Chapter 944 - 943: Eye of the Storm
Chapter 944 - 943: Eye of the Storm
In an instant, Gawain’s mind was filled with numerous questions and suppositions about the Eternal Storm. Before he could ask Melita Ponia about this, she had already ascended several times in succession—with the powerful manipulation of magic, the dragon’s vast silhouette passed through thick clouds, an invisible boundary of magic, and the Magic Static Stratum known to humans...
"We’ve entered the turbulence layer," Melita Ponia’s voice suddenly came from the front.
Gawain instinctively took two steps towards the edge of the dragon’s back, gazing into the atmospheric space that was still unfamiliar to humanity. He saw an endless sea of clouds far beneath the dragon’s wings, transformed into a vast expanse of white, while the earth and ocean were shrouded in a gauze-like mist of clouds, blurring borders and details. His gaze cast around him, seeing only a seemingly clear and bright blue sky, with sunlight slanting down from above the sea of clouds.
At first glance, it didn’t seem as dangerous and chaotic as imagined here.
However, he quickly noticed the abnormal halos floating around Melita Ponia’s vast body, layers of faint light spontaneously emerging from the edges of her wings and forming ripples along the boundary of her magic shield, spreading into the air as if the dragon was soaring through an originally invisible ocean, stirred by foreign forces, revealing ’waves’ and forming these unusual halos.
Gawain could be sure that such phenomena absolutely did not occur when Melita Ponia was flying in the Magic Static Stratum!
Amber was placing her hand on her forehead, gazing at the distant scene. She seemed not to notice the halos around Melita Ponia, only marveling at the expansiveness and grandeur of the place: "Wow—this place... this place is so vast it’s frightening... it feels like stepping out and you would merge with the sky forever..."
"Unfortunately, humans would only fall back to earth here if they stepped out," Veronica Moen, who usually said little, broke her silence. It seemed the expansive height of the sky also drew her attention. She stood up from her seated position, her gaze sweeping the distance, "... this place is ’quieter’ than I imagined. I thought the turbulence layer would be a more turbulent place."
"In fact, outside my Protective Barrier, the surrounding airflow and magic are really turbulent—it’s just invisible to the naked eye," Melita Ponia said. "Have you noticed the halos at the edges of my wings? That’s the magic of the turbulence layer scrubbing against my Protective Barrier. From the top of the Magic Static Stratum upward, the concentration of magic becomes higher than near the surface, but it’s also more difficult to control, and the most dangerous factor is that all the turbulent currents are ’invisible’—like the scene before your eyes, it looks very calm here, but in fact, turbulent currents are everywhere until an outsider crashes into them and is burned into a torch by the magic, the turbulence will reveal itself."
Amber thought for a moment and then honestly remarked, "Oh my gosh..."
But Gawain’s thoughts involuntarily drifted to a direction that might seem odd to others: "If the higher you go in the atmosphere, the stronger the magic energy level becomes... then in the ’stellar world’ outside the atmosphere, wouldn’t there be the strongest magic environment?"
Melita Ponia fell silent for a few seconds, shook her head: "I wouldn’t know... between the stars... who knows what it’s like between the stars?"
Her tone was somewhat odd, as if she was unwilling to answer questions in this regard. Gawain had intended to pursue further questions, but before he could speak, he suddenly jolted and realized—it was best not to ask the agent too many "beyond-the-syllabus" questions on such a journey. This was something he constantly reminded himself before setting off. After all, everyone on this journey was riding on Melita Ponia’s back. One careless question could potentially lead to one of the worst air disasters in the initial contact between humans and the Dragonkin...
At that point, if a dragon fell from the turbulence layer while spitting blood, causing the Imperial Emperor and the head of intelligence along with a Defier Leader to be wiped out in the Arctic Circle all because of a reckless comment, it might be something historians wouldn’t dare record. Additionally, there was a more pressing concern: Gawain himself had some psychological shadows about air disasters. After all, that’s how he went down in his past life...
