Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1263: Chapter 1262: Behind the Veil

The hidden truths nestled within the crevices of the real world are invisible to the naked eye.

When Gawain saw the flickering shadows, his first instinct did not delve deep; he only thought it was some sort of optical camouflage, an illusion covering some truths within the tower. However, this simple notion lasted less than a tenth of a second before he suddenly realized something—

The three people on site, himself a legendary knight, Modir a legendary mage, and Amber, though not strong in combat, was a suspected Shadow Chosen, someone capable of stealing power from the Kingdom of Lady Night, a "shadow grandmaster." What level of optical camouflage or illusion spell could simultaneously deceive such a scouting team of this caliber?!

This wasn’t some optical illusion; at least the forces of the miraculous realm lurked here! In Gawain’s mind swiftly emerged some research findings of the Theology Council and knowledge he gained from several Retired Deities, and then he deduced that something capable of nearly interfering with reality was hiding the true state of this tower.

Amber immediately reacted, suddenly looking up into the sky. Her eyes didn’t magically penetrate the hidden veil like the protagonists of bard stories, but a vague intuition arose from within her, accompanied by rapid thoughts, inadvertently lifting her hands, wondering if she should summon power that might be tied to the gods.

This is the Tower of the Inversion Tide, and recklessly using power beyond mortal realms might trigger unforeseen changes.

Yet isn’t the very situation before them already an unforeseen change?

Amber resolutely decided, raising her hands high, and an invisible gale instantly swept through the hall center. In that grayish-white swift airflow, Shadow Sand Dust materialized out of thin air and spread wantonly throughout the hall, wrapped by the gust.

Gawain watched the abrupt manifestation and rapid expansion of the Shadow Sand Dust, looking at Amber in astonishment, "Since when did your power become so formidable?"

"I... I don’t know..." Amber appeared somewhat bewildered as well, managing the swirling Shadow Sand Dust with disarray while quickly explaining, "I just wanted to summon a dust storm to see if its ’contaminating’ nature could break through some unseen objects...and suddenly so much burst out!"

As she spoke, Amber swiftly shut the "channel" summoning the Shadow Sand Dust, but the dust already released still formed a colossal grayish-white "dust storm" above the hall. She exerted her utmost to control its direction, guiding it to swirl above the hall, while Gawain widened his eyes, watching the grayish-white sand streams charging recklessly through the sky— the next second, both he and Modir gasped sharply.

The grayish-white dust swept across the hall roof, like a ruthless blade storm shredding the hidden "veil." The roof and surrounding areas that once appeared normal quickly revealed their true form, massive corrosion, pollution, and scars from being pierced by some parasitic structure exposed to the three. Black marks spread from the highest wall to the roof’s center, with many dead, unidentified structures—either animal or plant—entwining and adhering above the transport conduit, the corruption visible and grim. Yet, more striking than that was another sight:

A huge rift piercing through the entire hall roof.

This rift wasn’t imprinted on the hall walls or ceiling but abruptly floated mid-air, as if space itself had opened a wound; its ends penetrated the tower’s outer wall without destroying its structure, phasing through like a phantom. Its top touched the hall roof while its bottom presented a jagged, contorted, and fearsome shape!

And deep within this fearsome, gigantic rift, a light blue radiance oscillated like water waves. Despite not feeling any power dissipating, merely seeing that bright, pure radiance, Gawain seemingly sensed the pure and powerful magical energy filling the "world" on the other side of the rift.

As Shadow Sand Dust gradually receded, the invisible wind in the hall also eased, yet the destroyed "veil" did not regenerate. The unsettling true sight of the hall roof remained plain to behold, with erosion marks and the vast rift occupying almost a third of the hall’s height. But beneath them...the other areas of the hall seemed to maintain a normal state.

Apparently, the area near the roof was precisely where "something" had once been entrenched.

