Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1226: Chapter 1225: Matrix Hall

Victoria was very tempted to ask why a hiccup could injure the throat, but the tacit understanding developed over years of friendship made her abandon the idea at the last moment—and she found herself a reason that sounded more reliable.

After all, Maji was of the Dragonkin, and for their race, the temperature when they hiccup... might be quite high.

In a certain sense, Victoria’s thought resonated subtly with reality...

Seeing an awkward moment dissolve into nothingness, Maji seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, then looked at Victoria’s face and hurriedly spoke before the other could raise another question: "How are you getting along with Mr. Modir?"

The topics Victoria had mentioned earlier, such as "being chased by ancient gods" and "samples," could be considered matters for official reports. What she was asking now was Victoria’s personal feelings.

The Northern Duchess fell silent for a few seconds, seemingly recollecting the process of her interaction with the old man today. After a short recollection and contemplation, she quietly spoke in a somewhat odd tone: "I don’t know..."

"You don’t know?" Maji’s eyes widened in surprise, "That doesn’t sound like your usual way of speaking."

"No one can plan the process of contacting their family ancestor in advance, and neither can I," Victoria sighed softly, speaking with a complex tone, "I used magic to confirm the blood connection between us, with credibility exceeding ninety-nine percent. Yet beyond that factual connection, from demeanor to habits, from thought patterns to personality traits, all the feelings he gives me are of strangeness... I want to understand him as much as possible, but the more I understand, the more I see an ancestor different from family records and history books... It’s like facing a semblance of a phantom. I know it’s true, but there’s always a sense of discrepancy."

"We talked about this before setting off, didn’t we?" Maji spoke with a hint of concern, "You’ve anticipated this situation—an actual living person is bound to differ from what is recorded in books, let alone Mr. Modir has been missing for nearly six hundred years, no one knows what he experienced during those years, and that experience could entirely reshape him. Ultimately, we’re not here to seek a perfect match with the documented ’Modir Wilder’."

"You’re right, I really shouldn’t mind these details," Victoria nodded, "I just thought about Aunt Heidi... she might have faced the same confusion I am facing, but seems she adapted to it all very well..."

Maji glanced at Victoria, seeming a bit reluctant, but after hesitating for a moment, she spoke, "I have an untimely thought, but I believe you also understand this obvious fact: Aunt Heidi once faced a different situation, the discrepancy between the Gawain Cecil she met and the one recorded as the pioneer hero might be even greater. She wasn’t ’adapting well,’ but rather at the time the Cecil Clan needed a resurrected ancestor... As for the harmonious interactions between His Majesty Gawain and her, and with Princess Rebecca... that’s a matter for later."

Victoria’s expression subtly changed, and she couldn’t help but glance at her friend, "That’s more than just an ’untimely thought’—in a different environment, saying such things might get you arrested."

"That’s why I don’t casually speak in front of outsiders," Maji shrugged, "I was just giving an example. So, tell me about something else. Besides these ’confusions,’ do you have any other feelings about your adventurous ancestor? Did you talk about anything else?"

"... We mostly talked about his adventures," Victoria recalled as she spoke, "He’s a very cheerful and optimistic person, unconstraint to minor details. This trait differs entirely from the Wilder Clan’s traditional family ethos; he indeed traveled to many, many places. Even though his memory often gets muddled or interrupted, he still remembers countless bizarre stories and many long-disappeared folk tales. He greatly admires our king, though he doesn’t remember his earlier expedition to discover the king’s ’secret routes’ at sea..."

"Did you ask about the Violet Kingdom?" Maji looked at Victoria’s eyes, "I hope you haven’t forgotten that."

"Of course I haven’t forgotten," Victoria immediately nodded, "I steered the conversation toward the Violet, but didn’t ask directly—I worried it might trigger his ’consciousness reset.’ Yet through indirect guidance, I could ascertain he doesn’t remember whether he visited that mage kingdom. I also inquired about his earliest adventure memories, but unfortunately, he didn’t mention Moss Woods or all the countries in the north... His earliest remembered adventure was near a coast in the continent’s far west, seemingly close to the Dwarf Kingdom... miles away from Violet."

