Chapter 1234 - 1233: News from Afar

Chapter 1234: Chapter 1233: News from Afar

In the afternoon garden, Gawain sat on a bench enjoying the rare quietness of these days. Since approaching winter, he hadn’t enjoyed the afternoon sunshine like this for a long time.

The giant sun hung high in the sky, its crown covered with faint wood grain forever reminding Gawain of the uniqueness of this world. He vaguely remembered the huge shock and even oppression he felt when he first saw this giant sun, yet unknowingly, this scene had deeply imprinted in his heart. He was used to this glorious "sun," accustomed to the light and heat it brought, and accustomed to everything in this world.

Also used to the bunch of strange humans or non-human beings around him.

Tiel coiled herself on the nearby lawn, enjoying the warmth brought by the sun. Her upper body lazily stretched across the path between the lawn and the bench, lying in an afternoon languor (though she was lazy at any time) on a decorative large stone beside Gawain, talking about things happening far away:

"Basically, that’s the situation... Our queen and the Water Elemental Lord have negotiated well and now have established a new contract. The Water Elemental Lord agreed to let us set up a long-term sentinel in the Boundless Sea to monitor the activities of the Deep Blue Webway... If anything unusual occurs over there, I will be the first to receive the news."

The progression of affairs seemed smooth, which relaxed Gawain, but after listening to Tiel’s recount of the "negotiation," he felt an inexplicable oddness and couldn’t help but ask: "Weren’t your relations with the local water elements very tense? Especially since this matter is quite sensitive; setting up a sentinel and permanent staff ’over there’... How did your queen manage to negotiate successfully?"

Tiel looked proud immediately: "You don’t understand—elemental creatures might hold grudges and be stubborn, but they are reasonable. Our queen is best at reasoning with people; she relies on sincere negotiation and the art of persuasion... I heard she even specially prepared a local specialty as a gift, but the Water Elemental Lord was captivated by the queen’s linguistic charm and refused no matter what, so the queen dragged the specialty back to Seafood City as a gift instead..."

Gawain listened in bewilderment, instinctively feeling that what this deep-sea fish said didn’t match the actual events, especially with the mention of "local specialty," "Seafood City," all sounding suspicious. Yet he had no interest in further inquiring—as expected, dealing with sea demons, next to this bunch of deep-sea fish, was always inconceivable.

However, hearing this, he couldn’t help but be interested in the events of ancient times: "I’ve heard that your sea demons erupted into severe and prolonged conflicts with the planet’s native water elements—the reason being that the ship crashed through the ’dome’ of the Water Elemental Realm when it forcefully landed?"

"Who wouldn’t say so—this matter was told to you by me," Tiel sighed, a face full of unbearable nostalgia appearing, "Actually, the conflict between our sea demons and the planet’s native water elements wasn’t just about crashing through the dome. When we first arrived on this planet, unfamiliar with the environment, tight and panic-stricken, our forceful repair of the ship significantly impacted the native water elements. After that, they came seeking theory, but we couldn’t immediately identify them as fellow elemental creatures like ourselves; both sides considered each other a monster. How could it not escalate to fighting?"

This sea caterpillar talked while covering her head, shaking it in resignation, concluding with a sigh: "Ah, our ship is still stuck at the border of the Water Elemental Realm..."

Gawain imagined the scenario, entered the perspective of the Elemental Sovereign, and reviewed this historical episode, immediately feeling the knot was tied heavily. The native water elements were undoubtedly the real victims—they stayed at home without causing trouble to anyone, suddenly down came a bunch of visitors from outer space crashing a hole into their rooftop. When they went to seek an explanation, they were attacked as monsters; even to this day, the Water Elemental Lord just needs to look up to see the incident vehicle’s half-body stuck on their rooftop... endurably signing a peace agreement with sea demons only shows they truly couldn’t win...

Yet such prolonged unresolved issues aren’t things an outsider could clarify, not to mention the relations between the two sides have eased considerably over the years, thus he refrained from commenting further, casually asking: "By the way... Your conflicts back then escalated so much, how eventually did the native water elements agree to reconciliation?"

