Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1027: Chapter 1026: A Special Meeting

The era has changed.

For a "Divine Fragment" that separated from its original form during the Inversion Tide civilization period and then was sealed together with an ancient energy constraint device deep underground, its era changed millions of years ago.

Yet it never knew any of this—the stagnant Binding Force Field, incorrect time sequences, incomplete external information, and a "stage" carefully woven by a family over two hundred years, wrapped it layer by layer.

Until an hour ago, it still believed that this era was part of the Inversion Tide civilization epoch, believing the bizarre human beings and their diverse nations were mutated survivors left after the disintegration of The Inverted Tide Empire.

"You awoke deep underground in Orlandeau, greeted only by a group of frantic Dark Cultists who were in a daze, acting extreme, and after years of contact, never found a means to communicate with you, nor realized your true nature... later you broke free amid a great explosion and collapse, desperately seeking mortal minds for parasitism in your extremely weakened state, thus you found my ancestors... You lay low in a family’s collective dreams, using your power to constantly erode and entice each family member to become your nourishment, waiting for strength to recover and return to the Divine Realm..."

Emperor Rosetta Augustus calmly gazed at the hollow eye floating before him, seemingly unaffected by the immense pressure released upon him, speaking slowly, each word articulated clearly—

"You seem very confident, assuming that the mortals you parasitized were powerless to resist and dared not resist. Yet have you ever thought about my ancestor from two hundred years ago, the first one you parasitized, Emperor Rosetta Augustus... actually, throughout his life, he never yielded to you. Even until his death, when part of the Dusk Palace, his will continued through the bloodline of Augustus, inherited to this day?"

Behind Emperor Rosetta Augustus, an extremely dim and shadowy figure stepped forward. It was the most transparent of all shadows, so much so that its human outline was blurred beyond recognition. It came to Emperor Rosetta Augustus’s side, its transparent face lacking any detailed features, yet an unyielding gaze fell upon the "body" of the Eye of the God.

"You... you are the mortal emperor from two hundred years ago..." The Eye of the God finally broke its silence in shock and anger. Accompanied by its roar, the starlight throughout the space flared and writhed, "How is this possible?! How could you hide an entire ’era’ before me?! How could you know so many of my secrets?!"

Emperor Rosetta Augustus laughed: "What is impossible? When you chose to parasitize a mortal family, you were destined no longer to be a high, mighty god, but merely a pathetic parasite... you can influence our memories and emotions, we can distort your judgment. That eternal dusk in the palace trapped not just us—you thought you haven’t been deeply trapped in dreams over the past two hundred years?"

"Deeply trapped in dreams... deeply trapped in dreams..." The Eye of the God trembled violently, its edges distorting into impossible geometries, stretching uncontrollably in all directions. As its power continuously eroded, the entire Hall of Mysteries began to exhibit a transparent, distorted, layered strange form, "So it is... so it is... no wonder I haven’t noticed such blatant traces for so long...well done, you did very well!"

A formless impact suddenly exploded in the center at the Eye of the God, its angry words instantly turning into incomprehensible chaotic roars, the starry sky reflected in the entire Hall of Mysteries twisted and rotated, all starlight transformed into malevolent lines and illusions, layers of roaring and pressure surged towards Emperor Rosetta Augustus, yet within that roar, one voice barely discernible: "These petty tricks are utterly meaningless! Mortal minds cannot resist godly power—I will parasitize you again just like two hundred years ago, and this time, you won’t retain any free thought!"

Emperor Rosetta Augustus faced the malice and pressure coming at him. Unable to resist, he staggered back two steps but quickly steadied himself. Facing the furious Eye of the God, he even laughed in return: "You can try—but are you sure you still have the capacity to parasitize minds now?"

"This is easy for me..." The Eye of the God instinctively replied, but then exclaimed in shock the next second, "How..."

"After absorbing so much power from the War God, being deeply polluted by various chaotic divine thoughts, do you still consider yourself the ’God of Dream Realms’?" Emperor Rosetta Augustus’s face had turned slightly pale, but his eyes were filled with more vitality than ever, "We’ve spent two hundred years stealing this aspect of ’knowledge’ from you, yet did not expect you’d forget it all at a crucial moment...but it’s normal, after all, you are not the complete God of Dream Realms, you’re just a detached eye, severed from the original form and divine support, you can’t even survive alone in the real world...a truly pitiable fragment."

"What right do you have to speak to me like this?!" The Eye of the God raged, countless twisted malicious starlights shone into the Hall of Mysteries from distant dimensions, though these starlights were rapidly weakening and disappearing, their remaining power seemed enough to destroy everything in the hall—including Emperor Rosetta Augustus, and also the soul shadows who stood behind Emperor Rosetta Augustus, acting in the Dusk Palace’s play with the Eye of the God for two hundred years.

"Your arrogant mortal expressions make me nauseous, erasing you from this world is my final responsibility—be honored, you even have the privilege to perish alongside the Eye of the God!"

Mad roars transformed into incomprehensible chaotic noise again, the surrounding starlight already filled with a scorching touch capable of tearing both matter and spirit, death was about to arrive, Emperor Rosetta Augustus instead calmed more than ever, with a slight smile, he looked at the Eye of the God, who was visibly weakening yet still acting prideful, watching the increasingly transparent and unreal lines dissipating around the eye, he opened his arms, ready to embrace the distant starlight—right at this moment, a strange female voice suddenly invaded his mind—

"Is this all Roland’s descendants are capable of, waiting to die?"

