Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1130: Chapter 1129: From the Other Shore

Everyone’s attention was focused on the strange patterns that emerged, until they occupied an entire line, until a series of evenly distributed dots appeared after the symbols, until a void of white noise came through the listening channel, with a "signal lost" alert ringing from a nearby Magic Web Terminal, many finally seemed to remember how to breathe as they took a deep breath.

"The signal is gone..." A monitoring staff stood up from their chair, saying with a trace of confusion on their face, and then repeated again, "The signal is gone..."

The holographic projection in the center of the room was still active, with a clear image hanging in mid-air. Gawain’s gaze was fixed on those "symbols" that emerged at the end, unmoving for a long time—they appeared to be composed of arcs and straight lines, grouped into sets of four to six symbols, separated by dots or short lines, inevitably stirring certain associations.

"Your Majesty, what do you think these things..." Bard couldn’t help but break the silence, "They look like..."

"Words," Gawain said softly, "They look like some kind of text."

"We’ve never seen this kind of text," a gray-haired Mage Technician murmured lightly not far away, "I bet no one here recognizes this stuff... It looks too bizarre."

Queen Belsetia remained silent beside Gawain. She was still not very sure what had exactly happened, but based on Gawain’s explanation on the road and the things she just saw, she already had a vague guess in her heart. At this moment her gaze swept through every face on site, seeing tension, excitement, confusion, speculation, and the contemplation each shared—she finally looked at Gawain, only to see those eyes, as deep and calm as water, yet something seemed to be brewing in their depths.

After a few more seconds, Gawain finally spoke again, his voice calmer than Queen Belsetia imagined: "Record these symbols, gather language and writing experts, and cryptographers, do your utmost to decipher..."

He suddenly stopped halfway, as if seriously weighing something, and continued after deliberating: "Additionally, scramble some of the symbols and release them nationwide, gather clues from anyone who has seen anything similar through any means—even if they found it in their child’s doodles or in the crop fields of their own farm."

Beltira, standing by, immediately nodded: "Understood, I am already notifying General Margarita."

"Distribute the full operation parameters of the antenna group to all monitoring stations nationwide," Gawain added, "Also, in what direction was the main antenna pointing when the signal appeared?"

Bard reminded by the side, "Your Majesty, the current main antenna has been changed to a lattice array, the reception of the array crystals has no directionality..."

"But its mechanical base has," Gawain looked at Bard, obviously, though he was no longer personally involved in this technical field, he was not entirely ignorant of some basics, "The mechanical structure of this array determines that even though the crystal grid’s reception is omnidirectional, it will have better reception efficiency in specific directions. Where was the mechanical disc of the main antenna pointing at that time?"

A young female Mage Technician quickly ran to her workstation, found the main antenna’s orientation data, quickly compared it in her mind, then raised her head: "Your Majesty, at that time the main antenna should have been pointed near the Frost Throne Constellation..."

"From today onward, the antenna group of the Sorin Listening Station is dedicated to tracking signals from the Frost Throne Constellation direction," Gawain looked at Beltira beside him, "Stations in other regions should maintain their original omnidirectional listening."

Beltira already understood Gawain’s thought, she reminded: "The Palamere Observatory and Sorin Listening Station are on the same latitude, and there is a higher-grade ’window’ there. I think it’s better to have them synchronized too."

Gawain thought for a moment and nodded at once: "You have a point, let Palamere Observatory adjust their antenna toward the Frost Throne Constellation as well and enable twenty-four-hour reception mode. I’ll send a team of technical personnel there afterward because they might be short-handed."

Following a series of arrangements and short discussions, Gawain left the monitoring facility located at the bottom of the tree canopy layer, they did not return to Beltira’s "resting place", but directly rode the elevator inside the tree trunk back to the top of the canopy layer—by this time it was nearing dusk, and the brilliant summer sunlight slowly turned into a golden-red afterglow, with splendid daylight pouring from afar, sweeping over those stretching thin clouds, spilling onto the broad wooden platform and the overlapping sea of leaves at the top of the giant tree.

This season’s sunset, condensed light like water.

