Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1334: Chapter 1333: Secret Assistance

After the Goddess of Magic finished speaking, Gawain fell into a long moment of contemplation.

What he was thinking about was not just the idea that the Goddess of Magic had put forward at this moment, but also a problem that might arise for all the "God of Yore" in the future: these beings who had already stepped down from their divine thrones, completely or partially freed themselves from the Chains of Faith, yet the mortal believers under their names still remembered their "God of Yore"; they could not be kept forever like under house arrest in places such as the defied Court, they were also qualified to move about in the mortal world—but how should they move about? To what extent could they involve themselves in the mortal world? How should one control their interactions with mortals in order to prevent the Chains of Faith from being rebuilt? These were all questions that had to be pondered.

As for the present, the war between the wasteland and the civilized world was reaching a white heat, and Amon and the Goddess of Magic, as native gods of the Loren Continent, could play an enormous role in this war—that was something he had to take into account.

"The birth of gods originates from mortals’ imagination and firm belief in a void concept, and the essence of thought currents is based on mortals’ cognition—in reverse, as long as the most fundamental problem of ’cognition’ is solved, then the gods’ activities in the mortal world are in fact not a problem in themselves," as Gawain pondered, Veronica Moen suddenly broke the silence and spoke, "of course, the premise is that it must be gods who, like Amon, the Goddess of Magic, or Enya, have already resolved the problem of mental pollution, or that there are matching protective and sealing methods available."

As she spoke, this former Defier Leader lifted her head, meeting the Goddess of Magic’s downward gaze from above.

"As long as the masses do not know, do not regard you as gods, as long as they do not rekindle awe and faith towards you, then theocracy will not return; conversely, once ignorance makes a comeback, once the people abandon rational thought and once more embrace superstition and blind awe of the unknown, then even if you do nothing, you will sooner or later be dragged back to the divine altar—so the key issue from the very beginning is not what exactly you did, but what mortals think you did and will do; it lies in whether rationality can drive out ignorance."

Listening to Veronica Moen, Gawain couldn’t help but nod slightly. He looked at the Goddess of Magic and said, "The reason we need the theocracy Authority Council, need large-scale education projects and spiritual development, and strict restrictions on your actions, is because many people will not spontaneously engage in rational thinking, and the cognition and way of thinking of most people in this era still require guidance—the many ’rules’ currently set by the theocracy Authority Council all serve this goal."

The distinction between "goal" and "means" had to be made clear—this was the common understanding between Gawain and Veronica Moen.

"I understand what you mean," the Goddess of Magic seemed to show a faint smile, and said gently, "a ’mortal researcher’ setting up a frontline institute on the edge of the wasteland will not become a problem. Amon and I have both passed the ’most dangerous phase’. Perhaps from now on, what we should consider more is how to operate in the mortal world in a way that more closely resembles mortals... I’ll create an avatar to go to the wasteland area—it won’t be a problem."

Just as the Goddess of Magic’s words fell, footsteps came from nearby. Amon, having been drawn by the commotion here at some unknown point, came over and muttered, "Don’t talk about whether there’ll be a problem yet, you should first find a way to adjust that avatar of yours—after compressing it like crazy for half a day it’s still a good three-plus meters tall, it can’t even get through a door frame, and you still have the nerve to call it a mortal."

Hearing Amon’s unceremonious comment, the Goddess of Magic immediately glared. "That at least looks more human than you! I’m bipedal, if nothing else!"

"A ’human’ who stands up to three and a half meters, and a gigantic white deer—if you ask me, mortals would rather believe the latter is a product of the natural world—at least I can claim to be a sacred forest beast born near Ancestral Peak," Amon shook his head as he spoke, showing off his massive body that, after repeated control and "compression," was no longer quite so outrageous. "You’ll have a hard time explaining yourself to people..."

Listening to these two Retired Deity chatting, Gawain couldn’t help but say, wide-eyed, "Is this the sort of thing you two argue over all day when you’re idle?"

"It’s not like this every day," the Goddess of Magic thought for a moment and answered very seriously, "mainly, Lady Enya hasn’t been showing up often lately, Nariteer is very busy, and Old Deer and I do have certain disagreements in some fields..."

Gawain awkwardly rubbed the bridge of his nose and decided it’d be best not to continue down this topic. Amon, on the other hand, casually said, "If you ask me, you shouldn’t use an avatar at all. That vast Magic Power of yours is not so easy to cram into a single body—better to just make a projection. It’s less capable, sure, but at least it’s easier to control, and you can shape it into anything you want."

