Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1388: Chapter 1387: The Final Battle Approaches

The countries of Loren, currently in a state of total war, do not have much energy to devote to space exploration. There are many unpredictable risks behind interstellar communication, which require a lengthy process of verification. Moreover, not to mention that this might heavily impact the belief systems of all mortals, it’s a significant test of the stability of the gods—though theoretically, restoring interstellar signals alone shouldn’t stimulate the gods as much as manned space exploration. But who can guarantee this level of "stimulation"?

After all, the various tasks of the theocracy Authority Council have never stopped over the years. The Alliance countries have consistently tried different methods to loosen and sever the mental Steel Stamp that hangs over mortals. This severing process is essentially dancing on the edge of a knife, gradually cutting the link between gods and humans at a dangerous critical point, jumping on the "defied border" without driving the gods mad. Once this process ends, both humans and gods will gain freedom. But until this process is complete... the gods are constantly at a "pressure critical point." Responding to interstellar communication now... it wouldn’t be surprising if a straightforward and not-so-bright god suddenly went mad.

Therefore, this matter requires careful planning, and at least until this war’s dust settles. Until the countries of the Alliance have more energy to control public opinion and could organize large-scale expert teams. Before that... the most the Cecil Clan can do is what Gawain mentioned: preparing a modern version of the "Alien Dictionary," translating the signals already received.

Once these arrangements were completed, Gawain suddenly raised his head and glanced at a holographic projection on the other side of the round table—the figure of Duke of the North Victoria Wilder was hovering above the Magic Web Terminal: "Victoria, have the listening stations in the northern parts of the Dark Mountain Range been operating normally during this time? Have they received any signals?"

"All listening stations in the northern parts are running as usual. Since last winter, they have successively received sixteen signals. The content has some repetitions, but there are occasional differences," Victoria Wilder immediately nodded in response. "We have gradually mastered the characteristics of these signals. We can capture them more timely and sensitively, and some signals previously mixed in atmospheric interference that could not be identified are now effectively recorded—as long as the ’dictionary’ is completed, decryption can begin immediately."

"Hmm... That’s good," Gawain gently nodded, then brought up another matter. "How is the old Duke’s situation?"

He referred to Modir Vealt, an ancient legendary adventurer with a strange experience, currently in a sort of mystical "state of life and death," and being chased by Lady Night’s Divine Power, Victoria Wilder’s ancestor. Due to the influence of Lady Night’s Divine Power, and possibly also the pollution of the Inversion Tide, Modir Vealt’s current state is very unstable. Half of his "existence" is replaced by Lady Night’s shadow manipulation, and is constantly disintegrating and losing. Amber’s stolen Authority of the Dark Night is barely maintaining his stability in the material world, and he is currently residing in Bitter Winter Castle, receiving care from Victoria Wilder, his "descendant."

Currently, the Empire’s three Grand Governors are: Archduke Baldwin Franklin personally leading troops in battle, Aunt Heidi focuses on daily administration, and Victoria Wilder’s primary responsibilities are to ensure the Empire’s industrial supply and troop transport to the frontlines. Outside of that, most of this northern duchess’s energy is devoted to her ancestor—Modir Vealt’s unique experiences and mysterious connection with Lady Night have always been Gawain’s top concerns.

"The ancestor is fine. After receiving good rest and adequate mental Spell soothing, his mental state has stabilized a lot. Recently, there have been no sudden occurrences of falling into shadow dreams," Victoria Wilder nodded. "But he can still occasionally sense a distant ’call,’ even during normal dreams... he often ’hears’ voices from Lady Night or ’Vealt.’ I think unless we can resolve the chasing Divine Power from its source and retrieve his ’other half existence’ that’s been cut off, this situation may persist indefinitely."

Upon hearing this, Gawain raised his eyes to look at Amber, speaking solemnly: "... We still cannot locate Lady Night’s kingdom; it is not on the sentinel towers’ patrol path. However, Amber has been researching shadow manipulation, trying to find a way to establish a connection with Lady Night. There’s no better way for this matter, just wait, there will be good news."

Victoria Wilder’s expression didn’t change, she slightly lowered her head: "Yes, King."

