Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 895 - 894: Never Stopped Moving Forward

The atmosphere in the study was heavy and solemn, even Amber, who was usually the most lively, stood seriously beside them without any intention of joking.

"This is the entirety of our conversation." Gawain sat behind the desk, leaning comfortably against the chair back, speaking to the few people in front of him, while the "shield of the protector" was placed not far behind him on a weapon rack.

Under the illumination of the sunset, everything in the study was coated with a faint orange-yellow glow.

"Unbelievable..." Aunt Heidi’s expression was unprecedentedly solemn, finding it extremely difficult to speak even a few words. Clearly, after such a large influx of information, swiftly organizing words was a challenging task even for the Empire’s Grand Governor. "If what the God of Nature said is true, then our understanding of the world..."

"Our understanding of the world, of gods, of the chaotic wave, of faith, and even our perception of the stars in the universe—all have opened a new doorway," Veronica Moen tightly gripped the platinum scepter, speaking in a low and solemn tone. "We must reassess the relationship between gods and mortals, and reevaluate the planet we live on and the vast space beyond it..."

"As mortals, we possess very little knowledge, but among the limited truths we know, none of them seem to contradict the words of Amoen, the Giant Stag," Kamel analyzed the information revealed by the God of Nature from a scholar’s perspective, assessing how much could be trusted. "I believe most of what he says is credible."

"Ancestor," Aunt Heidi suddenly looked up at Gawain, "Do you believe in what the ’God of Nature’ says?"

"What he says might all be true, but I will always maintain a degree of skepticism," Gawain spoke frankly, "A god who can fake death for three thousand years is enough to make us eternally wary."

As Gawain’s words fell, Aunt Heidi opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to ask more, but before she could speak, a wave of energy suddenly swept through the study, making everyone feel as if their vision blurred for a moment. A girl with white hair trailing to the ground, wearing a simple white long dress, suddenly stood in the center of the study.

"Gods find it difficult to lie," a light and pleasant voice echoed in the study, "Or rather, lying would bring about very severe consequences—a lot of lies attempt to transform into truth, and if unable to do so, they become a ’burden’ for the gods. A lie that becomes a burden might require a long time or a painful process to ’digest’.

Aunt Heidi looked somewhat surprised at the figure appearing in the study: "Nariteer?"

"I invited her here," Gawain nodded, pointing to the side of the desk—a Magic Web Terminal was quietly operating there, with flickering magic symbols on its base indicating the rapid exchange of data, though no holographic images appeared above the terminal.

This was because the ’data’ transmitted through this terminal, guided by its own will, had transformed into Nariteer standing at the center of the study—this former Supreme Narrator, although no longer a god, still possessed many powers beyond mortal comprehension. With the support of the magic web system, she could psychically project herself to any place within the network’s coverage and permitted permissions.

Veronica Moen looked at the God of Yore standing before her, frowning slightly: "Do you mean that the words of the God of Nature are all true?"

"This is just my experience..." Nariteer thought for a moment, speaking seriously, "In my previous ’world’, the rules operated this way, but I don’t know if your real world is the same."

"In divine matters, the rules should be universal," Gawain said, "At least not significantly different—otherwise, the Supreme Narrator would not have emerged from the sandbox."

Nariteer thought for a while more, then began to nod slowly.

A confirmation from a God of Yore dispelled most doubts among the people in the room, because... this "Supreme Narrator" was an expert in the realm of gods, the chief consultant of the Empire’s Institute of Theology; no one understood better than her how a god functions.

"So, what we need to be wary of is not whether Amoen is lying, but whether there are omissions and misguidance in the truth he reveals—deception comes in many forms, and a scam constructed of truth is the hardest to guard against," Gawain said solemnly, his fingers unconsciously stroking the armrest of the seat, "Of course, the premise of all this is that Amoen, the Giant Stag, indeed has some conspiracy or trap awaiting us. He might be sincere and harmless, but..."

"But we cannot gamble on this," Aunt Heidi said with a bitter smile, shaking her head, "After all, he is a god..."

"And a god who has feigned death in the shadow realm for three thousand years, deceived all mortals, deceived the researchers of the defied Fortress, possessing infinite patience and wisdom..." Kamel said in a buzzing voice, a kind of dark blue light traversing the surface of the rune armor plates on his body, reflecting his suppressed and complex mood, "Such a god, if he wants to plot something, would be beyond human imagination."

"And this god is right in our ’backyard’," Amber, who had remained silent by the window, suddenly broke the silence, "That should be the main consideration right now."

"We cannot move the Dark Mountain Range, nor can we move the God of Nature; closing the shadow door is also not a good idea—not to mention that it is currently the only stable-operating shadow portal we have at our disposal, more importantly, we do not know if the God of Nature has the strength to open the door from the other side of the shadow realm," Aunt Heidi shook her head, her expression serious, "We cannot relocate the imperial capital for this; firstly, evasion is not a good choice, secondly, it has significant impact and explaining it to the outside world is problematic, and lastly, the most important point is—whether it’s effective is unknown. The shadow realm, unlike the shadow manipulation, is poorly understood; its mapping relation to the real world is unstable, and things we do in the real world may appear as mere stagnation in the shadow realm."

"We originally didn’t need to evade," Gawain nodded, saying, "A god imprisoned in ruins, unable to move, already ’fallen’, isn’t enough to scare the Cecil Clan into a hurried relocation of the capital. The fact that the God of Nature is alive and situated within the defied Fortress is a given; he won’t leave, and neither will we, so we must remain vigilant—

"Strengthen monitoring of the defied Fortress, set more sensors by the portal; establish more mind protection runes and divine power sensing devices within the fortress, continuously monitoring if there are any abnormalities among the stationed personnel; relocate some facilities from the defied Fortress to several new districts, the vicinity of the imperial capital has already developed, some production lines set up in the deep mountains out of necessity can be moved out..."