"It seems understanding what happened to Mr. Modir won’t be easy," Maji sighed softly, shaking her head, "Alright, now tell me in detail about the ’being chased by the ancient gods’ and about the ’sample.’ I’ll be heading back to Loren tomorrow..."

...

In the vast wasteland covered by dirty thick clouds, dry, howling winds continuously swept across the jagged ruins and endless layers of consolidated rock on the ground of the Old Imperial Capital. Around the gigantic crater created by the explosion of the ancient Well of Deep Blue, a dozen crystal conduit outlets extending from the underground were quietly flowing with light blue streams. This pure energy from the planet’s deep magic system still permeates the vast land today and sustains the operations of the last legion of the old human empire.

With the deep humming sound of magical apparatus running, a towering figure in a Gondor era Master Mage robe descended from the sky, landing by a large conduit outlet. The Iron Soldier first quickly confirmed the surrounding environment. After completing the routine data collection, she reached toward the conduit outlet—the ancient energy device instantly sensed the operator’s authority authentication, and a silver-white armored cover on the side of the outlet silently slid open, revealing the intricate and radiant crystal structure beneath.

The Iron Soldier pressed her palm on the crystal structure’s center, along with the faint sound of a latch moving, the hidden interface in her palm smoothly connected with the crystal structure.

"Begin reading perimeter fluctuation records... upload to the Iron Man Network... start comparing historical monitoring records of The Deep Blue Webway..."

At the center of the deep blue explosion crater, layers upon layers of alloy domes and energy shields wrapped around the ancient underground structure. After passing through over a dozen gates and connecting wells, lies the site of Gondor Empire’s last "Defied Fortress."

The trapezoidal cross-section of the ancient corridor extended deep underground, connecting one hall after another that appeared roughly flat-top pyramid-shaped, and relying on colossal support structures for stability. These caverns were constructed by manpower in ancient times, even the smallest among them was equivalent to a hall that could accommodate thousands upon thousands of people, while the larger caverns could contain an entire castle. Countless automated facilities operated between these halls and caverns, drawing energy from the Well of Deep Blue, sustaining the operations of the Iron Soldier Corps, powering various laboratories, and ensuring the stability of the entire fortress facility’s perimeter Defense system.

Somewhere in the underground fortress, closer to the Well of Deep Blue’s primordial source area, an ancient magical mechanism accompanied by a humming sound passed through a brightly lit yet empty suspended connection bridge. The magical mechanism possessed a body shaped like an inverted cone, with two Sculpture Hands formed by magic energy floating in mid-air beside it. Furthermore, a large "eye" carved from crystal was embedded in the mechanical structure atop it.

As the magical mechanism swiftly crossed the connecting bridge, the crystal eyes continuously reflected the magnificent flow of light streaming through the sky above the bridge.

Suddenly, this magical mechanism stopped midway across the connecting bridge, emitting a series of faint buzzing sounds from within, then turned its gaze toward the vast space outside the bridge—

It was a large cavern, with several alloy-built connecting bridges or material slides traversing across the ceiling of the cavern. On its roof and part of the sidewalls, one could see the astonishingly large ancient supporting structures, with some crystal conduits or spout ports extending from those ancient structures, between which flowed impressively large streams of energy light.

This was the view of the cavern’s upper part; it already looked magnificent enough, but compared to the bizarre scene in the lower half of the cavern, this was nothing—

The entire lower part of the cavern was the "mapping exit" of the Deep Blue Webway, where heavy layers of rock and metal structures appeared cut and hollowed out by invisible blades, revealing a vast chaotic space inside the "opening," where turbulent flows of magic surged. It was as if a hole had been dug into the whole planet, exposing its hollow structure, and within that hollow structure lay the deep blue webway, pulsating like planetary veins.

The magical mechanism silently overlooked the cavern’s bottom, an arresting spectacle, as hollow mechanical synthetic sounds emerged from within it: "Comparing with surveillance records... No abnormal fluctuations in the Deep Blue Webway... Expanding monitoring range to nearby tributaries..."