The main antenna stood on the top of the platform, supported by a complex and ingenious mechanical framework, holding hundreds of transparent hexagonal crystal thin plates, the magic symbols flickering between the crystal and magi-metal, echoing the daylight sky high above, the wind blowing through the antenna array, bringing a whirring sound between the crystal and metal crevices, as if this industrial product, the crystallization of scholars across the Empire, was whispering something.

Gawain stood beneath the antenna, retracting his gaze from the crystal array, looking at its intricately structured mechanical base: in order to achieve the optimal group resonance effect and reduce interference in the magical power field, its mechanical disc would automatically track "high purity windows" in the atmosphere and adjust itself, perhaps it was because of this small variable, that an unexpected result was brought today.

But the variable might also be from the material of the main antenna: as far as he knew, the crystals here had been updated not long ago, due to the failure of the old monitoring equipment after a strong wind, mechanics scholars and mage technicians redesigned the entire system and replaced the damaged old crystals with new high-quality crystals. These crystals were cast by the Pompeii Crystal Foundry, and their raw material was high-purity original crystal dust from the Ancestral Peak of Augari, with significant differences in performance between the new and old crystals... Could this be the reason?

Perhaps the next time another listening station captures the signal, everyone would get the answer.

"Looks like the mechanical scholars will be working overtime recently," Beltira’s voice came from beside, interrupting Gawain’s thoughts, this "Embodiment of the Giant Tree" stood beside the base of the antenna, looking up at the crystals as well, with a faint smile on her wood-mimicked face, "To maintain the resonance strength and interference resistance of the antenna itself while locking the crystal array in a specific direction, it might be necessary to redesign the entire mechanical disc structure from scratch... Luckily, this isn’t an unsolvable technical difficulty, the original modification plan seemed to have the corresponding design idea, but... the cost might be a bit higher."

Gawain didn’t respond, just watched the direction in which the antenna array was pointed, where there was now only a sheet of golden-red glow and a cloud slowly drifting north, no stars visible in the sky, but he knew, during the day the stars were still twinkling, the Frost Throne Constellation was in that direction at the moment, and the massive monitoring device in front of him was slowly tracking that ancient constellation at an amplitude almost undetectable to the naked eye.

"Right now, the tracking accuracy isn’t enough, is it?" he suddenly said in a low voice.

"Of course, it’s not enough. This mechanical structure wasn’t meant for celestial tracking in the first place. I’m using a Servo Brain to take over the mechanical disk control of this antenna. The computation precision of the Servo Brain is adequate, but the mechanical precision of the disk is a flaw," Beltira said. "This problem should be resolved after rebuilding the mechanical disk. However, we still need some experts in astrology here—I’m not considering star sages on the level of Palamere Observatory; a few graduates from the Imperial Academy would suffice, as long as they understand how to construct the antenna’s tracking trajectory based on the operation laws of the celestial sphere."

"I’ll arrange the best Astrologers and sufficient funding for you," Gawain glanced at Beltira, "Where did you learn this tactic of playing pitiful to swindle funding?"

Beltira remained expressionless, without any reaction.

Then the entire platform fell silent, and Gawain, Beltira, and Queen Belsetia each kept quiet beneath the antenna. The tacit silence lasted for a full minute before they suddenly spoke in unison: "Did it really come from the starry sky?"

Their words fell, and the three exchanged looks. After a brief pause in silence, they couldn’t help but laugh. Then Queen Belsetia took a deep breath, as if her tense nerves were suddenly relaxed: "But I still can’t believe it... Even though I did have this thought, is it really possible? This mysterious signal you’re talking about, it..."

"It’s not just a wild imagination, although indeed not many people have thought in this direction," Gawain interrupted Queen Belsetia, his expression turning serious, "When the signal first appeared, I speculated about this, but I’ve never told anyone because the idea was too advanced, and it doesn’t conform to many people’s thinking habits. You should know that my perspective on the starry sky differs from yours."

Beltira and Queen Belsetia simultaneously thought of Gawain’s identity as ’Wanderer from Outer Realm’. They exchanged a glance and nodded lightly, but didn’t point anything out.