Emperor Rosetta Augustus opened his eyes in astonishment, just as he wanted to locate the source of the voice, a loud explosion from nearby shattered a wall—and then all surrounding starry phantasms were suddenly ripped open into a huge gap, the illusion swiftly collapsed, revealing the original walls and ceiling of the Hall of Mysteries.

A large floor-to-ceiling window facing the west side of the castle, along with part of the wall, was blasted open by some weapon, a gust of cold wind rushed into the hall through the gap, a strangely shaped Cecil flying object crashed directly through the gap into the Hall of Mysteries, its metal casing, wing panels, and cone base scraped the floor and walls, throwing a shower of sparks everywhere, it halted before Emperor Rosetta Augustus like a rash beast—and he was... stunned.

Finally, he saw the astonishing details of that strange Cecil flying object—he saw a "container" with a diameter of over two meters mounted on the inverted cone machine base, with a living brain soaking inside it, in that brief instant, he met the brain eye to eye. This should be a horrific scene inducing dread and fear, yet he felt a deep, blood-connected emotion surging inexplicably from somewhere.

In the next instant, the flying object "mounted" with the brain emitted a weird buzzing from inside, then the surface of the brain and some mechanical structures of the flying object glowed with magic symbol light, an intangible psychic force field expanded, a long, spider limb-like limb suddenly appeared out of thin air and quickly stabbed toward the rapidly dispersing Eye of the God nearby.

Emperor Rosetta Augustus instinctively glanced toward the direction of that limb, yet before he could make out what happened next, a dazzling white light suddenly flooded his vision.

A brief and intense dizziness struck, and Emperor Rosetta Augustus realized his mind was invaded, yet this intrusion did not cause him any sense of crisis—quickly adapting to the disorientation of spatial displacement, the scene before him gradually stabilized, he found himself in an exceedingly vast space.

The endless water surface extended infinitely within the field of vision, calm like a mirror; the sky was clear as if washed, with thin clouds floating against the blue backdrop, and countless magic symbols and mechanical parts continuously rotating and reassembling between the clouds; platforms of various sizes with unclear purposes floated on the distant water surface, shrouded in vague great barriers, obscuring the specific scenes on them.

This was the scene that met Emperor Rosetta Augustus’s eyes as he opened them.

A moment later, he came to his senses from his surprise and saw a round table appear before him at some unknown time, surrounded by a few elegant high-backed chairs, and two figures standing by the table, seemingly waiting for him.

Upon clearly seeing the appearance of one of the figures, his pupils subconsciously contracted slightly, yet in the next second, his expression relaxed, even more than before.

Gawain Cecil—not surprising at all.

Emperor Rosetta Augustus took a step towards the round table. His feet walked on the water’s surface, clearly feeling it was not solid ground, yet without the slightest sensation of sinking.

He came before Gawain Cecil, first scrutinizing him briefly, then looking around before retracting his gaze with a slight smile: "So, here should I address you as Gawain Cecil or Outland Wanderer?"

"It seems those Eternal Sleepers you recruited have provided you with quite a bit of useful information," Gawain chuckled, casually pointing to a seat by the round table, "Sit down, everyone who comes here has a place."

"Thank you." Emperor Rosetta Augustus nodded, casually sitting down, and exquisite tea and desserts appeared before him, with a teacup automatically filling itself.

Gawain glanced at him in slight surprise: "You don’t seem very surprised?"

"With how the war against the gods has developed to this point, quite a lot has exceeded my initial expectations," Emperor Rosetta Augustus calmly said, "By comparison, the ’Outland Wanderer’ at least is something I’ve encountered in intelligence."

Just as he finished speaking, a female voice came from another seat by the round table: "I thought you’d greet me first—has etiquette in the Augustus clan worsened in your generation?"

The speaker was the other figure who had been standing beside Gawain all along.

Emperor Rosetta Augustus’s full attention had been on Gawain, the "Outland Wanderer" who deserved his vigilance, so much so that he hadn’t noticed who else was by the table—besides, at first glance, he hadn’t associated that unfamiliar face with anyone he knew until he heard the other speak, then he suddenly realized it was the same unfamiliar female voice he had heard when facing the Eye of the God earlier, prompting him to turn his gaze in surprise.

He saw the other’s appearance clearly—a graceful, elegant lady in a light green dress. He briefly recalled and confirmed he did not know this person, but then something stirred in his heart, bringing a vague sense that he had indeed seen this face before somewhere...

The lady in the green dress slightly furrowed her brows: "What, have you already burned all my portraits?"

Emperor Rosetta Augustus finally remembered where the familiar feeling came from as the other’s appearance matched something in his memory, causing his eyes to widen instantly: "You... you are..."

"You see, something even more surprising might still happen here," Gawain laughed, speaking casually as if in light conversation, "Come, have some tea."

Emperor Rosetta Augustus did not pay attention to Gawain’s words or the tea and desserts before him. He merely stared, scanning the seated woman opposite him with furrowed brows: "Are you Beltira Augustus?"

"You should add an honorific," the woman said lightly, "I haven’t at least asked you to bow here."

"Well, perhaps I should address you as ’Ma’am’," Emperor Rosetta Augustus said calmly, "So, you indeed have lived to this day in some form?"

Beltira keenly caught the keyword in his speech: "’Indeed’... it seems you know something."

"... The royal family has many ancient records and scattered investigation notes regarding those family members who mysteriously disappeared in history," Emperor Rosetta Augustus hesitated before continuing, "Besides, I have some... personal sources as well."

"Alright, you’ve done quite well, but this topic is not particularly pleasant for me," Beltira thought of the now-defunct Oblivion Association and some members of those dark cultists once active worldwide who even she found distasteful, and she shook her head, "Let’s conclude the pleasant family meeting here; we should discuss some serious matters."