Beyond this connecting bridge, several additional gates blocked the path to the deepest laboratory and control center in the fortress, guarded loyally and strongly by iron soldiers. The supreme controller of this entire facility lay dormant in the depths of the "Matrix Hall."

A gray-haired iron soldier, clad in ancient mage robes, passed through a deep corridor and entered the Matrix Hall with the highest level of secrecy. The roughly hexagonal hall was brightly lit, with white and gray ancient building materials lending it an unusually clean and monotonous feel. Inside this monochrome hall, one towering silver-white pillar after another rose from the ground, pointing towards the high dome.

The pillars were made of unknown metal and crystals embedded between the metal, with faint glowing grooves visible on their surfaces. A deep yet melodious buzzing continuously emanated from the depths of the pillars, resonating between each one, making the entire hall echo with a rhythm-like "wind chime" sound.

"Commander," the iron soldier stood before the matrix formed by these pillars and spoke with a voice devoid of emotional variation, "The inspection work on all tributaries has been completed."

As the iron soldier’s words fell, the silent silver-white pillars in the hall seemed to come alive at once. Their crystals began to illuminate, the deep humming sound gradually elevated, and complex holographic projections appeared on many pillar surfaces, displaying automatic surveillance records of every magical vein around the defied Fortress. A pleasant mechanical synthetic voice rang in the matrix: "I have seen the feedback data—what are the direct observation results from external patrol personnel?"

"Everything is normal as well," the iron soldier meticulously reported, "The boundary fluctuation records are within normal values, and the overall change curve aligns with historical fluctuation records of the Deep Blue Webway..."

"Everything is normal..." the mechanical synthetic voice in the matrix softly repeated the words spoken by its subordinate. "In this situation, everything being normal is actually the greatest abnormality.

"The turbulence of the Deep Blue Webway can now be observed in the Elemental Rift in Talronde, with traces of blue magic appearing on the newly hatched young dragons. Even the Dragon God is suspecting that the Deep Blue Webway is about to surge... yet my readings here indicate everything is normal... it seems certain restless aberrations in the depths of the wasteland are deliberately avoiding all the tributaries under the monitoring of the Well of Deep Blue."

The iron soldier silently listened to the analysis from the Ophelia Matrix, stoically replying once the resonant words settled between the pillars: "Those cultists’ understanding of the Well of Deep Blue exceeds expectations; they even know our monitoring range."

"Yes, because they have ’advisors,’ very professional ’advisors,’" Ophelia Matrix said leisurely. "It’s truly regrettable—those once resolute defiers now stand opposed to mortal civilization... I am genuinely curious what ’they’ have experienced on the other side of the border, though it’s likely to remain a mystery forever."

The voice of the matrix paused briefly before it resumed: "Continue maintaining surveillance over all tributaries, and sustain patrol strength around the explosion crater’s perimeter—those cultists might know how to bypass the surveillance of the Iron Soldier Corps, but as long as they’re still human, there will always be a moment of mental lapse. Do not let any clues pass unnoticed."

"Yes, Commander."

The iron soldier dutifully received the orders, then turned and left the brightly lit Matrix Hall.

The hall returned to its previous state, with each colossal metal pillar silently standing in the light, and within these cold and ancient nodes of thought, Ophelia Norton’s consciousness quietly flowed, as it had every day for the past thousand years.

This state persisted for a moment until suddenly a clear holographic projection appeared near one of the pillars, displaying bustling streets filled with dazzling merchandise in shops along the roadside.

Soon afterward, another holographic projection appeared near a different pillar, showing a humble chapel where young priests pursuing the path of holy light gathered within, listening to lessons on free combat taught by experienced priests.

More holographic projections appeared beside one pillar after another, showing bustling and lively urban areas, as well as peaceful and serene suburban landscapes with trickling water and verdant nurseries, mighty clock towers and imposing city buildings.

These were scenes from afar, beyond the desolate and bleak wasteland, in a kingdom growing ever prosperous and strong.

Ophelia Norton’s consciousness quietly drifted through these distant landscapes.