Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1193: Chapter 1192: Extremely Harsh Living Conditions

The autumn wind grew cooler by the day. Although it hadn’t reached a "chilly" level yet, the gusts that greeted one’s face in the morning when opening the window inevitably prompted a slight shiver. However, from another perspective, this cool breeze could swiftly clear a groggy mind and quickly calm an overly restless heart.

Gawain stood at the floor-to-ceiling window of his study, watching the fallen leaves in the courtyard below being swept up by the wind, and the surface of the pond below ripple in waves. A long snake tail extended from nearby bushes, its tip lazily soaking in the pond. This peaceful, everyday scene, along with the cold wind blowing into the room, gradually soothed his nerves. He turned around and looked at Veronica, who was still standing by the desk. "If the Fyrna Sisters of those days really couldn’t all return, if it truly was something unknown from the domain of the gods that returned to our world, then what do you think their purpose would be?"

"I don’t know," Veronica replied candidly, shaking her head. "That’s what feels strangest to me right now. If the gods’ pollution spread to mortals, mortals would soon go mad and couldn’t possibly maintain their cognitive abilities for a thousand years. If what returned to our world was a god’s true form, then its divine waves would be impossible to conceal. If a god’s true form managed to find a way to conceal its divine waves and descend to our world, its actions would still be bound by ’the rules of the gods.’ It should either become completely insane or protect all beings—neither of which matches the behavior of the Fyrna Sisters."

"So... we can roughly rule out the possibility of the Fyrna Sisters being incarnations or true forms of a god, because their mental state is neither mad enough nor good enough..." Gawain pondered, unconsciously rubbing his chin. "But... besides gods, what else is there in the kingdom of the gods?"

Veronica slightly furrowed her brow. After a moment of thought and hesitation, she spoke uncertainly, "I once made a brief visit to the Holy Light domain using the platinum scepter as a bridge. It was a magnificent city floating in an unknown space, with walls like light-forged fortresses, and countless orderly, lofty, and majestic palaces and towers. The city’s center was an expansive square, with torrents of Holy Light crossing the city above, converging on a giant crystal at the center of the divine realm, which was the image of the Holy Light."

"Overall, the Holy Light domain aligns with the concept of Holy Light: light, warmth, order, and protection. Within this divine realm, I saw only all sorts of things symbolizing Holy Light... but that was just within the scope of what I ’saw.’ I visited there in the form of a spiritual projection, and immediately underwent a personality reconstruction process due to severe pollution upon returning, thus, my perception and memory are very limited, and should only serve as a reference."

Gawain listened attentively to Veronica’s description of the Holy Light domain—he knew about these things. Not long after the formation of the theocracy Authority Council, she had mentioned these in a report. Furthermore, from another perspective, the details she described largely matched the most orthodox and standard divine scriptures’ accounts of the divine realm of the Holy Light. The divine realm originates from mortals’ imagination and definition of a god’s residence, so the divine realm Veronica visited naturally aligns with the Holy Light’s public portrayal—this was only natural.

"It sounds like the inside of a god’s divine realm is very ’pure,’ containing only things related to that particular god..." after Veronica’s words fell, Gawain pondered, "What about beyond the divine realm? According to Amon and Enya, what lies in the regions undefined by those concepts, in the depths of deep-sea ripples?"

"That, I don’t know," Veronica shook her head. "At that time, I only visited the Holy Light domain through spiritual projection. Both my actions and perceptions were highly restricted, allowing me to see only a few areas within the divine realm. As for outside... all I remember is a thick, turbulent mist where nothing could be seen. But I guess... the true gods should know something."

"The true gods..." Gawain said slowly, "It seems our ’mysterious advisor’ should get to work again..."

...

In the warm, bright Hatching Room, a giant, pale-gold dragon egg quietly stood on a pedestal at the center of the room. A faint, fragrant scent surrounded this gigantic egg, accompanied by a gentle airflow from nearby ventilation pipes, mingling with the fragrance.

A smaller dragon egg with a faintly speckled shell, one size smaller than the golden giant egg, stood on another metallic pedestal not far away. A piece of soft white cloth was wiping up and down the small dragon egg’s surface, producing a cheerful "squeak-squeak" sound. As this rhythmic cleaning continued, the golden giant egg at the room’s center emitted a gentle, soft chant. The song didn’t seem to have any specific lyrics; each syllable sounded as if layered with several constantly changing melodies. This was once an indescribable sound from higher beings, but now, it no longer had the fatal pollution, only expressing the singer’s happiness.

