Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1102: Chapter 1101: Definition

The Silver Empress spoke unintentionally, but Gawain listened attentively, and his heart was slightly moved, feeling that this topic seemed to become bizarre — to have the former God of Nature personally talk to those devoted believers who refused to forget the past? This matter... perhaps to the Silver Empress, it was just a whimsical idea, but to Gawain, it seemed physically feasible...

That "god" was still in his backyard watching "television," according to the monitoring team, at least 20 hours online daily...

But then again, what should Amon say to those persistent believers? How could one safely and prudently make a group of elves, who have been so determined for three thousand years, give up their obsession? Should the God of Nature perform dying again on the spot...

Gawain gently shook his head, promptly discarding the strange thoughts that suddenly appeared, knowing that this idea was just a passing thought. No matter how he dared not casually let Amon re-connect with the outside world and the mortals — even saying a word or showing a trace was absolutely not allowed, the risks behind this matter were too huge, which might likely result in Amon, who had already detached from deity status, reconnecting with the theocracy. The benefits of doing such were unpredictable.

He couldn’t casually squander the three thousand years of achievements of White Starfall on such a joking move.

However... if approached from another method, a different perspective...

Gawain involuntarily fell into thought, but his thoughts were quickly interrupted by the Silver Empress. Belsetia glanced over with some curiosity: "What are you thinking about?"

"...Nothing, just some trivial matters," Gawain was startled from his thoughts, gave Belsetia a glance, and some plans floated in his mind, but soon he temporarily suppressed these not fully formed thoughts. He looked up toward a distant mechanical clock, seeing its hands gradually reaching the highest point, "The break is almost over... let us return to the meeting first."

Within the Oath Stone Circle, representatives from all sides gradually returned to their positions — in fact, most representatives hadn’t even left the range of the stone circle, using the limited thirty-minute break to interact with other representatives, mastering as much information as possible to gain a better grasp of the situation. Even those who left were engaged with their teams, seeking advice and intelligence support from think tanks — no one would truly let their minds idle during this brief time, as everyone knew this meeting was already reaching its end, and the true relaxation was best saved until the stone circle opened again.

After confirming that all representatives returned to their positions and the staff outside the circle were prepared, Belsetia stood up from her seat, quietly scanned the entire venue, then slightly raised her right hand: "Following the meeting procedure, the Oath Stone Circle is now sealed, and unless a life-threatening situation occurs, the sealed state will last until this closed meeting ends."

As the Silver Empress’s voice fell, a low humming sound arose from the edge of the venue. Then the majestic stone pillars’ surfaces suddenly gleamed with layers of magical brilliance; countless ancient and profound runes surfaced from the stone walls unfolding like petals, connecting in the air to form a pale green rune curtain. Subsequently, light flowed, and light and shadow rapidly filled between the runes — in just a few seconds, a lush and boundless dense forest rose outside the entire Oath Stone Circle, replacing the original wasteland scene and distant townscape, leaving not a trace visible.

Yet outside the Oath Stone Circle, the teams waiting in the rest area did not see the "forest." They merely watched as the vast ancient ceremony site was enveloped in brilliance and then disappeared out of thin air into the wilderness the next second — this caused slight disturbance among some, but seeing those from the Elf Affairs Officers and Typhon and Cecil work groups still quietly resting by the site calmed the restless ones quickly.

Inside the Oath Stone Circle, after the Silver Empress ended the "Antiphase" of the ceremony field and returned to her seat, Gawain stood up: "Then we begin this meeting. As many of you might have realized after so many days of meetings, we have always intentionally avoided that topic. Therefore now... it is time to face this biggest dilemma: concerning the gods of our world."

The meeting venue, which had been a lot quieter due to reduced personnel, saw many representatives slightly shift in their seats; some showed faint changes in their expressions, some instinctively fell into thought, and some clenched their fists, tapping their foreheads, but no one was too alarmed at the topic. Just as Gawain stated, after so many days of meetings, having seen the footage from the Typhon-Cecil battlefield and knowing about the disaster in Talronde, any intelligent person should by now have guessed the content of this closed door meeting.

