Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 585 - 584: In the Shadows

Above the base of the sentinel towers, floating in mid-air with the help of anti-gravity technology, is the most important "functional facility" of this tower, known as the "Stele" shield projector.

The energy barrier of the great walls is maintained by the "Stele," but its function is not limited to creating a shield. As a powerful magic facility, the Stele has a very complex structure and function. While creating a shield, it also acts as an upper sensor, monitoring the barrier situation at over a thousand meters high in real-time, tracking energy tides within the wasteland, and reporting its status to the Magic Spirit Mind within the base at any time.

The sensor array within the Stele might be the last unit that could malfunction and bypass the Magic Spirit Mind.

"There’s an elevator leading to the Stele at the top of this room," Bannar opened a new control interface on the alloy pillar beside the Magic Spirit Mind, quickly checking the system while speaking, "Let me see... Thank the Spirit of the Forest, the elevator is in good condition."

Gawain nodded: "Let’s go down to the Stele and have a look."

No one had any objections, so Gawain arranged for Soldrin and the Cavalry Scouts Warriors to continue the alert within the base, and he, along with Bannar and others, went to the upper level of the room where the Magic Spirit Mind was located—a round lift platform quietly docked in the groove at the top of the room.

The lift platform had been docked here for seven centuries, but the defense system of the sentinel towers kept it in good condition. After Bannar injected it with magic power and input control commands, light blue magic patterns and faint Elven Runes immediately appeared on the surface of the round platform. Gawain felt a slight tremor under his feet, and the entire platform began to rise slowly.

The magic power cloud top, which was emitting a faint glow, gradually approached within sight, while an energy shield automatically rose around the lift platform to protect its occupants. However, Gawain paid no attention to the magic power cloud overhead or the shield beside him, focusing almost entirely on the magic symbols emerging on the platform surface.

This is the elves’ anti-gravity technology...far more advanced than that of humans.

It requires only a small amount of magic power to carry a considerable load upward, and it floats with incredible stability. Its rune structure has obviously been well-optimized, so much so that Bannar requires almost no additional manipulation of it...

Humans also have levitation magic and floating devices based on gravity spells. Within the towers of archMages, similar floating platforms are often used to transport personnel or goods. However, Gawain is well aware of the fatal flaws in those floating devices—they consume enormous amounts of energy, making them usable only inside Mage towers. They are difficult to control, requiring the assistance of a Tower Spirit to prevent falling, and they are so expensive and complex that only middle-ranked to powerful Transcendents can afford them...

The researchers at the Rune Research Center have been attempting to decrypt and optimize human gravity spells, encountering similar issues to those in the past with the communication spell: a black box of technology.

Gravity spells were not created by humans. Their origins are a mystery, and the spell moulds contain many incomprehensible structures. Jenni and her technical team have worked tirelessly but have been unable to optimize large-scale anti-gravity Arrays to a practical level. So far, the only achievements of the Rune Research Center in gravity spells are the "Weight-Reduction" technique and the "Levitation Trick," the former being used in construction and material transport fields, while the latter—due to its minimal load capacity and interference issues from multiple interconnected Arrays—remains inapplicable.

The black box of communication technology was cracked after the introduction of the Eternal Sleepers’ technology. Could the black box of gravity magic find a breakthrough in the elves’ knowledge system?

The floating platform continued to ascend, piercing through the thick layer of the magic power cloud top, with the misty light mist filling everyone’s vision. Sparks generated by the friction between magic and the platform shield crackled around, causing Amber to instinctively shrink her neck in fright at this seemingly dangerous "passage." Meanwhile, Gawain was still pondering the applications of anti-gravity technology—

Breaking away from gravity and soaring into the skies is something almost every intelligent being yearns for. Its significance in military and civilian fields is self-evident. More importantly, the technology to break free from gravity is something Gawain has always longed for—in his lifetime, in fields he could imagine, it seems to be the only way that might allow him to reach out and touch those satellites in space, to touch his own "essence."

On this path, gryphons are inadequate, giant eagles are inadequate, and personal flight spells for Mages are also inadequate.

Provided the conditions are ripe, a flying machine must be manufactured.

The floating platform passed through a magic power cloud top over ten meters thick, and the crackling sparks and misty light mist gradually sank beneath their feet, revealing an astonishing open view outside the platform.

The magnificently scaled great walls unfolded like an aurora cascading into the earth before their eyes, outlining the borders of the ancient Gondor Empire. To the north, at the edge of their vision, was the undulating silhouette of the Dark Mountain Range, and to the south, an endless expanse of violet-black decomposed land stretched out. Jagged, menacing rocks and withered plants dotted the plains, with some twisted and unrecognizable remnants appearing far in the distance, looking desolate yet vast.

Amber stared dumbfounded at the scene beyond the barrier, and after a long silence, she exclaimed, "Wow..."