When Gawain pushed open the door to the Hatching Room and entered this warm and bright place, what he saw was such a peaceful and tranquil scene—the big egg taking care of the smaller one, mainly by wrapping around it, and singing while doing so.

A song of the ancient gods.jpg.

"Ah, Gawain—my friend, long time no see," Enya’s voice suddenly rang out, pulling Gawain from his brief daze. The former dragon goddess, who was wiping the small dragon egg’s shell, happily greeted him, silent runes drifting across the eggshell. "Why stand there in a daze? Come in and sit down."

Gawain blinked, coming to his senses, though his expression was somewhat odd. "For a moment, I was reflecting on... whether the tone of scenes around me has become increasingly strange..."

"The tone? Strange? That’s an interesting way to put it—you always come up with these incredible phrases... Or, is this some kind of cryptic language from your home planet?" Enya’s tone carried a hint of amusement. "But I do understand the gist of these words, and I don’t think there’s anything peculiar about the ’tone’ of things around you—everything’s gotten better, hasn’t it?"

Gawain walked toward the sofa near Enya, casually chatting as he did. "Well, everyone indeed is living better than before, this... Wait, how do you even know the meaning of my ’original terms’?"

Enya replied casually, "I came across a book a few days ago that recorded..."

Gawain coughed before she could finish, quickly waving a hand to interrupt, "Stop! No need to say more, I get it!"

As he spoke, he pondered to himself whether he should seriously restrain Amber’s "recording habits." How did "Holy Babble" even spread to Enya? What was this, mortals reverse-polluting gods with their mental prowess...

Enya didn’t know what thoughts were swirling in Gawain’s mind; she just carefully wiped the small dragon egg next to her before she turned her attention to the guest: "Speak your purpose—if it’s not trouble, you wouldn’t voluntarily come to me, and judging by your expression, have you encountered a difficult problem?"

"It’s hard to hide from your eyes," Gawain said awkwardly, smiling briefly before gathering his thoughts and directly asking, "I want to inquire about the ’Divine Kingdom.’"

"The kingdom... You always manage to bring up thorny issues," Enya paused, her tone filled with a sigh, "No wonder you came to me first. It’s a wise decision—the risk level of questions in this area is not ordinary; Amon and the Goddess of Magic probably wouldn’t dare answer you. Alright, tell me, what do you want to know—though I may not be able to answer every one of your questions, I’m a bit more ’free’ than Amon and the Goddess of Magic."

Gawain nodded and didn’t beat around the bush: "I want to know what’s outside the kingdom—to be precise, around the ’border’ of the kingdom, those regions between the kingdoms, those areas not defined by mortal thoughts, deep-sea gaps between kingdoms... are there things in those places?"

After Gawain’s words fell, Enya remained silent for several seconds before speaking: "I always thought I had adapted to the ’challenges’ you brought, yet you always manage to bring a new ’surprise’... How did you come up with such a tricky question?"

"In short, we recently discovered some clues, hints indicating that something once crossed the border of the kingdom and real world, descending upon ’our side’ with the help of two mortal bodies. Yet that thing doesn’t seem to be a god, nor ’derivatives’ birthed under divine influence—I’m curious, what else can descend upon ’our side’ aside from the divine beings in the realms of the gods?"

Upon hearing Gawain’s words, the magic symbols swimming on Enya’s eggshell instantly came to a halt; even though the smooth eggshell showed no change in expression, Gawain felt the seriousness and solemnity of the former goddess at this moment. She spoke after a moment: "The kingdom... Let me clarify first, I can only tell you about the state of the kingdom from 1,870,000 years ago since after that point, the Dragon Gods peeled off from the kingdom, enforced onto the real world as a cohesive arrival, and I haven’t known the appearance of the All Divine Kingdom after that."

Gawain immediately nodded: "I can understand that point."

"Hmm... In my memory, the borders outside the kingdom are definitely not empty," Enya continued, "In those places indescribable by mortal thoughts, they’re actually filled with ruins and remnants: ruins of the ancient kingdom, remnants of fallen divine beings."