Gawain gently took a breath, looked around at each figure in the meeting room, and lightly coughed: "Then next up..."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a sudden "clang—" from nearby, the platinum scepter in Veronica Moen’s hand suddenly hit against the meeting table. This sudden noise startled those around, Gawain instinctively wanted to inquire about the situation, but saw Veronica Moen’s expression instantly become exceptionally blank. The usual gentle smile and gaze faded away, and this scene was so bizarre that Gawain even felt the other person’s soul had been extracted from this body. The next moment, he heard Veronica Moen speak with a machinic calm and hard voice:

"... The first defense circle has suffered damage, confirmed front-line attack... Self-repair functionalities activated, barrier entering battle mode, command module online... Core barrier raised, energy redirected to combat units... Allocating computing resources, lifting all weapon restrictions..."

The calm and hard voice ended, Veronica Moen blinked, as if suddenly awakening. Her body trembled slightly, and the Holy Light that had receded from her side slowly started to float again. Gawain felt the "human" side of her had returned, so he immediately inquired: "What happened?"

Although he asked, he already had a vague guess in his heart. Veronica Moen’s next answer confirmed his dire assumptions: "One minute ago, the outer defense perimeter of the Well of Deep Blue was fiercely attacked, my guard units are engaging the enemy."

"Well of Deep Blue... Center of the wasteland there?" Amber, sitting to Gawain’s right, widened her eyes suddenly, "Wait, the Dark Acolytes have started attacking the Well of Deep Blue!? Isn’t it said they wouldn’t easily try to bite off that toughest bone? How’d it turn to madness with just a sound?! That place has a fully intact Imperial Defense Circle and a complete set of Iron Soldier Corps!"

Gawain was similarly surprised, but compared to the reasons behind the sudden actions of the Dark Acolytes, he was more concerned with the situation there with Veronica Moen/Ophelia: "How is the battle? How is the damage?"

"The central fortress is built on the Doomsday Sanctuary of the Old Imperial Capital, with extremely strong defensive capabilities and a seven-layer defense circle from outside to inside. Currently, only the most outer defense circle is suffering heavy bombardment and moderate damage. The repair system has launched, and the damage is within acceptable limits," Veronica Moen’s tone is calm, but her face is growing solemn, "However, the enemy attack is extremely intense, and there are energy responses in all directions within my perception range. Moreover... reconnaissance units have spotted never-seen-before new entities among the enemy, and some kind of large-scale... structure."

While speaking, Veronica Moen tightly gripped the platinum scepter, her tone becoming very serious: "Due to limited activity range, I cannot perceive the boundary of the enemy’s position, nor can I ascertain how many troops are gathering in the distance. Based solely on current calculations, if the enemy continues to maintain this intensity of attack, there is a possibility of the Well of Deep Blue being breached within a month."

The Well of Deep Blue has a possibility of being breached!

This statement bombarded the conference room, tightening everyone’s expressions instantly—but Gawain, after the initial surprise, his expression completely calmed down, only speaking thoughtfully in a low voice: "So it’s come to this point..."

The attack on the Well of Deep Blue was a sudden event, but actually, Gawain wasn’t surprised by it. From the beginning, he knew the Wasteland Legion, when unable to achieve current objectives, might turn to attack the Well of Deep Blue. After all, the ultimate goal of those Dark Acolytes is to deploy Rune Stones and "tame" this planet. If they cannot break through the defenses of civilization, they could only target the largest Deep Blue Rift at the center of the wasteland. In other words, as long as the Alliance continues to build advantages on other fronts, advances in counter-attacking the wasteland and constructing Barrier walls, then the Wasteland Legion’s desperate attack on the Well of Deep Blue was only a matter of time.

"Don’t forget the previous deductions by the advisors, those dark priests will eventually attack the Well of Deep Blue," Gawain’s voice resonated in the conference room, his calm and steady tone dispelling much of the tension among all, "Their campaign against the civilized world has already been thwarted across the board, and now all the Wasteland Legions have been pushed deep into the wasteland, while the Alliance’s purification devices are rapidly spreading into the heartland of the wasteland—those dark priests have no other choice left. They chose to attack the Well of Deep Blue at this moment, which in my view, might be a good sign."

"This a good sign?" Amber’s eyes widened immediately, "Veronica is getting beaten up!"

"I am not, the situation is still..." Veronica instinctively started to speak, but swallowed her words halfway—she simply didn’t have the face to debate such foolishness with this disgrace of the alliance in such a setting, "You’re right."