He finished giving instructions one by one, and finally took a deep breath.

"The measures we can take now are basically these... Considering that Cecil Castle has been rooted here for five years and the Defied Fortress has been here for a thousand years, Amoen, the Giant Stag, is still quietly ’waiting,’ and at least for the short term, we can do this."

Veronica, holding the platinum scepter, looked over calmly: "And in the long run?"

"In the long run..." Gawain smiled, "If we still have no way to deal with a constrained and weakened god after a long period, then we don’t need to think about any Defied Plan."

"I understand." Veronica nodded, indicating that she had no further questions.

Gawain, however, sighed lightly in his heart.

A constrained and weakened god...

Not long ago, another god had invited him to visit that nation ruled and sheltered by gods. At the time, he refused the invitation due to his actual circumstances, as well as caution. But today, he actively approached a "god" right under his nose... This bold move carried some risk, but more importantly, he was more than ninety percent confident that even if the God of Nature were alive, it would certainly be in a weakened state and unable to move freely—for this, he trusted deeply in the power of that "Deicide Fleet."

If Amoen, the Giant Stag, was not in a constrained state without any weakening effect, he would have immediately announced moving the capital overnight—this isn’t a matter of cowardice, it’s a matter of life and death.

After all, the lessons left by the old imperial capital of the Typhon Empire are still vivid in memory.

Just as the thought of the lessons from the Typhon Empire’s old imperial capital crossed Gawain’s mind, Amber spoke up next to him: "Sigh... Previously, we joked that the Typhon Empire built Orlandeau at the doorstep of the God of Dream Realms centuries ago, and now we’ve built the capital at the grave of the God of Nature..."

This comment was indeed brilliant, and the study suddenly fell silent. Aunt Heidi couldn’t help but gently nudge Gawain’s arm after a few seconds, whispering, "If it were Rebecca, I’d have already hung her up..."

For a moment, Gawain didn’t speak, but he couldn’t help but reflect: Have I been teaching this Empire’s disgrace too many cheeky comments?

After arranging a series of monitoring and alert work regarding the Dark Mountain Range and Defied Fortress, Aunt Heidi and Amber were the first to leave the room, followed by Nariteer, who also returned to the neural network. In the spacious study, only Gawain and two Defiers from the Gondor era remained.

The topic quickly shifted to the technical field, and Veronica spoke with a touch of emotion, as if sighing softly: "Now we have many new things to study..."

"Amoen mentioned something called ’The Deep Sea.’ Based on my understanding, it should be part of the fundamental order of this world—we have never understood it, but everyone contacts it unknowingly," Gawain said, "The Deep Sea surges in every corner of this world; it seems to permeate everything, and everything in the world is a reflection of the Deep Sea. Meanwhile, the thoughts of mortals can reflect back into the Deep Sea, forming ’unique gods’...this is also Amoen’s own words, and I think it’s quite important information."

"Could it be attempting to ’trap’ us using knowledge far beyond mortal understanding, yet truly existent?" Kamel hesitated to say, "The ’Deep Sea’ mentioned might be real, but it sounds too vague and mysterious, and we might end up investing a lot of time and energy into it..."

"However, a researcher cannot refuse such ’temptation’," Veronica glanced at Kamel, "especially when this field is helpful for us to uncover the mysteries of this world’s foundation."

"...Indeed," Kamel paused for a moment, then said with a wry smile, "I can’t suppress my curiosity... Even though this might be a trap, I suspect I’ll involuntarily explore and study it."

"We indeed need to understand and study it," Gawain stood up from behind the desk, looking at the two Defiers, "I have a premonition that this ’Deep Sea’ could be the key to understanding all truths, whether of gods or the mechanics behind the chaotic wave...even the essence of Magic Power, I vaguely feel they are related. Kamel, Veronica, I authorize you to conduct research in the related fields and find ways to detect traces of this ’Deep Sea.’ Additionally, I suggest collaboration with elves in this area—their ancient knowledge repository might already contain fragments about the world’s secrets.

"Similarly, we can collaborate with sea demons—they may be an alien race, but they have survived in this world longer than we have, and during their prolonged learning and adaptation, they might have observed some signs..."

"I understand, I will arrange for technical exchanges soon," Kamel immediately said, "Coincidentally, we have accumulated many questions in the ultrahigh altitude aircraft project recently, and we need to exchange our phase results with the elves..."

"Ultrahigh altitude aircraft..." Gawain immediately showed interest in the project Kamel mentioned—a priority project he approved this year, as important as those for high-speed aircraft, starry sky research, and ocean exploration. It is the hope for next-generation aircraft technology, also crucial for Gawain’s dream of starry seas, "How is it progressing?"

"Everything went smoothly until we reached the top of the Magic Static Stratum, with more powerful anti-gravity generators, more effective power spines, more reasonable magic symbol layout... Utilizing some new technology, we easily elevated unmanned aircraft to heights unreachable even by Thunder Swallow Birds. However, the situation changed after surpassing the Magic Static Stratum; the magic environment of the atmospheric turbulence is entirely different from near the surface. The primal magic is stronger yet more difficult to control, and the Magic Web struggles to operate stably in such a chaotic environment. The stability of lift becomes unguaranteed—all unmanned aircraft fell down."

Kamel spoke while spreading his hands—or rather, streams of arcane energy restrained by rune armor plates: "We’ve recovered all recording equipment carried on the aircraft, ready to analyze the data comprehensively to see if we can find a pattern in the turbulence layer, and see what insights the elves might have on this..."