Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1259: Chapter 1258: Omnipresent Marks of Magic

"Is it really okay to bring these two little ones along?" Gawain’s gaze shifted from the two young dragons and couldn’t help but look ahead, speaking to Melita, "They’re still just children..."

"The deep blue magic trace reaction on them is an important clue and a huge mystery—if we don’t solve this, we’ll only have longer-lasting worries," Melita said, not even turning her head. Her tone was steady, clearly, she had thought this over carefully, "Among all young dragons, Melita and Noletta’s magic trace reaction is the strongest. Speaker Andar and several ancient dragons familiar with the Deep Blue Webway examined them and unanimously concluded that only by bringing them near the Tower of the Inversion Tide could we possibly observe any trace, and then determine why they become restless towards the direction of the Tower of the Inversion Tide during changes in their magic traces..."

Upon reaching this point, Melita paused for a few seconds and sighed: "Of course, there is a certain risk, but healing also has risks... That night, the magic traces on the little ones expanded by a whole fold, who knows what other changes will happen next? Rather than sitting idly by in ignorance as events unfold, both Noletta and I agree it’s better to... take a little risk."

"... You two are their mothers, so of course, this matter is up to you," Gawain pondered for a moment and spoke slowly, "Be extra careful, no one knows what situation that tower is in now..."

Melita’s throat emitted a soft, low growl, and she seemed to sense something, her gaze cast far into the distance—in the dim sky light, the direction of the coastline could faintly be seen a little flicker of light, that was the West Coast Watchpost, and right ahead on the vast sea surface, a bright red light sphere suddenly shot into the sky, with a pop, the light sphere burst, a patch of bright red brilliance strikingly visible in the night sky.

The two young dragons caught sight of the exploding light sphere in the sky and immediately were drawn to it, cheering as they ran near their mother’s shoulders, stretching their necks and shouting excitedly at the slowly descending red light on the horizon.

"That’s the sea area where the Winter is located," Gawain took a couple of steps forward, gazing towards the direction where the signal flare rose and smiled, "Looks like Byron is quite punctual."

...

In the sea under the polar night, the Winter and two comprehensive escort ships were gently swaying with the waves, the sharp cold wind blew from the distance, the foam on the sea and occasionally visible fragments of ice glimmered almost with a white luster under the starlight, and further out on the sea was that towering huge tower.

Even the well-trained Imperial Navy would feel a spiritual shock when witnessing that high tower, even the Marshal of the Navy who had experienced many trials in life would instinctively hold his breath upon seeing it.

Byron stood on the upper deck of the Winter, gazing towards the direction of the high tower in the night wind, watching that giant tower cloaked in starlight coldly overseeing this sea as if it were a giant standing indifferently between heaven and earth, he couldn’t help but murmur to the red-haired lady beside him: "No matter how many times you look at this thing, it’s scary... Before coming here I imagined what this legendary tower might look like, being able to make His Majesty so vigilant, now I realize my imagination is far too limited..."

Asharena stood next to Byron, apparently also deeply shaken by the tower’s appearance, her voice instinctively lowering: "I heard His Majesty Balogar mention that this huge tower is not even the largest ’legacy’ left by the Voyagers, just on the planet’s surface there are two ancient facilities that are even more massive than it..."

Byron was momentarily at a loss for words, finally managing to say: "... Our human perspective was once too narrow."

Asharena couldn’t help but look at him: "Rarely do you speak with such depth."

"... I suspect you’re mocking me, but I have no evidence," Byron’s mouth twitched as he spoke offhandedly. He then furrowed his brows slightly, his gaze falling on the Dragonbranded Witch beside him, "But speaking of which... Although you received orders from home to come with us to Talronde to understand the progress of the Tower of the Inversion Tide incident, your superiors didn’t say you had to personally come with us to such a ’frontline,’ right? Isn’t this a bit risky?"

Asharena cast Byron a half-ironical glance, raising an eyebrow slightly: "You’re worried about the safety of someone who could defeat you tenfold? With the time, you’d better worry about your health—you are no longer the young lad you once were."