Amber had been listening from the side, blinking for a long time. At this point she finally couldn’t help asking, "I’ve been hearing you talk for ages—what’s the difference between a god’s true body, avatar, and projection anyway? Especially those last two, I always thought avatar and projection were the same thing..."

"To a god, an avatar is the form closest to the true body, it’s a direct extension of our power. To borrow a new term from the neural network, it’s almost equivalent to a ’low-version copy’ of the true body—therefore the avatar has more powerful strength and is more heavily influenced by the true body, manifesting a form similar to our mythic shape," the Goddess of Magic explained very patiently. "Under normal circumstances, we prefer to use avatars to do things—it’s as convenient as using our own limbs..."

"Projection is something else," Amon followed right on, "that thing is usually just a pure ’construct’, under our control but not directly connected to the true body, and not affected by the mythic form. The convenience lies in that we can make it look like anything we please; the inconvenience is that projection can only bear a tiny share of the true body’s power, and has great... obstacles in transmitting information. The ways projections form are diverse: they can be conscious creations shaped as individuals, or they can be ’thought forms’ we unconsciously release. In fact, if a sufficiently powerful god has an uncontrolled dream, that dream could even form a projection in reality...

"These projections usually have very little impact on the real world and do not cause mental pollution, but as I said, their connection to the true body is weak and they’re not convenient to control. If you try to use them to get things done, they’re quite clumsy—especially the ones released from dreams.

"Of course, that last case is only theoretical—I never did anything like it. My sleep throughout my years as a god was always excellent..."

"Who asked you that? We’re not interested in your infant-like sleep," the Goddess of Magic waved a hand immediately, then thought for a moment. "I still have to send an avatar over. A projection can’t handle that kind of fine-grained research work. But this tendency towards mythic form really does need to be resolved... By the way, does this world truly have no female human beings over three and a half meters tall?"

As the Goddess of Magic’s voice fell, several gazes in the vicinity focused on her at once. The next second, she waved her hand. "Alright, you don’t have to answer—I, too, think there aren’t any..."

A short while later, Gawain and the others returned with Amon to the lush garden covered by the golden oak. Amon walked slowly to the tree, bending down into the grass as he turned back to glance toward the "testing ground"—the Goddess of Magic’s towering figure was still busy among those workbenches; she had already begun a series of tests on the captured aberration, and showed no reaction at all to the look Amon cast her way. "Let her study there—she loves research."

"Her conjecture about the truth behind the wasteland... is of great significance," Gawain said in a low voice. "For hundreds of years, we’ve known very little about the bizarre phenomena in that polluted land. All the scraps of data we have come from clues the pioneering expeditionary army witnessed while breaking out. And ever since the great walls closed, all nations’ research into the wasteland has in fact come to a substantive halt... No one imagined the breakthrough would come today."

"The Unified Wave Hypothesis..." Veronica Moen lowered her eyelids, whispering as if to herself, "It’s a field we’ve never touched, but if the truth is really like that, then all the efforts we’ve made over these years won’t have been in vain..."

Gawain looked quietly at this "Saint Princess" for a moment. After a brief silence, he asked, "How is the situation now in the depths of the wasteland? Can you confirm the movements of those dark priest?"

"They’re hiding outside my field of vision—the Gondor wasteland is vast, and my Iron Soldier Corps can only operate near the Well of Deep Blue. Those dark priests in fact control most of the land in the wasteland," Veronica Moen shook her head. "But I can confirm some indirect intelligence. Over the past few days, large numbers of aberrations and mutant creatures that used to just roam all over the wasteland have been frequently gathering toward the north, and the sensors I set deep underground have also detected several high?energy reactions in the northeastern region of Gondor. I suspect their true lair lies in that direction... I’ve already increased the number and power of the sensors, hoping to lock down the location as soon as possible."

Gawain’s expression grew serious, his brow slightly furrowing: "They haven’t clashed with your Iron Soldier Corps—and haven’t attacked the Well of Deep Blue?"

"Correct, those aberrations’ movements all skirt around the Well of Deep Blue—they seem unwilling to start a war with the Iron Soldier Corps while launching their offensive against the civilized world, most likely to avoid unnecessary attrition," Veronica nodded lightly. "They’ve clearly spent these centuries figuring out the limits of the Iron Soldier Corps and know that I’m not an ’active threat’. However..."

Gawain raised an eyebrow: "However?"