"That is Gondor, the most powerful Empire in human history. Seven hundred years ago, the ancestors of Anzu fled from there," memories from Gawain Cecil surged forth as Gawain broke the silence while gazing towards the southern wasteland, "See that faintly red-tinted strip? That was the path we took, where we lost a fifth of our people. And over there, those crooked ruins that seem as though they’ve melted, that’s Serlanduran—the last border city still organizing resistance. Back then, Charlie attempted to persuade the leader of Serlanduran to lead the populace in fleeing immediately, but the stubborn old Earl insisted on dying with the city. He ultimately detonated Serlanduran’s magic power pipelines; those crooked objects are the remnants of those pipelines."

Everyone listened quietly to Gawain’s narrative, even Amber could not help but remain silent, and in this brief silence, the entire elevator platform entered a shadow—

It had arrived at the Stele’s lower docking area.

After a brief period of adjustment, the group’s eyes adapted to the dimmer magical lighting inside the Stele. Amber blinked at her surroundings, then was surprised to discover that the interior space of this enormous Stele wasn’t actually very large—within their line of sight, there was only a circular hall with a high ceiling, though it wasn’t more than a few dozen meters tall, and apart from the hall, she could see no other exits.

Rows of neat silver metal pillars stood in the hall, possibly serving as the monitoring and control devices for the stele.

"Most of the stele is locked down, wrapped in thick layers of artificial rock and several layers of magical materials," Bannar explained. "This is because the stele is filled with extremely powerful energy. This energy is incredibly dangerous, and it must maintain its own closed energy environment to prevent the shield from losing balance, so we have to seal it. The walls of this hall are ten meters thick, relying on a huge magic circle set on the roof, establishing connections with various parts of the stele. Through this magic circle, we can understand the working conditions throughout the stele."

Bannar spoke as he approached the silver metal pillars, activating one of them. Complex and mysterious Elven Runes appeared on the column’s surface, accompanied by a slight humming sound, illusionary projections of data appeared around the column in the air.

Gawain and Sonia watched Bannar’s work with apprehension, hoping he could find some anomalies, but also worried about discovering a major malfunction in the sentinel towers—the stele is the most critical structure of the sentinel towers, anything going wrong here is almost always fatal, if the problem truly lies here...

It would likely turn the whole restoration and reinforcement plan into a joke.

Amber also watched Bannar’s operation for a while, but not understanding Elven Runes or the sentinel towers’ functioning, she soon lost interest and began glancing around.

The "phantom visions" happening in succession today had piqued her curiosity.

She was an easygoing girl, part of her personality laid-back, but that didn’t mean she was heartless (though many people thought she was). She wouldn’t simply dismiss what she saw as "seeing things" carelessly, yet she understood one thing well—those things might only be visible to her.

It was projection from the shadow realm, or... phenomena arising after the shadow realm partially invaded the real world.

Is there a shadow rift here? Why would a shadow rift appear out of thin air in nature?

Amber furrowed her brow, attempting to relax her mind, allowing her innate, inexplicable shadow affinity to gradually take hold of her senses, she breathed calmly, her gaze sweeping over the hall.

She began observing this place from the perspective of shadow residents.

The figure seen below was likely a shadow resident—shadow residents undertake no communication with beings of the material world, seemingly carrying an undertone of malice, yet they are relatively close to her. Amber was uncertain if the shadow residents’ attitude towards her counted as close, but she did have encounters dealing with them.

These peculiar, seemingly illogical residents are actually intelligent beings. They wouldn’t direct themselves here without reason unless something disturbed the order between the material world and shadow realm... things.

"Everything seems orderly from these devices as well," Bannar’s somewhat perplexed voice rang out nearby. The Elven Mage repeatedly inspected several key sensors of the stele, his tone filled with incomprehension, "Curious... everything’s too normal..."

Sonia approached Bannar side by side: "The sensors seem to be functioning well. What about its connection with the Magic Spirit Mind?"

"The connection is smooth, wait, it’s too smooth..."

Amber found Bannar and Sonia’s voices becoming ethereal and indistinct.

Her hair had unknowingly grown very long, floating in midair as if void of gravity, her eyes turned into a strange pale gold, reflecting the black-and-white landscape of the shadow realm, a writhing fog gathered beneath her feet, constructing the path towards the shadow realm.

She entered the shadow realm.

Figures wrapped in rune cloth, hollow and eerie, appeared around her, murmuring softly: "Trouble’s brewing for you...""They’ve caused destruction long ago...""But it seems you can delay things slightly.""That’s none of our concern...""Just to remind you, after all, you belong here...""Look up, see above."

Amber lifted her head to look at the roof of the hall.

Vast networks of sprawling vines and roots converged on all the silver metal pillars, sprawling over the hall walls, threading through cracks in the landing area of the lift, extending beyond the stele.

They seemed connected to the base below, linked to the ground beneath the base, joined to the wastelands, tied to something more blasphemous deep within the wastelands.

"Oh my!!"