Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1064: Chapter 1063: Elemental Secrets

The Northern Lands have already ushered in spring, but for Dragonwatch Keep perched atop the mountain peaks, the cold wind remains the perpetual main theme—the wind from the coastline and those whipped up with the mountain air currents blow ceaselessly against this ancient stone-built fortress, wailing continuously between its outer corridors and the towering walls, night and day.

Huge fire pans burn within the corridors between the inner and outer courtyards of the castle, and the energy shields rising between the fire pans block the cold wind of the external corridor, yet the howling occasionally penetrates the barrier. Sir Golosh Hickel stands between two massive stone pillars, his gaze passing through the open corridor to look toward the outer courtyard, where fully armed Dragonblood warriors stand rigid and straight in the cold wind, as still as stone sculptures.

The robust physique of the Dragonborn allows them to disregard the slight chill atop the mountain, which is one of the aspects that make the people living in this land most proud of their heritage.

Footsteps came from nearby. Sir Golosh turned his head to see Sir Keximir, a man with short black hair, walking to his side. He nodded slightly, and Keximir responded in kind before casually saying, "I heard from the Grand Duke that the wind in Talronde is now colder and more fierce than here... I can hardly imagine what it’s like there."

"Nor can I," Sir Golosh replied, "We Dragonborn have never set foot in the north since birth, nor are we allowed to learn anything about what lies beyond the northern ocean... in this regard, you and I are the same."

Sir Keximir fell into silence for a moment, only breaking it after a few seconds with a sudden question, "What do you think the people of the Duchy will react when they learn those truths? Will everyone accept this arrangement that has lasted millions of years, and the current ’mother tribe’?"

"... I’m afraid we can’t predict that with precision, there are too many variables behind this matter," Golosh shook his head, "Even I myself was lost for a long time after learning everything. My feelings about the Primal Dragon Tribe are... complicated. On one hand, with the inevitable downfall of Talronde’s civilization, exiling the ’Dragonborn’ and forbidding them to return was meant to protect us. Because of this protection, we spared facing that final battle and becoming cold corpses on those northern wastelands, but on the other hand... this protection was imposed on us forcibly, and in the coldest, most heartless way. Of course, I can accept this, but among the millions of citizens of the Duchy, there will likely be many who cannot."

"No one likes a fate that’s been arranged for them—and much less for the Dragonborn," Keximir laughed lightly, "The winds of these mountains are too harsh, making the Dragonborn living here as cold and hard as the stones. In my view, we are going to have a hard time getting people to gradually accept the truth of Talronde..."

Halfway through his words, more footsteps approached, along with a disdainful female voice: "As I see it, these thoughts are all just pretentious."

"Lady Asharena," Sir Keximir turned towards the voice to see a woman with flaming red hair approaching leisurely, smiling and nodding in greeting, "Your critique remains as sharp as ever."

"Just speaking the truth," the Dragonmarked Witch Asharena scoffed, appearing quite unimpressed, "Talking about not liking an arranged fate, these are thoughts one can afford when living too comfortably. Those who have crawled out of the battlefield by the skin of their teeth would never care if their life was orchestrated to be preserved—if someone thinks their clipped wings have wronged them by Talronde, it’s simple, send them off to Talronde to be killed on the wastelands. If what they want is an unchanged fate, then this is the unaltered fate that the Primal Dragons are facing. By then, they might cry and shout to come back."

Sir Keximir listened to the Dragonmarked Witch’s remarks, opened his mouth helplessly, "... Truly sharp, no wonder you’ve traveled in the human world for many years, the angle of your perspective is indeed novel and forceful."

"I just recalled what a human once told me," Asharena said offhandedly, "’The valiant who die in battle deserve to be buried with their sword, but those who survive the world can roast meat and boast beside their graves’. I used to scoff at this saying, but later I’ve come to see its truth more and more."

Sir Keximir was dumbfounded for a moment, his expression growing odd: "... This doesn’t sound like something a heroic figure would say."

"Indeed, he certainly wasn’t a hero, which is why he’s still alive—and those who played the hero have all been buried with their swords," Asharena said softly, the latter half almost like she was speaking to herself, "... If only those guys could still sit and drink with us..."

Golosh looked curiously at the red-haired witch, "Lady Asharena? Are you..."

"No, nothing, just lost in thought," Asharena quickly shook off her memories, looking up at the high-ranking courtier in front of her, "Ah, I almost forgot the business... Sir Golosh, it seems we have to make another trip to the human world: the delegate representing the Sacred Dragon Kingdom for the conference has been decided, as the Grand Duke needs to stay here to stabilize the situation, the envoys this time are still you and me."

...

Accompanied by Melita Ponia, Cassandra arrived at a high platform beside the camp. This huge outcropping of stone presented a semi-molten, re-solidified state as a whole, with an obsidian-like brittle surface still filled with a sparkling glow. From the platform, one could see the entire camp below the Shelter Bay, along with most of the beach beyond and part of the wastelands leading inland.

Even though Revival Month has arrived, the cold winds in the Arctic region are still biting. Cassandra carefully controlled her Elemental Body, preventing herself from accidentally freezing, while curiously gazing at this land so unfamiliar and mysterious to sea demons—the vast ruins in sight, along with certain remaining alloy megastructures, showcased the advanced prosperity that once existed here. It filled her with some regret—that she couldn’t visit when Talronde was still flourishing—many wonders that once amazed fish are destined not to appear again, or even if it were to be rebuilt, who knows how many years it would take.

"As you can see, after that war... this is what’s left here," Melita said, "For us, races constrained by the world’s rules, the price to break free from these shackles is very high—just to talk as freely as we do now, like with you ’visitors from outer space,’ we had to pay with our lives."