Gawain shook his head, dismissing the unrelated thoughts that suddenly surfaced. Then he looked at the atmospheric space that seemed calm yet was filled with immense energy, showing a contemplative expression: "A space so rich in energy... it would be great if the magic environment of the turbulence layer could be harnessed."
As soon as he said this, Amber showed a peculiar expression, scrutinizing Gawain up and down several times before murmuring, "As expected of you..."
Gawain: "???"
He couldn’t quite figure out what was going on in Amber’s mind, but just as he was about to ask, a low Dragon Roar interrupted everything he wanted to say—everyone immediately looked up, and the next second, they were astonished to see an expanse of towering cloud walls rushing towards them!
It turned out Melita Ponia had already crossed a protruding "mountain" at the cloud sea’s top; the cloud wall structure of the Eternal Storm within the turbulence layer instantaneously occupied the entire view of Gawain and the others. At that moment, whether it was the boisterous nature of Amber or the calm and dignified persona of Veronica Moen, or even the well-informed Gawain, they all held their breath, astounded by this awe-inspiring spectacle.
They watched as the cloud wall, with an overwhelming momentum, engulfed their vision, and Melita Ponia, as if charging towards a cliff without slowing down, "collided" into the barrier. In that moment, the pressure of the colossal entity coming head-on almost suffocated Gawain for a moment, while Amber next to him instinctively let out a short exclamation.
The next second, their vision was filled with endless chaotic cloud mists; they could no longer see the vast, lofty blue sky, nor the ocean below reflecting sunlight. The view was only thick, dark, turbulent clouds, with howling gales sweeping outside Melita Ponia’s shield, resembling a descent into the apocalypse.
The surrounding light quickly dimmed—even though the cloud wall appeared to be a bright and white barrier from the outside, the dense clouds within actually blocked almost all sunlight. The thickest part of the storm barrier was undoubtedly also the darkest. In this aspect, the Eternal Storm was no different than any other storm.
Riding on the dragon’s back, Gawain felt as though he was plunging into a stormy midnight, where roaring hurricanes and continuous lightning dominated the entire space—he could no longer see the storm’s interior clearly, and even his legendary powerhouse perception was greatly suppressed, rendering him unable to detect magic environment changes beyond two hundred meters.
However, in this spectacular and somewhat terrifying environment, as the guide and transport Melita Ponia recklessly spread her massive wings and let out a Dragon Roar that sounded utterly carefree. She raised her head and loudly said in a voice full of delight: "How about it? Didn’t I say it’s phenomenal in here!?"
Her voice in dragon form was very sonorous, yet the storm circle’s howling winds and thunderous lightning also roared loudly. Even though those sounds were mostly filtered out by the magic barrier, a considerable portion still penetrated inside, mixing with Melita Ponia’s voice, sounding like thunder explosions in Gawain and the others’ ears.
Amber cried out immediately: "To be honest—it’s a bit too spectacular!!"
"This is the unique Talronde tourism feature—outsiders can’t even experience it if they wanted to!" Melita Ponia said happily. "Rest assured! Inside my Protective Barrier is very safe, nothing will happen—and I fly here several times each year without a single accident!"
She seemed purposely using her cheerful tone to ease the passengers’ tension while crossing the Eternal Storm, and it somewhat worked, at least Amber’s nervous face visibly relaxed. Yet Gawain wasn’t entirely reassured—others might not know, but he had personally witnessed Lady Dragon’s ’crash landing technique.’ Although she claimed they were just accidents, it was still enough to make one’s heart skip a beat.
However, he carefully considered again, realizing he hadn’t set any form of "safe return flag" before setting off. From a metaphysical perspective, it should be safe, and since Melita Ponia’s crash landing method is itself a part of metaphysics, using metaphysics to counter metaphysics, their storm-crossing journey should also be incident-free...
He comforted himself with a mind full of frivolity, temporarily ignoring the unsettling scenery around him and the anxiety caused by the mode of transport. Once his eyes and mental senses had slightly adapted to the dreadful environment, he immediately began observing his surroundings.
He would never forget one of the important purposes of this journey—to collect knowledge, to gather those insights that would tremendously aid humanity in venturing beyond the land and exploring the world.