Upon hearing Gawain’s question, Tiel showed a thoughtful look, taking long before speaking slowly: "We fought for many years, possibly hundreds of thousands... maybe millions of years. The life of elemental creatures is long, and their personalities are persistent, resulting in chaotic warfare unfolding across elemental layers. Later, we both treated it as a daily activity until one day, the native water elements seemed intent on breaking the lengthy deadlock, hence staged a large-scale action, attempting to destroy the defenses of the Antawen Vessel in one fell swoop..."

Gawain looked serious: "A large-scale action?"

"Somehow they reached a deal with the wind element sovereign Wendy, assembling a mighty joint legion to attack Antawen. Storm and surge ravaged the entire ocean, a spectacular sight causing contemporary civilizations to believe that doomsday was upon them," Tiel described the ancient history in a distant tone, "I also took part in that battle—the storm struck me deeply. The wind and water element armies even filled all trenches and seabed valleys..."

Gawain unknowingly listened raptly—as always when hearing such ancient secrets, he felt as though he was personally leaping through history: "What happened afterward?"

Tiel raised her head, revealing a trace of smile amidst memories, her voice soft yet leisurely: "That was the first time I drank something fizzy..."

Gawain: "...?"

Tiel nodded again as though confirming something: "Stronger than iced."

Gawain: "...?"

He truly felt like he was unnecessarily hopeful, expecting this bunch of sea demons to deliver some epic ancient records—well, that terrifying elemental war may indeed have been quite epic, but he would remember from now on: never record anything epic from the perspective of sea demons—the deep-sea fish excel in pulling the style of everything to their level...

"Anyhow, after that, the native water elements suddenly restrained themselves. They seemed to recognize reality quickly, or perhaps felt the unending warfare was unproductive for both sides. Ultimately, they were finally willing to cease hostilities, with the element sovereign named Rumbling Sound proactively revealing a desire to negotiate..." Tiel continued her recollection, unaware of Gawain’s thoughts, as her memories reached the end, "We surely agreed immediately—after all, sea demons naturally dislike war, and we were in the wrong to begin with. There was no way around it; of course, we didn’t want our ship to fall..."

Gawain couldn’t believe the Water Elemental Sovereign was named ’Rumbling Sound’ such a bizarre name, but by this time, he was completely drained to continue questioning this deep-sea fish.

At this moment, a familiar presence suddenly emerged nearby, interrupting his thoughts and further halting the increasingly bizarre conversation with Tiel.

Gawain looked up toward the direction of the aura and saw a faint, distorted shadow suddenly appear in the air under the afternoon sun. The shadow unfolded like a curtain, and Amber’s figure gracefully jumped out of it and took a few steps to stand in front of him.

"What’s the situation?" he asked curiously, noticing that the expression on the half-elf’s face was somewhat serious. "You look quite serious."

"There’s news from Talronde," Amber’s words instantly snapped Gawain out of his slightly lazy state, "Two messages—one from High Chancellor Victoria, and one from the Dragon Tribe Leader Heragor."

Gawain immediately straightened up on the bench, ignoring Tiel, who had already begun to doze off beside him, and spoke quickly: "Tell me about Victoria’s first."

"Yes," Amber nodded. "Victoria sent Maji over to deliver the message—she has already arrived at New Argondale’s adventurer town and has confirmed that the adventurer Modir there is indeed the ancestor of the Wilder Clan who disappeared six hundred years ago. She indicates that Modir Vealt’s current condition is very strange, likely having encountered ancient deity relics, and is possibly being pursued by the power of ancient gods even now..."

"Ancient gods?" Gawain hadn’t expected this matter to directly jump into the realm of gods, and his expression instantly became extremely serious. He looked into Amber’s eyes. "How did another ancient god come into this? Which ancient god?"

