Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1230: Chapter 1229: Listening to Voices Beyond Light-Years

The tranquil night sky envelops the world like a giant curtain. Even though the dazzling artificial lights on the ground may make those twinkling stars seem dimmer than before, the cool starlight itself cares not for the earthly lights—the stars will continue, as they have for millions of years, to silently look down upon sentient beings, gazing across the vast and dark space at worlds where civilizations might be thriving.

What is happening on those distant planets right now? I fear even the most talented playwright might not be able to fully imagine it.

Yet, there are signals, faster than light, that can bring greetings from 6.12 light-years away, letting those who gaze at the starry sky know that a vibrant world exists in the distance.

Tiel raised her head, silently watching those twinkling starlights. The faint silvery glow scattered over her beautiful and delicate scales, unexpectedly adding a sense of elegance and tranquility to this sea demon—Gawain often struggled to understand what this deep-sea creature, who spent most of her time sleeping, was thinking, especially at this moment.

”What are you thinking about?” He couldn’t help but break the silence.

”What a beautiful starry sky... a scenery that once seemed so unfamiliar now feels quite familiar,” Tiel said softly. ”We have observed this starry sky for millions of years. Tell me, how many civilizations have perished under our watch over these millions of years?”

”... On the scale of light-years, the demise of a civilization is just smaller than a single flicker of a star. I think discussing such topics is meaningless until we’ve mastered the ability to navigate through the Star Sea.”

”True,” Tiel nodded with a smile, ”we should think about more practical things.”

”Speaking of practical things, I’ve just had another thought about the Sender of Cang Xing,” Gawain’s mind was racing, new speculations taking shape, ”What if... they haven’t really mastered superluminal communication technology?”

”Oh?” Tiel raised an eyebrow, her voice tinged with suspicion, ”Are you suggesting that our communication technology experts misjudged, mistaking ordinary signals for superluminal communication?”

”No, I trust your experts. I’m just speculating that the Sender of Cang Xing might not be as ’advanced’ as we imagined,” Gawain shook his head, expressing his theories, ”Perhaps the reason they sent such a basic, primitive signal format via superluminal communication isn’t due to some clever long-term strategy, but simply because... that’s all they can send.”

Tiel furrowed her brow: ”You mean...?”

”I’m not sure what ’tier’ in space-faring technology superluminal communication belongs to, but I guess it must be quite high—after all, even the dragons of Talronde have never mastered such things. And technological development is often interconnected. While some fields may advance independently, generally, a civilization’s various technologies should be roughly balanced. The development of one technology often implies the advancement of many related areas, as technologies serve as foundations and complement each other,” Gawain spoke slowly and steadily, ”Therefore, if the Sender of Cang Xing had fully mastered superluminal communication technology, they likely wouldn’t be a race confined to their home planet and might even have become... another ’Voyager.’

”Makes sense...” Tiel slowly nodded, thoughtfully muttering to herself.

”Besides those ’greetings’ from Cang Xing, have your antenna arrays captured any other superluminal communications from the stars?” Gawain asked sternly, ”Even if just a brief burst of noise?”

”No,” Tiel immediately shook her head, ”After confirming the signal sent by SK-32-A as superluminal communication, Antawen specifically scanned the area covered by the antenna system in the entire sky but found no second instance of superluminal communication...”

”So, the Sender of Cang Xing is probably not a civilization that has fully mastered superluminal communication technology—otherwise, the nearby starry sky wouldn’t be so ’silent.’ Can’t you imagine? It’s like a race mastering the skill of starting a fire, and yet, hundreds of years later, no extra smoke ever rises from the area where they live...

Tiel immediately realized: ”Unless the ’torch’ isn’t theirs, and they neither know how to start a second fire nor understand what else this ’torch’ can do besides signaling!”

Gawain nodded, his tone was somber as he slowly said: ”It’s just a possibility.”

”... Then whose torch is this?” Tiel instinctively asked, ”This... this is a ’torch’ capable of sending signals at superluminal speed across light-years of space...”

Gawain didn’t answer immediately, just raised his head, quietly gazing at the starry sky. In fact, the truth had already become evident, and even Tiel, in her thoughtful silence, likely considered the most probable answer to the question—who else but the Voyagers?

Gawain thought of the information he had seen in the logs at Firmament Station, and couldn’t help but feel contemplative: The legacy in the starry sky... indeed, it seems there are more than one.

Tiel had unknowingly fixed her gaze on Gawain, silently watching the ”human pioneer hero” before her for a long time. Suddenly, she said, without any preamble, ”How rare.”

”Yes, if the situation is indeed as we speculate, it would be quite rare for a civilization that hasn’t yet broken free from its home planet to obtain a superluminal communication device...”

”I’m not referring to that,” Tiel shook her head, ”I’m referring to you; you’re rare.”

”Me?” Gawain asked in shock, pointing at himself, ”What’s rare about me?”

”I seldom find someone among the land dwellers to discuss these topics. I mean no disrespect or mockery, but the land dwellers’ understanding of the universe... is indeed limited. Yet you’re an exception. You not only keep up with these topics but also have many thoughts of your own, which is very rare. Moreover, to this day, you maintain a vibrant curiosity and flexible mind in this area... that’s even rarer,” Tiel said earnestly. ”I don’t know many land dwellers, but I’ve heard my sisters describe many rulers or leaders of the land. Among them are quite a few individuals with keen insight and broad knowledge, but they are always entangled by earthly matters—politics, military, people’s livelihood, national threats, and interests... all those things that make my head hurt whenever I hear about them.

”You also face these ’entanglements,’ I can see with my own eyes, but what surprises me is that your focus on the starry sky and your desire to explore the unknown never seems to fade.”