"Over the past two years, we’ve conducted significant research on this signal," Gawain continued, "Beltira should be well aware of this—we’ve set up listening stations nationwide, and even one abroad in the tribal country of Augari. We’ve employed various methods to try and pinpoint the signal’s origin, but found nothing on the ground. Of course, we’ve also attempted to direct the antennas towards the sky, but perhaps the luck wasn’t on our side, or maybe the old crystal’s sensitivity wasn’t sufficient. The previously sky-pointing antennas didn’t receive any useful information... until this time.

"Of course, it’s also possible the signal comes from elsewhere, like the shadow realm overlapping with the real world, or an elemental world, or even... Divine Realm. But we currently lack the ability to establish large-scale outposts in these places, so such conjectures can only remain speculative. To date, the only possibly reliable clue... is this time."

Queen Belsetia remained silent, somewhat distracted, she lifted her head. Watching as the twilight gradually dimmed with time, and a faint dusk spread from afar, her keen eyes captured the star glow—a sight seemingly previously unnoticed in the past few centuries, now astoundingly captivating her gaze.

Lost in thought, she heard Gawain’s voice near her: "Actually, we should have known long ago that we are not the only intelligent beings in this universe—in this world, ’outsiders’ are not uncommon."

"Yes, I know there’s a sea demons Kingdom in the distant eastern deep-sea. They claim to have arrived on this planet in giant ships capable of interstellar travel; some sea demons allies even operate within the Empire," Beltira nodded lightly, "I’ve read about these sea demons stories in newspapers and radio programs."

"But this is our first time hearing with our own ’ears’ a sound from beyond the planet... though it’s just a possibility," Queen Belsetia withdrew her gaze from the sky, turning to look at Beltira and Gawain, "A mysterious, unknown sound is coming from a remote, unknown world... This feels different from hearing stories. I never imagined I’d experience such a thing."

"I never expected it either," Gawain smiled, the smile filled with complex emotions. "This... even got me a bit flustered."

"You don’t seem that happy?" Queen Belsetia keenly noticed Gawain’s mood, "I thought you’d be more excited about this—it’s an exhilarating discovery, and it’s related to the ’starry sky’."

"But it might not necessarily be a good thing," Gawain’s excitement indeed surged at one point but was now gradually receding, with more thoughts arising in his mind, "Don’t forget, in our world, ’moving forward’ always involves substantial risks."

Upon hearing these words, Queen Belsetia also cooled down promptly. She instantly thought of files from the theocracy Authority Council, and fragments of words revealed by the Dragonkin, a grave expression appearing in her eyes: "You mean... gods might lose control over our act of gazing into the starry sky..."

"No, it’s not that bad," Gawain shook his head, "According to reliable intelligence, merely ’gazing into the starry sky’ itself is not enough to cause gods to lose control. Only the act of stepping towards the starry sky would drive them insane, so at least at this stage, this discovery doesn’t pose a risk of causing divine disaster."

"Reliable intelligence?" Beltira couldn’t help but frown, "Is this information truly credible?"

"Credible," Gawain nodded, "Told to me by the Dragon God before he went insane."

Queen Belsetia & Beltira: "...Then this is indeed credible."

"But the risks don’t only come from gazing at the starry sky," Gawain shook his head, his gaze inevitably returning to the sky again, "The very source of this signal... could potentially be dangerous as well."

The Silver Empress suddenly showed a thoughtful expression, while in the distance, those stars gradually starting to twinkle seemed to take on different meanings in her eyes.

Perhaps... truly a group of hypothetical ’Senders’ exists among the stars, perhaps the signal heard today by the Soren Listening Station truly came from that distant direction. If all of this is real, then ’they’ should be there now, watching from an unimaginable distance across mortals and elves, gazing towards this side of the starry sky.

This distance far surpasses the current separation between Mortal Nations and Gondor wasteland.

Just a set of great walls already turns the mortals outside the walls and evil cult followers inside into two entirely different "tribes," while those "Senders" far at the other end of the starry sky... are they friendly?