"Thus, I believe no one will doubt the authenticity of the materials we saw at the opening of the meeting," after a brief pause, Gawain continued, "What I want to say is, those materials are far from complete —

"As early as a few years ago, Cecil had already come into contact with parts of this truth, and Typhon faced the ’dark side of gods’ even earlier than Cecil. Reaching back to the ancient Gondor era, some prophets foresaw this dark reality; they were called ’Defiers,’ spending their lives seeking ways to resist fate...

"This is what I want to say: this is not a crisis that suddenly exposed itself to mortals. In fact, this crisis has accompanied our civilization for thousands, tens of thousands of years, with many facing and attempting to combat it over long ages. This is the ’hidden river’ in our civilization’s development, a silent stream most are unaware of, yet it has constantly flowed in the depths of our history."

"This sounds too general," the leader of the Northern City-States Union stood up, "Is there more detailed information that can help us quickly grasp the situation?"

"Yes, the information is stored in the hidden compartments under your tables," Gawain nodded, "You can pick it up yourselves. We explained the situation in the simplest and clearest form possible; if there are still questions during reading, you can voice them anytime."

Under the banner of the tribal country of Augari, Venna Baizhi quickly found the information Gawain mentioned in the compartment under the stone table — to her surprise, it was not in the high-quality paper widely used in previous agendas but was a roll of parchment with a distinctly elven style and a slight sheen. Upon unfurling it, she saw several bright runes flickering from the paper’s edge, instantly realizing what this was:

A magical secret contract whose greatest function was its incapability of being copied in any form; once created, it cannot be overwritten or tampered with in any way, nor be taken out of a designated area, and it can only be opened once.

Gawain’s voice came from not far away: "To ensure the safety of the information, we had to distribute it in the form of a magical secret contract, not because of any suspicion towards anyone present, but because it concerns the gods, and procedural security must be emphasized."

The leaders or plenipotentiary ambassadors from various countries had no questions; they bowed their heads and began seriously reading the information stored in the magical secret contract. Boosted by rapid reading spells, the vast amount of information converted into their minds with high efficiency. As those ancient, dreadful truths and modern research findings were revealed one by one, a solemn and grave atmosphere began to form within the Oath Stone Circle.

The expressions on everyone’s faces turned solemn, and some even started to gently wipe the fine sweat from their foreheads.

After an unknown amount of time passed, a female leader with fiery red hair was the first to stand up: "Is there still no accurate measure of the ’countdown’ mentioned here? Do we have no way to calculate it?"

"I’m afraid it’s beyond the current scope of our knowledge," Gawain lightly shook his head. "The situation with the gods varies, and observing the gods itself leads to powerful reverse pollution—those attempting to measure the countdown will mutate and die from divine pollution before they’re able to speak any conclusions. This was confirmed by many pioneers who sacrificed themselves during the Gondor era a thousand years ago.

"Of course, our technology has developed somewhat now. The Cecil Clan is attempting various means to effectively resist divine pollution and has already achieved preliminary results. If our protective technology is advanced enough, perhaps one day we can directly observe the kingdom, or even directly monitor the state of a god—but who knows when that day will come."

"... Monitoring the kingdom and gods, this sounds like a frightening plan," another representative couldn’t help but whisper, "but..."

"But we have to do it," Rosetta broke the silence, the Typhon Ruler looked solemnly at the representative, "Typhon has already proven with its own blood the consequences of gods losing control—this countdown is real, and as long as mortal civilization continues to develop, it will never stop. Even if we only slightly extend the average lifespan of the populace or increase the population a bit, it still increases ideological change, and increases the risk of gods losing control."