Gawain looked somewhat surprised at Tiel, who now wore a serious expression on her face. He rarely had the chance to hear her say so much; it seemed this conversation took up all her waking hours today: ”...Is that considered a compliment?”

”A quite high compliment,” Tiel nodded seriously, ”You’re the first person I’ve praised like this.”

”I feel deeply honored, but I have a question,” Gawain said seriously, ”Don’t you normally sleep all day? Where do you find time to think about all these complex things?”

”Don’t you know? Sea demons can think while sleeping—our mental activities never cease. In other words, if our thought processes stop, a sea demon would die,” Tiel said while shaking her tail, ”After all, we are a rather lethargic race; if we don’t use all our time wisely, we’d truly be worthless...”

”You remain in active thought even while asleep?!” Gawain widened his eyes in shock; this was something he had neither heard nor imagined. Tiel’s appearance, which resembled humans, had misled him, making him assume that sea demons, despite their shapeshifting abilities, were similar to humans, but now he realized just how vastly different this race of elemental creatures was from humans, ”So that means... you don’t dream?”

”Ordinary sea demons as individuals indeed don’t dream—of course, we could forcibly consider those overly immersive ’sleep thoughts’ as dreams, but that’s a bit of a stretch,” Tiel explained, her tail tip swaying, ”The only sea demon who truly dreams is Eva...”

”Eva...” Gawain recalled the knowledge behind this name, speaking thoughtfully, ”I remember she’s your ’race spirit’?”

”Race spirit? That’s a fair way to understand it,” Tiel smiled, ”Eva is the collective of all sea demons. You could see her as the largest, intangible sea demon, our ’Elemental Core’ as a whole water element. Some outsiders can’t comprehend this intangible existence, but to us sea demons, Eva is a real individual, and she’s the only one capable of dreaming. Among sea demons, those with special talents can perceive Eva’s dreams, usually including the most powerful Tide Masters and Deep Sea Witches, and, of course, our Queen—the Queen almost always sees Eva’s dreams, and sometimes she shares the marvelous sights she sees in those dreams with us...”

Gawain listened attentively to these incredible stories Tiel told, and after a long pause, he couldn’t help but mutter, ”Your race is truly remarkable...”

...

The sound of waves was like a gentle melody, carried by the flowing water into the spacious and refined bedroom. Petia awakened from her slumber and opened her eyes within an Elemental Core formed of pure water.

Her long, silvery hair floated within the Sphere of Pure Water but was soon controlled by her to gather behind her head. Petia swam out from the Sphere of Pure Water, her clothes transforming into a luxurious yet functional light blue gown. She glanced toward the door, where the Deep Sea Handmaiden Rosalia appeared before her at nearly the same time, riding a stream.

”King,” Rosalia swam forward two steps, ”You woke up later than usual today.”

”I saw Eva’s dreams again,” Petia said, ”She seems to enjoy dreaming lately.”

The maid Rosalia’s face instantly showed interest: ”Eva’s dreams? What did you see?”

”The specific details are somewhat blurry. I only remember seeing an endless sea, like our home planet’s boundless ocean, with no land, teeming with life, including creatures like sea demons and some races I don’t recognize, with some gigantic structures like ancient relics or memorials floating in the ocean...” Petia rubbed her forehead, ”That’s all, just some inexplicable scenes... After all, it’s only a dream.”

”Perhaps Eva saw sights that distant kin see in her dreams? We’re unified in Eva’s dream...” Rosalia smiled, saying words of comfort, ”Regardless, what you saw didn’t seem like anything bad.”

”Distant...” Petia said softly, reminded by the term, ”Any progress on the superluminal array?”

”Still no signals from any immigrant ship,” Rosalia gently shook her head, ”Also, the monitoring of SK-32-A continues; it’s been over three days since the last signal was received, and following the established pattern, the next occurrence of superluminal communication should be in a dozen minutes.”

”Hmm,” Petia nodded while swimming toward the corridor—the entire royal sector of Antawen is located within the great barrier’s depths, filled with seawater from our home planet, making movement only possible by swimming, a convenient and comfortable environment for sea demons, ”What about the scan of the surrounding sky?”

”Nothing found,” Rosalia shook her head, ”Only a few very faint low-frequency calls received, sent via light waves or similar pulsars as conventional signals. These might have drifted through this space for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years, endlessly circling within the prison of the stellar system, while the civilization that sent them has been extinct for years.”

”...Even if they haven’t vanished, there’s nothing we could do,” Petia sighed, ”We can receive but not transmit, an unsolvable problem... Still no progress with the Resonance Crystal?”

”Regrettably, Hesterwe Master says she’s powerless too—the Resonance Crystal is severely damaged, and the planet lacks the critical materials needed to reforge the crystal. The energy technology and magic symbol knowledge shared by the Cecil Clan are useful but not helpful in repairing the superluminal communication array. We’ve also tried several recently unearthed natural materials from the deep sea, but none meet requirements...”

”Alright, these things can’t be rushed,” Petia nodded gently, ”Let the Deep Sea Witches do their best.”

”Yes, King.”

On the golden sand beach of Aeo Continent, in the stranded area of the Antawen Vessel, a complex communication tower stands on the aft deck of this colossal immigrant starship. Its base is wide open, exposing its intricate components and system lights, faintly flickering within some structures. The ’Deep Sea Witches’ as technicians, busily inspect recently repaired reception modules and adjust the still unstable core system inside and outside the tower.

Above the tower, several communication components now active again are levitated by an invisible field, slowly rotating around the tower body. The streamlined alloy structures point skyward, their metal shells reflecting a golden-red hue under the morning sun.

Petia arrived on the deck, watching the busy sea demons around the tower, and the Naga newly in the area, learning mechanical maintenance skills from the Deep Sea Witches. Then her gaze fell upon the tower, a gentle sigh escaping her lips.