Amber, a creature active from night to day, has a predilection for wit and is the nemesis of ancient Machine Spirits. Any being concerned with face cannot fully deploy their capabilities in her presence, with more care for their reputation leading to more significant impact.

Gawain was used to this, glancing at the wide-eyed Amber and casually said, "Veronica’s base has incredibly strong defensive capabilities, and there’s a fully assembled Iron Soldier Corps stationed there. The difficulty of attacking such a place is imaginable. In our previous deductions, it was established that unless absolutely necessary, those dark priests would never proactively go after that hard nut to crack. Even if they could still hold ground against the Alliance Legion, they wouldn’t seek trouble with the Iron Soldier Corps. But now they choose to attack the Well of Deep Blue, which shows they are at the end of their rope—the speed at which they’ve been cornered is faster than we imagined, this is good news."

He spoke slowly, standing up, placing his hands on the edge of the conference table, his voice low yet emphatic.

"Attacking the Well of Deep Blue will be the last and worst choice those Wasteland Legions can make. After this, the dark priests will have played all their cards. Now, the barrier walls from four directions have pushed into the heartland of the Old Gondor Empire, with little depth left for the Wasteland Legions to drain us. Moreover, if they wish to attack the Well of Deep Blue, they must invest a great deal of effort and troops, which will inevitably make them even weaker on the battlefield against the Alliance than before, thereby making the Alliance Army advance more smoothly than before.

"Immediately send this message to the leaders on all fronts of the alliance; the moment of the final battle is near, tell our allies to bring out everything they have hidden in reserve. Use absolute superiority in troops to lay the barrier walls over, and press those monsters dead in the scorched earth of the Old Gondor Empire. The life and death of the civilized world will be revealed in the coming month.

"We must ensure that the barrier walls close before the Well of Deep Blue falls, thoroughly disintegrating the Wasteland Legions!"

Gawain’s final steady and powerful words seemed to carry boundless encouragement, filling everyone’s previously slightly oppressed mood with renewed confidence and determination. Furthermore, none of the figures who could appear here were mediocre; once the situation was clarified, everyone knew what needed to be done—several matters discussed and decided during the meeting were quickly fine-tuned, and some less important affairs could be slightly delayed. From now on, the entirety of the Cecil Empire and indeed the entire alliance would pour all of their strength into this war.

One by one, figures rose and left the conference room, and one by one, holographic projections slowly dissipated into the air. After the few secretaries of the Supreme Administration Office left, the vast room was temporarily left with only Gawain and Amber, along with Veronica, who was enveloped in a soft Holy Light.

They were the last to leave.

The attendants and guards were waiting outside the door.

Gawain stood up from his chair, exhaled lightly, and Amber, who walked over from the side, raised her head and glanced at him: "Things aren’t so optimistic, are they?"

"Things aren’t bad, the dawn of victory is indeed before everyone—only the darkness before that dawn is indeed deadly," Gawain knew that this seemingly unreliable person had a very keen intuition hidden beneath her unreliable appearance, and he didn’t hide anything at this moment, "Even if we have a ninety-nine percent chance of victory, that one percent failure meaning planetary ecological extinction is something everyone can think of... but we can only not think about that ’what if we don’t win’ possibility for now."

"...Okay, I think so too," Amber exhaled, her figure was already beginning to fade away in the air, waving her hand, "I have to get busy, those idle days are over..."

Gawain watched as Amber’s figure slowly disappeared into the air, shaking his head unconsciously, "...You haven’t been idle for a long time."

Then he remained silent for two seconds, looked up at Veronica, "You really can hold on for a month, right?"

"This is based on precise calculations, within the predictable margins of error, there will not be more variables," Veronica said calmly, "I will hold on until you arrive."

"...This feeling is really strange," Gawain couldn’t help but feel a bit emotional, "You’re clearly standing right in front of me..."

"Yes, I stand before you, yet also am trapped in the deepest part of the wasteland, which often gives me a sense of cognitive dissonance," Veronica’s voice was gentle and calm, "Occasionally, when I wake in this body, the physical influences from the outside, like sunlight and breeze, bring joy, causing me to forget the pollution and corruption in the wasteland."

"...The pollution and corruption will soon come to an end." After a moment of silence, Gawain slowly said.

"Yes, the pollution and corruption will end."