"This world is truly not very hospitable... far worse than our homeland was," Cassandra lamented, shaking her head, "Of course, I mean before our homeland was destroyed..."

"Your home planet... was destroyed?" Melita Ponia looked at the sea demon with some surprise, clearly unaware of this part of history.

"It happened long, long ago... Our home was struck by a sudden attack. The invaders were extremely powerful, and we had no way to fight back, so we actually fled as refugees," Cassandra said with a smile, looking rather open-minded about it. "Many, many years have passed since then. I suppose even those invaders have perished by now... The oceans of our home may have regained their vitality, but it looks like we cannot return."

"... Exchanging stories with ’visitors from outer space’ is truly enlightening," Melita paused for a moment, unable to resist sighing. "We, who are forever trapped on this planet, can’t even begin to imagine what a world beyond light-years would look like."

Cassandra shook her head: "We are now also trapped on this planet—so there’s really no difference, even if I were to discuss interstellar travel with you, it would just be reviving past glories. Ultimately, we are all in the process of rebuilding our former civilizations, so boasting about past opulence holds little meaning."

"That’s true," Melita smiled, and then, as if something came to her mind, she said thoughtfully, "It seems all the races on this planet have eventually walked the path of rebuilding civilizations."

Cassandra merely smiled and said nothing, and almost simultaneously, a young dragon suddenly flew in from the direction of the camp and landed on the plateau where they were located, bowing its neck toward Melita: "Captain, Gresthodor asked me to check with you about how to deal with those water elements captured in the camp. They’re becoming increasingly noisy."

Melita immediately thought of those water elements confined within the Dragon Rune Array, drained to just a few centimeters tall, and their incessant complaints. Her expression grew somewhat peculiar: "Still confined?"

"Yes, still confined. Gresthodor initially planned to try extracting some fresh water from them, but that failed. Those water elements have reached their stability limit, and any further extraction would only send them back to the elemental plane," the young dragon answered honestly. "But without your word, we didn’t dare release them recklessly..."

"Don’t bother, you won’t get any water out of them," Cassandra gestured dismissively. "Nothing leaves my straw alive—let alone those water elements that I’ve already thoroughly squeezed."

"Then release them all," Melita nodded to the young dragon. "And tell Gresthodor, if similar small water elements are found in the future, just ignore them and don’t waste manpower."

After receiving the command, the young dragon flapped its wings and left, while Melita looked curiously at Cassandra beside her: "I’m actually a bit puzzled... Do sea demons normally rely on hunting other water elements and drawing water to sustain themselves? I thought you usually draw water directly from the natural environment..."

"Of course we usually draw water directly from the natural environment," Cassandra immediately replied. "Under normal circumstances, sea demons don’t need to hunt primitive water elements—it’s just that we encountered some unexpected events this time. While crossing the seabed, my subordinates and I encountered an unstable elemental rift, and some daring primitive water elements emerged from it to attack my team. So, to teach these audacious vandals a lesson, I had to punish them."

As she spoke, the dark-haired sea demon with a tear-shaped mole by her eye squinted, "Don’t worry about those guys, though drained, once they return to the elemental world, they can quickly recover—it’s just that the feeling of being gradually drained of water by a sea demon will certainly leave a deep impression on them. For at least ten millennia, those guys shouldn’t dare randomly venture into this sea area again."

Melita was somewhat stunned, unsure whether to comment on the other party’s method of "teaching a lesson" or to marveled at the unexpected brutality of seemingly peaceful sea demons when facing "similar kinds." After thinking it over for a long time, she came up with a question: "Why do those water elements attack sea demons who are also water elements? Aren’t relationships between elemental creatures supposed to be very good?"

"Good relationships?" Cassandra chuckled, "Ah, that’s true for other elemental creatures, but unfortunately, we ’outsiders’ are an exception on this planet... The primitive water elements here don’t welcome us sea demons who have disturbed their plane’s peace.

"When the Antawen Vessel crashed on the planet’s surface, we didn’t just destroy a continental shelf—the structures on the Antawen also pierced through many ’tributaries’ of the water elemental realm, and the impact caused by this hasn’t completely subsided even today.

"So since the Ancient Era, the relationship between primitive water elements and sea demons has always been tense and has even led to several direct conflicts. But we understand the fault lies with us, so we’ve been continuously striving to improve our relationship with those primitive water elements... These efforts have not been in vain, at least in the areas covered by several main elemental tributaries, we have already achieved peaceful coexistence with the local water elements, but in more remote places..."

Cassandra’s tail curled and wobbled in mid-air, "Those water elements scattered about don’t care about any ’coexistence agreement’—they or it will cause trouble for the sea demons whenever they emerge. And most of the time, they refuse to communicate, so over time... we sea demons who venture out have no choice but to fight back."

Melita had lived for many, many years, witnessing countless incredible events in this world, but it was the first time she’d heard of these things that only elemental creatures could understand and perceive. She listened to Cassandra’s account with surprise and deep interest, and as the other finished, she couldn’t help but marvel: "I never imagined... In places we don’t understand, this world holds so much unknown and intriguing history."

She then felt her wording wasn’t entirely appropriate and hastily explained: "Ah, sorry, I probably shouldn’t have used ’intriguing’ to describe this history..."

"Don’t mind," Cassandra promptly waved her hand, "We sea demons have a different way of viewing the world from you, so you’re actually not wrong—we even find these histories quite intriguing... The struggles between elements are just like that; we’ve grown accustomed to dying over and over, and I suspect even those primitive water elements who remain hostile to sea demons have grown used to it—just now, while setting free that last water element, the more I think about it, the more I feel like I had already drained it once forty or fifty millennia ago..."

Melita: "..."