Amber looked up, her eyes widening in shock, and after an unknown span of daze, this slow-reacting Shadow Assault Goose finally squeezed out a startled cry from her throat, "Whoa... whoa, this is huge!"

"What is that?!" Modir’s gaze fell on the rift radiating blue light. Though he had never seen something similar, his mage instincts felt something from it, "That rift..."

"...The Deep Blue Webway, probably," Gawain’s voice, unusually grave, sounded from beside him, "I’m seeing it for the first time too, but I think I wouldn’t be mistaken."

"The Deep Blue Webway?" Another layer of confusion surfaced on Modir’s face, "And what is that?"

"The explanation is complicated; you can consider it as the energy circulation system within this planet. It overlaps with the material world like a projection of the planet, permeating all the layers of our world, and it has an ’emergence point’ exposed to the real world, perhaps a bit more familiar to you... It was once known as the Well of Deep Blue," Gawain spoke slowly, his voice deep and solemn, concluding with a light sigh, "Seems like we’re in trouble..."

As if to affirm Gawain’s spoken "trouble," no sooner had his words settled, the Magic Web Terminal hanging on Amber’s waist suddenly emitted a series of urgent buzzing sounds. As the communication connected, Byron Kirk’s voice immediately burst from the terminal, "Your Majesty, is something amiss on your end?"

"Everyone is safe, but we’ve discovered something disconcerting," Gawain replied gravely, furrowing his brows shortly after, "How did you know? What’s happening on your side?"

As he spoke, he faintly heard some commotion on the other end of the communication device, intermingled with the voices of Melita Ponia and Nuoletta, and the clamor of young dragons, many seemingly in a fluster.

"Two young dragons suddenly started making a huge fuss," before Byron could respond, Asharena’s voice abruptly interjected, "They yelled furiously towards the tower’s direction and flapped wildly as if wanting to fly over there. We struggled to barely hold them back, yet they’re still restless..."

Young dragons suddenly causing commotion?

Gawain furrowed his brows, and then heard voices from the opposite of the communication device again; Melita Ponia and Nuoletta seemed to be nearby. Their urgent discussions traversed through the Magic Web Terminal, "...Nuoletta, they seem extremely anxious and completely unwilling to listen to me!" "They won’t listen to me either! Nole just bit me!" "Should we use calming spells, but they’re still young, resistant to magic side effects..." "Wait, wait, don’t be hasty; they’re physically fine, let me try soothing them again." "Wait, Nuoletta... I suddenly thought of a possibility... Do you think, could it be they can see what we cannot?!"

...

"Could it be that they can see things we can’t?"

On the edge of the Winter’s deck, two young dragons were still restlessly shouting. Two novice mothers and their dragonkin companions were trying to calm the anxious little creatures. Melita turned to look at Nuoletta beside her, her eyes wide as she spoke.

"Things we can’t see?" Nuoletta was placing her hand on the head of one of the young dragons, trying to give the obviously anxious little creature a sense of security, as her eyes slowly widened. "You mean..."

"That’s my guess — the Deep Blue Demon Mark doesn’t just affect their scale color. Do you remember? Speaker Andar and Lady Enya both said that those marks might also have an impact on their nervous system, affecting their perception abilities..."

"Gao!!" "Gao gao!!" The two young dragons cried out again in succession. They suddenly broke away from Nuoletta’s hand, leaping into the air, circling nervously above the deck while looking in the direction of the Tower of the Inversion Tide, their immature roars mixed with obvious anxiety and some kind of... excitement.

Realizing this, Nuoletta glanced at Melita, and the two of them simultaneously raised their hands to point at the two young dragons flying in the night sky. Invisible magic power forcibly pulled the two youngsters back onto the deck. The young dragons instinctively struggled, but before they could react, Melita and Nuoletta had already placed their hands on their heads.