Byron shrugged, apparently wanting to say more, but just then a brilliant red signal flare suddenly rose from the direction of the front deck, the vast explosive gleam interrupted his following actions.

Byron immediately recalled the corresponding procedures for this mission, looking up towards the direction of the West Coast of Talronde, in the night sky under the starlight, his transcendent vision soon captured those massive figures sweeping across the sky—the dragon herd had arrived.

Dozens of powerful dragons flew from the direction of Talronde, cloaked in starlight and cold wind, skimming over the polar cold ocean, and before approaching the Winter they summoned spells such as flash spells and bright light spheres onto themselves to serve as indicative lights. The Winter also simultaneously activated several lights on the deck, providing guidance for the dragon herd’s necessary landing area over the sea.

The deck had been cleared, the sailors had been ordered to transfer to safety zones such as the bridge and connecting corridors.

Byron and Asharena stood together in the "non-landing zone" on the upper deck, looking up and watching those massive figures continually approaching, watching those dignified gigantic wings obscure the starlight, then looking as they were engulfed by the veil of light appearing from thin air, and amidst the illusionary glow transforming into human form—as Asharena herself had done, the powerful Dragonkin warriors leaping down one after another from dozens of meters or even over a hundred meters in the air, landing on the iron-reinforced deck of the Winter with astonishing momentum, each landing emitting a clarion "bang" sound in the night.

Byron widened his eyes, shouting instinctively from the first dragon warrior’s landing: "Hey! My deck!"

"See, I told you when we dragons landed, it’s always like this," Asharena hastily seized the chance to say something cheeky nearby, "Especially landing in such an all-sea environment onto a ship, isn’t that demanding in terms of vision and reaction time? You have to start aiming and jumping down from far away."

"It’s not your ship, so you’re not heartbroken," Byron immediately glanced at Asharena, but before he could finish speaking, he heard another "bang!" from the deck, he suddenly was so heartbroken tears were on the verge of falling, "Hey! My deck!!"

Thus, for the next little while, sounds like this predominated the Winter:

"Bang!" "Deck!" "Bang—" "My deck!" "Bang, bang!" "Two came down together, huh... My deck!" "Plop!!" "Hey my... hmm?"

Amidst the dignified landing of dragon warriors, suddenly there seemed to be a slightly unusual sound mixed in, Byron’s heartbroken cry was instantly silenced and he looked rather uncertainly towards the direction of the deck, turning to Asharena to confirm: "Did something sound a bit different just now?"

"I didn’t notice," Asharena replied offhandedly, "Though I think I just saw a few shadows drop from the side over there..."

Before the Dragonbranded Witch finished speaking, Byron heard a sound somewhat different from the usual flapping of dragon wings coming from nearby. He turned hurriedly towards the sound and saw two young dragons vigorously flapping their wings as they flew up from below the port side. These two little fellows were clearly exerting themselves, bearing a burden inappropriate for their age—when they finally flew above the ship’s rail, Byron saw what was going on: the two young dragons had each grabbed a person beneath their claws, one was Amber with a face full of curiosity, the other was Melita with a face full of embarrassment.

Soon after, Gawain also appeared in Byron’s field of vision. He walked step by step out of the air outside the ship’s rail, as if stepping on an invisible staircase, onto the deck. As he walked, he pointed at Melita, who was dripping wet, and said loudly, "Why didn’t you say your eyesight was failing earlier?"

Byron: "..." Asharena: "..."

However, this little episode was not noticed by many. Most people’s attention was drawn to the dragons landing on the deck, and even those sailors who inadvertently saw the unusual scene outside the rail quickly looked away, pretending they saw nothing—shortly after, Gawain, Amber, Melita, and the two young dragons had already reached Byron. Gawain, while using magic power to evaporate the seawater from himself, spoke awkwardly, "There was a small accident just now..."

As an upright knight, Byron naturally knew he should be straightforward and honest: "I didn’t see anything!"