"Ruins of the divine kingdom and remnants of the divine beings..." Gawain’s pupils contracted momentarily before he slowly spoke, "I’ve indeed heard Amon refer very briefly to this topic. He mentioned ruins surrounding the kingdom, but he didn’t elaborate on it. I’ve also heard that in a fleeting glimpse, the Defiers of the ancient Gondor Empire saw the ’destruction scene’ of the kingdom. However, the information is too old and lacks systematic organization; even Veronica Moen couldn’t make sense of it..."

"What you have grasped now has already far surpassed many civilizations in the past 1,870,000 years," Enya said gently, "Those ruins and remnants are not difficult to comprehend. I believe you also have your own speculations— their existence represents the cycles of civilizations evolved on this planet over the long ages, and the divine beings they once created.

"Civilizations rise and fall, mortal thoughts emerge and vanish in cycles. Despite different tendencies in each civilization’s thoughts, even as disparate as heaven and earth, they always cast their ’projection’ in the deep sea, forming corresponding divine beings... In an extremely long time frame, these projections stack upon each other, crisscrossing without leaving any ’space.’ As the civilizations vanish, the divine beings invariably crumble, and the kingdom crumbles too—but all this requires a lengthy process.

"I trust you’ve observed the gradual demise and disintegration process of the War God’s Divine Realm. You may think this ultimate demise will result in the complete disappearance of the War God’s kingdom, and this process will be swift. But in reality, the situation isn’t that simple. This rapid disintegration will persist until the fragments completely disassociate from the real world, after which, the disintegrated fragments will continue to fluctuate, drift in the ripples of the deep sea and shift from rapid demise to an extremely slow, prolonged demise phase, lasting tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even longer...

"Under such circumstances, fragments left by the divine beings and their kingdom accumulate like stubborn Spiritual Bodies of dead beings, forming massive, layered ruin belts in the deep sea. These ruins hold no meaning, no coherent echoes of thought, even the remaining obsessions will quickly become blurred and hollow. They simply drift in the deep sea, and as new civilizations emerge, they create new divine beings and new kingdoms. These kingdoms... are indeed born among countless ruins and remnants.

"Clear, defined thought projections give rise to pure, flawless divine beings and kingdoms, hence within the kingdom, everything appears ’pure.’ Yet when the divine beings within the kingdom cast their eyes around—the ’scenery’ surrounding them isn’t quite as pleasant."

Enya’s description petered out, Gawain imagined the scenes in the deep-sea depths that mortals find hard to reach, imagined the actual appearance around the kingdom. This time, he finally formed a relatively clear impression of that mysterious domain, but the impression made his face gradually turn grim: "I imagined... it certainly sounds... not really habitable..."

"No, you can’t imagine it, for the reality could only be worse than what I described," Enya said in a deep voice, "Outside the kingdom lies ancient circling ruins and each divine being’s refused peace, the splendid dome surrounded by clearly presented fate’s end. The divine beings dwell in the pure and sacred heart of the kingdom, listening to layers of praise and prayers from followers, yet a glance beyond their throne... presents their imminent fate, possibly an impending fate. ’Habitable’ isn’t the word to describe it."

Gawain indeed had imagined what it might be like to have ruins floating around the kingdom, but not until he heard these detailed descriptions from Enya did he truly grasp the terrifying situation, leaving him astonished. Amid his astonishment, he couldn’t help but mutter, "The pious praying believers, who’d have thought the truth behind their imagined magnificent kingdom... Amon and the Goddess of Magic never mentioned this to me..."

"Because the knowledge here is still excessively perilous; they aren’t as ’free and unrestricted’ as I am," Enya sighed softly, "Though once your ’Open the Door’ plan succeeds, circumstances may change—mortals opening the door to the kingdom with their knowledge and strength will further untether your civilization from chains, allowing Amon and the Goddess of Magic to... finally let out a sigh."

(The exclusive card activity for Sword of Dawn is now live!! You can find the activity entrance in the reader circle, collect cards to draw experience points or physical merchandise—this theoretically counts as Sword of Dawn’s first batch of official genuine merchandise, those interested and capable can join in the fun~~~

Moreover—Happy New Year to everyone~~~)