"It’s okay, don’t be afraid," Melita exerted force to control the neck of the powerful young dragon with one arm, pressing down on the creature’s head with the other hand. She leaned closer to its ear and whispered soothingly, "Did you see something scary? Mommy understands, don’t be afraid, relax... Let Mommy see what you’ve seen..."

The little creature calmed down a bit, and taking advantage of this moment, layers of blue rune rings suddenly floated around Melita’s hands. Her eyes transformed into dark golden vertical pupils in a breath, and under the night sky, these magic-filled eyes directly connected to the vision of the young dragon. She then gently guided the young dragon to look towards the direction of the towering structure.

An alarming... even dragon-terrifying massive rift filled her vision!

The rift hung in the sky, filled with striking blue light, like solidified lightning penetrating the clouds in the night sky and slashing down toward the sea below. It pierced through the lower part of the Tower of the Inversion Tide, yet the rift didn’t damage the tower’s main body, instead passing through the outer wall as if it were a phantom, sweeping across the top of the Steel Island. The rift then continued extending toward the West Coast of Talronde, winding its way across the fragmented, ice-floating sea surface and shattered coast, further penetrating deep into the earth.

It was like a wound, tearing through the sky and earth — yet apart from the two young dragons, no one had seen all of this before.

"Oh my God..."

Nuoletta’s exclamation came from beside her, waking Melita with a start. As the magic connection between her and the young dragon broke, the rift that spanned the sky and the tower disappeared from sight, as if it had never existed.

Melita and Nuoletta exchanged looks, seeing the same shock and... anxiety in each other’s eyes.

The next second, Melita abruptly stood up, racing toward Byron, who was holding a communicator not far away: "Gawain! We might have a problem!"

...

Gawain’s expression was grim as he listened to Melita’s report while looking up at the hall’s ceiling. The horrifying rift still floated above, with the surrounding signs of erosion and decay strikingly apparent.

When did that rift appear? When did those signs of pollution and decay appear? When Modir Vealt came here six hundred years ago... were they already here?

A spine-chilling image surfaced in Gawain’s mind — an oblivious Great Adventurer stepping into the tower but unable to see the true scene inside. He explored, recorded, learned in the hall, yet above him, an indescribable source of corruption lay hidden behind an unseen curtain, with countless eyes watching him, countless mouths whispering to him...

He suddenly understood what Modir’s earlier incoherent words meant — although this Great Adventurer hadn’t seen the "truth" in this hall back then, certain influences still directly interfered with his mind, making him subconsciously "remember" everything.

"What do we do now?" Amber’s voice came from beside him, the half-elf’s face filled with a nervous expression. Yet in such a critical moment, she showed no signs of fleeing at all. Instead, she watched the horrifying scene above the hall as if facing a great enemy, waiting for Gawain’s next instructions.

Gawain didn’t immediately respond to Amber. Instead, he first took a small Magi-metal talisman from his pocket. Besides the distinctive Deep Sea Runes engraved on it, the talisman also featured another set of precise rune arrays in the core area — roughly hexagonal in shape, the whole covered by a transparent, crystal-like substance, with fine crystals embedded at various nodes.

This was a "detection device" for sensing divine power, a brainchild of the Theology Council’s think tank and Technical Monks. Its principle wasn’t complicated: its core mechanism was essentially a general Inversion Circle. If divine power was present within a certain range, the Inversion Circle would react, with its internal energy balance shifting, causing the device’s crystal structure to heat up and emit a flash signal.

In all tests conducted so far, this detection device had shown sensitive responses to any known type of divine power. Because of this, it had become standard equipment for the "Contact Level" and "Confrontation Level" operatives of the theocracy Authority Council.

Looking at the silent metal talisman, Gawain’s expression turned severe.

Initially, the talisman showed no reaction; he thought it was because the "Inversion Tide" was too special, so it hadn’t triggered the talisman’s alarm.

But now... he had a worse answer.

"The leak has already happened," Gawain slowly raised his head, his gaze passing over the ceiling. "We arrived late, too late by an unknown number of years."