He was not an expert in marine meteorology or atmospheric sciences—in fact, in this era, there were hardly any experts in these fields—but he could meticulously record everything he saw and perceived. One day, these records would prove useful.
With this mindset, he began observing the changes outside Melita Ponia’s protective barrier, attempting to identify the "source of power" that kept the Eternal Storm from ever dissipating through the flow of magic around him.
At this moment, a flash of light appearing at the boundary of his vision suddenly caught his attention.
At first, Gawain thought it was lightning within the storm clouds—there were many electrical discharges nearby, with arcs temporarily illuminating the distant dark clouds almost every second. However, he soon realized that it was a different kind of light, unlike the surrounding lightning, neither in intensity nor duration did it resemble lightning, and its direction was abnormal.
The light came from directly below, near the "base" of the Eternal Storm.
There were seldom intense electrical discharges in that direction.
Gawain took a few steps forward towards Melita Ponia’s shoulder blade, nearing the edge of the dragon’s back, and looked toward the left front below the dragon’s wing, where the light had appeared earlier—although the light itself had already vanished, there seemed to be a faint glow swirling deep in the heavy cloud layers.
About half a minute later, he saw another flash—this time, clearly, he saw a straight beam of light suddenly erupt from near the base of the Eternal Storm, as if something were erupting. Although it lasted only a short time, he was a hundred percent sure it was definitely not lightning!
Moreover, as the beam erupted, Gawain immediately sensed a distinct wave of magic power, which made his expression grow even more solemn.
In such a chaotic environment, amidst the severe interference deep within the storm, for a wave of magic power to still distinctly travel so far indicated that the intensity of that energy source was extraordinary.
There is something at the core of the Eternal Storm! Something with a tremendously powerful energy reaction!!
"Melita," he immediately raised his head and shouted, "what is that over there?"
Melita seemed momentarily unresponsive: "Ah? Where?"
"Below you—under the storm, did you see those flashes just now?!"
After Gawain indicated the direction again, Melita turned her head to glance down to the side, and after a moment, her thunderous voice came from ahead: "That is the center of the Eternal Storm, where the vortex forms! But near the Eye of the Storm, there is a strong magic barrier and dangerous high-speed vortex; we can’t get through—we must detour around it from the side!"
"Can’t get through?" Gawain asked loudly, "Then do you know what’s inside there?"
"Of course not-knowing!" Melita also shouted loudly because the storm and thunder nearby were growing ever more intense. Even with the magic barrier as a buffer, the roaring noise that leaked through was beginning to interfere with the conversation between her, Gawain, and the others, "I was just hatched when Omega told me not to go near the cyclone base, it’s something all dragons know from a young age! It’s extremely dangerous in there, no dragon has ever flown inside!!"
Even the Dragonkin don’t know what’s at the center of this Eternal Storm? Isn’t this in their own backyard? Isn’t it part of Talronde’s own defense system?
In that instant, a great doubt arose in Gawain’s mind, instinctively realizing that the secret hidden within this storm might be much deeper than anyone had initially imagined.
When Melita began adjusting her flight posture, preparing to detour around the cyclone outside that "barrier" of the Eye of the Storm, he couldn’t help but take another half step towards the edge of the dragon’s back, leaning over to take another look below.
Almost simultaneously, a flash erupted again from the direction of the Eye of the Storm, piercing through the darkness deep within the cyclone like a burning sword. At the same time, a powerful magic wave entered his perception range, as clear and distinct as a candle flame in the night sky.
Gawain instinctively focused his attention on that wave of magic power, his magical power extending like a thread connecting to the energy source at the storm’s base. Without allowing him to think it through, information akin to poetic revelation directly poured into his mind in the next second—
"...Do not be intoxicated by this illusory calm of the long night... the night sky will eventually be broken...
"...Do not languish in your warm cradle... the cradle will one day topple...
"...Do not sleep in the sanctuary of your soul... the soul’s sanctuary will sooner or later become an unbreakable shackle...
"Set forth, before the stars twinkle, set forth, before the long night ends...
"If you don’t set out faster, daylight will descend..."