beastmen Chieftain. As a ”colleague” colleague on the ”Five Kings” Council and a friend for many years, he knew this big cat had a mind that was all over the place and attention that could shift at any moment. Basically, apart from swinging the Chopping Axe at people, Camilla had never been interested in anything that lasted more than three days. Find her something interesting to divert her attention, and she’d definitely forget about this.

Of course, it’s better to think of something to change the subject now.

”We’ve restored communication with Ancestral Peak,” Wickcliff suddenly said. ”On one hand, the airborne communication nodes laid by the Cecil Clan have been activated. On the other hand, it seems that the chaotic magic-pervasive environment covering the western part of the continent is also gradually recovering. It’s said that we can now contact most regions domestically with the assistance of the new communication nodes...”

”Hmm, I received a message from Stella at Ancestral Peak today,” Camilla immediately forgot about the mechanical arm issue, and her expression turned radiant. ”All the aberrations moving toward Ancestral Peak have been intercepted, and Stella is preparing to send a Golem Legion to support the frontline—of course, only on the premise of not affecting the homeland defense of Ancestral Peak. Duke Baldwin, the General Commander, has already agreed to this matter. Perhaps it won’t be long before we see fairies active among the mountain barriers.”

Wickcliff nodded, his gaze unconsciously drifting to the eastern chain of mountain ranges. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but the next second, the glow emerging between the mountains and the sky interrupted his action—

It was a layer of pale purple and cyan-green light, like a large curtain hanging from the clouds. It spread over from the other side of the mountain barrier, slanting across the vast sky, extending all the way to the skies above the Ruby Forest. Its appearance was so sudden that there was no indication even two or three seconds before it appeared. And amidst the rippling light curtain, one could vaguely see tiny sparkles jumping between the clouds and the glow, stretching into sheets like lightning.

The thing resembled an aurora—but how could an aurora be seen in the Augari Area, located in the middle of the continent?!

More and more people noticed this abnormal celestial phenomenon. Soldiers and civilians below the city wall began to point towards the sky. Wickcliff finally reacted and immediately turned to ask the beastmen Chieftain beside him: ”Camilla, what do you think that is—is it perhaps some new equipment developed by the Cecil Clan? Some kind of barrier?”

”I haven’t heard of that...” Camilla also looked up at the suddenly appeared and swiftly spreading light curtain in the sky in shock, muttering to herself with wide-open eyes, ”I haven’t heard of any new equipment test notice... Moreover, look over at the camp, it seems even the soldiers and officers of the Cecil Clan are surprised...”

As soon as her voice fell, the light curtain diffused in the sky suddenly disappeared without a sound, taking the lightning ripping through the clouds along with it, vanishing without a trace, just as unpredictably as it had appeared.

The entire process lasted less than a minute, yet this anomalous celestial phenomenon had already imprinted itself deeply on the minds of all witnesses.

”I think something’s not right...” Wickcliff’s expression gradually became serious. ”You’re right, that thing shouldn’t be made by the Cecil Clan. Plus, it started spreading from the east side of the mountain barrier in the direction of the wasteland... We should probably discuss this with Duke Baldwin; perhaps he knows something...”

...

”I think something’s not right.”

On the towering summit of Ancestral Peak, a grand white tower adorned with a large crystal stood proudly, surrounded by numerous ancient magical devices and detection facilities in operation. Stella, barely the size of a palm, flapped her wings and hovered in front of an outdoor detection device, observing the data projected onto the Focusing Crystal and the constantly changing patterns. As one of the Tribal Country of Augari’s ”Five Kings,” the Fairy King’s brow furrowed slowly.

Another sound of wings flapping came from the side, as a fairy technician responsible for monitoring the Magic Net Main Hub of Ancestral Peak flew up to Stella: ”You’ve noticed the abnormal parameters, haven’t you?”

Stella turned her head to look at the approaching technician—an adult fairy with light purple hair, also only the size of a human palm. But floating beside her were two golem ”arms” sized like adult human arms, crafted from Adamantite, purple copper, and Mithril, each gripping maintenance tools, appearing quite dexterous.

Fairies are a very small intelligent race. Their physical limitations make it difficult for them to directly use the tools and equipment created by the majority of intelligent races on the continent, including the standard ancient magical devices produced by the Cecil Clan. But fairies have their own solutions: as the most dexterous and magically talented tribe in Augari, fairies excel at crafting various golems and intricate magical mechanisms. Many years ago, they built their nation on Ancestral Peak with their powerful Golem Legion. Facing the new era’s ancient magical technology, they similarly became Augari’s finest Mage Technician and rune experts by relying on these convenient magical ”tools.”

”When did the readings start showing these fluctuations?” Stella nodded at the little fairy controlling the two golem ”arms,” then asked solemnly, ”Did this happen before communications were restored?”