"To stop the countdown, we must stop all development actions, and considering that the experience and knowledge of intelligent beings are passively accumulated, we must consciously annihilate populations, destroy knowledge, ban technology, and revert to ancestral living," Queen Belsetia suddenly said, her voice soft yet with a penetrative quality echoing throughout the Oath Stone Circle, "Is anyone willing to accept such a price?"

The meeting hall instantly became quiet, representatives looked at each other, clearly unwilling to accept such a horrifying outcome.

Moreover... even if this extreme method is used to stop the countdown of divine madness, the world’s crises are not limited to just one. What about the chaotic wave? What about dangerous natural environments? What about the crises surrounding us after national power declines? Those seated here are not foolish, no one would choose to break all limbs to avoid falling.

The choice proposed by the Silver Empress was evidently unacceptable from the start.

"Then we have reached the most basic consensus," Gawain broke the silence at this moment, his voice steady and powerful. "The development and progress of civilization is necessary for survival. We cannot stagnate, nor can we accept regression—resulting ideological change is also inevitable. Problems won’t disappear out of thin air, we can only find ways to resolve them. This is the premise of everything."

No one objected because everything was clear. After a brief silence, a leader from the southwestern region couldn’t help but stand up: "So, must we regard the gods as enemies?"

"This is precisely the first matter we must address in this meeting—defining the gods," Gawain looked quietly at the representative, then retracted his gaze, composed his expression, and said solemnly, "For thousands, even tens of thousands of years, faith has always been an important part of the lives of the various races in Loren. In any case, we must acknowledge its positive role in the development of civilization, and this positive role continues to be effective to this day. On the other hand, there is no true state of ’unbelievers’ among the member countries of the alliance. All our countries have their own church forces, and religious activities are closely linked with our citizens. We cannot violently and directly separate religion from our social activities. This is a fact.

"Under the above two premises, are ’gods’ truly our enemies?

"A thousand years ago the Defiers indeed defined them this way, they believed gods were indeed enemies of civilization, even if not now, they would inevitably be—pioneers are admirable, but unfortunately, as our understanding advances, we must also question the views of the pioneers.

"More and more evidence indicates that gods have never had subjective malice towards civilization. In fact, due to ideological influence, their goodwill towards civilization is predominant; secondly, the countdown to divine madness is not any party’s subjective intention, but rather the result of the operation of natural laws. Unfortunately, no gods can be held accountable for this law; lastly, gods indeed cause destructive damage to civilization after going mad, but they have never proactively caused any before, quite the opposite—if conditions permit, gods will actively curb this tendency to madness, taking some form of self-rescue action.

"Regarding this ’self-rescue action,’ we cannot disclose overly detailed information now, but I can assure you, the Cecil Clan has observed enough evidence to prove there are signs among the gods of actively breaking free from their ’shackles.’

At this moment, Gawain deliberately paused, then continued: "Therefore, I believe we should not view gods as enemies or potential enemies—they, like us, are victims of the natural law of the ’ideological shackles.’ Even if an extreme situation like the Bitter Winter Castle Hunt God War occurs, even if one day in the future a god stands in opposition to civilization, we must have a clear understanding and definition of this."

After finishing, Gawain finally let out a light sigh, as if shedding part of the burden in his heart.

After so many twists and turns, collecting so much data, and conducting countless debates, he finally defined the relationship between gods and humans within the cruel and unfeeling "laws" of this world—this matter’s significance to him was actually no less than the establishment of the Commonwealth Alliance.

Only after defining can there be a clear direction.

While exhaling a sigh of relief, he also noticed the expression changes on the faces of each representative under the stone pillars.

There were nearly a third of representatives visibly relieved, their expressions remained serious, but their faces were no longer so tense, even a certain inexplicable brilliance lit up in their eyes...

Gawain sighed gently in his heart.

In this world, far too many people ultimately cannot truly "let go" of their gods. Even the royal power naturally opposed to theocracy, what they oppose is only the secular priest forces, not those gods who protect the world.