Gawain: "...Alright then, let’s go to the main deck."

They arrived on the main deck, where the entire dragon combat unit brought by Melita had already landed and gathered. They also saw Nuoletta standing in front of the team—Victoria and Modir were standing beside the White Dragon Lady.

Nuoletta looked surprised and curious when she saw Melita: "Where did you go just now? I didn’t see you..."

Melita turned her head unnaturally: "Don’t ask, even if you ask I don’t know, and even if I know I won’t tell you—so better not ask."

Nuoletta felt it was odd, but after observing her friend’s expression, decided to temporarily suppress all her doubts, stepping aside to introduce a tall, straight-standing male dragonkin who had been standing behind her: "This is the Sentinel Captain of the West Coast Watchpost, Magnar, who arrived at the Winter ahead of us."

It was only then that Melita noticed there was an additional dragon warrior onsite, not brought by herself from New Argondale. She looked him up and down seriously and respectfully: "Hello, Sentinel—I salute you. You’ve been stationed here all along?"

"Salute to you too," said the Sentinel Captain named Magnar solemnly, "My sentinel team and I have been stationed on the West Coast for the past few months—our eyes never leave that tower."

"Then you could provide us with very important intelligence references," said Gawain from the side.

"Of course," the Sentinel Captain nodded, "You can ask me directly if there’s anything you want to know. I know all the changes on the West Coast over the past few months."

"Mainly that tower," Melita said immediately, "You have been monitoring that thing—has it changed during this period? Especially in the last two days."

"No visible anomalies," the Sentinel Captain shook his head slowly and confidently, "The war that occurred on Talronde did not impact that high tower; it still remains consistent as it has been for the past million years. We maintain at least three pairs of eyes on the tower at all times, with seamless rotation, and have continuously stayed in contact with the rear through long-range communication. During this time, the tower has appeared quite normal."

"What’s the situation on the West Coast then?" Melita continued questioning, "Have there been any anomalies around your station?"

"If you mean anomalies polluted by knowledge... no," the Sentinel Captain shook his head again, "We are stationed on a segment of broken city wall on the West Coast; there are only ruins around the watch, and no intelligent life, so it’s impossible to find individuals polluted by knowledge. As for locations further away... we dispatched search teams when possible and found sporadic survivors in the urban ruins slightly inland, but no polluted individuals. Those survivors have undergone rigorous checks and were sent to the rear; you should be aware of this."

"...Yes, we know about this matter," Nuoletta said softly from the side. Then she stared at the Sentinel Captain’s eyes, "Aside from concluding that ’everything is normal,’ has anything suspicious, abnormal, special, or even anything merely worth reporting from your personal perspective occurred?"

"Yes," unexpectedly to Gawain, the tall and straight Sentinel Captain nodded. He then took out an item from his body and handed it over, "This is something I found by accident during patrol last evening, and I haven’t had the time to report it to the rear. It doesn’t seem related to the tower, but I believe... it has some peculiarity."

All attention instantly focused on the object in the Sentinel Captain’s hand, and Gawain instinctively looked toward what he was holding.

It was a stone the size of a fist.

A seemingly ordinary stone, as if picked up casually from the roadside, dark in color and heavy in texture.

"A stone?" Melita couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, "What’s special about this stone?"

"It doesn’t appear special now, but when I picked it up, it was emitting a steady blue light, and even now..." the Sentinel Captain said, suddenly starting to inject a slight amount of magic power into the stone. Accompanied by a faint hum, glowing patterns like water marks suddenly surfaced on the dark stone, and a deep blue light diffused from the hidden patterns within the stone. Under the night sky, the stone instantaneously gained an extra sense of splendor and mystery, "As long as you inject some magic power, it will undergo such a change."

Behind Amber, two young dragons who had been watching the deck suddenly shouted and stared fixedly at the stone in the Sentinel Captain’s hand.

Gawain instantly realized what this thing was.

"Deep Blue Demon Mark?! It’s even appearing on stones now?!"