"However, I suspect this ’balance’ won’t last forever," Veronica said in a level tone. "No one will allow their home base to have a foreign nail hammered in it forever—that group of dark priests are the same. My Corps and I are always a latent danger in their eyes, and I’ve always felt their designs on The Deep Blue Webway haven’t ceased. The Well of Deep Blue... there’s no way they’ll leave the largest webway node alone forever. The fact they haven’t made a move on the Well of Deep Blue yet only means it’s not necessary for now, or they believe the power they’ve accumulated is still insufficient, that the cost of acting would be too high."

"Honestly," Amber couldn’t help interjecting, "if they really massed their forces to hit you right now, could that heap-of-iron Corps of yours actually win?"

"It’s the Iron Soldier Corps, Amber," Veronica immediately corrected her in all seriousness, then slowly shook her head. "If they’d sent troops to attack a year or two ago, I’d have been confident of defeating every enemy—but now their root?network has already been activated, their control techniques over the aberrations are fully matured, and every monster in the wasteland is under the influence of those dark priests... under those conditions, it’s hard to say."

"So that’s basically a ’no’," Amber waved her hand. "Then you really are in danger—if they suddenly come to their senses one day and decide to pull out this nail first, you’re done in one wave."

"It’s not quite that bad. Relying on the defensive nodes around the Well of Deep Blue, I could hold out for at least..." Veronica instantly tried to refute her in all seriousness, but then she sighed and showed a helpless look. "Forget it, I’m not going to argue with you."

Gawain stared, dumbfounded, at the scene—seeing Veronica, who was always calm and detached no matter the situation, show such a helpless expression was no easy feat. Amber truly had a certain talent for getting under people’s skin. But he quickly shook his head. "At least for now, those evil cult followers won’t be attacking the Well of Deep Blue."

Amber looked at Gawain in surprise: "How can you be so sure? They’ve got the advantage now—if they really wipe out the Iron Soldier Corps in one go..."

Gawain spread his hands: "If they really mass their forces to strike at the center of the wasteland, then we and Typhon will simply combine our armies and launch a full offensive from north to south. Wouldn’t that wipe them out all the same?"

"...That’s true, yeah."

Gawain ignored Amber and sank into thought by himself. After a moment of pondering, he slowly said, "The Well of Deep Blue is safe for the time being; the northern and eastern fronts are also secure for now. The western fallen zone is extensive, but the situation there has begun to improve. The greatest problem now is instead the southern battlefield... The biggest worry isn’t whether the Silver Empire can hold, but how heavy the losses will be for the Highmountain Kingdom in this bloodbath."

Amber blinked: "Didn’t you say in the meeting that you had great faith in the Silver elves’ ’Thousand Years Legion’?"

"I do have great faith in the Thousand Years Legion, but they’ve lost the Sacred Stars Temple—without their unique aerial suppression advantage, a purely ground?based Thousand Years Legion will see its performance on the main battlefront greatly discounted," Gawain said with a shake of his head. "The Allied Army of the Silver Empire and Highmountain Kingdom may in the end tenaciously defeat the enemy, but this battle will certainly not be easy... And now that the continent has been split into two battlefields, north and south, no country’s forces are abundant. They’re fated to find it hard to receive reinforcements from elsewhere..."

Beside them, Amon couldn’t help but lower his head: "If it really comes to it, I’ll go help them charge the lines again... Don’t worry, I know my limits..."

"No—you must not go south again," Gawain immediately cut him off. "It’s not that I doubt your ’sense of proportion’; the main thing is that your situation and Mirmina’s are fundamentally different. Mirmina has almost no truly devout believers, whereas you... As Queen Belsetia said, the Silver elves have extraordinarily long lifespans and the special way of thinking that comes with them. Their currents of thought are far more ’tenacious’ and ’stubborn’ than those of other Mortal Races, to the point where even if you don’t appear directly before their eyes, their subconscious memories and impressions of you will cause you to gradually be affected in the real world."

Amon fell silent for a moment, then sighed: "Then... all right."

"You can continue to take on the work of ’messenger’, occasionally using the shadow realm connections to relay intelligence between north and south for us," Gawain thought for a bit, then added, "With communications so difficult, the role you play in this regard already rivals that of entire armies."

When he said this, his expression was utterly earnest.

Because that was simply the truth—with the sentinel towers’ data?link having collapsed and the continent split into northern and southern battlefields, the alliance truly needed just such a ’messenger’ who could travel between north and south and didn’t fear enemy firepower blocking his way.

This is why Lu You Qi is necessary (correct).

Listening to Gawain, Amon’s mood finally seemed to improve a little. He lifted his head slightly, and the two small pink?white blossoms twined around his antlers gently swayed in the dim light.

"I understand."