Amber’s expression suddenly became peculiar, as if this matter had special significance for her, but after a brief hesitation, she shook her head, temporarily putting aside her distractions: "Goddess of Shadows, Lady Night—currently Shadow Gods still believe her to be the ruler of shadow powers and protector of the night sky, but according to Lady Enya, this deity disappeared after the Voyager left..."

She seemed hesitant when mentioning the name "Lady Night," evidently, this self-claimed "Chosen of the Night" was still serious about her "faith," and Gawain knew that as the theocracy Authority Council was established and the mysteries of the gods gradually unveiled, this "Chosen of the Night" (self-claimed) sometimes appeared to get caught in such dilemmas. However, he also knew that Amber didn’t need help from others in this matter.

The gods have their own fate, and humans have their own busyness.

After a moment of silence, he asked, "So, Modir is being pursued by the power of ’Lady Night’—what are the specific details?"

"Modir Vealt has approached what seems to be the Kingdom of Shadows multiple times in dreams, and in those dreams, he met his ’alternate projection.’ From a mystical perspective, this is a sign that he is gradually being drawn into an ’alternate realm’," Amber immediately explained, "Moreover, after his most recent ’dreaming,’ Modir even brought back some items from ’that side.’ Victoria believes this could indicate Modir has forged a material connection with Lady Night’s kingdom..."

Amber recounted the intelligence she had just received to Gawain thoroughly, finally mentioning that Maji had already departed from Northport and was currently en route to the imperial capital with a "sample," and given the Dragonkin’s flying speed, that sample might be delivered to the Cecil Palace by tonight.

"High Chancellor Victoria hopes we can bring that sample to let Lady Enya have a look," Amber concluded. "The Dragon Gods were ancient deities from the same era as Lady Night. Although strictly speaking, Lady Enya is no longer one of the original Dragon Gods, she may still be able to identify Lady Night’s power from those ’samples’ and even find a temporary way to sever this connection."

"Of course," Gawain immediately nodded. "I would have brought that ’sample’ for Enya to examine without needing her to say—after all, she’s now one of the high-ranked Advisors of the theocracy Authority Council. Besides that, what did Heragor say?"

Amber briefly recalled, her expression growing more serious: "Heragor mentioned that there might be changes in the Tower of the Inversion Tide, and this matter might also be related to Modir Vealt."

This time, Gawain directly stood up from the bench, his eyes wide open: "Changes in the Tower of the Inversion Tide?!"

"It’s still not certain; at least based on recent monitoring records, it seems there hasn’t been any change, but the upper dragon echelons suspect the change has occurred inside the Tower of the Inversion Tide and happened long ago," Amber nodded. "Simply put, they suspect Modir Vealt was involved in some incident in the Tower of the Inversion Tide that year, and the Dragon God didn’t detect it timely due to the Voyager’s power suppression, ultimately leading to Modir’s current bizarre state..."

Amber seriously explained the information from Talronde, Gawain listened without missing a word, but felt his head increasingly throb as he listened. He couldn’t help but raise a hand to press against his slightly swollen temple, accidentally glancing at Tiel, who had already slumped on a rock and began to snore, a sense of emotion inevitably welled up—

Moments ago, he was discussing some mouth-twitch-inducing topics with this deep-sea lazy fish, and how did the conversation become so severe the next moment?

"Looks like we’ll also need to discuss this with Enya," he ultimately sighed, forcing himself to focus on the matter at hand. "Though I think she may not know much more about this than we do... she used to be a ’god’ heavily targeted by the Voyager’s relic power suppression."

...

Gawain didn’t have to wait long regarding the "sample" Maji brought from Talronde—just as Amber predicted, that special "sample" was placed on Gawain’s desk by that evening.

The bright Magic crystal lamps illuminated the study with a velvet carpet, and a Mithril small box, protected by complex magic symbol layers and equipped with dual mechanical locks, was placed on the desk by Maji. Accompanied by the consecutive and faint clicks of the locking mechanism as the box was unlocked, the object inside the container was finally revealed before Gawain and Amber.

A layer of pitch-black velvet lined the bottom of the box, and against that night-sky-deep backdrop, several gray-white sand grains appeared particularly striking.