”No, the readings started rising abnormally after communications were restored. As the chaotic magic environment near Ancestral Peak gradually dissipated over the last two days, the rising speed reached a peak—though it’s now starting to fall, but still quite high,” said the purple-haired fairy, her golem arms gesturing alongside her. ”We checked the Holme Crystal on the main tower and several conversion matrices connected with the mountain’s Magic Web, confirming there’s no equipment malfunction causing these erroneous readings.”

”...This shows a strong magic power is being transmitted between several Magic Web Nexuses, but the magic source isn’t any of the Magic Web Arrays,” Stella glanced again at the readings on the equipment beside her, ”I don’t understand... Did those Cecil Clan technical experts say anything?”

”They’re still meeting to discuss—I don’t think they understand what’s happening either,” the self-proclaimed fairy opened her hands, and the golem arms floating beside her followed suit, revealing a somewhat anxious expression. ”Oh, Queen, could it be that our recent commotion really disturbed the ancestral spirits dormant within Ancestral Peak...”

Stella waved her hand vigorously before she was finished: ”Impossible, a hundred years ago when we activated ’Super Dazhuang’ on the summit, the energy went out of control and struck half the mountain with lightning but didn’t wake the ancestral spirits; it’s not that serious.”

”...That’s true,” hearing the Queen’s explanation, the purple-haired fairy suddenly found it reasonable, ”But now how do we explain these abnormal readings?”

”I also don’t know—let’s pack the data and send it to the Cecil Clan. After all, this stuff was invented by them,” Stella waved her hand, ”We’ll wait to see if they can figure something out.”

The purple-haired fairy technician nodded, then looked up at the towering pure white giant tower atop Ancestral Peak. Built under the Cecil Clan’s leadership, it supports the Magic Web energy supply for most of Augari’s north-central region, the largest Magic Web Main Hub in the western continent. Several metallic ring structures floated on the upper half of the tower, slowly rotating in the clear daylight, a deep harmonious hum resonating in the high altitude, seemingly everything as usual.

Yet unseen by the fairies, in dimensions beyond current technological means of observation, a massive blue magic power torrent surges within the depths of Ancestral Peak. Portions of the torrent’s peripheral branches penetrate the mountain, enter the atmosphere, and weave around the Magic Web Main Hub, beneath the skies of this Deep Blue Webway-influenced ”Augari Sacred Land.” An unseen magic power wave is transmitting from the distant Gondor wasteland, traversing the continent, spreading out across the planet...

...

At the same time, southwestern Loren Continent, Endless Sea.

Rolling surges came from afar, the dark sky filled with aurora-like light and thunder strikes. The wind howled, the sea water surged, and the waves relentlessly lashed against the imposing steel warship’s bow and hull. Large battleships erected barriers to resist the far-sea storms, activated etched Rune Matrixes on their hulls to stabilize current and ship. Using technology’s power, they transformed into steadfast iron peaks amidst the sea.

In the Imperial Fleet’s flagship Winter’s Call command center, Byron stood on the captain’s platform, his gaze tightly fixed on the holographic projection’s sea condition map. After holding back for a long time, he couldn’t help but turn to ask, ”Lady Cassandra, are you sure we’re on the right course?”

”...Honestly, five minutes ago I was sure,” said Cassandra, the black-haired sea demon with a teardrop mole under her eyes, after thinking for a moment, ”But now I think something’s not quite right.”

”General, it appears we’ve encountered Chaotic Turbulence—it should only appear far at sea theoretically,” said a Naga Navigator behind Byron. He had dark green scales and snake-like eyes, a device and deep-sea rune amulet hanging from his neck, ”The fleet might have been pushed off course by the storm, but judging by the storm’s intensity, it shouldn’t increase any further. We should wait here until the storm ends.”

”...There’s no choice,” Byron said helplessly, ”Winter’s Call and the other ships’ Defense systems can withstand a storm of this magnitude. We’ll maximize the protection and check the course deviation after the storm ends.”

After issuing orders, the Imperial Navy Marshal turned, looking at the red-haired lady beside him: ”Asharena, you should go back to the cabin and rest. After the storm ends, we might need you and the Dragon Cavalry to conduct aerial reconnaissance.”

”Actually, I can take off now and have a look,” Asharena said casually. As a ”Dragonborn Commander” dispatched by the Sacred Dragon Kingdom, after the war’s outbreak, the kingdom sent several units to the alliance front, one led by Asharena. She and her troops were incorporated into Byron’s Expedition Fleet as the ”carrier air force,” meant to aid the Southern Front Battlefield, yet now trapped by the storm at sea. ”I should be able to handle this storm.”

”Don’t be reckless. I trust you can take off in this weather, but you can’t land safely in these conditions—who knows how long this storm will last,” Byron shook his head, ”Follow the arrangements; we’ll patiently wait for the storm to end.”